Girls just wanna have fun...
Today on Life in Plastic, we're reviewing Cyndi Lauper. Wait, no, it's Crita. From The New Adventures of He-Man.
Crita, the sole female villain of the NA series, was not an Evil-Lyn ripoff. She was part of Flogg's mutant crew, and both valuable and vicious in her own way. She and Skeletor kind of had a thing, which led to her ditching Flogg in the final episode to fight He-Man and Crita alongside Skeletor in a final duel (spoilers: good won, evil lost, bad guys weren't killed). She also looks like an '80s rocker, which fits the time the series was made. A figure of Crita was planned way back when, but never went into production - similar to Darius, except this character is actually important. And she's finally here!
So, with this long-demanded figure, fans are finally getting a character they have wanted for over twenty-five years! How does she hold up?
PACKAGING: ****
Count the times we'll see this packaging - unless the deal with Super7 is a huge success, it may go away soon.
SCULPT: ****
Crita is an "Animated" style character, since she never had a figure, and thus the toy matched her on-screen appearance. It's just as extremely accurate as the figures we are used to getting, and even her Lauperesque appearance translated well in figure form. Her earrings are missing, having been sculpted into the hair rather than her head (they are subtle enough that, without gold paint, you will miss them entirely), but considering the mane on her head, that makes sense. Crita is pretty much sculpted exactly how she should be.
Some have complained that Crita doesn't look mean enough, but most figures in this line have a neutral expression. Her face is honestly just fine. Her shawl, however, while being screen-accurate, limits her articulation in horrible ways.
PAINT: ***
Crita's color scheme matches her look from the cartoon - more pink than on Princess of Power, though never overwhelming. Blue and gold set off the highlights on her dress, skin, or red hair, and her facial paint is just fine. She looks the way she should, and mixes with both "animated" and "non-animated" MOTU figures.
However, mine has no earring paint (some do, some don't), and a major slop of gold on her skirt. If it were just me, thos would be fine, but this is a recurring complaint. Crita's paint is great until it completely falls apart.
ARTICULATION: **
Crita has normal female MOTUC articulation, which... wait, no. She technically has normal MOTUC articulation. What she has actually sucks.
Okay, see, it's fine that her hair gets in the ay of her head movement a little, they all do. But it's her arms. Crita's shawl restricts her arm movement more than any other figure I have seen in this line. In order for her to extend an arm, the other one needs to be tucked behind her back, and she cannot hold them both out. You can get them above her head if you work carefully, but this really is terrible. She can barely hold her gun properly. and action poses with the whip are a no go.
Aside from the arms fiasco, her feet seem naturally pigeon-toed, which might make standing more challenging. Still, those arms!
ACCESSORIES: ***
Crita comes with a jewelled scepter, placed in her hand in package - hich means that most of its paint stripped off when I first removed it from her grip. But it is a nice scepter, though.
Crita's whip is made of stiffer plastic than some other whips in the line, though it also has a nice gem on the tip, same as her scepter.
Crita has a huge (episode-specific) gun, which she can just barely hold (and the strap just barely fits). It's also unpainted.
VALUE: **
That price tag stings when a figure has these many flaws.
THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR:
Lots of Critas have paint issues, so be warned!
WHERE TO BUY:
Mattel will likely sell all leftover stock again soon.
OVERALL: ***
From a distance, Crita looks great, She is accurate to the cartoon, well-sculpted, and colored accurately. It's just tht when you come up close, you begin to notice the paint errors, the terrible articulation, and the way her weapons just seem to lack. It's a shame, but not a complete dealbreaker.
And that's the thing. She's not as horribly broken as, say, Rio Blast, but Crita definitely is kind of a sad figure to have at the coda of this line. She's so close to greatness, but then something like her arms just push her back down. I can't say it's a bad figure, just that it could have been better.
