Well here comes Mr controversy. When Mattel first revealed the masters of the universe (MOTU) origins line, the most hue and cry was over Skeletor. The skeletal arch enemy of He-Man broke from tradition by having an open mouth on the face sculpt, and if we’ve learned anything from geek fandoms is that change is bad. But change, as they say, is inevitable and last time I checked my mum wasn’t on the design team so blaming her wont do any good, so I’ll just have to review it and make my own mind up about it instead of assimilating the opinion of a clickbait youtuber. Which is much cheaper.
So let’s just address the elephant in the room and critique its face. I, like most people, was not enamoured with the face sculpt. There has been Skeletor heads with an open mouth before but they were simulating the filmation, floating skull design where the slightly lowered jaw references his trademark cackle. But this figure has an gaping maw that looks like Skeletor is trying to eat an entire pizza, whole. But some weeks have passed and now I can inspect it up close and I’ve warmed to it. Yes, it is ridiculous and that’s the point. Once you embrace the absurdity (you have people living in medieval castles with robots and talking cats, it’s not exactly The Wire) it makes perfect sense. With just a tilt of the head he could be laughing in triumph, in shock that He-Man wasn’t crushed by that one boulder that appears in every episode, or yelling at his henchmen. These toys are made to be played with and in doing so is where you will find the joy in owning this figure. After an hour of messing around with different head poses, Skeletor’s face sculpt went from one of my least favourites to one of the standouts in the line so far. The only real negative I have is I’m not wild about the paint job on the face. It’s green with some yellow painted on- just like vintage Skeletor- but the green is more of a soft avocado green than the bright acid green of old, so may have to repaint it at some point. Also, the red and black that make the eyes have been applied too thinly because you can see the yellow paint coming through. The body and accompanying armour and boots are a direct throwback to the original figure. Side by side with a vintage skeletor (bear in mind the skin tone has faded over the decades) and you can see the musculature and armour are near identical- so I suppose you could look at origins as the natural progression to the vintage MOTU figure. Even the boots are the same, with the distinct scales and the webbed feet. I bet if someone who was a kid in the 80s saw this, they’d easily mistake it for the original toy- which I guess is part of the point. Only thing I don’t get is why his armour fastens like the vintage? Origins He-Man has new armour which has a new sword holder, but not for Skeletor. He has to carry his sword around all the time.
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| Size comparison with Classics Skeletor |
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| With Super7 Filmation 5.5" Skeletor |
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| With the original Skeletor |
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| Hunker him down and it's pretty much the same body |
Something that isn’t like the old Skeletor is the articulation. The head is on a ball joint so it can completely turn around, look up, down and tilt to the side all to you hearts content. The shoulders rotate a full 360 degrees and pivot out to about 45 degrees. The elbows bend at 45 degrees and almost fully turn within the socket, and the hands completely rotate and pivot up and down allowing for some really nice arm and weapon poses. The waist fully rotates 360 degrees. The legs are attached via a pivot joint and have a decent range of movement: the legs come forward about 40 degrees, not fully forward but enough to have him sit on something. They pretty much cant move back but they come out sideways at a near right angle, so with some adjustments in the hip and waist you can give the impression of one of the legs placed back. The knees bend 45 degrees and fully rotate in the socket when straightened. There’s a fully rotational boot-cut and the ankle can pivot back and forward as well as lean to the side allowing for some really dramatic poses. I don’t know how much play will render the joints in the legs loose but as it comes out of the blister, Skeletor stands like a champion. But, as you would’ve seen in my origins He-Man review, the head, arms, hands, torso and boots all detach, allowing for modular parts swapping with other MOTU origins figures (and WWE universe figures if you live in the States).
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| "It's too small. Trapjaw! Call the catalogue, I'm sending it back" |
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| "Why, god? Why?" |
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| A half and half shot of the modular parts |
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| "Ooh, me back!" |
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| "Feel that! It's rock solid" |
Skeletor’s accessories aren’t surprising but welcome nonetheless. You get the old school evil half of the sword of power- which when linked with the good half grants the wielder access to castle Grayskull. Just like origins He-Man, the handle has a guard to secure it in the right, gripping hand. A nice feature is it’s molded in a harder plastic than the vintage sword so it hasn’t warped in the package and gone all floppy. Although, like every two-halved sword of power, it splits outward at the tip of the blade, so maybe glue the halves together if you want a permanent whole sword.But, of course, where would Skeletor be without his trademark havok staff? It looks very similar to the vintage staff, right down to the ram skull with the gap in the horns filled in from the injection molding process and comes in that oh-so-familiar dark purple. There is some flex in the plastic but not enough that it goes all curved to one side like the vintage staff would often do, so you can’t say fairer than that. And not forgetting the mini-comic, which is the same one that came with He-Man. I do hope this isn’t the case with the whole line, as back in the 80s, when the toys preceded the cartoon show, the mini-comics were essential to learning who the character you’d just been given was. I hope Mattel hasn’t neglected the idea of bringing in a new generation of children to MOTU just to save a bit of money.
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| "Cool sword, eh?" |
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| "Hey! It's only half finished. Trapjaw, call the catalogue!" |
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| Spoilet alert: The next origins figure has this comic as well |
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| "I'm wanted in 7 syst- AAAHHH!" |
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| " AN AFTER AAAALĹL, YOU'RE MY WONDERWAAAAAL!" |
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| "How does this fit in a key hole?" |
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| "Ok, ok! You're new hair do looks good" |
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| Time to update the photo |
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| "Aaayyy, Cunningham!" |
I think I’ve figured out what the Origins line is. It’s not a reboot, it’s an upgrade. Like when kids, who were not born in the 70s, were able to see the original Star Wars films in the cinema thanks to the special editions that had a cleaned up picture, beefed up sound, and improved (a depending on who you ask) special effects. That’s what these figures are. Mattel have taken an old toy line, kept all the original characters and parts their designs, and made them more akin to modern action figures so they’re more attractive to a young audience. Except this time, it’s a-ok to have the toys look like they sprinkle steroids on their corn flakes. The over the top expression just adds to the fun you can have with him, add in the modular gimmick and you get a good deal of play value and display options for a mid-priced action figure. Despite the paint issues on the face, I’ve been won over by this Skeletor. Mattel has previewed future figures that come with extra heads, one of which is an old school Skeletor head, so future versions of the MOTU cast aren’t just new editions to your collection, they’re another custom option. Definitely worth picking up.
Company: Mattel
Price paid: £14.99
Age: 6+
