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Saturday 14 January 2012

He-Man - Most Powerful Man In The Universe



Astute collectors will notice that this is not the first edition release of He-Man. Astute smart asses will notice I originally stated I would be doing these reviews based on their individual release date. So technically, those smart asses are correct because this particular version of He-Man wasn’t the one released first in the line.

The reason for this is I initially did not collect the line from the beginning. I remember seeing pictures of He-Man and Skeletor in an issue of Toyfare when the line was first announced. Skeletor looked good but I just felt there was something off with He-Man, so with the uncertainty of collecting a line where I was not completely happy with the look of the flagship character I decided to not give the line another look.


I would eventually start collecting the line not long after the first release of He-Man and much to my excitement Mattel decided to re-release the figure with fixes that completely eliminated the problem I had with the figure to begin with.


It wasn’t until Mattel made the fix that I noticed what my problem was with He-man. When it was originally painted, the figure was given red shading around the eyes by the designers, the Four Horseman. In my opinion, this didn’t really translate well to the figure even though I couldn’t put my finger on what the issue was from the outset. There was also an issue on the first release version of He-Man with the shoulders being assembled incorrectly in the factory during production. Luckily for me, this was also fixed with the re-release of the figure so I was glad I didn't have to worry about it with this version.

 


The sculpting of the figure impresses me every single time I see it. It is what I feel puts the MOTUC line head and shoulders above all other action figure lines currently on the market and it is truly a modern marvel. The figure is bulky and very sturdy in hand, which is exactly how it was originally conceived. So I thank the Four Horsemen for wanting the figures to feel like they are as big and bulky to us now as the vintage MOTU line was to us as children.
I guess this figure could be classed as being the standard buck seeing as though it was the first to be released. I do not include the SDCC King Grayskull figure because I feel that is more of a prototype than a finished figure solely based on the changes that were made to all subsequent figures after it was released. This buck has been re-used for a lot of the early figures and will still most likely be used for some characters for the life of the line.




  


He-Man has a very iconic look and the design of this figure matches that look flawlessly. Although, I have seen some comments of disappointment regarding the design of the head sculpt I still think it matches the character perfectly.
The only downside with the toy design is it does tend to look a little plain when compared to the more unique characters from the MOTU mythos. This is no fault of the toy design itself as it captures the look of He-Man exactly how it was intended. 




He-Man comes with his newly redesigned Power Sword, or as Mattel have renamed it, the Sword of He. I know there are a lot of people who have balked at that name but to me, it seems to make the sword more grandiose for some reason. Don't ask me why.
There are actually two swords with He-Man, the full sword, and a half sword to recreate the feature from the vintage line where two swords can be joined together. To be honest, as nice of a homage as that is I haven't really used the gimmick. The half sword has been relegated to the parts bin.

The sword design is another piece that has been done extremely well. It seems to closely follow the design of the vintage sword but looks so much better with the modern engineering and the Four Horsemen's creative touch. I quite like the sword and I have accumulated multiple different colours of it with different releases of characters. I am more than happy to keep receiving the sword in other colour ways as the line progresses.

He-Man also comes with his techno vest, you know, the one with the iconic red cross emblazoned on the front. I always called it a harness. 
For some reason (probably my OCD again) I did not remove the accessories from my figures until I started taking pictures of them for these reviews. I don’t know if it was just that I was worried about breaking them and having to find a replacement but everything has been designed and produced so well that it would hold up to the rough play that some of us may have done with our toys when we were younger (or as some still do now, not that there is anything wrong with that).

Lastly, there is He-Man’s trusty battle axe and shield. The axe is cast in grey and coloured in places in the same silver as the swords and the shield is nicely done with raised rivets adorning the face of it and the eye catching red coloured sections. I really like how the shield fits snugly on He-Man’s wrist and does not fall off easily when being posed.

 


I like this figure. If the red hay fever eyes had not been fixed from the first release then I don’t think I would like it as much as I do now.  It maybe a simple design but it is certainly iconic. The funny thing is, there are two very simple repaints of this figure that I actually prefer a lot more than this one, but I will get to them in due time.

I doubt anything I have said in this review is new to you, or is going to be the basis of any of your future purchases as you probably already have this figure in hand, and I am sure you can find a better reviewer to convey their thoughts regarding any of the MOTUC figures, but if you do not have the figure and you want to pick it up then you are in luck. He-Man is one of the base figures that are going to be available on Matty Collector all year round, so go get him.


















1 comment:

  1. Great Review! I dont collect the figs but do admire the sculpting. Imagine if these were the figs we got as kids :)

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