It's almost over. MOTUC ends with two figures this year, leaving the license in the hands of Super7. No more subscriptions, the new figures will be individually pre-sold. That said, I dunno how many I will buy, if any. So, these last two reviews, ending the old year and beginning the new, may be it for a while for MOTU. First up is the oversized qurterly figure, tuskador! One of the Galactic Protectors from the New Adventures series, this guy has had a surprising amount of support - and here he is! Let's look at his bio.
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Tuskador has no bio, because Mattel gave up in 2016. Just like your dreams.
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Yeah, there you go. We won't mention how this figure got delayed, too. MattyCollector has been just running out the clock lately. But anyway, Tusky is a good guy, and has an apparent elephant fetish or something. There you go.
PACKAGING: ****
Yes, it's the same old song - well, sort of. Tuskador's card is HUGE, to accomodate his size.
SCULPT: ****
Tuskador is a big, beefy dude, and his sculpt uses Ram-Man parts quite appropriately.This is his own figure, though, as he's layered in, um... "But Mom said I looked cool!" superhero armor. Seriously, dude. A lot of MOTU characters look goofy, but Tuskador is hard not to laugh at. That said, he does look great, just... um... yeah. He's a gigantic guy with elephant tusks jutting from his chest.
But anyway, he is rather imbalanced, weight-wise. It's unavoidable, but thankfully Tuskador has thick, heav legs and feet to keep him standing - and he's actually balanced in such a way that he's not totally about to topple.
Well, admittedly, Tuskador's medieval tunic totally doesn't fit, but that's a holdover from Ram-Man. ANd his face is extraordinarily craggy, but there is precedent for the "realistic" look in this line. Still, he's great, and looks fine standing on a shelf.
PAINT: ****
Tuskador's paint is great! And he's not walleyed the way a lot of figures have been, either - great armor detailing, great face, and nothing that really stands out as a problem.
ARTICULATION: **
At first glance, Tuskador's articulation looks great, doesn't it? It's typical MOTUC articulation, albeit lacking a torso hinge, and none of the joints are loose on mind. But you see, it's got the figure's biggest flaw.
So, Tuskador has the weirdest problem ever: His ankles are articulated differently! Some people have taken their figures apart to find out for sure, but Mattel, for some reason, intentionally blocked the hinge on one ankle. This makes it somewhat hard to get him to stand in anything but a pure neutral pose, which makes him easy to overbalance. So, basically, his articulation is inda wrecked and he has trouhle standing. Yaaay!
ACCESSORIES: ****
Tusks. TUSK! Ahem. Tuskador comes with two sets of tusks. He has his small ones, to imitate his appearance on the show (and honestly to give him something fairly practical). They pop in and out of the sockets easily.
He's also got hilariously long tusks! These things drag on the ground, weigh Tuskador down, and would be of limited use in a fight. Oh, poor Tuskadow, how silly you are - but it's just like the old figure!
Tuskador's big spaceman gun holsters on his hip, and actually fits a little better there than it does in his hand!
Tuskador's gigantic square helmet is removable, which is pretty much all that can be said about it.
VALUE: ***
I duno, you should be able to get him for muchc heaper than $40-$50 soon. We'll see if the bottom falls out the D-lister market.
THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR:
Bahahahaha, the ankles, THE ANKLES! Yeah, make sure he can actually stand. Otherwise, he's sturdy.
WHERE TO BUY:
Mattel may or may not have some on their site, but these figurs should be cropping up everywhere.
OVERALL: ***1/2
Well, Mattel definitely demonstrated their current laziness with this guy - his ankles don't even work right! But then, the scupting is justas good as what we should expect from the Horsemen,
Okay, so they messed up royally on the ankles. But aside from that, this really is a fantastic figure - he's gigantic, detailed, sturdy, and certainly unique. MOTUC's final year has been kind of iffy as a whole, but at least this figure looks great!
Well, since this is one of the last MOTUC figures, what is there to say? The line had its high and lows, us and downs, but was oerall one of the most incredible toy lines made - well over a hundred figures, (generally) high quality across the board, impressive re-use of pieces as well as new tooling, and an insanely fantastic selection of characters. It was a gun ride while it lasted, and I think the new continuation under Super7 will be even better!
