For
the most part the strictly Filmation-based releases of the Masters of
the Universe Classics line haven’t been the ones I was the most
excited about. Some of them have certainly ended up being great, but
when I sit back and look at my MOTUC shelves, Trap-Jaw and Scareglow
are much more satisfying to see than, say, Batros or… that Egyptian
guy. Whatever his name is.
These
robots are a different story. These guys are iconic.
That’s
why we have Hover Robots.
He-Man
can’t rip Skeletor’s arms off. He can’t grab Mer-Man and
squeeze his head until his brains spurt out of his big, goofy ears.
He certainly can’t punch a hole straight through Clawful (though I
would pay good money to see that). But he can do all of those things
to these floating garbage cans.
Yes,
the classic answer to the cartoon dilemma – “How to violence?”
is “robots”.
We
have to have robots to mangle and destroy because little boys love
violence but American standards won’t allow for-real violence
against actual sentient beings. So from Foot Soldiers to B.A.T.s to
Skeletor's Hover Robots, mindless automatons have long been
animators’ go-to for cannon fodder. Heck, even the Marvel Cinematic
Universe has gotten in on robot violence. Iron
Man 2
featured the huge battle against the Hammeroids, with oil spurting
all over the place like blood and Age
of Ultron
featured even more robot gore in the form of the Iron Legion and the
hundreds (thousands?) of Ultrons.
I
was excited to get these guys because they hit the right nostalgia
spot and because I love troop builders. You should see my Star Wars
collection. The number of Stormtroopers and Clones is ridiculous.
From
Mattycollector.com:
Skeletor®
deploys these drones of destruction as part of his plan to crush the
King… these robotic rogues descend from the skies to rain a payload
of punishment on the people of Eternia®! Each 3-pack comes with
three sets of hands, a sticker sheet, and three stands.
The
Hover Robots™ 3-pack is the featured item at various conventions
during 2015, and is not included with Club Eternia® subscriptions.
Since
this set is the “Travelling Convention Exclusive” I wasn’t too
sure I’d be able to get them, which was a sucky feeling to have
since I was so stoked about them. I still haven’t managed to get a
Spirit of Grayskull and I’m pretty annoyed about that. I was afraid
these would be the same way, but I was able to buy two sets with no
problems on the Early Access day. As opposed to Grayskull, which
“sold out” in the time it took me to get to the billing page.
Of
course, I did have to pay Digital River’s outrageous shipping for
these rather than just being able to add them to my monthly sub. So
that sucked.
On
a more positive note, it does seem like everything has been arriving
within seven days this year, so that is a huge improvement.
FIRST
GLANCE
I
am absolutely delighted by these guys. They’re so 80s – the
segmented arms with pincers at the end, the angry cartoony eyes, and
the lenticular mouth things. These look like toys,
but also fit right in with the Classics line.
PACKAGING
The
MOTUC blister card never disappoints.
There’s
a nice little bit in the bio about Skeletor stealing the design idea
for these guys from Hordak. It’s a nice bit of streamlining and an
explanation for why their eye slots are so reminiscent of Horde
Troopers’. That similarity has been enhanced a bit on these
figures, as it was only a vague resemblance on the cartoon models. I
definitely like the connection, though, since Hordak is the tech guy
and it never really made sense for Skeletor to have robots.
LOOKS
There
are three of these guys that come out of the box identical, which
pleases me. I am not a fan of “battle damage” except in specific
cases, so I’m glad that Mattel didn’t decide they needed to
create artificial differences in the robots to try to create the
illusion of greater value or something. Instead, there is a label
sheet packed in so that you can create your own variations. I’ll
get into that later.
As
with many MOTUC releases, an up-close inspection reveals a lot more
detail than I expected. There are many sculpted panels and plates
that give these somewhat nondescript drones a lot more character. I
like how the plating and the shape of the body tapers down to the
base and how the repulsor or thruster or whatever extends out of that
base rather than just being part of it.
The
“mouth” or vocal display or whatever you want to call it is a
lenticular sticker. I bought two sets of these and among the six
‘bots I have they were all placed with varying degrees of accuracy.
None of them are outright bad or outside of the sculpted border, but
none are flush with the surface they are on, either. You can’t
really tell from afar and visually it certainly isn’t a big deal,
my only concern is that over time they might peel off due to the
portions that aren’t making contact. I still have 80s toy stickers
PTSD.
The
paint deco on the eyes is great. The blacks and yellows are very
solid and there’s no hazing or slop between the two. I’m glad
that Mattel nailed this tricky color combination, because the yellow
really needed to stand out and be distinct on top of the black for
these guys to work.
The
arms are a nice, shiny silver. The segmented look works nicely and
the grasping pincers at the ends look menacing in a slightly silly
way. I’m glad Mattel went with subtle joints rather than making
these bendy. After Spout Snout’s trunk, I never want Mattel to make
anything bendy again (though we do have Squeeeze coming soon).
ACCESSORIES
The
set of three robots comes with three extra pairs of hands, three
bases, and a label sheet.
There
are a total of three hand sculpts in this set. The first has the
fingers spread out like a fan blade. The other two are subtly
different – on one the fingers are relaxed and on the other they
are posed like they’re grasping. They switch out easily and stay
put in the wrists of the arms.
The
bases plug into the base of the robots. They’re balanced nicely,
though I found that mine seemed to stand slightly more securely with
the stand convex in the front.
I
have a general distrust of toy stickers and am not normally a fan of
battle damage, so I wasn’t overly excited about the labels. I knew
I’d put some on one of the ‘bots just for review purposes, but I
doubted they’d stick very well due to the curved surfaces of the
figures. And I thought even if they did initially stick they’d peel
off over time.
So
far I was wrong on all counts. The stickers look great and the colors
are vibrant, but more importantly they are printed on a very thin,
sturdy, and flexible material. They stick flush to the surface of the
figures and don’t leave upturned corners or air bubbles. Once they
are applied, the clear borders that typically make stickers something
of an eyesore are barely even visible.
I
am absolutely amazed at how well these work. I feel like there is
some kind of new sticker technology at play here.
They
peel off easily, as well. So if you deck out one of your ‘bots with
damage, you can always undo it. I don’t think the stickers will
stand up to multiple uses. As sticker-picky as I am, I have to admit
that would be just too much to ask.
FUN
These
robots are so much fun. Right away they have the advantage in that
there’s three of them. Just on the ‘bots themselves you’ve got
seven points of articulation and the interactivity with the bases. If
these had come out in the 80s they would have been one of two things
– altered to be big enough to sell as single figures, thusly
rendered inaccurate to the show and undesirable to a young Phantom,
or they would have been unarticulated pieces of plastic with maybe
one paint app. Also undesirable.
They
have three joints per arm and their heads spin. With the low profile
of the heads I thought they might be difficult to pose, but they turn
fairly easily. The arms can achieve a variety of poses thanks to
hinge/swivel combinations at the shoulders and elbows and the natural
swivel at the wrist connection point.
Swapping
the hands out is easy and each pose is a fun one.
The
main draw, surprisingly, is the label sheet. I was tempted to cover
these guys in blaster burns and damage after having so much fun doing
it to one of their number. The stickers work so well and look so good
that I wanted more. But I like having just the one guy that looks
like he’s been blown to shit over and over again and somehow just
keeps functioning. He’s like the R2-D2 of Skeletor’s murder
robots.
OVERALL
If
you like toys and robots you should buy these; regardless of how much
you like Masters of the Universe. They’re great, fun toys that will
look good on any shelf. Plus, since they don’t have humanoids
shapes they can fit with pretty much any scale of action figures. I
honestly don’t think that Matty could have done a better job on
these.
5
out of 5
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