With only a couple of days standing between us and the release of Mer-Man on www.mattycollector.com, the man that would be neutral- Zodac found his way from the cosmos of Eternia to my doorstep thanks to Toy Guru and Matty. Read on to get a preview of our favorite Cosmic Enforcer and see how he stacks up to his Masters bretheren.
As always, if you are just looking for the pictures go right ahead and skip to the bottom of the article. It’s okay, you can go… Still reading? Okay then, here are some brief thoughts on Zodac.
From an historical point of view, Big Z here is purely 1980s in his classic sense. In the 200x re-vamp of Masters the character of Zodac went through some of the most radical changes in appearence, backstory and even spelling (to Zodak). This has lead to the belief that the two Zodac(k)s are two different characters entirely, something that makes sense to me.
As I said though, this one is all 80s, from look to construction: he is a dead-ringer update of his classic counterpart and is even constructed as such, he mostly made up of the Skeletor buck with Beastman’s chest thrown in for accuracy. This makes for a great look and the “hairy” chest will make you nostalgic but it also shows how interchangeable the parts of this line are- everything fits together seemlessly.
Overall, this Zodac’s look is very accurate to the original cardback art from the original line, right down to the finned arms and clawed toes (a very detailed choice, but something about it just feels slightly off to me, I guess I see him in boots more than anything, but that is just a minor and personal nit-pick). The new head sculpt is slavishly accurate to the original figure and like all of the characters that have come before him, there are no drastic departures, just updated enhancements. His armor is also very nice with cool details on the “jet pack” on the back and what look to be bullets held in the under straps (I had to check the original figure and sure enough, he has them too). I could be wrong about them being bullets but they are a great touch none the less. One thing of note with the armor- it appears that it is NOT removable, a departure from his predecessors. -EDIT- After peeling away a little bit of glue, the armor came off after all.
I have to admit that in the bright light of Mer-Man this month, Zodac was going to be a little dip in the excitement for me come May- he has never been one of my favorite characters. As a kid I was never really sure what to do with him and as I have gotten older I can’t help but think Metron when he comes to mind. I am happy to say though that Zodac-Zur here is a very pleasent surprise and makes for a great addition to my rapidly growing MOTUC shelf. He doesn’t rate quite as high as Mer-Man and Skeletor for me, but he certainly stands his ground with everyone else.
I hope you enjoyed this First Look and thanks again to Matty and Toy Guru for making it possible. Don’t forget to pick up Zodac on May 15th only on www.mattycollector.com and don’t forget to grab Mer-Man this Wednesday. Thanks for reading!
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