{"id":29163,"date":"2014-08-20T08:30:11","date_gmt":"2014-08-20T13:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=29163"},"modified":"2014-09-28T23:32:12","modified_gmt":"2014-09-29T04:32:12","slug":"motuclassics-com-double-mischief-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=29163","title":{"rendered":"MOTUClassics.Com
Double Mischief Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This review was originally published on August 20th, 2014.<\/strong>
I\u2019m going to try and not complain a ton for this review. I’m not sure if I’m just not feeling this figure due to some specific gripes or because of the announcement today, that the MOTUC sub missed it’s subscription minimum. In the end, I’m not too worried about the sub. Honestly, it will go through or it won’t. Short of my paying $500 to get an extra vintage He-Man head, it’s out of my hands. I’m either going to save a ton of money and miss out on some key characters, or get those characters and be out of a ton money. <\/p>\n

What does frustrate me is when folks don’t see a cause and effect. The comment was made today that Mattel just needed “everyone who signed up last year to sign up again”. Now, attrition is going to happen. Less people stay hooked as time goes on, more people will leave something then join, it’s just normal. Comic books overuse #1s for that very reason.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center>Basically, you can never stop recruiting. And you can’t rest on your laurels. Just look at IAT – I’ve been busy getting ready for our first child. Vault’s not an active part of the team right now. I lost my computer and have this awesome new one, but I’m still getting the hang out of it (& you can tell in the picture quality that I’m not quite there yet). I’m missing review deadlines. And I can see the effect. Traffic is down. It’s not as terrible as losing 10% like Mattel has, but it’s still on me.<\/p>\n

I feel like the folks at Mattel do good work, but they don’t always understand that. They don’t seem to correlate that putting out a subpar figure is a possible lost subscriber. This is really a better subject to cover with the disappointment that is Rio Blast, but the thumb-headed figure released this month, right in the middle of the sign-up period is just as good a place.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center>Now, there is a lot to like on Double Trouble’s sculpt. Oh, it’s officially Double Mischief these days, but she’ll always be DT to me. Anyway, female buck 2.0 fixed a lot of the issues with the ladies in the line and the new pieces for Double Trouble \u2013 the boots, skirt, bodice, and cape all look sharp. I would like a little more detail on the POP figures overall, but they’re still fine as is. Getting Double Trouble right though is all about the head. She\u2019s the Man-E-Faces of POP, a double agent that has a witchy Horde face and a kinder Great Rebellion face. It\u2019s her defining action feature. And in the way that Mattel nailed MEF\u2019s multi-faces, Roboto\u2019s gears, or substituted parts in for Mekaneck or Extendar, they needed to do again here. They didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

DT\u2019s head had to fit under the dome, it had to spin easily with enough clearance to not scratch the paint. I get all that. But the solution? To flatten her head down? To remove her chin? Permanent “ermagherd” face? C\u2019mon, man. That\u2019s just lazy. The original, seemingly unreproducible, 4H sculpt looked great and I’d bet – was functional. This final figure can’t say the same. The good news is that some folks have fixed it with paint around the exposed neck areas, a dark color for some false depth and shadow. That\u2019s all well and good, but shouldn’t be necessary.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center>Ultimately, someone, or mutiple someones, at Mattel looked at the scrunched up face on this figure and thought, \u201cgood enough\u201d. And admittedly the two face sculpts came out nice. The overall figure looks good, even the obnoxious hair. The translucent cape looks great as a stand in for the gossamer-like fabric on the vintage figure (but no translucent skirt is kinda funny). There is a lot to like, but that thumb head? That got approved? Meh. I know this isn\u2019t the first time it\u2019s happened. I know it\u2019s not the last. And I know that I\u2019ve accepted little things like this on and off over the years. This one just sticks in my craw today. Frustrating. Continue to Page 2…<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center>Articulation is what we\u2019re used to for the line and everything works fairly well. The skirted girls don\u2019t do deep poses very well, particularly with the POP girls having their boot swivels removed and DT is no exception. The arms great and the waist does have swivel along with the neck. The hair does have an extra swivel as well so you\u2019re not stuck with evil hair on the left and good hair on the right.<\/p>\n

The paintwork on the figure was good overall. I love the color seafoam and gold color scheme on the figure and it looks great when the paint lines are crisp (I get vintage, but I kinda wish the boots were gold too). The hair is so massive that the lowlight paint is on a little thick in places. The faces are both painted well, though there is still a little paint rub from the dome because it apparently can\u2019t be helped even with the face scrunching.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center>DT included no shield as her vintage figure didn’t come with one. I kinda feel cheated, we need a green one for our little rainbow, but she did get a fun little crossbow with a swivel head that can switch between a Horde crossbow and a Rebellion one. It\u2019s a fun little piece, but I don\u2019t care much for all the crossbows. It\u2019s a neat callback, but it just seems lazy. Like if DST just gave everyone from Star Trek and phaser and left it at that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center>Overall, Double Trouble isn\u2019t a bad figure. There\u2019s a lot to like about her, but I just can\u2019t get past the malformed head sculpt to really enjoy it. And this might be a time for the folks at Mattel to claim that \u201cmodern toy technology\u201d simply can\u2019t keep up with the 4H, but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s true. I think the Mattel designers can do better than this. I know there’s a new guy on the job and we’re just about to get to figures he worked on, I have my fingers crossed things will improve on the upcoming figures. They need to because future purchases, aka sub sign-ups, are built on past successes and when a company isn’t faithfully executing figures like Double Trouble & Rio Blast, then it makes future figures a harder sell. You can never rest easy.<\/p>\n

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Recent MOTU Classics Reviews:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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For all our MOTU reviews, check out our
\nMOTU Classics Collector’s Guide<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

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