King Grayskull (Masters of the Universe Classics)

MOTUC King Grayskull

Well what have we got here? It's He-Man's great great uber great ancestor whom he calls upon every time he empowers his sword. "By the power of Grayskull...!", He-Man yells as this dude wakes up from his beauty sleep, smites He-Man with a bolt of lightning as He-Man redirects it with his sword to himself. I wish my grandpa can do that for me; "empower" my bank account every time I yell outside his grave, but I guess it's only in Eternia where you can bug some ancestral spirits to gain ancestral powers. Fortunately, this dead guy is pretty accomodating with every wish He-Man asks 'cause before he died, he vowed to aid his future sons and daughters, and future great great great sons and daughters if ever one of them finds and takes his Power Sword. It's kinda like that story of the 12 knights and a king who took a magic sword locked on a magic stone.








King D'vann Grayskull, or King G (for short), looks more like a battle-scared barbarian than He-man  with his The Beatles-style hairdo, and that what makes King G the real bossman. Definitely, everyone should notice King G's red robe with all the rips and tears at the edges along with this white wool cloth thingy that clings unto and covers his shoulders. It actually feels like suede when you touch this wool cloth mimicry.

You've probably stumbled into the wrong impression that King G and He-Man both have the same height and body mold, but no they're not. Although they have the same body type, but the body mold is different. You can see here on one of these photos that King G is a little bitty bit taller and bulkier than He-Man. I, myself got into the impression as well and was greatly surprised when I looked at them closely.

Comparing him with the strongest man of the universe, King G has a few of what He-Man have with added features and some minor modifications. King G has these long loose ponytails coming down from both side of his face to his wide jaw while his long majestic hair on his back goes just right at armpit level. Like his hair, King G's loin cloth is long and full supported by this aluminum-like belt around his waist. The sigil emblemed on his chest, I should say, looks more like a kickass asterisk-symbol rather than a cross, which I think is much cooler.

King Grayskull comes with four different weapons or accessories. To say the least, he got his main weapon, the Power Sword. And unlike He-Man's, this Power Sword has a blazing blue tip that he probably buffed up using his magic. Then again, we're being re-introduced to these two sword-halves that you can assemble or disassemble, which I still don't know the sense of all these gimmicks, since if you're giving He-Man and Skeletor each with sword-halves, those guys already had a sword-half of their own!













King G comes with a shield, which you're probably familiar of, but the one new and unique thing that comes with this guy is this sparkly blue "spirit orb" or the "power orb" (I don't really know its name).

The articulation on this guy is the same as your standard MOTUC action figure. His head can rotate 360 but you gotta take off the king's robe and bend his ponytails out of the way. He's got ab crunch, waist swivel, and ball-hinged hips that lets move his legs foward and back. He's got a wiggly ankle pivot that kept me busy having to get him into a dynamic pose. He got swivel to the biceps and wrists, and his elbows and knees all remained single-jointed.

King Grayskull stands almost 7 inches tall, and he may work well with some of your Marvel Legends and Marvel Select figures. Just imagine having King G battling Thor in your display! You may know me as someone who collects Marvel stuff, but Masters of the Universe Classics action figures are also one of my growing collections.

Battle Cat (Masters of the Universe Classics)

Masters of the Universe Classics Battle Cat

When it comes to innovation and variety, the Masters of the Universe Classics toyline doesn't really pass in this category. If you take a bunch of some average MOTUC male action figures and compare them with one another, you'll see how laughably their height and body mold look the same. Though the same can be also said to Marvel Legends figures, but they're not as consistent and as obvious as the ones from this toyline. But since I've been itching for another MOTUC review and for the sake of variety, I therefore unleash something that is not a man nor a humanoid, but a four-legged Eternian beast. Enter this 10.5-inch long Battle Cat!













Just as any main characters of the Masters of the Universe, collectors are "obliged" to get not only this cat-steed but also its rider, He-Man. But with or without its rider, this Battle Cat action figure looks elegantly amazing; even surpassing that of the classic Battle Cat in the 80's. MOTU vintage collectors would cry out and wish Mattel have upscaled it in the past. This version, for me, is the perfect size!

Other than size, what I like about this figure is the overall sculpt. Regardless of the added joints and other types of articulation, Battle Cat maintained its body's contours and shapes. Looking from side view, you can see how the spine waves like an "S" from the nape down to the tail as you expose him as Cringer (the cowardly cat). The head is well designed; combining both lower jaw articulation and face sculpt... and again without disfiguring its form. Having the likeness of a tiger, this big cat has a few fur-like feature molded under its neck and legs while its surface is covered with waves and lines mimicking that of a hair.

Nothing much to be said with its paint application other than just plain solid colours of green and streaks of orange paint. Even its face gear or helm doesn't have any colour shading or any kind of variation besides maroon. Battle Cat's saddle, however, has a little bit of detail with that leathery kind of look in the middle. Other than that, this action figure just look exactly like its cartoon counterpart with no additional details or whatsoever.

One major flaw with this action figure is the stability of its face gear. Though these little hooks behind it try to prevent it from falling off its face but it's unreliable and doesn't really do a good job as something like a fastening strap. It makes me wonder why Mattel installed straps to its saddle but not to its face gear! Another major flaw are the footrests at the sides of Battle Cat's saddle. He-Man's toes can't even completely step right into these poorly designed footrests 'cause it's just too small.

Articulation wise, Battle Cat has a good amount of articulation for an animal figure. Its head can rotate clockwise or counter-clockwise and can move up and down. This hinge inside its neck helps Battle Cat aim its head all the way up or way down. It got diaphragm swivel; something we don't see alot on animal figures, and a ball-hinged tail that can move side to side. Each of Battle Cat's four legs have hinges under its groins that help spread its legs just a tiny bit. Every joint on each of its legs are single jointed with paws that can swivel and rotate.

It shouldn't take long for someone to decide whether to get this figure or not. "Every cowboy needs a horse"- a statement generally agreed by most people, and from that I recommend every MOTUC fans to get this figure not for its prime reason that "He-Man needs Battle Cat", but the Battle Cat itself is one amazing figure; unique from this toyline.

He-Man (Masters of the Universe Classics)

Masters of the Universe Classics He-Man

Here's another iconic character from the 80's cartoons and this time from the Masters of the Universe- He-Man! Probably alot of you have already seen this He-Man action figure so many times but this is sort of a prelude to what I'm going to be showing some time around this year- I don't know when but I'll be reviewing and giving you my thoughts on my little MOTUC collection this 2013. "Little" because I'm only picking up a few of them especially the main characters and without any second thoughts, He-Man was the first thing on my list. Regardless of all these different special features and gimmicks from different MOTUC figures like extendable necks and furry skins and stuff, the most powerful man in the universe is still the most awesome action figure in this toyline... and nothing can beat the hairdo!












The paint apps on He-Man is not really that of high degree and complexity and this is what you'll expect on all MOTUC action figures, but you gotta love how Mattel maintained the original classic look of He-Man and the rest of these guys. Moreover, they made some improvements with his sculpt; having a more realistic and proportionate anatomical structure and muscle mass than his 25-year old ancestor.

But I got one real gripe about how this figure is designed and these are his huge joint fasteners that are making some huge holes over his knees and elbows, and it just not eye-appealing. He got some decent amount of detail on his loincloth and that strap crisscrossed over his chest with the cross emblem at the center. Now this cross may be the Knights Templars cross or of religious origin but I got zero clue as to how and why He-Man adopted this symbol (someone needs to do some 'xplaining here). I am neither a hater nor a fan of this cross; this for me is just "He-Man cross" but personally though, I like the "H" symbol better.

The articulation is actually not bad. Not the best though; there are good ones and some issues but you can get a few nice poses from He-Man here. Lets start with the good stuff! He got this double-hinged shoulders that lets you raise his arms straight up especially when you get him to do that "I... am... He-Man!!" thing. The neck is ball-jointed and the hips are ball-hinged. He got bicep swivels, wrist swivels, upper and lower thigh swivels, ankle joints, ab crunch and ankle rockers. Now the bad- the ankle joints and rockers are pretty loose and wiggly (hopefully on mine), so it was ridiculously time consuming to get him to stand and do some dynamic pose. No double-joints to the elbows and knees, and I'm not sure why Mattel have not considered installing this. Overall, the articulation on this figure is more likely average.

He-Man comes with a variety of weapons; his primary weapon of course, the Power Sword, along with his battle axe, shield, and this half-Power Sword, which probably goes with the other half that Skeletor has. His shield has this clip behind that fits perfectly around his forearm and/or may go at the back hanging unto his holster. The holster for his weapons is entirely removable; so get him topless, get him go berserk.

Standing around 6.85 inches and with an enormous muscular  physique, he can mix in well with some Marvel Select or TMNT figures.

Recommending this figure to someone is completely unneccessary; He-Man is undoubtedly the most essential character in the lore. Regardless of what the entire critics say about him, He-Man is a default item to all MOTUC collectors.

Vikor (Masters of the Universe Classics)

Masters of the Universe Classics Vikor

If there is one guy from the Masters of the Universe Classics that can closely render the likeness of Conan, then that's gotta be Vikor. Out from his package, this guy can easily be mistaken as the "other guy" for those who are not huge into collecting MOTUC figures because of one simple feature- the loin cloth! That's right! Those furry loin cloths have always been a popular active wear for both boys and girls of this Eternia kingdom, but one guy seems to go against the groove and that's my man, Vikor right here. Regarded as the "He-Man of the North", this guy simply out-styled a rather much standard warrior-type looks of the most powerful man in the universe.












The overall feature of this guy looks kind of like a crossbreed between a Hun and a Viking. Vikor's horned helmet, robe and shield are very much Viking-like. However, when you look at his dark hair and brownish skin colour and, especially, the shape of his eyes, it strongly resembles that of a Hun... or someone like Attila.

One cool feature about this guy is the sheath for his sword is placed at the back; just above his butt that holds his sword stably without causing any issues with the articulation. Being a northerner such as he is, he wears this robe that is completely irremovable; being tied around his neck with this ornamented necklace, which is sculpted and textured nicely to look just like a real furry robe for that nasty northern weather. Like we've discussed, his loin cloth is different than most we've seen in this toyline; this torn dirty drape made of soft plastic makes him a lot refreshing to look.

In addition, each wrists has these medieval handcuffs molded together with these real chains that hang loose (a memory of a prisoner he once become). Unlike his "southern" counterpart, Vikor's set of weapons comes with unique designs. Given with a green and red colour scheme, he got a shield with a huge spike in the middle, and a more simpler yet beautifully crafted sword and battle axe.

While I think it is needless to go over with the articulation after I did all that review with He-Man and King Grayskull, I still want to mention how smooth these joints move as I execute every pose I could think of from this figure. The only gripe I had with this figure is the movement on his head that has been limited because of his long and almost rock-hard hair that's keeping his head from looking up and also making it harder to move side to side.

Despite having the same size and body mold as the rest of the MOTUC male action figures, Vikor stand out in a way that he is apparently anti-He-Man. I thought I just want to grab him from the shelf after my unresting search for newness took over, and so Vikor is definitely a must-grab figure to keep that MOTUC collecting fresh and exciting.