Masters of the Universe Classics Tri-Klops Review (Club Grayskull)

Posted by Peter W on March 30, 2018 in TV | 13 Comments

Where to begin with this one? I honestly was expecting Teela to be my least favourite Club Grayskull with the issues she had. That figure didn’t prepare me for the letdown Tri-Klops ended up being.

Tri-Klops actually ended up stealing some of the hatred Teela was getting from various Facebook groups and forums because the armor Tri-Klops ended up coming with was a totally different colour than what was advertised.  I wasn’t happy about it, but I wasn’t going on a witch hunt about it.  I have other things to really worry about.  I expressed my disdain once or twice in a mature and logical manner and left it at that.

Look, I get it.  Buyers were shown one thing, paid for it, waited over a year, and got something a bit different.  I’m not impressed by it and I know Brian Flynn has heard the community.  It was mentioned that hopefully they’d see what they could do to fix the situation.  I’m not banking on anything one way or the other and I’ll just leave it in the hands of the company to do what they’re going to do. I wish the armour was the only thing that bothers me about this figure, though.

Before I go through what is bothering me about this figure, I’ll state a positive.  The figure comes in the awesome looking Club Grayskull packaging to keep in check with the other figures.  On the back, though, there’s Tri-Klops with armor in the colour we were supposed to get.  Sigh…

 

 

 

At first glace, the figure doesn’t seem too bad.  I mean, he seems like a pretty basic figure so you would think it would be hard to mess up, right? Wrong.  The figure’s articulation is very loose in places and you can see through the sides of the loose abdomen area.  I’m not even sure if mine is assembled properly as there have been reports of the abdomen pieces being put on backwards. Maybe mine was assembled that why and that’s what is causing the issues.

The head articulation has the usual right and left motion but there’s nothing that allows the figure to look up or down.  I have no idea if this is just my figure or if it’s how they were all assembled.  This limits trying to get certain poses.

The armor is a really soft plastic in the middle to try and accommodate the abdominal articulation. I think it was a good idea but it makes the plastic strip look crooked and affects the symmetry of the figure.  This is probably one of the those damned if you do, damned if you don’t things.

This figure also has that issue Lodar did where the top of the left leg won’t stay under the extra short loin piece.  It looks awful and takes away from the aesthetics.  This has to be fixed going forward.  See how things are quickly adding up?

 

 

 

Now let’s get to the sculpt of the face.  The actual mouth area/lower half is done well.  He has this look of disdain and that kind of expression is needed to match the three eyes on his visor to give the sense that this character is aggressive.  That brings me to the visor itself:  It WILL NOT MOVE! Yeah, I yelled.  It’s frustrating for a figure at this price point.

What is the point of having a Tri-Klops figure whose visor can’t rotate? I tried submerging it in hot and boiling water for prolonged periods of time but this thing will not budge.  I had to take pictures of Tri-Klop’s other eyes from different points on his body because it’s the only way I can showcase them.

 

 

 

Tri-Klops comes with two weapons: a sword and a small blaster.  These two weapons demonstrate again what is frustrating about this Club Grayskull line: seeing some weapons getting paint while others have none.

I have no idea why Tri-Klops’ sword gets some paint on the handle and the guard area but then Teela’s sword got nothing? Same with the blaster…nothing!

I think including the blaster with Tri-Klops was a good idea.  He’s used it in the cartoon and it’s a new piece we haven’t gotten with any other figure before.  It’s a great decision.  Not putting any deco on it is a bad decision.  I just looks like a clump of plastic with no personality.  Just like Teela’s sword, it looks lazy and unfinished.

 

 

 

The sword looks great except it’s bent and so is the one that is with the figure I kept in the packaging.  It is the way it was packed.  I hope they rectify this for the next wave of figures.

Playing around with the figure and trying to keep the sword being bent and the visor being permanently stuck out of my mind, I did have some fun posing the figure, especially giving a homage to Conan the Barbarian.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know one of the explanations given as to why Tri-Klops’ armor colour was changed was because it was to differentiate the Classics figure from this one.  As you can see below with both figures side by side, even if the armor on the CG figure was the colour we were supposed to get, there’s more than enough difference between these two figures.

I’m not flinging dirt or calling names in this review.  I’m just saying I just don’t understand the decisions made, how all these errors happened, or the explanations given.  I really do appreciate the time and effort that goes into making these, though and I just want Super7 to succeed and fans to get well made figures.

I pay for these things myself and they are damn expensive. I have to be honest with myself, and those reading my features, and I have to call out a fail when I get one.  $35 US with the Canadian dollar conversion plus shipping and all the customs I pay is hefty for a figure and this is simply not worth my money and I’m really disappointed.  Multiply that by two because I got two of them as I’m also a mint in box collector.  Maybe the boxed figure has a working visor and/or a better abdominal region.  I don’t know.

This figure looks decent, if you get past the armor colour, but it’s not a functional Tri-Klops figure. I have sent an email to Super7 to see if I can get a replacement and I’ll edit this if I hear anything back.

If you wanna hear me bitch a bit more, enjoy the video.