What IS that Thing? (Discussions about unknown MOTU and POP items)

[Neal1972]

My take on MEF is a little different...

He was once just a normal guy who was mortally wounded on the battlefield, and MAA constructed a life support system for him, which was permanently fused with his body.
This life support system is controlled by a highly advanced CPU, which is the knob on top of his head. The CPU is directly wired to MEF's brain and the harness, and it monitors his vital functions and also aids him in battle by releasing chemicals into his bloodstream.

Now this is where things in my interpetation get a little far out...MEF actually only has one face, his human face. His face doesn't turn or switch to any other. The robot face and the monster face don't actually exist, but of course as a toy or when watching a cartoon how do we know what personality is in charge? So these 'faces' are just representations of his different personalities.

The human face represents MEF's normal personality. He loves acting, and is often found performing plays. He is a noble and loyal person, who is indebted to MAA for saving his life. The human form is MEF's dominant personality, and he secretly hides from the others the dreadful secret of his robot personality. He is saddened that he has to battle for dominance over his own mind, and is always very remorseful when his personality slips into the monster personality.

The robot face (or personality as I prefer to see it) manifested when this highly advanced CPU developed an awareness of itself. The robot face is when the CPU manages to surpress MEF's humanity in favour of itself. It isn't evil, but like all life forms it seeks to establish superiority over another life form, and in this case, that's MEF's human personality.
In robot form, MEF leaves no trace of the human personality, and MEF will act in a cold, machine-like, robotic manner.
It cannot kill of MEF's physical form, as it relies on MEF's body to create the energy needed for it to function.
The robot personality is usually surpressed, but sometimes it manages to take hold, especially when MEF sleeps. When he awakes, the robot personality will be present.
It often takes a supreme effort of will for his human personality to regain control.


The monster face (or again, personality) is the reperesentation of MEF's dark side. This personality emerged as MEF's humanity struggled to supress the robot personality.
This personality feels cursed, in that the human is permanently bonded to the machine, and it feels trapped in this life support system. Secretly, it hates MAA for making him live this way, even if of course it was the only way to save MEF's life.

The monster personality, is a dark, brooding, unpredictable personality. It hates all things technological and it can be very violent, sometimes flying into a dark rage. This rage causes a spike in MEF's testosterone levels, and as a result, the CPU, thinking that MEF is in battle, will release endorphins and performance-enhancing drugs into his bloodstream, making him superhumanly strong and extremely vicious.
While an asset in battle, it can also cause problems since the monster personality can be manipulated. His supreme anger sometimes causes him to lash out blindly, even at friends.
Unlike the robot personality, there is no definite switch of personalities...his monster personality emerges as the human personality slips into a state depression or anger. MEF's monster personality will be dominant for as long as the anger inside him rages on.
Once calm, the monster personality will gradually recede, and MEF's human personality comes to emerge once more.

MEF will sometimes willingly and knowingly (but always regretably) bring on this monster personality to aid him and his friends in battle.

[Eternian Poet]

TG's Webstor blog reminded me - what IS that symbol on Webstor's chest? It's never had any sort of explanation (from what I know).

My thought is that the top shape is a reference to a spider - the four points are doubled by another four-points as the shape is overlaid twice. This gives it 8 points (4 inner & 4 outer) that symbolise the spider legs.

The bottom shape could represent a web - thus, the spider appears to be sitting on a web.

Because symbols are important in human cultures, you'd think they would be in imaginary humanoid cultures. so I'm proposing that the symbols are Webstor's armour are of some political, religious or ideological significance - perhaps something that only he & others of his kind understand.

Or - if Webstor is a one-of-a-kind creature, the symbol might be a sign of his own (mad?) creation.

[SCB]

[Eternian Poet]

Nice! Then perhaps the markings on his armour are a copy of an Eternia spider with the same markings (similar to the above)? Most probably the most dangerous (largest? venomous?) of Eternian spiders?

Makes me wonder how Webstor would look if he were black....

[Replikor]

LOVE this thread!!! Some very interesting ideas posted here about the unusual MOTUC figure details an what they might actually be for!

I look forward to seeing more!

[sirsniffy]

MOTU experts out there, has there ever been any info or content about the capabilities of MAA's weapons, specifically his armor? We see all kinds of knobs and tubes on it, but has there ever been any info about what it can do (Life support functions, cloaking, etc)?

[Alexx]

You are in luck, my friend! I just so happened to have started a thread awhile back to answer that question - and more! I've been meaning to add more questions but I haven't gotten around to it. Anyway, just check out "What IS that Thing?" and the very first post goes over MAA and his armor, which includes made-up answers (as in: what you thought it did when you were little) or any answer from the canon that people can dig up!

[sirsniffy]

You are in luck, my friend! I just so happened to have started a thread awhile back to answer that question - and more! I've been meaning to add more questions but I haven't gotten around to it.

Awesome! Thanks so much for the info.! Mods...please merge this thread with that other one?

[Barezz]

Apparently his armor doesn't deflect giant clamps

[Alexx]

Apparently his armor doesn't deflect giant clamps

Nah, his armor's just smart enough to get out the way.

[Krueger]

I think it just looks cool.

[Whiplash7]

It has different weapons and technology that was used in the MYP toon, in various battles. I think there is some life support capability as well. His mace is also computerized and used for a lot more than a simple melee weapon.

[Benedict Judas Hel]

Man-At-Arms' Armor...What Does it Do?

The question isn't "What does Man-At-Arms' Armor do?" The question is "What doesn't it do?"

[dorrmann]

Awesome! Thanks so much for the info.! Mods...please merge this thread with that other one?

10-4, good buddy.

[dorrmann]

Awesome! Thanks so much for the info.! Mods...please merge this thread with that other one?

10-4, good buddy.

[shadowfall1976]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...orsmintbox.jpg

Well, lets take a look! I'd love to post the original with it as well, but that's probably one of the first things I lost back in the day.

Anyway, I'm going with mint box!

Where he foolishly kept the Acid vial before tossing it, now it holds his Keldor eyeballs....kind of like in Hot Shots....

Ya know, I was thinking of mentioning that, but I left it alone due to it's original use. But hey, why not?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...Optikkdail.jpg

So, competely ignoring it's original use, what can you people imagine that dail would be for in terms of the armor?

Best I can come up with is some sort of moving mechanism that looks cool on mechanical armor. However, if it was important, you could just shoot 'em there and I'm sure that would mess something up. Then again, he already has visible wires, so you'd think those would be important too.

That's for fun, he can spin that or back up against a machine to make his eye spin like a top. Or for his sentry mode, like the Eye statues in Legend of Zelda, they constantly rotate.

And, we're back! On the menu today: Buzz-Off's classic wings!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...00/buzznew.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...00/buzzold.jpg

Now that Buzz-Off is based on the original again, we've got his crazy old bionic wings! I didn't think about it when they made the 200X version. Made sense to increase the bug qualities, and honestly, I don't disagree with it. However, I still loved the robo-wings back in the day, and I really like seeing them come back. That raises questions about Buzz-Off, though.

What IS Buzz-Off? He's obviously a bug man...sorta. The original was just in scale with the rest of the guys, and the rest of the guys were big and muscular. That doesn't change the fact that he's got robotic wings, though! Obviously this guy either needs robo-wings to help him since he's not born with any, or for some reason his natural wings are damaged and need the cybernetics to work. OR...maybe his race used to fly and all that, but whatever happened in the past kinda ruined thier abilities, making them all big and muscular so that they all need the cybernetics to get them back in the air again.

As always, I'm just throwing stuff out there. So, whatdoya think?

Maybe he had bullies as a small bee, and they pulled his wings off because he wouldn't cough up his lunch money....

Ah, good point! I thought of some sort of seal, but I didn't notice that the lines match up.


That was my first thought. Many of the monster folk (in the original line) seemed like they were somehow...made that way. They're different races in the present, but who knows what happened in the past? That's what I love about the old mini-comics. Then again, I've always been a fan of the mysterious technological past that was somehow destroyed. MotU just made a dang good one, originally.

Buzz-Off is really a prime example of that. He's obviously got a lot of human in him, and on top of that, his main bug properties are both (possibly) prosthetic: the wings and the helmet. Heck, his normal eyes just seem like giant closed eyes. Perhaps his normal eyes are part of the bug-like DNA, but they could never go all the way, pretty much forming into larger eyes with those green "lids" that you can see through. They would protect the eyes for flight if they could fly. The wings allow the flight, and the helmet provides the bug vision when needed. Who knows?

Speaking of which, I better throw the helmet up too:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...0/buzzhelm.jpg

Hey, even bugs need sunglasses, more so if you have 1000 lenses on each eye, and can mostly see in black and white....gets kind of bright.

[faker32828]

I always saw man-e-faces as a changeling and the chest being a hologram projector. I love the techno-organic virus idea for buzz-off, but it reminds me of cable from the x-men. I think of syclone's ring being a blade, like a saws-all or drimmel tool. The shield's lame, and the radar's radar. but.... can stratos fly without the jet pack? and without the arm wings. and are the arm wings part of the body, or an attachment? I always saw him as an advanced monkey, and the jet-pack is needed to fly. but he can use his feet as hands too. The wings are unnecessary to fly, but are stylish armor.