Titfortat 14: Stinkor vs Moss man

Titfortat

These two have a history. Fresh air vs. awful odor. Two creatures of nature, like Ying and Yang.

Stinkor is a weirdo, someone you better send to battle on his own. Gas doesn’t have friends. You wouldn’t invite him to celebrate a win. You just can’t stand his odor. 28 points, 100kg, a creature that had to learn how to survive on its own. Stinkor is not awesome in any category, but he’s also not particularly weak. Check out my personal ranking of all vintage MOTU characters here!

Moss man is the opposite, he’s the green gentle giant that lightens the mood. Who literally freshens the air. No wonder these two have a titfortat. The green giant is heavy, 200kg. He’s got 27 points, but a bit of magic in him tells us not to underestimate him.

As the fight begins, a yellowish cloud of gas fills the ring. Not many creatures of Eternia would last in this ring for long, but Moss man is not impressed. Near him the yellow gas disappears, as if he inhales it, and he exhales fresh air. Pure magic keeps the air for the audience bearable.

The evil skunk knows Moss mans skills, and so he goes for physical contact. Screaming and scratching, biting, kicking, he’s attacking the mossy hero with all he got. The huge green thing has no problem to defend himself, but he’s taking some deep cuts. Then Stinkor retracts, looks like he’s in need of a break. Silence, but with tension. Is Moss man going to attack now?

But what is that? A green dot on Stinkors head appears, and it slowly turns into a purple flower! Someone is making fun of his opponent. Then there’s more green, plants start to grow all over Stinkor. He’s releasing more gas, but it doesn’t help much. Green plants build larger vines, growing all around him, strangling the now panicking Stinkor. Strangling him to death, and neutralising all of his poisonous gas. Easy win for Moss man.

Toy review: Dragstor

Toy review

Dragstor was one of my earlier figures if I remember correctly. And weirdly the attached mini comic ruined him for me. Not the whole comic, but one image in it haunted me for a while. Almost 40 years later I had to look it up again. There are actually some videos about the mini comic on YouTube.

It shows the making of, what means Hordak turned a ‘weak little sop’ into ‘The warrior machine’. That’s the mini comic’s title, and though Dragstor turned out to be a war machine, for me he was the poor guy, the victim, the poor little sop. And there is this image of his face in horror while he’s magically transforming. That ruined it for me. A super villain can’t be a regular guy that transformed within a moment. Or can it? Not back then though.

The figure itself was well made I find. It was different than the standard figure, in dark blue and quiet heavy. The ripcord mechanism to start the engine was working well, while the paint was durable. So quality wise I had no concerns.

The body though, especially the arms, appeared a bit weak to the young me. And the unavoidable crossbow for horde members was a bit boring.

My uv light photo shows him in a different way. He’s mid blue, reminding me on the New Adventures Nocturna. The grey metal, the red bat on his chest, boots and parts of his outfit, as well as the orange gloves disappeared in the uv light.

Nowadays, especially after writing ‘Titfortat 11: Dragstor vs. Mekaneck: Machine neck’ I finally see his potential. A loud, powerful engine, vibrating, smoking, with unbearable power, torque, speed and noise. That’s a scary war machine, not a sop!

Dragstor in uv light