The friend I'm talking about is Mattel, who is not exactly a friend... I got a NEW ETERNIA He-Man and Skeletor for the sake of Balance, and since it's the only worthwhile MOTU product around... I was turned off by origins a while back, but hiding most figures behind the incompetently managed Mattel Creations site... these idiots make Mattycollector seem competent and y'all know how incompetent they were... point is I'm going to take a look at the figures and see if they can sway my opinion on Masterverse... now let's begin!
New Eternia is basically a reimagining of MOTU characters while "borrowing elements" from past concepts that led to the creation of characters. Sometimes adding a few new bits to make it seem different from the older concepts and avoid giving a shout out to the original designers. Not talking about monetary remuneration, but to acknowledge their work on the evolution of He-Man from concept to toy.
He-Man and Skeletor need no introduction... especially here.
This He-Man is traveling Eternia looking for Skeletor and stop him from forging the Scimitar of Chaos, because it'll bring the end of the world.
This Skeletor is using the Power of Havoc to forge SoulEdge the Scimitar of Chaos. .. a soul stealing sword that in the wrong hands could bring the end of the world...
Articulation:
Both feature articulation based on the Revelation bodies... which is closer to Marvel Legends than MOTUC... on paper.
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| I managed to make an approximation to the Norem painting. I borrowed the shield from Origins and the Lightning from Storm Collectibles Rain. |
In function, the articulation can be slightly underwhelming. The underboob articulation can move forwards, backwards, left and right, but no twist. It kinda springs back to facing forward. Don't try to do the split with He-Man becaise his loincloth is harder than Skeletor's. As much as it pains me, Masterverse outdoes Classics here... but it's not all a good thing... The Pauldrons on He-Man block his articulation, due to them being hard plastic that goes under the thin straps of his harness.
He-Man gets a 4.0 with his pauldrons on... without them a 4.5
Skeletor gets a 4.5
Paint and sculpt:
Here, Classics reigns supreme. While the sculpts have some detailing, they feel a lot softer than MOTUC. He-Man's boots and hair feel incomplete... not Filmation wads of bubblegum, but not as detailed as MOTUC, whose features were underdetailed in comparison with 200X. They're not bad for Mattel's in-house team, but compared to Jean St. Jean, the FourHorsemen, or Jerry Macaluso, Mattel's are laughably bad.
Paintwork on these is minimal that makes the figures feel unfonished. He-Man got a janky wash on his hair and some slight shading on his face. Im pretty sure that his left bracer is missong some paint applications. Skeletor got a better treatment on his face, but his teeth look like he has a Leto Joker Grill. Don't get me started on the Scimitar. If you have a classics Demo-man, don't look at his sword, it'll make this one look like a Mexican bootleg made by a blind man.
These suckers are BEGGING for repaints.
I already complained about He-Man's armor blocking articulation, but Skeletor's armor is far worse. When you look at it, it seems that the top of his cape armor should go under the bezel with his crossbones, as it has a hole the size of the Bezel... wrong. The underside of the armor has some grooves where the crossbones should rest.
At the shoulders, the armor has some tabs that should clip on to one of his tassels on his shoulders. They do not clip on if you lined the crossbones with the grooves on his armor. His armor is loose no matter what.
Here it's kinda tough to properly judge. My biases want to give them a 2.5, but I feel that's a smidge too harsh... They could be better if Mattel bothered to use more paint. So I'll give both a 3.5 begrudgingly.
Accessories:
He-Man has:
2 extra hands
Extra head for Traditional He-Man
Removable pauldrons.
Sword
Axe
Boot knife
For some reason Mattel forgot to add a shield despite most of his art on the box featuring one.
Also, the helmeted head on my He-Man is glied on wrong and I can see sculpted bald spots that should've been hidden by the helmet.
Skeletor has:
Removable armor with Cape attached
Havoc Staff
Extra head for traditional Skeletor
2 extra hands
Disappointing scimitar
Honestly, they should've added He-Man's sword in purple, because the scimitar sucks ass. The Havoc Staff feels like a hybrid between 200x and Revelation... not in a good way. Then again, it would be great if he had hands that could properly hold his weapons without dropping them!!
Due to the amount of accessories I should give them a 5.0, but the inability for Skeletor properly hold his weapons. Inability to propwrly use his sheath when using the cape, He-Man with his misaligned helmet and his articulation blocking pauldrons are making me lower their scores to 4.0
Overall:
He-Man gets 4.0 as his final score while Skeletor gets 4.17 as his. Being spoiled by classics and Super7's ultimates makes Mattel's current retail entries feel Disappointing DESPITE having better articulation and more detailed sculpts (from a certain point of view)
I don't think I'll go balls deep as MOTUC, but maybe the 12 pack, Adam, Randor, Sorceress, and She-Ra stuff... make a Normal Evil-Lyn for frick's sake!!
I know that some of you could argue that I'm overanalizing these to find flaws and praise the older MOTUC figures. I feel like Masterverse takes one step forward and two steps back.
We get more unique bodies and more detailed sculpts, but the details are done way too soft and unshaded that they look inferior to the 2009 MOTUC... or 200X.
I don't hate these but I don't love them. These bodies are more 200X friendly. If we could get 200X designs on these bodies, I'd probably be more into them. Also, the new pieces are so badly engineered that they become useless.
I frealing love the pauldrons on He-Man but can't use them out of fear of them breaking the thin straps of the harness.
Skeletor's cape requires Blu tac assisting in keeping his clothes on. I understand using it while attaching it third party items that were not made for that specific figure, but an official Mattel-made product requiring Blu tac is inconceivable!!
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