Thundercats 2011 (Needlessly separating this into Part 3)

I jumped into this line as the show started up and bought two of possibly the most useless figures in the line!  But hey, I liked the kids in the show, so I wanted representations.

Those first two pics probably tell you all you need to know.  The only parts that move are the necks and the shoulders!  They've got that "thunder lynx" thing with the magnet in their butts, so that means that the whole bottom half doesn't get to move.  Kinda sucks 'cause these kids are jumpin' all over the place in the show.  They're actually pretty cool, on top of that, which is why I knew I had to get 'em.  I mean these are great representations of them!  They just...don't move much.

At the very least they make up the rest of the package with the cool boards!  The kids had some fly boards back in the original toon, so they come back with the same thing.  These ones roll around, have some cutters (grabbers?) on the front, and the sides pop open to SHOOT STUFF!

Now they each come with their own stuff as well.  Wilykat here has come grappling claws that slide into his open hands.

Can't really hang him from things without supporting him, but they can kinda act as weapons 'n stuff, 'cause they won't fall off his hands if you hit stuff with 'em. 

...and she gets a flute.  Not inaccurate, I guess.  I do wish they had at least given her some elbows or just molded her arms differently so she could bring it to her mouth.  Ah well.  At the very least her hands can hold other things!

These were the only things I had to represent the kids back in the day.  I think there were some actual figures, but all I had were these little army men type figures.  Hooo boy they're ugly.  *shudder* Ealgh.  Bleck.  Bleh.  Just...wash your eyes.  Hilarious though! 

HAAAAA violence.  I have no idea where that came from, but it's one of my favorites.

Now, next is another deluxe with little to no reason to even be a deluxe.  His original figure was a favorite when I was a kid, and his new one is even better!

GRUUUUNE!  For this show he's a turncoat that leaves the Cats to work for Mumm-Ra.  Think it worked similar to that in the original toon.  Doesn't matter! 

This guy is all badass.  The beard looks like it gets in the way, but you can actually lift it slightly and turn his head.  No matter which way he's looking the eyes look ready to cut out your heart. 

Now for his standard accessories he comes with a bow and arrow (with a spot on the bow to plug in the arrow).  The thing up top is a quiver with a magnet on the back to keep it on Grune's back.  It also has a stand so it can sit in front of him.  There's also some holes on the bow in case you wana add some rope.

And THIS is the reason he's a deluxe!  A massive club that goes well with the fact that this guy is voiced by Clancy Brown.

It's true, too!  If Clancy Brown opened up his mouth you'd see Grune on his larynx.  Funny note: Clancy Brown voices this guy - a dude with a long fang - AND he voices a guy in Avatar: The Last Airbender called Long Feng.  Coincidence? 

Yeah.  Probably is.  Funny though!  Nothin' gets past me!  Nothin' useless, anyway.

Anyway this thing would be best held with two hands, but you really gotta work it in there.  When you do, it's kinda bent.  Ain't perfect, but it gets the job done.

Now when you put a portion of the GRUNESTICK to his back, it gets bigger!  Thundercats is all about weapons that get bigger.  In the show the stick lights up with energy and fires destructive blasts!  It's pretty rad.

Now the problems he has holding the GRUNESTICK with two hands carries over here as well.  There's really no good way to get him to look like he's about to shoot a straight arrow...this is about as good as it gets.  I think a solid arrow-being-drawn-back-on-the-string would have worked better than the separate arrow and bow.  Ah well!  Good enough.

Now there he is with the original one!  If this line had lasted long enough I think the new figure would look awesome repainted in the classic colors!  One thing you can do is mix the old toy's weapons with the new guy.

Even more awesome!  I'd highly suggest him, but I didn't see him very often, and he wasn't one of the guys that was sitting around (at least not around here).  I love the figure, but it's hard to talk excitedly about something that seemed like it was doing well, but just flopped down and died right in front of me.

The next stuff is pretty much the dregs - whatever was able to come out before the toyline died.

This is Claudus, Lion-O's dad.  He dies in the series pilot, though it's not much of a spoiler.  He's voiced by the guy who voiced Lion-O from the original toon.  The toy is cool, but held back a bit by the big shoulder pads and the skirt armor.  Also he's got similar hands to Mumm-Ra in that they just have grooves cut into the open palms so you can kinda...shove the sword in.  It's not as bad as Mumm-Ra's but seriously - what is wrong with C-grip hands?  Why even bother molding open hands like that when you know he needs to hold something?

Moving on: Since I liked the 6 inch Mumm-Ra so much, and since the line was dying and I wanted to get what I could, I decided to get the 6 inch Cheetara.  Would have gotten the 6 inch Tygra too, but he never showed up.

She is pretty dang awesome, and WAY better than her 3.5 version, which I never photographed.  Her thunder lynx magnet thingy was attached to her back, which is where her hair is, so the whole thing is one solid chunk.  6 inch Cheetara here is free from that problem, so she poses real nice! 

Hard to see there, but she gets a magic staff in the series at one point, and that symbol on the staff shows that is what she comes with.  Neat!

Now the other junk that managed to come out before the line died consisted of two more classic guys in 6 inch form.  I never took pics of the classic guys before these...that was an 8 INCH Lion-O and Tygra.  I don't know why they were 8 inch, and it seemed like no one else did either.  BUT...Bandai stuck to their guns for a bit and made Lion-O and Tygra.  They sold negligibly, and Bandai rescinded that order with 6 inch Lion-O and Mumm-Ra, which was also near useless because the folks that already bought the 8 inch didn't want these, and the folks that didn't were left with ANGRY LION-O.

I like him much MUCH better than the 8 inch guy, but I really don't get what the heck was going through their heads when they chose the 8 inch scale at first.  Just...confusing.  Also confusing that this Lion-O is shouting.  I mean , I understand they wanted to do something different for the other release but - come on Bandai - 6 inches is different enough from 8 inches!  Wasn't that good enough a reason to make another?  So yeah, they make an unwanted size, backpedal and make the size they should have in the first place, but then change the head because they want to make it different enough to buy again. 

*shrug*

That was a cutoff reference to Blundercats. (NSFW buddy, but if you're ready for a party then turn it up when Mumm-Ra talks).  I love it when voice actors have a good time! 

Anyway, classic Mumm-Ra is neat, but his legs don't move much thanks to the skirt, and they totally ignored the fact that the original figure came with a cool knife and sword (the sword was the black bladed item in the previous post).  I was really looking forward to a new version of that classic sword, but...no deal.  He came with hands for holding things, but no things to hold!  Ah well.  It's not like Bandai wasn't already in the middle of making confusing choices at the time.

So lets finish this up, eh?

This figure seemed like a random thing, but if you watch the show you'll see where the metal arms come from.  I mostly bought it 'cause this one colored his nunchucks.

The silver ones came with the first release of Panthro, and the colored ones came with the silver armed version.  Those blue and red chucks are pretty iconic, so I wanted the color!

I got the regular version of Panthro once the line was going under, so I never ended up taking pics of him until I got the silver armed version.  Nice figure though!  If you like the look, I'd suggest him.  Heck, if it isn't obvious, I highly suggest most of the line...but once again the excitement kinda gets drawn out of me when you consider how cool it could have been.  Cut down in it's prime.

We end out tour with the head on the right, which is the final and perfect version of Tygra's eyes.  The one on the left was the second one, which still wasn't enough.

This version also came with a much longer whip, for some reason.  I'm not complainin'.

*sigh* and that's the end, until I decide to take some new pics (which I may).  It was a mostly fantastic toyline with some odd choices by Bandai.  I am normally behind Bandai 100%, and in terms of a play worthy toy I still am - but I can't help but feel that some of their choices for the release of this toyline (and the crazy 8 inch classics thing) may have added to the death of the poor things.  The cartoon?  Man, I don't know.  No idea.  It was pretty cool.  Really enjoyed it.  Dunno what went wrong, but it was a fun and short ride.