Let's Talk About Pokemon - The Machop Family

066: Machop

Machop's alright, as an awkward little muscle-dinosaur. Thing. I'll concede that the super-masculine look of this line is 200% not my thing, with only rare exceptions that I end up liking. It's also got weird chest-gills or whatever's going on there. The head design is fine but everything else is eh. Not a lot I feel like I can grasp onto here.

This line is also more or less the mascot of the Fighting type, and will be a tone-setter for my opinion on other Fighting types. Fighting just wound up being my least favorite type, even when considering more modern Fighting types like Falinks or Buzzwole have swayed my favor a bit. Though, yeah. This family probably is a suitable face for Fighting Pokemon.

Personal Score: 5/10

067: Machoke

Things just get worse as Machop picks up the entirely humanoid body of Machoke, planting it firmly in uncanny valley territory. I will firmly admit, as a lesbian, a design that's a flex of traditionally masculine traits and little else is probably not gonna appeal to me very well. I wish they focused more on Machop's lizardy aspects; that wouldn't be TOO much different, because Machoke's already got a saurian head. Machop's a little devoid of detail but the red marks on Machoke's arms feel like a bit much. Especially since it looks a bit like torn skin with muscle showing underneath. Yeesh. Not feeling it.

That and the belt. This is the issue with introducing Pokemon that have manmade objects on them. Where does it get that belt? There's so many better ways to implement skin markings or other details to give the IMPRESSION of a championship belt there, rather than being on the nose and just straight-up slapping one on there. Pokemon like Klefki have the excuse of stealing peoples' keys, and that's not really a leap of logic that makes sense for Machoke. Are there really enough wrestling belts in the world to supply every Machoke with one? The speedos don't help either.

Personal Score: 4/10

068: Machamp

Machamp just nose-dives right down for ridding the line of the one thing I was liking about them. Instead of going for the muscly lizard-man look, they replace Machoke's face with duck lips. Okay then. I dunno what it is but designs with lips that are... like that just bug me.

Other than that, it holds onto all the things I don't like about the Machop line. The four arms are alright, but nowhere near enough to save it. It's not a bad design, but it just pokes all of the buttons I don't like.

I feel like there could've been far more elegant and natural-looking ways to incorporate a belt into its design. It could have a patterned tail that wraps around its waist when idle. Or even just some bony belly plating that happens to resemble a belt. Had Machamp been made these days, that feels like they sort of solution they'd go for, but since it's the 90s and they're throwing whatever at the wall to see what sticks, we wound up with this instead.

Personal Score: 3/10

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