Rio Blast makes his Classics debut this month and comes fully loaded to aid the renegade Masters of the Universe with plenty of fire power. Rio Blast was first introduced in 1986 by Mattel and will be one of the last of the heroic vintage Masters figures to be done in Classics.
Availability: September 2014
Sculpt & Paint:
Rio Blast uses the standard MOTUC body and features a newly tooled head, chest piece, chest gun, torso, knee pads and boots, knee funs, forearms, and shoulder backpack. The Classics version of Rio Blast is based on the original 1986 figure that had an action feature that can flip open and reveal all of his weapons. This Classics version takes a different approach and you have to manually open the chest and knee pieces down and place the red guns on them.
His forearms have tubing connected to them that are also connected to the backpack, and his hands have a slot in them for the guns. His chest piece has wiring inside, which could indicate he is a cyborg. The backpack also has goggles that do not lineup to his eyes when the weapons are deployed, which is a shame and defeats the purpose of the goggles.
Rio Blast has a lot of new tooling here, which is why Mattel got a little cheap with the paint applications to the red guns and backpack. The red guns have a rough texture to them and are hollow, and the backpack is a solid grey color, which is a shame since some extra deco would bring out the details to it some more.
Articulation:
Standard for MOTUC
Accessories:
Removable backpack, chest gun, 2x knee guns, hand guns.
Overall:
Rio Blast is an excellent figure, but would need some improvements as we’ve mentioned above. There is also the question of if a cowboy really has a place in the MOTU mythology? It’s one thing if he time-traveled from Earth and ended up on Eternia, but as a space cowboy/cyborg that’s a little hard to swallow. It also would have been nice if Mattel had updated the bio from the 1986 figure to incorporate the Second Ultimate Battleground and start to get some fans questions answered.
Highly Recommended.
Bio:
Real Name: Riolus Blast
With the ability to transform from a normal warrior into an awesome arsenal of fire power, Rio Blast is in all ways the fastest draw in the universe. As the sole survivor of a group of heroic explorers from Loredos in a starband near Eternia, Rio ended up as the “law” in that lost frontier. Flung by a meteorb to the surface of Eternia, Rio allied himself with the renegade Masters of the Universe in their battle against evil. Rio Blast is nagged by the fact that he has left behind an untamed starband and he often champs at the bit to get back. He-Man promised to aid Rio Blast back home as soon as the warriors of Skeletor have been defeated once and for all. Rio Blast transforms into a one-man arsenal to get the drop on enemies!
Purchase:
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