Vault Review:
MOTU Classics Two-Bad

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Two-Bad also has some great paint decos.  There are a lot of very basic colors going on, but there are also some nice little details like Baddrah’s glove and boot containing some metallic red accents.  Even their orange armor has metallic details, making it look a little more realistic.  I do have to nitpick again though.  I was disappointed that the body didn’t have any mixing colors, especially where the sculpt clearly pushes one way or the other.  I always thought that mingled paint looked cool on the older figures.

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Two bad comes with two accessories.  Probably one of the most impractical weapons of all time, the 200X double-mace.  Don’t get me wrong, I love that he has it.  I just have no idea how someone could wield this thing with any effectiveness.  (Of course, having two brains control one body isn’t exactly a recipe for success either.)

His second accessory is the vintage inspired shield.  This is another accessory that I’m glad came with the figure, although the execution is a bit lacking.  The shield was designed specifically to fit over the ridges on Baddrah’s gauntlet.  Combine this with Tuvar having the only open hand, and you’re pretty much stuck with one always holding the shield and the other always holding the mace.  That kinda sucks.

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But even with the few nitpicks I have, I still think this is a really great figure.  He’s got a great updated vintage look with a few MYP touches to make us fans happy too.  There’s a ton of new sculpting, which gives me hope that we’ll see separate figures of Tuvar and Baddrah in the next couple years.  Half their figures are already done, it’d be a waste not to finish it up.

-Vault

17 thoughts on “Vault Review:
MOTU Classics Two-Bad

  1. I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned yet but Matty switched from the glossy white cardboard mailer boxes to plain brown ones. The quality feels like it went down a notch as well given how the mailer boxes do tend to get damaged while in transit.

    Two-Bad straddles the period right after I stopped collecting the vintage line and before I stopped caring. I had doubts about jumping ship given how the cartoon was still running and there were several cool figures released the year I stopped collecting which later became classics: Fisto, Jitsu, Whiplash, Webstor, Stinkor, Spikor, and Moss Man all caught my eye at one point and Two-Bad falls into this category. So I’m glad that he’s finally here seeing how I just started selling off my modern collection starting with anything not tied into childhood nostalgia.

  2. The Mailer thing was based on a “Mattel going Green” thing IIRC… Now, as I put on my Tinfoil hat I’ll say that it was actually to cut costs but the going green thing sounds prettier.

    On the figure itself. While I REALLY Wanted him, I’m somewhat disappointed with Two-Bad.
    -Lack of paint applications on the shield, sloppy paint on mine.
    -The Shield being useless. Look at that sucker wrong and the shield falls.
    -Limited Articulation (Heads, Tuvar’s boot)

    While Somewhat Disappointed, I’m glad that I own him. He completes the Evil Warriors who had cartoon appearances; he helps complete the Roster I had as a child AND he completes the Roster I had in College (with the 200X Line)

    1. i’m one of those collectors who never really understood the added cost of the white mailer boxes in the first place, and i agree, the move to the recycled cardboard was likely economic, and spun by the PR department as a reflexive action. for my money, i always felt, with what we pay in shipping, they could just pack the toys better. i get better treatment, object-wise, from almost every online seller i do business with, and for less money than matty charges. if their service provider isn’t up to snuff, it isn’t up to me to sacrifice the quality of the figs i’m buying to supplement their inability to sign a competent shipping agreement. so the mailer thing makes no never mind to me, it’s just more trash as far as i’m concerned. i have enough to throw away already. 😉

      pertaining to the shield… i would get upset at the failure to execute the fit (i’m semi-willing to forgive the dropped paint cuz i just bought a nice glitterized metallic orange paint) if i was new to the line. this doesn’t induce rage anymore, it takes a bigger botch than that now… just a sigh and a eye towards shapeways, or alvis, or zombihamma, or amaro, cuz SOMEBODY will right this wrong, and i’ll pay more to get that piece and have one i really love that actually works. (or not, i haven’t decided yet… might try the vintage shield first, just for Ss and Gs)

  3. Still can’t get over the fact Matty didn’t go “day of” with this guy (these guys?). With all the new tooling, you’d think they would want to capitalize on it. He would have sold like something that sells a lot. Hot cakes, probably.

    Anyway, regarding your point about his weapons… they’re a team, think of it as one is the offense, the other is the defense!

    1. Someone once tried to explain to me why Mattel is not making more of the heavily-tooled products (Horde Troopers, Two-Bad) to recoup development costs, but it simply did not compute, and my brain shut down.

      1. You have to drink the koto laid to understand the mattycollector math. Every time I hear Scott talk logistics, I picture a room full of Jim jones’ acolytes spasming and dropping to the ground.

        1. It just drives me nuts when Scott talks about logistics because he refers to it as if it was a person, or at very least a department at Mattel.

  4. Easily woulda tried to get this guy DoS (doubt could though) but thats Matty’s loss.

    I dug the fig as a kid and last year (okay 2012) going thru my vintage he went red along with Roboto so had to toss and that gave me hope to see the classics take come along and then that got downed with no DoS.

    Anywho a great looking fig so hoping a toy show happens later this year cause I will be looking for this/these guys.

  5. For all my complaining about how worthless Mattel is at so many things, I am stoked to get this figure. One of the last few I need to really feel I’ve completed my classic collection.

    Mattel did a wonderful job on the actual figure. My only real nit is how the heads rub if you don’t position them just right. And yeah, that shield totally blows. I’ve never liked how the MOTUC shields clip on. Too many of them get stress marks if you clip them on. I would rather the shields had handles.

    All nits and Mattymosity aside; overall, nice figure. Helped me remember why I love this toy line.

  6. Like clutch, I missed out on his early appearance, so he’s a “know who he is, but don’t care” character for me.

    Sculpt looks great, but that closed fist is pretty much unforgivable at this point.

    and am I reading right that he was sub only? another gyp, like Sea Hawk, who I actually wanted. And they wonder why sub sales keep dropping. >_>

    1. But . . . but . . . but . . . the whole point of making those guys sub-only is to make you BUY the sub! Sub sales should be through the roof because of this! LOGISTICS!

      “LOGISTICS!”
      – ToyGuru at any given moment

      “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
      – Inigo Montoya

  7. A perfect way too kick off 2014 with Two-Bad. I love design work that the FH put into him. I’m not mad that he’s was a sub only figure…. Only problem I got is the cheap new recycle brown mailer boxers. We need them as single figures now.

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