Octavia has my favorite design of all the Horde characters in She-Ra. I've mentioned in these reviews before that I have a penchant for characters with unnatural skin tones. Octavia definitely fits the bill in this case. I also have a great love for anthropomorphic characters and this hybrid fish/octopus design is amazing. I may love Octavia's design, but her presence in the cartoon was unfortunately marred by a horrendous voice. A lot of the She-Ra characters had crazy voices, but Octavia sounded like Catra gagging on phlegm with a mouthful of marbles. It was pretty ridiculous. Octavia only appeared in two episodes of the show but still managed to make quite an impression on me as a kid. An action figure of her wasn't even something I had thought possible. Between the initial restriction against Filmation characters and her blink-and-you-miss-her cartoon presence, I figured she was a pipe dream. This figure though, wow, this is definitely not one of those "well, I'm just glad we got her" appreciative reviews. She is truly stunning. Possibly the coolest and most dynamic girl in my MOTUC collection. Let's check her out below!
So I had my Octavia figure shipped to my office, and I happened to be chatting with a coworker when the package was delivered to my desk. Apparently I got noticeably giddy which prompted the question: "What's in the box?" "You don't understand how excited I am about this.. it's a toy of an Octopus woman." "You mean... like.. from The Little Mermaid?"
Octavia comes with a ton of accessories. Four detachable tentacles, four very horde-like swords, and a crossbow with a cool squid-like motif.
The tentacles are hard and not bendable. Each of them has elbow-like joint at its connection point and an anchor peg that acts as a swivel joint when it's attached to her back. The sculpts of the tentacles are all unique and create a variety of different posing options. Altering which tentacles are anchored in which hole also adds a ton of variation. They are all interchangeable and easily attached and reattached (although it is difficult to maneuver around her hair if you don't remove her head first).
She poses pretty well and her tentacles give you an added ability to counterbalance her. My only issue with this figure is that she has really loose ankle joints. I haven't tried tightening them with some applied heat, but I'm going to have to attempt something, because with those tentacles she's going to take down the whole Rebellion if (when) she topples.
Here are a few images of her from the cartoon.
My Octavia's skirt is a slightly different shade of yellow than her tunic. Not sure how common of an occurrence this is.
Time for a Group Shot!
Cheers!
Great review man!
ReplyDeleteThanks it was a fun one to write!
DeleteI agree! What a wonderful and unexpected choice from the MOTU line. She is the figure I never knew I always wanted! But now that we have her bring on Mermista.
ReplyDeleteThanks for another great review! I have been following your blog for awhile and I am impressed with how often you post! It is fun to find someone with a similar passion for female action figures.
Thanks so much! I love having an outlet for my obsessions, and I'm impressed with how many cool folks out there love the lady toys, too!
DeleteYour name is awesome. I assume that means you're a mermaid fan? I was just lamenting today about how underwhelmed I am by the "Damsels: Mermaids" comic so far. I had high hopes when it was first solicited. I'm a consistently unsatisfied mermaid addict so I'm eagerly awaiting Mermista as well :)
"but Octavia sounded like Catra gagging on phlegm with a mouthful of marbles"
ReplyDeleteBahahahaha!!
She arrived in the mail for me yesterday. Along with Fighting Foe Men & a few others.
A spectacular figure for sure.
The weak ankles have been noted by most people who received the figure. Mine are much the same, but she seems to be standing ok. As far as I can see, the tunic is the same colour on my figure.
It is a shame they went with a more skirt like look for her tunic. The prototype did have it tucked under, more like in the cartoon. I gather they thought it showed too much of her upper leg articulation...or something...I don't know.
I'm hoping we see Entrapta in 2014. She will round out the Horde nicely.
Interesting fact - As we can see in the images above, Octavia looks larger in her fight scenes. This is because the animation for her tentacles in the fight was re-used from a male character in an earlier episode.
My skirt color issue is more obvious in the photos than in hand. I think it's actually more of a textural difference that the camera picks up.
DeleteVery interesting that the tentacles are re-used, was the previous character in He-Man or She-Ra (or some other filmation property). They say in the She-Ra episode commentary that most of the horses are re-used from Lone Ranger.
Oops, forgot to mention Scorpia above! Her & Entrapta are big wants. I'm sure we will see Scorpia in 2014.
ReplyDeleteI want them all! I'm dying because I will be on vacation during SDCC and may not have any internet connection. I really hope Scorpia becomes the last Club Filmation figure.
DeleteSince when did Octavia become a aquatic warrior? (If you don't get it, Google "Octavia MLP".)
ReplyDeleteOh I get it! I wore my brony shirt to nycc last year and it was a hit :) --ps, when i was writing this review, i kept thinking that people would be imagining Octavia from Tigersharks.. completely forgot about mlp :)
DeleteYay! More people who like ponies! Maybe some ponies could get a guest spot? ;)
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