Official Griffin Thread

[TJRules]

Can't believe this doesn't have a thread yet. This beast was my favorite reveal at Power-Con 2011! The detail on him is pretty cool. He uses BattleCat's buck and SwiftWind's wings. That crack on the beak is cool too.

Show some love for Griffin here!

[Jon-O]

I love it. Always wondered if/when it'd be made, but with the beast slots, I figured it'd be coming sooner than later.

Glad to see it. Beautiful work! And I love that it was planned for a long time, namely Battle Cat's body and Swift's wings. Genius!!!

[CocoaSmooth]

At first I thought it was the triton bull from blackstar. I nearly crapped my pants. It reminds me also of the beast from "The Relic". I love it. I wanna get atleast 4. 3 to open.

[Mamblo]

I love it, it remind me the D&D action figures line beasts! I will buy 2 of them. Are the wing in final color?

[Zargon]

This was my second favorite reveal at Powercon (first being Stinkor, of course), I love all the detail put into it. The forked tail, the four eyes, the detail on the beak....

[Thrawn29]

I love the griffin. I can't believe they made it. One of my favorite things about Classics are the extra items that help flesh out the line, like little amulets, magical artifacts, the weapon rack, and the beasts.

With the heroes getting the Wind Raider, I love that that the villains are also getting a flying "vehicle".

Since we already have Panthor and Battle Cat we pretty much know what we're getting to. So we know this thing is going to be nicely articulated and a very nice sized beast.

With the four eyes it gives off a Ray Harryhausen vibe to me.

[TJRules]

Are the wing in final color?

Don't know. I realize it's probably not a finalized beast as far as color goes but it seems like they should be brown, imo.

Anybody notice that the hind legs are different than the front legs? Wonder if that was purposefully, and if that'll change at all. *shrug*

I'm not complaining - just wondering.

[Niki]

Don't know. I realize it's probably not a finalized beast as far as color goes but it seems like they should be brown, imo.

Anybody notice that the hind legs are different than the front legs? Wonder if that was purposefully, and if that'll change at all. *shrug*

I'm not complaining - just wondering.

Griffins are legendary creatures from mostly greek mythology. They are a mixture between a LION and an EAGLE. It´s very common that they have different pair of feet, sometimes it´s the front and in the MOTUC it´s the back pair.

[Morningstar]

Don't know. I realize it's probably not a finalized beast as far as color goes but it seems like they should be brown, imo.

Anybody notice that the hind legs are different than the front legs? Wonder if that was purposefully, and if that'll change at all. *shrug*

I'm not complaining - just wondering.

I´m sure it's not final. His wings should be brown and the front legs should be the same type as the back ones.

[bnlvince]

I was just looking at the pictures of the oversized griffen figure and is it just me, or does he look like he has flocking. I don't know if this was confirmed anywhere else , I haven't heard anything about it.

[scott metzger]

I doubt it; after all the debate over Panthor and the problems with Moss Man, I think Mattel is done with flocking for the foreseeable future.

[fball13z]

I would hope not!

[Tzadkiel]

Flocking sounds like a dirty word, but it's not.

[snakeeyes0217]

I would hope not!

I second that. I think it's just really fine detailed sculpting.

[SCB]

He does not.

[zyzyx1701d]

Did anyone else have to snap their wings back into place when they opened theirs?

It's supposed to ship without the wings attached, presumably to take up less space in the box.

[rhea]

Got mine Friday and it is easily the highlight of this month's MOTUC sub. I'm glad the neck joint is tighter than Battlecat's and really hope they find more uses for the eagle legs.

[Jef-at-Arms]

Got mine and the leg is detached bouncing around in the box, along with brown paint all over the front window. Couldnt wait for it to dry i guess. Should i even bother with DR customer Service since i wanted to leave it MOC?

[Steph]

Got mine yesterday, just got around to opening him today. Why he sat in my hometown the Newgistic sorting center for 4 business days before they handing him over the local UPS depo to deliver boggles the mind . Still, he got here safe and sound. No quality issues on mine. Paint is good, joints are as tight as you can expect from Mattel (mean some are fine, others are a little loose, but livable). Visually, once I take the saddle off, I love him. Even though he is suppose to be pure brown with minor highlight, I do not mind the final wing paint choice- it does make him more impressive.

I do have a few nitpicks. None are meant as "Mattel messed up again", more personal dislikes. I recently run into a rash of pointless jointing from various toy lines that do not enhance the figure and in some cases make posing figures more of a chore to impossible. I present them constructive criticisms in hopes future toys could be improved. Note- I do not own Battlecat/Panthor/Swiftwind, so this is my first experience with the cat buck and wings.

The "why joints":
*Head and neck joints- the head only swivels around 180 degrees. No side to side or up and down, The range of the up and down motion on the neck is so limit it is pointless. If the joint wasn't going to work, they could have fused this into one piece (making the head a tad smaller).
*The double joint on the back leg. The only point I could see this being useful is if you could make cat body rear up on its hide legs, which I have not found a good position to make this work (due to the stubby legs and tail). Grant, the Griffin may be a bit more front heavy. It is currently, it adds no play value, the could have cut the joint down to 1 instead of 2. If it was sculpted less slavishly to real life cat proportions, slightly lengthening the rear knee and shin joint would make this joint useful (see Talons below).
*Tail joint- what is the point of the swivel and right angle joint when the haunch sculpt has a lip that limits the range of movement? If the tail wasn't in the way, I likely could get the Griffin up on his hind legs.

Missed jointing opportunity:
Rear Talons: One cool thing about Griffins (in MOTU and other lore) this their ability to grab things with their bird talons. The first griffin toy on market since the 80's (I think there was one in the AD&D line) and we get a none functional Griffin, from the Horsemen no less. Shame.

Saddle
Is this the Battlecat saddle? The plus is the soft plastic, an improvement over the original 80's hard plastic one. The personal minus, I think it looks wrong on the griffin, especially how far the back half hangs over the griffin's butt. I'm not such a purist to say he should not have a saddle at all, in a perfect world just he should have a a different one- more furry and rustic.

[JonWes]

It's a brand new saddle. I like the way it hangs off the back, personally. It makes it unique compared to the cats and I think it has a nice sweep.