One of the great things about the Masters of the Universe concept is that it somehow takes multiple worlds, across five different dimensions and hundreds of characters and gives a little something for just about everyone to enjoy. For a lot of us, even when we don’t particularly like a certain character, we usually find a soft spot for them somewhere. Let’s face it, there have been a few characters in the MOTU-verse that are known for their detractions just as much as their unique abilities. I think poor old Mekaneck springs to mind as first on that list for a lot of fans; even though the guy has been a part of Masters history since almost the beginning, his less than exciting “neck powers” have often relegated him to a walking joke status, even amongst his friends (see the MYP cartoon). But darn it, we still love him, right? Well, while we wait for our favorite “aw shucks” Master to debut in the latest incarnation of MOTU, Matty and Friends have introduced us to the background and history of the up-until-now highly elusive Megator. Guess what Meky? Turns out this gigantic badass-looking Preternian is actually a two-time loser who enjoyed dying on the battle field so much, he repeated being taken out five millennia apart. It doesn’t get much worse than dying twice does it? Yeah sorry, I know this argument is not convincing anyone because Moleb the Demolisher here is still a gigantic, badass-looking Preternian. I tried Meky. I still love you.
So in that vein, am I the only one that thinks that the fact that Megator has been revealed to have died twice has actually made him cooler? I know that he already has a lot going for him in that he has been chased by MOTU fans for decades due to his rare status in the vintage line (he, along with the previously-release Tytus, is 100% European) so his Classics figure represents a bit of “homecoming” for a lot of collectors. However, aside from some box art and a very brief description of his powers, not a whole lot was known about him until his new Classics biography was revealed. I need not mention that the bios in this line have been controversial, but I must admit, I think Megator’s is awesome. Seriously. We already knew that Tytus bit the dust while trying to stop the “rampaging” Megator but we finally have a little context to go along with that. Where do we start? Not only is Megator a badass-looking Preternian giant, he has also lead Hordak’s army into battle, has been “eaten” by the giant iron kitty jaws of the Central Tower, resurrected to ZOMBIE (hell yes) status by King Hssss and has died in the “present” Eternian times too. Talk about playing right to your intended audience.
The question on everyone’s mind for a long time was, “To what faction does our (Ho, ho, ho) Green Giant belong?” Some thought it might be Horde, most people thought it was the Snakemen (even though we were pretty sure he was not a Snake Man per se) judging by his vintage box art, but the cool thing is – we were all right! I suppose that makes Megator the first MOTU character in official canon (FilMation had some Snakemen cross over) to be loyal to the Horde AND the Snakemen, two groups that despise one and other. Pretty neat, right? I mean, doesn’t that just speak to the slimy nature of King Hssss? He found the grizzly remains of one of his arch rival’s most power minions, brought him back to undead status and then, most likely, used him against the Horde. That is a lot of action figure fun right there and I bet Hordak is PISSED. However, it begs the next question (we are a curious lot, aren’t we?) – are we getting the regular or zombie edition of Megator with this release? Uh-oh, keep reading those bios!
Personally, I am going to align Meggy with the Snakemen on my shelf. There are several reasons for this: I always thought he was loyal to them, he is green (superficial, I know), he is in the Snake Crew in “modern” times, and frankly, King Hssss is lonely all by himself. It is not like anyone needed permission as to where they can display their personal figure, but it is nice for a lot of people to have canonical support of their choices, so if you like him with the Horde – have at it! Any way you slice it though, he is going to look nice and imposing and I can tell you that there is most certainly a sense of satisfaction in finally having both of the Eternian giants on the shelf after waiting for so long. In the end, it has been worth the wait and Megator, while borrowing somewhat from the Tytus figure, is a much more satisfying release than his goodie two shoes rival.
One thing that Classics has done very well thus far has been giving us a variety of shapes and sizes to our collection, even without the advantage of vehicles (up to this point) and play sets. Megator joins Tytus as the tall guys in line and since we are now really rolling with MOTUC, the collection itself has become just as important to me as individual character wants. What is mean is, getting a satisfying collection is always important, but when a new release brings a variety that is currently underrepresented in the line, then all the better. Masters has always had a bit of a balance to it, He-Man has his Skeletor, Teela has her Evil-lyn and now Tytus has his Megator. But as a fan of the baddies, evil has once again triumphed over good (because good is dumb) and while spatial symmetry has been reconciled, the advantage is still on the side of the devils.
As we have known since the arrival of Tytus, or as he have just assumed, the Megator figure shares several key parts with the former with all of the advantages and disadvantages that come along with them. The giant base body is roto-cast and Megator shares the upper arms, hips and thighs with Tytus. The torso is slightly different than Tytus’, but not all that different. Makes me wonder what might be in store for the future. It is fitting to match the size, but I know a lot of collectors were underwhelmed with some of the body on the first go around. Thusly, there are some articulation points that were sacrificed in this body, so if you did not like the hip movement or the lack of ankle articulation (for example) before, Megator does not bring changes to these areas. I know there was also some talk about how tall the base body actually is and that it falls a little, ahem, short (especially compared to the vintage figures) but Megator is still bigger than any baddie that we have gotten thus far.
Personally, I think this body works better on Megator than it did on Tytus. I don’t mean that is necessarily moves better, but Moleb here just seems to wear it better. I know that probably has something to do with my brain allowing for liberties in “non-human” characters, but Megator is pretty darned humanoid. Maybe it is because he is green. Maybe it is nothing really, and I just like Megator better.
Of the new pieces, of course there is the head (more on that in just a moment) but he also has new forearms, hands and lower legs/feet. The forearms have his bracers and those have the skull embellishments that match his harness to keep his theme of morbid self-prophesying alive. His right hand is completely function to hold his mace and this knuckles are streamlined enough so that the spikey hand guard on the mace can fit around them. I have to say that I am not a fan of the left hand though; it is sculpted as open and it just kind of hangs there with nothing to do. It cannot hold a weapon (at least not one that came in this package), but maybe Megs is also a renowned Eternian bi#$%-slapper, the bio just forgot to mention it. I would have personally preferred a nice pummeling fist here, and I think that would have been staying true to the vintage figure. Where the sculpt does hold true to the vintage stylings is in the feet. His feet are great and I know that is not a usually spot to be called out in a First Look. Megator is known for rampaging and kicking the crap outta things and this figure has the hocks and hooves to get the job done. The feet are slightly oversized and he has some nasty jagged toe nails too. The doors to Castle Grayskull could be in real danger of being kicked in and Masters of all millennia are doomed to suffer the wrath of what has got to be a mighty funk emanating from those stompers. I do wish he did have the ankle articulation though, of the missing POA in this larger body, that is the one I miss the most.
My favorite part of the figure is the head sculpt. If there is one thing you can always count on the Horsemen to knock out of the park (well, there are several things you can count on) it is getting the monsters right. The coolest part about that though is that they can hold true to the original designs and sculpts of the vintage line and still ratchet up the highlights and details to make everything about them elite. Megator is not winning any Eternian modeling prizes anytime soon, but that is what makes him so cool. He is ugly and he wears it well, I particularly like the wrinkly face details and the nasty maw he has on him. The latter is certainly toothy, but his mouth also protrudes out from his face just a little bit to give him more of an unsettling feel. The hair sculpt is also interesting and [thankfully] not rooted. The hair is formed together in clumps that look as though they were twisted together instead of individual locks. Ancient Eternian dreadlocks? I don’t know, but it certainly looks unwashed which is appropriate for either his pre-death Horde visage or his undead Snakemen stay. Oh, and unlike Tytus’ rock-hard Aquanet do, Megator’s hair is made of a nicely flexible plastic.
His outfit is also serviceable to the throwback fashions of the 1980s and his harness is well constructed of a fairly pliable plastic. One thing I always recall with Tytus is that he seems very rigid in his clothes and that hinders his movement at several places. Megator does not suffer this in this harness (which is removable) or his loin cloth. There is a night and day difference in the flexibility between his naughty bits covering and the one employed by Tytus. This is a good thing. Any loin cloth that hangs low enough to cover hip articulation is going to inhibit movement to some degree, but Megator gets ten times the movement of his rival. There has been a definite trend in using softer plastics in area like the furry shorts, armor and capes in both the MOTUC and DCUC lines of late and I cannot express how thrilled I am about that. I know fans have been raising this issue for year in just about every action figure line I have ever paid attention to so it is nice to have the design team at Mattel on point with this. It MUST continue.
Finally, as he came packaged to my doorstep, Megator has one accessory – his chain mace. Yes, it is made up of a real chain and yes, it is kind of fun to swing around (just make sure no pets or small children are in the vicinity). This is pretty much a straight carryover from the vintage line and just on its own, I like it as an accessory. It is unique and can be used to bash up those pesky Masters or wrap up He-Ro and send him hurtling into the beyond. Now, as we all know, Megator also includes a “secret” accessory which was removed from this sample. I have taken a picture of the spot in the tray where it would normally be held, but I doubt anyone will be able to glean anything from it. So, you will just have to wait until that first sub holder gets their figure in mid-August to be spoiled, and doubly so as Man-E-Faces also has a secret accessory. I have heard everything from a sword to a Horde harness to a Modulok part being included so feel free to speculate for a couple more months. Personally, I think a Horde harness would be awesome as it would allow collectors to choose which faction (and living status) to place him. Then again, his head is removable too so nothing is out the window at this point.
Overall, Megator is a fun figure and I find that he is a nice improvement over last year’s Tytus. The parts that they share are better utilized in this green goliath and the new pieces are much more interesting in terms of sculpt and detail. Plus, he is a bad guy so he is automatically cooler. From a characterization standpoint, he is one of my new favorite characters. I really love how fierce he looks coupled with his new zombie status. I mean, if you are a fan of the villains how can you have a guy that was wanted by both Hordak and King Hssss (and I am sure Skeletor would have tried to recruit him too) how can that NOT be fun? So, well done to the bio team on this go around; I have said before that I pick and choose points and characterization from all MOTU media to spin into my own mythos, but I am thinking I am going to take all of this bio with me, it just works. Especially if you like zombies. Really, the last remaining question is, what incarnation of Megator is this? I am putting mine with King Hssss regardless, but I am not sure if that question was ever answered. I smell a variant down the line and that makes me hope that this is the pre-first death version – I want the Horsemen to run wild with a giant green zombie sculpt!
*Thanks again to the team at Mattel for making this review possible – MOTU just got a lot more fun with the inclusion of the undead. Woo!
Additional Links
- Ho, Ho, Ho (not so jolly) Green Giant!
