2020 Masters of the Universe Skeletor // Review
The year is 2020, but from the toys on the market now, you wouldn't be blamed for thinking it was the 1980s. Hasbro has worked hard to bring out old toys in Transformers and Ghostbusters re-releases, as well as retro packaging for a line of Marvel Legends or two. Now Mattel is getting in on the nostalgia, and going back further than anyone has yet.
Back to 1983, with He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.
Mattel has gone back to the 80s in a lot of ways with these new figures. The figures' proportions and size are almost perfect to the original figures, at least so far as we can tell. For this review's purposes, we did obtain Skeletor, and he feels pretty close to the original toys. They are a smidge bigger by about a half-inch, but that puts them close to the standard 6-inch lines of collector figures made popular by Hasbro and Mattel in recent years.
The packaging for these guys is a pure nostalgia-bomb. Despite a few additions like "new for 20" across the packaging and "retro play" emblazoned in an action explosion, the card backing is 100% from the old action figure line. It is amazing and a blast from the past for anyone who was a kid in the early 80s. The back of the card also seems to feature the original illustrations, or at least uses some really good modern interpretations as well. Top-class here and some MotU collectors may want a pair of each figure for their collection, just to have one kept in the packaging.
And, of course, there is a free comic book included. The art is solid, and the story amusing, although there are no credits to the comic. It also seems to be more recent, and an original story rather than a remake. Included with Skeletor is Beast Barrage.
The sculpt of Skeletor is also amazing. It's hard to tell if this is an enlargement of the origins figures or a sculpt intended to mimic the original 83 figures. Either way, it feels spot-on, right down to the single open hand and Skeletor's gripping hand. The head is also accurate to the original toy but feels like they could have improved on the offering in this respect to hew closer to the animation style, so many fans are familiar with. The feet are the only glaring issue that I notice, with them being accurate to the original toy… but also incredibly small for Skeletor's scale, and often causing balance issues. Luckily, he does have a pair of peg holes in his feet for standard figure stands.
However, where this figure shines is the added articulation. Ball joints are everywhere here, allowing for elbow, head, shoulder, wrist, knee, hip, and ankle movements. Twists can also be found at the shin and waist, making this one heck of a blessing for retro fans who wanted a toy that plays like they imagined, not like how they remembered.
The colors used for Skeletor are vibrant and distinctly that early-80s feel. Bright blue skin, purple accessories, and feet. Black loincloth. The only real oddity is that the head was further accurate to the original toy by making a green face that is then painted yellow… poorly. It is accurate, but it feels overly cheap compared to the rest of the figure. This is not found on the stock footage, so it could be a sampling issue.
True to his original toy, Skeletor comes with a purple blade and his staff, while other characters in the line come with replicas of their original 80s accessories as well.
Also available in this line are He-Man, Teela, Man-At-Arms, Evil-Lyn, and Beast Man. While obvious selections, they're also ones fans will likely most remember and collect. The execution on Skeletor is most excellent, despite the now-weird green head and yellow face. However, we at YDRC can only hope more weird characters show up before the… less creative characters like Fakor (the evil blue He-Man) makes an appearance.
