Here we are in February and I’m still opening stuff from last year’s Club Eternia subscription. Well, this is the last box to open from the sub’s final month and it’s a two-pack to boot, so let’s dive right in and check out Laser Power He-Man and Laser Light Skeletor!

We’ve seen this box before. It’s the standard two-figure window box with the sloping sides and that great greyskull stone motif. It’s collector friendly if you’re careful, and since I kept the box for my last Skeletor and He-Man two-pack, I’ll likely keep this one too. Flip it over and drink in the goodness and sorrow that is the last of the MOTUC bios. Now, I’m no expert when it comes to Masters of the Universe, but as I understand it, these were two of the last figures to be released in the vintage line (in 1988), and even that needs qualifying because they were only circulated in Europe. Let’s start things off with He-Man and look at the base figure first…

Yeah, it’s another version of He-Man, but considering how long this line has run, I don’t think they’ve milked the variants too badly and they’ve all been pretty good, including this one. This guy is like a hybrid of traditional He-Man and Space He-Man. I’m pretty sure I said that about He-Ro II, but it’s true here as well. The chest harness calls back to his original, but it’s blue and has a futuristic flavor to it right down to the silver “H” in the middle. It rides a little high on the shoulders, but it’s got to be strong to hold the enormous piece of kit he’s going to strap to his back. The boots have the same sci-fi look about them and the paint on those silver gauntlets just look stunning, as does the belt. If you’ve complained in the past that He-Man’s fuzzy barbarian diaper leaves too much for the imagination, well you’re in luck because this new tiny blue steel speedo clamped around his junk does not. All in all, I really dig the look of this guy.

The portrait appears new, although I’ve lost count of all the He-Man noggins floating around in my Masters Accessories Tote. This is an impressive piece of sculpting, although it looks like it might have been pinched a bit in the final production. I think I can see a little bit of Dolph Lundgren in there, but maybe that’s just my wishful thinking. Of course, we’re really here to talk about that new Laser Power!

After a lifetime pitched in desperate struggle with his arch nemesis, Skeletor, He-Man has finally had enough and decides to strap a giant box, which I presume holds a series of daisy-chained car batteries, on his back to power his newest electric sword. Evil will die! Actually, screw the batteries, in my mind I’d like to think that this thing is gas powered and that Duncan has to pull a cord on the back a bunch of times to get it to start and when it’s running it’s louder than a hundred leaf blowers. The box clips onto the harness very securely and there’s room to store the sword on the side. He-Man also has to wear two bulky pieces of armor on his right hand, presumably to protect him from the horrific lethal radiation given off by the sword. Come to think of it that’s probably why he wears the steel speedo, to protect the Eternian jewels from getting irradiated.

All kidding aside, though, I like this thing a lot. Sure, it’s bulky and makes the figure rather back heavy. And with the sword in storage he looks like he’s ready to go bust some ghosts. But it’s a cool gimmick and it’s remarkable that it survived translation to the Classics line where gimmicks have been traditionally neutered. Yes, that backpack really is crammed full of electronics and batteries, and yes the sword really does light up. You can even get it to spazz out and flash like crazy. So good! Let’s move on to Laser Light Skeletor…

Right off the bat, there’s a lot of New Adventures Skeletor in here. Some of the arms and some of the legs are reused, the feet are repainted and reused, I think the belt might be the same, but there’s a lot of excellent new sculpting here as well, like the new lower legs that make use of some remarkable copper paint to make the grafted armor stand out from the blue skin. The same could be said for the gorgeous copper chest piece. As amazing as this figure looks, it would be cool to see a skilled customizer add some paint hits to the tech bits sculpted into the blue body.

I’m not all that fond of the portrait here, although I will concede that based on pictures I’ve seen it is a solid update to the vintage Laser Light Skeletor. Still, something just looks odd about the face. The hood is removable and sits rather strangely too. It’s hard for me to figure out if I have it in the intended position or not. I do like the added techno-bits sculpted into the back of the head. I’ll also note that while there are electronics in the head, I find it impressive that Matty was able to keep the neck articulation to a degree.

As with He-Man, Skeletor has an electronic box on his back, but unlike He-Man, Skeletor integrates all his electronic gimmickry right into the figure so the box is not removable. There’s some really nice sculpting and paint on it that was absent from He-Man’s backpack. The problem here is that the figure is still very back heavy and while He-Man was able to compensate with a decent pair of feet, the little clodhoppers that Skeletor has just isn’t up for the task. It’s really hard to get him to stand decently and it’s a shame that Matty couldn’t have engineered some lateral rockers into those ankles. They’ve done it on a fair number of Classics figures, and here’s one that really would have benefited from them.

Skeletor’s electronics feature glowing eyes and a light up right gauntlet that is supposed to light up his translucent red Havoc Staff. The gauntlet and eyes light beautifully but the light doesn’t travel very far up and down the staff. Don’t get me wrong, it still looks plenty cool. It is worth noting that in order to accommodate the electronics in the right arm, there is no elbow hinge or bicep swivel. There is, however, still a swivel at the top of the gauntlet.

A lot of other companies would have just phoned in the final two figures of a line, but Matty gave us something special here. We got two figures that most fans never saw in their vintage collections and we got them engineered with electronic gimmicks. That’s a first for the last, and that’s going above and beyond in my book and these are overall fun and solid (and perfectly appropriate) figures to end the line with. I feel like I should get all sappy and wax sentimental about Club Eternia. It delivered a fantastic series of action figures and sapped a shit ton of money out of my bank account. In other words, it was a great ride. But I still have older Classics figures and vehicles to open and look at (not to mention a giant castle) and I still have the Collector’s Choice figures ahead of me, so for now I’ll resist the urge. At some point down the line, I’ll eventually open my last Masters Classics toy or figure and I’ll save the reminiscing for then.

It feels weird, this is the first month where I’m no longer collecting the MOTUC line. The last traditional Sub ended in 2015 and while I have been nothing but thrilled with my collection, I just couldn’t bring myself to sign up for the 2.0 and do it all over again with the Filmation versions. Maybe if display space wasn’t in such high demand around here, it would have been a different story, but it is what it is. I did go on Matty Collector and consider picking up Lord Masque, but with a checkout price of $38, I just couldn’t do it. Anywho, I do still have plenty of unfinished business with the line and today I’m opening up the last single carded figure from December’s sale… It’s Hero II.

And here he is, in package. He-Ro… II? Yes, the II is to denote that this is the second He-Ro figure released in the MOTUC line and both have roots in the original Mattel property. This one, as the tagline on the package states, is the “Heroic Son of He-Man.” His real name is Dare and he is the product of Adam and Teela bumping uglies, at least in the Classics narrative. The character is based on the protagonist from a failed pitch in the 90’s to spawn a new Masters cartoon. So yeah, what we have here is a figure based on a concept series that didn’t get produced, let alone spawn an actual line of action figures.

Dare isn’t so much like a cross between Adam and Teela, but rather He-Man and New Adventures He-Man. He’s got NA’s blue pants and ponytail and a spiffy futuristic version of He-Man’s chest harness and his fur lined boots. There’s so much I dig about this guy’s design and execution, particularly the corny combination of “H” and “M” on his belt buckle and the traditional He-Man crosses on his gauntlets and shoulder armor. Dare also features a belt with a working holster for his pistol and a bitchin’ crystal in the center of his chest harness.

The coloring here is great too. There’s a couple purdy shades of blue along with a metallic blue for the shoulder and it combines with the gold, silver and red to make a dynamic and pleasing color scheme. In fact, this figure is loaded with great little touches to the paint and sculpt that make it obvious Matty put a lot of extra love into him. They just went all out.

The head sculpt is new, but the nod to NA He-Man is certainly there. Besides the ponytail he’s got a younger look and a more angular face. The hair sculpt is particularly great with the tussled bangs.

If you want a little more NA He-Man in your Dare, the figure comes with a swap out vest, which is basically a silver repaint of NA’s gold space vest. It’s a welcome bonus, but I’ll likely be sticking with the blue rig.

In addition to the extra vest, Dare comes with his sword and laser pistol. The sword can be stowed in the loop on the back of either vest. I’m a big fan of mixing swords and laser guns, so this guy’s armament is right up my ally.

There’s no doubt about it, He-Ro II is mined deep from the annals of Masters history and so as a character, he’s only going to appeal to the most hardcore of Masters fans who know the stories beyond the stories about the stories that never happened. But for someone like me, a significant portion of this line has always been more about the figures than the characters, and so I can say that I really dig this guy a lot. And since, I don’t have a New Adventures He-Man in my collection (yet). Dare may just stand in for him on that shelf. Oh yeah, I just realized I never looked at the Classics release of the first He-Ro, so I’ll try to remedy that next week.

Ack! Once again, the December Matty figures are shipping soon and I haven’t opened my November figures yet! Oh, yeah, not to mention the Battle Ram and the huge-ass Castle Greyskull boxes that are taking up precious real estate in my toy closet. I’ve vowed not to open any of the big stuff until I’m completely done with this year’s figures, so let’s take a step closer to that goal by tearing into The Evil Horde’s road warrior, Dragstor!

Dragstor fills out his package nicely and his tag line is “Transforming Evil Warrior Vehicle.” Apart from that I don’t have anything new to say about the packaging. We’ve been seeing it for years now and not much has changed. Of course, Dragstor was a figure that was big on gimmickry in the vintage line, so I’m very curious to see how this Classics version turned out!

Dragstor’s design is a delicious mix of monster and machine and one that adheres very strongly to the vintage design. In fact, once you get past the more realistic proportions and the neutered gimmick, there’s not a lot of changes at all. And that’s a good thing for me, because I’ve always dug this crazy design. The exposed tire that resides in Dragstor’s tummy is particularly well sculpted with well-defined treads and it even has the little notch off to the side where the rip-stick would go if that gimmick were still in tact. The whole tire ensemble is part of a bulky sculpted vest that’s laid over the torso of the buck and also includes some silver hoses and The Evil Horde symbol sculpted right into the chest.

The back of the vest features Dragstor’s jet-powered backpack, which helps propel him at break-neck speeds on his tire. I love the way the side pipes look on this piece as the design is straight out of a suped-up hot rod. The outfit is rounded off with a pair of red angular boots and orange gauntlets, just like on the vintage figure.

The head sculpt offers what little look we get of Dragstor’s actual organic side and it isn’t much. You just get a pair of reptillian eyes and some scaly skin peering out from the helmet and breather mask. There are a few paint flubs on my figure. particularly noticeable is the one pupil that runs up into his eyebrow. There’s also some slop on the silver paint where the pipes meet the vest. All in all, though, it’s nothing too bad.

Articulation follows the usual MOTUC male buck. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, hinged at the knees and ankles, and there are swivels at the hips and boots. The neck is ball jointed and Dragstor can swivel at the waist. I’m sure there’s still an ab crunch buried in the torso, but all that gear on him renders it inert. Alas, I was unable to get him to balance on his tire without having his limbs touching the ground to support him.

Dragstor comes with two accessories. First you get the ubiquitous Horde crossbow. In this case, it’s a very unique design and made to look like it’s fashioned out of an engine and exhaust pipes, which is a nice touch because I don’t remember the vintage toy’s crossbow matching Dragstor’s theme so nicely. There’s a hole on the top of his backpack, where you can plug this thing in for storage. It probably makes more sense to angle it down, keeping the spoiler and the pipes in the opposite direction he’s traveling, but I kind of dig the way it looks angled up.

The other weapon is a whip with a double bladed axe on the end. It’s presumably intended as a nod to the vintage figure’s rip-stick. If you want you can plug this into the backpack too, but it just looks silly to me.

As the last addition to my Horde ranks, I really dig Dragstor a lot. He’s a perfect example of the crazy imagination that went into this line. At the same time, Matty was able to keep him very faithful to the original design and still make him fit in with the modern Classics aesthetic. It’s a great figure like this that makes it harder to face the fact that it all ends this month with the final shipment of figures. But before we can get to that, I’ve still got one more November figure to look at next week.