Author: hefarts

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

Titfortat 13: Mantenna vs Snake face

Titfortat

Two of the shortest evil monsters of Eternia are in the ring.

This titfortat is for sure not about size, it’s about black magic, about the power to fight without muscles. Monsters are they for sure, not many creatures are less human than these two. Mantenna, an insectoid with huge humanish eyes, Hordaks spy and hypnosis expert is only 1.6m and 70kg. He’s smart and fast, but a weak fighter. 34 points in total.

Snake Face is easily King Hiss’ most feared follower. Medusa could be his little sister, and nightmares are his hobby. 32 points, because his magic is weak. Fast and smart is he too.

We can only guess that this titfortat is happening to eliminate at least one of them. Who ever decides on the matches will it do it with humanity in its mind. Or cruelty? We will see how if one of them manages to survive here. Start.

In the ring, both opponents appear with their eyes closed! Are we seeing a fight in the dark?! That could be a smart move! Both, insects and snakes have the senses for it. They are both super fast, and that’s what we see here. A quick back and forth, careful, evaluating. Without any physical contact, Mantenna and Snake face are in a kind of a dance. They haven’t met before, I’m sure they want to know who’s in front of them. It’s like a ring fight, but a blind one. Mantenna’s movements look a bit weird, his four legs are tipping in a hypnotic way. Snake Face is much more elegant, like a cobra, keeping his head up high. Then the insectoid jumps! Two legs wrapping around the Snake man, while the other two legs stabilize the duo to not fall. It remains a dancing act, but the horde member hammers his tiny fists onto the medusian face. Snake Face uses his hand for defense, obviously doesn’t know how to react. He unleashes the face snakes, but they can’t turn Mantenna into stone when his eyes are closed. But who would have guessed, they’re snakes, so they can bite! Tiny snakes aiming for Mantenna’s eyes, the red and blue insectoid has to retract. He jumps off his opponent, who is now in full fight mode. Mantenna knows that, because of the bite attack. The Snake man’s answer to Mantenna’s attack is a weird forward move, and it seems like he’s reaching for the eyes! Is the Medusa monster so limited to the turn-to-stone thing? He’s obviously trying to open Mantenna’s eyes, to make him look at the snakes! And then an elbow-to-the-chin initiates the horde members response. Another elbow, the little insectoid is on the move. He reaches for one of the tiny face snakes, squeezes it until it dies, and continues one by one, while the snake man slowly bleeds to death. A sight Mantenna doesn’t get, because he found a way to fight without his hypnosis eyes.

M.A.S.K color switch: Razorback*Bullet

Color switch, M.A.S.K.

Razorback was one of my favourite cars from M.A.S.K! The combination of a white front and a red back is just a perfect fit for this Ford Thunderbird stock car. For a proper stock car Razorback’s appearance is even a bit reserved. Usually these cars are overflowing with sponsors. Razorback does have a few stickers, one of them mentioning ‘driver Brad Turner’, and we have the number 5 on the hood and the doors. Then there is ‘KENDALL motor oil’, and a single ‘R’. Another one is ‘M.T.’. ‘Escort’, ‘Simpson’, and ‘Gumout’ complete the decoration. At least some are real car related brands!

Bullet though is a street bike with no ads on it. The ‘1’, some stars, and stripes do quite well look like a racing design. And there we go, Bullet’s street bike design on Razorback! It looks much colder then the original, but I kind of like it.

The so called ‘aero bird’ from NASCAR came with up to 800 hp, going from 0 to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds! The famous Bill Elliott went as fast as 212.8 mp/h or 342.5 km/h with this car.

M.A.S.K color switch: Stinger*Slingshot

Color switch, M.A.S.K.

Orange was one of the most popular colors amongst M.A.S.K vehicles, just after blue and black. Gator, Dynamo, Firecracker and Firefly were all in Matt Tracker’s team. Stinger though was VENOM’S only orange vehicle, and I changed that to white. I used the design of Slingshot, some red, orange and yellow lines, that’s all. The second generation of the Pontiac GTO was available in several yellow, orange, gold, beige colors, as well as in different shades of blue and green. I believe Stinger has features of the 72 and 73 GTO combined, and it is a bit more edged or angular than the original car. Anyways, I find Stinger*Slingshot looks very descent!

M.A.S.K Color Switch: Detonator*Jackal

Color switch, M.A.S.K.

The VW Käfer was built in numerous colors from 1938 to 2003. Detonator was released in 1987. In 1984 a special Käfer, the yellow ‘Sunny bug’, came out. The 50 years anniversary bug from 1985 was grey though. So my color switch is kind of a Jackal Bug. Not as awesome as the original Detonator, but it also works well, especially since I was never too much a fan of the M.A.S.K motorbikes. I never owned a Jackal, but I’d go for a Jackal bug! Oh and for sure we’ll see Detonator’s colors again in another hefarts color switch!

Titfortat 12: Man-E-Faces vs. Ninjor – One vs three!

Titfortat

Man-E-faces (1.8m, 80kg) comes with 31 points, he’s smart, strong, and relatively fast. Too bad that the former actor went to the wrong sorceress. All he wanted was stronger skills to play different characters, a wider spectrum from very emotional to stone cold. He wished to be powerful, a fast learner, and charismatic on stage. What he got is three personalities in a misformed head, which he’s hiding under a huge blue helmet. She made him a monster. Another hybrid creature made by evil magic. Only the heroic Masters were able to teach him how to control these faces, how to choose the right personality to each situation. And to not become evil.

Ninjor is 10cm shorter, 10kg lighter and 3 points faster than Man-E-Faces , making him one of the fastest fighters in our MOTU titfortat tournament. With 32 points, he’s in the same league as Triklops, Rio Blast and Snake face. Jitsu’s former student is the only real Ninja in Eternia, since his master lost his hand to Whiplash. And his honor.

The reason for this titfortat is unclear. Two strong characters with lots of potential are in the ring. It will be interesting to see which identity Man-E-Faces chooses for this fight. Let’s start!

It appears he comes as his own human version. You could think this is the most balanced person in our hero, but it is also the physically weakest. The robot and the monster have faster reflexes. And even before the fight starts, he changed to the robot man! Did he change his mind?

Ninjor doesn’t move or flinch at all. He’s observing, and watching Man-E-Faces changing again, this time to the green-faced monster. And as he changed, he’s already attacking! The hero makes the first strike, bluntly running towards Ninjor, making a high pinched noise! Ninjor routinely jumps to the side, aiming for a kick into Man-E-Faces’ ribs. This goes all so fast. The hero takes that kick, but in the same moment grabs the leg, and spins around. Ninjor flies, obviously surprised by the wild energy in that humanoid mixed creature. But he lands elegantly on his feet. The green face is turning to the right, showing a hint of the human face, and then moves back. Did he try to change again, and not succeed?! Ninjor does not hesitate to use that moment of distraction to land a swipe on the hero, getting him of his feet. A series of punches land on the blue helmet as the hero falls.
Man-E-Faces lands on his belly, obviously struggling with the combination he had to take. When he gets up, Ninjor is on his back, trying to figure out how to strangle his enemy with the huge helmet.
A sudden change in the way Man-E-Faces moves makes it clear, he’s the robot now. And that makes him extremely smart and strong. Instead of trying to get Ninjor off his back, and to get back up, he rolls onto his back, an onto Ninjor. In a very unnatural way his arms move back, and he starts hammering the back of his helmet against Ninjor’s head. The martial arts fighter is locked under his enemy, who does not stop to hammer down his head until blood and brain sprinkle the ring. A barbaric move by a humanoid robot with maybe a little evil magic acting ends this titfortat.. Ninjor lost.

M.A.S.K color switch: Rhino*Wolfbeast

Color switch, M.A.S.K.

This color switch makes a very eye catching Rhinobeast! The iconic Kenworth W900 is built since 1961, and still is in numerous variants. In 1985 maroon might have been a solid choice, but I decided it’s time for a customised M.A.S.K color switch with Wolfbeast, bringing one of the boldest and wildest designs of the entire toyline to probably the most famous vehicle. I guess that would mean Miles Mayhem got his hands on the mobile command vehicle. The new transformation is material for a future project on hefarts.com. The color switch though just began!

M.A.S.K. – Monochrome Monitor Images

M.A.S.K.

Since the Monochrome Monitor Images were so much fun, I decided to make a new category for M.A.S.K. on hefarts.com! Here are some vehicles, mostly from VENOM, which of course were never selected for any mission. A shame VENOM didn’t have a similar sequence… I started with Wolfbeast, Manta, Outlaw, Stinger and Detonator, who was a M.A.S.K. vehicle of course.

Outlaw Monochrome Monitor Image
Manta Monochrome Monitor Image
Stinger Monochrome Monitor Image
Detonator Monochrome Monitor Image
Wolfbeast Monochrome Monitor Image

Titfortat 11: Dragstor vs Mekaneck – Machine neck!

Titfortat

Dragstor, Hordaks spy vehicle, front line breaker, henchman for special tasks, 29 points in the table of skills, is super fast. When that poor guy got into Hordaks hands, he was turned into a machine, a living super power engine. It took him years to manage living with all the power he got, and he was never keen to make it through those years. Noise, heat, fumes, the pain, and Hordaks never ending tasks are torture. Only Hordaks evil magic keeps him under control, otherwise he would drive right into the deepest ocean and never come back.

No surprise that Mekaneck is his natural enemy. The look out, Eternias eyes on the ground caused too many problems already. And it’s personal as well. How on earth could a reasonable human decide to modify his body, to turn himself into a machine? The remaining human in Dragstor hates Mekaneck for knowingly using technology in his healthy body. How can the long necked spy with 28 points, and only 6 points for speed, handle a ring fight with a powerful enemy? He’s not a fighter, but he knows his weapons, and is one of the smarter guys around.

Dragstor is already blowing steam and fire, so let’s do this.

The member of the evil horde is in rage, vibrating, loud, dirty, spitting black oil. He’s running towards Mekaneck, not wasting a moment to judge the situation. Mekaneck is almost to late, but still manages to make that important step to the side to get out of Dragstors way. He turns around, and runs again. Mekaneck can only jump to the side. With a loud knock the humanoid falls onto his chest, turning himself into that feared one-wheeler. He starts to drive in big circles around in the ring, with the hero in the center of the black cloud of fumes and anger. Is he trying to impress his opponent, or is he blowing off steam, because he could get a grip on him?
Then the long neck comes into action. First you would think Mekaneck is reaching for air, or for a better view on the situation. But that’s not it. He looks down, and then falls. Like a giraffe, or a tree, the huge spy goes to the floor without any obvious reason. The neck falls right into Dragstors lane, and from one second to another, he takes off like a rocket, crushing into the invisible wall of that titfortat ring, where so many fights already took place. Turns out Mekaneck is well aware how much his neck can take. The smart guy turned his neck into a weapon. The raging motor monster is destroyed by his shear anger and speed.