Well, it was a long and hard-fought struggle, but I’m finally ready to open my last backlogged MOTUC figure. That will give me plenty of time to get to Lizard Man next week and then I can just sit back and wait for February’s Sub to roll in. Yeah, I know, I still have the unopened Star Sisters kicking around somewhere, but they don’t count. I’ve had them forever and I’m saving them for a rainy day. Today I’m tackling the second half of the Bow and Arrow duo with Bow’s winged steed, Arrow.

We don’t get to see the MOTUC beast box all that often, but here it is again. This one is taller than the one that housed The Griffin, but it’s still just a large window box with the same Greyskull deco that we see on the carded figures. For some reason I expected Arrow’s bio to be replete with wackiness, but it’s actually one of the most sane and pedestrian bio’s I’ve read in the entire line. Turns out he’s just a horse named Arrow that can fly. A lot of collectors seemed to be unhappy about Arrow being included in the Sub. Maybe they felt he belonged in the Club Etheria Mini-Sub? Maybe they just didn’t think that Bow was important enough to get his own ride? Or maybe they’re just a surly bunch that seem to nitpick everything that Matty does with this marvelous line of action figures? I don’t know, but I can’t blame Matty for wanting to reuse the Swiftwind mold, and since I don’t own Swiftwind, this toy is completely fresh and new to me. Anyway, Arrow comes packaged with his wings wrapped in plastic and tethered to the bottom of the tray, so let’s start with a look at the un-winged version of this stallion.

With Arrow out of the box I have to say this is one beautifully sculpted horse. There are a lot of nice little details, like the contours of the muscles, the veins, and even the folds in the skin at the crook of his neck. The proportions seem really good too. He’s got a glorious, flowing tail that cascades out of his hinder and a mane of bristles that gives him a certain Grecco-Roman warlike quality. Most of the bridal and fixtures are part of the sculpt or permanently attached, although the reins and saddle are both separate pieces and the saddle can be removed simply by unclasping it down near Arrow’s belly. The reigns are cast in soft plastic, which make them easy to work with when trying to get a rider to hold on.

Speaking of which, I was a little concerned about how well Bow was going to be able to sit on Arrow. We all remember Matty having to release an entirely new She-Ra figure in order to have her sit on Swiftwind. Well, the truth is that Bow, or most other MOTUC male bucks, is a comfy fit and looks pretty damn good riding on top of Arrow. The only issue is the stirrups, which don’t seem to work all that well with the position of the figure’s legs, so I just let them hang loose and ignore them.

If you’re up for Arrow in all his winged glory, you need only remove the two “shoulder” pieces, which are plugged into hexagonal sockets. I make it sound easy, but holy hell it ain’t. I had to resort to prying these sum’bitches out of the horse with the handle of a box cutter. Once out, you just plug the wings into the sockets just like on The Griffin.

Arrow does sport some wild coloring. The horse itself is a kind of odd tanish-white that makes him look like a white horse that’s gone jaundice. It seems like a strange choice considering the blue coloring on the artwork used for the bio. The horse itself does, however, have a pleasing and subtle pearlescent sheen to it. The wings feature a brightly colored plumage consisting of orange, mauve, and blue. The orange matches Arrow’s mane, tail, and hooves, while the mauve matches most of his fixturing. I don’t really find these to be super appealing colors, but the deco certainly makes Arrow stand out on the shelf.

Arrow’s articulation consists of a lot of good points, but none of them have a wide enough range of motion to really make a big difference. You The legs all rotate a bit at the “shoulders” and they have hinges at the “knees” and again down near the “ankles.” The tail can swivel at the connection point, and there’s a hinge at the base of Arrow’s neck and again near the head. The result is you can do a little bit of tweaking, but not much in the way of action poses. In the end Arrow is mostly still going to be standing there.

Why aren’t there more horses in action figure lines? The last one I picked up was probably the one for Hasbro’s 3 3/4” Indiana Jones figure. Whatever the reason, I’d love to see more because Arrow is a great figure and offers a really unique way to display Bow. Having him in hand makes me regret not picking up Swiftwind when I had the chance, but again… I really didn’t think Mattel was going to go all out for the Princess of Power line. I don’t know, maybe if I already had Swiftwind, I’d feel that Arrow was too redundant and unwarranted, but as things stand I’m glad to have a horse represented in my MOTUC display shelves. And NECA… if you’re listening, we sure could use some horses for those Gorilla Soldiers from your Classic Planet of the Apes line. Just saying.