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I never owned Sy-Klone as a kid, and as such, I don't have any real attachment to the character. I was also always a bit confused by him - did the "klone" part of his name mean he was some sort of weird clone of He-Man? His face did - and does - look a lot like He-Man. I realize Mattel needed to make the figure's name trademarkable somehow, but by introducing the "clone" question, it confused some of us kids.
I was however quite fond of the "Mo2K" version, which introduced a sort of cyberpunk street samurai look to the character. The new Classics version is of course based on the vintage Sy-Klone, with the small addition of the '03-style hula hoop.
Protector of the Legacy Stones and the Last Defender of Anwat Gar, Sy-Klone joined the Masters of the Universe after the stones were destroyed and his mission completed. He wears the last remaining TECH vest armor created by his Gar ancestors
to terrorize Eternia after the Great Wars. Its built-in wind rockets allow the user to create powerful vortexes of spinning energy as a defensive weapon or to fly through the air. Sy-Klone has upgraded his armor to also include a cosmic radar which lets him sense the physical presence of evil long before others. Sy-Klone's wind powers and radar chest make him combat ready!
Man, Sy-Klone is yellow! The bright contrast of yellow and blue pops like crazy on the shelf; you're always going to be able to find Sy-Klone in your collection. As you'd expect, his colors are a closer match to the vintage figure than the 2003 one, which used more faded shades of yellow and blue. The paint applications on Sy-Klone are, as is often the case for MotUC, minimal. But the lines are fairly clean and even, and there is nothing glaringly wrong.
As mentioned, Sy-Klone is based closely on the vintage figure. That said, compared to many MotUC figures he has quite a few new parts; only his shoulders, thighs, upper knees, and feet are re-uses. Everything else is a brand-new sculpt. The sculpting is solid as expected with the Four Horsemen, right down to the sort-of-looks-like-He-Man head.
This is also the first time we've seen the Horsemen sneak
a non-functional reference to an action feature into a sculpt. [you forget, Optikk had one too --ed.] The dial on the back of Sy-Klone's belt is fairly innocuous, but it opened the door for the more annoying dial on Hurricane Hordak. The Horsemen should make more of an effort to stylize these sort of touches, as they did on the Mo2K line. That said, if Mattel had, at any point, considered actually implementing the spinning feature, then we might have expected the Horsemen to sculpt this dial. Then, when they decided not to go with the feature, the dial became a static part of the sculpt.
It's somewhat surprising that Mattel allowed the Horsemen to sculpt a new torso for Sy-Klone rather than trying to work one of the
rubbery "armor" pieces like many other figures with unique torsos, but here's our theory on that: we're going to see a Strobo figure sooner rather than later. Strobo was basically Sy-Klone with Zodac's head and King Randor's cape, and he appeared in the fall 1988 issue of the official He-Man magazine. Sy-Klone does have the full-fledged lenticular sticker of the vintage figure (we tried to get a couple of decent photos of it in action, but it proved difficult to capture).
To mimic the "fins" on the vintage Sy-Klone's
arms while retaining the arm articulation, the Horsemen attached the fins on the bicep section while keeping them from touching the shoulder or forearm. The fins are slightly bent at the bottom, and it's not clear whether that was intentional, based on the assumption that most of the time he would be posed with his arms bent, or a production flaw.
Sy-Klone features the standard MotUC articulation: a balljointed head, swivel/hinge shoulders, swivel biceps, hinged elbows, swivel wrists, hinged abdomen, swivel waist, swivel/hinge hips, swivel thighs, hinged knees and ankles, and "rocker" ankles. They have a decent amount of flexibility,
something that seems to come and go on this line.
I actually wish they'd found a way to incorporate the spinning action feature into this particular figure, for two reasons: first, it's a relatively unobtrusive feature in terms of causing problems with the sculpt; and second, with the disc around the chest it would have looked decidedly cool.
Sy-Klone comes with his vintage "cosmic shield" and a removable "battle ring." The shield is a new sculpt, but the fun is really the battle ring. Not only can it be configured in a few different ways on Sy-Klone's back, but it can also be removed and placed in his hands for a variety of poses. I'll admit I wasn't that excited for Sy-Klone, but after playing around with him for a bit, I came to really enjoy the battle ring; it's what makes this figure fun.
From a design standpoint, I love the way the Mo2K disc was integrated into the character. Unlike the 2003 figure, whose disc ostensibly was supposed to fall over his shoulders (but bent at an angle instead), the disc is not only removable, but it can be posed in a few different positions on the back, including straight up and around the torso like a hula hoop.
As I've mentioned before, many of my figures with Keldor feet are often bent at the middle, meaning the foot won't sit flush with the ground. This is presumably because the feet are yanked out of the mold too fast, while they're still warm. Sy-Klone has a slight touch of this problem, but it's scarcely noticeable, unlike earlier figures.
Sy-Klone is a classic MotU figure, and the Horsemen have done right by him as always. The addition of the battle ring adds a ton of value to what was a fairly average figure, bringing him just above average.
-- 07/18/11
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