Toywise, Faker is nothing more than a Lazy Repaint of He-Man with a cute little tampo while wearing Skeletor's armor... Repainted, of course. In my Faker Toy Review, linked above, I say the following:
My only gripe with Faker is that once Again Mattel stuck TOO close to the vintage Recipe. On some characters they add weapons or Alternate heads... Here a Terminator-esque Battle Damaged head or an Orange Axe and Shield would have been great.
We DID get the Orange Axe and Shield in Weapons Pack #2!! We still have not received THE ONE Head that will make Faker POP! in Classics. And this kinda shows the problem with Mattel... They keep sticking too close to the vintage recipe (Logistics, lack of vision, etc.)
But I have to commend them at the same time for the half-baked effort they put for a TRU SDCC Exclusive pack.
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| at the same time this is a big F-U... err Attitude Adjustment towards fans who couldn't get this figure. |
I said it's half-baked because the body is the basic Faker buck with the BA Skeletor Armor... but in Orange. Seriously, they should have gone FULL BA Body here for him.
While Variants are off-the-table, Faker NEEDS Variants in order to keep up with the Evil Robotic Doppelgänger of He-Man thing. Insert Rant about update packs in 3... 2... 1...
Faker Update packs would be the best thing Mattel could do right now for the Vintage inspired variants.
a Dragon Punch or Thunder Blaster Faker figure would be cool... If he ends up with a DB Skeletor armor repainted then his dragon should be purple with green Spikes... For no reason at all...
OK OK, it IS a reference to a toyline from the brothers from Rhode Island intended for Little Girls!! Besides it wouldn't be the first time MOTU/POP has taken a jab at them. (By them I mean toylines from the Rhode Island Bros.)
Then again a Flying Claws or Terror Fists Faker would be cool as well...
BUT That would be the cheap and lazy way out...
Then again there IS another Cheap and somewhat Lazy way to make Faker Variants in Classics. It requires new Sculpts, but the designs already exist... I'm talking 200X Variants!!!
The reason for this is simple: They serve two functions.
-It validates certain variants from the 200X Toyline as part of the canon.
-200X fans could swap armor and give them to He-Man.
Now which variants to choose?
I'll start with Mega-Punch He-Man as the template For Faker's "Thunder-Punch"
New Torso Armor piece (Slip-On like Mer-Man's) New Mega-Punch Gauntlets, Jitsu's sword.
That's it! the rest can be good ol' Vanilla Faker.
The next Logical step would be the Equivalent to Flying Fists He-Man... but that figure sucks ass!
I'll go with Shield Strike He-Man instead:
OK this one kinda requires a repainted buck... Dem pants!! But I think we could sacrifice the pants just to get these two Armors...
New Sword, New Shield, new "secret Spear" (Missile in the 200X toy), new slip-on armor, Space Ace Loincloth is close enough...
Or...
Faker 2.0... Think of him as a Vykron-esque deluxe Faker... One Faker Body (no pants... cause screw pants) I'd give him the Magenta Armor from the Cardback
Everything same as the Old Faker, but with 2 tiny differences. Detachable arms like Trap-Jaw and 1 extra head. the "Terminator Head".
Then we add the stuff for the Mega-Punch, Shield Strike, AND An Orange BA He-Man Armor with BA Skeletor Plates (BA Faker 2.0 which keeps the DCUCvsMOTUC BA Faker special, while allowing everyone else a chance at BA Faker.)
Now there is the New Adventures Faker... Who doesn't exist, but if He-Man moves on to Primus with his NA Look, then we kinda need a Faker to match. And yes, he should have the NA He-Man buck and NA Skeletor Armor... Hell, I'd go out of the way to give him the Cape AND a second head based on the Preternia Disguise He-Man in Faker Colors just cause FAKER!!
I know, listing variants is cute and very unlikely to happen (New characters taking priority and all that) but Faker needs some Oomph! as a character... It's really sad that the Most complex treatment of this character has been on a Robot Chicken Sketch...
That's just wrong... Here's how I see Faker working in future media. Normal Robot, Robot + Magic; it doesn't really matter. The point is that he CAN Look like He-Man, it can THINK and ACT Like He-Man and while he's not AS STRONG AS He-Man he has to be far stronger than the average warrior.
Faker's character development should be explored AFTER his first defeat by the Real He-Man. Then his motivation should be DEFEAT The Original and prove his superiority over He-Man. As a Villain he shouldn't be an Every day villain like Beastman or Evil Lyn. He should be used every now and then. Not too often, otherwise his appeal will diminish. Each New Appearance would bring a wardrobe change... (Buy the toys dammit!!)
Now if he can look just like He-Man why not have him be in He-Man mode all the time? That is a valid concern that can be justified by the "Chameleon Technology/Spell"(depends on which route they go with) on Faker being faulty and impossible to fix. I'd have it have this flaw: If he's on He-Man Mode then his power is less than in Faker mode. Power that he can be using to boost his abilities is being used to make the disguise. Makes sense, right? Also justification for Mattel to make multiple faker toys in their next toyline for kids. I'm thinking of Mattel mimicking the Zartan Toy Feature...
The idea is having a character whose desire is to DEFEAT He-Man. He can work as both a pawn to Skeletor or as a villain on his own. Using cunning and deceit to lure the heroic warriors into a trap to use as bait for He-Man, or he flat out goes to battle He-Man. His lack of appearances can be justified as Faker not appearing due to him getting upgraded/repaired.
Update: I found out about the UK comics Faker AFTER Writing this Ranticle. I haven't found the comics to read and verify, but apparently that Faker is closer to my vision of Faker.
Update Part Deux: I was told that there kinda was a New Adventures Faker... On the Cartoon he was known as: the He-Slave. A Clone of He-Man, but with a Skull themed NA He-Man Armor... So there we go, even Faker made it to the New Adventures... wait wouldn't this be a Faker Two?
a Dragon Punch or Thunder Blaster Faker figure would be cool... If he ends up with a DB Skeletor armor repainted then his dragon should be purple with green Spikes... For no reason at all...
OK OK, it IS a reference to a toyline from the brothers from Rhode Island intended for Little Girls!! Besides it wouldn't be the first time MOTU/POP has taken a jab at them. (By them I mean toylines from the Rhode Island Bros.)
Then again a Flying Claws or Terror Fists Faker would be cool as well...
BUT That would be the cheap and lazy way out...
Then again there IS another Cheap and somewhat Lazy way to make Faker Variants in Classics. It requires new Sculpts, but the designs already exist... I'm talking 200X Variants!!!
The reason for this is simple: They serve two functions.
-It validates certain variants from the 200X Toyline as part of the canon.
-200X fans could swap armor and give them to He-Man.
Now which variants to choose?
I'll start with Mega-Punch He-Man as the template For Faker's "Thunder-Punch"
New Torso Armor piece (Slip-On like Mer-Man's) New Mega-Punch Gauntlets, Jitsu's sword.
That's it! the rest can be good ol' Vanilla Faker.
The next Logical step would be the Equivalent to Flying Fists He-Man... but that figure sucks ass!
I'll go with Shield Strike He-Man instead:
OK this one kinda requires a repainted buck... Dem pants!! But I think we could sacrifice the pants just to get these two Armors...
New Sword, New Shield, new "secret Spear" (Missile in the 200X toy), new slip-on armor, Space Ace Loincloth is close enough...
Or...
Faker 2.0... Think of him as a Vykron-esque deluxe Faker... One Faker Body (no pants... cause screw pants) I'd give him the Magenta Armor from the Cardback
Everything same as the Old Faker, but with 2 tiny differences. Detachable arms like Trap-Jaw and 1 extra head. the "Terminator Head".
Then we add the stuff for the Mega-Punch, Shield Strike, AND An Orange BA He-Man Armor with BA Skeletor Plates (BA Faker 2.0 which keeps the DCUCvsMOTUC BA Faker special, while allowing everyone else a chance at BA Faker.)
Now there is the New Adventures Faker... Who doesn't exist, but if He-Man moves on to Primus with his NA Look, then we kinda need a Faker to match. And yes, he should have the NA He-Man buck and NA Skeletor Armor... Hell, I'd go out of the way to give him the Cape AND a second head based on the Preternia Disguise He-Man in Faker Colors just cause FAKER!!
I know, listing variants is cute and very unlikely to happen (New characters taking priority and all that) but Faker needs some Oomph! as a character... It's really sad that the Most complex treatment of this character has been on a Robot Chicken Sketch...
That's just wrong... Here's how I see Faker working in future media. Normal Robot, Robot + Magic; it doesn't really matter. The point is that he CAN Look like He-Man, it can THINK and ACT Like He-Man and while he's not AS STRONG AS He-Man he has to be far stronger than the average warrior.
Faker's character development should be explored AFTER his first defeat by the Real He-Man. Then his motivation should be DEFEAT The Original and prove his superiority over He-Man. As a Villain he shouldn't be an Every day villain like Beastman or Evil Lyn. He should be used every now and then. Not too often, otherwise his appeal will diminish. Each New Appearance would bring a wardrobe change... (Buy the toys dammit!!)
Now if he can look just like He-Man why not have him be in He-Man mode all the time? That is a valid concern that can be justified by the "Chameleon Technology/Spell"(depends on which route they go with) on Faker being faulty and impossible to fix. I'd have it have this flaw: If he's on He-Man Mode then his power is less than in Faker mode. Power that he can be using to boost his abilities is being used to make the disguise. Makes sense, right? Also justification for Mattel to make multiple faker toys in their next toyline for kids. I'm thinking of Mattel mimicking the Zartan Toy Feature...
The idea is having a character whose desire is to DEFEAT He-Man. He can work as both a pawn to Skeletor or as a villain on his own. Using cunning and deceit to lure the heroic warriors into a trap to use as bait for He-Man, or he flat out goes to battle He-Man. His lack of appearances can be justified as Faker not appearing due to him getting upgraded/repaired.
Update: I found out about the UK comics Faker AFTER Writing this Ranticle. I haven't found the comics to read and verify, but apparently that Faker is closer to my vision of Faker.
Update Part Deux: I was told that there kinda was a New Adventures Faker... On the Cartoon he was known as: the He-Slave. A Clone of He-Man, but with a Skull themed NA He-Man Armor... So there we go, even Faker made it to the New Adventures... wait wouldn't this be a Faker Two?
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