Mattel’s Masters Of The Universe Classics Club Grayskull line gets its second bi-monthly release this month with a Filmation inspired Trap Jaw figure. This is an interesting change for Mattel, since 2008 started off with three versions of King Grayskull at San Diego Comic-Con, then the line had officially began with He-Man, Beast Man, Skeletor and others in 2009. Trap Jaw had originally joined the line in February 2010 and was one of the first figure to sell out in 19 minutes, and was one of the very first figures to sell out quickly. We recall that month very well, as we had attempted to purchase Battle Cat and use an $8 off coupon given to subscribers, but sadly, we were unable to purchase Battle Cat at that time and has to buy it off of BigBadToyStore.
Since Mattel had announced that Filmation inspired characters were joining the line, they’ve been actively working on getting as many characters out as they can. Mattel had already released Lord Masque, Lizard Man, Fang Man, Icer, Shokoti, Batros, Nepthu, Strong-or (Strongarm), Filmation Hordak, Plundor, and Granamyr, which is very few up until now. With Skeletor, and other characters also coming out this year, Mattel is doing a fantastic job as far as character selection getting these characters into the hands of collectors as they possibly can. Trap Jaw now joins of the ranks of his Filmation counterparts, which is also a great opportunity for those jumping into the line late and have a chance to own these characters.
Availability: April 2016
Trap Jaw is based on the 1980’s Filmation series and is painted in brighter colors and given a brand new head sculpt, robotic arm, legs, waist, and belt. The torso is reused from his original release, which in this case does work for this figure. The left arm is also reused from the standard MOTUC part. What is new here is the green wrist band as seen in the Filmation series. Trap Jaw’s head sculpt is amazing. All of the Filmation details are sculpted there and his jaw is hinged, which gives him some more great posing options.
His helmet and hinged jaw are painted in a bright pink that is also used on the robotic arms, shorts, and parts of his legs. This is certainly a nice touch and it would have looked even better on the vintage toy and 2010 Classics Trap Jaw figures. This Trap Jaw figure is also known to have a “wondering eye” issue. While this one is fine, some of the figures are cross-eyed. So that’s a thing to watch out for.
His robotic arm comes with three different attachments, a blaster arm, fly squatter, and a crossbow. The attachments are connected to the short tubular shaped piece, which doesn’t match up with the animated series. We believe that the entire arm comes off on the show, leaving only his shoulder piece remaining. This is a small thing that doesn’t really bother us so much. What is also different is that the elbow joint from the Filmation series doesn’t carry over in the toy here, and he also loses his clamp and hook arm in this release, but is given the newly tooled fly squatter, and crossbow.
For the Filmation series, Trap Jaw was given more of a simpler design than what the original toy had looked like back in the 1980’s. Some of the most significant changes from the show to the toy (aside from the changes in color) are the fluffy shorts, green belt not having the skull insignia, his legs, and the bracers. The legs on the Filmation release are sculpted smooth, as opposed to the all the extra tooling on the toy based version of Trap Jaw.
The articulation is based on what has come before with Classics. What is new is the added wrist-hinged and ankle rockers that some of the newer figures get, and the 2010 Trap Jaw figure was missing. As we had stated above, Trap Jaw also looses the articulation in the robotic arm, so compared to some of figures, his articulation count is only a couple of more.
Overall:
Trap Jaw is going to be one of the most sought after figures of 2016. The head sculpt is excellent and captures the Filmation style very well. His newly tooled robotic arm attachments are all very nicely done, and we especially like the added wrist-hinge and ankle rocker articulation.
See you in June when Skeletor makes his triumphant release.
Highly Recommended.
Purchase:
