Pumyra ULTIMATES! First Look with Toy Bro
It’s always sad to end these interviews with ToyBro. It means we’ve come to the end of our ThunderCats ULTIMATES! discussions, and we now have to wait a few more months until we revisit this topic again. According to Super7’s Preorder Updates page, Wave 5 is currently in the “Test shots complete, first deco samples received” phase, while Cheetara is listed as “Tooling at factory”; so there’s still a while before we talk about Bengali and pals. For now, we’re ending our Wave 2 chat with the revisited Pumyra, also known as the tall gal from Mattel’s only wave of figures. If you missed our other chats, you’ll find Grune, Tygra and Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living in their respective highlighted links.
TC.org: The lovely Pumyra made her debut way back in 2016 as the first female up for preorder when Mattel introduced the Classics line up. She’s been frowned upon for years for taking a spot many believed belonged to Cheetara back in the day. Do you agree with that sentiment?
TB: Not at face value, no. At the time it was fine, Matty Collector was going deep with ThunderCats, we’d be FINE. But of course that didn’t happen, and we got an odd grouping of figures from Mattel. I’m not concerned about it at this point, but of course if I knew the line was going to die I’d have preferred Cheetara first.
TC.org: Super7 revisited the Pumyra sculpt. Do you think they improved on what Mattel did? Did they fix her scale as promised?
TB: Yes and no, it depends on what you’re after here. I think some things about her have changed for the better, joints are pinless, ankles on this one are much more solid to me than Matty’s. It does however have the odd new diaphragm swivel that doesn’t add much to her, and they attached the whipcord to her waist, it’s no longer removable. The big thing, is height. She is shorter now, she’s not perfect, but she is thankfully shorter.
TC.org: What could have been improved on the sculpt of Pumyra for you, if anything?
TB: I wish the default head would have been re-done, I’ve never been a fan of it, it’s kind of long and pinched in.
TC.org: Some collectors complained that it was out of character for her, but what are your thoughts on her expressive face?
TB: I like it. They’re Cat people, engaged in battle quite often. Having her with an expressive “battle” face makes perfect sense to me.
TC.org: Accessory wise, how do they compare to the ones released by Mattel?
TB: They’re pretty similar, really. The boomerang is a bit of a darker color but there’s not much difference between them.
TC.org: Is this Pumyra your preferred version to display in your collection?
TB: Yes, this is the one I’ll be going with for sure. Not just because she’s shorter to be more accurate, but she seems sturdier and the pinless joints just look better all around.
TC.org: Would you like a Thunderian variant of Pumyra to be released in the future perhaps? And do you think there would be a market for it?
TB: I’m sure there’d be a market for it as some sort of exclusive or variant. I’d be down for all of them that way, honestly.
TC.org: How would you display your Pumyra?
TB: I usually display her with the boomerang, so I’ll probably keep that trend going. Belt doesn’t really get a choice here now.
TC.org: There has been a lot of negativity that female figures always tend to suffer when it comes to their faces. Does it look like this an area that Super7 addressed with the factory upfront to put more focus on female faces?
TB: They definitely put some more attention to the paint on this face, but it’s the same sculpt so that only goes so far for me. I do like the alt head and face here quite a bit though, so I came out with one I’m quite happy to display.
TC.org: Any last thoughts on the new and improved Pumyra?
TB: I think after all this time she is thankfully different enough to warrant a re-buy from people who have the Mattel one. I know she’s not necessarily as high of a priority as other ThunderCats, but they made some changes (good and bad) that have made her unique enough to be different from the original, but also changes that do in fact make her the better figure.
Jared “Toy Bro” Elswick is a longtime toy collector and hobbyist. In 2017 he turned his passion for action figures into a YouTube channel in order to have an outlet for expressing his views on the properties he collects. It has since become a huge part of his daily routine to review, discuss and promote action figures on YouTube and across social media.
