I've said ad nauseum that I am aware that he is a bit plain and that he lacks that Toyetic factor.
The idea is to make him desirable, yadda, yadda... filmation Artifacts, yadda.
He's incredibly easy to make for Mattel, Since he's basically a new head and shirt... (or in my case, Head, Shirt and Belt. Worse case scenario they could reuse Flipshot's loincloth in Melaktha Colors.)
The parts that would be reused are:-Normal Male Upper torso
-Hordak Flat Abs
-Normal Shoulders
-Mosquitor Biceps
-Oo-Larr Forearms
-He-Man hands
-Plundor Loincloth (Worst Case Scenario, Flipshot's)
-Normal Thighs and Shins
-Dekker boots
All those pieces make an acceptable MOTUC Melaktha when combined with the new head and shirt.
The reason for the Hordak abs is to keep the "shirt look" when the figure is "shirtless". That was made on purpose, so people can put on him some sort of armor like say, Palace Guard armor, or Carnivus Armor and keep some semblance of Melaktha's default look under the armor. Now to spice him up a little bit. We use the bios., where we can say that in his youth he loved to raid tombs (a la Indiana Jones or Lara Croft) and lived the adventurous life. If you notice, I gave a nod to the Warrior Ring on the Brooch on Melaktha's shirt. So, he could be a secret defender of Grayskull or something (maybe a veteran from the Great Unrest who became an Archaeologist for some peace and quiet). Perhaps he may have deduced Adam's secret and pretends to be a bit more bumbling in order to give Adam an excuse to leave and transform. I've already mentioned before that he could be used to tie some other loose ends on the bios. (Thundaria, Gygor, etc.) If Orko can be made into a Genocidal maniac, or Nepthu into a badass character, then what's holding Melaktha up?
He'd be perfect to toss in with Masque in a two-pack and end the House of Shokoti. Masque, like Melaktha requires very few new parts (head and harness) so, in this theoretical two-pack could be filled with accessories since they require so little new pieces. A bunch of scrolls, maps, books are the easiest things that come to mind. but they're plain... How about: the Masks of Power, the Grimalkin Statue, a Black Flower, Pookie, etc.
Honestly, there are a lot of characters that I hear people clamoring for that are way less interesting than Melaktha. I really like your idea of doing a House of Shokoti two-pack. Honestly, if I were handling 2016 I think that's how I would handle things- 5 or 6 well thought out two packs that complete some sort of popular scene or story. Melaktha with Masque would be a pretty cool two pack. You could probably do more fringe characters by betting on fans wanting at least one of the two in a two pack.
ReplyDeleteMelaktha has a few things against him (starting with Guru don't like him) but in the right hands he's a useful character (and for Mattel, he's easy to make.)
DeleteI was prepping an "About 2016" rant where Scaling down to maybe 5 two packs a year would be a sensible option (4 quarterlies and SDCC) Guess I'll have to bump up that rant on the queue to ASAP!