Month: April 2022

Toy review: Grizzlor

Toy review

Grizzlor is in my opinion one of the MOTU masterpieces! They managed to draw a fine line between a scary monster, and a furry funny toy. Grizzlor is one member of the Horde, which I found all very well done and unique. He has a lot from a gorilla, except that a gorilla is black, and Grizzlor is brown. I would say he doesn’t share any obvious parts with other MOTU figures. The most prominent feature is of course his fur, which is of excellent quality and never came off or went smelly or anything. The shape of his torso is hidden under that dense fur, and I wasn’t able to find a photo of a stripped Grizzlor. So it remains a secret to me, how his torso looks, and I guess that’s for the better.

His arms and legs are also brownish, but without real fur. Instead the arms have an embossed fur-like structure. His hands are a bit plain, clumsy, shapeless, without any hint of claws or anything.

The legs are more standard shaped, but with the same structure of the surface. He is wearing black boots.

The head is not really distinguished from the body, there is just the mask of a face placed at the top of the torso.

He’s got the same crossbow as most horde members, his is green. I think no other crossbow was green. It goes well with yellow straps of his armor, which in this case is only a huge horde bat.

The combination of colors is well done, the brown fur with lighter brown arms and legs make him look like a creature that lives outdoors, and can take it cold, but also sunny.

The yellow straps are a nice eye catcher, while the bat is not that obvious. The dark green crossbow supports the idea of a gorilla living in the forests.

I can’t help myself, but the fur, and its color, remind me of another toy of the 80s, but luckily Mattel mastered the art of designing a serious horde member despite the similarities. You might remember the Monchichi? That slobby thumb-sucking monkey-hedge hock thing? It’s fur is a bit darker and lesser reddish, but else I see some similarities.

What I find most irritating on Grizzlor, is the fact that the body has no shape. He is from the top of his head to his hips just a hairy egg. No neck, no waist. That egg shape could easily result in a funny looking fur monster, but the long legs, and the really great, powerful face make him look awesome. I wouldn’t even see him look funny if someone would do his hair, but I won’t encourage anyone to do a make over with him! Grizzlor!

I always missed that kind of fur on Beastman. He would have deserved at least a bit of it, in orange of course. For all the other figures, even Battle Cat and Panthor, I’m glad they didn’t get “real fur”.

The UV only showed the dust on this Grizzlor, otherwise he would have looks pretty cool.

Titfortat 4: Clawful vs. Extendar

Titfortat

The hell, why? What, Merman?


What no one knows: Merman has a secret plan! He started training his ocean people to fight on land. But this takes time. He needs warriors to fight with him right now.

Water is thicker than air, they say.

Clawful was one of the first villains who believed Merman could be the new leader of Eternia, able to fight Skeletor, Hordak and King Hiss. Clawful has a natural affinity to the ocean, and there is something magical to Merman. Why would the land creatures always become the leaders?

But what is it with Extendar? Why was Clawful so keen to fight him in the titfortat ring?

Extendar, or who he has been, before he became Extendar, was the spy who spotted Merman training a team of ocean people on land. He realized that something big is rising from the ocean. The saw him, and a fight started. Extendar lost the battle, and his memories. He hardly survived. Man-at-Arms fixed his body, but hardly anything is left from the former spy. No he’s a heavy knight, half human, half robot. Or entirely a robot? He doesn’t know himself.

Clawful can’t risk to let him get back his memories. It would not only be a risk for Merman’s plans, but also threat to Clawful’s life, if Skeletor finds out too early what is going on.

A nervous, lightning-fast 3 meter crab man (28 points) with a clear mission and 190kg of muscles and armor, is fighting the cyborg-knight! Extendar (31 points) is the fifth-heaviest MOTU character on hefarts, and reaches even 30 centimeter higher than Clawful when he’s fully extended. Two gigantic, well armored fighters are meeting here. The question is, can Extendar control the Claw? This battle is about distances, a ringer vs. sword fighter.

Go! Extendar starts in a perfect defense position, knowing Clawful is fast and furious. The red shield in one hand, and a sword in the other hand. His armor should be strong enough to protect him, but for how long? He is not extended, and thus more than 1 meter smaller than the crab. This doesn’t look like the fair fight the numbers promised.

Clawful rapidly moves from one corner of the ring to the other, his size is not slowing him down at all. Extendar’s eyes follow him, the rest of the body is not moving. It would cost him to much energy to follow the crab. Clawful is the first to attack: He comes in a zig zag move towards Extendar. Once near, the huge claw Immediately catches Extendar’s red shield, while the other claw grabs the sword. It is one single movement, happening so fast, that it’s clear, the following seems inevitable. Once clawed, Clawful won’t let go anything, ever. His strength is legendary.

Extendar has no chance to get back his weapons, so he decides to let go. What was he thinking?! What now?

A helpless try to punch Clawful in the face, but Extendar is too slow. How could he be so blind to not see this coming? Why did Man-at-Arms make him so slow? Extendable? He looks like a knight, but in fact they just made him a spy with armor, just enough so that they could send him on missions again.

Sword and shield are thrown out of the ring. It took seconds to disarm the knight. This fight is no fight, it is the second demolition of the former spy. It is a fighting monster vs. a poor experiment of Man-at-Arms.

Clawful attacks again, and this time he’s able to get hold of both of Extendar’s hands. This must be the end already.

His grab becomes tighter and tighter. Extendar panics, sees no other way but to use his extensions to grow larger and get out of the grip. He didn’t even think of keeping the neck short. While he still grows, centimeter by centimeter, we see the proof: the neck extensions can’t withstand THE claw. A grab and a few seconds later, the heads rolls on the floor, the battle is over, and Merman’s secret plan save. So far, no one has a clue why Clawful went in the ring with Extendar.

Titfortat 3: Tri-Klops vs. Grizzlor

Titfortat

History from the cold bloody mountains

This battle is Tri-Klops’ tit for tat. When he was a boy in a village in Eternia’s mountains, his live was just nice. Loving parents, fresh air, enough of everything. His people lived an easy, honest live. He wasn’t evil at all. Maybe he would have been a hero…

The people in the mountains used to tell stories about hairy monsters, maybe to keep the kids from running too far. To teach them to be careful. All myths, or? Hard to believe that there was a place in Eternia that wasn’t infested with horrific creatures.

Tri-Klops was always into technology, what was somewhat strange for his kind. But the mountain people understood the value of his developments. He was well accepted and an innovator, who would make live even more comfortable. One day, after testing a new machine, he came home, and he had to find himself in a blood bath, where his village has been. Everything was destroyed, all killed, all. His family, friends, neighbors. Suddenly the young man from the mountains lived in a nightmare, all alone.

Giant footsteps made clear, there was a single monster in the village. A single creature erased an entire village, and the future of a skilled potential hero. Who was this creature? Grizzlor.

Since Hordac started seeking for the worst creatures of Eternia to strengthen his horde, many horror-myths became reality. Hordac found that hairy monster before Tri-Klops had the chance for revenge. Grizzlor! You need the kind of magic Hordac has, to control this beast. So he did, he made the beast of the mountains one of his evil horde members, without knowing that Tri-Klops has an unfinished business with him.

A two meter human with one laser eye, one super- bright eagle- eye and one ice-beam eye (32 points) gets in the ring with a 3.20m, 310kg, 28 points bear-gorilla monster!

Let’s do it: Tri-Klops looks very focused, seems he has a plan and is so ready to go. No fear, no anxiety, that’s impressive. He looks tiny in front of Grizzlor, but he stands his man.

On the other side, a hairy, growling brown mountain of wilderness. Grizzlor is clearly under the control of a powerful being, if not he would have destroyed the entire arena. No one knows how much of himself is left.

The fight begins. Grizzlor’s first strike hits the floor, and the beast-made earthquake distracts Tri-Klops just long enough to allow Grizzlor moving one step closer to Tri-Klops. The second strike is a continuation of the first two actions, hitting Tri-Klops shoulders from above, what breaks both of Tri-Klops’ legs. The smart, skillful mountain man forgets his meticulous plan, and unfortunately replaces all his thoughts by the memory of stories told about the scary mountain monster.

The last strike in this so-called battle is more like a beginning of Grizzlor’s lunch. Tri-Klops is down, Grizzlor wins. Easy. Ugly.