Rob Bricken of Topless Robot, a Masters of the Universe fan who’s nonetheless on the record as being disappointed in the MOTUC style here and here, issued me a challenge this weekend.

You have one week to try and convince me why I should pay $50 for a figure without a ball-jointed neck or shoulders.

He’s doing this partly because I talked to him into getting the Weapons Pak.*

First off, I have to ask: why the hell would I want to encourage any competition for what will probably be a ten-minute sellout? I should tell him–and you all–that Tytus sucks and you should avoid him like the plague. But I would be lying, since that’s not my opinion, and I’m nothing if not self-defeatingly honest.

Tytus does represent a tougher sale than the Weapons Pak. He’s expensive, and yes, he’s lacking ball joints. But I’m willing to take up the gauntlet.

Here are some reasons why a MOTU fan who prefers the Millennium style, but still likes MOTUC somewhat, would want Tytus (despite his more limited articulation):

1. For me, a great part of the appeal is the simple fact that they even made a Tytus figure. I mean, this guy is the crown jewel of a lot of vintage MOTU collections. It’s like Hasbro released a new Vlix.
2. He’s huge. The appeal of having him tower over my MOTUC display is way too much for me to resist, ball joints or no.
3. Not that I think Tytus will need any help selling out, but buying Tytus will encourage Mattel to keep releasing other large figures and sets, including possibly the Powers of Grayskull dinosaurs, Granamyr, and even a new, Classics-scale Castle Grayskull.
4. They’re obviously going to make a Megator, and you know the Four Horsemen are going to do him justice. He’s a big green monster and you’re going to have a much harder time resisting Megator than Tytus. But once you have Megator, do you really think you’re going to enjoy having him displayed without a Tytus? The asymmetry will drive you insane as certainly as a visit from Yog-Sothoth.**
5. I haven’t seen a lot of commentary on this, but I actually think the Horsemen’s Tytus sculpt is stylistically closer to the Millennium line than Classics. Look at the pose, the arms and armlets, the oversized weapon–he would look just as good, and larger, towering over one’s Millennium collection.
6. It’s always possible that, for one reason or another, Mattel won’t re-release Tytus. So think long and hard about your previous experiences in these situations and whether you think you’ll end up wanting to get a Tytus off eBay later…and then do a search for King Grayskull.

The one aspect of the challenge that I can’t really find a good response to is the lack of ball joints. That just plain sucks. For me, the reasons above trump that fact, and I’m known for disliking figures that don’t have at least a ball jointed neck.

On the other hand, MOTUC is practically the only toy-related thing I’m spending my money on these days, so that $50 might be hurting me a lot less than it would someone with more diverse interests.

Anyway, you’ve all got a week to decide. But Tytus is selling out, one way or the other.

* Of course, he didn’t even end up paying for his Weapons Pak–I got him one and traded it for a TR t-shirt when we met up after ROFLCon in Boston a few weeks ago (sadly, we both completely forgot to take photos).

** Yog-Sothoth is the Gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the Gate. Iä! Iä!