Mar 14, 2023

Bishounen Rat King: a Super7 rant

 I made my peace a long time ago (about 20 minutes ago) with Bishie Rat King. If I didn't Ramen Toy has an alternative: The Rat Royale head and possibly an accessory pack for Rat King.

Made using phone rudimentary tools.
No color correction on Ramen Toy head.

Why this rant? Well there's this rumor going on that may be goving a false hope to Vintage purists.

This is a rumor and you should take it with a grain of salt:

Apparently, Playmates DID bitch and moan to Nickelodeon, which made Nickelodeon tell Super7 to TONE DOWN the vintage toy details. Super7 Maliciously complied according to the rumor. 

This idea that Super7 is willingly toning down vintage elements is absurd. Why would they Purposely self-sabotage? The only reason is a mandate from The Powers That Be, which means they aren't doing it willingly. But, MY GUESS, is that they're playing it safe. Could Super7 have done a bit better? Yes. Looking at the Rat King figure with the Ramen Toy Rat Royale, we can see that the Rat King sculpt is solid. Sure it's missing a few rats, but it works. 
The Bone, spiders and centipede... (or is it millipede?) are unimportant to me. I'll miss the Rat Crossbow, but the Snake belt with roadkill cat is pointless for me I would've hated having that stupid belt as a non-removable item on Rat King. 

If Ramen Toy happens to figure out the logistics of a vintage styled head AND the accessories, then most of the complainers might find a way to be pacified... it's not the optimal choice, but with the Nickelodeon mandate/suggestion of ix-nay the intagetoy-vay uff-stay, this is the best option we have. 

There is also another rumor

B-Flynn might have a Mirage or Archie Comics head for Rat King to have a more "classic Rat King" without pissing off TPTB. So, if true, then, Bishie Rat King's main issue is resolved. 

With that said, Here's how I would have done Rat King:
2 heads: Bishie and Archie heads.
Same hands as the standard figure, 3 rats, flute...
So, I eliminated a head, swapped the other, and kept the rest of the accessories. 
I would add: 2 more rats, a staff made out of the broken pole of a Footski... flags would be optional:
Obviously it's a nod to Turtles in Time. It also acts as a "king's scepter", and as a weapon. The final accessory would be a special rat that can cling to the top of the "scepter". 

But that's what I'd do if I was working with S7 to make a Rat King figure pop... but mow I have to work with what I have to make the existing Rat King Cooler: 
This is what I'm working with. So how do I start? RATS...
Unfortunately, I found the perfect set of rats:
40 rats about an inch in length not counting their tails for about $16... problem is that they don't ship to Puerto Rico, so I have to look for more expensive options with less rats. 3 rats is too little for a Rat King... minimum he needs to have 7 rats: how did I get to that number?
1 rat on the Vintage Crossbow, 2 Rats on the Grappling Hook, 3 white rats on his body sculpt and 1 brown rat on his body sculpt. That makes it 7 rats.

Now that theoretically I finished the rat problem, I have to tackle the next area:
WHAT ELSE CAN I ADD?
I reread I, Monster (Tales of the TMNT#4) and Rat King knocked Mike with a piece of wood.
Since I don't have Wrestling Figures to pilfer a piece of wood and I don't want to use an actual piece of wood, well...
Figures Toy Company, has a piece of wood available.

To recap: Extra rats and a piece of wood... *IF* Super7 does make a Mirage or Archie Comics head for Rat King, a Mirage or Mirage-esque Rat King would be completed.

Now assuming that we don't get a classic head and we only get Bishie Rat King, I still have a couple of aces in the hole. The easiest would be buying the kit from Ramen Toy, but this is me we're talking about. I'm going to bite more than I can chew and make a shitty custom head.
I'd need to check my fodder boxes before heading down to 3rd party MOTUC Casts... also, i need to get procreate for sculpting parts. I'm hoping for the fodder boxes not failing me since it's easier to deal with than 3rd party resin casts. 

Now mow, I know that most of these efforts have been in making a somewhat more Classic Rat King... which is what pretty much everyone will try to do... including myself... to an extent.

But I still need to find a way to spice up, Bishie Rat King. So let's recap: there are 3 Rat Kings in the Neftyverse: Rat King I who is basically Mirage Rat King and he's dead. Rat King II who is Toon Inspired and has a bit of Spider-Man inspired elements.
Rat King III, Bishie Rat King is the son of the First one, who is hellbent on killing all pretenders to the title of Rat King.

Visually I need to make distinctions between each figure... so here I go:

RK1: IF S7 makes a Mirage or Archie head, he gets that. If not, I'll have to make a custom head and use it on the s7 body with no alterations.

RK2: IF Ramen Toy makes their kit with head and belt, I'm using that. If there's no belt, then just the head.

RK3: would use the standard s7 head and body. I'd try to get him some sort of belt or bandolier.
I might make a ratty green poncho and wire the sides of the poncho to have it semi posable. 

All this talk as if I'm going to buy 3 rat kings to make all these variations is a bit crazy, but it's how I can justify the new look. If Batman can have 3 Jokers, I can have 3 Rat Kings...

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