MOTU Classics.Com:
Fisto Review (17 Pics)

For me, February was a “finally!” month for Masters of the Universe Classics. And while there’s finally a figure of Shadow Weaver, finally a Fearless Photog figure, and Sorceress finally got her due in the Classics line, my personal “finally!” is for none other than the Heroic Hand-to-Hand fighter himself, Fisto!

I have to laugh at the thought of Fisto as a Hand-to-Hand fighter. The name implies some sort of an even match or a fair fight, but getting into a fistfight with a guy named Fisto is already questionable. And that’s before you see the big hunk of metal at the end of his right arm. It’s like pitting Rio Blast against Blade and calling him the Heroic Gun-to-Knife fighter. It’s just not fair. (And, with that, the Blade fans will write in assuring me of Rio’s imminent defeat…).

When I was a wee tot, Fisto was one of my more cherished vintage figures, sometimes replacing He-Man as the main hero. I’m not sure what originally made me like Fisto so much as a kid. Looking back, he was kinda the rugged hero, an outsider even in the group of heroes, but I don’t know if he had that. It might’ve just been the cool beard. Anyway, I enjoyed him enough that he was one of the few vintage Masters that simply had to be replaced after the flood wiped out my nine-year-old self’s burgeoning “collection”.

As I got older and was able to better appreciate MOTU (i.e. paying more attention to what actually happened in the cartoon), Fisto earned a new level of respect from me too. I had forgotten or never knew that Fisto had originally been a villain and only reformed after his first encounter with He-Man. Now, the episode itself is not particularly deep, but I so love the idea of reformed villains that it only made Fisto that much cooler.

Fisto as an outsider was a theme that continued into MO2K. I’m still not sold on that gigantic bare fist, but MO2K portrayed Fisto as an alleged deserter that had to again earn his way into the Masters fold. Some new elements were added: he was Man-At-Arms’ brother, and possibly Teela’s father, but at his core he was the same rough-and-tumble outsider that I’d come to appreciate some twenty years before.

When he was finally announced in Classics, I couldn’t have been more excited. I still have a short list of “characters-I-can’t-believe-aren’t-made-yet-why-won’t-they-make-them-aaaaargh!”, but Fisto is a big name crossed off my list.

As an avid supporter of MO2K elements in Classics, I have to point out this figure is a crowning achievement in that cause. While getting vintage characters that had unique MO2K looks is still an uphill battle, Fisto comes with the vast majority of his MO2K gear as options for an alternate build. I’ll detail them more specifically in the next sections, but Fisto includes what’s ostensibly a MO2K head (thanks to his gear, not his face), a MO2K belt, and his giant friggin’ MO2K sword – an accessory we were denied with the MO2K version no less. Regardless of what else I have to say good or bad about Fisto, there’s definitely an element of “more like this, please” with this figure.

As I’ll detail in later sections, Fisto has a nice complement of accessories. That’s largely due to the fact that the basic figure needed next to no work. The vintage Fisto look is achieved through new armor, his fist, a new head, and a new right bicep for good measure. The bicep is a funny touch, but the downside here is that it ended up being cast in a dark color (brown, I believe) and had to be painted. It’s not too bad, but the painted bicep between the molded shoulder and forearm is definitely noticeable.

The crowning achievement here is the head sculpt though. It’s simply fantastic in both versions and the pictures do all the talking. Easily one of my favorite sculpts in the line. I’ve got my Fisto mostly decked out in his MO2K gear, but I love the vintage head a bit more, so he’s sporting that head on my shelves long term.

Both Fisto’s armor and fist are upgrades to the classic look (though the armor now supports a slot for the MO2K sword) and I enjoy both, particularly the little added level of detail around the collar. With all the MO2K going on, I do lament the lack of a MO2K Fist somewhat. I can’t complain because this figure came with a lot already, but it would’ve been cool to get a “classicized” version of the “Battle Fist” here. I should note that the vintage fist is not necessarily intended to be removable, but mine pops on and off easily. It does contort a bit as it comes on and off, so I might be doing some incremental damage to the silver paint (the piece is molded brown) over time, but it’s been fine through all the popping on and off I did for this review.

Okay, so the fist has one big flaw by my count. I’ve gotta get this out of the way because you’ve seen me harp on Mattel about it for months. I love this figure – it’s awesome, but I absolutely, unequivocally, hate that the fist wasn’t designed to come off and work with Roboto & Trap Jaw. I know there’s some of you out there that feel it’s trivial and it probably is, but after inquiring about it almost immediately after Roboto’s parts were made Trap Jaw compatible (i.e. awhile ago) and getting positive feedback from Mattel about it multiple times, I thought this was a lock. My disappointment is further complicated by the more recent and inane Q&A answers which read as if the positive buzz before hand never happened and the compatibility was never intended in the first place. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it was going to be a bit of a bummer… until I got the figure in-hand. Continue to Page 2

44 thoughts on “MOTU Classics.Com:
Fisto Review (17 Pics)

    1. Ugh! I already had to fix that one once (I misspelled surprisingly) this review took way too long… 😀

      Thanks for the catch!

  1. Thanks for the extra helping of killer pics. Man, even his hair is finely detailed. I have a sudden craving for chocolate Zingers for some strange reason. (His hair reminds me of Zinger icing.) Fisto’s awesomeness only improves with age, due in no small part to that terrific belt and big ass sword. Well worth the wait, I’d say.

  2. Awesome review! I remember the “there could be 2 Fistos” comment in Whiplash’s review…and guess what? We did get 2 Fistos..the original and the 200x versions 🙂

    1. LOL! I had totally forgotten that picture. I could’ve looked real smart had I paired them off in a fighting pic instead of Clawful!

  3. i said it in the forums here, but i’ll say it again in the comments… best figure in the line to date. all the “necessary” add-ins, vintage details and mo2k elements both classicized, and the best head/face sculpt in the line due to it being a one piece design. this is absolutely how the line should be done, and had it been from day one, i likely wouldn’t have half the complaints that i do.

    that said, i will add that i think the fist has some serious QC issue. reading ’round the interwebs and it seems that the removability of the fist is largely case by case, and we can even see it between you and i’s fistos… i pulled, hard, and mine’s tight as a nun’s honeypot. i suppose i could really torque that sucker and get it off, but i certainly risk damaging the limb doing so. so while yours seems removable, mine definitely does not. not to nay say or incite panic, but i wonder if the removable fists are the flaw, or the permafist is?

    BTW, going out on a limb, but i bet the book is filled w/ poetry he wrote the sorceress while they were living in sin. and maybe a sketch or two of her sans feathers, if you get what i mean.

      1. It’s the gynocentric imagery embossed on the cover. Seriously.

        I mean, it COULD be his Daytimer(tm)…

        “3:00. Meet Clawful. Hit with fist. 4:00. meet Spydor. Hit with fist. 8:00. Meet Sorceress. Hit that.”

  4. Man, the comedy just goes on and on. The fist isn’t supposed to be removable yet it is, or might be, depending. It’s not supposed to be removable yet they spent the extra time and money to paint the bracelet. I mean, I have to assume the factory didn’t throw a paint app in there for free, right?

    I really don’t know why they had to be such dicks about this whole thing. “all that discussion about a removable fist didn’t happen. You can’t prove it.”

    “That’s SO Matty!!”

    but I’m glad that overall this was a ‘out of the ballpark’ figure instead of “Oh, well, it exists’.

    And I want to know what in the bottle! Emergency booze? Muscle rub for his massive right bicep?

    1. i predict some man at arms home brew, the stout stuff, for times when a soldier needs to steel his nerves.

    2. The guy’s right hand is a giant metal fist. If that’s his jerkin’ hand, I guarantee you it’s Man-At-Hands super lube.

      1. Oh, now, I was trying to not go there, because, y’know, Fisto, it’s the obvious joke… 🙂

        One thing I’ve never been sure of. The Giant Fist. Is it ONLY a fist or can he use it like an (ab)normal hand?

    3. My annoyance for their handling of this particular fan request is tempered by that is still works “accidentally”.

      This actually makes me want to get a 2nd Fisto to frankenstein into that Malcom version and have it all the time, then convert the extra fisto to a real roboto attachment by gluing one of my extra claw hands in there.

  5. I love this character, I love this figure (now that he finally arrived in the mail). I really wish mattel didn’t give him that smooth silver stomach. I would prefer to have the option of displaying my Fisto without his armor (just like my figure looked as a kid after the plastic pegs broke and it wouldn’t stay on). I know that they are trying to preserve that ab crunch, but the plastic is plenty soft enough that the cut-out for his lower back is unnecessary and ugly. Demo-man’s shirt covers him pretty well all the way around, but I don’t feel like I can’t use his ab crunch, because there is some give there.

    However, if they just had to use that silver stomach, then paint his torso silver so it doesn’t look funky from the back. They were able to do that with battle armor He-man, they could have done this with Fisto. I know I’m nitpicking a great figure, but for some reason not being able to display him without armor is really annoying to me.

    1. Yeah if you want to take off the armor, he just looks funky. When I was poping the parts around to see how he’d look with the long loincloth, I put the Grayskull harness on the naked Fisto chest and the lower straps cover the ab seam to make for a weird looking shirt/tunic. I probably should just grab a pic of that…

      1. Yeah, I used Grayskull to make a better 200x version. That longer loin cloth works a lot better with that belt. Nevertheless, I’m going to display him mostly in his classic style. If I was better at doing mods I would sacrifice one of my extra He-men to give him a new torso like I want him to have.

          1. Hm. You know, with just a little deco on it that can sort of look like a back support or ‘kidney’ belt, don’t you think?

            or sheer vanity. “My abs are so rock hard and ripped I have to KEEP THEM IMPRISONED IN STEEL to protect others from their awesome power!!!”

            Hey, that could be an Old Spice ad! 🙂

  6. It seems I have one Fisto that easily pops off his hand while the other takes some pulling. At least there is no peg to break, as the fist was designed to be held on by the front edge of the wrist guard.

    I think my only complaints concern the second belt. It bunches up the chest armor, making him look fat, and he can presumably reach that bottle with his left hand fairly easily, but if the fist is solid, there is no way he can reach that book without removing the belt.

    Also, you missed a great opportunity for a Game of Thrones joke with Fisto as King Robert. Then again, you also left out the obvious double entendre of his name. so…call it even?

    1. Yeah, Vault also got one that won’t come off. I kinda want to see one of those to see if it’s glued or if the silver paint didn’t dry before it was placed on. As long as the fist isn’t mangled when it’s pulled off, they should all come off with damaging the figure…

  7. Excellent review and hilarious pics as always, my favourite being “Damn robots taking our jobs!”

    Not having the long loincloth, the attachment mechanism for the giant fist, the odd moulding and colouring of parts . . . all valid points to bring up, but the one thing that gets me most about this figure (which hasn’t arrived at my house yet) is: why that vambrace on his left arm? They’ve got the mould for the “correct” piece of forearm-wear, so why use the wrong one? Weird.

    His bottle contains mead. Everyone likes mead. The book is his Hello Battle Kitty sticker book disguised to look like a necromonicon so nobody opens it and discovers his secret love of small cute fluffy Garanimé animals.

      1. Fine, but I’ve got the intellectual bagsies on the idea. Also “My Little Stridor.”

    1. Thanks, Beedo!

      I didn’t think much about his left arm until I used Grayskull to assemble a long loincloth figure and he ended up with the correct left forearm. I’m not sure why they did that. They may be trying to keep that a “He-Man” piece because they almost never give it to anyone anymore. (Who besides M-A-A has it?)

      1. Well, both from memory of my own collection and looking at Mattel’s page, I know Faker also has that particular vambrace (which, if it’s meant to be a He-Man piece, makes sense), but so does Marzo. I don’t have a Wun-Dar at my home (a pal in Maryland is holding onto one for me), but the Mattel site carded photo looks like he has one. And it’s been a long time since I looked under their armour plating, but don’t the Eternian Guards have it as well?

        I know a lot of the Vintage MOTU figures had that vambrace (and whole arm) for cheap ‘n’ cheerful recycling purposes. But they actually sculpted a whole new left arm for Fisto with that exact same piece of armour on it. So why they didn’t use it in their even handier mix ‘n’ match parts scheme is beyond my capacity to comprehend.

        Everyone say it together, now: LOGISTICS!

  8. Know what we REALLY need? A Fisto role-play toy. That’s right, a giant silver foam fist. Maybe with a motion sensor sound chip so it goes “SPLARK” and “BOONT” and “KALNGGG”.

    That’s what we really need.

    🙂

    1. I hear they’ve re-released the “Hulk Hands” as “Gamma Fists” for the Avengers movie.
      Grab some decent silver paint and go to town!

      1. nah, the new hulk hands are puny. the real hulk would want to smash them, but not in the good way. compared to the original set of hulk hands, these like they were designed for your kid sister.

        1. Saw them at Toys R Us (and I continue my crazed journey slowly buying Lego blindpack figure vol. 6) and wow, talk about underwhelming. Puny Hulk!

          Also saw some of the Avengers branded 4 inch figures. There’s some fun looking stuff there, but I can’t wrap my head around a Captain America exo-suit. 🙂

          ($15.99 for Comic Book Cap with parachute? the hell?)

    1. Well, what else is he known for? The guy you can always beat playing ‘rock paper scissors’?

      His name is Fisto. He has a really big fist. This is a family friendly site (mostly), they’re not going to show the other thing, right? 🙂

      Could have been worse. Could have named him Fist-Man.

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