Jun 24, 2010

Action Figure Woes: Accessories.

By now you've probably noticed that I'm an action figure collector. Various of my topics here are related to them, including the It came from the Toy Chest reviews. Also, my MOTUC Keldor is coming and I want to do that review fairly. Hence the point of this rant. Accessories.
I can understand the reason why some toys are lacking in accessories. Budget reasons, the toy isn't meant to have one, etc. Now what I don't understand is the lack of proper accessories on Keldor, Namely his dueling blades.



I can understand not having a melty face Keldor on the toy, but replacing his swords with vintage Power Sword halves... It's bad and wrong! It's badong! Problem is that so far Mattel WON'T make the 200X Skeletor/Keldor Swords. Their reasoning is that those swords ARE the vintage Power Sword with "anime Hyper Detail". Wait there's more! Those swords ARE NOT the vintage sword, just a pair of bootlegs that Keldor made. Wait, what? On the other hand Teela,Randor, Whiplash, Merman, Hordak, even He-Man can get their 200X Weapons... (Just don't ask for a 200X He-man head with an achy breaky 200X mullet.) The "reason" why everyone else except Keldor can get their 200X weapons is: The 200X weapons on MOTUC have no Vintage version, thus they are "classicsized" in order to be on the line.

Now toning down the detail of those swords could've worked, but Mattel is being stubborn... (Something that they know pretty well and excel at it.) Now that I got that out of the way, let's move on with the rest of the accessory rant.

Joe collectors actually have it pretty good in that department. Those Joes come with a boatload of accessories, sometimes too many for the figure. Having a Joe figure without accessories is a rarity that only occurs in multi packs or in figs with vehicles.
I understand that their small size allows them to have a more than decent amount of accessories.

Now let's move on to the bigger guys: The 6-7 inchers.
I love ML (well until Hasbro dropped the ball And the floor where the ball was dropped.) and the little guys that replaced ML do not come with enough accessories to justify the scale change. ML was accessory lacking for many figures, except that it went BIG when it gave accessories.
Earlier waves began with a customized stand for each character. Cap had a piece of a busted tank, his shield and a US flag. Iron Man had a piece of a Stark Satellite, Human Torch had a flaming base, Ghost rider had his bike, etc. Figures that needed accessories got theirs. Punisher had a Machine Gun and a pistol, Blade had his weapons and a Bike. Thor had his Hammer. The Thing (variant) even had his trench coat hat and glasses.
With the advent of the Build A Figure, characters lost their personal stands, but those who needed accessories still got them. Chuck X had a chair (Reuse from the X-men movie line.) Kitty Pryde got Lockheed, Hawkeye got a couple of Arrows and his working bow.

I'll admit that some figs had decent accessories, others were given the shaft. I mean with so many characters that can shoot energy beams and stuff, Why weren't some of these made. Biggest Accessory sin in ML: Psylocke with NO Psi-Knife... That's her Trademark Weapon. It's like making a clawless Wolverine or a Hammerless Thor.
But ALL of these guys had a very special accessory: The free Comic. Since I'm somewhat of a comic book collector as well... WAS... now I only buy occasionally (thanks to Joe Quesada for making me quit...) The freebie is awesome! Since Hasbro got ML the paint apps, comic, and accessories have gone almost the way of the dodo. Other than the characters on the Two Packs. (some with swappable heads to make different characters and to force you into buying a second one.) Accessories on Hasbro ML are pretty much zero (besides the BAF piece)

As I said on the SF toy review. Those figs would've benefited from a few accessories. Heck even a Generic SF IV stand would've been cool. Energy blasts or character Specific accessories. The NECA TMNT had their weapons, shuriken/Ooze canister, a pre-mutated turtle, alternate hands, AND a Build A Diorama piece.

Now back unto Masters of the Universe Classics.
Some characters got the short end of the stick in the accessory department, because of tooling budget issues. (even if the accessory was already tooled) I'm talking about Battle Armor He-Man. He has his armor and 3 swappable chestplates representing the battle damage and his Axe... No Power Sword. King Randor did not get his Vintage spear, but received the 200X Scepter! This kinda clashes with the "reason" that Keldor did not get his blades. But I've learned that Mattel does not use logic and common sense on these things.

DCUC... I've avoided most of this line because I'm not much of a DCU fan. When the line started I still was into ML and the DCUC seemed Inferior (Less Articulation, less paint apps, very little accessories, not even a free Comic Book like the Previous DCSH line.)
As I said with Flash: He could've used a better stand, or something. Yes some characters DO come with accessories, but those are usually rare. I mean there is a ton of Green Lanterns and only 2 came with Energy constructs IIRC. Also I'm not sure how many come with their Power Battery. 2 Essential GL accessories and not all the GLs might have them.

There is one reason why I loved the Jakks WWE figures, the accessories. Most of the figures ended up on the Custom fodder bin, but the Accessories ended up on my displays. I kinda regret not buying the Meat Carcass from Rocky. It would've been awesome for some displays.

I wish accessory packs made a comeback. Hopefully the Weapons Packs will help me even out SOME of the lacking accessories on my MOTUC figures... Wait! maybe there IS a method to Mattel's madness... Now if they made the 200X Keldor Blades I'd be so happy...

1 comment:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete