As with all other MOTUC releases, the goods come in a big white mailer box that says Weapons Rack right on the front. Open that up and the rest of the whole shebang comes on a huge card with the weapons rack on the left and the accessories grouped into four separate bubbles on the right. The back of the card taunts you with a bunch of figures you can’t buy anymore. Ha! The card features the same type of deco we see on the figures. It’s a remarkably attractive presentation for something as utilitarian as this set.

The rack itself is really nicely done. I really didn’t know what to expect, but the wood grain is beautifully detailed and the pegs that hold the weapons protrude from both sides so you can store gear both front and back. There are also hooks on each end of the crossbar. The logs on the end of each of the supports allow you to clip shields onto there. It’s a very detailed sculpt with paint apps to separate the wood from the metal fixtures. It’s not all that heavy, but it is definitely sturdy and stands well.

You get nine accessories all together. They include a shield, three pole arms, a battle axe, a mace, two guns and a short sword. Some of these pieces I recognize from figures I own, for example the halberd from Scareglow, Man at Arms’ sword and pistol, and Buzz-Off’s battleaxe. The polearms are all cast in silver while the rest of the gear are metallic red. I would have rather had everything in silver, but at least there isn’t anything pink in here. Overall, I like the assortment of gear in here and I particularly like the way the rack is set up so that you can arrange the pieces any way you want, and there’s still plenty of room for more.

The Rack retailed at $12.99 on Matty. I can hardly believe I’m saying this about a Matty online item, but this is actually a pretty decent deal, so long as you’re buying another figure with it to defray the cost of shipping. It just seems like I got my money’s worth with it and while I love the MOTUC figures to death, good value isn’t something I usually attribute to this line.

Shadow Beast comes in a really big white mailer box. I guess if you bought Gygor you know what to expect, but I passed over the big Mellow Yellow Ape in favor of this guy, so I was suitably surprised by the size. Out of the mailer, the package is a large window box that is very much in keeping with the overall presentation of the smaller carded figures. A little patience can get him out of the box without mauling it, so the packaging is pretty collector friendly. I am glad, however, I’m not a MISB collector, because my Shadow Beast came with his massive club clanging around loose inside the box.

I’m really thrilled with the way this figure turned out. The head sculpt is superb and suitably menacing and I love the pupil-less red eyes and the horn that pokes up from the top of his head. We all know that Filmation original designs are off limites to Mattel and The Four Horseman, but this figure is pretty darn close to the design I remember from the cartoon. I’m guessing that’s because of the similarity between the cartoon version and the one in the comic. Either way, purists should be mighty happy with the way this guy looks. The paintwork isn’t as outlandish as Gygor, which may be good or bad, depending on how you see it. I like the traditional browns used here over the radioactive neon used on Gygor, but there’s no doubt that if you have both of these beasts on your shelf, Gygor is the one that’s going to stand out.

I wouldn’t say that Shadow Beast is super articulated, but he has a fair amount of poseability for what he is. His head is ball jointed, as are his shoulders. He has swivel cuts in his biceps and wrists and hinges in his elbows. His stubby little legs have swivels cuts at the hips, which give him a little bit of useful movement there, and allows you to put him in a really goofy seated position. Of course, if you already own Gygor than you know all of this.

Shadow Beast comes with one accessory: A honking big club! It really is massive and it’s sculpted to look like a tree limb (or trunk!) with leather straps wrapped around it for a grip and iron studs scattered around the head, because let’s face it, getting hit in the face with a tree isn’t bad enough, so you need to add iron studs to make your point. The figure can hold the club pretty well, although sometimes you need to jimmy it around in his hand so that he can get a good grip on it. His joints are also tight enough so that he can hold the club above his head, although I’m not sure how long that will be the case.

I’ll admit to being a little cautious about buying this figure. It’s sometimes hard enough for me to justify the $28 a pop for the regular MOTUCfigures and Shadow Beast set me back $41 with the shipping. Ultimately, I’m very happy with my decision to get him, although I am still glad that I just went with one of the two figures based on this body sculpt. Nothing against Gygor, he looks like a great figure and one of these days I may still pick him up, but the Shadow Beast fits in with my Masters of the Universe nostalgia much better. He’s a beautifully sculpted figure and I well deserved addition to my collection.

Buzz-Off comes in the same packaging we’ve been seeing all along: A white mailer box with a Greyskull themed card. Not much else to say here, except it looks as awesome as ever. The back panel shows a bunch of other MOTUC figures, which you can’t buy anymore outside of Ebay. It also has Buzz-Off’s bio, which apparently pissed off a lot of hardocre He-Man fans because it lists his name as a bunch of buzzing sounds. Seriously? This really upset people? Wow. Is it really more offensive than Op-Tikk’s name, which is a series of blinks even when he doesn’t have an eyelid? Oooo-kay.

Since I’ve skipped a few figures here and there, it’s getting a little tougher for me to identify where some of the parts are being reused. Basically a good portion of Buzz-Off is new to me, but I’m guessing that some of these parts were used on maybe Whiplash or Webstor, two of the few figures I don’t own. Either way, Buzz-Off is refreshingly original looking and really stands out among my other figures in the collection. And any figure that can stand out in this crowd of circus freaks, well that’s really saying something.

There’s a lot of great texturing all over this figure. It’s on his feet, his shoulders and it’s on the darker segments of his torso. I love the fact that his bee-styled torso isn’t just striped with paint apps, but rather a brand new sculpt. The head sculpt is well done, again with some great texture work sculpted into the “hair” and an awesome shimmery green paint applied to the eyes. He even has little fangs protruding from his top lip. The claws were a bit of a surprise to me, but I like them as they further enhance his alien appearance. They aren’t articulated, but they still work very well in allowing him to hold his weapons.

Buzz-Off’s wings are absolutely fantastic. They’re translucent with a greenish-yellow tint and have sculpted details that resemble both the membranes in a real insect’s wings as well as circuitry. They’re attached to his back via ball joints, so they can be positioned up or down or in a variety of other ways. He also has two insect like legs coming off his back below the wings, and these are also ball jointed.

Buzz-Off comes with a nice collection of accessories. He has a pole-axe, a smaller one-handed fighting axe, and a helmet that slides over the top of his head. The pole axe is a cool trademark weapon for him, since the tip of it looks like a bees stinger. I believe the smaller hand axe may have been one of the weapons circulated in one of the weapons packs. The helmet is kind of silly looking, and I prefer to display him without it, but I think it may be growing on me.

Buzz-Off features standard MOTUC articulation, which includes: A ball jointed neck, Arms with ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbows. His legs feature ball jointed hips, and hinges in the knees and ankles. He can swivel at the waist, and while it doesn’t look like it, he does still have the ab crunch in his torso, just a lot lower and well disguised between his segments. He also has the aforementioned ball joints for his wings and his insect legs.

While I keep telling myself that I have most of the core characters I want, and won’t be buying as many of these figures in the next year, Matty keeps suckering me back in. Buzz-Off was certainly not on my list of must own figures in the line, and yet in the end, I couldn’t resist picking him up. He’s just a great example of everything that is fun and quirky about this toy line. Is he really worth the $30 he costs with tax and shipping? Well, let’s just say that some people’s mileage may vary.

Ok, I don’t have a lot to say about the figure himself, because he’s been out forever and I’m guessing that most anyone who wants one has one by now. Besides, everyone knows He-Man. He’s that big muscular dude in a furry diaper. The sculpt is excellent. The head is more or less the same as the one that came on my Battle Armor He-Man. His harness includes the loop on the back so that he can store his sword or battle axe. Thankfully, the shoulder snafu on the original figure was fixed for the releases. The paint apps on my figure are pretty much immaculate, but then that’s been the case with almost all my MOTUC figures, so by this point I expect nothing less.

He-Man comes with a lot of great accessories. You get his sword, along with the half of the Power Sword, a battle axe and a shield. The sword is an especially nice treat for me since I didn’t have a proper sword for my Battle Armor He-Man and he had to make do with the 200x style sword that came with Man-At-Arms. The battle axe is the same that came with my Battle Armor He-Man. The shield is pretty cool and clips onto his wrist.

As expected, the articulation on the figure is top notch. You get a ball jointed head. The arms have universal joins in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists and hinged elbows. His legs have universal movement in the hips, hinged knees and ankles, and swivels at the boots. He-Man swivels at the waist and has the ab-crunch hinge in the torso. He has no problems sitting on Battle Cat and looking awesome while doing it.

I’m really very happy to finally have this figure in my collection. Nothing against Battle Armor He-Man, he’s an awesome figure too, but he was always just a place holder to last until I was able to get the original style. Now I can bump him off my Battle Cat and display these guys as they were meant to be. I’m really content with the MOTU figures I have now. I’m still considering picking up a few of the interesting ones that come up, and I still need to get a She-Ra, Whiplash and Gygor, but with original He-Man in my collection, I can now say that any additional figures I get are just gravy. [Oh yeah, I forgot. Except for The Sorceress, she’s still pretty much essential! -FF]

It’s a testament to Mattel and The Four Horsemen that they can even get me to buy the figures based off of characters I don’t know. Not being a New Adventures fan, I didn’t know Optikk, but I still love the figure. Well, I didn’t watch many episodes of the more recent He-Man cartoon (although I still mean to), so Chief Carnivus is a stranger to me as well. Nonetheless, he looks awesome. It’s like someone got their Thundercats in my Masters of the Universe. And so, as with Optikk, I took the risk, and I’m glad I did. Carnivus is one cool cat. MEOW!

Carnivus may be a newer character, but the packaging remains classic and vintage to the core. Same green brick card, same nice big bubble to show off the figure. The back panel shows other figures in the collection (which you can no longer buy because they were all only available for about 30 seconds each), and it has a bio blurb, which in this case was very useful in helping me get to know my new figure.

Carnivus uses a number of Beast Man’s body parts, but there’s plenty new here to make him look fresh and unique. His armor and his pelvis are brand new, as are his lower legs. The head sculpt is magnificent with a noble feline visage. There’s a little bit of slop on the face paint apps, but nothing major. The gold and purple motif on his armor is really striking. The grieves are molded as part of his legs, but the chest and shoulder piece can come off easily. It’s also really easy to remove his cape. You don’t even have to pop off his head. I love this because as great as the cape looks on him, it can hinder some of his potential for action poses.

Articulation is standard for the MOTU Classics line. He has a ball jointed neck and shoulders. His arms have hinged elbows along with swivel cuts in the biceps and wrists. His hips have universal joints, his knees and ankles are hinged. Carnivus can swivel at the waist and he has a large hinge in the torso.

The Chief comes with a sword and a shield. The shield clips on to his arm and has a nice sculpted angry cat head with red eyes. His sword is slightly curved at the tip, almost like a saber and has a big red painted stone in the hilt. It would have been cool if Matty had given him some kind of loop on his belt to hang his sword from.

I give Carnivus the big thumbs up. He’s a great looking figure and a really nice fit for my MOTU collection. He costs the standard $20 plus about $8 shipping, which is certainly steep, especially for a figure based off a character I don’t know. But I can rationalize the price point because I’m not buying as many of these figures as I used to be, and I don’t see myself buying nearly as many next year either. Either way, I highly recommend him.

I have very little interest or knowledge about the New Adventures series of He-Man toys. I’ve seen some of the figures and playsets online and at some toy shows, but I don’t know anything about the characters unique to this toyline. And seeing as how I’m not a completist when it comes to the MOTU Classics figures, it should go to show you how great a figure Optikk is to make me pick him up.

Optikk comes in a white mailer box and carded on the standard packaging for the Classics line. The only thing new here is the Space Mutants sticker on the front. As is sometimes the case, the logo at the top of the bubble obscures Optikk’s “head” a bit. I know this really bums out mint on card collectors, but it doesn’t phase me since I rip these babies open as soon as I get them. On the other hand, his spare eye is mounted so that it is perfectly visible in the bubble.

The most amazing thing about Optikk is how much of him is a new sculpt. In a line of figures that prides itself on reusing parts over and over again, Optikk looks both fresh and brand new. I absolutely love the detail in his armor, particularly the wires and all the tiny bolts, giving him a smidge of steampunk. I also love the way the top portion forms the cradle to hold his giant eyeball of a head. The armor sculpt even includes a mock thumb wheel on the back that was part of the original figure’s gimmick to turn the eye. In terms of color, Optikk is pretty subdued as the overwhelming bulk of his armor is gold with some black showing from beneath and a little purple. The wires are blue and red and the aforementioned bolts are neatly painted silver.

Since Optikk’s head is a giant eyeball, there isn’t a lot to the sculpt, but it still looks amazing. The translucent part is painted over with veins making for a nice effect. The two eyeballs are identical save for the color of the translucent part, which are either green or orange. I actually haven’t swapped the eyes out on my figure because its difficult to do, impossible to tell what’s going on at the neck, and I’m afraid I’m going to bust the post. Besides, I like the green one better anyway.

Optikk has the same basic articulation as past Classics figures. The main difference is that the ball joint in his “head” doesn’t give a lot of up down leeway, which is a bit disappointing, but it goes from side to side just fine. He has universal ball joints in his shoulders and hips, hinged joints in his elbows, knees and ankles, and swivels in his biceps and wrists. My only quibble here is that the ankle joints on mine are a bit on the loose side.

Optikk comes with two accessories (not counting the spare eye), a laser rifle and a shield. The shield is cool, but not much to talk about. It clips onto his wrists like all the other shields we’ve gotten in this line. The laser gun is a really cool design and sculpt, I just wish they hadn’t stamped CHINA on it in such an obvious place as it kind of detracts from the aesthetics.

So it just goes to show you that The Four Horsemen can take a character that I don’t know or care about and still make a figure that I had to have in my collection. Everything about Optikk is just so cool. He’s the most unqiue looking figure we’ve got in the line so far and yet he blends in just fine with Skeletor’s mob of baddies. Great stuff!

Coming into collecting the Masters of the Universe Classics line at the beginning of this year, I had a lot of catching up to do. Some of the figures I was able to grab on Ebay without getting beaten up too badly, but there were a couple that were going for far more than I wanted to pay. Mer-Man was one of those pricey figures, so I was really happy to see Matty giving him a re-release. I was also really happy to see that he didn’t sell out right away, because on Sale Day, I didn’t get to my computer until a couple hours after Zero Hour. I sure as hell missed out on Optikk, but good old Mer-Man was still waiting for me.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have batteries for my camera when this figure arrived. I went out the next morning to get some fresh ones, but by then it was too late and I already ripped him open. So, no in-package pics this time. Not that it really matters, because there’s no difference between this guy and the dozen or so other MOTU Classics figures I’ve looked at. You get the same awesome retro-styled cardback. The only interesting change here is that he didn’t arrive in one of those white mailer boxes. Some may get pissed off at this, but it really doesn’t matter to me, it all just winds up in the trash.

Virtually every bit of what makes Mer-Man a unique figure is found in his armor and head sculpts, as his base figure is pretty unremarkable and generic. It uses the standard He-man pelvis, with green belt and yellow furry diaper. The arms and legs are from Skeletor, with the grieves and bracers painted yellow. The rest of his body has a pretty cool blueish-green tint to his skin that gives off just a hint of metallic sheen and makes him look rather fishy.

Fortunately, Mer-Man’s chest armor covers a lot and goes a long way to make him look like a fresh figure. The chest armor is great, as its made to look like it was fashioned from fish bones and shell and it even has a clip on the back to store his sword. The head sculpts are both really well done. Yes, he comes with two heads, one to match his vintage style and one to look more like his 200x counterpart. I like them both. Right now I’m going with the vintage style, but chances are I’ll go with the newer sculpt once Stinkor gets a release, as he’ll most likely use a repaint of the Mer-Man head as with the vintage figures. I will note some disappointment that Mer-Man’s left hand is sculpted in an open position and is therefore quite useless. Its annoying that he can’t grasp his trident with both hands or hold his sword in the off hand.

Besides the extra head, Mer-Man comes with two other accessories: A trident staff and a sword. Both accessories are nicely sculpted with an underwater theme. Like his armor, they look like they’re fashioned from bone and shell. The sword is really awesome and its blade is even serrated like shark teeth.

Mer-Man has the standard MOTU Classics articulation, which includes a ball jointed neck and shoulders. His arms have hinged elbows and swivel cuts in the biceps and wrists. His hips have universal joints, his knees and ankles are hinged. He can swivel at the waist and he has a large hinged joint in his torso. Good stuff.

All in all, this is a really solid figure. Although, Mer-Man has never been one of my favorite of Skeletor’s minions, he was a core character and thus an important figure in my collection. Picking up Mer-Man pretty much brings me up to date on the “must have” figures in the MOTU Classics line. There are still a few I’m missing like He-Ro, Stratos and now Optikk, but as far as the core characters go, I’m finally content with what I have. Of course, the bad guys are starting to outnumber the good guys on my shelf, so hopefully Matty will start throwing some more of He-Man’s buddies our way soon.

I didn’t start collecting the Masters Classics figures until the beginning of this year, so like many figures, Hordak had already come and gone. But while I was able to pick up just about all the figures I missed on the secondary market at reasonable prices, Hordak was a little beyond what I was willing to spend. Thankfully Matty has been re-issuing some of these past releases, and this month I was finally able to add this evil bastard to my collection.

Yep, it’s the same old packaging. The green stone castle motif and MOTU logo really picks at my nostalgia strings. The only real difference here is the Evil Horde sticker that appears on the bubble and “The Original” appearing next to the name, which signifies that this is a re-issue and not really the original. Ahhh… OK. The back panel has a bio and photos of some of the other figures that have been released in the series. As always, its a shame to tear these things open, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

This revamp of Hordak is a really great looking figure on every front. In fact, I’d dare say he’s just about perfect. His head sculpt is brilliant in both design and execution. He’s always looked friggin creepy but this updated sculpt is all the more so. His face isn’t white anymore, but more bone colored. I love the way T4H textured the little bumps into his head and his little boney mohawk. His head rests in a large collar, or cowl, that is connected to his cape. The whole piece can be removed, if you so desire, just by popping off his head, lifting it off, and popping his head back on. This gives Hordak’s head a lot more range of movement, but to me he just doesn’t look as good without the whole evil ensamble.

The rest of Hordak is just as fantastic, and his unique armor pieces go a long way to make this one of the more unique looking figures in the collection. In fact, the only piece of him that is an overt reuse appears to be the pelvis. His armor pieces are black with embossed, red crests on his chest piece and grieves. The silver trim used on his belt and armor is antiqued to make it look worn, which I think is one of the best paint app effects we’ve seen in the whole line. The whole black, gray, red ensemble really looks amazing together. There is a rather unfortunate little chip in the red crest of my Hordak’s breast plate, but I can live with that. In terms of looking evil, its hard to top a guy with a skull for a face, but Hordak manages to out-evil Skeletor on this outfit alone.

Hordak comes with a few accessories. First, there’s his staff, which is amazingly well done. The detail work on the sculpting for the head of the staff is really elaborate, featuring a clawed hand holding a sphere with Hordak’s crest on it. Unfortunately, the plastic is a little soft and it has a habit of bending a bit. His crossbow is really cool, with the sculpt and paint job so good, it looks like the bolt is a separate removable piece, even though it isn’t. Finally, there’s his little Imp, which is a nifty little pack-in, although for some reason it has a rather unsightly seam running through his lower body. Couldn’t he just have been molded into one piece?

There are no surprises in the articulation, as we get exactly what we’ve been getting in all the male characters of the line. The ball joint in the neck is a bit inhibited by the cape/cowl piece, but as mentioned above, you can remove it if you like. Hordak’s arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, hinged elbows and swivel cuts in the biceps and wrists. He swivels at the waist and his legs have universal joints in the hips and have hinged knees and ankles.

In a line of figures as fantastic as MOTU Classics, it seems like every new figure I get is my new favorite. My expectations on Hordak were pretty high, and I wanted him so bad that I came pretty close to paying Ebay robbery prices. Sure, I’m glad I waited, but even if I had picked him up at twice the price, I still would have been quite happy with him. He’s just all around excellent. Here’s hoping Mattel continues to add more of The Horde to this collection.

The packaging on these figures has not changed, and that’s a good thing because its still awesome. The green rock-motif on the card and the classic Masters logo makes me want to pop in a Filmation DVD and remember the simpler times. The package shows off the figure nicely, along with her falcon Skreetch. The back of the card features a bio as well as teases you with photos of a bunch of figures that you can no longer get outside of Ebay. Lord knows I’m not a mint on card collector, but if ever there was a line that tempted me to it, its this one. The presentation on these figures is just fantastic.

Naturally, Evil Lyn is a repaint of Teela from the neck down, but amazingly, she just doesn’t seem like one. I don’t know if its the dramatic color change, the yellow skin, or the wonderful head sculpt, but Evil Lyn really feels like her own figure and not a quickie repaint cash grab. Everything that was white and gold on Teela’s outfit is blue and darker blue on Evil Lyn. I was admittedly worried about Matty’s choice to go with the vintage-style yellow skin on this figure, but I have to say it turned out looking great. Its very faithful to the original figure and it serves to set her apart from Teela all the more. Overall, the other paint apps on the figure are a bit mixed. The paint apps on Evil Lyn’s face, notably the eyes, lipstick and green mascara are practically perfect, and its cool that she even has little black paint apps on her fingernails, but there’s some notable slop on her chest armor. Its not terrible, but the paint on my Teela is so immaculate, its hard not to notice even minor flubs here.

The head sculpt is spot on. She’s the perfect blend of beauty and wickedness and I love the exotic quality to her eyes that makes her look not quite human. Her simple skull cap with crest is right in line with her vintage counterpart. There’s a little disparity between the skin tone in her face and the rest of her body, but apart from that I wouldn’t change a thing. Funny, it wasn’t until getting this figure that I realized we have no idea what Evil Lyn’s hair looks like… or even if she has any!

Evil Lyn comes with a nice inventory of accessories, although not quite as much as her counterpart, Teela. She has a little hooked dagger with a nicely sculpted skull pommel and a wickedly jagged back edge. She has a blue orb wand that can convert to a full staff by swapping out the shaft. She also comes with her bird buddy, Skreetch. Granted, Skreetch is just a repaint of Teela’s Zoar, but its still an awesome sculpt, complete with hinged wings and feet that can grip Evil Lyn’s arm. Skreetch also comes with his own perch, which Zoar was sadly missing, as well as removable birdy battle armor. No doubt about it, with Evil Lyn you get a good amount of stuff for your money.

The articulation here is the same as on Teela, which means its close to the standards set by the male figures in the line, but not quite the same. Her head is ball jointed. Her arms have ball joints in the shoulders, hinged elbows and swivel cuts in the biceps and wrists. Her legs have universal movement in the hips, hinged ankles and knees and swivel cuts at her boots. She also has the extra joint in her feet that allow you to set her at a wide stance, while keeping both her feet flat on the ground. What she’s missing is a swivel cut in the waist. Still, she’s got a great degree of poseability. No complaints here.

Naturally, I’ve been waiting to get my hands on an Evil Lyn figure ever since I first started collecting this line and my cadre of evil-doers from Snake Mountain no longer feels like it has a huge vacant hole. (well, except for Mer Man, but thanks to a pending re-release, he will soon be mine!) I still give Teela the nod as the better figure, mainly because the paint apps on her outfit are just so striking and expertly applied, but then Evil Lyn makes up with that in spades because, well, she’s the bad girl and we all know bad girls are more fun.