MOTUC Review - Optikk

[TheFallen]

I am back again with another review. I must say again, I am thoroughly enjoying doing these reviews. They have made me enjoy the property even more. I may look at including other franchises if I continue with the reviews.
There are many other reviews of MOTUC on the world wide web, most of them way better than mine, but I thought I would structure these a little differently going forward and hopefully make them somewhat different to the many others out there. I hope it works...

Optikk
Space Mutant Spy for Skeletor



Background Information
Originally released in the New Adventures line, Optikk was one of the many newly designed characters which were aligned with Skeletor, forming a model of the Evil Warriors only this time in a futuristic setting.

The reveal of Optikk caused a lot of unrest in the collector community solely because some people were annoyed he would be released as the monthly subscription when they had no interest in the character or the NA franchise. Early in the conception of the MOTUC line it was announced that all franchises, MOTU, PoP, NA, 200x would fall under the MOTUC banner. This didn’t sit well with some people as they felt they were bullied into buying a subscription to secure the figures they wanted, only to get a figure they didn’t want. However, this still didn’t stop Optikk selling out within record time when he was eventually released.

Character Information
The bios on the back of the packaging are used to help bridge the gap between all franchises and include everything into one cohesive story. This is a huge undertaking and has caused its own amount of controversy.

In the bio for Optikk it states his real name can only be pronounced with a series of blinks. This is rather amusing as Optikk’s head is just an eyeball and he doesn’t have an eyelid. Optikk uses his “Spy eye” to see through the dense fog of his home planet, Denebria. As part of Skeletor’s rag tag bunch of mutants and outcasts, the Space Mutants, Optikk has been tasked to keep an eye on He-Man and the other Galactic Protectors of Primus.

Sculpt & Design
This is where the argument of Optikk in the MOTUC line is truly flawed. As a figure, Optikk is one of the best to date. He has an incredible look that borrows heavily from the original NA design but builds on it to give it its own distinctiveness. His head is actually an eye ball which I think makes him look quite menacing and very unique.

Optikk has a nice bronze metal colour with silver highlights on the rivets. The cabling on the mechanical parts of his armour is painted in red. He also has a semi-transparent green iris on his head/eyeball with a dark black pupil and red painted highlights which is based on the vintage head.

Like many of the other figures, Optikk shares most of the same tooling of another figure. The arms, torso and legs are from Trap Jaw and are all reused effectively. The only new pieces of this figure are for the waist, head and armour.

Just looking at how the armour has been designed it is easy to see how Man-E-Faces will eventually look which truly does question the validity of the original argument of having Optikk in the line. Sure it is not Man-E-Faces but the look is very similar.



Accessories
Optikk comes with a second head which is also semi-transparent but this time it is has an orange iris again with a dark black pupil and the same painted red highlights. I actually prefer the green vintage head as it stands out more and breaks up the colour of the figure.



Optikk also comes with a silver Proton Neutralizer rifle, which is based on the original vintage design, and a silver shield imbedded with a red coloured orb. The rifle has a very sci-fi look to it which works well for Optikk. The shield almost looks like a satellite dish but still looks good when attached to Optikk.



Final Thought
I feel the negativity towards Optikk by some people is unjust as the figure fits in well with the other minions of Skeletor. The figure has a very unique look with some sections looking very similar to what the MOTUC Man-E-Faces will eventually look like. As I said earlier, the figure still sold out in record time proving that the line is successful enough to warrant the inclusion of the other franchises.

I personally do not have any issue with Optikk in MOTUC because I am more than happy to have this figure in my collection, as well as any other figures from other eras.



Thank you for reading. All comments and criticisms are welcomed.