A few weeks back, I started checking out NECA’s Defenders of the Earth action figure line with Flash Gordon and The Phantom. I promised I’d be back for more in a couple weeks, and well… better late than never! Today I’m going to finish up the team of heroes with the mysterious Mandrake the Magician and the mighty Lothar! Of course, The Defenders of the Earth was an 80’s cartoon that assembled four of King Comics biggest heroes into a super-team to fight the forces of Ming the Merciless and protect the Earth!

As we saw last time, the figures come in beautiful and colorful window boxes designed to pay homage to the cardbacks that Galoob used for the original toyline. NECA even redesigned their logo to match the one Galoob was using at the time, and I really dig that! The boxes show off the figures very well and feature some bitchin character art cut around the window. The boxes are collector friendly, but alas, I’m being really strict on myself about keeping action figure boxes, so they gotta go! Let’s start with Lothar!

His strength is a legend, his skills conquer all. Armed with his power, we never will fall! Lothar has received the biggest update for the cartoon out of all these characters. The Strongest Man on Earth and Prince of the Seven Nations started out in the comics as a bit of a goofy sidekick to Mandrake, but eventually became his partner in crime fighting. This modern update recreates Lothar as a fierce fighter, who’s trademark weapon is a grappling hook. And Oh boy did NECA go all out on this one! While Phantom and Flash shared a lot of the same sculpt, Lothar is packed with the hot newness and his adventuring gear has so many wonderful little details. The base body consists of black trousers and a black short sleeve t-shirt, and I absolutely love that the chest symbol is sculpted instead of just printed on. The grey vest is cast in soft plastic and worn by the figure, with the backpack as part of the sculpt. He’s got pouches everywhere, each one showing sculpted stitching, straps, or just painted snaps. His rope is sculpted in a coil around his left shoulder, he’s got a holster strapped to his right leg, and even his big chonky boots show amazing detail. The balance of colors here is superb with the base black and grey contrasting with the olive green, bright green, and yellow for a lovely pop. It feels like NECA’s designers said, “Well we got away without needing much for Flash and Phantom, so let’s just pour the love into Lothar!” And pour the love they did!

The head sculpt is bold and fierce! Like Flash, NECA went for a realistic take on the cartoon character, which may work for some people and not others. I dig it. The portrait exudes strength and general bad-assery. He looks like he’s ready to put Ming’s head through a wall. With that having been said, I wouldn’t have minded something a bit less severe, especially if these figures were coming with second heads. Lothar also comes with two sets of hands, including one pair of fists, and a pair designed to grip his accessories. Articulation is in line with what we’ve seen so far, including a decent range of motion in those double-hinged elbows and knees.

Of course, Lothar comes with his trademark grapple hook. This handy tool has three hinged prongs and it can extend or telescope down. There’s a yellow string tied to it with the other end left loose for him to grip. I tied it into a slip knot. There’s no apparent way for him to store it, but I found that wrapping the string around the backpack and letting it dangle off the side works pretty well. One of Lothar’s right hands is designed to work with the grapple hook, but he can also hold it in the left gripping hand as well.

You also get a couple of weapons, including a small knife that stores in the sheath on his vest and a pistol that he can carry in the holster. The pistol is the same one that we got with both Flash and Phantom and it comes with the same two blast effect pieces, a muzzle flash and a full laser beam, both cast in translucent blue plastic. And with Lothar covered, that’s the might, now let’s check out the magic!

Master of magic, spells and illusion, Enemies crumble in fear and confusion! Mandrake was top of my list for this team because he could often use his mystical arts to thwart enemies without breaking a sweat. I mean, the intro song says it all. Plus, he shows up for a fight in a top hat, cape and tails. His shoes aren’t even sensible! Mandrake gives no shits as he makes you piss yourself and run away. Like Lothar, this Master of Magic gets a lot more original sculpting than Flash or Phantom, with his black tuxedo, red vest and white collard shirt. There’s a slight texture and a bit of sparkles on the black parts of his outfit, which looks cool. He’s got a white handkerchief poking out of his chest pocket, white shirt cuffs peeking out from the jacket sleeves, and some white trim on those beautifully detailed shoes. And best of all, he has a softgoods cape with a red interior liner and a wire running around the edges to allow it to be posed in all sorts of sweeping and majestic ways.

The head sculpt is closer to what we got for Flash, in that I think it’s a good compromise between cartoon likeness and realism. The perfectly trimmed mustache and one ever-so-slightly cocked eyebrow give him the classic mysterious magician look, while the vibrant blue eyes give him a bit of an ethereal presence. The top hat is permanently attached and has a similar texture and sparkly finish as the coat. I love how this portrait turned out! Like Lothar, Mandrake comes with two sets of hands, which include a pair of fists, a wand holding right hand and an abracadabra left hand with fingers splayed.

The wand is pretty big so maybe he’s compensating for something. Or maybe it’s just because it’s full of a lot of magics. The black shaft narrows at the bottom, has a silver band around the top along with a gold ring and a translucent crystal. His right hand is designed to hold it perfectly.

Mandrake also comes with the pistol that we saw packed with every figure so far. I’m not going to quibble about getting an extra pistol accessory, but I don’t really associate it with the character and I doubt I’ll ever display him with it. At least the gun hand is his left, so you could pose him with both gun and wand, the fighting equivalent of surf-and-turf. Actually, I don’t know what that means. Sorry. Yes, you also get the same blast effect parts that we just saw with Lothar. I would have much rather he came with some magic effect parts for the wand.

And with that, the Defenders of the Earth are complete! Will we ever get the kids? Not likely. There hasn’t been any movement on this front since the third assortment came out and I get the feeling they’re done with it and have moved on to the feature film Flash Gordon. I don’t think the kids would have sold all that well anyway, although I definitely would have picked them up. While I was excited to get these, I think I had even more fun with them than I expected and they look amazing all lined up on the shelf. But, we aren’t done yet because we still have a couple of baddies to look at with Ming and Garax! And I’ll try to swing back to look at those in the next week or so.