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MOTU Chronicles Battle-Cat Review | Worth Upgrading from the Core?
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00:00I can see the Battle Cat got a little bit bigger.
00:02Here's a look at the brand new Mattel, Matthew Universe movie, Chronicles Class Battle Cat.
00:18The Chronicles Battle Cat action figure celebrates the 2026 Matthew Universe movie
00:22and the dramatic battles of good versus evil at 6.5 in scale.
00:26The content accurate iconic striped tiger looks ready to heroically charge in a battle with He-Man.
00:31His muscular sculpt and collector level design includes realistic eye effect and articulated jaw.
00:36In addition to the movable jaw, deluxe articulation and removable armor
00:39and a saddle provide dramatic posing possibilities.
00:42He-Man isn't the only one that's been needing his steed.
00:45Since, of course, collecting the movie tie-in toys,
00:47I've been anxiously wanting to get a Chronicles version of Battle Cat having already the core.
00:51The core was fine.
00:52It was limited on posability, though, and it was tied to a gimmick of him roaring.
00:56If you don't like the roar and you want a little bit more posability to his paws,
01:00then obviously this would be the better one to go with.
01:02Grab this one over on Amazon, even though it's been in other places at other times.
01:07Amazon, I figured, would be the most direct approach to getting this delivered to my doorstep.
01:11Right away.
01:12How tall and how long is Battle Cat?
01:14I'm going to answer that right now.
01:16I'm grabbing my trusty tape measure.
01:17From the end of its tail to the front of its snouts,
01:19with the configuration I have right now,
01:21you're looking at Battle Cat being exactly 12 inches in length,
01:24about 31 centimeters long.
01:27Again, it would completely determine how you're going to have the figure displayed.
01:31You can have, obviously, his legs bent down a little bit lower.
01:33You can have him crouched down a little bit lower.
01:34But the way that I have him right now,
01:36Battle Cat seems to be 6 inches in height,
01:38or clocking in at 15 centimeters tall.
01:41Of course, we looked at the cat's core counterpart,
01:43this being the Core Class Battle Cat.
01:45A little bit smaller, not as high.
01:47And as you can already see, though, a little bit more limited in the legs.
01:51But it did have a roaring feature.
01:54So there's something to be said for that.
01:56You can see, size-wise, though, the Core Class is quite a lot smaller, though, than the Chronicles.
02:01And again, we're just going to slide this guy over so you guys can see.
02:05This one always really feels like it leans slightly to the side.
02:08But, I mean, obviously, this one, I can actually bring the legs out.
02:11I couldn't really do that with this one.
02:12So this one would be much better for a posing of Battle Cats.
02:15Let's, while we're on the topic, clearly, of Battle Cats,
02:17let's also bring in the Filmation version of that.
02:20I haven't had still the original vintage Battle Cat in pretty good condition as well.
02:24Let's just kind of slide everything over.
02:26And one that was close, though, to the vintage,
02:29although it had a little bit more posability to it as well,
02:31here's also what he looks like with the Origins Battle Cat.
02:34And, of course, Battle Cat has to have a He-Man.
02:36So let's bring in the other different size class He-Mans here, the Origins.
02:40There was also the Core class,
02:41which, for me, still is the standout line for the movie tie-in toys.
02:45To the point as well that I even grabbed myself the 4-pack,
02:48which I still think is a better-looking He-Man,
02:50both the coloring of his hair and the coloring of his armor.
02:52I've already done the review, though, of the 4-pack,
02:54if you guys did want to check that out.
02:56There was also, of course, the main one, the most important one.
02:59Here's also what he looks like with the Chronicles class He-Man.
03:01We can also bring in, here's a Masterverse He-Man.
03:05Fell over off to the side.
03:06Here's, can we put him over here?
03:08Let's put him over here.
03:09A Vintage Collection He-Man.
03:11And while we're also out of here as well,
03:12we'll also bring in the Matty Collector,
03:14although he's a little bit loose.
03:15Again, in the legs, a little over-tanned,
03:17but here's what the figure looks like with him as well.
03:19One good thing, at least about Battle Cat,
03:20is when you get him out of the packaging,
03:21you don't have to add the armor.
03:23The armor, in fact, actually, it comes first with the saddle.
03:25The saddle, if you look at the bottom of the figure,
03:27it actually is strapped both on the front and on the back.
03:30So, to remove that, in order to actually remove the front piece,
03:33you'll have to untap this piece, slide it straight through.
03:36By the way you're sort of describing it,
03:38it makes me think that you're not going to be doing it.
03:39Well, do I really need to necessarily show you?
03:42I mean, like, obviously, this is going to just untap here on the side.
03:44This is going to then slide straight through the belt.
03:46This is going to slide through on the front.
03:48And then, basically, underneath that,
03:49you would just have yourself Cringer's body.
03:51The mask is one thing, though, with Battle Cat
03:53that I find falls off frequently.
03:55And I'm just going to take that off right now to help assist that.
03:57But, first, I want to say, like, the eyes look really good on this.
04:00I'm not sure, though, if it's just me,
04:02but is Battle Cat's eyes following us?
04:05It might very well just be me.
04:07Battle Cat's, though, headdress here, as you can see,
04:09here's what it looks like on the inside.
04:10So, if you were to be walking around as Battle Cat,
04:13your vision, though, might be a little bit harder to make out.
04:15Obviously, you're going to be having the blockers on the sides,
04:17kind of like what they do with horses.
04:19You'd only really be able to see out these peeper holes.
04:22There are these slots here on the side,
04:23these little legit ledges of plastic,
04:25and there's one actually here on the back as well.
04:27There doesn't seem to really be a place, though,
04:29on Cringer's face that it rests on.
04:31It's actually just kind of more or less resting
04:33against the sculpt of the fur.
04:35My worry, though, was that it was going to be starting
04:37to scrape the plastic, and it hasn't yet done that.
04:39It does, however, though, survive the blizzard test.
04:42So, while maybe, like, when you bang it,
04:44you might find it falls off frequently,
04:45I guess in the end, though, the headdress stays on well enough,
04:48you don't have to worry about it falling off.
04:51It's an interesting amalgamation of different Battle Cat designs.
04:55Like, the main crest piece here on the top
04:57very much does remind me of, like, the old vintage Battle Cat,
04:59of course, where it does have the horns there on the top as well.
05:01The sides are also very much similar to, like, the 2000X Battle Cat.
05:06I don't really see a lot of Revelations Battle Cat in there,
05:08where it had kind of, like, the tusk design there
05:10on the front of the helmet, which I never really liked myself.
05:12But I guess the biggest pull away from this,
05:14it looks really much more like the 2000X Battle Cat,
05:17with the way that the saddle looks like on the back,
05:20and, of course, the front headdress.
05:22Now, with the way that the armor faceplate works,
05:24and we've already kind of seen the way it attaches onto the face,
05:27unfortunately, though, it isn't the same color of plastic as the saddle.
05:31The saddle, you can see, is definitely on much more softer plastic.
05:33And my guess is, though, they had to obviously mold this softer
05:36so it would be able to fit around the frame of Battle Cat's body.
05:39This one doesn't have to worry as much, though,
05:41so they're probably using a little bit more of a rigid plastic.
05:43And that's probably why, though, it doesn't have the same color scheme
05:46as the satellite.
05:48Wish, though, that it could have been the exact same color,
05:50but in the end, though, it's not going to bother me that much.
05:53Again, we'll just take off the front face here
05:55just to kind of show you guys what Battle Cat's face does look like.
05:58It's really nice.
05:59A lot of good paint, though, that they've put, actually, into the front there.
06:01Jowls, the jowls of the cat.
06:03Nice fur, they're sculpted on the side as well.
06:05You, of course, got the yellow striping there, too.
06:07So Battle Cat's mouth does open and close.
06:11You may hear this.
06:12I certainly hear this when I open and close this.
06:14It clicks.
06:16And why it does click is,
06:17if you actually look at the front rows of teeth here,
06:20they actually press in when Battle Cat closes his mouth.
06:23I think that's a really nice touch.
06:25I think they've actually done this before with,
06:27was it the Revelations Battle Cat?
06:29Honestly, I never picked up the figure,
06:30so I couldn't really tell you firsthand.
06:32But I like the idea, though, that the top rows of teeth
06:35actually press in as Battle Cat opens and closes his mouth.
06:39Of course, there's quite a bit of posability also into the figure as well.
06:42Here's what it looks like on the undersides with all the padding here.
06:45Really nice-looking coloring, though.
06:46They've added to the underbody there of the Battle Cat.
06:49Bright green here.
06:50And, of course, you've got the nice stripes there all along,
06:52across the legs,
06:53and on the back of the tail as well.
06:56One thing I did want to do,
06:57and something I feel like I dropped the ball with,
06:59maybe, when we looked at the Core Class Battle Cat,
07:01was show you how different He-Mans work with the Cat, obviously.
07:06We could start things really with, like, the Origins Class.
07:09I don't think most people would probably be picking up an Origins He-Man figure,
07:11even though we don't really have an Origins Battle Cat yet for this He-Man.
07:15Let's just get his legs bent here just a little bit.
07:18I feel like he would probably work a little bit better,
07:20maybe, with the Core Class Battle Cat.
07:22I mean, like, straddling the saddle may be really hard to do with this particular He-Man.
07:27But, I guess, size-wise, it's okay.
07:29I think, if anything, I probably would either display this He-Man,
07:32or, like, the Core Class He-Man,
07:33probably with the Core Class Battle Cat.
07:36Next up, though, let's grab ourselves a Core He-Man.
07:39Now, again, there's either the Core He-Man that has the brighter blonde hair,
07:43or, again, I like this one that's a little bit more movie-accurate.
07:46We'll grab this guy right here.
07:48We'll just go again, bend his knees.
07:50He'll have a much easier time, actually, sitting on top of Battle Cat.
07:53Although, size again, you probably, I think, for the size,
07:56would opt instead to go with maybe the Core,
07:58just because, again, I feel like the Chronicles might be a little bit too big.
08:02Of course, the main one being for this, it would be the Chronicles Class.
08:06So, of course, he does also have the benefit of double hinges in his knees.
08:10Bring out his arms.
08:12Just get his knees bent here just a little bit.
08:14And, again, we'll also saddle him on the top of Battle Cat.
08:16Yeah, yeah, he makes the most sense, you know, again, just for the size
08:20and for the fact that it's a much poseable figure.
08:22The much more poseable figure really should have the much more poseable cat.
08:26Let's also, while we're at it, too, a couple of people have asked
08:29if I could have maybe showed other He-Mans, not just ones tied to the movie,
08:33but let's just grab ourselves the Matty Collector He-Man,
08:36who always seems really stiff in the legs.
08:38I actually have a Matty Collector He-Man Battle Cat.
08:42I just don't have yet to actually open him up.
08:44He's still sealed inside of his plastic prison.
08:47And he, saddle-wise, the saddle doesn't really work necessarily with this He-Man.
08:51I feel like when I put the figure on it,
08:53it wants to almost spring itself off the top of the seat.
08:57And let's, one last time here, we'll just bring a couple more He-Mans in.
09:01Masterverse He-Man.
09:03This, to be more exact, is the Thunder Punch He-Man.
09:06I was trying to find, like, like-to-like He-Man-to-He-Man,
09:09but the next closest thing I had to that,
09:11let's just get, like, straightened out here.
09:13There's Masterverse He-Man.
09:15I know! Move along, move along!
09:17Okay, one last time, one last time.
09:18We'll bring in the Vintage Collection He-Man,
09:20just again to show you guys what they all look like.
09:25And this one fits.
09:26Again, the seat really isn't designed.
09:28Like, if you look at the way the seat is,
09:31there's a bulge.
09:33Stop that.
09:33There's a bulge right there on the top of the seat
09:35that does kind of cause problems
09:37when it gets to regular-sized He-Mans
09:38sitting on the seat or saddle of Battle Cat.
09:42There's a couple of different He-Mans, though,
09:43to show you guys here.
09:44I did notice getting Battle Cat out of the packaging
09:47that he was a little loose here in the back hind leg.
09:49This leg more so than this one right here.
09:52One of the biggest problems, though,
09:53with something that's going to be holding
09:54not only the weight of itself,
09:55but the weight of whatever figure's going to be on top of it,
09:57is that, yeah, maybe over time,
10:00knees would start to buckle.
10:01Knees would start to get a little weak.
10:03Battle Cat seems to already be that way.
10:05Something else I've noticed, though,
10:06with some of the people that have picked up Battle Cat
10:08over online,
10:09is that some of the people have actually been facing Battle Cats
10:12where the front of the head was much lighter, though,
10:14than the rest of the body.
10:15While there is clearly, though,
10:16much lighter aspects here for my Battle Cat,
10:18where the bottom of the chin,
10:20obviously all right here,
10:21will be much lighter of the green,
10:23the top of the green,
10:24or the main head of the green,
10:25still works quite well to blend
10:27with the rest of the colors for the rest of its body.
10:29So I don't seem to have that issue,
10:30but I have seen images online.
10:32Some people actually even had ordered them from Amazon,
10:34so I started to get a little more worried about it,
10:36where the head was actually all this color.
10:39So there may have been some factory errors
10:41when it came to producing those Battle Cats.
10:44For the figures articulation,
10:45I'll kind of run through things right now
10:46with the head sculpt.
10:47The head is, first of all,
10:48going to be on a ball joint.
10:50It's hard to kind of turn the head
10:51because it's always going to be
10:52kind of rubbing up
10:53against the front end of the saddle.
10:56Of course, it can move up and down there as well.
10:57We've already looked at the fact
10:58the figure does have mouth articulation,
11:00and that the top of the teeth, though,
11:02do recess when you put the chin back in.
11:06In addition to that,
11:07the head can also move up and down.
11:09Further from that, though,
11:09there's also a ball joint right here.
11:11So the main tuft, I suppose, of fur
11:14can also move around as well,
11:15but it's a little bit more, again,
11:17limited and hindered
11:18just because this front saddle strap
11:20wraps around the front of the figure.
11:22So you will want to kind of move it,
11:24but you feel like, though,
11:25as you are moving it,
11:26it rubs against here
11:27and it rubs against here.
11:29If we look at the back of the figure's body,
11:31the hind legs,
11:32this whole back sac...
11:33Actually, let's move it back
11:34just a little bit here.
11:35There's a ball joint right here,
11:36and this basically is the front half
11:38of the tiger's body.
11:40So it can move up and down.
11:41I mean, there's not much...
11:42I mean, even though you are really
11:44packing posability in this toy,
11:45there's not much that you can really do here
11:47for the front half
11:48because the saddle kind of holds
11:49everything in place.
11:51The back half of the body
11:52is kind of more the same as well.
11:53There's a ball joint here,
11:54again, a ball joint here on the front.
11:55But there's not much, really,
11:57that you can do with the cat.
11:58I mean, you could have it
11:58kind of more in a seated position
12:00if you want.
12:01Or, again, you can also extend the legs.
12:03The legs really are going to be the thing
12:04that does the most work.
12:05Of course, the tail does also have
12:06posability, too.
12:07You can also move it up and down,
12:08rotate it all the way around.
12:09So it can be a depressed cat.
12:11It can be a happy cat.
12:12It's about to get his treats.
12:13The front legs do move forward and back.
12:16They feel and hear
12:17like they have ratchets
12:18working behind the scenes.
12:20You can also split the cat's legs out.
12:22So there's that as well.
12:24The lower end, or hind leg,
12:27I guess the back knee area here,
12:29does bend.
12:29You can also rotate the lower leg as well.
12:32These move up and down.
12:33Paws, that is.
12:34The paws also rotate back and forth.
12:36Take that same sort of core idea,
12:38even though we're looking at chronicles,
12:39and repeat those same steps
12:41at the back of the legs as well.
12:43The back legs also hinge out.
12:45You could rotate them all the way around.
12:47And again, there seems like
12:48there's ratcheted joints.
12:49I wish, though,
12:50that while they have ratcheted joints,
12:51it seems in the tops of the thighs,
12:54here and here,
12:55that they had maybe done
12:56the same here down below.
12:57I feel like if anything needs to have
12:59a hinge joints or ratcheted joints,
13:01it needs to be the back,
13:02the knees, the part of the knees that bend.
13:04Any one of these,
13:05because again,
13:05it's holding its own weight and He-Man's,
13:07I feel like these should have also been
13:08ratcheted joints too.
13:10These move back and forth.
13:11You can rotate them back and forth this way.
13:13But the back legs also benefit
13:15from also having a secondary joint.
13:17And most battle cats tend to get loose right here.
13:20Not so much maybe as much for the front of the legs,
13:22but because the legs have to bend this way
13:24and this way,
13:25this seems always to be the point
13:27that actually starts to get loose on these figures.
13:29There's also, of course,
13:31the paws that move back and forth.
13:32You can move them up and down as well.
13:33Great looking battle cat.
13:34Really nice looking battle cat.
13:35If I had the choice
13:36and I only had the budget to get one toy,
13:39I probably would have just passed
13:40on getting the core altogether
13:41and I would have got the Chronicles instead.
13:44I know that really does mean, though,
13:45when it comes to displaying the figures on the shelf,
13:47you can't just keep sharing the same He-Mans
13:50or sharing the same battle cats
13:51with all the different He-Mans that you have.
13:53So, like,
13:54it's likely, though,
13:55that most people are probably going to be
13:56picking up this toy
13:57with the sole intent of displaying him
13:59with the Chronicles He-Man.
14:00And then if you have yourself
14:02the core battle cat,
14:03the core battle cat would be the one
14:05that's going to be displayed
14:06with the core He-Man.
14:07It just makes sense that way.
14:08And, of course,
14:09here's what the two He-Mans look like
14:10side by side,
14:11saddle to saddle,
14:13on top, of course,
14:14their own dedicated battle cats.
14:16And I'm going to show you guys
14:17what it looks like from the sides.
14:19A little bit of a smaller cat,
14:21a little bit smaller of a He-Man,
14:22so it makes a little bit more sense that way.
14:24The one thing, again,
14:24the only other thing I would say,
14:25and I know it's more to the design of the toy,
14:27is that just the saddle,
14:29when you put, like,
14:30a He-Man on there,
14:31like, it doesn't really feel like
14:33he sits on the saddle.
14:34It actually kind of just feels like
14:35he rests more along the back.
14:37I think they probably should have
14:38contoured this just a little bit better
14:39so that He-Man, in fact,
14:41could sit better on the saddle
14:43without feeling like he was going to be
14:44constantly falling off.
14:45And even though it has fallen off
14:47a couple of times,
14:47just let's get the crest piece here,
14:50the cowl piece.
14:52What would you call it?
14:53The head armor?
14:54I would just stay with the head armor.
14:55The head armor does fall off
14:56a little bit more frequently on this one.
14:58This one didn't have to worry about it as much
14:59because, obviously,
15:00it was just attached permanently
15:01to the head sculpt.
15:02I like this one.
15:03I really like this one a lot.
15:04Now, other online sites did have
15:06Chronicles Battle Cat
15:07several weeks, actually.
15:09I just waited, though,
15:10because I knew, like,
15:10Amazon was going to be dropping it,
15:11I think, like, the second week of June,
15:13which, like, that worked out.
15:15It was, like, June 11th, June 12th,
15:16I think, when they eventually
15:17would drop the listing.
15:19I dropped it.
15:19I placed my order on, like,
15:21I think the Friday,
15:22and it arrived, like, the next day.
15:23In fact, actually, no,
15:24that's not true.
15:25I dropped, I placed the order
15:27two nights ago,
15:28and it arrived the same day.
15:29The speed of Amazon.
15:31But, yeah, I really like the look,
15:33though, of Battle Cat.
15:33Obviously, this one's going to be
15:34a little bit more expensive
15:35than the Core class,
15:36but what it does benefit, though,
15:37is not a roaring feature.
15:38It does have better levels
15:40of posability.
15:41Going the route of buying
15:41this guy on Amazon,
15:43the Chronicles Battle Cat
15:44was exactly $30 more
15:46than the Core.
15:47The Core was selling for $29.99,
15:49and it still is listed
15:50for that price.
15:51The Chronicles,
15:52which just dropped,
15:53is listed and selling
15:54for $59.99.
15:56So, $30 difference.
15:57You lose the roar,
15:59but what you gain, though,
16:00instead is a much bigger cat
16:01that has a lot more
16:02posability for him.
16:03I could really see people
16:04probably picking up
16:05this Battle Cat
16:06not just for the movie He-Man,
16:08but even as well,
16:09maybe for, like,
16:10the Masterverse He-Man,
16:11or if we do eventually
16:12get any more Chronicles
16:14size class He-Mans
16:15that aren't tied to the movie.
16:16This would be, though,
16:17an ideal Battle Cat.
16:19Again, I wouldn't be surprised
16:20if Mattel doesn't just
16:21use this body again
16:22and release this Battle Cat
16:23another way.
16:24One that's not necessarily
16:25tied to the movie,
16:26one that has different armor,
16:27but one that uses
16:28the same body.
16:30It does have, though,
16:31still the problems
16:31of the loose back legs.
16:34The back hind knees,
16:35if you want to call them knees,
16:36are already starting to develop
16:37looseness on this figure.
16:38I'm sure I could probably
16:39fix that just a little bit,
16:41but it shouldn't really be the case
16:42getting this figure
16:43right out of the packaging.
16:44He does look impressive,
16:45though, I will admit,
16:46and no Battle Cat
16:47could be complete
16:48without a He-Man.
16:49These are the two
16:51that are going to be displayed
16:51together when I put them
16:52on the shelf.
16:53Up to this point
16:54of actually bringing
16:55and dusting off,
16:56I hadn't really
16:56a whole lot of dust
16:57really on the Core-class
16:58Battle Cat,
16:59but I'd already had
17:00Battle Cat displayed
17:01with my four-pack He-Man.
17:03So when this review's done,
17:04this Battle Cat
17:05and the Chronicles He-Man
17:06are going to be displayed
17:07next to the Core
17:08that I had on the shelf
17:09before.
17:10I just realized
17:11now I rhymed.
17:12What do you guys think
17:12of Chronicles Battle Cat?
17:14Let me know down below
17:14in the comment section.
17:15Do you like the Chronicles
17:16more than the Core?
17:17Or do you like the Core?
17:18Or it's just a little bit more.
17:20Obviously it does have
17:21the roaring feature to that.
17:22If you guys did enjoy this video,
17:24come on now,
17:25do it assault and throw it a like.
17:26You guys want to stick around
17:27for more so?
17:27I do hope so.
17:28We're going to have
17:29some more content coming away.
17:30Yes, we will.
17:30Yes, we will this week.
17:32So I hope you guys
17:32are going to be coming back
17:33for that.
17:33If you need, however,
17:34though, your fix,
17:36here this guy goes.
17:36He's going to be shamelessly
17:37plugging a playlist.
17:38Yes, I am.
17:39Plugging at the end
17:40a very cool playlist.
17:41It's going to be of all
17:42the He-Man figures,
17:43toys that I've looked at.
17:44That includes all the other
17:45Battle Cats from before.
17:48See you guys next time.