Mekaneck classic figure review

[Spacedust]

Friday is finally here, hooray. And with it, comes another classic figure review.

I am REALLY pleased with how well received these threads have been, and how many posts they are generating.

This week's figure to discuss is MEKANECK.

I never had a Mekaneck figure as a kid, but my best friend David did, so Mekaneck was involved in our battles quite a lot when we combined our collections to play.
Just about everyone I knew who was into MOTU, agreed that the best way to use Mekaneck, was to hold him horizontally by his legs, and twist his torso, causing his neck to shoot out like a battering ram, knocking down any foes in his path.

Mekaneck can be found with his common red armor, and occasionally with orange armor. I also have examples with varying depths of green on the belt. His club / periscope weapon can also be found in both bright yellow, and a deeper yellow.

For many years, Mekaneck was incorrectly listed by many sources as a 2nd Wave figure, whereas in fact he was from the 3rd Wave. Evidence of this includes: his armor is clipped together, not straps, which was not introduced until the 3rd Wave; he was not billed in any of the mini-comics or on the back of the boxes until those of the 3rd Wave; and he didn't appear until the second season of the Filmation series.

In the Filmation cartoon, he was presented in an okay-ish light (often paired with Buzz Off, introduced in the same wave), although his voice seemed to change with just about every episode he was in! He had quite a good spotlight episode, "Search For A Son" (only of the very few episodes that I had on video for some years), where he was given an origin story (his neck was injured in a terrible storm, and Man-At-Arms gave him a bionic one) - although in true MOTU style, he seemed to be known as Mekaneck even *before* his had his special neck; and had a son, Phillip, who had been held for years by Count Marzo, and, after being rescued, was never mentioned again!

I never liked nor disliked Mekaneck particularly. He seemed like a good character, although was one of the first more 'gimmick' figures, with not so much actual character to him.

Overall, I give Mekaneck an average 7 out of 10.

Well, that's my random musings.
Share your thoughts, comments, memories, how you used to play with him, how he could have been better... anything you like related to the character.

[braxsis364]

"My memorys of mekaneck are that he had a powerfull head raming feature like you mentioned. and he could see off into far distances, "I used to use the head ramming feature against my brother and he didint like it he would say there allready a head ramming guy hes called Ramman. and "I would say well mekanecks one to, mekaneck seemed like a real bruiser to, on top of head butting you he had that giant club real threatning, "I use to have mekaneck have powerfull eye beams that could take out any foe. but could use this power only once a day. im haveing a real tough time rateing these guys exspeceily these early figs "I have so much childhood memorys of them all but ill say 8 and a half for mekaneck.

[He-Fan]

Chris here...

I never had a Mekaneck figure as a kid - in fact, I actually got the 200X Mekaneck before I got the classic version! I really like him, although I think as a character he was made more credible by MYP's He-Man series, who portrayed him as feeling self-concious about his abilities and their usefulness (or at times lack of same). As far as the figure himself goes, I think my favourite element is how easy to use his action feature is - you just twist his waist to extend his neck, it's easy, difficult to break and is great fun to play with, which for me is always the acid test for a figure!

Overall, I would probably give Mekaneck a 7 out of 10!

Take care...

[Spacedust]

I really like him, although I think as a character he was made more credible by MYP's He-Man series, who portrayed him as feeling self-concious about his abilities and their usefulness (or at times lack of same).

I quite liked how he was presented in the MYP version too, except his neck, which extended for miles and miles, and was a little too unrealistic for my liking. (Even though it is a cartoon!)

As regards as to the 200x figure, I neither like it more or less than the original version. It was pretty much the same. It was a ****** to stand up, though!

[Orko's Magic Hat]

I never bought a Mekaneck figure, but I did swap my friend, for his Mekaneck (with Mer-Man's armor) for a bundle of Beano comics!

I did like Mekaneck as a kid, he did have playablity, and I agree I used his sideways as a 'battering-ram'. Now I have a complete Mek, and I do like him, he has a good colour scheme and I like his battle club.

I like how the 4HM updated him whilst still retaining the classic feel of the character.

Rating - 7/10

[Spacedust]

I never bought a Mekaneck figure, but I did swap my friend, for his Mekaneck (with Mer-Man's armor) for a bundle of Beano comics!

That'll be Meraneck then

I'm pleased to hear I wasn't the only one who used Mekaneck as a battering ram, just about everyone seems to have done it too!

[skeletoncrew]

i hate to rain on everyone's parade(nevermind me)...but, i didn't have this figure as a kid and as an adult, i don't like him much...to my eye there isn't much cool about him, other than is over-sized(ALMOST too much so) battle club...his dopey goggles and generally unexciting look didn't do much for me...

it is interesting to see how childhood memories and play patterns can REALLY influence how you feel about a figure...keep 'em coming guys...!!!

on an A+ to F scale i would have to rate him a D-....one of the worst, if not THE worst, of the earlier figures...

sorry guys...

[Spacedust]

i hate to rain on everyone's parade(nevermind me)...but, i didn't have this figure as a kid and as an adult, i don't like him much...to my eye there isn't much cool about him, other than is over-sized(ALMOST too much so) battle club...his dopey goggles and generally unexciting look didn't do much for me...

it is interesting to see how childhood memories and play patterns can REALLY influence how you feel about a figure...keep 'em coming guys...!!!

on an A+ to F scale i would have to rate him a D-....one of the worst, if not THE worst, of the earlier figures...

sorry guys...

Well, although my friend had one, so I got to play with it occasionally, I never had a Mekaneck as a kid, so nostalgia's not really playing it's part for me on this one.

I gave Meka an average 7/10 rating. He does have some cool elements, although I agree that he wasn't the coolest looking figure. I was never keen on his over-sized googles either. And he always felt a bit of an 'outsider' to me, never really fitting in with the classic early figures. He wasn't that bad, either. Just average.

[discosupafly]

Hmmm.. you're always playing with fire when asked to rate the original figures. The fact of the matter is that the first releases were less than inspirational. Classic, yes. Icons, of course. But Mattel didn't get into the groove of interesting characters and toy gimmicks until at least the second wave. It wasn't until near the end when they truly hit their stride - making the best figures of the entire line, IMO.

With that in mind, I'll get on with my two yen worth. Mek-a-Nek is, well... kind'a boring. But at least he had a groovy neck. There isn't too much more I can say about this guy except that if it wasn't for him, we may never have had Stinkor. So yeah - his armour works better in orange, for one thing!

But Mekky ain't so harmful on the eyes. He had a biznatchin' yellow club that I LOVED to use. I loved how thick and weildy that hunk'a plastic was, and would even transfer his weapon to other characters who were about to have some "clobberin' time" on other figures.
He's a bit bland, but not offensively so. 5 out of 10.

[bcrduke]

I have a great memory of Mekaneck because he came out just as Evil Lyn came out. My mom and I SEARCHED all over Northern NJ for Evil Lyn, and we ended up frustrated as all heck one day (my mom seemed to love He-Man as much as I did). We gave up for the day and stopped at a smaller type Kmart store that I can't remember the name of (however it was owned by the people that later started Walmart).

I, as usual, went straight to the toy section (it was REALLY small in this store) not expecting to find any MOTU stuff there... low and behold, there was Evil Lyn, AND this new cool figure Mekaneck! I grabbed them both (there were only one of each) and ran to my mom - she yelled, "Oh my GOD!" -- I remember the woman at the fabric cutting counter (they had that in the back and she was buying some kind of girly fabric to make a pillow or something) looking totally confused. My mom explained the situation to the woman, and she said something about them needing to carry more of those if we were going to be so happy. LOL

anyway, he was cool - and unfortunately the victim of Evil lyn's torment all the way home that day and for the next few weeks.

I loved the action feature, which as a child, seemed much more interesting than it does now I was quite confused by his club thing... I had no idea until I read up top that it was supposed to also be a periscope. My mom was confused by it too when I asked her what she thought it was... I mean, it was obviously a club - but why so complicated in its design... I never really used it with the figure.

I remember using the head bashing action (I guess that is an official action feature NOW), but not often - that was what Ram Man was for and I loved Rammy.

out of 10, I give Mek a 4 - not because I don't like him, but because his action feature was kinda limited... and he wasn't a terribly rich character (something that changed with the MYP cartoon - which I really liked about the new version of the character). I also only remember seeing him once on the old cartoon when I was a kid (as I go through the DVD sets, it's amazing to me how many episodes i NEVER saw as a kid, though i watched the show every day and in repeats when it went 'off the air' and into further syndication).

[Spacedust]

Hmmm.. you're always playing with fire when asked to rate the original figures. The fact of the matter is that the first releases were less than inspirational. Classic, yes. Icons, of course. But Mattel didn't get into the groove of interesting characters and toy gimmicks until at least the second wave. It wasn't until near the end when they truly hit their stride - making the best figures of the entire line, IMO.

Although Mekaneck was actually from the third wave, when things were warming up a bit.
I'm not sure if I prefer the earlier or the later figures. Granted, the later figures had fancier action features, and were in many cases a bit more detailed, but at the same time the earlier ones had a lot more character, whereas many of the later releases just seemed one-shot "gimmick" figures. In my humble opinion, of course.

Anyway... back on topic...

I was quite confused by his club thing... I had no idea until I read up top that it was supposed to also be a periscope. My mom was confused by it too when I asked her what she thought it was... I mean, it was obviously a club - but why so complicated in its design... I never really used it with the figure.

I never worked out it was supposed to be a periscope until years later. Maybe it served as both - he would look through it to see enemies approaching, and then sneak up and whack them over the head with it!!

[danbrenus]

Mmmh, poor old stretch-neck was always mistreated for his "useless"power, but I ask you, if he was one of the first wave and he hadn't his bionic neck?
Wouldn't he'd be a real cool warrior? I always though that without this "gimmick" his good looking armor, club, helmet and good color scheme would've put him between the fan-favourite ones.
Let the man shine trough the "neck-gimmick".I'd give a 8.

[Matt XIC]

I quite liked how he was presented in the MYP version too, except his neck, which extended for miles and miles, and was a little too unrealistic for my liking. (Even though it is a cartoon!)

For me too.

[Syl-Klone]

When you're a kid who does have Mekaneck, the ability to stretch your neck quickly becomes way more important than it needs to be. All of the sudden, Skeletor's minions seem to always be creeping up from behind some piece of furniture, haha. Average figure, 5 out of 10. Still love him though.

[Arkangel]

mekaneck is the sadest figure ever, heroic ..... neck stretcher? hurray ...

[Syl-Klone]

I can't remember, but didn't he have some kind of binocular vision as well? Not that that's a cool super power either.