As we
enter the twilight year of the Masters of the Universe Classics line,
I find myself experiencing a mixture of relief and excitement.
Nope. No
sadness or melancholy or anything remotely negative. This line has
run its course and I will be quite pleased when my December 2015
figure arrives and signals the end. That’s not to say that I feel
the line has done everything it could and should have. It’s also
not to say that I’m opposed to new and different products in the
same style under a different banner in 2016. But I am tired of this
system.
Obviously
I have voluntarily signed up for the Club Eternia subscription each
year. Nobody put a gun to my head. And just as obviously I have liked
the product enough to keep signing up. But the last two years have
felt more like an obligation than a hobby. Last year I didn’t even
keep track of when my figures were shipping and when they should
arrive. I just didn’t really care. It’s not that I didn’t want
them (well, most of them), it’s just that the excitement was gone.
I knew that I could expect one of two things every month – a figure
I didn’t want or a figure that was just a paint app or design
decision shy of being great.
I wasn’t
even reviewing them on a regular basis anymore because how many times
can you come up with new things to say about such similar figures?
Since
this is the final year, I have decided to get back into the swing,
rev myself up, and review every single Club Eternia release for 2015.
So far it’s worked and I’m excited about returning to the line
full time. As of now I’m even planning on reviewing them as quickly
as I can; something I didn’t worry about even when my enthusiasm
was in full swing.
We don’t
know yet how much will be offered outside of the sub. The
glow-in-the-dark Spirit of Grayskull is coming to Early Access on
2/12 and I, for one, am very excited about that one. GITD and
translucent? I’ll take two, thanks. There are rumors of a 2002 mini
subscription like the Filmation and Princess of Power subs before it.
I’d be down with that. But I can’t guarantee I’ll buy all of
the extra stuff. For right now I’ll just say that I am definitely
reviewing every single item from the main sub, regardless of my
excitement level.
Side
Note: We should find out about a final mini sub in a couple of weeks
at Toy Fair, and you can bet we’ll cover it on the Needless
Things Podcast.
I’m
glad we’re starting with Lizard Man, a character I never would have
requested, but that I was perfectly okay with when I saw him for the
first time. He’s from Filmation and is just this side of too
cartoony, but in person looks pretty cool and is one of the more
unique figures from the line.
FIRST
GLANCE
Everything
about Lizard Man looks different from your standard MOTUC releases,
and yet he still fits the overall aesthetic. If he were one iota
goofier he wouldn’t work. The most surprising thing to me was that
he’s a good guy. I don’t remember any of the Filmation characters
particularly well, so the fact that this guy is pals with the Masters
was unexpected. I like it, especially after reading his bio.
PACKAGING
Big
blister card, consistent packaging, attractive design, blah, blah,
blah. Love it.
Lizard
Man’s bio puts him over big time. I don’t know if he’s a
sentimental favorite of Nietlich’s or what, but all this talk of
bravery, power, honor, and strength is pretty impressive. I like the
angle of him dealing with racism due to his genetic connection to the
Snake Men. Or speciesism, I guess. The point is that this guy has a
cool story that makes me like him more.
There’s
a sticker on the back of the card that tells you how to get the best
results from the included glow-in-the-dark Diamond Ray of
Disappearance. This is nothing short of shocking, as Matty usually
doesn’t even bother to tell us what items are,
let alone how to use them. I didn’t notice this sticker until I was
perusing my pictures for this review, so here’s what it says for
those of you that don’t want to ruin your eyes trying to read the
blown-up version above:
“Glow-in-the-dark
feature will last longer if you do not expose this product to intense
heat or direct sunlight for prolonged periods of time. Place the gem
box approximately five feet (152 cm) away from a light source for 30
seconds. Placing the gem box closer will not intensify the
‘glow-in-the-dark’ feature.”
I
do wish Matty would identify the accessories. I didn’t realize
which sword this was until after I was finished with pictures or I
would’ve taken one with Skeletor holding it.
Side
Note: What do you think about that custom
Filmation Skeletor head?
I think it looks fantastic, but the price is absurd - $28 – and the
fact that you have to buy it through e-mail rather than an actual
website is a bit sketchy. I want one, but that’s one too many
question marks for me.
LOOKS
Lizard
Man looks super! He could fit in with any number of animated
properties – He-Man, Thundarr, Ninja Turtles, Thundercats – and
yet still works within Masters of the Universe Classics. The clever
use of Mantenna parts to give him a unique profile is impressive.
Obviously
Lizard Man’s head is the thing that’s really pushing the
boundaries. It has a curvy, bulbous shape that’s clearly meant to
be a cartoon, but something about the angles and the eyes makes it
work. I particularly like how his hooded… what the heck is this
thing called? It’s actually pretty bizarre now that I think about
it. He needs a hood and that’s it. No sleeves, no torso covering.
Just an unaffiliated hood. It’s not even attached to a vest like AJ
Styles used to wear.
Anyway,
I like it. It looks cool and they did a good job connecting the
sculpt from this new torso up onto the head.
The
torso is new and I don’t see Matty getting any further use out of
it. The garment is sculpted nicely and there are some nice skin
textures on his back and stomach. All of the colors of the figure
match up quite nicely across the different materials used. The greens
are uniform and even the lighter color that runs from his neck to the
end of his tail looks great. Oh, and I like the unevenness of the
stitches on the front of the garment.
Lizard
Man’s wide belt, loin cloth, and tail are all one piece. The blue
dots on the front of the belt give it just enough extra to make the
piece look nice. The loin cloth is sculpted well, but the way it
hangs around the tail is utterly baffling. Is there a hole cut in it?
That’s just weird. It would have made a lot more sense to just have
the back part hanging over his tail.
Lizard
Man’s three-toed lizard feet look great. There are wrinkled
textures sculpted on the tops that are reminiscent of those on the
abdomen. It’s always nice to have those little bits of connectivity
throughout a figure.
The
hands are great and I wish I could’ve gotten a picture that really
captured the coolness of the translucent green webbing between his
fingers. This is so impressive for a number of reasons – 1) the
green paint used on the hands matches the rest of the figure, 2) that
paint is applied cleanly and evenly and there are no painted parts
where light shines through to spoil the illusion, and 3) Matty didn’t
have to do this. They could have simply put this guy out with green,
opaque hands and we wouldn’t have given it a second thought.
ACCESSORIES
Lizard
Man comes with a sword and a diamond in a box.
The
sword is the one Skeletor had in the Filmation cartoon. It would look
great if it had any paint on it. I understand that this is pretty
much what it looked like in the cartoon, but even just a bit of
silver on the blade or dark grey on the hilt would have been nice.
As-is it has that dollar store look that unpainted MOTUC accessories
tend to have.
The
diamond in the box is the Diamond Ray of Disappearance. Technically
this should probably be called the “Diamond of Disappearance”,
but whatever. Out of all of the Filmation items that could have been
produced, this one is probably the most historically significant. It
comes from the first episode of He-Man
and the Masters of the Universe.
Without getting into the specifics of the episode, this item was the
first in a long line of magical MacGuffins that demonstrated the
confusing nature of Skeletor’s particular style of conquering.
The
toy version features an open box (that does not close) with a
glow-in-the-dark gem inside. The sculpt is good and it even has some
finger indentions in the back so that figures can hold it. The fact
that the Diamond glows in the dark is a wonderful bonus. Like Lizard
Man’s hands, this is just another cool extra that Matty needn’t
have done. I am impressed.
FUN
Lizard
Man features standard MOTUC articulation. There are plenty of joints
and most of them work well enough to be satisfying. The figure can
achieve plenty of action poses. One of the great things about this
line is the fact that the number and style of joints allow for so
many variations that just about every figure can be posed in a
different way on the shelf.
Lizard
Man has two parts that don’t quite work for me.
I
like how snug the connection is between the head and the neck. It
maintains a nice profile and doesn’t reveal any ugly gaps that
would hurt the style. The integration here is another thing that adds
to this guy fitting in with the line. But the range of motion on the
head isn’t great. It can pretty much just rotate, with very little
range otherwise.
I’m
tremendously disappointed in the tail. It’s stationary. It doesn’t
even rotate. I didn’t need a bendy tail, but it could at least be
poseable in some
manner. As it is the thing doesn’t look quite right if Lizard Man
is doing anything other than just standing there.
That
being said, between the accessories, his solid MOTUC articulation,
and the figure’s general sturdiness Lizard Man is fun to play
around with.
OVERALL
He
isn’t perfect, but he’s pretty darn good. The Filmation Skeletor
sword isn’t perfect, but it’s great to have. The Diamond Ray of
Disappearance is just a neat extra and I hope to see a lot more
Filmation artifacts over the course of the year.
I
like Lizard Man and I’m happy to have him. I can’t recommend him
to anyone but hardcore Filmation fans or folks who are just
collecting this line, but he’s a neat figure and I really like what
he does for the MOTUC shelves.
4
out of 5
This guy isn't on Amazon, so maybe try eBay or BigBad.
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