Muftak Love

Remember this weird alien sippin' his Gin and Juice during the Cantina Scene in Star Wars?


Back then he was just an unknown background alien with fur, four eyes and a wiener for a mouth.

Today we know him as Muftak.

I came across this action figure at the thrift store. He is actually a Foul Moudama action figure from 2006. But since the figure was missing his boots and his lightsaber, and since I have such an affinity for the Cantina scene, I cut his robe off and made him into Muftak. Muftak proper was actually released as an exclusive mail away action figure during the Power of the Force line, with the later Foul Moudama release being the same figure with Jedi accoutrements added on.

Muftak and Foul Moudama are Talz, a race of aliens from the frozen planet Alzoc III.

Besides appearing in the Cantina scene, the Talz were represented on film by Foul Moudama, a Talz Jedi in the original (and best) Clone Wars animated shorts and more recently in their native garb in an episode of the lackluster Clone Wars series.

The odd kitbash flavor of those first alien creatures to appear and populate the Star Wars universe is what makes them so charming and timeless. The newer stuff is way too slick. Too much computer work and not enough real, visceral, tactile and emotional connection with what's being "made" these days.

Someone had to draw this creature with a pencil, build a costume out of real cloth and maybe real hair, real plastic and stitching and glue and paint, stick a real person in it and make magic happen. Today someone sits in a cubicle and pushes pixels all day. I ask you, is that progress?

Muftak thinks not.

MIP MUZAs

I just posted about my three newest (and MIP!) Mixed-up Zoo Animals (aka MUZAs) over at my Mixed-up Zoo Animals blog.


Go check them out, if you dare!

My future's so bright, I gotta blog Slade

The cartoon Teen Titans featured a lot of colorful antagonists for our youthful heroes to do battle with, but Deathstroke was always the team's primary threat. Funny thing though, they couldn't call him Deathstroke on the show. Too violent? Sissies!

The show worked around the issue and Deathstroke ended up going by his real first name: Slade.

Clever? No.

An acceptable alternative to mommy-appeasing alternatives (Hurtslice? Blackeyeslash? Bellyacheswing?)

Yes.

Moving on...

Slade's look in Teen Titans is much more militaristic than his comic book counterpart. His costume does share some of the traits of his original look though, including the bandoleer and the pouch-belt.

Sadly those bitchin' buccaneer boots didn't make the cut! Oh well.

Slade's mask is more like a helmet here, not the cloth mask he wears in the comics. He still only has one good eye.

The only color on Slade's costume is the orange half of his mask. It's very striking in contrast to the gray and black of the rest of his outfit, which taken all together is a really cool character re-design.

The first TT figures were all stuck in very static straight-up poses, and the scale was all over the place; you can see in Red X that as the line continued the poses became more dynamic. Slade also looks like a midget next to the teenaged Red X.

Unfortunately the Teen Titans toys started weak, and as the toys got better, the line faded away. I may not have been a huge fan of the cartoon, but the character designs were neat and the toys had huge potential.

Even Slade has a lot of charm, for all his faults. He's pretty darn puny compared to his compadres, and he's standing stiff-as-a-board, but he's still a neat little Deathstroke.

They say it's your Smurfday, well it's my Smurfday too yeah!

I recently mentioned to Reis of Geek Orthodox that I still hadn't gotten a Gargamel and Azrael set from the recent Jakks Pacific Smurf figure releases.

In response, Reis bombed me with a ton of Smurfs and even a mushroom house! But most importantly, he included Gargamel and Azrael!

These guys are insanely out of scale to, well, anything and everything - including each other! But they are very on-model to their cartoon counterparts, so who's complaining?

Papa Smurf was also included in the batch Reis sent me! Yay! It's like getting Optimus Prime and Megatron in one set; I've got both faction leaders now!

Reis sent me so many Smurfs, in fact, that I just had to share the wealth. My youngest daughter already had the mushroom house shown on the right, so of course I gave the mushroom house that Reis gave me (on the left,) to my older daughter.

I think the one Reis sent me was Papa's house. The one on the right is Smurfette's.

Reis also sent a Smurfette and a Tracker Smurf. I already had Tracker, so I gave each daughter one, and since my youngest already had Smurfette the oldest got the spare. Gotta keep things fair ;)

At about the same time I was drowning in Reis' Smurf bomb, Leon of Open the Toy sent me an email asking to keep my eyes peeled for any Smurfs I could find for him, because he was having trouble finding them in Singapore.

I decided that he would love all those extra Smurfs more than we could here, so I packed what was left and shipped them overseas! The Smurfs look very happy in their new home too!

Thanks again to Reis who started this whole Smurf exchange. Sharing makes me feel all Smurfy inside.

And I think to myself, what a Wun-Dar-ful world!

As a previous owner of an actual honest to God Wonderbread (or Savage) He-Man, the announcement that Mattel was going to recreate the infamous "dark" Master in their MOTUC line really pleased me. The fact that I had to sign up for the 2010 subscription to get him? Not so much.

But whaddyagonnado? Gotta feed my Frankenstein.

So I signed up. And here he is in all his glory, Wun-Dar (as he is known in the MOTU Classics mythos.)

Buried in the sands of time, or in some Mattel lawyer's file cabinet under "silence orders," the true reason behind a dark haired, black clad He-Man may never be known. What I can give a 100% Toyriffic guarantee to is the fact that an original figure with this coloration did exist.

Appropriately, the one I owned also had the black Zodac armor. So while there is infighting between MOTU fans and "experts" as to whether or not this was the case with the original mysterious release, it's here on Wun-Dar and that makes me happy.

Wun-Dar comes with a sword and a Zodac type gun as well. Both in black and silver. Wun-Dar digs the Raiders.

Since I didn't get into MOTUC until this year, Wun-Dar is (so far) the only He-Man I have. Which is fine by me! Of course I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the undeniable Conan vibe this guy gives off.

Even though he's the same exact figure, Wun-Dar seems a lot more of a badass than the blonde He-Man.

In addition to his sword and gun (and black Zodac armor,) Wun-Dar also comes with a loaf of bread (a nod to his Wonderbread legend) and his very own"half" sword reminiscent of the swords of the original line.

"I have the Wun-Daaaaarrrrrr!!!!!!"

Insectaloids: Man + Insect = Awesome!

Of all the fantasy warrior toylines that made growing up in the eighties so magical, one of the least well known and hardest to find today is The Insectaloids!

The Insectaloids were one of the many MOTU copycats that sprung up in response to He-Man's immediate early eighties success. I had three of them as a kid and integrated them into my MOTU play all the time.

Initially considered a pale "also-ran," in many ways the Insectaloids were far superior to the Masters of the Universe in design and in the imaginative back stories that accompanied each figure. But the line faded fast. It had no cartoon to support it, only about three or four figures were ever made (not counting another three or four repaints as the line died on the vine,) and I don't think it even saw a full nationwide release.

So in all my thrift store and swap meet travels, I never would have imagined in my wildest dreams that I would one day own another Insectaloid.

Well feast your eyes on this bad boy!

Yes folks, that's Twitch, the Insectaloid Warrior! In his first release orange boots and green "skin" color too! Swoon!

And he's in near mint condition! I can't believe I was able to get my hands on such a beautiful specimen. He's missing his original "magical battle staff" (which I replaced with a generic MOTU spear,) but DUDE! He's near mint and still has both his wings!!!

These guys are so hard to find that I would have done cartwheels if he only had one arm - to expect that both his wings would remain intact so many years later is nigh unfathomable!

Just look at those "chomping mandibles!" Awesome awesome awesome.

I'm so glad I came across this Twitch action figure. My fantasy action figure collection thanks me too...

...or do they? Look out Twitch, I think they're jealous!

"Insectaloiiiiiiiiiiiidzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!"