{"id":24986,"date":"2013-09-22T23:14:42","date_gmt":"2013-09-23T04:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=24986"},"modified":"2013-09-22T23:22:09","modified_gmt":"2013-09-23T04:22:09","slug":"masters-of-the-universe-classics-batros-review-18-pics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=24986","title":{"rendered":"MOTU Classics:
Batros Review (18 Pics!)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> This is going to be one of those reviews where my excitement level causes me to lose all credibility. That\u2019s okay though because I love this figure. I didn\u2019t expect to. I subscribed to Club Filmation out of the some strange mix of completism & duty to the site and its readers. I was hopeful that I\u2019d want some of the six figures offered, but I felt like Batros would be in the bottom half for sure. <\/p>\n

One of my favorite writers, Joe Posnanski<\/a>, has a movie rating system called Movie Plus-Minus<\/a>. It\u2019s a genius idea that explains why two people can have differing opinions on the same thing (ghastly, I know). It takes Expectations into account. I apply this same Plus-Minus to toy collecting. Say you\u2019re really excited about getting Octavia and expecting her to clock in at 4 out of 5. But she arrives and her pops off a lot, the tentacles don\u2019t really work well, they\u2019re cumbersome, she\u2019s a little meh and clocks in at 2. Well, for you Octavia has a Plus-Minus of -2. She\u2019s a bad figure. Doh. <\/p>\n

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But the Plus-Minus works the other way too. And, I don\u2019t know how anyone else feels about Batros, I haven\u2019t looked. But I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve seen a buzz for him equal to how much fun I had opening him up and reviewing him. Is Batros a great figure? I think so, but I also know that I had zero expectations for him. He may just be a 3-star figure, but that\u2019s a +3 for me and he just seems a lot more fun than many of the recent MOTUCs that have passed through my way. So much so, that this review is going up before Vault even has his figure! <\/p>\n

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Now, my lack of early interest in Batros probably comes from the fact that I don\u2019t remember his episode. I recently rewatched it, and that helped somewhat. He\u2019s, like plenty of old cartoon characters, a poster child for squandered potential. He seems like he could be a credible threat, though he strangely thought that stealing all of Eternia\u2019s books would get him instilled as Emperor. Still, the episode did a good job of making Batros look sharp against the main villain cast. He was, of course, dispatched by He-Man quickly and has never been seen again until this very figure nearly thirty years later. <\/p>\n

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When I opened him up, Batros just jumped out at me in a way few recent MOTUCs have. I\u2019m not sure why exactly. He does have a great classic animation look. His color scheme is unique on my MOTUC shelf (you wouldn\u2019t think so, but it is!). And, of course, he does evoke a little bit of a superhero aesthetic with parallels to Batman, Blue Falcon, etc. Somehow, he just ends up greater than the sum of his parts. <\/p>\n

And that\u2019s particularly true considering his construction. Batros is mostly the basic buck that we\u2019re used to at this point, right down to the He-Man loincloth & Tri-Klops bracers, but the reuse of the Demo-Man hands adds a bit more monstrosity to his look. There are plenty of new pieces too \u2013 he has all new boots, new biceps with the wing attachments, new armor, a new cowl piece for his neck, and the standard unique head sculpt. Continue to Page 2…<\/a><\/p>\n

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All the new pieces are great and one thing that really helps them is the level of detail. Some of the Filmation figures come out of the old cartoon with a cartoon look, but Batros\u2019 detail level is closer to what I want out of the whole line. The straps on his armor and his bat-wings look leathery. The cowl is appropriately furry. And the new boots are a sharp piece that matches the old animation. While his overall look is accurate to that one appearance, the figures feels \u201cupdated\u201d. More of this please, Four Horsemen. <\/p>\n

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Articulation is what we\u2019ve all come to expect from the line since he\u2019s mostly buck parts. The new feet have great range on the rocker ankles. The \u201cwings\u201d are attached at the bicep and are smartly designed to not really obstruct with the figures movement. They look great with the figure in a neutral pose and splay out nicely for action & flight poses. <\/p>\n

The paint work is mostly sharp. The red & black on the wings is a little sloppy where the overlap, but not a deal breaker. The only real paint QC issue was on the face \u2013 a spot on the left of his nose is clearly visible in most of the pics. It\u2019s annoying, but I chose this one out of the two in the box ironically. Vault\u2019s has a yellow spot of paint drip just below the eye. I figured that was more easily fixed issue than the missing paint on mine\u2019s nose \u2013 and since I wasn\u2019t expecting to care about Batros, I passed that figure on to him so he could easily black out the yellow dab and have a tip-top figure. Oh well. I don\u2019t love mine any less and maybe I can mix a good match for the purple paint!<\/p>\n

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Batros included one accessory \u2013 if there\u2019s anything I didn\u2019t care for about the figure. It\u2019s that piece, just a repaint of Spikor\u2019s mace. It\u2019s neat looking in red & black and I\u2019m glad Batros came with something \u2013 but looking at the other Club Filmation figures so far with their show accurate accessories, it kinda makes Batros seem a little lacking. That said, I can\u2019t think of anything he should have really come with besides a (boring) stack of oversized books or some bendy snakes. Ultimately, I think he\u2019s fine as is & Spikor\u2019s happy with his new mace. <\/p>\n

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Overall, I can\u2019t explain why I love this figure so much. I can talk about the nicely sculpted new pieces. The great colors. How sharp the wings look in various poses. I could theorize about his pinging on my nostalgia for something that I just can\u2019t quite place, but I don\u2019t know. It is true that my expectations were low. Batros had a much easier time impressing me than say, Extendar will, but I think he\u2019s an awesome figure all the same. He makes me glad I signed up for Club Filmation even if I can’t explain why. I can maybe show why though – when was the last time I gave a MOTU Classics figure an 18 picture gallery? Yep, check it out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t

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