Tag Archives: origins

Dec 2 2022

Masters of the Universe Origins: 200x He-Man and Skeletor by Mattel

Happy Friday! And what better way to bring on the weekend then by opening some new toys! Mattel’s MOTU Origins line continues to pump out the content at a record pace, leaving me behind on reviewing these magnificent figures, but I’m doing the best I can to get caught up! Today I’m checking out two more variations of He-Man and Skeletor, this time based on designs from the 200x toyline.

The figures come on the same gloriously retro designed cardbacks that we’ve been seeing all along. You get the 40th Anniversary logo in foil up at the top left corner fo the card, and a rather spiffy MOTU logo sticker on the front of the bubbles. What you don’t get is any actual reference to the Mike Young Production cartoon or 200x series. And that’s fine. For any kiddies out there who are into this line without any context, these are just cool new versions of the two main characters to play with! I should note that I never collected the 200x toys, although I did run into them a lot back in the day when I was making my weekly trips to KayBee Toy Outlet, and I was often very tempted to pick some up. Ultimately, I reasoned that the line was too far along for me to start collecting from the beginning, and so I resisted the temptation. I did, however, get into the MYP cartoon BIG TIME, and I still consider it to be one of the absolute best cartoon reboots ever made. Needless to say, I was pretty excited to get these figures in the Origins style. Let’s start with He-Man!

One of the things that characterized the 200x figures were the somewhat stylized proportions, and since these figures retain the usual Origins bodies, a little of that flavor is lost. What we have left is mostly a costume change, but I really like it. The arms and legs are left unchanged, with the boots all painted brown and the wrist bracers in silver. The pelvic piece is new, with a silver belt and red and gold circular buckle. The sculpted furry diaper is still present, but trimmed back quite a bit. The chest harness features a hexagonal plate with another red and gold motif. The silver border looks great and there’s a nice hammered texture to the background. This design is different enough from the classic look to stand out, but not so much to be jarring. Were I a kid playing with these figures, I could easily see this one becoming a regular stand in for the more classic He-Man on my adventures. It just looks fantastic!

As for the head sculpt, I like it a lot, but there have been so many He-Heads in this line so far, I’d be lying if I could keep them all straight. Is this new? Is it recycled? Without digging through a tote for my head bag, or scrolling through my past reviews, I’m not going to say for sure, but I’m guessing it’s a repack. I will say that it is emphatically not designed to look like the 200x figure, and instead retains that very vintage look. I think this head would work on pretty much any Origins He-Man we’ve seen so far. Either way, I think the head looks really good with this costume.

As for weapons, He-Man comes with the 200x redesign of the Power Sword. I’ve never been a big fan of this design, as it just way too clunky and impractical. I do, however, appreciate the attention to detail in the sculpt. It’s more machine now than sword, but that really gave the sculptors something to work with. There’s a loop in the back of He-Man’s harness so he can wear the sword on his back. I will point out that the figure’s grip is a little loose on the sword. I’m not sure if that’s a problem with my figure in particular, but it helps to squeeze it tight so he doesn’t drop it.

You also get his battle axe and shield, and I absolutely love these! The axe has some techno-gizmos sculpted into it to resemble the same tech that went into the sword, but here it doesn’t really make the weapon look unwieldly or cumbersome… just futuristic!!! The shield also has a little mesh circuit pattern on one of the arms of the cross, and some really nice texturing in the red field areas. These accessories look great together, and I’ll likely display He-Man with the wielding these and with the sword on his back. OK, let’s move on to Skeletor!

To me the 200x version of Skeletor looked extra stylized to me, and there was something about him that made his limbs look extra long and his head extra tiny. As a result, this Origins version looks a lot more like its doing its own thing, and boy do I love it! The armor pieces sport some excellent detail, like leather texturing in the hip and groin armor, organic designs in the grieves, and the shoulders and gorget look awesome! In addition to the purple plastic on the armor, you get red jewels painted on the knees and in the center of the crossed bones on his chest, as well as black for the shoulder guards. The wrist bracers are painted purple, and his feet are left pale blue. The fastener on the armor tends to slip out of the loop on my figure from time to time, but even when it does the harness and shoulders stays put. All in all, I love the way Mattel adapted this design to Origins, and this is a great version of Skeletor!

And then there’s the head sculpt! Hot damn, is this outstanding! The skull face is nestled in the center of a purple textured hood, and boy does he look pissed! The angry, downturned brow looks very expressive along with the red dots in the center of his eye holes. I also really love the paintwork on the face, with the way the yellow transitions to the green at the edges. This portrait is a little work of art, and one of my favorites that this line has produced so far!

Skeletor comes with the 200x version of his sword, which I believe was two swords joined together, which is why it has what looks like two grips. I suppose one could be a knuckle-guard, but either way the design of the hilt makes it kind of awkward for him to hold. Like the 200x Power Sword, I think this is well sculpted, but it just looks completely impractical. I wish they had given Skeletor a loop on his back to tuck the sword into like they did He-Man. I guess I could tuck it under the strap, but with the way it likes to come loose, that’s probably not going to work.

And you also get his trusty Havok Staff, which I think is just a repack of the one we’ve seen a bunch of times before.

I usually get tired of toy lines constantly churning out variants of main characters, but in the case of Origins I haven’t minded so much, because they’ve all been really good. And this pair may be the best yet. Normally, I would take the classic look for these guys over the 200x designs any day, but I’m shocked at how great these look adapted for the Origins bodies. Both figures get high marks from me, but I’m leaning toward the Skeletor as being my favorite of the pair. The armor just looks outstanding and the portrait is perfect! What’s even better is right now both of these figures have been turning up online at pretty good sale prices. Last time I looked Skeletor was going for $10 on Amazon, and boy is that an absolute steel for such a remarkable figure! Do I get another to keep carded? Nah… but it is tempting!

Sep 9 2022

Masters of the Universe Origins: “Flying Fists” He-Man and “Terror Claws” Skeletor by Mattel

Holy crap, that title is a mouthful, innit? I’m overdue for visiting with the MOTU Origins line, and since I have relatively new versions of He-Man and Skeletor on my pile of figures to open, I decided to knock them both out today! These are both Deluxe figures, which means they cost a little more than the regular ones, and come on bigger cards, and lots more stuff!

And wow, don’t they look so good in the packages! The presentation here kind of reminds me of the old rack toys, only actually good and not at all crappy. The character art looks amazing, but Mattel could have just as easily let the bubble do all the talking, because there’s so much cool stuff packed in here. Exposition explosions tell us that He-Man swings his arms with awesome might, while Skeletor swings with fearsome fury! Which is better, YOU DECIDE!!! This is a line that constantly tempts me to get doubles to keep one sealed, because they look so good in package. Let’s check out He-Man first!

Flying Fists He-Man is basically regular He-Man with gorgeous vac-metal armor encasing his manly torso. His wrist bracers and belt are painted bright red, and he has white fringe around the tops of his boots. The armor has a beautiful mirror silver polish with gold trim around the arm holes and waist, and a red H emblazoned on the front. His back has a large bracket so he can store his preposterous weapon, and yes it does make him very back-heavy. And in keeping with the vintage gimmick, He-Man does indeed have arm swinging power, which is activated when you rotate him at the waist left or right with the help of a grooved wheel at the bottom of his back. This is an absolutely beautiful figure that really gives Battle Armor He-Man a run for his money.

You get two portraits with the figure, and that is awesome! I absolutely love how many options we now have for swapping heads between regular He-Man and all the other flavors. The one that comes on the figure is my favorite of the two, and I can easily see myself displaying this on my regular He-Man as well. I’m a bit conflicted on the other one. I really like the work they put into this, with the windblown hair and the open mouth, but I’m not sure the end result really conveys what they were going for. Still, a nice option!

Flying Fists He-Man introduces two new weapons to his arsenal, and these are some real Rube Goldberg kinda stuff! The weapon is sort of like a mace, but with a huge spinning wheel with three balls at the end of each arm. It looks absolutely ridiculous and it seems completely impractical. But, we’re talking about a world with a robot elephant as the fire marshal, so when you put it in the proper context, I’m sure this thing makes perfect sense. The shield is pretty out there too, but I like it a lot more. It’s got spinning blades on it, which seems like it would be good for offense and defense. Both of the weapons feature more of that gorgeous vac-metal finish, and as demonstrated earlier, the mace weapon can store on He-Man’s back. Laugh as I might, if I saw a He-Man coming at me with this shit, I would still run for my life.

He-Man also comes with his trusty power sword, and this is a fantastic accessory, because it isn’t the crappy half-sword that came with the original He-Man release, so you know this is getting handed off to my regular He-Man as soon as I’m done with this review! I can’t help but think it would have been cool if this got the vac-metal treatment too, but I’m still happy to have it. OK, let’s check out Skeletor…

As with He-Man, Skeletor uses a lot of the same parts we’re used to seeing on the character, but he also has some shiny new vac-metal plate armor. While He-Man got his whole torso covered, Skeletor only has his covering his upper chest, so he can still show off those washboard abs. The new armor has a skull fixed right in the middle and a gorgeous purple tint to it. My only complaint with this figure is that, apart from the chest armor, he looks kind of bland. I think I’m missing the wrist bracers, and I’m wondering if they omitted those so his Terror Claws would fit better. Naturally, he has the same arm-swinging play feature as He-Man, and he can also store his ridiculous new weapon the clip on his back.

Once again, you get two heads with the figure, and I absolutely love these. The regular one is just so expressive, even if I’m a bit unclear on what the expression is supposed to be. He kind of looks like Beast Man just brought him a dead rat as a present and he’s genuinely touched by the offering. But the second one is just pure money. Skeletor looks so damn happy here, like he’s so proud of his ridiculous new weapons and can’t wait to try them out. These are both great, and they will likely spend some time on my regular Skeletor figure.

Of the two figures, Skeletor seems to have made out better in the accessories department. I was surprised to see that they included his trusty Havoc Staff, considering how much else is here. I’m sure it didn’t break the bank for Mattel to throw this in there, but it’s a welcome bonus nonetheless.

Next up is the white snappy dragon thingy, which is roughly comparable to He-Man’s spinning mace. It makes me wonder why this didn’t get top billing for the figure over the Terror Claws, but it’s probably because they couldn’t think up a cool name for it. As I’m pretty sure I mentioned when reviewing the Classics version of this figure, it looks like Skeletor cut off Sky-Lynx’s head and turned it into a grabby arm. I totally dig it.

And finally, we have the main attraction, which are the Terror Claws. These clip onto Skeletor’s wrists and give him giant tearing appendages. And much like He-Man’s spinning mace, I find these hysterical to look at, but I’d pretty much shit myself if a skull-faced assailant came after me with them. I like the little sculpted detail added to them, and my one complaint would be that I wish they had added pegs for the hands to grip onto like they did with the dragon chomper weapon. They still stay put fairly well, but pegs would have been even better.

I think it’s safe to say that every time I open a new MOTU Origins figure, I am absolutely delighted with the purchase. These figures are just so damn fun, and I’m very happy to see that Mattel is going all out. For a line that I originally swore I would never collect, this feels like the absolute best values to be found in the current action figure market. I’m also thrilled that Mattel has been keeping the play gimmicks alive in these figures, which really sets them apart from the more collector-driven Classics line, where they were mostly omitted. Keep them coming, Mattel!!!

Jun 3 2022

Masters of the Universe Origins: Mosquitor by Mattel

Once again, I’ll point out how much I love the MOTU Origins line as a vehicle for finally getting figures that I haven’t owned in any previous format. I didn’t have any MOTU figures when I was a kid, and there were a handful or so that I missed out on when collecting MOTU Classics. Mosquitor was one of those, and now I’m absolutely thrilled to finally have this overgrown parasite land in my collection. Does he suck? You bet he does! And I mean that in every good way possible!

As you can probably tell by the packaging, Mosquitor is a Deluxe figure, which means he comes on a slightly larger card, with a few extra bits and bobs to push him over the $20 price point. These cards are absolutely magic to see on the shelf, with it’s vintage style and bubble glued to the card, it almost looks like an overgrown rack toy of the past. The explosions of exposition proclaim that Mosquito’s chest pumps “Red Fluid” but we all know IT’S BLOOD! Sticky, crimson BLOOD! I don’t understand it. Half the toys on the shelves today are about poop, but we can’t say blood? I’m surprised Mattel hasn’t introduced a new figure called Poop-Or. Anyway, let’s tear this bug man open and check him out.

Straightaway I’m going to say that I love everything about this figure! He feels so fresh and new, and that’s a big deal in a line that is built off of recycling a lot of the same parts. Mosquitor is built on a black buck, with heavy, gray robotic looking boots, smooth gray undies with a purple belt and silver triangular belt buckle, deep crimson gauntlets, red bands around his biceps, and bulbous crimson shoulders, that look like they’re made of some kind of disgusting organic membrane. He’s also got a button on his back to pump that blood!

The window in his chest has a painted silver border and clearly shows off the reservoir of life juice in his blood tank. Pressing that button gets the blood flowing and it looks really good. It’s also surprisingly fun to pump it. Once again, I never owned the original, so I can’t say how it compares to the vintage original, but either way, I’d say Mattel did a fantastic job recreating this gross play gimmick.

Mosquitor comes with two heads, and deciding which one to go with is a win-win scenario, because they’re both so damn good. The figure comes out of the package wearing one which I believe is based on his appearance in the UK comics. This one transforms Mosquitor into more of a reptilian looking creature, with a scaly textured skin, and bit yellow eyes with vertical pupils very reminiscent of alligator peepers. There’s also a hint of a silver tube exposed in the middle of his snout, suggesting his bio-mechanical nature. I do like the look of this head a lot, and because it’s so new and fresh, I used it for a lot of the pictures here. But, you also get this one…

Ah, that’s the Mosquitor I’m a lot more familiar with! Here we get a smoother and more angular head with giant white eyes, and very prominent cybernetic parts on his snout, ending in what looks like a scalpel, perfect for sucking that life-giving blood from the do-gooders of Eternia or Etheria. I figure that if I want to reconcile the two, I can just imagine that this head is a helmet that goes over the other head! But in the end, this is the head I’ll likely be displaying him with.

And since Mosquitor is a Deluxe, the goodies keep on coming! First, he comes with his purple rifle and an extra left hand, to replace the fist with a gun-holding hand. The gun looks great, and it seems to be a pretty good recreation of the vintage figure’s gun. I’m not sure why Mattel included the extra left hand. It certainly wasn’t necessary, but it does give you the option of making Mosquitor ambidextrous.

And lastly you get this absolutely incredible blood-sucking effect part. If you know me, you know that I’m not usually that impressed by effect parts, but this thing is fantastic! I thin kit’s supposed to be an energy field that holds his prey while he’s leeching them dry, but I like to think it’s just gallons of blood leaving his foe’s body. And dang, it looks like Man-at-Arms has a lot of blood! Egads, I love this!

Mosquitor is one of my favorite figures released in Origins to date. Yeah, I probably say that a lot, but it is just such an amazing line of toys! Granted, Mosquitor is a little bit extra special, as it’s the first time I’m owning him, but even if that weren’t the case, I think he’s a fantastic update to the vintage figure, with just enough of that sweet additional articulation to make him even more fun to play around with. It’s also nice to finally get another member of The Evil Horde, since I’ve been buying a lot of Horde Troopers to fill out Hordak’s ranks!

Jan 19 2022

Masters of the Universe Origins: Wind Raider by Mattel

I’m pretty sure I said this before, but one of the things that got me most excited about Origins and buying all these damn characters all over again was the idea of more vehicles! Yeah, we got a few cool ones in Classics, but it always seemed like a reach for the line, whereas it seems more cost effective for Origins. This line feels like it’s the perfect intersection point between toys and collectibles, meaning that Mattel can bring more vehicles to market at more affordable prices, because they really are just toys and not collectibles that you need to queue up online to buy quickly before they sell out! Enter the Wind Raider, surely one of the most iconic rides in Eternia. Mattel did a beautiful job bringing this vehicle to the Classics line, and I am beyond excited to see how the Origins version turned out.

The Origins packaging continues to be a home run! You get a big window box showing off the toy and lots of amazing vintage-style art on the side panels and extended top flap. It takes a bit to get this thing out of the box, and there’s some assembly required, but with a little care it can go back in if you prefer to play with your toys and then display them in the package when you’re done. It’s like having your Wind Raider and eating it too! Don’t eat your Wind Raider.

And wow is this thing a beauty! The assembly is quick and easy, and mainly consists of slapping on the wings, tailfin, and putting the stand together. The stickers are all pre-applied, and everything can be disassembled easily if you want to store it in the box. The toy is mostly comprised of a hollow plastic shell with the rest of the bits attached, and yet it still feels like a sturdy, quality toy. The colors are simple, but oh so pretty, with the combination of hunter green and orange-yellowish trim. The stickers are all straight and add some pizazz to the deco, especially the dragon icon nose art. You also get some sculpted detail, including panel lines and some vents.

Unlike the Classics Wind Raider, the wings each pivot independently. The harpoon can still be fired from the front with the push of a button, and then reeled back in by spinning the raised crest on the hood. The stand consists of a hinged peg that attaches into the bottom of the vehicle and connects with a gray deck plate, which in turn can be inserted into a Grayskull-style rocky platform, complete with a little computer terminal, perhaps for running diagnostics on the Raider. The screen is way too low for a standing figure to use it convincingly, but it’s a nice touch nonetheless.

The cockpit includes a sculpted seat, a textured floor, two handlebars, and stickers for control panels in the center and on the sides. Your average Origins figure fits into it with ease, and I was pleasantly surprised at just how big this thing scales with the Origins figures. In fact, let’s do a quick comparison with the Classics Wind Raider.

I’m really impressed with how close this toy is in size to the Classics Wind Raider, which was of course designed for much larger figures. It’s been a while since I had the Classics version out of the box, and I expected it to be a lot bigger than this new version, but that’s really not the case. As for other differences, the Classics Wind Raider certainly has sharper detail, and overall feels more like a premium piece, but the Origins Raider has nothing to be ashamed of. For an off-the-shelf toy at a fraction of the price, it certainly holds its own!

The Origins Wind Raider set me back about $35 and it’s a damn nice toy for the price. It’s big, it fits the figures perfectly, it has some fun play features, and it looks absolutely smashing on display. It also might be ridiculously fun to woooosh around the room, but I wouldn’t know anything about that! But best of all, the Wind Raider (along with the previously reviewed Land Shark) gets me all kinds of excited over other vintage Masters vehicles getting this kind of treatment. Spydor! The Talon Fighter! The Bashasaurus!!! Bring them all on Mattel! My wallet is ready!!!


Dec 8 2021

Masters of the Universe Origins: Roboto and Fisto by Mattel

It’s more than a few weeks since I last checked in with Mattel’s MOTU Origins line. I’ve got tons of figures waiting to be opened, but today’s is something special for me, as this is the first time owning figures of either of these characters. Yup, both Roboto and Fisto are two of the very few figures missing from my MOTU Classics collection. With Roboto, his initial run had misassembled arms, so I waited, hoping for a fixed reissue later on down the road. Well, nope. And the rest is disappointment. As for Fisto, I think he was just released on one of those days when I couldn’t get to Matty Collector fast enough to place the order in time, and he quickly sold out.

Here are our Eternian heroes looking great on the retro-styled cards. It’s crazy how fast and furious this line has been right out of the gate. The figures have been coming with a steady pace, and I’d argue it’s one of the best distributed action figure lines, at least in my area. I still get a lot of these online for convenience sake, but I have also seen just about every single figure at least once while taking a shortcut through the toy aisles at my local Target. Good on you, Mattel! Let’s start with Roboto!

In the world of Eternia, where everyone is a colorful freak, it can be tough to stand out. So, the fact that Roboto does just that really means something! And a lot of that has to do with Roboto’s super cool transparent chest. It’s cast in clear plastic and shows his three primary gears inside. These will rotate when you swivel the figure at the waist in unison with his mouth opening and closing. I’ve never been a big fan of action gimmicks in my figures, but this is one that I can get behind! In addition to those visible internal gears, Roboto has some technological tidbits sculpted into his arms. I dig the coloring here, as it’s very vibrant and eye-catching. The blue and orange contrast beautifully, and the silver paint looks outstanding.

Roboto shares the legs of Trap Jaw, which is appropriate since I’ve always considered Roboto his heroic counterpart. Like Trap Jaw, Roboto has multiple attachments for his left arm, which can be quickly swapped out to adapt to any situation at hand. These attachments include a claw that’s so tiny, it would make Clamp Champ giggle; A double-barreled blaster; And finally, a pretty sweet double-bladed ax. Alas, unlike Trap Jaw, Roboto has nowhere to store the extra bits. Maybe they’re just supposed to retract into him when he swaps them out.

His head reminds me a bit of RoboCop, as it has that silver helmet with the visor running across it. Unlike RoboCop, the bottom half of his face is just a giant, hinged orange mouth. There isn’t a lot of personality in this portrait, and I have to imagine that Roboto feels a little inferior, considering how realistic Skeletor was able to make Faker’s head. That alone, would make me consider changing sides. But even with a mug like a VCR, I still love this guy a lot!

Moving on to Fisto, and compared to Roboto, we’ve got a dude that looks pretty normal, at least according to the Eternia Scale of Normalcy. Fisto borrows a lot from the standard He-Man buck, complete with purple boots and belt, and the ubiquitous furry barbarian diaper. His torso is wrapped in a purple and silver vest, which makes him look a bit bulkier than most of these figures, but it works! He’s got a silver wrist bracer on his left arm and his right arm is equipped with the reason for the season… A GIANT METALIC FIST!!!

Despite being his gimmick, Fisto’s fist isn’t anything too exciting… at least providing you aren’t on the receiving end of it. Once again, Mattel used some beautiful silver paint here, and it looks great alongside the deep purple. I’m going to claim ignorance and ask, is that a fully functional hand or just a fist? I honestly don’t know. But if he can open it like a hand, shouldn’t he be called Hando?

I wasn’t over enamored with the head sculpt when I first saw it, but I’ll admit that it’s grown on me. Fisto’s head is a little lumpy, and his eyes and eyebrows look kind of weird. It’s like they don’t really belong on his face and they’re just visiting. I do love the hair sculpt though. The beard is solid and the mustache is superb.

Fisto comes with one accessory, and that’s his long purple sword. It accessorizes quite well with his outfit, and it’s got a detailed hilt with a knucklebow, and a guard designed to trap opponents blades. I wouldn’t want to fight Fisto, as the combo of using his fist as a parrying punchy shield combined with the long reach of that blade would make him a formidable opponent.

Egads, I love this line. The figures are always so much fun, and it’s currently the most affordable line I collect by a long shot. Roboto and Fisto are just two more reminders of why I enjoy this line, and it’s great to finally have figures of these characters in my collection! It’s tough to spread the love with only three reviews a week, but I’ve got to make a concerted effort to come back to Origins more frequently than I have been, because I still have plenty of figures to check out!

Jul 9 2021

Masters of the Universe Origins: “Rise of Evil 2-Pack by Mattel

Exclusives can be a pain in the ass, or they can be proof that patience pays off. In the case of today’s Rise of Evil 2-Pack, it turned out to be all about patience. This set, featuring Keldor and Kronis, the original forms of Skeletor and Trap-Jaw, is another Target Exclusive that has been infamously difficult to find. After weeks of having no luck, I came very close to grabbing it from a scalper on Ebay. I actually had it in my cart, and I just couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger. My desire to own it wasn’t stronger than my disgust for the people buying them up to profit on it. Two weeks later, I found six of them sitting on the shelf. Go figure!

Still, if Mattel is going to insist on doing exclusives, I’ll concede that this is probably a good pick for it. Some may argue that Keldor and Kronis are essentials, but I wouldn’t really agree. They are definitely great figures to have, but essential? Nah. Also, I think Mattel probably completely underestimated the demand on this one. Let’s start with Kronis!

The Evil Criminal from Another Dimension represents Trap-Jaw before getting all messed up and undergoing a body-horror style repair by Tri-Klops, or at least I think that’s how the 200x lore went. The figure recycles Trap-Jaw’s torso, pelvis, and legs all with the same coloring, including those neon green patches on his thigh armor. The left arm no longer has the bolt on the shoulder and he has his normal right arm, both of which include the standard Eternian wrist cuffs, here colored in pale gray. The chest harness is different, as it now has a strap that goes across his chest and secures in the front, but it’s definitely similar to the one Trap-Jaw uses to hold on his artificial limb.

The head sculpt definitely fits the look of psychopathic space pirate. He looks demented and like someone who probably has a lot of problems running around in his noodle. The slack-jawed expression includes a wall of white teeth and an look that suggests he’s rather displeased with me and quite possibly wants to do unpleasant things to my intestines. The close-fitting helmet is similar to what he would wear as Trap-Jaw, right down to the loop at the top for zip-lining. String not included! I’ll note here that my figure is a bit of a bobble head. The neck connection is just loose, making poor Kronis’ head wobble around.

Kronis comes with one accessory, and that’s his cool looking laser rifle. The rifle has two grips, but Kronis only has one grippy hand, as the left is the standard open hand we see with a lot of these figures. I really wish Mattel had added a second grippy hand like they did with Clamp Champ, but he can still hold the rifle fairly well and rest it on his open hand for some decent poses. Moving on to Keldor!

OK, so Kronis was pretty neat, but Keldor is really where it’s at with this set. This guy looks absolutely amazing. He features a very standard pale blue Origins buck with purple boots and wrist cuffs, and a black pelvic piece. The shoulder armor and belt are recycled from regular Skeletor, but cast in a darker purple, which matches his darker purple boots. We also get a few paint hits on the chest piece, including the neon green emblem and the mauve stone in the middle of his crossed bones. Wow, this all looks so good!

Keldor also comes with a cape, which is held on by a plastic chain that goes around the front of his neck. It looks great from the front, but it’s not terribly flattering from the back, as it just puffs out and makes him look like a grape.

The portrait is nothing short of fantastic. Keldor was quite the dashing fellow before the magic acid mishap. He definitely has all the stylings of a villain, with that mustache, widow’s peak, and pointy beard, but the broad grin makes him look like he would be a charismatic adversary. I think this is one of the best head sculpts to come out of Origins so far!

Keldor comes with both his sword and the Havoc Staff. The sword is finished on both sides, unlike the half-sword that came with the original Skeletor release. It’s also painted with a neon green glow toward the point.

The Havok Staff is the same sculpt, but the dark purple transitions to a translucent neon green as it gets to the ram head at the top. This makes for a cool effect, and not a bad stand-in for Skeletor’s staff.

And finally, Keldor comes with a brand new Skeletor head, which is a huge improvement over the one we got on the original Origins release. I love the sculpt, and the paint is just about perfect. He also has some flashy red jewels for eyes. It’s almost a shame that the hood is darker than the armor on the original release, because I would use this as my regular Skeletor head in a heartbeat if the colors matched up.

But in all honesty, this figure could easily stand in as your Origins Skeletor, providing you don’t mind him having regular feet and not those webbed monster feet. I just love everything about this guy! He looks like a premium quality release compared to regular Skeletor.

No doubt about it, this is a great set! Keldor definitely nudges out Kronis as the star for me, but Kronis is no slouch either. And while I’m glad I didn’t have to pay extra, I probably would have been OK with spending more if I had to. This 2-pack is a release that I would have expected to come much later in Origins‘ lifespan, but it’s cool that Mattel is investing in some deep cuts fairly early on. It makes me wonder what other goodies they have in store for us!

Jun 16 2021

Masters of the Universe Origins: Clamp Champ by Mattel


The MOTU Origins figures continue piling up, and I feel as if it’s been too long since I last visited with this delightful line. But, since one of the new Deluxe figures was just spat toward my doorstep via Amazon Toy-Drone, I bumped Clamp Champ to the head of the line, so let me pour another Jameson and sing him in on….

It’s Clamp Champ!
Who?
He’s the Champ of the Clamp!
What??
Not to be confused with Tramp Stamp!
What’s he called?
You deaf son? He’s CLAMP CHAMP… Yeeeeah!!!

How do you stand out in Eternia when you aren’t half-skunk, covered in moss, half robot-elephant, or have a telescoping neck? You get in the garage and build yourself a giant mechanical clamp! And that’s exactly what Clamp Champ did! As one of the Deluxe figures, he comes in a larger vintage-styled card for his extra goodies. The TechnoClamp has been renamed the Power Pincer, which leads me to question why he isn’t called Pincer Champ, but whatever. I love the larger card and bubbles. It makes it look like an old timey rack toy. Sadly, these are not collector friendly, so let me get with the ripping!

Naturally, Champ uses the standard MOTU hero buck, and as this line is modular, he can be pulled apart at all the usual points. My figure actually has a pretty weak connection at the waist, so he will sometimes pull in half when I’m messing around with him. Werid. Clampy has some nice silver paint on his wrist bracers and belt, and some red paint on his furry diaper and the fringe at the tops of his black boots. He wears a rubbery plastic vest, which makes him look rather swol, but also adds some blue to the costume deco, and his color is painted with more of that scrummy silver. He’s a great looking figure!

I was surprised to see that Clamp Man comes with two heads, one with a serious clamping expression and one smiling. I really dig them both, and it’s going to be a tough call on which one to go with for regular display. Maybe the smiling one, since all the other figures look so serious all the time. I’ll note here that Sir Clamp also comes with an extra accessory-holding left hand. I’ll likely go with this one all the time, since his relaxed hand has the fingers kind of warped. It’s like he was testing the clamp on this hand and things got out of control.

Wow, and that brings us to the clamp itself. Even in the batshit crazy world of Eternia, this is one of the most impractical and ungainly weapon I’ve ever seen. He can barely hold it comfortably, let alone wield it in any convincing fashion. And all that makes it so incredibly wonderful. He grips it from a simple peg underneath and there’s a switch on the top that deploys the fluorescent orange pincer claws. I’d like to think that Champ’s backstory is he had planned to get this thing as a cybernetic replacement for his right arm, but then didn’t want to cut his arm off, so he just carries it around.

The claw is perfectly sized to fit around the waist of your average Eternian ne’er-do-well. And since they’re spring loaded they stay put pretty well. I’d like to think Champ’s favorite one-liner is, “Looks like you brought a gun to a clamp fight.” Actually, I take that back. His catch-phrase should be, “You mess with the Champ, You get the Clamp!”

Clamp Champ also comes with a smaller clamp weapon, so it’s like he planned for the big thing getting too heavy to carry all day. This is a non-articulated accessory of a smaller and more lethal looking clamp, with serrated claws.

I’m a little surprised that they got to Clamp Champ so soon in the Origins line, but then again they are turning out these figures pretty damn fast. As I haven’t picked up the Battle Armor He-Man and Skeletor yet, this is the first of these Deluxe figures in my collection. At $19.99, these Deluxes are about five bucks more than the regular ones, which still feels like a pretty good value, as there’s a lot of extra plastic in here.