…and we’re back! Did you miss us? We missed you. We experienced some technical difficulties on Wednesday night that crashed the site and caused some other behind-the-scenes problems, but we’re all better now (we hope!).
We get a lot of MOTU requests in our inbox that go unused. It’s not that we don’t appreciate them, it’s always nice to see requests for some of our favorite MOTU characters, but Mattel makes it seem like the list is made and no amount of requests will change anything. It won’t move up Roboto or help Extendar’s chances. Still, the requests come in and we decided to toss at least one MOTU character into our 1st quarter poll (voting begins 4/16!). We looked at the e-mails and chose Panthor because we don’t agree on how he should be done.
Panthor is a given. If Mattel doesn’t make him as the 4th quarter large scale beast, we’ll be surprised, but we’ll also immediately expect him in 2011. It’d be crazy to draw him out. But there’s more to Panthor than just “when”, there’s also how to do Panthor. And I don’t mean flocking. The first version will not be, that’s been decided already. No, this has been the source of debate here at IAT since Battle Cat was announced, a debate that centers on the head sculpt. Here are the two sides…
Toy Guru has gone on record time and again to remind us that “characters who shared parts in the old lines will share them again”. If we take that philosophy to Panthor, then we should be expecting a straight reuse of Battle Cat. Some of us here at IAT are okay with that. Since most of the artwork for MOTU took it’s cues from the toys, a lot of it depicts Panthor more tigerlike than his cartoon namesake. By the time the 200x, or “millenium” version as Poe Ghostal suggests, rolls around, Panthor has longer fur not only on the toy, but in the cartoon as well.
With MOTU Classics being built so heavily on nostalgia for the original toys, it follows that Panthor should be made exactly as he was before. Even if Panthor was given two heads, one accurate to the original toy and one accurate to the newer designs, like Moss Man, both would have the extra fur.
Nostalgia for the original toy aside, Panthor is a panther. His name doesn’t really make sense otherwise. His appearances in the original cartoon were not frequent, but they are lasting. And that includes his sleek short fur and visible jawline. Luckily, for the “Panthor is a panther” contingent, when asked about Panthor receiving a new head, Matty gave the usual line about it being to early too comment, but did say “we do have some ideas that will blow you away!” Now, this can mean any number of things, no matter which Matty translator you use, but suffice to say, there’s nothing that exciting about just repainting Battle Cat in the opposite hues. So, we’ll take it to mean that something unique to Panthor will be on the way. Whether it’s a unique head sculpt, or two heads to appease both sides, or something else entirely, we can’t say. Hopefully, Panthor is on the schedule for 2010 and we’ll see him as early as July at San Diego Comic Con. That’d be nice. If not, we’ll marvel at what is shown and wait rather impatiently for 2011.
Regardless of what Mattel chooses to do, it’s probably not going to separate the divide here at IAT. So we turn to you, our readers, and ask you to let us know what you think. Do you want a new head on Panthor, closer to his cartoon design? Or do you want the classic toy updated, the vintage oils realized, via a reuse of Battle Cats head?
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He has to have a new head. It was lame in the 80s, no reason to make it lame again.
New head. Not even a question to me.
Battle Cat is perfect. Just give him to me again in purple please.
They need to break the shared parts rule and go for a new head.
I actually say they should give both… I really would not have expected a new head, since I expect matty to cheap out whenever possible. but I really think they should do both, and include both in the flocked version also.
I don’t expect to get panthor though, not just because it seems to be a recurring theme of late (me being unable to get MOTU figures) but I never really had any affection for him
I hope, really hope, that things could be sorted out by Panthor’s release… it’s at least six months away.
Guess I’m in the minority, but I want Panthor to look like the art, not the crappy cartoon.
wait, which cartoon was the crappy one? the lame overly stylized hack of the beloved vintage series, or the awesome stylized new cartoon w/ all the cool action that totally sacked up over the vintage, light in the loafers series?
LOL. He could mean both?
I’m gonna guess he means the vintage cartoon since the modern Panthor’s cartoon appearance was like the old toy.
I was looking for some comic appearances, but ran out of time and wanted to get the article up.
Do I want a new head? Of course.
Will Mattel give us one? Probably not.
I’m of the mindset that we’ll get a new head, I’m just not sure what all Mattel has planned. They did say the 4 pcs of K with Lex would be “awesome”, so whatever awesome thing is planned for Panthor it may not be much.
New head all the way. I’m shocked that even as many as 1 in 5 would want a crappy repaint over a new piece.
“..Looks like a big cat. Like a puma.”
I do like the idea of a tiger-style Panthor. What seals it for me is the “SAVAGE Cat” title. It makes me think of longer, ragged hair on the sides of his jaw, not a super-sleek look.
Besides, Mer-Man doesn’t look like a archetypal merman, so why should Panthor look like a archetypal panther?
Very true.
Give me a new head for Panthor!! BattleCat is cool and all that, but Heads is what makes half of the MOTUC characters look different. (The other half is armor and paints.)
I think the general base of the head is GREAT!
Looks pretty mean and vicious as is.
The main problem IMO is that it’s SUCH a great headsculpt!
A lot of collectors are frequently posing Battle Cat sans mask.
And I DON’T want identical twin steeds.
So I wouldn’t mind them using BC’s head as a starting point, toning down the furry jowls just a tad, but also I wonder if they shouldn’t also switch out the sabertooth tiger style incisors for something a little more conservative.
Regardless, I’m confident the 4H will knock Panthor out of the park, just as they did with BC.
That’s true, I can bring myself to put the dino mask on him.
Of course it doesn’t help that I’ve never liked the dino mask.
Had to vote for a reuse of the Battle Cat head. I love it, but hate that it’s covered by the classic mask. If they reuse it, I can display both!
I’m hoping that Mattel will listen to us.
I vote for new headsculpt!
New head!
I voted for a new headsculpt.
I do love the Battle cat headsculpt a lot and think it’s awesome,
except for Panthor there is only one thing that needs to be changed to the head.
That is short teeth.
A panther doesn’t have long sabretooth tiger fangs.
Well, there’s a second vote for no sabertooth teeth.
Anyone else? 🙂
I looked into changing the teeth, but then I’d have to make some fake tongue and yadda yadda yadda. 😀
I voted for a new head but to be honest I don’t think I’d buy him either way. I cherry pick this line for the sculpts and designs that catch my eye. I have a BC and no interest in the nest two giants. Only 8 figures have made me drop money so far.
If I cherry picked, I think I’d only have… four or five so far, but I like having the set quite a bit.
It needs the same head as before. Look at all the pictures of card art.
Needs to be a new head.
The horse men claim they want to be true to the card art, well in the vast majority of depictions of Panthor he is shown to have smooth facial hair as a panther should, not bushy like a tiger.
Then again having said that, if the figure is locked it will be smooth all over, so I think he only needs a new head if he will be unflocked.
That gets into an interesting conundrum. Should the flocked one have the old head to be ‘just like we remember’ while the unflocked gets a new head? Crazy.
the furry or unfurry jowls are actually not why i voted new head… i want a new facial expression. battle cat is battle cat, a tough customer, but a good guy… i want something sleeker and more sinister looking for panthor, something more covertly evil and not as overtly aggressive. i prefer sleek jowls personally, but fuzzy wouldn’t be a deal-breaker… the face though… i want panthor to look like he’d back down from battle cat in a straight fight, but would most likely bite out his throat while BC slept. that’s panthor as i see him.
While I couldn’t shop that in, that it my hope as well.
I always liked Panthor…had him long before I got Battle Cat…so I always thought he was just as tough as Battle Cat and could hold is own in a fight between them.
As TG himself would say:
“The Classics style only, the 200X Hyper Detailed Anime style is retired!”