Masters of the Universe Classics Feature

Rio Blast is the September 2014 Club Eternia Masters of the Universe Classics Subscription figure and early looks had fans worried about the execution of this classic character. Two issues were immediately apparent in the “First Look”; his armor was pretty puffy and his chest flap did not close all the way. I have to say that even though the fat-armor issue has been with us for a few figures and I am not usually bothered by it, I found it so objectionable on Rio Blast that I decided to customize the armor. All the pictures in this feature are of a modified Rio Blast figure. If you want to see the figure as-is, check out VeeBee’s first look here.

A brief overview of what was done:

Removed the armor
Cut the armor into two pieces.
Piece one was cut around the collar and the front of the armor. The strings that go around the right side were kept and the excess pieces were cut away around them so they could be glued to the figure.
Piece two was cut around the shoulder tabs that support the back pack guns and the back piece where the back pack plugs in. The strings were also kept.
The two pieces were glued to the figure.

As you can see, it’s not perfect. The armor is a little awkward under the arms where I made the cut to the front piece, and the cut I did around the neck didn’t quite go as smoothly as I would have hoped. The paint match between the armor and the body is pretty good, so they merge well. If I were to do it again, I would cut more under the strings on the right side. I left them a little too thick and messy.With the cuts, he is now able to put his hands down to his sides properly, though he is still pretty barrel-chested. It’s not perfect work and I would prefer not to do this to my figures, but I was/am happy with the profile change that even the chest flap is no longer bothering me.

Rio Blast™ Bio
Real Name: Riolus Blast
With the ability to transform from a normal warrior into an awesome arsenal of fire power, Rio Blast is in all ways the fastest draw in the universe. As the sole survivor of a group of heroic explorers from Loredos in a starband near Eternia, Rio ended up as the “law” in that lost frontier. Flung by a meteorb to the surface of Eternia, Rio allied himself with the renegade Masters of the Universe in their battle against evil. Rio Blast is nagged by the fact that he has left behind an untamed starband and he often champs at the bit to get back. He-Man promised to aid Rio Blast back home as soon as the warriors of Skeletor have been defeated once and for all. Rio Blast transforms into a one-man arsenal to get the drop on enemies!

The one thing that bugs me about this bio is that I get the impression that He-Man promises to help Rio Blast after Rio Blast helps him defeat the Evil Warriors.

That sort of quid pro quo doesn’t seem like He-Man’s style to me.

Accessories

Rio Blast comes with a removable backpack and five guns that attach to him. The guns and pack are cast in a stiff plastic and they plug into their various pegs securely.

The backpack tubes fasten tightly into Rio’s gauntlets, but are easily removed if you wish. The leg guns are pretty clever as the leg armor that houses them are attached by pegs that clip into the knee joint sockets and can flip down easily.

The one issue with the guns is with the double-barreled number that attaches to the flap. The flap has a peg to plug into the gun and that pegs prevents the flap from closing well.

I could see why they would want a peg since the flap might be too thin to create a socket, but they should have created a recessed area for the peg in the armor so it would close. Heck, it may have served as a nice clasp to keep it closed.

Sculpt

Rio Blast is really well sculpted. He’s full of sharp details like the rivets on his gauntlets and “chaps” or the little extra items on his belt and the aforementioned chaps-like leg armor.

The head is interesting in that it doesn’t quite match up in style with the previous two iterations of Rio Blast (Staction and Vintage figure), though he does feature the requisite giant mustache.

I like the flying hair, but I’m also glad that Fwoosher ibentmyman-thing also has a more vintage style head sculpt available for sale on eBay. It’s good to have choices.

The one issue I have with the sculpt is the giant hinge on the front of the flap. It’s a bit of an eyesore. I really wish they had done a dedicated torso sculpt for this figure or engineered the flap similar to the Snake Face armor pieces.

Articulation

Rio Blast has the standard MOTUC articulation with a couple of caveats: the ankles don’t seem to have rocker functionality and the armor precludes any forward ab movement.

The mods I made to the armor don’t allow for forward ab movement either.

Paint

Paint is a little hit or miss on Rio Blast. The armor has a bit of shading to it and the hand guns are a brilliant metallic silver.

The face and hair, unfortunately, have a bit of slop and there is no paint on the giant backpack. It’s cast in a pretty shiny silver, but unpainted pieces like this have a slightly more toy-like appearance.

Overall

This is a weird one. I’ve never been a fan of Rio Blast, though the idea of the character has grown on me over the years through fan fiction like “The Book of Evil” by Gbagok and Iceman.

I was blown away by the initial sculpt and even got a little annoyed with some online friends who worried, I thought prematurely, about how the sculpt could be ruined in engineering.

Turns out they were right on the money and the final figure did have some odd flaws. I’m just glad that Jeremy Sung shared the fix I used because my enjoyment of the figure increased significantly after making the modifications.