{"id":4735,"date":"2010-04-05T04:44:16","date_gmt":"2010-04-05T09:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=4735"},"modified":"2012-04-16T04:01:35","modified_gmt":"2012-04-16T09:01:35","slug":"itsalltruereview-motu-classics-moss-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=4735","title":{"rendered":"ItsAllTrueReview:
MOTU Classics Moss Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Who could have guessed that Moss Man would end up as one of the most controversial MOTUC figures? He debuted at SDCC with flocking that Mattel couldn’t mass replicate. When they changed it, they covered his ears and all hell broke loose. That resulted in two variants for the sale day. Mattel cleared a path of bandwidth and warned us to get in and order as quickly as possible. Moss Man went on-sale at 10:57 local IAT time and both versions were gone in a little over five minutes. Somehow, amidst all the hubbub, I got exactly the Moss Man I wanted.<\/p>\n

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Okay, well the Moss Man on the right is exactly the one I wanted. I bought two of the unflocked version because I\u2019m ridiculous and like having extra figures that use the alternate heads. I know.<\/p>\n

Anyway, the original Moss Man was one of my favorite toys as a kid and I still have a soft spot for the silly 200x “Buy 3 Crappy He-Men Variants” Mail-In edition. In all, Moss Man was one of the handful of Classics figures that I was really looking forward to seeing when the line debuted, but when they showed him at San Diego\u2026 well, I just wasn’t feeling it. I didn\u2019t like the flocking used on the showpiece, but then fate intervened and the flocking Mattel ended up using enabled the figure to live up to my expectations. Simply put, I love the “modern” Moss Man figure. He’s easily one of my favorites in the Classics line.<\/p>\n

Oh, and the Beast Man head is cool too. He’s all fed up and ready to go off just like I remember.<\/p>\n

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Though my BeastMoss Man is missing some flocking on his right bicep, I have to say Mattel did an excellent job on the flocking, despite the controversy. It gets as close as it can to the joints and fades out. The only two areas where it stands out are around the shoulders and the elbows, but the other areas more than make up for those two sore spots. Still, if you’re not a fan of this type of flocking, you’re not going to like it. But if you wanted something akin to the previous versions of the figure, this is the flocking for you. And it’s the best of Mattel’s three attempts at Moss Man yet.<\/p>\n

Moss Man only has a handful of paint applications and most are sharp. I did have one issue with the modern head’s eyes. I forgot to grab a picture of it, but it appears to be crying. The green paint bleeds out of the sockets. If I’d only ordered one figure, I\u2019d be annoyed, but thankfully it only happened on one of the two modern heads I received.<\/p>\n

One strange thing about Moss Man’s colors are the differences from his face, to the visible parts of the body, to the hands and feet. They don’t match, but are complimentary, particularly the brown streaks across the unflocked plastic areas that blend with multi-colored flocking. Moss Man looks sharp up close and from afar.<\/p>\n

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As I said above, Moss Man comes with two heads. He’s packaged with the repainted Beast Man head to appeal to the “just as we remember\u201d crowd. They went all out, even painting the eyes looking to the left. That really helped to convince me I wanted both versions on display. That and I\u2019m a total sucker for the extra Beast Man armor coming in the weapon’s pak. I\u2019m going to put that on him just like I did when I was a kid.<\/p>\n

While BeastMoss Man is an angry fella, he doesn’t have much on his contemplative (annoyed?) modern counterpart. While the overall body design isn’t there, this is the Moss Man I’ve been waiting for since 2002. He looks sharp. And, I have to admit, I didn’t really care if we ended up with flocked ears or not, but the unflocked ears look really good on the final version.<\/p>\n

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Since Moss Man only required a new head in the tooling department, he’s got some decent accessories in addition to the alternate head: a satchel, a knife, and his classic mace with a twist.<\/p>\n

The satchel is made of various tangled vines and includes a scabbard and a sculpted bag. I have no idea what would be in the pouch, but the knife is removable. And it looks great too, like it\u2019s made of stone. Perfect for a guy that lives in the woods. The whole setup is easily removed so you can display your Moss Man with or without depending on how vintage you want to go.<\/p>\n

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Moss Man also includes his classic mace, but with a twist. It’s been given details to make it more “woodsy”. It looks great here, but Mattel already soured it a little bit by offering a silver version in the upcoming Weapons Pak. I guess we have to assume there are silver trees on Eternia? Why not? There\u2019s everything else. Anyway, the smaller vine on the strap separates just a bit from the larger one on his back to give Moss Man a place to stow his mace. Self-storage is always a plus. Continue to Page 2…<\/a><\/p>\n

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As if Moss Man wasn’t full of enough vintage goodness already, Mattel took things a step further and added his trademark scent just like we remember. I’d heard online that Moss Man was particularly pungent and I was eagerly looking forward to smell just how bad he’d be. I have to say I was disappointed.<\/p>\n

Now, for full disclosure, I worked in the candle business for a long time and, evidently, I broke my sniffer. I smelled Moss Man, mildly at first, but quickly got used to the scent. I wasn’t sure if it was just me or if my Moss Men weren’t up to par. When Sil got home, she immediately made a face and demanded to know what the smell was.<\/p>\n

Okay, so it’s just me. He stinks. He-Man wouldn’t step on him accidently in the wild, because he could smell him from ten feet away. But, in my defense, Sil’s gotten used to the smell too, just not until the next day\u2026<\/p>\n

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One thing we skipped over during our discussion of flocking was its ability to hold up to over time. I’ve played with them a bit, had them outside, knocked one off a 20ft deck (oops), and the flocking has held up really well. I think if I wanted it to come off, I could make it, but it’s gone through some rugged play so far and come out fine. But, then again, I haven’t gotten him wet.<\/p>\n

Yep, that’s one more controversy to the Moss Man release. The glue used is apparently water soluble. If you dunk him for a bit, you can remove the flock fairly easily.<\/p>\n

While I’d be steamed if I got my Moss Man wet, it’s not been bad for all MOTUC fans. There is an anti-flocking contingent in the MOTU fandom and more than a few have taken advantage of the water soluble glue.<\/p>\n

Pictured at right is a custom by friend of IAT, Nate Baertsch. You may know Nate by his screen name, Baena, and for the beautiful artwork he produces and showcases on both his blog<\/a> and DeviantArt<\/a> (check out those POP redesigns!).<\/p>\n

Baena let us know that it was a fairly easy custom to do with most of the work going into removing the leftover glue and matching the paint from the various different colored parts of the body. As you can see, he did an amazing job.<\/p>\n

So much so, that I can honestly say I’m not opposed to Mattel trying and replicating Baena’s success. I had thought an unflocked Moss Man relying on Beast Man alone would come out silly, but with the 4H sculpting the head details under the flock and Baena’s hard work, this version of Moss Man is sharp.<\/p>\n

Huge thanks go out to Baena for letting us showcase his work for this review. Thank you!<\/p>\n

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Overall, I\u2019m glad to be off the flocking roller coaster. There have been times that I’ve been convinced that I wouldn’t be happy with this figure. There were times I wasn’t even sure what version I was going to end up with. But in the end, everything worked out. The final Moss Man is a great figure with enough options to appease fans of both the vintage and modern looks. The flocking may look odd in pictures, but it person it blends together so well that it even hides some of the joints. It\u2019s just another great figure in the line. It\u2019s not worth the high prices if you missed out, but it\u2019s worth waiting for the reissue.<\/p>\n

And most importantly, it’s Moss Man! He\u2019s one of the eighties toys that crossed over into parental awareness. I wanted to see if mine remembered him, so I took him to show my parents after he arrived. I figured they hadn’t even thought about Moss Man since I was a wee tot playing with him a quarter-of-a-century ago, but my Dad took one look at him and asked, “does this one smell?”<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s just like you remember,” I said as I handed it over. <\/p>\n

He took a whiff, smirked, and asked, “how much did you pay for him?” That’s my Dad.<\/p>\n

“Well,\u201d I said, \u201cnot everything is just like you remember\u2026”<\/p>\n

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For more MOTU reviews, check out our MOTU Classics Collector’s Guide<\/a>.<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n



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Who could have guessed that Moss Man would end up as one of the most controversial MOTUC figures? He debuted at SDCC with flocking that Mattel couldn’t mass replicate. When they changed it, they covered his ears and all hell broke loose. That resulted in two variants for the sale day. Mattel cleared a path […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":6234,"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":[20,163,16,2569,2560],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/motuTN.png?fit=50%2C50&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pObc6-1en","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":950,"url":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=950","url_meta":{"origin":4735,"position":0},"title":"Matty on Facebook: What the Flock?! (& a Possible Solution)","date":"August 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"On Facebook, Mattel has let us know there might be some problems with Moss Man... Hey He-Fans, Just to let everyone know, we are working out some of the kinks with Moss Man right now. The flocking on a highly articulated figure is a bit tricker then we expected. There\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Matty on Facebook"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3229,"url":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=3229","url_meta":{"origin":4735,"position":1},"title":"Matty on Facebook: Moss Man debuts (again!)","date":"January 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Matty: \"Just got in our final sample of Moss Man! We know fans have been waiting to see how the flock turned out. We really pushed the limits to flock as much as possible. Enjoy the shots!\" Also, for those in the LA area, be sure to head over to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Matty on Facebook"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4466,"url":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=4466","url_meta":{"origin":4735,"position":2},"title":"Merry Moss Man Day!","date":"March 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It's finally time to order those authentic Moss Man ear muffs, now only available with the \"small quantity\" of Moss Man that come with flocked ears! I have no idea what will happen today. Mattel says that \"server capacity has been taken to the max\", but they're also warning of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "MOTUClassics"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4510,"url":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=4510","url_meta":{"origin":4735,"position":3},"title":"Amusing Articulations: He-Man’s STILL quittin’ teh lien!","date":"March 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Articulations"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3994,"url":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=3994","url_meta":{"origin":4735,"position":4},"title":"Ask Matty – February 16th Edition","date":"February 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Ask MattyFebruary 16th, 2010 1. SilntAngl asks: Katma Tui had great legs. No, really! They were made of a sturdier plastic throughout instead of being softer past the thigh cut like most figures. Can this arrangement be used on all the women going foward so their legs aren't warped while\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ask Matty"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3241,"url":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=3241","url_meta":{"origin":4735,"position":5},"title":"MOTU SDCC Figure to debut at Gallery 1988 (Update: Or Not)","date":"January 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Update: Matty has let us know via Facebook that the mystery SDCC figure will not be debuting tonight as originally planned: No no NO!! We just got the word that we CANNOT reveal our SDCC exclusive tonight. We\u2019ll still have an awesome display with every figure in the line through\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Matty on Facebook"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4735"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4735"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18062,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4735\/revisions\/18062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}