Who
doesn’t have a soft spot for 1987’s Masters
of the Universe? And what
can be said about it that I haven’t already said here?
I don’t
feel like the characters from Masters
of the Universe are
necessary to the Classics line. I understand that figures were
released of Blade, Saurod, and Gwildor back in the day. But I don’t
want a Gwildor and I am perfectly happy forgoing Blade and Saurod if
it means I don’t have to receive that gross little troll (apologies
to Billy Barty, who I would be more than happy to see in a UHF
toy line).
Having
said all of that, I’ll take a Blade figure. He has a great
character design and despite not existing prior to the Masters
movie is a great example of the style of the toy line. His name is
Blade and he’s all sharp edges and… well… blades. I
particularly like the design of his chain mail tunic.
And now
it’s time to discuss something that you guys may or may not have
noticed – my waning enthusiasm for the Masters
of the Universe Classics line.
This is
not a new topic for a toy blogger to be discussing. Some made a point
of discontinuing their coverage of the line some time ago, others
have simply stopped or moved onto other lines. I’m going to address
it because I was aware it was happening but didn’t fully realize it
until I saw the stack of unopened MOTUC
boxes on my shelf. I simply did not care about opening and reviewing
these figures.
I still
enjoy the figures and like having them on the shelf, but I definitely
have review fatigue. As different as each figure within the line is,
most of them are based on the same buck and quite frankly it’s not
very exciting to write about anymore.
I went
almost four years, you guys. Give me a break.
I’m
going to review Blade because I already started this one and took
pictures and everything, but I think from here on out I’m going to
leave the MOTUC reviews to Mr. Beau Brown. He has a couple of older
ones waiting to go, but he is even busier than I am, so I’m not
sure how many more of these there will be. If there’s a figure
that’s special or particularly different I might still post about
it, but I just cannot work up review-level enthusiasm for these guys
anymore.
FIRST
GLANCE
If
any Masters of the Universe Classics figure was going to get me
excited at this point, it was going to be Blade.
This
is a distinctive figure. The color scheme is different from most
other MOTUC releases and the abdominal armor doesn’t add five
inches to the circumference of the figure. Also, we just don’t see
a whole heck of a lot of regular humans in this line.
PACKAGING
I
love that this line has maintained the same, exact oversized blister
cards for the duration of its run. They look good, are easy to open,
and all have bios on the back!:
“Although
he failed in his mission, his deadly mastery of the sword has left
his mark, becoming one of the most wanted men in Eternian history!”
That
sentence is a fucking disaster. How do you release a product to
actual consumers with that mess on it? I’ve seen EFF with better
grammar.
“Blade
uses his duel swords to battle heroic warriors…”
Now,
it’s possible that Scott Nietlich (who writes all of these bios and
has actually created a compelling narrative regardless of his
difficulties with grammar) intended for that to mean “duel” as in
“an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with
matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules”. I suppose that Blade’s swords could reasonably be referred to as “duel swords”. But since he has two of them I’m inclined to believe this should be “dual swords”. But I dunno. I’ll give ol’ Toy Guru the benefit of the doubt on this one.
matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules”. I suppose that Blade’s swords could reasonably be referred to as “duel swords”. But since he has two of them I’m inclined to believe this should be “dual swords”. But I dunno. I’ll give ol’ Toy Guru the benefit of the doubt on this one.
LOOKS
I
was going to comment on Blade being the first figure in the line to
sport a likeness based on an actual person, but there are all kinds
of reasons that that statement is incorrect.
First
there are the “tribute” figures that have been sculpted to look
like Scott Nietlich or various other members of the Matty staff.
That’s fine and doesn’t bother me one bit. I would absolutely do
the same thing were I in charge of a toy line. However, unlike Blade
those figures did not have
to look like a specific individual and beyond that if the sculpt
wasn’t a perfect likeness the public at large would never know
anyway. Blade was the first figure that had
to feature an accurate likeness.
Except
that he wasn’t because before Blade was released Mattel produced a
Stan Lee action figure. Which I’m pretty sure nobody
could have seen coming. So poor ol’ Blade didn’t get the one
distinction he should have been guaranteed – he would have been the
one figure in the entire line to feature a human’s likeness. He
isn’t even the first.
So
how is that likeness? It’s pretty good. They couldn’t very well
have just plopped a photo-realistic head on a MOTUC body. That would
have looked absurd. Well, a different kind of absurd. So the 4
Horsemen beefed up Anthony De Longis’ head and did a pretty good
job of it. The facial expression is a nice combination of disdain and
determination. All of the weird gear on his head looks nice – the
wacky bladed headphones and the eyepatch have a ton of sculpted
detail and solid paint jobs. Blade’s facial features – his one
visible eye and eyebrow – have nice paint apps as well.
That
goes for the whole figure, really. Since Blade’s costume existed in
the real world the Horsemen had a different level of sculpted detail
to work with. The links of chain mail on the tabard are distinctive
and deeply sculpted. These aren’t just a bunch of circles on the
surface. The paint effect really brings them out. The dark base with
silver dry-brushing looks amazing. The tabard is, of course, two
pieces – an abdominal piece and a waist piece. This is beyond a
shadow of a doubt the best job that Matty has done with this sort of
thing. The front lines up perfectly and all but eliminates any sort
of belly shirt effect. But most important is the fact that the
closures for the top piece are located towards the figure’s back.
This means that Blade doesn’t suffer from Maggie Simpson syndrome
like most of the other MOTUC figures that have armor or abdominal
clothing of some sort. His arms can actually hang normally by his
sides. Well, as normally as is possible for somebody with this insane
physique.
The
skull crest on Blade’s chest is interesting, as it’s just a
skull. It isn’t Skeletor and it isn’t Hordak and those two have
pretty much cornered the market on skull-related merchandise in this
universe. It’s an interesting design and the sculpt has a nice
depth to it. I love how shiny all of the silver on this figure turned
out.
Blade’s
shoulder pad/suspender/belt rig is unlike any other MOTUC character.
It’s part of the tabard on the figure but it’s distinctive enough
to be a separate paragraph. I like the design of the belts on his
abdomen and how they hang down on his sides to the loops where he can
store his swords. To me, those shoulder pads suggest that Blade
always
has an answer because if he were ever to shrug he would slice his
ears to ribbons.
Actually,
maybe that’s why he has his crazy headgear. Maybe back when he
first got those ludicrous shoulder pads at Oroku Saki’s Estate Sale
(and yes – Shredder does predate Blade by a couple of years) he
learned the lesson the hard way.
Blade
has new forearms. The right is an intricate gauntlet, the left is the
same but with a crossbow mounted on it. They both have great sculpts,
but I would have liked a little paint on the crossbow. Even just some
color on the shafts of the bolts would have made a big difference.
There
are two details below the waist that I am impressed to be seeing. The
daggers on Blade’s thighs and the sculpted trim on his boot-tops.
The daggers would have looked much better as separate pieces. As they
are they conform to the figure’s lines too much and look odd.
The
trim on his boots does look good and I am surprised that it’s
sculpted and not simply painted on. Matty could have gotten away with
skipping both the daggers and the trim, so I think it’s pretty cool
they were included, even if the daggers are a little sub-par.
ACCESSORIES
Blade
comes with two swords and a laser whip.
One
sword is an unpainted saber that honestly looks pretty cheap.
The
other sword is more of a standard straight sword that manages to
still look cheap despite being fairly distinctive and even having red
paint on the crossbar. I just cannot be satisfied with swords in a
collector-oriented line where the hilt wrapping is the same color as
the blade. And yes – I know that all of the Power Swords are like
that, but they have always
been depicted that way. And Matty even added the highlight of paint
on the blades. This figure’s swords just don’t look great.
Both
swords fit quite well into either of Blade’s hands or the loops on
his belts.
The
laser whip is okay, but it would have been so much better is the whip
part had been a translucent rubber. Or at least a good bit longer. As
is it’s kind of useless and doesn’t look all that good in Blade’s
hand. He’d need to be within a couple of feet of his victim to hit
them and that totally defeats the purpose of a whip.
All
three of these pieces feature the shitty “China” stamp.
FUN
Blade
is a fun figure. Because of the smart decisions made with his armor
he can make better use of the solid MOTUC articulation than a lot of
other figures in the line. Having three accessories to interact with
is also good, especially with spots to store two of those weapons.
I
enjoyed posing him for a while. That’s probably part of the reason
I went ahead and reviewed this one despite my MOTUC fatigue. The
figure looks good and plays well.
None
of the joints are loose or stuck and Blade can be posed pretty much
any way you might have seen in the movie.
OVERALL
The
figure itself is great. The thigh daggers could be better, but with
Matty’s budgetary complaints I realize that removable daggers and a
separately sculpted pair of thigh… uh… dagger holsters? are
unrealistic expectations. So the figure itself is about as good as it
could possibly be.
The
accessories are another story and are definitely part of why I am
considering not subscribing in 2015. I cannot accept accessories with
minimal or no paint from a line charging almost thirty dollars apiece
for its action figures. More if you count shipping, which I do. I
still remember the disgust with which I first beheld Stinkor’s
unpainted accessories. I knew at the time that that might be the
beginning of the end. It was a bad standard to set.
4
out of 5
Cheap
swords aside, this is a very good Masters of the Universe Classics
figure. I actually do recommend it. It’s different enough to pop on
the shelf and has a lot of character for a human amongst monsters.
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