The 30th anniversary of She-Ra and the Princess of Power franchise soars into Masters of the Universe Classics with the Great Rebellion’s Beautiful “Flying” Lookout FLUTTERINA!
She-Ra and her pals from the Great Rebellion are indeed turning 30 this year, and Mattel is celebrating the anniversary with an entire mini-subscription (Club Etheria) devoted solely to our favorite Rebels. It kicks off in July and will run until the end of the year, but that does not mean that Etheria will not see any action in the main subscription from here on out. In fact, Flutterina will be soaring onto our shelves in August, and as you will see, she will be doing so in style. So, in honor of Princess of Power‘s 30th, we are going to skip around a little bit with this round of MOTU first looks and let the Rebellion shine first.
Let’s face it, it has taken a LONG time for the Rebellion to come together on our shelves. Over the course of the first five years of the Classics line, we only got a handful of characters, especially in comparison to the vintage MOTU sect. Well, 2014 is making up for some serious lost time, and now I am going to get to fill out that real estate in front of the Crystal Castle in rapid succession. We have known about the August arrival of Flutterina since last fall, so the wait has been pretty agonizing, especially with how nice the prototype looked in the convention display case.
The discussion that happens between reveal and release is usually dominated by talk of whether or not a final figure can live up to the magic that the Four Horsemen make in their Jersey dream factory. Flutterina has been, of course, no exception, especially with her wild wings, engineering, and hair style. Well She-Ravers, I am going to do something that I normally avoid and lead with my overall assessment: this figure is about as close to perfect as MOTUC has ever gotten in terms of translating a prototype to playable plastic. No, really, it is and if you are here just to check to see if anything has gone terribly wrong, well, you can stop and now and take advantage of early release. I really, REALLY like this figure, and if I am being completely honest, I think she turned out even better than the impressive Scorpia.
Is this hyperbole, you ask? No really, it is not — I really think that she is spectacular and I am happy to tell you why. No, I realize that opinions will still vary wildly on this because of interpretation or style choices, but if we’re taking what the 4H did and making a great action figure from that model, well, I think they pretty much nailed it. I am a great fan of choice of taking the style guide/animated looks of the PoP characters and embellishing them with little toy details, so I think Flutterina matches that design choice very well. Sure, some might not be thrilled with the interpretation of her wings, but having the figure in hand now, I think they are really dynamic.
Flutterina is a very solid figure, and that is a very important thing since she is carrying the weight of two giant butterfly wings. All of her articulation is functional and very strong, so if you were thinking that you would need a creative way to get her to stand with her wings attached, I can assure you that you do not, she stands just fine on her own. Now, I could see her knees or ankles possibly getting wobbly over time, but out the box, they are just fine. Her wings attach to her back in a very simple, yet very effective way via two peg holes, and it reminds me that most simple method is usually the best when solving a new problem. Sure, she is not the first winged character in the line, but guys like Draego-Man and Lord Dactus are huge, monstrous characters with armor rigs that can support large appendages. Flutterina is slight with a simple dress/skirt and her wings hold up just as well as the big boys.
Speaking of the wings, I like the design, or that is to say, I have never had an issue with it. They pay a very nice homage to the original toy, and they kind of remind me of the style of the old Rowan and Martin show from the ’60s and ’70s. They are not nearly as bulky or heavy in hand, and even though there are different “layers” to them, it is not at all distracting and it takes nothing away from the aesthetic. They are certainly large, but they are made from (I think) ABS plastic so they are lighter than if they were PVC. Now, I have heard some very cool suggestions about how the wings could have been executed, but that would have lead to the eventual discussion about how the Horsemen were not being slavishly true to the source material, so it really was a “damned if you/damned if you don’t” situation. So, if you don’t like the look or the design, I can understand that, but I think that most people will like the wings better in person than they originally might have thought.
From the neck down, Flutterina makes great use of new and pre-existing parts. She has new bracers, boots, choker, skirt, and top that all work well together to complete a satisfying look for Flutts. Plus, how awesome is it that we are getting Rebel whose primary colors are anything BUT blue? The purple, pink, orange, and gold might sound a little gaudy on paper, but on the figure, they all work well together. If I had to make one tiny gripe about the figure, it is that it is lacking swivel articulation where the boots meet the leg, but since you can rotate 360° at the thigh, it is not a big deal to me. I do like that she has the non-healed boots that feature the very nice ankle rocker articulation, something that has been sorely missing from the ladies as of late. Oh, and the swivel waist is great and I think all of the right pieces were used for her hips and everything hides well under the skirt. We seems to be finding that, more and more, the girls with skirts fare much better than those with the “leotards.”
Now, this may sound odd with all of the crazy pieces to this figure, like the wings, but Flutterina’s face/head is what makes this figure. In short: she is beautiful and it looks like care was certainly given to have the final figure be as pretty as the prototype. Look, Frosta is my favorite Rebel, so you will know that I am pretty sensitive to when looks don’t work out in this line, but Flutterina probably has the best female face yet. Her look is strong but feminine, and the paint is about as perfect as you can get at this scale. Her curly butterfly eyeliner is preserved from the original and the rest of the makeup is applied at just the right amount of intensity. Her eyes might be casting a slight blank stare, but everything is painted great. I REALLY hope that this trend continues. Her hair style is unique but natural, and it does a great job of NOT inhibiting the movement of the wings.
For her weaponry, she has two repainted pieces here in the standard PoP shield and Battle Ground Teela’s sword. The former is completely appropriate as the vintage figure carried an orange version as well, but I also like the idea of giving Flutterina a sword, as she, like most of the vintage PoP ladies, lacked proper melee weaponry. BG Teela’s broad sword is a good choice and the pink pommel matches the color scheme of the figure.
Finally, I usually don’t comment on the character bios of Classics figures, but I wanted to say that there are things that I like about it, and some things that I don’t. I like how she is portrayed as a strong character that fights on Etheria and Eternia, and the little point about her ending up with Clamp Champ is interesting as well. I DO wish that there were some nods to her Filmation origin and “Small One” persona from PoP show. I think that story is very heroic and interesting, so if you are not familiar with it, I recommend checking out the “Out of the Cocoon” episode of the Princess of Power series. At any rate, in my stories, Flutterina got her start as the Small One.
I am not going to make any bones about it: I really like this figure. As I said, from prototype to plastic, she is probably the best female we have gotten yet, even if you don’t dig all of the aesthetic choices. I love when this happens for a character that had not really been on my radar (in fact, I was convinced that Angella was coming when her sword was teased last autumn) and turns out to be one of my favorites. She is a great figure to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of She-Ra, and even though she does not have the grittiest of origins (or name, for that matter), I think Flutterina will win over a lot of fans when she is released on Matty Collector this August. Roll on, Rebels!
*Thanks for taking flight with us and Flutterina and thanks to Toy Guru and crew for sending her along for a First Look at an OFFICIAL figure. We have A LOT more to come, so stay tuned!
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