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He was available through Matty
Collector, just like every figure, but
is long sold out. Next up (on June 15th, mark your calendar!) is
Hordak, who is likely to be VERY popular, and don't forget that He-ro
is the SDCC exclusive this year.
Packaging - ***1/2
I've raved about the cool, retro packaging in the last six reviews of
this line, and nothing here has changed. There's the specific character
bio on the back, along with some basic personalization on the front
insert. The graphics are great, and these will look good on the wall if
you're a MOCer. They aren't collector friendly, unfortunately, so you
can't open them up without destroying them, but that's the only real
improvement that could be made.
Sculpt - ***1/2
Re-use is a key concept across this line, but with some characters it's
less apparent (like the upcoming Hordak), while others (like our dear
Zodac here) are almost a complete retread.
The
head is brand new, and looks just like the old cartoon version.
The sculpt isn't soft though, with sharp definition around the few
small
details that are here.
The other new area is his armor
over his
chest and back. This piece is removable, and some folks will place it
as an accessory, but since it's key to his appearance, I'm counting it
as part of the basic figure instead. Again, they've sharply sculpted
the very design from the old show, getting it to fit over the standard
body perfectly.
The torso it fits over was first
used with
Beastman, and is sculpted with lots of hair. However, the arms are not
hairy, but have the sharp edged gauntlets that you've seen before on
Mer-man and Skeletor. He also has the clawed lizard feet and
boots that Mer-man and Skeletor sported before him.
Finally,
there's the standard legs, covered by the standard loincloth. Yep, a
lot of reuse here, but they mixed and matched pretty well, getting the
best final result. In the end, it's really all about how well they
manage to match the old cartoon, and they've done that admirably.
There's
a bit more flashing on some of the mold lines than I think should be
present, considering the price point, but that's my only grip with an
otherwise solid sculpt.
These are all 7" scale figures,
and Zodac
fits right in with the rest. With all those re-used body parts, that
shouldn't be a surprise.
Paint - ***
While I love his look, I do have a couple minor issues with the paint.
First,
there's some slop, particularly on the belt over the fur loincloth.
It's not major, but a $20 figure better be pretty clean.
My other issue is one of
aesthetic choice. They went with flesh colored hands and gauntlets, but
I think going with the
white gloves
that match the white emblem on his chest would have looked much, much
better. The gauntlets are just too smooth to match up colorwise with
the muscled arms and textured hands.
They did add a nice wash to the
limbs, giving the musculature some shadowing, but the rest of the paint
work is fairly standard.
Articulation - ***1/2
As I mentioned, the line is heavy into re-use, so you've seen all these
body parts...and all this articulation...before.
The
ball jointed neck is a bit restricted by the helmet, but it still
allows a little tilt. The peg and post ball shoulders work great, and
there's the post joint on the bicep side as well to allow for a
terrific
range of movement.
Single pin elbows, knees and
wrists are
present, and cut joints at the waist and top of the boot allow for some
nice variations in the plane of the body. Finally, the hips
are pin and post style joints as well, much like the shoulders,
allowing the figure to handle wide or narrow stances. He's also able to
take a very natural, flowing stance, mimicking a real human better than
most figures in this scale.
Accessories - **1/2
Zodak loses in this category when it comes to quantity, but he wins
when it comes to originality.
He
only gets one accessory, but it's not a re-use of another character's.
No, he gets his very own laser gun! And you know I love laser
guns. He can fit it in either hand, and it has one additional paint op
- there's a silver edge to the very end of the barrel.
There's no place to store the
gun on his body, but I can live with it.
Value - **
Even if you ignore the almost $9 shipping and handling charge (chalk it
up to not having to search for the figure), these guys are still $20
each. Considering the amount of re-use, the margin that Mattel is
making off these as a percent is extremely high.
Fun Factor - ****
There's no doubt in my mind - these are the best action figures for
kids on the market right now. Sadly, most kids have no idea who they
are, and are unlikely to ever play with them. But the terrific sculpts,
and sturdy well designed articulation make them some amazing toys. Now
if Mattel could just produce mass market action figures with this level
of build quality.
Things To Watch Out For
-
Not a thing.
Overall - ***
I
almost went another half star on this guy, but in the end he really
does fall into the middle of the growing pack of MOTUC figures so far.
He's not quite as good as Mer-man or Skeletor, but he's definitely
above Faker
or Beastman on my list. I have high hopes for Hordak...the first four
star MOTUC?
Sorry about the group photo -
somehow I managed to
forget about poor Stratos. I promise to include them all in a shot with
Hordak next month.
Score Recap:
Packaging - ***1/2
Sculpting - ***1/2
Paint - ***
Articulation - ***1/2
Accessories - **1/2
Value - **
Fun Factor - ****
Overall - ***
Where to Buy -
MattyCollector is the place. He's sold out now of course, but you can
get ready for the next figure on June 15th (Hordak), and you can get
their
new subscription service to have the last four months shipped to you
automatically. Or, if you prefer the hunt, there's always ebay.
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