{"id":13037,"date":"2011-06-24T15:42:46","date_gmt":"2011-06-24T20:42:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=13037"},"modified":"2011-07-21T12:59:49","modified_gmt":"2011-07-21T17:59:49","slug":"motuclassics-com-review-battleground-teela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=13037","title":{"rendered":"MOTUClassics.Com Review:
Battleground Teela"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> Last year, IAT held it’s 2010 Most Requested figure contest. Last year’s winner was none other than “Blonde Bikini” Teela. Released under the less hilarious, but more appropriate Battleground Teela moniker, she’s quickly moved from our wish lists to our shelves as June’s Quarterly MOTU figure.<\/p>\n

As we explained in our “Blonde Bikini” Teela<\/a> Most Requested entry, DC Comics published a Masters of the Universe comic in the early 80s, before the cartoon. It establishes a lot of plot elements that will later become canon, but there were some designs that stayed unique to the comic series. One of them was Teela wearing a decidedly more “He-Man” inspired outfit. Fans latched onto the idea of getting this version of Teela fairly quickly and Mattel followed suit releasing it in the third full-year of the line.<\/p>\n

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Since Bikini Teela was essentially a comic-inspired version, the first logical place to put her on your shelves might be with other comic-inspired figures from the MOTU 2pks available at TRU.<\/p>\n

While the folks at Mattel stayed faithful to her look, they decided to come up with a new back story for the character though. In her bio<\/a>, this figure represents Teela as she’s seen later in the mythos, possibly even during the time that She-Ra has followed Hordak back to Eternia & Clamp Champ has taken over for Duncan as Man-At-Arms.<\/p>\n

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When Mattel released Vikor, Toy Guru said that management had dictated he be a new character. And though they didn’t do the same for Teela, preferring her to be a variation on the original, many collectors, including Toy Guru<\/a>, seem to be finding a new spot for her on the shelf, possibly with Vikor.<\/p>\n

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Teela is the first quarterly variant that is truly on par with the regular figures. Since they’re now included in the subscription – which guarantees a higher number of sales – the quarterly figures don’t have to be as cheaply done as previous offerings (Zodak, Battle Armors, etc). Teela does reuse a couple of her original parts – below the knees and the arms. But everything else is new.<\/p>\n

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While I miss the artculation, I do love the sculpt. It looks like Teela walked off the DC Comics page. There are a few extra details to the figure, courtesy of the reused arms, but they blend in perfectly. I’m fairly certain she’s one of the better sculpted figures we’ve gotten all year and the line isn’t exactly lacking in the sculpting department.<\/p>\n

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Her head sculpt is interesting because it looks like it could be Teela, but it also doesn’t have to be. Looking at the drawn-in cheeks, I think the Four Horsemen successfully captured an older look for Teela, but the sculpt also seems generic enough that she won’t look like an out-of-place Teela on another shelf. I’m curious as to what the Four Horsemen might have had in mind when they were working on the sculpt.<\/p>\n

Since BG Teela’s head features a molded skin tone to regualr Teela’s painted version, a simple head swap will never quite work for the original head, but the blonde head looks great on the classic Teela body. Continue to Articulation, Paint, & Accessories<\/a><\/p>\n

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I was a little disappointed by the articulation as some of the normal compliment was sacrificed to keep the sculpt sexy. The hinge in the torso has been dropped to give Teela nice abs while the thigh swivel is similarly missing. <\/p>\n

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I’ve always been a bit at odds with the MOTUC hips – it works great on figures where the loincloth can cover it up, but on other figures it doesn’t work as well. Teela features a skimpy loin cloth, so I’m gonna guess the thigh swivels were dropped to keep the legs from being unsightly. The rest of the articulation is present, while the head sculpt is partially blocked by the hair.<\/p>\n

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Teela is mostly molded in the appropriate colors so there wasn’t much room for paint slop. I still had a few slight problems with mine – namely the gold on the armbands and with random bits of brown paint here and there on Teela’s bare skin. Most of it scraped off easily enough, but slop is slop. One thing I didn’t like about the figure was the earrings. The front of the earrings didn’t end up with hardly any gold paint on mine and makes her look like she mutant ear lobes. I’m going to have to get out the brushes and fix that one…<\/p>\n

I’m usually a fan of painted faces over molded ones, but Mattel does drive me nuts when they cast the head in whatever color they’re using for the weapons and then paints it. A dark spot on my Wun-Dar head is the black plastic showing through. So, I was happy to see Teela’s molded face. That said, it is a little glossy – so check out this painted BG Teela head<\/a> from ace customizer Nate Baertsch<\/a>. (You might know him as Baena<\/a>.) <\/p>\n

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Teela also included two accessories inspired by her DC Comics appearance: a sword and a pistol. Both have been given a bit of a great update\/makeover by the Four Horsemen. My Teela’s been holding both because I can’t choose which one I like better. I love the simple sculpt on the sword and appreciate that it can stow on the back of her armor (and that her hair is angled out of the way for it to boot). <\/p>\n

But her pistol is pretty swanky too. She can hold it in either hand, but it designed for her right hand – there’s a little notch on the left of the gun for her thumb. It may seem silly, but I think the pistol is what really sells the figure for me. It’s what makes her MOTU-proper. I love MOTU for the mix of swords, sorcery, and tech (there’s a kitchen sink in the mythos somewhere). So, a sword-wielding barbarian girl is pretty cool, but add a laser gun to that? Hot. <\/p>\n

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Overall, it’s figures like this keep my interest in the line healthy. I’m anxious for classic figures, MO2K characters, etc., but I view Teela like I view Vikor – someone “new”. (Technically, neither of them are new though, I’m still waiting for an original MOTUC character – I think this incarnation of MOTU needs one hallmark character unique to it, but I digress.) Still, Teela does show that Mattel is willing to expand the line and that does keep me more excited than just getting updates of figures from my youth. I’m still waiting on that Horde Mummy…<\/p>\n

What really helps is when the “new” figures like Vikor and Teela are kickass. Teela has a great sculpt with great accessories. I do lament the loss of the articulation, but I can at least see why they decisions were made, so I’m okay with it. But, and I think I said this with Vikor, there are figures that are okay and there are ones where I want to turn to Mattel and say, “more like this, please”. Teela is one of those figures.<\/p>\n

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For more MOTU reviews, check out our
MOTU Classics Collector’s Guide<\/a>.<\/h2>\n

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<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year, IAT held it’s 2010 Most Requested figure contest. Last year’s winner was none other than “Blonde Bikini” Teela. Released under the less hilarious, but more appropriate Battleground Teela moniker, she’s quickly moved from our wish lists to our shelves as June’s Quarterly MOTU figure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":13050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[7,34,10],"tags":[78,1063,20,16,2563,145],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/bgtTN.jpg?fit=50%2C50","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pObc6-3oh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10469,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=10469","url_meta":{"origin":13037,"position":0},"title":"Most Requested Figures: “Blonde Bikini” Teela","date":"December 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"As a general rule, we don't include many MOTU characters in this column because Mattel promises us the complete roster. That means we'd just be asking to move them up on the schedule. But there's a movment out there for a MOTU character likely not on Mattel's roll call... \"Blonde\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Requests"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12252,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=12252","url_meta":{"origin":13037,"position":1},"title":"Some Thoughts On Battleground Teela in Package","date":"April 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It seems like it's been awhile since we've gotten a Matty Facebook reveal. I think next week's Sy-Klone was the last one? Anyway, Mattel has given us our first look at Battleground Teela in package on their Facebook page. As usual, the figure looks great and the bio is... well,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "MOTUClassics"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2325,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=2325","url_meta":{"origin":13037,"position":2},"title":"MOTUClassics.Com: Teela Review","date":"October 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"If you've been buying MOTU Classics since their debut nearly a year ago, your MOTU shelf was starting to look more like the He-Man Woman Haters Club than Masters of the Universe. But, Mattel took a huge leap forward this month with its first all-new figure since last December's Beast\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "MOTUClassics"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10722,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=10722","url_meta":{"origin":13037,"position":3},"title":"It’s All True’s2010 Most Requested Figure","date":"January 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In 2010, IAT featured 33 candidates from across the toy spectrum - the return for cancelled lines, key figures missing from current lineups, properties in need of toys, characters that have never been featured in toy form, etc. Then, we asked you to vote. Here's your choice for IAT's 2010\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "MOTUClassics"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3107,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=3107","url_meta":{"origin":13037,"position":4},"title":"ItsAllTrueReview: MOTU Classics Goddess","date":"December 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"If you aren't sure where the Goddess fits into MOTU, that's okay. It's a bit confusing. You could say she was a work-in-progress stage as the creators of MOTU made their way to the Sorceress. The Goddess first appears, as the \"Sorceress\", in the first mini-comic and bestows powerful vestments\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "MOTUClassics"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13133,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=13133","url_meta":{"origin":13037,"position":5},"title":"We did it!!! SDCCExclusive Battle Armor Faker","date":"July 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In a press release today, Toys R Us and Entertainment Earth revealed a handful of shared SDCC\/online exclusives. There's plenty of cool items from several hot toy lines, but there's one you know is near and dear to my heart. A DC vs MOTU 2pk featuring Bizarro facing off against...\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "MOTUClassics"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/newsimages\/Bizarro-vs-Faker.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13037"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13037"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13575,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13037\/revisions\/13575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}