Jun 10, 2011

It came from the Toy Chest: PoP or Horde?

Catra has arrived. She arrived in an envelope. Cheap-ass Matty! The Envelope was pretty much shredded, held together by Tape placed on by Postal workers across the US. The inside was full of dryer lint or something like that... No Bubble wrap just lint... The Mailer was beat up and chunks were missing from it. Then the card looked like it tried to stop a Sumo match. At least the figure is OK...It's a good thing that I'm not a Mint on Card collector, otherwise I'd be pissed! Not Cool Mattel, Not Cool at all.

I won't post in card pics since the card looked like crap and it was half opened.
Now that the Cat(ra) is out of the bag let's begin the Review.

Articulation:
Well, Catra is a Female figure... You know how I feel about Mattel's treatment of them... If not let me remind you... Short end of the stick...
Surprise! Catra's got THE BEST RANGE of Articulation from all females of the line... Second to Adora. OK they're about the same... I just wanted to have some Catra Jealousy going on.
4.5
Paint and Sculpt:
Sculpted by the Horsemen, pretty much a She-Ra body reuse. (Torso is said to have some different inner workings, but on the outside it's Just the same as She-Ra... After it took so long for my Catra to arrive, I'm not going to crack her open just to see her innards.) Her Dress is Obviously the Filmation version... I've talked about this before... She has a new Open hand that was made in a soft Rubber Material because of "Safety issues" about pointy stuff and kid's eyes... MOTUC Merman's pointy hand says Hi! Look at it! It looks like he's waving his hand!

Paintwise, Catra was supposed to be a trainwreck waiting to happen. Red on Red on Red is hard to make it work... Surprisingly, It Works on Catra! Her Filmation Mask has a slight metallic touch, but not overpowering. Her dress is in a flat red with a slight dark wash, but her belt and Horde Insignia have a semi-gloss finish. Her armbands and boots have a very glossy finish.
4.5
Accessories:

Catra has a couple of them. Shield, Sword (Based on her Shower Power figure) a Combwhip... (More on it later.) Her Filmation Mask and her Vintage Toy mask. Now where to begin.
Masks: Abnormally Hard.
Sword: Abnormally soft.
Shield: Just right.
Comb Whip: Abnormally soft.
The sword shared molds with the whip... This made the sword abnormally soft. That thing is abnormally crooked and was dented by the rubber band that held it in place inside the package. WHY? Why couldn't it share molds with the shield or the masks? Speaking of the masks. Check out Catra's forehead... NO HOLE! The Filmation mask rests on her forehead, but it does not go over her eyes like she does to transform into a cat...
wait a minute, Nefty... It does!"
OK, you CAN do it, but it was not intended to... I'm not going to risk it and ruin that mask.
The Toy Mask goes over her eyes. Toy mask does not turn this Catra into PoP TOY Catra... Hopefully Mattel will do her (PoP toy Catra) justice.

Her shield is neither too hard, nor too soft. It suffers from the same issue as She-Ra's shield (It can only be used on the left hand. That's the only weapon she can hold on that hand... Although Catra can keep her sword in the space between her shield and arm guard while using the whip!
Her Combwhip... Great Idea! Bad execution.
The Whip part should have come out from the OTHER end of the comb, that way both ends could work as a weapon. Kinda like a Kusarigama... Sadly it can't be posed because it reverts to it's default weird long prong/tentacle looking rat tail thing...
2.0
Overall: 3.67
While Catra HAS accessories, the Logistics involved to get them made screwed them up! Her hand and accessory execution hurt her score a bit. Of all the Female PoP figures so far, she's been the MOST impressive! (The shock of FINALLY getting an Adora being the exception... Nothing short of Queen Marlena and Cringer has been able to beat that.)

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