Of all the figures in the line, Ohpromatem
may well be the toughest to spell. Three versions of this figure exist,
and this clear, smoke one was the first release. It would be followed
by an all-white figure plus a fully-painted figure, all of which look
pretty awesome for different reasons. As the only translucent version
of the mold this figure will probably be of more interest to fans down
the road, particularly since most figures received 3 transparent
precolors.
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I had some problems with another version of this character, but White Star Gamma X works slightly
better for me than the clear colorless $31 version and the
fully-painted $26 version for one reason: met expectations. The clear
one costs twice as much as this one - why? I have no idea. But this
one has about the same amount of paint applications, and at half the
price actually looks pretty great. The parts more or less all fit in
place and while there aren't any options for customization like
alternate elbows or fists, it was also $16.00.
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This
ability for a classic figure line to grow is both exciting and
terrifying. So many action figure lines are revived without the
original cast seeing plastic, new entrants are sometimes seen as
unwelcome pests - but not Jack Asteroid. Not only did he debut after we saw evidence of the original 13 Outer Space Men
were hitting plastic, but the design was a clever twist on existing
figures - the body is Metamorpho, from 2010. The helmet, backpack, and
weapons are recycled from the Terra Firma design, which debuted in early
2012. The only completely new element is his human head, one of very
few mass-produced people noggins in the Glyos-compatible toy world (so
far.)
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While Terra Firma was revealed to the world first, Jack Asteroid
worked out well as a variation on the theme. For all intents and
purposes, Mr. Asteroid is the 21st Century Major Matt Mason stand-on.
The original Outer Space Men were made by Colorforms to be
compatible with Mattel's line, and since Mattel isn't doing anything
with Major Matt Mason (and indeed may never) it's reasonable that this
Space Race toy line needed its token human white male astronaut. The
orange-suited figure is an insanely clever reuse of Terra Firma's helmet
and accessories with Metamorpho's body and a new head. One of the big
selling points of figures (like this one) that use the Glyos system is
that you can swap around parts, but it seems this is mostly used for
customization purposes or color-swaps. With Jack Asteroid, they're
giving us what amounts to a completely new figure just by using paint
and existing accessories - kudos.
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