Masters of the Universe Classics - Super 7 Collector's Choice Wave 1

I just received the latest bunch of Masters of the Universe figures released by Super 7, being Collector's Choice and Club Grayskull Wave One. Besides the Ultimates (re-releases of pre-existing figures) and the Power Con exclusives, these are the first and long awaited figures, following the MOTU-Classics collector's line startet in 2008 by Mattel, since Super 7 took over. I pre-ordered these figures on May 10th 2017 and received them on March 19th 2018. Ten months of waiting...but was it worth it?

For years and years I hear (read) people complaining, complaining and complaining about the tiniest of issues - sometimes even about issues, where I personally don't even see an issue. It sometimes seems to me, the MOTU-community is never satisfied with anything and producing those figures must be a real pain in the ass as it seems whatever you do, it's never good enough and people are complaining anyway.

Yes, I have my thoughts, too. For example I wish some of the Princess of Power figures in this line would be closer to their 80's toy counterparts instead of sometimes being heavily based on their Filmation cartoon looks (which I never really liked, neither the show, nore the looks). But anyway, for the most part I was happy about every new figure and and I think most of them are awesome.

This being said, I myself start complaining now and give you my thoughts on the new Collector's Choice figures by Super 7:

Hawke

Though I know she is a fan demanded character and people were screaming for her for years, I never really cared about her.  I grew up with the minicomics and the figures itself, not the cartoon. I got to know the cartoon much later (and I'm still ignoring most parts of what they made of MOTU storywise), so I have no connection to the character herself. That itself is not a bad thing, there are many new characters, or characters that are based on foreign books, comics, prototypes etc. which first appear in action figure form in the Collector's Choice line - and I love that.

What I don't like are these for the most part lame, kept easy and in my eyes not very creative Filmation inventions (I know, not all of them were really invented by Filmation, but you know what I mean, so let's keep it easy here). So she's the female counterpart to Stratos. Fine, but do we need a male or female counterpart to each male or female figure in the line? With Stratos being released, all is said and done about the bird people, so let's move on to another "species" in the Motuverse. No? O.K. So for all those people who demanded her for so long, I'm happy for you, you finally got her, but don't you wish the designers would at least have been a little more creative?.

Did I say bird people? Well, here's my first issue with the character herself: She is no bird(person). Stratos had this overall furry, feathery, whatever looks and body and was clearly not human - so why is his sister a human in a dress? And besides: Why does Stratos have/need a backpack (at least the original toy version) and tiny-wings Hawke doesn't? I guess I just should stop searching for logic in these kind of things in the motuverse and obviously it's one of those "great" (irony, if you didn't notice) creations/ideas of Failmation, so why do I wonder anyway? (...sorry to all the Filmation fans out there... I just had to 😆).

This off my chest, the figure itself turned out pretty nice anyway and I'm about making peace with her BUT there are 2 more issues I have:

1st she looks like she's being made/planned originally for the Club Grayskull line as she has that flat and plain "straight out of the cartoon" look. If I place her in my Collector's Choice collection, I'll always have the feeling she doesn't belong there and I should place her with my Club Grayskull figures. If I place her with my Club Grayskull figures instead, I'll always have the feeling this character is missing in the Collector's Choice line (yes, call me a geek, call me nerdy, but that's how I feel about this figure).

I really think characters should first appear in the Collector's Choice line in a more detailed and ornate/extravagant way and then maybe (if at all) somewhen later in the Club Grayskull line. As this is a 2-in-one character (she comes with an extra head, turning her into a character called Delorah...don't ask, it's complicated), a great choice would have been if this figure had first appeard in Collector's Choice in a look based on her Ladybird-Comic-Delorah looks (much different from the Filmation style) or MYP-Cartoon looks and then later appeared in Club Grayskull in this Filmation look, BUT these are just my thoughts on this figure and who am I anyway? I'm still happy about this figure, even if I don't sound too much like it.

2nd complaint (I said there'll be another one) is a really bad one. In the past, I often read about people complaining about quality here and there - those were never real problems for me and though some of them were right, it never was too much of an issue to me and I didn't care - nothing that couldn't have been fixed easily or bothered me much BUT this time it's different and I have a serious issue: The really first time I pulled off Hawke's head to replace it with her second "Delorah" head, the neck piece broke. I didn't even pull hard or anything, it just broke like wax. I fixed it with some moldeable glue, but this is a thing that really shouldn't happen.

The good thing: As I had to repair/fix her anyway, I placed the head a little higher so she doesn't look like she doesn't have a neck (her head really sits too low originally, which looks goofy).

Anyway: It's not cool the neck piece broke and in this case not even heating up would have helped, because as I said: I didn't even pull hard, it just broke in two parts without any pressure, like the plastic was rotten (it wasn't, I just try to make clear about the texture). Well, I really recommend to be very, very careful if you change heads and that you don't do it too often (if at all). Choose your favorite look and stick with it.

Fang-Or

This is the figure I was looking for the most of this new bunch of four. I think Fang-Or is amazing and really fits well into the motuverse - maybe because of the "action feature" of popping the fangs in and out. Well, obviously there is no action feature as - Collector's Choice wise - it is represented as an extra/interchangeable head, which is fine, but it has the feel to it as if there was and an original 80's figure of this character which would have had that feature.

Also the character's name Fang-Or is directly based on that feature - that always feels very classically motulike to me ("What's obvious about this guy? What's his special feature? What's your fist thought when you see him? Fangs? Well, straight and easy that's his name then. He stinks? So let's call him Stinkor, he's a robot? Well, Roboto then and here's a guy with fangs? Sure, Fang-Or...I love that easyness).

I'm the kind of person who loves to pull off everything removeable and put it back together then - maybe even get a spare figure for customizing or just playing around, pop on different heads, different armour, whatever. It's a shame that's not really possible with most of these new figures. The armour is glued and soft and some plastic pieces are pretty fragile, so these are not toys to play with really (well, yes they're not really supposed to be, they are collector's items, but I at least like to have the possibility). Non removeable, or even sculpted on armour (worst) is never a good idea...Motu (at least for me) has always been about being able to interchange parts, that's part of the fun...but I digress (if you already read some of my other stuff, you know I tend to 😅) ...back to Fang-Or:

As Fang-Or comes with a second head and Hawke's neckpiece just broke, I was really nervous about that one - it really takes some fun out of the figure, if you have to worry about things like "will it break if I actually use it for what it was made for?". Well, as for Fang-Or: Don't worry, you can exchange heads easily and as often as you like without worrying of breaking the neckpiece...maybe even a bit too easyly, because the head just fits pretty loosely on the neck: You just have to grab it and it's off. But that's fine with me and of course much better than the other way around (...did I mention Hawke's broken neckpiece?).

Anyway, I love Fang-Or and I'm really glad they released this character, even if I'm starting to be one of those complainers, which I usually find annoying and not much helpful. I'm really happy of this character choice Super 7 made and I hope for the next bunch of figures being released they get that issues out of the way, so I can fully enjoy those figures. Also, I really hope much more (if not all) of those figures which appeared as scratches by Axel Gimenez before, would get an action figure released...his scratches are awesome, go and check them out if you don't already have.

Lodar

Well, well, well. Here he is: Lodar. I see why this never was an action figure in the 80s line as it has no special action feature or anything at all. Also he's pretty dark. Maybe you can say being a gladiator or something is his feature, but in Classics we have a lot of figures straight from the cartoon, or comics anyway, which lack action features, so I don't care and Lodar fits fine here.

I really like how the figure turned out and in hand it even looks better than on the pictures I've seen before. Also, I'm a fan of including more "normal" figures (means non action feature based) into the line. I would trade my right arm to see characters like Josh, Scrollos or Tug O'War in this line someday...well o.k. not my right arm, but maybe a toe (as I said before: check out the amazing scratches by Axel Gimenez on those and other characters...they are easy to find on google and you'll see they'd make awesome figures).

Quakke

I know, Mattel considers their line as complete regarding figures being based on characters pre-released in figure form, but I surely don't. To me the line won't feel complete without for example Starburst She-Ra or Scratchin' Sound Catra (btw check out my Scratchin' Sound Catra Custom HERE) and the few other variants missing from the 80s line. Even more important: The line surely isn't complete without the rest of the New Adventures figures. 

I never liked the New Adventures back then but I think transferred into classics they are great and work very well with the rest of the bunch. A shame we didn't get all of the characters from Matty and I really hope Super 7 manages to complete the NA - there are not too much characters missing, which had an action figure back in the early 90's (I guess Kayo, Nocturna, Vizar, Hoove, Sagitar, Spin Wit, Artilla, Butthead, Staghorn and a few variants), so it's a reachable goal I think. 

I admit, some of these missing NA characters are not figures I desperately want from a fan point of view, but figures I need and want for the feeling of completeness from a collector's point of view - plus: each released NA character in classics turned out pretty awesome so far, so go on and keep those missing characters coming, so we can check off NA for good and concetrate on new/other characters without that "sword of damocles" hanging over our collector's heads, the fear the line will stop one day without being complete because of these characters.

Did I say the NA figures released so far always turned out pretty awesome? Yes, and so did Quakke. There are not much of design changes compared to the original figure, but simply just being transferred into classics, works very well with this figure. 

The armour by the way is again glued. Not too bad in this case and could be removed, but it's not really meant to. As I said before: I prefer easy removeable armour. The meteor/rock is pretty heavy, so you'll have to ballance it right to get the poses you want, but that's o.k. and I love the details within the rock when "broken" into two halves.

Final thoughts:

I'm very happy finally owning these figures and I'm very thankful Super 7 continued the line. Yes, that neckpiece issue with Hawke isn't a funny thing (won't mind if you'd sent me some goodie as a compensation guys 😉), but overall, I'm happy they make these figures at all and I'm pretty sure, the next bunch of figures will solve problems like that...nobody's perfect and you always keep learning, so at the end of the day I'm a happy motuanier (whatever).

Hawke/Delorah: 5/10 (...because I'm mad at her for being a Club Grayskull figure actually)

Fang-Or: 10/10

Lodar: 8/10

Quakke: 9/10

Check out my "Ultimates" review HERE and don't forget to search Google for those scratches by Axel Gimenez I mentioned. Search for Josh, Scrollos, Bug-Eye, Lady Slither, Bandwirth, The Great Black Wizard, Tug O'War, Quick Flick, Stretch Nek and Vipor for example, they are amazing. And if you like them as much as I do: Request, plead and beg at Super 7 over and over until they are annoyed enough to finally produce those figures to shut us up (sorry Super 7: hard times, rough methods 😆).

Something I just have to say (even if I may upset some of you): 

I love that MOTU still has such a huge and for the most part loving and really awesome community, but there's something that really bugged me throughout the last year or sth. and I just have to say this, even if some people really will dislike what I'm saying:

No, I don't care if final figures look different than their prototypes, because...well, they are PROTOTYPES, but thanks to all those complaining, complaining and complaining people (did I mention those complaining people?) who compare each and every detail and change to the prototypes and ruin the experience to be part of the process for us other people, who acutally get that those are PROTOTYPES.

I'm always much intersted in the development process and think it's really exciting to see how something (action figures in this case) evolves from scratch to final product, but I totally do understand, why Super 7 doesn't show us early concepts and prototypes anymore. It's a shame, but I do understand and I'm really impressed how calm they were within the process though constantly being attacked by some so called fans.

Yes, everyone has his opinions and that's totally fine, but I read many, many comments that really went too far and were overbearing and unappreciative. Yes, I have complaints, too (...did I mention the broken Hawke neckpiece?), but the way the company, which tried to be transparent and fan orientated (which is NOT a common thing) was spoken against as if it was natural and if certain people had the right to intefere with each and every step Super 7 did? No, that wasn't fun. So thanks, we don't get to see any prototypes etc. anymore, just because of you guys, thanks a lot.

...but we all know: haters will hate and I think those people I'm talking about, never get it anyway, so feel free to leave a comment down below on how much of a bugger I am 😉

If you haven't checked out already: Here's a link to the index page of my Motu customs and stuff I posted here (so far): Motu-Index
...and check back in a few days for my thoughs on Super 7's Club Grayskull Wave 1