Author: hefarts

Toy review: Triclops

Toy review

 

Triclops is maybe the least evil looking villain in Eternia. In fact I would sometimes call him three-eyed Heman. The entire body is just a slightly different colored Heman, he’s more tanned, but a bit grayish. Many figures use this full-muscle-with-straight-fingers shape: Man at arms, King Randor, Mekaneck, Prince Adam and Faker. Triclops’ color variation is just darker boots and pants compared to Heman. The straight fingers were always an indication for the side the MOTU character was fighting for. Evil warriors with straight fingers are rare: I can only think of Faker. Things weren’t 100% thought-through in the 80s I guess, so I wouldn’t interpret too much into that hand.

Triclops’ head makes the difference, and a well-done difference it is. A rotating ring instead of eyes is a proper science fiction feature. They managed to make it look kind of natural, without the cheap 80s robot design. The fact that Triclops’ color is a natural looking green avoids any confusion with an Android. 80s MOTU toys had a much higher level of quality than other action figures, and Triclops is a good example. His face is rich in details, even though the eye-ring covers most of it. His three eyes are not only printed on, or even stickers. They are embroidered, and colored. The color lasts until today, and the whole ring rotates without any problems. Well done guys! 

Triclops’ harnish looks very tribal, as if he’s from a group of people from a savanna or rainforest. It is made from elastic, durable plastic that lasts till now.

I can’t remember any original story being told about his background. His box said that one eye is for day, one for night, and one to look around corners. And all three are to spy for Skeletor. Mattel really left us room for fantasy. On the other hand they produced such great material for stories, and just left it blank. Find my version in the titfortat tournament! 

Triclops’ sword is very different from Hemans. It is green, very narrow, and soft. It bent easily, and looked a bit funny when it pointed to the side. There is a holder on his back, which worked well. He hasn’t had any other weapon, but he had a glowing-in-the-dark ring. The ring was big enough to fit his arm, or a child’s finger. It had a secret compartment, and a black scull printed on it. A skull with three horns, that doesn’t resemble any other symbol of MOTU. So almost 40 years later I found a video on YouTube, explaining that so-called warrior ring. We haven’t had Trapjaw, otherwise we would have had two rings. The ring was meant to be for fan club members, but in the end was just for everyone who bought the right figure.

 

Titfortat 6: Jitsu vs. Whiplash – I like your hands!

Titfortat

Ever wondered why Jitsu has the massive, golden hand?

And why he is not a renowned martial artist as Ninjor is? Why he cannot sneak like Ninjor? Isn’t he reduced to his golden hand now? What happened? Here’s hefarts version.

Years ago, when Jitsu was an independent master of martial arts, and by the way Ninjors master as well, he was an adventurer. Travelling Eternia, seeing it’s wonders and meeting the people and creatures, was living his dream. An accident involving a giant crocodile-monster-man, ended not only his tour, but also his beloved martial arts, and the harmonic live he lived. He was curious, he loved nature, and he’d never seen a swamp before.

It was, one more time, Skeletor to so-called repair a broken man, and take his life in exchange for that.

Chance for Jitsu now to take revenge on Whiplash, the crocodile monster that bite off his hand!

Human fighter, 1.8m, 100kg, 31 points, meets 28 points for 300kg crocodile-human, 2.6m high.

Ding ding ding: Whiplash stays still, waiting for the right moment to attack. All eyes on Jitsu’s golden hand, that destroyedso many lives before. He lost quiete some agility due that heavy hand, but he has unbelievable strength in his arms.

How to attack such a huge monster, able to strike deadly within tens of a second? Look at that! Whiplash is mean! Starring at Jitsu’s other hand starts the action here. Freaking out is the right term here! The crocodile is provoking Jitsu, his eyes say “Let me eat your other hand!”

Swinging his golden hand like an axe, Jitsu lands some solid punches on the monster. But it shows no reaction! Seems to not even feel a thing! Then the counter: An incredible fast whip with his massive tail towards Jitsu, who manages to jump high enough to elude. He is able to get another punch landed on Whiplash’s back, and that has in impact! Now the green beast is in rage, snapping after him, following him… and eventually getting tired! Jitsu must have hit the right spot to get Whiplash in the offense. That was his luck, the green evil did not seem to be bothered by the golden hand.

The rest of the story is that of a master of martial arts using his experience to win this fight against a giant, tired Whiplash. Revenge done.

Toy review: Horde trooper

Toy review

The horde trooper is a very controversial character to me. I’m a huge fan of the evil horde, and I have many good memories of the 80s cartoons. But, the horde trooper is none of the real MOTU characters. It’s a soldier from mass production, more or less a walking bucket with no strength except for the shear number Hordak produced them. As a toy, it didn’t make sense, if you haven’t had dozens of them.

So all my childhood this figure was a gap filler unfortunately. And it’s quality didn’t help.

My problem was, or his problem was the instable flap. The Hordak-embodied button was cool, but the mechanism was not stable, so that the lid would open uncontrolled. You lift an arm, an the flap drops. Turn the head, drop.

Apart from that issue this figure is a cool looking toy. It has a fierce face, and a nice combination of pale grey, red and black. Other grey figures are few, Hordak and Stratos basically.

In terms of aging the Horde trooper is pretty good. Mine shows some yellowing on the legs, and the button made of soft rubber looks a bit worn off, but otherwise the material is pretty stable.

Crossover: Warfield

Crossovers

The grumpy, selfish, but also kind of self-confident 80s cartoon-cat Garfield had a very different relationship to his hooman John compared to Cringer and Prince Adam. While John was a truly innocent guy, who was more or less abused by Garfield, Adam with his two identities had full control over Cringer. I would say both John and Cringer were poor creatures under the control of a strong character.

As well as the crossover of roles worked in this sketch, the crossover of both cartoons has worked out well too. I managed to draw a warm back-light, suggesting a cozy TV evening. Both Warfield and Adam seem very happy and peaceful. Adams boots were replaced by slippers, and the pink sword is unnecessary. I guess they might transform to He-man and Battle cat to go for more-action activities?

Titfortat 5: Tung Lashor vs. Modulok – Greetings from the King?!

Titfortat

Hefart’s titfortat goes into the next round! MOTU Snakeman vs. Horde, we thought that is just history. But now this battle?! Hordak couldn’t be banned for long obviously. He definitely pulls some strings.

But this fight very much looks like the snake King himself wants to send a message. Of course to Hordak. The old enemy. 

No way that Tung Lashor, the anaconda, the muscle man of the snake warriors, would seek the battle with Hordaks mysterious red thing. The two headed, or two one-headed, six, five, four or less legged set of living pieces. 

30 points, 2.5m high and 190kg of pure strength vs. 31 points for the living meat bits. What can possibly go wrong? 

Fight! Tung lashor is a squeezer, even his poisonous tung is made to squeeze. 

But how Modulok is gonna fight is so hard to say. Usually you only see him shooting from a hideout. Is he a fighter at all?

The snake immediately runs towards Modulok, grabs him and pouw! the red devil seems to explode! Is that it?

For sure not. His parts, all over the area, start crawling towards the irritated Snakeman. Arms grab, mouths bite and the power snake doesn’t know how to squeeze. Tiny opponents are not his’. He starts stepping on the parts, but this is not how he is used to fight. His legs are now covered, he tumbles! Falls! But then he uses his tung, green, and poisonous. A few seconds of contact and the pieces turn dark and seem to die. He throws, licks, smashes, until finally nothing moves. Modulok is beaten.

What a miserable fight. What a mess. #tunglashor #modulok #snakemen #evilhorde #motutitfortat 

Hefarts titfortat

The creation of Prince Adam

Crossovers

Michelangelo’s master piece, part of the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling, painted c. 1508–1512, remastered, showing the creation of Prince Adam, not as a biological act, but as a logical act, the King nominating his successor. King Randor demonstrates a fierce face expression, the crown perfectly in place, his cape broad-shattered. It is subject to the viewer to decide whether the king’s arms appear weaker than we are used from the toyline, or is this a plumb try of the painter to bring some perspective into the painting? His right hand, ugly deformated, with tiny pinky and ring finger.

Supported is the king in this DIN A4 sized coloration by no one less than the Scorceress, who seems to take a central role in this act. While the original only fringes the creator, we here find much more prominent support for the Creator. Stratos, another hero with the ability to fly, appears to be abnormal large, accessing the scene from a point behind the king, if the artist considered perspective, than even larger compared to the king. Where lies the importance of this usually low significant character? Does he carry the King? His strained face could implement this thought. But over his right shoulder, we can see a bit of Buzz-off’s wing, and looking further down we can see another wing a parts of his torso. The bee man obviously has a task to do behind the king. It must be holding him, since the king is the only character on the creators side, that cannot fly. Perhaps Stratos’ and Buzz-off are in a fight of whom is the one to carry the king.

In the King’s left, maybe only 4 fingered hand, we find the, as loyal as clumsy, Orko. Half of it we see, making clear that he is of no significance here. His role is to not mess it up, from his position, unable to carry the creator, but we are left alone with the imagination that Orko’s left hand holds the hand of another hero. Could it be Extendar reaching over from a close by pinnacle?? We don’t know.

On the other side is Adam, resting, and maybe disturbed from frolicking, cleary unimpressed by the posse that showed up. Remaining in frolicking pose still, resting the holy arm on his knee, and none of his weapons around. His face speaks to us, and it hits us like a tree, he does not glance at his creator in the act of assigning him to the task of his life. Not sure if he doesn’t care, but the painter wanted us to see that Adam resignates. Wrinkels of his mouth pointing down, we must acknowledge that Adam here accepts, without any enthusiasm.

The attentive spectator will see that not Cringer is with Adam, and Orko is not even close. But Stonedar, usually nothing but a hop-in character, is closest to Adam. Even joining him on his pinnacle. But in what position, almost kissing his foot, face away from the posse around King Randor, is he hiding? Or did he sneak up the hill to convince Adam to accept? Or is Stonedar`s proximity to Adam a menace, a proof that no one can escape the assigned role as Master of the Universe? We don’t know.

Creation of Prince Adam

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. 

Toy review: Roboto

Toy review

Roboto is a very special MOTU toy to me, because I’m pretty sure it was my first! I think the reason why it was him is, that he looks cruelty-free, or maybe well-behaved. As a parent, I might also have preferred a Roboto or Horde Trooper over a Beastman or Snakeface.

Roboto is the only MOTU figure with a transparent torso, only Mosquitor has a transparent window in his torso. It looks fantastic, and the material is surprisingly robust. I can’t remember a photo of a broken, or yellowed Roboto. The only issue is the silver color on the boots, which seems to wear off often. You’ll see red plastic shining through.

Roboto’s colors are not as special as I thought first. His arms are blue, and the left hand is red. It is a bit confusing that is hand is formed like a claw, like the evil figures have it. Without doubt Roboto was always on the good side, so I wonder why the chose this kind of hand. The legs are red, with silverish boots. And for some reason the legs are shorter than usual. I could imagine this is to stabilize him better, perhaps the torso is heavier than usual? His “pants” (what is that on a robot?) are violet and a bit higher than usual, most likely because it carries some of the mechanical parts to get the gears in his torso going. The higher waist could also be the reason for shorter legs, so they could match the standard total-size. He’s got one red gear and two smaller, blue gears in his chest, which turn as you turn the waist. That’s a cool feature and makes him look alive somehow. His “jaw” will also move up and down while you turn the body, and that is maybe not so much supporting the impression of a real robot. It makes him look more like a 80s toy robot who can rather not fight, but only make noise and move.

The head is of the same silver color as the boots, and the jaw is red. Overall the silver color makes sure that we know he’s a robot made from steel. First I thought that this would be a quite unique color, which other robots like Horde Trooper and Blast Attak do not have. Wrong! A bit of silver is found on many figures: King Hiss, Fisto, Ram Man, Mekaneck, Two Bad, Rio Blast, Rokkon, Dragstor, Battle Armor He-Man, King Randor, and Snoutspout. Pew what a list. Even shinier metallic gloss is found on Jitsu’s hand, Blast Attak’s torso, Flying Fist He-Man, and Hurricane Hordak, There might be even more.

Back to Roboto. Solid red and blue are used in almost equal amount, maybe in favor to red. The red parts make him look nice and give the impression that he must be a good one. Thinking about it, he shares very much the colors of Mekaneck, except for the pants and face. Plain or neutral, I want to call it standard blue and red are also found on Mantenna, King Randor, Dragstor, Stratos, Webstor, Spikor, and Stonedar. It is not so common, and I must say I don’t like these colors too much. I helps to have it combined with orange or more violet. Trap Jaw has more a pinkish red and I find that much more appealing.

Roboto’s right hand carries a silver weapon, which can be exchanged: You got a double-barreled laser gun, which I like most, you got and axe, and pincers or grippers. The plug connection is surprisingly stable and takes exchanges very well. Except for the fading color on the boots, Roboto has a fantastic quality.

Last thing: Roboto came out in 1985. In 2013 a cartoon called Rick and Morty started, and in 2014 Gearhead was introduced. This is a humanoid with a transparent torso, showing his gears inside. They always remind me on my first MOTU toy.

Roboto in uV light
wearing the double-barreled gun