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These arrived yesterday morning just before I went to work. I ripped open the box with much gusto, and was greeted with these kick-ass action figures. But alas, I had to go to work, so I didn't open them. But when I got home, I took an X-Acto to the bubbles and set them free.

Damn, they're awesome. These are what Masters of the Universe toys SHOULD be like. Massive, well-thought articulation, spot-on sculpts, the right accessories, and that spirit that was sorely lacking in all previous relaunches of the mythos. Of course, this line is aimed squarely at people like me, who grew up in the 1980s having battles with their MOTU toys everywhere they could. You can tell this by the 'adult collector' tag on the insert in the packaging. I initially thought kids were missing out by not having this sold to them, but fuck them. They didn't get on board in 2002, so it's our turn.
And no one should give these to kids either. Nowhere on the packaging is there a choking hazard warning, and the swords and ax included with He-Man are made of a rigid plastic that is very sharp, so these aren't kid-friendly by any stretch of the imagination.

You could have probably figured that out from the price. $20 each, plus about $9 for UPS shipping. (If you chose the economy shipping to save 50 cents, then you deserved what you got.) Mattel offered He-Man and Beast Man at the same time, so it costs the same to ship one or two figures. It took me until late last month to afford these, but that just made yesterday sweeter. I do think they're about $5 overpriced, and the shipping is horrific. But, I think back to 2002-3, hunting that line like a lunatic. Hell, in the amount of time and gas I wasted to get my hands on Ram Man, I could have spent the $30 and been money ahead and frustrated less.

The detail in the sculpts is incredible, much more so on Beast Man than on He-Man. These were sculpted by the Four Horsemen, they of 2002 MOTU, DC Universe Classics, and other lines too numerous to mention fame. He-Man has his Prince Valiant hair, which is good. The lack of detail in He-Man is understandable, since his body will be the base for most of the line, whereas Beast Man's body can be used pretty much only for Stratos and Moss Man, as far as I know.
The articulation is line the DC Universe line, and I think Mattel has hit the happy medium with articulation in that line- it's not overdone like Marvel Legends, and it's not as minimal as the 2002 MOTU line. It moves in all the right places, but not so much that it makes the figure weak and unable to stand or hold a pose. I guess I got lucky, because the joints on both of my figures were absolutely perfect, not too loose or too tight.

The accessories are perfect. While Beast Man just has his whip, He-Man has everything his original figure came with, just updated. There's the ax, the shield, and two Power Swords. One is like you remember, the gray half included with He-Man and the purple other half coming with Skeletor. But Mattel was awesome enough to include a solid gray Power Sword, making perfect sense. You can also store the ax and sword at the same time on He-Man's back, since there's an extra strap to hold an accessory. The harness is removable, but I don't think I'm going to try.

I can't tell you how great it is to finally have He-Man toys that move in more than six places. It always used to bug me as a kid that I couldn't have He-Man pull off his transformation pose from the cartoon (where he held the sword over his head, natch). I'm half tempted to dig my old Castle Grayskull out of storage at my folk's house and bring it to my apartment just to display these in front of it on top of my bookshelf. As great as these figures are, I'm waiting for more, really. Skeletor goes on sale on January 15th, about a week from now. Then, there's all the other goofballs- Hordak, Roboto, Trap Jaw, Man-E-Faces, Two-Bad... It stinks that you can only buy these online at mattycollector.com and there's only one per month, but when it costs $30 to get one bought and shipped to you, I'm glad there's only one a month.
I guess it's better than no new He-Man toys at all, and the memories these have brought back are wonderful.

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