Super 7's MUSCLE Mega Man Vs Shadow Devil Set Review!

With a little extra cash in my pocket, I took to forums, social media, and auction sites to find some goodies I had missed.  Sadly, what I found was the best stuff and the hottest stuff had instantly sold out when it dropped, and the inconvenience of having some spending dough now not then had me looking for things with big production numbers.  Who really in the west has that in spades than Super 7 right now?

I do a little search here and there, come across their new She-Ra Keshi Surprise stuff and I fall instantly in love.  That's going to be some stuff I cover very soon, but I also find that there was a Loot Crate exclusive Mega Man MUSCLE product too, so I figure for the sake of limited edition-ness, I should check that out first.

The product I find is a two figure set called Mega Man vs. Shadow Devil, and I'm really interested.  It seemed it should be affordable enough to patronize my interest, but also be a pretty solidly-themed product for those just getting into Mega Man MUSCLE.  From the pictures alone, I loved the hulking size of the Shadow Devil compared to the blue bomber, and it was only a matter of time before I scored my own through auction.

I recently received it, shredded the packaging regardless of limited edition, and got my hands on my very first Mega Man MUSCLE's from Super 7.

Out of the gate, I loved the colors, but something really didn't feel right with Mega Man.  Actually, to be frank, there wasn't a whole right with the main man and namesake of this series.  The color was nice, but the sculpt was really flat, only looking nice in the packaging it came in.  Pulling it out and checking it out from different angles did it no justice, as if the 2D nature of the game was something they were actively trying to preserve.  To make matters worse, my Mega Man couldn't even stand up, as his feet were bent in a way that made his already lack of depth even harder to balance.  Take a look at these images on the side.  It's hard not to be disappointed when it's staring you right in the face.  The shadow devil was pretty cool, however not really as flexible as I had imagined, but that wasn't the biggest of flaws here.

I've been singing Super 7's praises for some time now, but admittedly, all from a distance.  I certainly can't appreciate it enough that they have produced so much keshi-inspired products in the last few years to keep interests high, here in the west, but quality can't be this low, can it?

I'm not going to let one mini-figure sink the whole ship here, but maybe I can see why this was shipped to Loot Crate and packaged the way it was.  Certainly not the finest of their work, as I'm guessing their better sculpts are reserved for their sets closer to their store's vest.  Further investigation is needed.

Call to A.R.M.S! Keshi Attack on Designer Toy Awards '17!

Ladies, gentlemen, dorks, geeks, nerds and shut-ins, today we have an important mission!  Today, I come to you not as your rambling toy hobo, shouting at the clouds, but as your rambling toy hobo general, calling for your swords and shields to battle by my side.  Some of us will die.  In fact, since the 80's our keshi armies have not always seen much victory, so none of us might make it back, but don't let that cloud your mind from victory.  What we lack in size and articulation, we more than make up for in simple elegance, design, and durability!  We are proud keshi soldiers and we will conquer all!

We have already deployed a secret platoon of elite keshi marines, but as we all know, we need a stronger force with a higher body count.  We need a mass of foot soldiers to maintain our position and to topple the opposition, completely and utterly.  That is where you all come into play.

Your target?  The 7th Annual Designer Toy Awards!  Your enemy?  Every infernal blind box abomination!  Every fragile resin reject, with a gallon of paint smothering it's insides!  Every hollow hunk of sofubi!  Every plush will hang on spikes, to rot and be picked a part by birds!  Everything falls to our monochromatic, inarticulate might!  It is the time for the Keshi Army to reign supreme over the toy landscape and the time to do that is now!

Soldiers, here are your instructions!  Visit the link below and sign up to the Designer Toy Awards.  That's the only way you can vote for the both A.R.M.'s Stranger Minis and Super 7's Street Fighter M.U.S.C.L.E., in their respective Licensed and Non-licensed categories.  It would be so amazing to see them both emerge as winners.  Both companies have been blowing the doors off the keshi scene the last couple years and these two projects have really defined their efforts.  Seeing keshi go 2 for 2 would be a lightning strike of a kill-shot to the toy community.  Sure, some hunk of sofubi garbage won this category and some bunny-eared slop won a different one, but all challengers pitted against keshi fell to the might of our swords.  We are the kings atop of the mountain!  We get to eat the drumstick!  Or the breast meat!  Or whatever part of the turkey we want!  Just be thankful if we share our turkey at all!

Alright, Keshi Army, we charge on my count!  On three!  One!  Two!  Crap!

Crap, both categories Stranger Minis and Street Fighter M.U.S.C.L.E. are in are panel only, and not open to the public.  That's a huge bummer, and really takes the frenzied mob thing out of it all.  Leaves keshi completely in the hands of these shady Illuminati panel members, probably not of this world.  Hopefully, they understand how many there are of us and how frenzied this mob can get, if we ever get to frenzy the mob in any regard.  Threats aside, hopefully they understand how incredible both of these projects are, and how superior keshi is in general.  We're watching you, reptilian panel members.  Don't screw this one up!

Well, that was a lot of hot air for nothing.  Welcome to the Keshi Drop, everyone, but do visit the link below and vote for all the public categories.  I think it's still important and fun, even if we can't really whip a mob up together.  Maybe next year...  maybe next year...

https://www.designertoyawards.com

Late to the Party! Super 7 Comes Out Huge @ Toy Fair!

Hey, everyone, welcome back!  Sorry, this write-up is so late and ancient news by now.  The SpiderEarth family has been fighting off one of those late-winter early-spring colds, and I finally fell sick to it just recently.  I had considered just letting it go and move on, but I do have some thoughts I wanted to share about it all, so hopefully it's not too late for that.


As I am sure most of my readers know by now, as well as keshi collectors that are just dropping by for the first time, Super 7 has been quite the keshi flag-barer the last couple years.  Ever since their first wave of Masters of the Universe/ MUSCLE cross-over mini-figures were announced in the spring/summer of 2015, they have had their foot firmly pressed on the gas pedal for keshi, and this year's Toy Fair shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.  Who can't love that?

Actually, a lot of us should have expected it.  They did announce quite a lot of this in advance, but there certainly have been surprises along the way, as well.  When they revealed the set of Masters of the Universe MUSCLE, they had announced plans to include the movie Alien, Mega Man, Robotech, Ghouls N' Ghosts, Street Fighter, and others.  This year's Toy Fair was certainly one that has showed how much progress they have made since then.

On display, were the Mega Man, Robotech, and Street Fighter mini-figures previously announced, but they had some surprise company as well.  At least, surprising to me, were the displayed The Worst and Shogun mini-figure sets announced, as well as the blind bag Street Fighter figures that have me crying in my wallet already.  And if all that wasn't good enough, additional sets of Alien and Masters of the Universe was there to satisfy the fans looking to extend their current collections.

What I wanted to bring up, however, is this weird division I have in my head.  On one side, I am nothing but thrilled Super 7 is doing so much with the keshi format.  They are adopting nearly every trademark they have into little rubber mini-figures, and that's awesome.  That's exactly what I would command them, if I had some sort of wand of dark magic.  However, on the other side of my brain, I see some of these figures, particularly the Mega Man and some of the new Alien mini-figures, and I can't help but admit how unattractive they are.  I know they can't hit home-runs every time, and I know they do have to blend both MUSCLE and the other franchise together into something that will look natural in both worlds, but, even still, some of these look pretty awful.

And that's what's so weird, you look at other things coming out and there's a lot of great looking stuff.  The Street Fighter set, in particular, looks top notch, and The Worst stuff isn't too far behind.  Was there just too much work that needed to be done, because there is a significant drop-off when it comes to the Mega Man set.  And that sucks, because I really dig Mega Man, but for me, the proportions are all off.  Some parts are too thin and too long and others are too blown out, to create a figure that looks more like a MUSCLE character with a Mega Man costume on than an actual living character.  Like I said, I know there has to be some compromising to detail, so characters of movies and video games can blend into the MUSCLE world and all the mini-figures can all have a similar look, and if that's what happened to the Mega Man set, I have to question why other sets break that rule and look so much better because of it.

There are other Mega Man keshi sets out there, maybe it was a matter of separating their product from how those look.  I am not sure, but I did want to share my opinion, because things could change in future series.  I think creative feedback is always a good thing, and I am hopeful that Super 7 will change things if this first Mega Man set fails to reach expectations.  I'm not sending an online hex or anything, I am just setting up high standards for the company that's been representing the keshi format largely these last couple years.  Maybe some crumby vending machines get a pass for being ridiculous novelties, but Super 7 outgrew that a long time ago.  I would argue, if anyone finds keshi on toy shelves nowadays, it'll likely be made by Super 7, so it's only proper we make sure they are putting the best out there for new and old fans alike.