Masters of the Universe Classics has vehicles, and vehicles need drivers. Otherwise, they just kind of sit there and act sad that they cannot get in on those exciting Eternian battles. Well, thankfully, your brand new Battle Ram now needs to be just a shiny lawn ornament for Man-at-Arms’ drive way.
Of course, I am just being playful, all of the MOTUC vehicles look great just sitting on a shelf. However, ever since the release of the Fighting Foe Men and Sky High, I have become pretty insistent that each vehicle needs to have a specialized pilot because, why not? Sure, just about any figure from the line can drive the Windraider, Sky Sled or Battle Ram, but I love the opportunity to take advantage of getting a unique character for each vehicle. So, while a nifty new Man-at-Arms figure was included with the release of the Battle Ram, I was kind of left hoping that we might get a new driver (like the Foe Men) because MAA doesn’t get displayed on the Battle Ram on my shelf.
So once again, like so many instances in the past, the amazing world of 3rd Party custom kits comes to save me from my predicament and give a figure option that is better than what I had envisioned in my own head. If you thought you were only getting one feature from The Castle of Power this week, you are wrong because mad man Mat O’Toole has delivered on the vehicle front in the form of his brand new “Battle Ram Driver” kit. If you come to this site with any kind of frequency, you should be familiar with his work by now and his kits have the remarkable ability to be “plug and play” to help you further your mastering of the universe. With the Battle Ram Driver though, he took a real challenge and turned into something completely functional.
By challenge I mean that Mat did not just default to the initially obvious path for the interpretation for the kit. Instead, he integrated one of the most enigmatic and hotly-debated parts of the vehicle to be the center piece of his new kit. Yep, that crazy symbol on the back of the Battle Ram that looks like a mask and was a sticker in the 1980s and is now is now a full 3-D sculpt has become the influence for the helmet for the Battle Ram Driver. This helps not only bring that mysterious marking full circle, but it also gives us a dynamic look for latest member of the Foe Men/Vehicle Pilot group.
This kit is available now from the CoP Facebook page and you have a few options when you order it: you can get the kit painted or unpainted (for a lesser price) and while the standard kit includes the helmet, interchangeable “unmasked” head and chest symbol, you can order the heads piecemeal if you like. So just to set the stage, that is what I did, and I got the helmet and the chest piece. It is not that the unmasked head is not awesome, because it is, but I just could not think of a time when it would be displayed on my shelf due to the awesome nature of the helmet. Thus, I do not have any first hand pictures of the alternate head, but I have included this shot from the CoP FB page for reference:
Tough and grizzled old guy, yeah? I can see him an old veteran of many Eternian skirmishes that goes way back with Man-at-Arms. However, when he is piloting the Battle Ram to break up the latest dust-up in the Dark Hemisphere, he is going to wear trusty helmet and Mat has realized this in fine form. Like I said, he used that sticker from the back for the influence and once that design passed through his skilled hands we get a great helmet that looks like that previously-flat image come to life.
Now, the actual design has always been cool, so it lends that strength here, but the yellow, green, and orange coloring is quite garish. However, this being MOTU and all, I find that the colors work really well for this piece. It is like anything else that we have in the line, so it is certainly unique, but if you order your helmet painted, Mat uses the same hues, but of a slightly more subdued shade. Of course, if you order your kit unpainted, you can dress it up however you like, so there are always options.
The final included piece is the Pilot/Foe Men requisite chest symbol. Like Sky High and the rest, this piece recalls a prominent design cue from the vehicle. In this instance, Mat used the “face” from the missile, and it works really well. It can attach to an armor piece via the plug in the back, and it was sized to plug right into the Dawg-o-Tor armor. However, a quick Dremel job will make it compatible with just about anything you like.
That brings us to the actual base body to use for this kit. The cool thing is, since this is a completely original character, you can use whatever you want. Unlike Karg or the Tony Guerrero He-Man where you would want to try to match the source material, if you have imagination and gumption to mash together any group of spare parts, there is an endless amount of opportunities.
Personally, I chose a Mo-Larr base since I had it sitting around and I added armor from the Snake Men two-pack because it was pretty perfect to go along with the chest piece included with the kit. Sure, I had to make a hole in the armor, but that literally took about 30 seconds to complete. Past that, I just painted up the pieces to match the Battle Ram scheme and I was done and now I have a fantastic driver to pilot my amazing vehicle.
The MOTU Classics line has given us character that I never dreamed of owning, but you know what? I LOVE getting even more and third party kits are really awesome to help expand the mythos. The Castle of Power does tremendous work and Mat has done his part to give us a proper driver for the Battle Ram. Now Mattel just needs to give us proper vehicles for the three Foe Men who are being forced to currently stand like everyone else. Talon Fighter, Attack Trak and Roton, please!
You can order your Battle Ram Driver, as well as a plethora of other great kits from the Castle of Power Facebook page. Go! Do it now!
Additional Links
Great job and very well done! So good , you wonder why Mattel never made it a reality.