Back in 1986(ish) I had to make a stand one Saturday morning in Woolworths. I wanted one of the new Masters of the Universe (MOTU) line, the evil Horde- Mantenna. But my dad had an issue with him, "That's one of the baddies from She-Ra. That's for girls". Do I give in and settle for a less interesting toy? Or do I stand my ground and double down on the rationale that the Horde figures come in the same "boxes" as the other He-man toys? With a combination of supreme logic and expert whining I'd won him round, and Mantenna was mine. The first of several Horde members I would get as a child. I loved the Horde, they all had unique designs above your average henchman and cool play gimmicks (Grizzlor notwithstanding). I had nearly all of them, except one. Being a pedantic little geek, even at the age of six, I didn't want a Hordak figure because he didn't look like how he did in the cartoon show. Cartoon Hordak had a angular, robot-like face, blue skin and a laser gun arm. Toy Hordak had bad acne on his forehead, gray skin, and red bat thing that rested on his arm. But 33 years later, Super 7 have corrected that mistake by remaking vintage Hordak in the cartoon design. Will he live up to six-year-old me's expectations?
Ok, admitted nostalgia kick out of the way. I will admit, when opening the parcel this figure came in, it felt a little bit like Christmas- seeing as the last time I got a new MOTU figure was December 25th, sometime in the 80s. The packaging looks just like the original, the airbrushed logo, the exploding red rocks, the cross cell art on the back. Were it not for the Super 7 logo and "adult collector" label you'd be easily mistaken for thinking this was a mint MOTU figure. There even seems to be a mini comic inside (spoiler alert, there isn't).
The major standout, for me, is finally seeing the show accurate colour for his skin tone. The old gray is replaced with a lovely royal blue, the face no longer has the warts on the forehead and looks more angular than the original. It's hard to appreciate the detail as white paint is quite thick and obscures some of the sculpt. Aside from the new head, and horde armbands on both arms, sans horde logo, some ribbing detail on the armour, and logoless boots, what you're getting is the original Hordak figure, which means there is a bit of a Filmation omission in his boots. They just look soft compared to the metal flippers the cartoon model had. Though not an obvious defect at first glance, it makes an excellent concept into an ok toy in execution. The armour is just like the original, albeit with exposed panels painted into the new sculpting on the side. It does a great job of making Hordak look barrel-chested but wow, how brittle does the plastic feel? No wonder I would break the fastening tabs as a kid. They look impossible to open with my adult-sized, banana fingers, so I'm not gonna risk breakage by trying to open them. So lets just assume Hordak's torso is the generic MOTU chest in royal blue, ok? The paint job, is mostly decent, but the blue head fin and most of the bone detailing on the body is a bit sloppy and there's a couple of red and black marks.
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| You gotta hand to him, Hordak really committed to the bat motif |
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| I must of missed the episode where Hordak wore the socks he got for father's day |
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| Size comparison with MOTU classics Hordak |
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| Next to a vintage Skeletor |
Articulation is, to the surprise of no one, just like a vintage MOTU figure. The head turns slightly left and right, as the headgear stops it going any further. Both arms rotate completely at the shoulder. The waist has a spring-loaded gimmick where you turn the torso back, and the it snaps back- simulating a big punch- like the original toy. Maybe it's the armour causing friction, or I got a duff spring, but but Hordak's power punch is really weak, even compared to a vintage Skeletor. But the figure will straight punch or backhand another MOTU figure over, just. Something that is a major change from the original toy are the hip joints. Gone is the rubber (for lack of a better term) barbell of old and now we get ball and pivot joint, which do an fairly decent job of replicating the leg movement the vintage toy, but for the love of me I can't get the legs to pivot out. Looking up other reviews, this seems to be a common issue with this line. Despite this, he stands just fine and if he can sit on a classics Panthor then he can certainly ride vintage animals no problem. I just have my doubts over his ability to sit in vintage vehicles.
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| "Son of a..." |
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| "What's the matter, Skeletor? Horde Prime got you pushing too many pencils?" |
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| "Oi! That's my massive, purple cat!" |
Included are two iconic weapons. You get the classic horde crossbow, only known for it's ubiquity in the original toy line, and it's just as rubbish as I remember it. It clips over Hordak's wrist, you push the little Hordak head back to "load" it, then press the raised part of the clip to let the head part jutt forward with all the force of a prawn sneezing.. The only remarkable thing about it is it's red instead of of white for Filmation accuracy, you also get Hordak's arm cannon. It slips only over the right hand, like a handheld weapon instead of his forearm being the entire gun. Mattel was experimenting with removable limbs, in Modulok, so it wouldn't of been too much artistic license to have it been an individual part that pegs into Hordak's lower arm? It also should be noted the sculpt is quite soft. It almost looks like a fourth generation recast of the original cannon. The inside is designed to rest on top of the right hand, so it takes a bit of fiddling until it's resting on top, and is a bit of a let down to finally have the arm cannon, only for it to barely stay on and exposes the bottom half of the forearm,- so his only good poses are cannon arm pointing down, and cannon arm not quite pointing straight at you. I wish it was a whole piece but, given the design limitations of the time, it's hard to argue that this isn't how the weapon would look like in the mid-80s. Also included is a collector's card with a Filmation style image of Hordak, with three images showing the progression of the toy design, a (I assume) early draft of the animation model, then the actual animation model- with some meaningless text about how Filmation simplified the design. Like I mentioned before, in the blister this looks like it could be a mini-comic so, as nice as the art is, it's a slight sting in the tail that Super 7 didn't go the whole hog,even if it was just a few pages explaining why Hordak changed his skin tone.
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| Weapon loaded |
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| And behold the force of a weapon that couldn't bruise a peach |
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| "You talkin' ta me?" |
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| Hordak really should of put a bit more effort into his cosplay weapon |
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| "Wow! what a beauty!" |
Ultimately, whether this figure is worth getting really depends on how much you want to keep the red in your rose-tinted glasses. If you've been buying vintage MOTU figures, and you're aware of the issues that come with an antiquated design- mostly made to save money- and you're in the the mood for more of that but in a way you only could have bought before as an expensive custom, then go for it. But if the last time you held a MOTU toy was back when you were a child, only existing as a warm, fuzzy memory of setting good against evil on your parent's carpet, then the slightly sloppy paint, troublesome leg articulation, and fragile feeling armour will knock those glasses crooked.. But that being said, I am happy with finally owning a , more or less, show accurate Hordak in my meagre vintage MOTU collection. And I was able to buy it from a UK-based site, thus saving me the exorbitant shipping rates if I had ordered direct from the Super 7 site, (thanks Brexit) which makes me inclined to buy more despite the inconsistent paint and not being exactly as my nerd brain would want it to look like, I feel that Super 7's latest attempt at remaking an 80s action figure with a fresh twist is a success, and I hope they explore it further such as remaking vintage MOTU figures with mini-comic designs, or based on the live action film perhaps? Just get those hip joints and paint apps fixed.
Company: Super 7
Price paid: £19.99
Bought from: Kapow toys
Age: 14+
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