Friday, October 15, 2021

Action Figure Review: Leech #89 from POP! Retro Toys: Masters of the Universe by Funko

 
   
   FYE carries lots of cool Masters of the Universe stuff like Beast Man's Ravenous Habanero hot sauce and exclusive POP! vinyls and a month or so ago they began shipping their exclusive Leech POP! vinyl. Leech is another member of the Evil Horde and along with Grizzlor, Mantenna, and Hordak he completes the four basic Horde members from 1985 in POP! form (Modulok was released a bit later though we still need him in POP! for). Leech is a creepy guy and a very memorable figure from the vintage line. To reflect his ability to drain energy from his foes the vintage Leech toy had a suction cup mouth that could stick to stuff (like skin!) via a pump activated by a button on his back. Funko didn't give this POP! vinyl an action feature but they did recreate his weird, flat front jaw. What do you think? Do you like when the oddities of the figure that existed because of the action feature are recreated or would you have rather had just had a regular mouth? Let's discuss this and more as we check out Leech after the break...


The Facts:

Height: 4 inches

Articulation: Swivel head.

Accessories: None

Non-Scalper Price: $15 dollars  










The Positives:


* Like most other POP! vinyls Leech has a swivel neck and stands in place just fine. He's in a fairly neutral pose with his left arm casually out to the side and his crossbow wielding right arm pointed down. 



* Leech has a great paintjob and a lot of nice detail on his sculpt. The Horde emblems on his chest, shoulder band, and boots are neatly painted and definitely show off his Horde price loud and proud. He's also got some great looking suction up styled hands and feet. Icky!



* Leech's head looks really fearsome from the side. I love his unusual appearance and his menacing red eyes. His teeth are pretty gnarly, too. Imagine getting bitten by this guy!


* The front of Leech's mouth is a flat, suction cup like piece similar to the vintage toy. The print on the flat front looks almost the same as the vintage toy's print which is kind of a neat tribute. I'm a bit mixed on it, though, but I'll get to that in a minute.











* Even the back of Leech has excellent detail including his armored torso, shoulders, and spine. 

 
* While I've never loved the vintage crossbows for the Horde members (they're boring accessories) I won't fault an updated toy for reusing the concept since it's kind of what we expect. Leech's crossbow is red and does a pretty nice job of capturing the look of the vintage accessory.






The Negatives:

* Last year Funko began releasing the Masters of the Universe POP! vinyls under the Retro Toys banner rather than under the Television banner. Pretty much all of the figures are now very faithful to the vintage toys but that's not necessarily a positive when it comes to something like Leech's mouth. Leech's weird, flat mouth was a necessity because of the action feature and the limitations of the time. I'm not sure I prefer this limitation carried over to a modern toy rather than a standard sculpted mouth, do you?

   Despite my mixed feelings over Funko replicating the weird mouth/ suction cup of the vintage toy, I really do like Leech. He's a Great Funko POP! with lots of detail and a very unique look. Hopefully Funko will release another Hordak in the near future to boss him around as the original POP! Hordak #21 from 2013 is really expensive now. He's also very much a Filmation Hordak, so we need one based on the vintage toy to boss the newer POP! Horde members around. I really do believe Funko will get around to completing the vintage line someday as they're making great progress. 


Leech hasn't gotten much toy attention lately. The only other Leech toy I've reviewed is the M.U.S.C.L.E. slime colored Leech.

For more POP! Retro Toys reviews check out the following:






4 comments:

  1. One of my top 5 MOTU figures of all time!

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    1. I love how everyone has such different lists when it comes to their favorite MOTU figures! Leech is a really cool figure and though he's not in my top five I do remember loving to mess around with his suction cup mouth as a kid. It was just so bizarre!

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  2. was past my time w/the franchise back in the day, but this is a fun mini

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    1. Gosh, if you were out before the Horde you missed a lot! I wasn't born until 1983 so the Horde was already well established when I was into MOTU.

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