MOTUClassics.Com
Standor Review

NoisyDvL5

So that’s just strange, but the other thing I do kinda feel awkward about is the toy itself. I mean, check out this bio:

Before time began, the great Gods of the multiverse convened in the Hall of Power to create all that was and all that will ever be. Head architect of this great task was Standor. A cosmic being of unlimited imagination, Standor helped lead his fellow deities by fueling their energies with raw creative force. After creation was complete, it was Standor’s great magic that cast the aura of the Gods across the universe as a wave of power, giving rise to all forms of life and intelligence. With his infinite energy, Standor reaches out into the cosmos and across the dimensional gateways to power all who would become Masters of the Universe for good or evil.

I already told you that Stan Lee has nothing to do with He-Man and while He-Man is a property that kinda thrived on borrowing from other properties, this bio still kinda tramples all over the very folks that created MOTU. And that’s also never minded that Stan Lee, while fantastic, got there with a little help from his friends like Kirby & Ditko. They’re covered here as “fellow deities” I suppose, but… well, it’s just a shame we can’t get a MOTUC Kirby almost. I know that’s a jump, but hear me out. Continue to Page 2…

See, the thing is the 4H are some of the best at what they do and what they did here was give Stan Lee, Kirby Armor. Just look at it. Think 4th World. Think Eternals. This fits right in. It looks fantastic. But then it kinda brings you back to this whole Stan Lee getting all of the credit, or getting an action figure, while Kirby, turns out, wasn’t as good as marketing himself? I know I’m being silly here, but it just feels odd. Like, if Mattel made a Bob Kane figure in their Batman line and then we all just kind at look at each other and whisper things about Bill Finger, y’know? Comic book and creator rights are a huge mess though, so it’s best just to move on.

And besides, showing Kirby into MOTUC isn’t going to improve the weirdness of showing Stan Lee in there, right? I’m almost to the end of the review and this is a figure I greatly enjoy, so maybe I should just pack it up and enjoy it?

Overall, from a normal toy review point of view… and this is a toy review, isn’t it? On that front, all that kinda stinks here is the lack of an accessory. The three new armor pieces (helmet, armor, loincloth) are all fantastic sculpted as I mentioned. I love the Kirby feel. It seems right. The “cosmic” glitter catches the eye and helps blend out that the boots and gloves are solid black and the armor pieces transparent. The likeness really is dead on, with or without the trademark glasses (which stay on great courtesy of two small notches on the figure’s temples). The rest of the figure is all smart reuse, but it works as a whole. The only thing I have left to decide is helmet on helmet off? I like it both ways. That and where to put this guy, I kinda like him hanging out on the Marvel shelves even if he is a little bluer than the real thing. (not the big orange guy, duh).

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63 thoughts on “MOTUClassics.Com
Standor Review”

  1. 42? …I don’t see Hal Jordan anywhere? 🙁

    😉
    seriously, I guess he does look cool, and there was a little regret in pasing on him as a “gimmick” figure. I think I have the SDCC/HTS exclusive ML Stan around somewhere? Wherever my FF Shulkie is, most likely. (buried in storage)

    I did just spend last week re-watching the Kevin Smith Jersey Trilo- er, Quad- ..um…Jersey Saga? and maybe it’s me, but I still think Stan looks better with that beard.

    I’m almost surprised they didn’t name him Excelsior?
    (and biting my tongue on what those “waves of magic” really are.)

    so…midnight/2am snack? would you like a chocolate pretzel? 😀

    2. Stan Lee owes the rights to “Excelsior” as an excited utterance for entertainment purposes (not making that up). Maybe it would have cost even more than just the likeness rights?

        1. the ability to license a certain word or phrase in commercial enterprises has been around for a long while. You can’t simply open a music/electronics store called “Apple” because of the music label and iCorporation. Even if your name is “Apple” and you name it after yourself. Starbucks tried to sue some small bar in St Charles MO(?-somewhere around here) for an Unofficial drink nickname similar to frappacino(sp) they happened to catch on twitter. He wrote a hilarious rebuttal about it and sent them a couple bucks in reimbursement that went viral a little while back.

          so yeah, sometimes you have to watch how you use certain words in advertising. Considering Stan is pretty much the only person who still uses “Excelsior” in any way, these days, he pretty much owns it.

          1. This explains the lack of gladiator movies these days. };D People are too damn litigious these days.

            I remember when Paris Hilton wanted to trademark “That’s hot.” And she was rightly laughed at.

  2. Agreed. The only reason this figure got made was through the usual corporate BS that came along with Mattel and Stan making whatever kind of deal they have. Same situation as getting Geoff Johns involved, which is probably due to DC handling the MOTU comics license. Which makes a Stan Lee Masters figure sound even more bizarre if you stop and think about it.

    As for the figure itself? Great likeness, worst bio ever. It’s all a bunch of heavy-handed words which in the end say nothing. The bio is merely there to justify any and all lip service surrounding the figure.

    Also, why is he blue? That’s Skeletor’s color. Is there a hidden message there regarding the whole Lee vs Kirby creator credit thing?

    Whatever.

  3. Great review, outSTANding pics. Loved all the little background gags. Does he who IS fear shrink from the touch of Man-Thing?

    Bought this figure for completeness, was surprised how much I liked it. It’s just a nicely-designed bit of fun with Kirby armour on it.

    If you worry about the lack of accessories, Day Raven pointed out that you can get a multi-pack of glittery cocktail sticks at Wal-Mart for cheap, in gold, silver, and black. Since I live in England, far away from any Wal-Marts, I searched Amazon, and while I couldn’t find black glittery ones, I found light-up ones that allow me to do this:

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10153738332400564&set=o.57309659843&type=2&theater

    Guess what I’m going to do to Light Hope when he arrives? };D

    1. That, THAT is AWESOME, Beedo! It’s PERFECT!

      Isn’t it a pity that Mattel couldn’t just go ‘down the block’ to the Chinese factory that made those and bought some for the figure? But then that would have pushed the price to something like $50 USD… 🙁

      1. Thank ‘e, mate! You should be able find multi-packs of those light-up stirrers fairly easily and not too expensively on Amazon. They come in solid red, solid orange, solid green, solid blue, and multi-colour flashing.

        I plan on making a red one into a Laser Light Skeletor laser Havoc Staff, an orange one into The Unnamed One’s evil flame staff, giving a blue or green one to Standar, and using the mutli-colour flashing ones for both Light Hope and his staff. I may see if I can dangle a red one off Spirit of Hordak’s neck, down behind his back, to see if I can make him glow. Kind of a test-bed for the Light Hope idea.

  4. Lol, that’s so cool Beedo. 😉

    I passed on Stan the Man. Just didn’t do it for me. If I come across him cheaper, I’ll grab him. But these things are damn pricey nowadays. I did end up getting SLL and Photog in the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale in 2012, so hopefully we see some Stans discounted later this year. If not, no biggy. 😛

  5. Skeletor: I was eaten by a purple people eater and I’m blue AAAAAAAAAAARGH CURSE THOSE HEROES!

    Yes I am still laughing over that. Standor is one of those figs that if see a a reasonable price will snag. Yes it is a weird idea but as this review shows how much fun can one make with the guy. Hmm Kirby Armor but no Dikto pen/staff. That has to be fixed.

    Great fun review and pics. You made an iffy into a easy buy for me. I just need a good spidy, Miles is but need classic red and blue.

  7. This is the only MOTUC figure I’ve skipped. He looks far better than I imagined he could, but he just seems so pointless beyond baing a corporate goodwill kind of thing. With MOTU being a property that has had a long history of individuals being involved in the creative process (who have often been excluded in participating in in any way after the fact), it seems just bizarre to take someone completely unrelated to the property and shoehorn them into the property in a creator like role.

  9. Just an unmitigated, worthless piece of plastic garbage. We will all have a chance for these at Big Lots in a year or two, but even then I will pass. Stan Lee is really unequaled in his importance to the American Comic Book, but has ZERO to do with the Masters of the Universe. It would make more sense for MOTU to do a figure of Stan Weston, the guy who invented G.I. Joe and thus set in motion generations of male-oriented action figures.

    1. I think you meant to say “Don Levine, the guy who invented GI Joe”, but even then it wouldn’t make much sense for Mattel to honor/promote Hasbro.

      But yes, Stan Lee not equal (why can’t I find that key for the symbol!) to MOTU. I agree having him be a ‘Watcher’ type dude.

      2. Actually, the impetus behind the idea of G.I. Joe seems to have been the result of ideas jointly promulgated by Weston, Levine and Larry Reiner, with most of the actual work of engineering the concept into a functional prototype handled by Sam Speers.

  10. He needs either a club or staff, and it needs to have one of those Kirby Zig-Zaggy Lines ™ etched into it.

    I like Standor better than any of the other ‘Scott’s Vanity’ figures and I think it’s the same reason as you, Noisy, the sheer personality of Stan Lee. I suspect, if nothing else, this is terrific custom fodder. Plop Faker’s head on him and you’ve got Gar Adam, for one crazy idea.

    1. Actually, I forgot until you reminded me – Scareglow’s head under that mask? Grogeous cosmic Skeletor.

      Only problem is Scareglow is far too pricey.

  11. We could get a customizer to make a Lou head and just swap. Too me that is who this shoulda been via the bio.

  12. I like the figure. He’s a neat little oddity like Photog and Spirit of Hordak. One of those things that isn’t necessary for play time but is fun to have in the collection.

    As for the bio… le sigh … the whole “cosmic creator” angle is just a bunch of fan-wanking on Scott’s part I think. I don’t mind them putting Stan in the bios but not as the guy that started it all. He’d fit a lot better, and be easier for fans to accept if he was a Watcher type. A cosmic observer and storyteller. The guy writing it all down rather than making it all up.

  13. Like y’all I see no point to adding stan to the motuc mythos but on love of stan himself and the coolness of the fig I got one and it makes me gladder than princess vespa. Fun load of photos noisy, looks like a scene kut of my own collection.

  14. I respect Stan Lee as much as anyone but I fail to understand the point in making him into a character in MOTUC. To me it just seems like a waste when the money used for tooling the new parts could have went towards a character the fans really wanted.

    1. It’s supposed to be a bit of cross-brand promotion with whatever Stan’s doing these days? Super 7 or something?

      1. I can’t understand Mattel’s logic…..I am still wondering why they sculpted Icarius / Flipshot to look like Val Kilmer instead of what he looked like in the cartoon. It’s one of the reasons I gave up collecting this line years ago. I would have thought putting him in with DCUC would have made more sense.

        Regardless of what I think of the figure I really enjoyed your review and the pics.

        1. Thanks, Mark!

          The thing sometimes is too many hands in the pot. I imagine the Val Kilmer head was a more NJ-based thing.

          On Stan, it’d be nice to hear behind-the-scenes. I’d guess that the idea of the Stan figure is more about Scott getting attention for MOTU or Scott meeting Stan Lee.

  15. The famous Stan Lee as a MOTUC figure….SMH! I only brought this figure b/c I’m a BIG FAN of all Stan Lee comics & movies & I buy anything that’s MOTUC but he doesn’t belong in the motuc world…..he already has his own world–his perfect IMAGINATION that the world has come to love for decades!

  16. Although I do like this figure, I can’t stop thinking his creation was a waste. We could get another simple figure from MOTU or POP (as they spent our precious money to make new tools for this figure) using the basic male/female body, or maybe another character with a different look created by Stan Lee (whithout his face).
    Anyway, as a collector I try to face every figure as a unique addition to my collection…

    1. The good news is that was surely an extraneous budget item. If there were no Stan Lee collobration, Mattel wouldn’t have gone to Comikaze and no budget would’ve been created for a separate exclusive. He exists in a vacuum in that regard, no more impactful than a Monster High doll getting a new accessory.

  18. Put his glasses in the accessory drawer and gave him the sword that came with Fang-Man and Castle Grayskull Man’s shield. Looks AWESOME.

  20. I’m going to have to pick one of these up, eventually. I think people are taking their toys too seriously if they can’t see the enjoyment of a muscle-bound blue Stan Lee figure.

  21. It’s reviews like this that make this site the gem it is. I didn’t know this fig existed. The likeness is so much better than SDCC exclusive. The bio is just stupid. The armor is the accessory. Great look! The pics are genuinely funny. You have been bestowed upon with great comedy. With great comedy comes great hilarity.

    Thwipp!

  22. Like you, I’m also a DC boy, but my Marvel pull has increased of late.. Sigh..

    Man.. Gator.. Cant hey make a Gator figure from the ‘Hitman’ series.. Hahaha.. ti’d be epic..

    I’ve got my Standor in the castle sitting on the throne, with the sword and infinity stone in his hands.. Like he’s some guardian of the power objects and cosmic advisor

  23. My Standor inherited the sparkly blue Power Sword that came with He-Ro. It’s not like “The Most Powerful Wizard in The Universe!” needs a weapon other than his Staff anyway… :^)

  24. thank you for bringing up the Kirby debate that my brain has had ever since the figure was unveiled (i so want a Kirby figure, bonus points if it’s a Kirby figure in the style of Kirby’s art).
    I’m a bit sick of Stan Lee, I have been for many years and I am rightfully ribbed about it by my friends – but you know what bugs me the most about this figure? Not that Stan Lee shouldn’t be in the line, not that bio gives the role of the actual creative people behind He-Man to some bloke almost completely unrelated to the franchise (Marvel put out some He-Man comics once ‘member? I’m sure it was while Stan Lee was on still on the payrol then as… something – mouthpiece? mascot?), not that once again it’s Stan Lee getting the attention – but that he’s blue. Those are DC’s colours! I’m not into the whole ‘console war’ of comics (DC vs Marvel vs Image etc) but Marvel is red, DC is blue, Stan Lee is so Marvel if you cut him he bleeds old pages of the Incredible Hulk (drawn by someone who’s not as famous as him), he should be red.
    Yes I’m a madman, 😀

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