Saturday, July 7, 2012

Luchador Clawful (July '11)


Another one that didn't get a 200X alternate head, and another one that kinda ticked off some people!  Once again, for me: same with Buzz-Off.  I don't mind that he doesn't have his 200X head, but I do think it would have been a good addition for folks that don't like the goofy vintage head.





Lotta folks at He-Man.org called this a "muppet head" but...eh.  To each his own, I guess.  Clawful here is too goofy all around to care about just the head!  Granted, they've changed a few things from the original.



You can't tell from the pics, but under Clawful's armor on the vintage figure is just a bare, normal chest!  The MotUC one now has a red, bumpy monster chest.  Originally, though, with that head and body: Luchador.  I mean come on.  How is that not awesome?

Beyond that is also my theory that carries over here: the one where sometime in the past the hyper-technology people made all sorts of monsters that weren't able to grow their own monster parts completely.  Clawful is obviously a crab man, but he still has to wear crab armor, because only parts of his body naturally grew the crab parts!  Same with Buzz-Off, who has to wear a bug-eye helmet and use mechanical wings.  I love this stuff!

On the purely toy side: Clawful has a snapping claw.  I also loved that!  In fact, I'd say that's the main thing that made me love the figure.  There's a little lever under the claw that allows you to snap it open and shut!  The new one also is spring loaded...but that's less impressive, because there's no lever.  You just open it and snap it shut by lifting it yourself.  It's not bad, really...just not as fun. 

Still, the big claw can hold stuff, and it pops off so you can remove his armor.



Only thing not pictured is the new shield they gave him; it's sculpted to match his crabby look and it is awesome!  Overall I really liked this figure.  It recreated one of my old favorites with improvements like the chest and the new shield, and yet still retained the ridiculous, goofy look of the old one.  Good times!

4 comments:

  1. I like him a lot too. I like the more monster-y body, but I wish they left the spring loaded feature off of his claw. I'd rather just be able to pose it opened if I wanted to.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I was thinking of mentioning that, but I guess I'm not missing it as much as I thought. I still agree, though. I think a non-spring loaded one would have worked better for the kind of toyline this is.

      Delete
  2. Bugger it all! I love the muppet head. I almost wish they had left him bare-human-chested under that lobster armor.
    When they re-released several of the vintage figures in 2001, Clawful was the first one I snagged.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah I always liked that guy. Overall I think this is my favorite version, even over the giant version in 200X. This one has all the crap I love about the goofy original with some new improvements, and I like the scaly chest.

      Delete