LION-O

When i was a kid the Thundercats was one of my favorite cartoons, tough i didnt owned any of theyr action figures besides Panthro but i wasnt too worryed since the LJN toys were kinda of....lacking. With the remake from last decade, Bandai produce a short line of figures that, again, didnt live up to Ted Wolf character design. Mezco also create a serires of HUGE action figures that had serious sculpt issues...until five years ago when Mattel started a high quality exclusive line based on the Thundercats original serires.

But after series one, they lose the lincense and leave the collection incomplete with only 6 characters. In an amazing turn of events that i wish it take place more often, Super 7 took the license and reproduced already produced figures while enhancing them and adding four extra lines of characters and called it "Ultimate Thundercats".

The wait was long (i even forgett all abour this line) but the Ultimate Thundercats are finally here and they are more expensive and difficult to find than i anticipated, since Super 7 dont sell on stores but only sell using pre-orders, i never before owned any of theyr figures until now and the price is as high as a imported japanese figure.

Sculpted by Four Hoursemen, the very first figure that picked my interest was of course Lion-O. He was the one that pick my interest when i was a kid along with Tygra, now that i am an adult i know why Lion-O was on my radar all the time, the Thundercats had really sexy looking characters for a kids show. 

Lion-O is on the on the same scale most action figures now day have, he matches in size with the NECA and McFarlane figures, much bigger than Figmas and he can stand on hiw own perfectly and is quiet heavy and solid. He is articulated on the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, abs, waist, legs, knes, boots and ankles. He have a lot of movement freedom and all this articulations work really good and are really hard to move wich is a good thing, is awfull when articulations are lose and the figure cant stand.

Tough both the articulations on his elbows and knes are simple hinge mechanisms instead of the modern ball joints, soo they can bend but not move left or rigth and that limit his movement a lot. For example, he can join his hands together. Also, the entire figure is made with hard plastic, soo Lion-O huge biceps and huge pecs dosnt let him took his sword with both hands. Is weird they give him this kind of dated articulation system.

Sculpt wise he is perfect and beyond. His body frame, his nose, eyes, the shape of his face, his lips, his hair, everything is a perfect match over the cartoon design, like see the character on 3D. This is quiet a feat specially on his face and hair since no other company made Lion-O to looks....well...like Lion-O. 

Same for the paint job, his skin tone matches the cartoon perfectly as well as the blue of his tigth outfit. The paint is a little wonky on his belt tough and i dont know why since they did a terrific job at his face, his red eyes are really perfect. And it seems there was an enhancement over this department since the original Mattel version had more soter tones, Super 7 uped the contrast to match it with the original palette as well as they add darker and lighter oranges to his hair to make it looks more 3D.

The other upgrade this figure had over his original release fave years ago comes into the accesoryes: He have a bunch of extra gripping hands that can be exchanged very easy, tough i dont know why he have two pairs of gripping hands....i wish they give him closed fist instead or something else and also have an extra head with a fierce face expression for battle. The painting in this second head have the same quality as the first one, specially on his teeth and i find hard to belive the first version of the figure didnt come with this second head since its much more spectacular.

His other accesoryes are a bunch of Claw Shield. One to hang from Lion-O hip (with the Sword of Omen on it) and one to put on his hand. This guy have a peg on his hip for the Clawy Shield and looks weird without the item on it but the mechanism to add it and remove it is really easy, same for the Claw Shield for the arm tough both are......hairy and it seems fans didnt liked them back with Mattel, soo Super 7 added an extra pair of Claw Shield but this time in a golden metalic texture and paint, that looks much more faithfull to the cartoon (many times defeated Mumm-Ra with his own reflection).

Then we have the Sword of Omen in both versions, one flaced and one erect. The flacid one have the Eye of Thundera in the center and looks like a dagger. Also it can fit perfectly into the hip hairless Clawy Shield. The erect one one is much bigger and have the Thundercats logo in the center instead of the Eye. Sadly, this is my least interesting accesory since they made with with soft plastic and only the minimum of paint. The sculpt is good and detailed, but the material and lack of painting make it looks like a cheap piece of plastic and the erect version of the sword even thends to curve....

Lastly, he comes with the Book of Omens, the less exciting of his extra added accesoryes, but the scult and paint is really good, specially on the Thundercats seal in the front.

This figure is not perfect tough: aside of the cheap looking swords and simplistic articulations on his knes and elbows, i really hate the big bolts in the sides of his arms and legs as well as the huge gap on this abbs articulation. Its almost like they didnt wanted to "hide" this huge gap and bolts in porpuse, to make him look like a "toy"...or in this case, a retro toy, almost like a He-man figure and i find this strange for such a high price figure.

Despire this aesthetic issues, this figure is really a brillant representation of the character and an awesome oportunity for the people who didnt buy the Matterl version five years ago, the addition of the extra head and Caw Shields makes me feel glad i didnt buy him back them at all. The second figure on the serires one was Panthro but sadly, i wasnt able to afford his price.