What's with the 200X Hate?

I've seen a lot of venom spewed towards October's Lord Dactys figure and Next Year's Battle Lion simply because they are 200X Characters. Sure they use other excuses as well. "Not Classicized enough" still stems from their 200X Origins. or "Toyguru promised completing vintage, what's He doing here!?" or "He's not A-List!"

I'll take MOTU classics for $500, Alex!

The MOTU Classics line began with this Character 

Who is King Grayskull?

So, the Line began with King Grayskull, a 200X Character. which means that like it or not, 200X IS a part of MOTU classics. If 200X is a part of classics, then WHY the @#$%! do we still get anti-200X whining!?

OK, Complaining about ANY ERA being included in MOTUC Classics is POINTLESS!! MOTUC Classics is an Anthology line. We ARE Getting ALL 4 Main Eras in the Line: Vintage (Which we've gotten a lot more than all the other eras combined), Princess of Power, (The New Adventures of) He-Man, and 200X Masters of the Universe (Reboot). We've also gotten extras from other sources: filmation, DC Comics, Mattel's Mini Comics, Ego-Projects(Half of the 30th line), and the Golden Books.

All eras have been included... Like I said before, other eras have more representation than others.
The insane thing is that 200X in classics is NOT about redoing the vintage characters, but instead bring characters from that era that never had a Toy before (Zodak being the exception, but Mattel made him a separate character.)

Besides, how many 200X Characters we've gotten/will be getting in the line: not counting Lazy Repaint Evil Lyn.

-King Grayskull (4 versions: Gray bracers w/brown cape, bronze, clear blue spirit for Mattel employees, Silver bracers with "santa" cape)
-Zodac
-Count Marzo
-Faceless One
-Carnivus
-Snakemen 2 pack
-Dactys
-Battle Lion

that's 9 figures out of the whole line... We are getting 9 Filmation figures in 2013. Not to mention that ALL the POP Figures are done in the Filmation Style, Marlena, Shadow Beast, EP Randor, Palace Guards are very Filmation-like as well.

So, that's the "Too Much 200X" in the line... (that's almost twice the figures NA has...)

Now Toyguru DID say that 2014 and 2015 will focus on completeing the vintage line PLUS A-Listers form Other Eras. Translation: NA and 200X are getting shafted, except for those characters that Neitlich likes.


Now on the Classicizer Machine and other Bull... I'm well aware of the Classicizer Machine, since I was an unwilling partner in it's creation.

Now when People talk about having 200X in MOTUC, they mean something closer to the He-Man on the left: Made with Vintage parts but adding new pieces where needed to catch that 200X look. In He-Man's case: a new head with his 200X Hairdo and a new harness.

The one on the right is a DIRECT Translation of 200X (blocky bodies, excessive detail) which is NOT what people in favor of 200X are talking about.

Long story short: Left pic: What 200X fans mean about having 200X in MOTUC. Right pic: what anti-200X people think when people say having 200X in MOTUC.



Let's take a look at Dactys...

I'll admit that his armor, specifically his shoulder pauldrons are a bit too 200X... due to the sharp angles. But since he comes from the cartoon, he is not as detailed as a 200X Toy, for animation purposes. Now his proportions in the cartoon were a bit weird.

As you can see, Dactys is NOT a DIRECT Copy of his MYP Look. He DID go through "The Classicizer"... It's more of a "close enough" kind of thing (which is the rule with 200X)
Hell look at it this way:

Head: New
Torso Armor: New
Loincloth: New
Tail: New
Hands: New
Feet: New

Torso: He-Man
Abs: He-Man
Wings: Draego-Man
Shoulders: King Hssss
Biceps: Mosquitor
Forearms: Skeletor
Thighs: Whiplash
Shins: Skeletor
Upper Boot: Skeletor

For a guy "who doesn't fit", because he's "Too 200X" he's using a buttload of Vintage parts. Sure, the head, Armor and Loincloth were what we expected to be new (the loincloth is here mostly because of the tail)
sure Mattel could have taken the Lazy way out and make him more of a kitbash. Cause many Vintage Characters were kitbashes, Stinkor, Randor, Clamp Champ, Scareglow, etc.

forgot to make the thighs look more whiplash-like.

The new pieces used here are:
Head
tail
Loincloth.
I replaced his armor with MOTUC Mosquitor. (the clear piece is painted in solid maroon, so you don't see the inside.) For the wing holes on it. I swapped his hands with Mer Man's and his feet with Whiplash's. Let's be honest: It works, but it's not REALLY Dactys. It has more of a Custom vibe than an official Figure vibe. Why settle for "If I squeeze lemon juice in my eye, he looks Just like the character" when we can have a "close enough"(without squirting lemon juice in your eye)?
I LOVE that the Fourhorsemen Make new pieces when they could get away with kitbashing, just to make the characters look better than a simple kitbash.

Now let's move on to Battle Lion... the most controversial 2014 figure since Glimmer and Hydron... Cause VINTAGE PURISM!!

Yes, Battle Lion is a 200X Beast. Among the Beast items from 200X he is A-List... What? You would have preferred getting one of the ABC-Giants from Buzz-Off's Pride? (Azdar, Bezdar and Chazdar if I recall correctly) and he has an advantage over slightly more popular Vintage beasts:
Battle Lion going through the Classicizer Machine = Reuse the Battlecat buck, new head + tail and you have BL...

Stridor, Mantisaur, and Nightstalker are 100% New tooling. Right now we have the following characters that require tons of new Tooling:
Two-Bad (Seems that only his right bicep and thigh are reused. OK the Loincloth is reused as well.)
Modulok is 100% new Tooling
Hydron is using a LOT of new Tooling Torso, Shouilders, Biceps and left thigh seem to be the only reused pieces.
Blade has a lot of new tooling.  The unnamed one is rumored to have a lot of new pieces in him.
There are some characters needed that do not use that much new pieces. This is where Battle Lion comes in.

Now if Clawdeen had been the one shown instead of Battle Lion, we would have had an even bigger controversy. Pink Lion, something something gay... Pink Lions don't make people gay.
PoP Horses would have caused the same reaction...

Is Battle Lion a MUST HAVE for me? It wasn't until Last Sunday... Not only he was classicized, but I'm so switching his armor with Battle Cat so BL has a more Vintage-like armor while BC looks more modern. (I can't change helmets since BL's can fit on BC, but not the opposite.)

There is still another $38 slot. What's not to say that Stridor, or Nightstalker isn't that item? I mean If I were Mattel I'd do one on 2014 and the other on 2015.

Then there is also King Grayskull... He NEEDS His Battle Lion the same way He-Man NEEDS Battle Cat.


Just because some characters are from an era that you don't like, does not automatically make them unneeded or totally unrequested dudes. I've ranted about Spector BECAUSE he has no previous role in MOTU until he was forced upon us. I've ranted about Nepthu because he was forced upon us. Unlike Spector, Nepthu HAS some historical importance. It's just that there are far more important Filmation characters than him. Making Shokoti without Masque is OK cause we're getting Nepthu... I've defended the Meteorbs, the Movie characters AND the Energy Zoids BECAUSE they HAVE a historical importance. 200X IS a chapter in MOTU and I am GLAD that we're still getting some love for it... (Yes, NA needs a lot more love as well)