Buzz Off

Titfortat 15: Buzz off vs Webstor

Titfortat

The fifteenth titfortat is on! On one side we have a buzzing, bright yellow insectoid. Buzz Off is fast, strong, skilled, 2.2m tall, and got 30 points in the hefarts table of skills. He lost some ranks for his limited mental flexibility, 6 points for intelligence.

The really real spiderman Webstor is much smaller, only 1.7m, and got only 5 points for combat power. That could look like an easy titfortat, but the blue arachnid has an awful speed, and scores a total of 28 points.

Lets start!

Webstor’s crouching in one corner of the ring, motionless. What is this? Is it an ambush? Is he OK?

Buzz Off is obviously confused, not sure what to do with an evil that doesn’t do evil. But this is titfortat, there can only be one winner. So he moves towards the tiny blue thing in the corner, and as he comes closer, Webstor kicks off, rolling himself into the opposite corner, without involving in any kind of interaction with the Wasp man.

Shortly after, he rolls into the next corner, and the hero realizes this must be a tactic. So Buzz Off takes off the ground, and bolts towards the arachnidal evil. He misses him by a little, and Webstor rolls to the fourth corner. As soon as that’s done, he’s unfolding, running to the center of the ring, where he lifts what is now visible as strings, and holds the construction high up. Buzz Off failed to stop Webstor from knitting a web! Now we have a spider in a web, and a flying insect man! Insect vs. spider, what a classic titfortat. Both are ever long residents of Eternia, and too many wars have been fought between Buzz Off’s people, and Webstor’s ancestors. This titfortat is politics, the winning clade will be in power over the enemy. But does it mean peace, or just another war? Buzz Off is a large, fast fighter, but Webstor is even faster, less experienced in fighting. He’s the master of trapping.

And trapping he did. His web isn’t a tacky invisible masterpiece, it’s an improvised life saver. Unbelievable how he anticipated Buzz Off would take off to screen the weird situation. And now the yellow hero is stuck up there. If he lands, Webstor can easily wrap him in a rope, maybe just for a moment, but long enough to hurt him, maybe bite him. So what to do from up there? Buzz Off can’t hide, can’t land, and doesn’t want to give the evil monster more time to prepare. So he bluntly attacks. Legs first he charges at Webstor, who’s fast enough to step aside, and swing one rope around the heros neck. Wildly buzzing, he flies higher, and while the rope cuts off his air supply, he also lifts up Webstor. Skeletors henchman climbs onto Buzz Off, biting his legs and arms. Blood drips down on the ring, and while it looks like a hero is loosing already, insectoid claws cut the ropes, giving instant relief to our hero, while the fighting opponents shoot up to the imaginary ceiling. And then it becomes a silent act. One brown claw got a grip on Webstor’s neck, the busy wings go quiet, and the blue and yellow knot drops down. An experienced fighter knows how to land, the spiders can’t stop what coming. Webstor is buried under Buzz Off, who landed softly on the crushed warrior. Win for Buzz Off!

Buzz Off vs. Webstor

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: Whiplash

Toy review

Writing about Whiplash got me thinking about the color schemes of MOTU toys.

Wiphlash is a fully green figure with a special feature: his huge green crocodile tail. Also is he one of the most famous villains. And green is a commonly used color amongst MOTU figures: Man at arms, Kobra Khan, Mossman, Leech, Triclops, King Hiss. Squeeze and Snake Face also have a lot of green.

Color schemes can be explained using the color wheel. This displays the colors of a rainbow. Starting from yellow, the colors are orange, red, purple, blue, green, and back to yellow. Green, blue, and purple are considered cool colors, whereas the others are warm. Looking at green and orange, we have one cool and one warm color, that means it is balanced out. This happens with most figures, think of Syclone, Roboto, or Faker! Snake Face does only show cool colors: green and purple, with grey and black. All green figures, except for Snake Face, got the orange color. This results in a low contrast, or signaling effect. Maybe that’s why I have my problems with Snake Face, who only has some purple, but no orange. Purple is not the exact opposite of green in the color wheel. Yellow would be, so the green- purple combo is a bit off. That feels unpleasant. Look at Panthor vs. Battlecat. While Panthor is mystical or scary, Battlecat has matching opposites: red and green. Some orange is right between those colors and makes it even more pleasant. I will focus more on the colors in the next reviews!

Whiplash got it on his spear and belt in orange. The quality is amazing. In opposite to Man at Arms, the squeezable head keeps his color for ever. Even the rubber tail is stable and flexible over decades. He stands perfectly solid, with the tail as 3rd stand. His chest is crocodile like, it is not the standard body. The arms are not as muscular as others. Believe it or not, just as I am writing this, I realize that Whiplash and Clawful have the exact same legs. The color is so different, that I never saw the same shape! Did you? Ok, yes Buzz Off has it too. Reusing body parts was a thing, I did not really notice that when I played with them.

The UV light I used for the photography highlighted the arms and legs, plus his pants. The tail is invisible in the picture.

Whiplash

Crossover: Tubby Masters 1

Crossovers

The first crossover I made was Tubby Masters. That’s Teletubbies and MOTU! They have in common that characters have easily recognizable features like the color or the antenna. Maybe there is some hidden critic about the plain MOTU cartoon?! It’s fun to see the muscular warriors in that clumsy shape.

Until now I always draw with pencil first. For this piece I did not use a black felt pen to finalize the lines, but I just used the colors right from the start. The blending of both attributes went well, look at the eh what is it, head antennas? Though Spikor’s and Whiplashes’ faces didn’t turn out great, I think there is enough details to recognize them. They went so well, look how much fun they have!

Whiplash is the scary one, but his tiny tail can only brake hearts, not bones!

Clawful in his own world, he is a dancing shrimp! Also a bit grumpy, but that`s an evil warrior!

Buzz Off learning to fly, or just enjoying his wings. Smile!

Grumpy spikor! And he is so shy, hiding his trident.

Tubby masters 1