Once again I took a trip to Summerville, SC for a teacher retreat, and decided to look into the Target down there, where I saw two Chronicles figures…Skeletor and Trap Jaw. I like the Skeletor…but the issue is…I have at least five already! Now yesterday they announced Gym Bro Skeletor, and that looks cool…I am waiting on Office Bro Skeletor. That will be amazing! Maybe they will name him Darrel?
But I have wanted the Trap Jaw, AND this was the last one. Trap Jaw had a huge role in the 2026 movie, with at least three big fight scenes and a rivalry with Man-At-Arms. So did the figure turn out as great as expected?
PACKAGING
This is the second Chronicles figure that I have opened with retail packaging, the other is Battle Cat…but I also have the Mattel Creations Chronicles King Grayskull. My point is, this packaging is pretty similar to Masterverse packaging, but a noted difference is the DELUXE articulation mark instead of some kind of number like “30 points of articulation.” It turns out that some figures might just have MORE articulation if you thing about it, but also some might have less. You can see Trap Jaw just fine in the window as well as all that comes with the figure. “Evil & Armed For Combat.” Keep scrolling for more images
Nick Galatzine’s He-Man. Links to 2026 movie review.Another little window in and a full but small image of Trap Jaw from the image on the front.
The back features a photoshop image of Trap Jaw on purple Snake Mountain details. There are little call-outs showing us his action features, which is the interchangeable arms of course. There is cross sell on the bottom featuring Skeletor and Trap Jaw.
When I opened the box, I realized there was this table of contents, but more importantly when you remove the blister…
BOOM! A nice Snake Mountain backdrop!
I don’t rate figures based on their packaging…so here is a rundown of how I will rate Trap Jaw or any other figure since around 2016. I use a five-point scale, each point is listed below:
Sculpt
Paint
Articulation
Accessories
“Feels point”…why did I want this and what does it represent to me? Most figures I buy at least have this! (Otherwise…why did I buy it? But it has come up)
FIGURE REVIEW
Here is what you get in the package…
Trap Jaw figure
alternate left hand
sword arm
hook arm
cannon arm
One of my complaints about the Chronicles line for most of the figures is the lack of accessories. King Grayskull was loaded out, but He-Man only comes with the sword. Evil-lyn only comes with the wizard staff (typically…I don’t have a chronicles Evil Lyn). But here, Trap Jaw has plenty because that is his gimmick, after all!
There is no storage on his belt for the accessories, which is a bummer. Also notable, you can’t interchange the weapons between Chronicles Trap Jaw and New Eternia Trap Jaw. This is a big miss for Mattel. Why limit our fun? NE Trap Jaw’s weapons could go to NE Roboto, NE Hordak, or Revolution Man-of-War.
PICTURED: Masterverse New Eternia Man-At-Arms riding on Chronicles Battle Cat. He is armed with the Masters of the Universe Classics 200x style arm cannon. Chronicles Trap Jaw is riding on New Eternia Panthor.
The paint is one of the best features…it looks like it came right out of the movie! Most of the paint is glossy, and there is a glossy finish to even the more boring parts like the lower legs.
PICTURED: Chronicles Trap Jaw with one of the prize pieces in my collection, vintage Transformers Shockwave. Both have upgraded their unfortunate arm incidents.
Articulation…it feels like a different toyline actually…remember the old Halo figures that were 4-6 inch scale? The joints move similar to those. Now at first the lower right boot-cut wouldn’t work, but over time of me posing him and taking photos, this loosened up. So it doesn’t count as what I call a “stupid problem.”
ACCESSORIES
If they didn’t include accessories, would Trap Jaw be who he is? NOPE. Luckily they did!
PICTURED: Chronicles King Grayskull and Trap Jaw.
The hook is my favorite attachment. I thought it an odd choice that this was used the most in the movie, considering that Karg was also in the movie and using a hook hand. (I have always felt that Karg was a stand-in for Trap Jaw in the 1987 movie…budget limitations. Just the same I am glad they included Karg in the 2026 movie. Figure please)! This hook became the signature move for Trap Jaw in the movie, and it looks great!
In the picture above, where Trap Jaw is about to lose to Ram Man, he has caught Mekanek’s head with his open hand and is about to use his sword arm to do some chopping. But…Ram Man is going to use Mortal Kombat’s Raiden move on him.
The accessories are great, but they didn’t include the classic “gripper arm” from the vintage toy or the Filmation show. However…that didn’t appear in the 2026 film either. The only thing that bugs me about the accessories is that they aren’t swappable with the Masterverse action features that are similar. I should note that the hand is also not compatible with Masterverse…it has a socket in the hand with a peg on the figure, but Masterverse figures had it the other way around. The accessories are painted the same glossy gray that the boots are. They could have more paint applied, but they also look like they look in the movie so that passes my test. I DO wish there were loops on his belt. (But once again, not in the movie).
PICTURED: A semi-recreation of the movie scene where He-Man rips Trap Jaw’s arm off and uses it as a blaster. This is Kitbash Masterverse Battle Armor He-Man (with a beard!), Kitbash Classics/Revelation Teela, New Eternia Man-At-Arms and Roboto, fighting against the disarmed Chronicles Trap Jaw and the New Eternia Terror Claws Skeletor.
SPARTANNERD RATING OF MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE CHRONICLES TRAP JAW
He gets a 5/5. I really can’t take any points off. I do think there are ways that Mattel could have made him better…belt loops…claw arm…interchangeability with similar figures. But the sculpt, paint, articulation, accessories, and feels point are all there for the SpartanNerd! And he looks great with other bounty hunters!
Mostly I haven’t been too pleased with Mattel Creations “Club Grayskull” subscription. It is $10 a year with the promise of exclusive pre-release access of products. But most of this has been Origins figures that pretty much nostalgia fans aren’t that interested in. I mean, Geldor, and He-Ro. And even more obscure that I did get, Sharella. What Masterverse figures did they offer this year? Panthor, Moss Man, and … Dragstor? Well they offered Blade but even I, a club member, missed that one.
So they announced the club at the beginning of April last year, and behold they knew they would get most of their renewals in April this year IF THEY OFFERED SOMETHING GOOD. Well here he is. Masters of the Universe Chronicles King Grayskull.
There has been a few leaked Chronicles Scare Glow figures out there, but King Grayskull is the first official Chronicles release. So all members surely ordered one to you know, have, a Chronicles figure, but also King Grayskull is pretty cool of a character anyway. It is still a mystery if he will make an appearance in the film, but there seems to be a possibility, possibly played by Dolph Lundgren. It seems like an odd choice to undo the race-swap they gave him for the Kevin Smith show. (That was an excellent rendition, and has been my favorite King Grayskull…no I think favorite KING figure. And that is saying something for a guy who has a few figures of kings.)
So how did he turn out?
PACKAGING
This packaging is similar to other offerings from Mattel Creations in that it doesn’t have a blister bubble or window box. it is all artwork, and the figure is tied into the box using paper strings. A great way to give us non-retail figures in appealing packaging that we will want to keep using.
The front features a great illustration showing us the Pharaoh King Hiss, Lady Slither, Sqquueeeze, a REMCO DRAGON (or similar, cool!), the Turbodactyl, Battle Lion, and of course the king himself on top of some skull cave stuff channeling lightning between not only his power sword, but also the battle axe. And that is AWESOME! The Mattel guy at Toy Fair told Pixel Dan that the red Masters logo means movie focus, and the blue logo means cartoon. But this figure wasn’t revealed there, and it is a black Masters logo. Just interesting.
Some of the things I wondered going into this was how much this figure would share with the previous King Grayskull. This package gives is in illustrated form much of the same details. KG has the 200x asterisk symbol on his chest, and also sports a cape with comfy pauldrons. The previous King Grayskull had a problem with those pauldrons being soft goods…
The back shows us some of that photoshop artwork I am not too fond of. We can see King Graskull decked out with the shield in the side window, and in action with the battle axe on the other.
The side has another barbarian illustration. And it invites you to look inside to see any changes to the character.
As you open the box, you can see this same illustration covering the figure. But you now have a logo-free poster if you want. Also notice that you can see King Hiss. Flipping this over lets us have this scene also.
This is the Snake Lair. All of this about the Snake Men kind of burns, because in MASTERVERSE, the only Snake Man we got was Kobra Kahn, and he was a pitiful figure. Maybe this is all a hint that Snake Men will be coming out soon. But we have seen them repeatedly on Masterverse packaging, but have really none to show for it. (See Snout Spout’s packaging, as well as Terror Claws Skeletor)
FIGURE REVIEW
Here he is in the package
Right between Revelation King Grayskull and King Conan. On the YouTube version of this video, I actually play the Palace Theme on this piano, in case you were wondering. I wanted to do something different!
What do you get in the package?
Chronicles King Grayskull Figure
Power Sword
Battle Axe
Shield
pair of punching fists.
You could count the gauntlets on his wrists as well.
I am going to go about this two ways. First I want to know about this new format. How is he different than a Masterverse Figure? And then I want to talk about this specific figure an offer a rating at the end like I do always.
PICTURED: MASTERVERSE Revelation King Grayskull and Masters of the Universe Chronicles King Grayskull. I am showing them in the same basic pose. Notice the 200x sword I have is from the 200x Castle Grayskull set that belonged to my brother. (I never owned this myself, but only wound up with pieces of it somehow. I am not a fan of the design.)
When you compare the Revelation KG to the new Chronicles KG, the scale is very slightly smaller. Where the size difference makes its appearance is in the knees and elbows. It is like there might be a slight “shave” off all around the figure for this new scale. It is something you notice if you look for it, but you probably wouldn’t at a glance. But it is enough to make black King Grayskull feel just a little bit more beefy and muscular than caucasian King Grayskull. (Just so you know, I believe the OG Masters of the Universe Classics figure would be shorter but still appear more muscular than either of them. I don’t have that figure, so…)
PICTURED: MASTERVERSE New Eternia Fisto riding Mythic Legions Boreus, and Masters of the Universe Chronicles King Grayskull riding Masters of the Universe Classics Battle Cat. I title this one “Sunday Ride.” You can see a good size difference in these two, even though it isn’t as drastic when comparing to Revelation King Grayskull.
Revelation King Grayskull had stunted articulation at the knees, but the new knees on the Chronicles King Grayskull are perfect to hinge all the way back to where he can kick himself in the butt. The forearms on the new figure are also new and skinnier, and no longer is there a hole at the end for a fist to peg in…now the fore-arm is a peg, and the hand is a double-jointed wrist. Nice improvements! As a consequence, the new hands are even smaller than before and could get lost easier. (But I haven’t lost these…yet). So what I am saying, you kind of feel the difference in scale around the wrists, knees, and feet most of all.
The only soft goods on the new figure is the cape. The pauldrons are thankfully sculpted in plastic. And I thought this power harness might be 1-to-1 the same, but it is a new sculpt.
So what about this figure specifically. I like the new thing they are doing with his hair. The 200x version had these long viking ponytails coming down, like a barbarian Wendy’s mascot. The Revelations version had Native American-type of braids. This figure has a sloppy top-knot with long locks, and so it is different. The face sculpt is passable for He-Man, but obviously a different character. Dare I say more “American” looking (as opposed to European). I mean, I am trying to see Nick Galitzine here, but he doesn’t look like him. He also doesn’t look like Dolph Lundgren. I think he kind of resembles Vanilla Ice.
His muscles are chiseled very nicely why the same ab-crunch that most MASTERVERSE figures have. He wears a girdle over his furry shorts making a more royal look. This new figure doesn’t have a thigh-cut, something I don’t think we will miss. I already mentioned the knees, but the elbows are also double-jointed. He has the furry boots you expect, with a leather strap look to them. The power harness has a ring on the back that allows the sword to be displayed outside of the cape. This cape is not removable without removing the harness as far as I can tell. (I haven’t done this). It does appear that the pauldrons have pegs that might make them swappable in the future. He doesn’t have trouble with articulation…he stands very well, but his lower legs…like at the boot cut is slightly loose, he can go pigeon toed pretty easily. Still I am giving him the full point for articulation. No real problems! He even has decent head articulation considering the sculpted hair that he has. And Mattel made a lot of that this figure can grab the sword while it is in the holster on his back…that no other figure could do that. But I think 1987 Movie He-Man might have something to say about that.
PICTURED: Masters of the Universe Chronicles King Grayskull and MASTERVERSE 1987 Movie He-Man. Contrary to what Mattel asserted at Toy Fair, King Grayskull is not the first figure that can grab the sword on his back.
ACCESSORIES
PICTURED: Masters of the Universe Origins Cartoon Collection Faker and Masters of the Universe Chronicles King Grayskull. Seriously, Faker’s sword is slightly bigger than King Grayskull’s, and this is wrong. KG’s sword does feel like it has more finesse somehow, though. Here is also a chance for you to compare an Origins figure to the new Chronicles figure.
We have the three main accessories that every He-Man needs. I even think they should include them with all the variants, but they don’t unless your company name is MONDO. I wondered if at least the shield would be the same as Revelation King Grayskull, but no it is a different sculpt. Larger and less cartoony, with gold highlights and fancy, barbaric texture.
The battle axe is pretty nice, with some color on its inner texture and the cap (don’t know what it is actually called) a circle with the 200x asterisk symbol.
But here is the big problem…maybe I should say small problem…This Power Sword is shorter than all of The Masterverse swords. It is a step backwards. Honestly, it almost feels like an Origins Power Sword as far as its size. Why did they do this to the most iconic weapon outside of a lightsaber?
For what it’s worth, I also think it is a missed opportunity to give us a new version of the 200x Power Sword.
SPARTANNERD RATING OF MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE CHRONICLES KING GRAYSKULL
If I separate my feelings about differences in this and MASTERVERSE figures, it is a solid 5/5. He checks every box I ask for. Sculpt looks good, and paint also, if it isn’t conservative. He is better articulated than the MASTERVERSE KG. His accessories are what you expect, but the sword is too small. But he gets the Feels Point also…mostly because I generally like the character and also am excited to be one of the early reviewers.
spartannerd 