There are a handful of characters that I think sum up everything that made/make Masters of the Universe such a great toy line. Sure, you’ve got the barbarians, the demons, the beasts, and the sorcerers; they anchor the tropes of a fantasy line and deliver exactly what you would expect. But then there are those that are just a bit outside the norm. This is the realm of characters Trap Jaw, Man-E-Faces, Tri-Klops, Modulok, and Multi-Bot. These are the characters built around a gimmick, but the gimmick is so ingenious, so fully integrated into who the character is, that they turn a fantasy/sci-fi line into something different and special.
Modulok was a fantastic entry into MOTU when I was a kid. It took some searching, but when I finally managed to grab one it took a long, long time for the magic to wear off because he was a toy that refused to sit still. At the time, I thought he’d be a one-off type that would remain a one-of-a-kind entity. But when you’ve got a concept so brilliant as a fully modular monster, one just doesn’t seem like it’s quite enough. Luckily the brains at Mattel understood this, so they went back to the modular well for another go-round, this time breaking out a robot version of Modulok named Multi-Bot.
Little Benty was practically herniating himself when he heard about this character. Unfortunately, childhood can often be cruel, and though Modulok was a hard-won purchase, Multi-Bot would remain just out of reach. I was not to know the pleasure of assembling and reassembling a robot of a thousand shapes, nor of the awesomeness of combining the two most diverse characters into playtime abominations.
However, years passed and another chance presented itself. Behold: Multi-Bot.
We’re currently in a fidgety climate ruled by fickle thermometers and arcane budgetary restrictions, so it’s been an iffy struggle to get those fully tooled figures that apparently make Mattel sweat silver dollars at the thought of. Multi-Bot was not going to be able to use any parts from anybody else, so many wondered if we would see him at all. I never really had any doubt, though, and my confidence was rewarded with a fully modular robot that is more toy than a single man can handle.
Upon sliding Muti-Bot out of the package, I was immediately hit with that greatest of toy thrills: dual robots. I’m apparently a robot guy. I’ve always been a little obsessed with robots in any form, and I love it when any line introduces a robot into the mix. Star Wars had multiple Droids, G.I. Joe got even more awesome with the introduction of B.A.T.S., and Masters of the Universe clicked up a notch with Roboto. So a toy that is not just one, but two robots is pretty much nirvana in a cardboard sleeve for me.
Every detail of the vintage figure has been recreated and improved upon, which is no surprise at this point in the game, but since I didn’t have the original, all of those details are brand new to me. For instance, I didn’t know that, of the three sets of legs, one was a set of roller feet and one was a set of tank-tread feet. I don’t know why that kicks so much butt, but it does. I can just imagine him roaring along. Walking is for weenies — it’s time to scoot, beeyotch!
Multi-Bot features the requisite excellent sculpting that we’ve come to expect from the Four Horsemen’s MOTUC offerings. By now they are absolute pros at the particular MOTUC aesthetic, so there’s no surprise at all in seeing the nuanced wires and rivets and buttons and detailing carried off without a hitch. Just like childhood, only better.
There is a ton of brand new parts that justified this being a deluxe (meaning “more expensive”) figure, and frankly, I’d have probably paid more to get him. Shh, don’t tell Mattel, but it’s true. I was totally prepared for both Modulok and Multi-Bot to be way higher priced, so when we got first one and then the other for non-Battle Ram prices, I was a little surprised. With all the worry-mongering over budgets, getting this much figure at a decent price is actually reassuring. I can only hope the Meteorbs will get the same type of consideration as the line progresses. Hint hint friggin’ hint.
Multi-Bot has two very distinctive heads, and both are well sculpted. One is a more robotic head — I think that one is my favorite of the two — and the other has a bit of organic element to it, which makes me think Modulok did some experimentation in his creation of the thing. I like perverse little details that add entirely new levels of evil to various figures. Blast-Attak had a similar organic feel to his head and that raises the creep value a bit for him as well. Horde science seems all about the merging of man and machine — even if the recipient is unwilling — so Modulok drafting someone into service doesn’t seem farfetched at all. His bio just gives him a serial number, but I wonder if there isn’t more of a story behind those all-too-humanoid eyes than we’ve been given.
Multi-Bot is fully modular, separating at the waist, shoulders, neck, and hips for full rearrangement of parts. Each is connected by a ball-and-socket joint with soft plastic that pops in snugly but still has plenty of give to it. In addition to the standard twin-robot parts he comes with five dual-connector pieces, a second black neck piece, and two connectors with a male and female socket and one double-female socket. I haven’t had a chance to fully explore every permutation of the various combinations these will allow, but it’s not hard to see how Multi-Bot has way more options than Modulok. This makes sense, as maybe Modulok still needs to be guided by a pair of sentient minds maintaining a certain level of humanoid essence, where Multi-Bot’s entire programming is probably spread across his entire system, so any fragment of the whole should be able to work completely independent of the rest.
I’ve read complaints about how plain the paint is on Multi-Bot. I do see the sentiment behind the complaints — each set of legs is essentially a single color, and despite a few accents of a more metallic coloration on the two sets of arms they’re fairly mono-chrome as well — it’s not something that bothers me at all. I don’t know, I guess the visual excitement of a figure with so much going on negates any troubles I may have with the paint job. Would he “pop” more if there were more variety to the paint on his legs? Sure, I can definitely see where a few metallic highlights, some black or silver parts, or even varying shades would make them a little less plain, but I can’t fathom allowing that to get in the way of my enjoyment of the figure. But there are things I care about that others may be shaking their head at, so that’s life.
What is there, though, is vibrant and distinct. The oranges are fruity, the greens are perky, and the three legs are interesting shades that give him a lot of personality. Considering they could have all just been plain silver of gunmetal, I think the fact that we got out-of-the-ordinary shades of green blue and purple is pretty cool.
The bonus of a character like this is that since everything can be swapped around you can fiddle with them to get a color scheme that you like best, or even various combos of arms and legs to put together a technicolor robot that really stands out on the shelf. Paint schmaint.
Finally, Multi-Bot is not only fully modular with himself, but he is fully modular with Modulok. As they all share the same ball and socket joints, parts can be swapped back and forth between them at random, and they can be combined into a vast (And I mean vast) array of Modubot-styled body-horror psychowarriordemonbots. I can only imagine the insanity that would have ensued had Multi-Bot and Modulok not been compatible. That would not have been good for the world. Hours of swapping around just became days, as you can try to find the 1001 combos allowed. That’s one-a-night for 1001 nights. Scheherazade has never been more jealous.
Multi-Bot is, to me, everything right about this toy line. I’m only sad that he’s the last of his kind.
