“Your new nails are interesting, Skeletor!” – He-Man, Masters of the Universe
I’m sitting here staring at Mattel’s Fall 2pk, Flying Fists He-Man & Terror Claws Skeletor. And I’m not sure what to really say about them. There’s a theme I’ve noticed among toy collectors – strange 80s variants tend to get a pass based on when you caught on with the line, right? In modern times, a character variant is very rarely met with glee, but for MOTU it seems that many of us determine “our” Skeletor or He-Man to be the first one we had as a kid.
I am absolutely guilty of this because Battle Armor is where it’s at. Battle Armor Skelly heads up the villains shelf. Battle Armor He-Man & Faker sit at the top the whole collection. No further He-Man & Skelly’s need apply.
Yet he we are.
It’s cool though because those weirdos that see Flying Fists as “the” He-Man need this guy. And if there really is anybody that sees this Skelly as “the” Skeletor. Well, they need help. Until then, though, they’ve got this figure.
Skelly’s prolly my lesser favorite of the two. He’s pretty much the basic Skeletor, albeit a darker blue. I kinda like that color, it might be interesting to swap some other armors on him to see how it looks. His face is one of the most yellow of all the Skelly’s so far (Except that all-yellow one) and it looks good up there. The only complaint on the reuse is the loincloth. See Battle Armor gets it right with the furry loincloth while this Skeletor reuses his Classics armored loincloth. It’s not a big deal to me, but if this was “my” Skeletor, I might care…
The only real new bit on the figure is the armor, or bra-mor as I find myself calling it. I just said I liked adding the midriff in on Mara, so I’m going to keep it fair – if Skelly wants to show his belly, it’s all good. The armor itself is fine. I like the metallic purple and the skull and it definitely doesn’t obstruct the ab crunch! The clip for the skull-accessory is a bit unsightly, but it kinda fits the theme. No, the only real issue I have on the armor is where the connectors are – right under the armpits and in the way of the biceps. I know, it’s par for the course for the line the last few years, but you still gotta point it out and dream for the future.
Skeletor includes three accessories: his terror claws that clip over his normal wrists and this… dragon skull thing. Has anyone checked on that dragon that came with Dragon Blaster Skelly? I’m concerned. It’s a good recreation of the original. If I had had that maybe I would get it. Instead, I think it’s a grandfathered thing that’s really cool if you first had it when you were ten. It does clip on the back, where it aided the vintage toy in twisting and slashing. Here it’s just nice storage. Continue to Page 2…
Great review – I’m not feeling them, too:
The Heroic Master of Cost Effectiveness & the Evil Lord of Couldn’t Be Bothered 🙂
The spinning weapon goes in the spare parts bin (at least it’s not a little pinwheel toy like in the classic mini comics), but the Power Sword is just lazy.
As for crazy hands, I would have really liked his blaster rifle from one of the last modern mini comics. The one that looked like a Tyranid Gun from Warhammer 40k.
Btw, back then my He-Man & Skeletor were Battle Armor & Dragon Blaster. Not because I got them first, but by then the originals had been completely worn out: Lost weapons, broken armour, chafed off paint … Poor things, that first year of MotU was INTENSE!
Great review and hilarious comics yet again.
As glad as I was to get these to fill some gaps in my collection, I’m not intensely thrilled with them. Bulky, non-chromed armour and accessories were the biggest catching point. (I bet a vac-metal Power Sword would look killer.) I actually like the modified loincloth for Skeletor; I think every Skeletor should have that, regardless of what the Vintage version looked like. So he goes through all the trouble to get mystical Battle Armour, but leaves his loins less protected than they were before? Baffling.
And, other than the metallic bits, the action feature was what made these toys in the Vintage line. He-Man’s gleaming weapons whirling and swinging, Skeletor’s claws slashing viciously, and, when the whim struck him, his Snap-Dragon flail lashing forth like a mechanical whip to chomp a big bite out of whatever poor barsinister was in his way.
These guys, without the metal armour and the action feature? Not so amazing.
God help me, I kind of like TC Skelly. It feels in keeping with his FILMation personality of ridiculous over-the-topness. Why go with spiked knuckle dusters or Krueger gloves when you can have MASSIVE INFLEXIBLE METAL ARMS CLIPPED TO YOUR WRISTS. Though it’s still not quite as crazy as foregoing, say, a shoulder-mounted flamethrower in favour of hunting down, capturing, and strapping on a live baby dragon…
FF He-Man though… ugh. I don’t even get how those are “flying fists”. I suppose “Whirling Testicles He-Man” just didn’t grab Mattel upper management by the… uh… well, you know.
Meh. I’ve always hated vac-metal figures, because I’ve never seen one that stood up at all. They always end up flaking and looking like crap.
I’m usually younger than the average MOTU fan (I was born in ’82), but the originals will always be MY He-Man and Skeletor. I look at all the other versions how most of us look at variants today: they’re crappy, goofy, bastardized, non-canon versions of the real characters.
It’s odd, because I keep hearing people complain about flaking vac-metal, but I’ve never had problems with it flaking on my stuff. I dunno if I’ve inadvertently stumbled upon the perfect storage conditions, or if it was because I was always careful with them. (As in, when I was a kid, I didn’t bash my figures together to make them “fight.”)
After reading the “Junk Drawer” article on The Fwoosh yesterday, I fished out my old Tomy Rascal Robot (one of the best toys ever), and it still looks pristine after nearly 40 years. Transmetal II Megatron only has a couple tiny spots where the red has come off the chrome, and MOTUC Hurricane Hordak is as good as ever.
Now I really wish there was a MOTU/POP fan at the meteorological bureau, so that we could one day get a news report telling us to board up our windows in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Hordak.
It’s funny that you bring up the Transmetals, because I remember getting some that were already flaking in the package. Especially disappointing was an import of Fire Convoy (2001 RiD’s Optimus Prime) that basically lost all his vac-metal just standing on the shelf. I hadn’t paid much attention to him for a while, and when I checked in on him, most of his vac-metal paint was dusting the shelf at his feet.
I have no nostalgia for these two. I didn’t even know they existed until high school. And they’re really….well, it’s obvious they were scraping the bottom of the idea barrel by this point. I wouldn’t mind having just the terror claws, but that’s about it.
And my firsts of the Big Two were actually New Adventures. That Skeletor is still one of my faves, He-Man…not so much. I’ve always been all about the Battle Armors. And Dragon Blaster.
Actually, I bet it would look really good if you swap the heads and armors to have Dragon Blaster with that red belt.
ALWAYS HAVE BEEN A SEXUAL ATTRACION BETWEEN SKELETOR AND HE-MAN
This isn’t Westeros, it’s Eternia!
You do know that Keldor is Randor’s half-brother, right? making him Adam’s uncle.
Well, upon going thru my old before selling off I.had all 4 (no lazer lights here) Skeletors (Original, BA, Dragon Blaster, and Terror Claws) what remember TC I liked as enjoyed the look and creepy factor the claws had. I just don’t see it here. The purple Vac metal would’ve helped as its one I wish did not sell.
Flying Fists I never owned. All before yes but guess never got into it. Can’t really say what think of him. On the sword, wasn’t all our old weapons one solid color? Call it a throwback 2nd a Vac-metal sword (hey why not a Diecast One)
A great review as always and funny comics. Await the next.
“His other accessory is his three-balled mace.” #PHRASING!!
also, pretty sure that would be a “mourningstar”? Google sez…nope, “flail”. huh.
as for the figures, yeah, the new armors look a bit sleek and snazzy, but chunky due to the clasp placement. Pop them onto any other character and you really wouldn’t know where the armor came from. nothing else to really write about.
(except that dragon…!)
bright side: this year’s Black Friday sale was a flustercluck on “free” shipping. It took a couple hours, but I got mine refunded, so I will finally have my first Castle Grayskull! woot!
also managed to pick up a few figures I’ve missed the last year or so.
DCIE Huntress was the only one I still missed out on. :/
Terror Claws Skeletor & Thunderpunch He-Man were my two Skeletor & He-Man figures growing up & I got the MOTUC Thunderpunch figure to fill in the ones I grew up with. Not blow away with this 2-pack either, so for my Classics shelf the Laser Light/Power Skeletor & He-Man may end up fulfilling that role on my shelf.