Strobo
is another one of those minicomics weirdos that I don’t know
anything about. But I have to say - just judging from him, Geldor,
and some of the other minicomics releases that I would like to read
all of the minicomics.
Or
Mattel could just rip off that style and quality and keep all of the
money for themselves.
Regardless
of my prior awareness of Strobo, I knew I wanted him the first time I
saw him because he is a silly-looking mostly-naked guy that comes
with Zodak’s head. Then I saw that he was going to be the traveling
convention Exclusive and I figured I would never be able to get my
hands on one because Mattel doesn’t go to any conventions anywhere
near Atlanta and I can’t really afford to travel anywhere and
definitely
can’t afford to pay secondary market prices for such things.
There
was one year where Mattel was going to come to Dragon Con, but that
totally fell apart for reasons that still aren’t clear.
Luckily
for me, Strobo was offered during Matty’s Black Friday sale.
Apparently quantities were plentiful because I was at work when he
first went up and it took me over twenty-four hours to be able to
order him. And
he was only twenty-five bucks, not the regular twenty-seven!
FIRST
GLANCE
When
I pulled Strobo out of the mailer box I was thrilled. He looks even
sillier in person. And I had totally forgotten that he comes with
that meteorite thing.
PACKAGING
The
attractive and functional Masters of the Universe Classics blister
box. It’s super – looks good and is easy to open.
This is
a heck of a bio. I’ve always loved the idea of the guy that
maintains the balance between good and evil. Imagine you’re in the
midst of battle and Strobo shows up – for a brief time you don’t
know if he’s going to help you or disintegrate you. But you don’t
attack the guy because if he is
there to help your side, he
can fucking disintegrate people.
He’s there to maintain balance, so your side is gonna win this one.
I also like that he “uses the forces of light to battle his
enemies”. That’s “light” not “Light”. I think more often
than not the term “forces of Light” refers to good and not
literal luminescence, so that’s interesting.
LOOKS
I
believe Strobo has a new cloak and a new trunks/belt piece, but I’m
not positive. At this point in the line it becomes time-consuming to
look back at every figure and verify things other than heads and
Trap-Jaw legs. Strobo has a repainted Zodac head and the rest is from
Sy-Klone.
The head
is as different as it needs to be. The sculpt is still cool-looking
and I love the bug-eyed space helmet. The paint is a success because
rather than simply putting different colors in the same places, the
design is different. Now the whole helmet is silver (which looks
great) and the raised portion over the mouth is made to look like it
is connected to the part that goes up between the eyes because it’s
all red. The paint on the helmet and the exposed flesh is good and
nothing bleeds out beyond its boundaries.
Strobo’s
torso is, quite frankly, horrifying. The Anwat Gar chest plate is
mounted right in the middle of a bunch of flesh and muscles. Sy-Klone
was the same way, but he’s an android. My only gripe about Strobo
comes from this area and it’s that I think the ridge surrounding
the chest plate should have been painted. Clearly that part wouldn’t
have been skin, so I think it’s just lazy to have left it that
color. I do love how shiny and reflective the sticker in the middle
is, though. I’m glad they didn’t just paint that.
I kind
of wish Strobo’s boots matched his gloves. The boots and gloves
have solid paint apps. The gloves are shiny red with metallic blue
space ridges and the boots are a flat blue with a wash and metallic
blue space ridges. All fo the colors stay where they are supposed to.
Sy-Klone’s boots and gloves were a good choice for this guy because
the space ridges do have a definite 50s sci-fi look to them. They
definitely came from outer space.
The new
trunks are sufficiently mechanical looking to pull off a cosmic feel
and are painted shiny red to match the gloves. The segmented silver
belt looks cool and none fo the paint has come off of the rubber.
The more
I look at it the more I think Strobo’s cloak is new. I don’t
think anybody else’s is shaped quite like this, and the front is
clearly molded to allow for the chest plate. You can’t quite tell
in the pictures, but the fasteners are metallic blue.
I like
Strobo just fine the way he is, but there are some things I might
have done differently. I would have had his trunks match his boots
rather than his gloves (I know I said his boots should be red, but
now I’m thinking his trunks should be blue). Or maybe he should
just be wearing pants. I think he might look better with pants,
though I’m not sure I would like him as much. And that chest plate
should absolutely have paint around it. Just some silver or grey.
ACCESSORIES
Strobo
comes with Zodak’s helmet-less head and a green orb on a stand.
The
Zodak head looks great and I immediately put it on my Zodak. The
colors match the original figure perfectly. And It just feels like it
was made at the same time as that figure. I wish the eyebrows were
either sculpted or not there at all. Not there at all might look
cool, but then you’d never be able to tell when Zodak was
surprised.
The
meteor thing has some kind of significance, but I can’t remember
what. I hate it when they don’t include that information in the
bio. It looks pretty awesome and is translucent green with a dark
wash. The top of the glossy red stand is made of a soft plastic and
one of the tines on mine is bent, but whatever. My issue is that the
meteor doesn’t come off of the stand. Why the heck not? That bugs
me. Otherwise this thing looks pretty cool.
FUN
Strobo
has the standard MOTUC articulation and can achieve most reasonable
humanoid poses. His huge torso and arms mean that if he were real he
probably couldn’t wipe his own ass, but thankfully action figures
don’t poop.
All of
the joints on my figure are tight and work well. The cape doesn’t
interfere with posing too much, so that’s good.
Strobo’s
chest plate gimmick kept me playing with him for a while. I kept
taking pictures, trying to find the perfect angle to make it look
like his chest was shooting a beam of light:
That was
fun.
He’s a
goofy guy with a gimmick. I played around with him a good bit and was
almost inspired to try and take some more photos doing stuff with his
chest plate. I think he’d be a good figure for any collector just
because of his odd looks and throwback sticker feature.
OVERALL
Strobo
isn’t a must-have, but he has a lot going for him. He’s a Cosmic
Enforcer, which makes him part of a small but easy to obtain faction.
He’s sufficiently silly-looking to make an impact on your shelf.
And he’s one of the very few Masters of the Universe Classics
figures to have an actual gimmick.
I
believe your only option for this guy is BigBad, a local con, or
eBay. As always I recommend the local con, but if you have to have
him now and don’t mind paying eBay prices I don’t think you’ll
be disappointed once you have him.
4
out of 5
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| "Alas, poor Zodak - I knew him well..." |
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