Review of Buzz-Off
Masters of the Universe Classics action figure

Introduction

Mattel wrapped up the year with their December Masters of the Universe release - Buzz Off! Now before you go and correct me, Matty Collector has him listed as "Buzz Off" as well, no hyphen. The package includes a hyphen though, but I'll stick with the official name at the site.

Keep in mind that I'm the guy that has no nostalgic feel for these figures, so the fact that I think it originally had a hyphen is neither here nor there, although it does indicate that Matty may have made a mistake - huge surprise there. Either way, he's a big bumblebee dude with lobster claws for hands.

He's also one of the good guys, helping in the battle against the evil Skeletor. He was the usual $20 on December 15th, and took awhile to sell out. He eventually did, however, and now your best bet is probably ebay.

Packaging - ***1/2
Still the same packaging we've seen through the entire line, which is a good thing for the MOCers. That allows for a nice consistency if you display your figures still on the card. If this line were sold at a mass market outlet for kids, we'd have seen three packaging changes by now. And if you're not a MOCer, odds are the package won't mean too much to you anyway.

Sculpting - ****
I wasn't particularly interested in this figure when I first saw photos. Even when I pulled him out of the box, he didn't do a whole lot for me. Let's face it - he looks like John Belushi in his bumble bee outfit.

Turns out, out of the package, he knocked my socks off. While there's plenty of re-use - this is the Masters of the Universe Classics line, after all - the cool sculpted bee head, with funky wings and textured skin look fantastic. The wings are called 'electro' wings, and have what looks like electronic circuitry sculpted on the surface.

He has cool lobster claws too, unique to the series so far. These claw hands are sculpted to hold the accessories perfectly.

Obviously, he fits in perfectly with the rest of the series scale-wise, and stands great on his own.

Paint - ***
There's more slop this time around than usual, which is unfortunate since this is such a terrific figure otherwise. The molded colors, like the yellow - look good, but the painted colors have sloppy cut lines and over spray. Coverage is a bit hit or miss as well, but the colors are consistent in tone and do add a lot of brightness to the shelf.

I liked this figure so much that I almost cut them some slack here, but in the end I just couldn't do it. This is a collector's line, and as such we expect better than retail quality.

Articulation - ***1/2
Buzz Off has the usual Masters of the Universe Classics articulation - ball jointed neck, ball jointed shoulders, hinge hips, pin elbows, ankles and knees, ab-crunch, cut waist, cut wrists, and cut shins at the top of the boots.

These are all the same as usual, since the basic base body is the same. The neck isn't quite as mobile as on some releases, but it's a minor nit, and the rest of the joints are solid with sturdy pins.

The wings are also hinged at the body, which allows them to turn and move inward and outward. This gives you a tremendous number of ways to pose them.

Finally, he has two of the insect-like legs that we saw previously on Webstor. Makes sense, since they used the same style backpack to attach the wings and legs. These have ball joints that allow them to move freely.

Accessories - ***1/2
Buzz boy is well equipped, with a unique staff with a funky topper that looks an awful lot like a bee's butt, and a large ax to slice through the bad guys. There's also a smaller ax, as well as a funky helmet with huge multifaceted eyes. This soft rubber helmet fits over his normal head easily, and isn't as bizarre looking as I expected. It's still not my favorite look for him - I'll be displaying him without - but it's a better addition than I expected.

The weapons fit in his lobster claws easily, and he can hold them in a variety of one and two handed - er, clawed - poses.

Fun Factor - ****
These are mighty fun figures, and this guy is just too cool. The articulated wings work well, and they are very sturdy. This figure would withstand real play far better than most figures on the pegs at Toys R Us right now, and he has a terrific, fun design.

Value - **1/2
Yea, these will cost you twenty bucks. But with the decent assortment of accessories, the inclusion of the wings, and the limited nature, I can live with that. It doesn't hurt that prices on regular figures at the store have started to top $15 in this scale.

Things to Watch Out For -
Nothing major. I did notice that the lower armor was crooked on the leg, which is how I figured out that they were jointed there. They were also stuck, and it took some effort to free them up, but once I did they worked great.

Overall - ***1/2
If the paint were as good as the sculpt, this figure would have pulled a full four stars overall.

Even so, the paint work isn't atrocious. It's solid B work, and is likely to vary some what from figure to figure. For a character that left me cold from the original description and photos, he turned out to be one of my favorites of the 2010 releases.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***1/2
Sculpting - ****
Paint - ***1/2
Articulation - ***1/2
Accessories - ***1/2
Fun Factor - ****
Value - **1/2
Overall - ***1/2

Where to Buy 
This was a Matty Collector exclusive a couple weeks ago, but now your best bet is probably searching ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
Other MOTUC reviews include:

- Grizzlor was November's release.

- the previous month was the swapped shoulders Roboto.

- Gygor makes other big monkeys look silly.

- another character with animal instincts is Chief Carnivus.

- just before that was Whiplash.

- Orko was the SDCC exclusive this year.

- just before the Con, Matty sold out of Count Marzo.

- before that was She-Ra, Princess of Power, and the large scale Tytus.

- I've also looked at the cool custom swords and shields you can get from SpyMonkey Creations.

- prior to that, I looked at the other May release, Optikk.

- seems like it was just yesterday that I covered Evil-Lyn.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page to find lots of earlier releases and in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

Discussion:
Want to chat about this review?  Try out one of these terrific forums where I'll be discussing it!

Enjoyed this review? Be sure to head back to the main page to find thousands more just like it!