TOY REVIEW MOTUC BATTLE CAT

The first "beast" figure in the line, Battle Cat is likely the ultimate version of this character. He is far superior to any previous incarnation of He-Man's fighting tiger and he has far more detail and articulation than I think anyone was expecting. He is a heavy bulky figure who is well worth the $30 plus shipping that Matty was asking for him.




The first thing you are likely to notice about him in his really nice window box packaging, is just how big this new Battle Cat is. He is scaled to the figures, which are a good deal larger than any of the previous lines, so Battle Cat actually comes out to be about the size of a small house cat.


He is also directly modeled on the vintage figure, there is little to no 200X influence on the design, which is a very good thing in this case as the classic design is far more distinctive and interesting, with its large, beaked helmet and vacant eyes.



BC comes complete with his helmet and a large harness both of which are colored a dark red. The Horsemen have brought out lots of great detail on this classic design, such as a finely-lined, leathery look to the saddle as well as numerous bronzy highlights on the various bolts, buckles and rivets. The saddle area features indentations for He-Man's fuzzy shorts, allowing you to fit characters in there reasonably tightly.

Mmmm...corn.

There are also two straps on either side, ostensibly to hold the Power Sword, although these are a rather silly place to store something as precious as the Sword of He. It would have been nice if there had been somewhere closer to the saddle to store weapons. I would have also liked to have seen some sort of t-bar on the saddle for He-Man to grab on to. Also, there should be a more secure way to keep the helmet on, as it tends to shift and come off too easily.



As I said above, Battle Cat has an amazing amount of articulation for an animal figure like this and I am very relieved that all of his joints are reasonably tight. The head seems to be on a ball joint, although the sculpt prevents a lot of movement, which is a shame. You can completely rotate the head and there is some lateral play but turning the head or looking up is restricted. The jaw is on a hinge joint and opens and closes fully. The neck slides up and down and can bring BC's nose to the ground or at about chest height on the MOTUC figures, again with no lateral motion.




Unfortunately, Battle Cat cannot really look up. The legs are fully articulated at each joint, as they would be on a real cat and the paws are even on a ball joint and can be rotated. There is even a little play on the shoulders allowing BC to move his front limbs in and out a bit. The figure even features "mid torso" articulation, allowing him to arch his back somewhat or event twist at the waist (take that Teela!). The tail is made of a flexible plastic (but does not hold a shape if you bend it) and is on a combo ball and hinge joint allowing it to be posed numerous ways.



Sadly, Battle Cat sold out before many people could get him but Matty seems to be rushing him into re-release for the fall, so fans will have another shot to get this iconic Masters of the Universe character. Mattel and the Horsemen really went all out with this figure, and it most have cost them a lot to make a brand new figure, this big with this much articulation and still sell it at the relatively reasonable price of $30. Make sure you are ready to go when he is re-released or pick him up on the secondary market because no MOTUC collection is complete without the fighting tiger of Eternia.

Patrick Garone
Senior Reviewer