Mighty Man of Moss

I've had Moss Man on my mind a lot lately. Which is odd, because in the past I never paid him much attention (until I got the Origins one for Christmas from the wife). In some folks eyes, he's something of a cheap repaint/line filler type toy. Which is fair as many mold reuses as Masters of the Universe has, toys like Mossman can seem even more blatant. However, Like Stinkor, sometimes a 'cheap repaint' can still work out to something special. Moss Man, the toy, is a green Beastman with some extra details to differentiate the two. Most notably, he's flocked. This gives him that cool 'mossy' look. Also like Stinkor, he's scented.... but doesn't stink. Moss Man is pine scented, something I never noticed much as a kid. Of course I never had one of my own and most of my time spent with one was my specifically grubby cousins toy. So... maybe he was initially pine fresh.

I've always loved how each MOTU character has their own gimmick, even the 'cheap repaints' and this one is pretty inventive. Moss Man is a pretty decent reinvention of an established figure. For example, they put a little extra detail on his face. Beastman had an open mouth with fangs. The fangs are painted over a little to give Moss Man flat teeth (some versions still have the fangs) and his eyes are painted to be looking to the side. Now that open mouth looks more like a reaction to something over there. Pose him to the side and it could look like he's looking directly at whomever is about to get hit with his mace. Which was a brown version of one of the weapons originally included with Castle Grayskull.

In the orignal line, Moss Man was kinda just there. He had a bigger role in his introductory mini-comic, but was mainly an extra from there on. He did appear in the Filmation cartoon, but in mostly smaller appearances. I'm not the biggest fan of the 2002 MOTU, but do like how they used Moss Man. He was a bit of a bad ass. Not to mention, also something of a cryptid that joined up with the Heroic Warriors. It might just be the paranormal fan in me, but I look at Moss Man and that's exactly what I think. Some local legend that turned out to be true and joined forces with the good guys. He has a good bit of toys. I've mostly focused on the smaller ones until the more recent Origins release which is really awesome despite still being another Beastman repaint. For a 'just there' guy, Moss Man is pretty awesome on his own. That's a neat thing with MOTU, there's so many characters that ones I've prior looked over can be fun little rabbit holes on their own.