Sunday, December 5, 2010

Super Stylized Post

In a futile attempt to catch up with my MOTU Classics posts, I'll talk about two figures at once, if I do a couple of this, I may be able to catch up by the time we get the Snout Spout, probably, in 2016.

But I'll try not to cheat too much and both figures will have something in common. Let's start with Count Marzo:



Marzo is an original character created for the 200X TV series. He was a third sorcerer, a little less powerful than Skeletor, but with more power than Evil-Lyn. Plus, a weird accent from eastern Europe and an inclination for evil goatees (see here).

Marzo is a great figure, and, as a fan of the 200X toy line, I was more than happy to get him. Mattel said he was rushed in the production stage and that's the reason for the "Super Stylized" hair. There will be no more of this non-sense from now on, they said. Well, I, for one, like it a lot.



Some cool things, like his new hand created to hold the mystical gem that gives Marzo his powers, or the amazingly cool looking sword really seal the deal.

Next figure is even more controversial:



You thought I was going to talk about Chief Carnivus, didn't you? Well no, I'll write about him sooner or later, but the debacle of the 200X peaked with Whiplash, so I'll talk about him.

You see, Whiplash came with an extra head, a 200X inspired extra head.



After the release of the figure Mattel officially "retired" the 200X aesthetic for good. Why? I don't know, tooling costs? To screw with the fans? I really don't know anymore, feels like I don't know who you are anymore, Mattel!

Probably, somebody got pissed, 'cause some money on extra tooling was spent only to get a look that's not classic at all.



But I really don't care. If the Four Horsemen, the creative team behind the redesign of the character, changes it completely in the revamp, and gives you an extra head to avoid the classic one in the "Classic" line. Well, they are trying to tell you something. And I think is this: "The original head looks dumb! So very very very dumb! Oh God is it dumb!" (I may be paraphrasing there a bit).

This figure was never one of my favorites and I think it wasn't because of the stupid looking head the vintage toy had. But the new head was created for a more massive body and doesn't look entirely right in these buck either. At first I thought it was a different shade of green, then I realized that the head was just a tiny bit too big, and the proportions were off because of that.

I still think that 200X face looks cooler, so I'm sticking with that one.



The head swap was a real pleasure, the head popped out immediately and was replaced just as fast. But the tail was a different story, I had to make it fit the two holes in the back and, man, was it hard. Once I got them right I found myself staring at a great looking figure, just not the best in the MOTUC line.



Until next time.

2 comments:

Super-Duper ToyBox said...

oh, i like whiplash's tail!

fishmilkshake said...

Marzo just reminds me of Rob Zombie