Category Archives: Skeletor

SpartanNerd Project…Earl Norem Poses

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I had this crazy idea.  Really more of a dream.  I could get each person who is interviewed in the Masters of the Universe Art Book  to sign their article.  Or maybe a piece of art.  I know it never would happen…I am not a well traveled person.  But it was a fine thought.

But not soon after the book was published, one of the greatest artists of Masters of the Universe passed away.  Earl Norem.  I wrote my thoughts right here on the SpartanNerd Blog.  (Link)

To help illustrate my love for Norem’s work, I thought I would attempt to emulate it with the incredible Masters of the Universe Classics figures.  So here is my attempt at “The Sunbird Legacy.”

A few Caveats have to apply.

  • The figures have one expression.  Some have alternate heads.  But you still have a limitation.
  • The hair can be wrong.
  • Norem didn’t always paint the weapons the same way.
  • I don’t have the diorama piece.  As this stuff becomes more available to me, I will see about photographing some of it.

I chose this picture because I thought it was one of the most do-able.  My favorite is the one with He-Man on a lion and Skeletor leading an elephant army, with the space battle among the meteors a close second.  But you’ll see.

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I tried the Snake Armor He-Man head.  But it doesn’t look as good as the original.  In the picture, Skeletor’s sword is more of a scimitar.  The closest I had available is Draego Man’s sword.  The Havoc Staff is bigger than the one in the painting.  This proves to be the biggest problem.  I felt like the pose above was too…boring.  Not capturing the motion of Norem’s work.

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This photo is closer to Earl Norem.  Still not perfect.  It is really hard to get Skeletor to balance like this.  If you look at the Norem at length…(as I have,) you can see that He-Man and Skeletor have very parallel hips.  He-Man’s figure can’t quite stress his head back or hold his shield at quite the same angle, and still keep balance.  (He-Man has weak ankles.)

The colors are pretty good.  The white background is about as good as I could do.  I applied a filter to mute it a little.

So, Hub City Geeks.  What do you think about my new venture?  Can you do better?  Send me your pics, and let me know in the comments!

SpartanNerd…Follow up on “He-Man: The Eternity War”

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I have been very impressed with the current run of DC masters of the Universe.  “He-Man: The Eternity War” has really been developed.  And we are seeing the characters presented in ways we have never seen before.

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Here is a pic of all six issues I have.  I have two of the covers from Issue 1.

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The version with the toys came only to subscribers, if I am correct.

What is so impressive?  Here are issue by issue thoughts.

Issue 1.  Hordak returns to flesh, using He-Man’s blood, drawn unintentionally by She-Ra in the preceding story arc.  And then he becomes a super charged version of himself by tapping into the power of Grayskull.  See what I mean…We’ve never seen Hordak presented like this.

Issue 2.  Man-At-Arms converts Roboto into a flight suit to take out the Horde’s orbital disruptor.  (This weapon wiped out most of the Masters of the Universe and the Eternian army in prior issues.  Kind of a mini-death star.)

Issue 3.  The deal with the Eyes of Grayskull returns from the digital-only books that began DC’s current run on Masters of the Universe.  She-Ra finds the Eye of Chrono and unintentionally leads Hordak to it.

Issue 4.  She-Ra takes a beating, but Skeletor rescues her using the eye of Chaos, which he had in his possession.  (Now Skeletor has both eyes!)

Issue 5. Skeletor witnesses She-Ra use her sword to heal herself, and asks her to heal him.  Then he explains that he has had a change of heart and doesn’t wish to be constantly defeated, as he has seen over and over in different versions of himself as he traveled the Multiverse.  The Green Goddess (or Sorceress, or Teela, what should we call her now?) lets He-Man know that “The Goddess” (adding to the confusion) has three faces, Serpos, Zoar, and Horokoth.  Eternia has witnessed the age of Zoar, but she fears the Age of Horokoth is inevitable.  He-Man chooses to look at the future behind a door with the Horde symbol on it, (which means Horokoth, the destroyer now.)  He sees himself as King He-Man, with the normal skinned (and naked) Teela as his queen.  A military state is evident.

Issue 6.  “The Problem with Power.”  He-Man sees a vision of the future.  DC uses King He-Man…an impressive draw to this story…the cover is magnificent.  We see more of the kingdom that King He-Man will bring about.  Notably, Skeletor’s allies are now his allies, while the “Good Guys” are now “The Great Rebellion!”  At the end, He-Man breaks the sword in half, destroying it and relinquishing the power to return to the form of Prince Adam.

I can’t wait for issue 7!

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Skeletor’s romp through the Multiverse let him see many versions of himself, each one ending in defeat.  He never acquires the power of Grayskull.  Check out my Skitch below…

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“The Problem With Power” was the title of perhaps the greatest Filmation episode, where He-Man changes into Adam…a reverse transformation rarely seen, and then throws the sword into the abyss.  He decided in that episode that being He-man wasn’t worth taking the life of someone.  In this issue, there are echoes of the same, but all of Eternia is the victim as King He-Man is a despotic leader.

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This page kind of captures the state of things.  Beast Man is wearing Battle Cat’s hide as a cape!  He-Man is riding Panthor, and the Eternal Guard are riding Nightstalkers!  Also, notice the weaponry all over castle Grayskull.  In this issue, He-Man also orders an insurgent’s head on a spike…exactly the the thing Mattel told the moviemakers to avoid in the 1980s.  (I recall seeing the the Art Book instructions for “No Heads!  No Spikes!”

Finally….

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He-Man destroying “The Sword of Eternity.”  (A new name for “The Power Sword.”  Christened thus for only a few panels.)  a moving panel…Prince Adam appears so weak in the next few panels walking away, and I wonder how this is going to work.

“He-Man: The Eternity War” is a terrific read, and keen fans will see little allusions and nods.  I see it as the comic writers have a box full of toys, and are constantly playing with them in new ways.  Shaping a story the way little kids would have, and then making modern comics meant for an adult audience.

I hope DC keeps making MOTU comics.  I don’t ever want that dry spell that seemed to happen for so long to ever return.  I want to see toy versions of these comics characters.  The work is certainly deserving….

SpartanNerd Vintage Toy Review…”Masters of the Universe Wolf Armor He-man and Snake Armor Skeletor”

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This is one of the longest titles I’ve typed on this blog!

Today you get the final pictures taken with my iPhone 4s.  Good riddance, after seeing how good the iPhone 6 camera is!  (I can hear Skeletor from the MYP cartoon saying “Good Riddance!”

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This item was originally meant to be a gift set.  You are getting two figures, both with an action accessory, and a VHS tape. (GASP)

The front of the box is a nice window where you can see the figures and the video inside.

I love the SpartanWife…If it weren’t for her, I probably never would have got these!

Here’s the back…

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Everything all over this packaging is in three languages.  English, Spanish (or Italian?) and French.

Probably Spanish, aimed at the Mexican market.  Sorry Europeans.  (Seriously.  There are mega fans in Europe.  Especially Italy and Germany.)

The back of the package gives you instructions, and also shows off some other figures and vehicles from 200x.

I do miss the 200x show!

On with the review.  This packaging is just landing in the trash.  I’m not sure this could have counted as Mint On Card anyways.  The box has had some abuse.

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Here is everything assembled, for your photography pleasure.  The video is going to stay in cellophane.  I believe I will display it with my 1987 movie VHS tape.  Because neither is EVER going back into a VCR to be eaten.  That’s why.  And besides, I have “The Courage of Adam” on DVD.

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Here are the accessories.  I activated the action feature of both shields this time.  I prefer to display them like this.  Skeletor’s activates by press of a button.  You reset it by pushing that skull back up, and then the blades retract.  He-Man’s works by turning that wolf head.  His isn’t spring loaded, unfortunately.  But it looks way cooler with the blades out.

This is the first He-Man I’ve ever owned that didn’t come with a sword!

Also notable, He-Man’s helmet is removable…Skeletor’s is not.

He-Man has a wolf claw weapon.  And I’m not sure WHAT Skeletor’s weapon is.  A gun?  A sword?  I tend to think those silver pieces are meant to be long retractable tentacles.  So more of a gun.  But then again, it could be that the two silver pieces are meant to mirror Skeletor’s double sword.  I just don’t know.

As far as I know, there is no extant fiction for either character…

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Here’s Skeletor.  His shield is really heavy.  200x Skeletor tends to be sort of hunchbacked as it is.  But in order to have him stand and hold the shield, you have to bend him backwards, pretty severely.

The figure has a snake head on top of his helmet.  I thought this must be a button for an action feature.  Nope.  Maybe the Horsemen intended it to be so?  The armor is removable, but it looks to be two pieces.  I don’t feel the urge to take it off…you can’t remove his helmet, so you would have a shirtless Skeletor with a snake hat.  And what if I have trouble getting that armor back on?

I have to add that the snake hat is glued to the hooded head that was on the original, non-variant version.  Mattel really cut corners on this figure.  And I don’t necessarily appreciate it.  I do think these are cool designs.  I might not understand them.  But stuff like the mess that is on Skeletor’s head is pretty infuriating.  Why isn’t that removable.  Or at least, not GLUED TO HIS HOOD.

Skeletor is fine below the waist.  His loin cloth is elaborate.  His toes look ever creepy.  To bad he didn’t have claws on his feet, as he had in the cartoon and the Vintage figure from the 1980s.  I wish they at least painted the nails black as a compromise.

Skeletor also doesn’t have the torso punch.  How did that get left out.

I can make a comparison this time.  We have what I believe to be Battle Armor/sound Skeletor from the 200x line.  He has a spring loaded waist twist.  And you can remove his hood.  I’m just saying.

Onto Wolf Armor He-Man.

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He-man is superior to Skeletor in every way.  He has the same problem as Skeletor in that his shield is too heavy for him to stand and hold it as usual.  I am not necessarily a fan of the way the He-Man holds his shields in 200x.  Shields should strap to the arm.  Not be held in hand.  But this is an overall style criticism.  He-man’s waist twist works great.  His armor is removable.  I generally have a hard time standing 200x He-Man.  His legs are sculpted in an odd way.

He-Man’s armor is a nice gold color.  His furry shorts come complete with the little pouch that hangs from his belt.

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I tried out the sword from the 200x Castle Grayskull playset.  This sword has good symmetry with the shield, matching the other shiny silver pieces.

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Here’s Skeletor with the other 200x villains in my collection.  Too bad we can’t see Two-Bad’s faces.  (get it.  “Two Bad.”

SpartanNerd’s Rating

Here goes.  Whhhhhh…..(sigh)

What these figures ARE is kind of a mystery.  Snake Armor Skeletor kind of makes sense.  Skeletor is the enemy of the Snake Men.  But we never saw him in the cartoon wearing this.  On the other hand, He-Man was decked out especially for the Snake Men.  But what was Wolf Armor He-Man?  There were no wolf enemies.  I guess this was just a variant like the “Jungle Attack He-Man” or “Smash Blade He-Man.”

Skeletor’s figure has a very compromised feel to it.  Like they intended for it to be more than it is.  But had to cut corners.  So there is no action feature.  And the helmet is not removable.  And they didn’t bother with a new head sculpt…hence the hood is still there under the helmet.

Add to these problems the fact that the figures can’t stand properly because of the weight of the shields, and the fact that He-Man doesn’t come with a sword.  And the score is pretty low.

But I don’t dislike these figures.  They are fun!  I think the shields’ action features are cool.  Especially Skeletor’s with the spring loaded blades.  He-Man’s shield, with the blades sticking out around it is especially cool looking.

I rate 200x Wolf Armor He-Man at 3/5.  His sculpt is great.  He has a cool shield.  It is a nice variant.  He looks cool on the shelf.  With the downside of not coming with a sword, or being able to stand holding the shield without being contorted.

I rate 200x Snake Armor Skeletor as 2/5.  He has a compromised feel.  Unremovable Helmet.  Dubious removable armor.  A strange weapon.  And can’t stand naturally holding the shield.  On the other hand, the action feature on the shield is fun, and the overall look of the figure is nice.

I’m not even going to bother rating the tape.

Because these figures look so cool on the shelf, and that is their main function, I am going to rate them probationally 3/5 as a set.

That’s right.  The SpartanNerd rates the dubiously named:

200x Masters of the Universe Wolf Armor He-Man and Snake Armor Skeletor Gift Set *

3/5.

Do you agree?  Let me know in the comments!

*I added the colon because it is supposed to be funny.