I spent most of last week (my week “off” from doing reviews) updating the checklists at MOTUClassics.Com, DCClassics.com, etc. Wouldn’t you know that as soon as I was caught up, Mattel jumped in and started filling up my to-do list! Matty posted two new bios on Facebook: Clawful & the Faceless One.
Clawful made his package debut just before the weekend, but here it is again in case you missed it. His bio is reprinted below.
Clawful – Warrior with the Grip of Evil, Real Name: Pronounced through a series of claw clicks
A member of the Karikoni, an Eternian race of crustacean warriors, “Clawful” as he was known outside of Orkas Island, became a core member of Skeletor’s Evil Warriors after he saved Beast Man’s life from a Seclapoid attack. Clawful’s hard shell protects him from both extreme heat and cold. Under a spell cast by Evil-Lyn, Clawful’s dull wits were enhanced turning him into a keen warrior and strategist. He fought alongside Skeletor, leading a battalion of Skeleton Warriors during the Second Ultimate Battle Ground. Clawful uses his dreadful claw to work his evil will!
And here is the Faceless One’s bio released late Tuesday night…
The Faceless One – Ancient Lord of Zalesia, Real Name: Nikolas Powers
As the ruler of Zalesia, Nikolas Powers was entrusted by King Grayskull to guard the city’s great magical objects – the Havoc Staff and the mystical Ram Stone. Powers was a core member of Grayskull’s Council of Elders, great mages from across Eternia who had the wisdom to tap into the planet’s hidden magical secrets. But by marrying and having a daughter, he broke the Elder’s treaty with King Hssss to not produce any heirs. Powers was stripped of his humanity, condemned to never leave Zalesia and forced to watch his beloved city destroyed by Serpos. Now called “The Faceless One”, he asked the wizard-warrior He-Ro, to use the power of Central Tower to send his daughter, Evelyn into the future. There, with his immortality, he hoped to raise heraway from the terror of the Great Wars.
These are both pretty decent as far as bios go. Clawful’s is somewhat unintentionally funny. He saved Beast Man’s life and then started hanging around with the group, but he was so dumb that Evil Lyn had to give him a magical college education. I don’t mind, but I’m not sure why they needed to explain him getting smarter. Has he appeared somewhere with higher intelligence than normal? Anyway, it’s cute and he’s going to be the Batman of my evil Warriors from here on out.
The Faceless One bio is okay. I like the setup (but where is my Nikolas Powers head? I thought these were adult collectibles…), but I’m not too clear on the Hssss treaty. What did King Hssss give up to balance the “no heirs” part of the treaty? Was it one of those “do this or I’ll kill you” treaties, ’cause I thought they had a different name for “those” kinds of treaties. And doesn’t this mean that Grayskull rose up to fight Hssss and then got him to… sign a treaty? They make you King for that? I’m gonna guess that Powers was immortal before King Hssss (presumably) stripped him of his humanity, but it’s still really ballsy to send your daughter 5000 years into the future with the intention of raising her yourself!, I mean, what if you get some beachfront property on Etheria? Or if you forget. I’ve been at the airport when someone was late picking me up and I wasn’t very happy. But, of course, he did make the appointment. And that’s why he’s a great Dad, though Evil Lyn might not think so. One thing I do really like in the bio is the bit about He-Ro. It’s cool that he came to the Faceless One’s aid after Hssss’ punishment. He might just be the classiest Preternian yet. Anyway, there’s some wonkiness here and the real name is icky, but admittedly this one’s on the better end of the bio spectrum.
These bios has been added to our Sortable/Searchable Bio Page at MOTUClassics.Com. That page features an organized table of all the MOTU Classics bios with a nifty search feature. For example, if you type in “Zalesia”, the page will show you just the bios that mention the fabled city specifically. Go try it out!
I call shenanigans on The Faceless One!
I can CLEARLY see a face on the figure! 🙂
also, 500 Quatloos that Clawful has reversed biceps when it ships. I kid not, I honestly expect it to happen.
Only Mattel would make a figure of a guy called Faceless one and give him a face.
You have to give Mattel credit, they at least didn’t try to paint on the details of the face. Forced shadow/sheen is a big pet peeve of mine!
I still can’t stand that he has a face. Just dumb.
The bio I can take or leave. If there’s nothing objectionable, all the better.
Two great figures coming this Summer! I can’t wait for that Clawful!!
The Faceless One guy looks likes he’s staring into my soul from inside the packaging. His armor also looks rather cumbersome.
Noticed the lack of Noisy reviews last week. Glad to see the checklists updated though, the MOTU one was looking rather odd with all the shadows instead of pics of the figures.
I’m a little cold on Mr. Powers, I think we’re seeing yet again that the 200x designs don’t translate well into classics figures. Marzo & Carnivus are some of the worst figures and his figure just confirms that they shouldn’t bother with these characters. Clawful looks fantastic at least.
Yeah, the upcoming MOTU page doesn’t usually require a lot of work, but I’d never quite gotten to adding thumbnails after NYTF. I get busy!
And, I don’t know if I disagree about the MO2K stuff. I admit that I wasn’t that hot on Carnivus, but I liked Marzo and I think I’ll like “Mr. Powers” here too. I think they translated okay (though I would like for Faceless One’s robes to be longer).
I was starting to run long on my Faceless One comments, but I’m still awake so I’ll add them down here…
1) Powers works with King Grayskull. So D’Vann has already risen up against Hssss and been named King for his trouble, he didn’t defeat Hssss, but rather got him to sign a treaty. Was the 3 Towers “truce” an official treaty or is this a different time where King Hssss willingly sets aside differences?
2) Powers breaks the “no heirs” rule found in the treaty and suffers serious consequences. If it’s two different treaties/truces (one for a stalemate with Grayskull and a second one for the three towers), then that really takes a bite out of how dangerous King Hssss is. See, it means he likes armistices and he doesn’t strike me like a non-aggression kinda guy.
Despite the vast difference between “temporary truce” and treaty, they could be the same event, though it seems odd to include the no heirs provision for the good guys in light of how apparently “imperative” it was to build the Three Towers.* The one benefit of the ‘same treaty theory’ is that it gives Grayskull a window (& extra motivation) to have his own heir (which he must produce) in the short time between Hssss’ defeat and Hordak’s killing him.
*- I’m still really unclear on why the Towers had to be built. A temporary truce was needed to build this monument that would balance the forces? That would appear to only benefit the weakest link. Would you agree to a “temporary truce” that would later hurt your chances of winning?
3) All the truce stuff aside, I find the implications of what to do with Evil Lyn to be funnier. He sends her to the future where she ends up being the instrument of King Hssss’ release. Since Adam & Adora (or Keldor) are the ones that are prophesized to clear up the whole King Hssss situation, it’s somewhat fortunate, if not ironic, that he sent Evil Lyn to their time.
And how does the Baby Lyn get to and from Zalesia? Surely, He-Ro can leave Powers at the city limits and bring the baby to the time portal. But what then? Does He-Ro go through with her and take her to future Zalesia? Does he just send her through with a note – “Please deliver to Zalesia”? Maybe he has the Goddess or Moss Man make a mental note to be their to pick her up and transport her to Zalesia in 5000 years. I find that funny to think about. Personally, I’d opt for He-Ro to travel forward and take care of it personally. His one afternoon in Oo-Lar’s time could make for an interesting story – though it’s one we’d never get.
dude, this is easy… we know preternian disguise he-man comes back several times from the future… so he-ro hands the hero a baby one day and says, “please deliver this to zalesia when you next return home” and winks at his young ally, cuz being the best damned wizard ever means knowing who the punk in the giant tunic is. he dials up “eternia 5000 years in the future” on the cosmic key, and plugs it into the console at the central tower and walks off, leaving PDHM to push the activation button on the transporter pad, carrying one hot little momma in the making. if only adam had known, he could have given the baby to somebody more trustworthy that a treaty-breaking ghost.
the treaty and the truce are two different events, the truce happening first cuz hordak attempted some vicious business w/ the eternian splitting magi-bomb in the MYP mythos, and i’d bet dollars to donuts they’ll mine that was “the towers were needed to repair the mantel and crust of eternia, lest the whole thing fall apart” so everybody had a vested interest in repairing the damage (cuz it’s kind of pointless to be King over no real estate, and surely even hordak eventually figured that out).
after the truce, and the forging of the towers, the powers are balanced. so the treaty then makes more sense, cuz losing one power would compromise the tower’s stability (don’t ask me how, i didn’t write this crap). but the “no kids” agreement was probably across the board. now, faceless master goes and has a baby, forever ruining the treaty, and thus he “loses face” before the assembled goodies… that’s how we explain the name… and of course, he becomes a ghost when he-ro turns the cosmic key on him in it’s second mode, ghost maker shotgun (as first seen in the gy-gor in-BIO-tween by yours truly) w/ time, and training from karal nul, nick the prick gets a body back, and now, like karak, he’s pissed rog, oh he’s pissed… so he hands off the havoc staff to hordak’s young apprentice, and keeps the ram stone for a rainy day… which it turns out is when his daughter shows up and steals it from him. faceless parents are so easy to filch from.
and noisy, you’re question about what hsss gave up for the treaty is likely “serpos” hence why serpos gets mentioned as part of powers’ punishment for fudging up his end… but i think a “no babies” rule could easily count for everyone, and that’d be a fien story… if only king hsss had a bio that had made any mention of this crap AT ALL to help clarify…
PD He-Man is certainly a good choice! And not using Serpos? Similarly nice.
I think King Hssss bio might be the least helpful in determining the course of his life after he got to Eternia! Some good possible explanations on the two armistices, but it’s during the 3 Towers Truce that Hordak
defeatsbetrays Hssss which led to his being sealed in the void byZodakthe Elders & Zodak. It didn’t sound like a lot of time took place between those two events, but it is certainly possible.The package should read “Nikolas Powers, Eternian ancestor of Austin”
“Yeah, baby, YEAH! VERY Shagadelic!”
Love both bios but Faceless One’s is the best bio I read so far in the classics lineup. Wow he got married & had to watch his city be destroyed by Serpos. Always wondered hwat happened to his wife did King Hssss eat her & how did Skeletor obtain his Havoc Staff?? Is that why his daughter Evil-Lyn is filled with so much fate for Eternia??? June needs to hurry up now don’t you think!!
Well **** all that ****. Where’s my Serpos..oh 2015. Well teh line is gonna die before then. Drink the Kool Aid
First off, DayRaven, that’s some pretty good link-up-and-fill-in explaining you got in there to cover their keysters. Why aren’t YOU working for Mattel?
And as for the featured toys:
Nikolas? Really? NIKOLAS?!! That’s the BEST they could come up with? Why not Darkfax Mordred Powers or Eldredge Darkheed Powers? Something that sounds . . . I dunno . . . impressive. It smacks of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” as in:
THE FACELESS ONE:
“Cower, puny mortals, for I am the undying sorcerer-king of Zalesia, guardian of its powerful mystic artefacts, and cursed for all eternity to live as a faceless phantom, trapped between worlds! I . . . AM . . . NIK!”
HEROIC WARRIORS (as one):
“Hi, Nik!”
And frankly, I preferred Clawful as a cunning and powerful adversary in the vein of the Filmation series. But Evil-Lyn just magicking him up some smarts, that sounds plain lazy.
Still, looking forward to the toys, especially Clawful, one of my favourite toys ever as a kid. And now I can finally have one with the correct jaggedy legs instead of the ridiculous Skeletor legs I had on mine!
good question… i suspect they hate talent. 😉