While Vikor is a relative unknown to people who grew up with Masters of the Universe, the character's roots predate the launch of the series. This Viking He-Man is based on an early, alternate concept for He-Man and, to be more specific, the pulp character of Conan. Standing about 7-inches tall, this character sports a non-removable helmet, real metal chains hanging off his wrist shackles, and some a pretty amazing paint job.
Part of a "Powers of Grayskull" sub-line (see the sticker on the cardback), this figure is meant to give Eternia-- and He-Man-- more history, indicating there were many "He-Man" figures defending their world in the past and, undoubtedly, there will be more in the future. (I look forward to the announcement of "Fu-Tar, the He-Man from Tomorrow.") Along with He-Ro and Wun-Dar, these figures make up part of a presently unexplored pre-history to the existing storyline(s) in which there seem to be few villains, but plenty of variations on He-Man.
Based on the characters that kicked off Masters of the Universe Classics, Vikor's body is largely the same as He-Man and King Grayskull with some significant changes. While the legs and torso are pretty much the same, it's worth noting that the molding quality is better, and Mattel's factory has smoothed out the lines where the molds meet-- so the sculpt looks better, despite being basically the same. The deco on the body seems improved as well, with just as tiny hint of color to bring out detail in the muscles here and there. The articulation is par for the course, but some new elements were sculpted for this release-- the right bicep has a strap around it, and each forearm now has a shackle with a metal chain hanging off it. The head is new, the loincloth is new, and the cape with bones and (cat?) skull is also new. Despite being a new sculpt, the head still looks a lot like He-Man, or an idealized alternate version of the hcaracter. The helmet has a lot of color on it, with black tipping the off-white horns, various metallic shades of grey on the helmet, plus bronze and gold detailing. Heck, the head probably has more shades of paint than the rest of the body-- they really took some time on this piece.
It's also worth noting that the deco on the weapons is exceptional-- the shield isn't just painted silver, but there's rust (or maybe blood) on it, and some green details help as well. The sword has some rusty or dirty marks, plus a green grip and red jewels with an axe to match. By painting the weapons, instead of just leaving them as molded grey or silver plastic, the detail really comes to life and just a few pennies makes the figure look like it costs a few dollars more. It really is pretty amazing how these weapons look like small, more expensive, perhaps even fan-made kit items while He-Man's look like pretty good toy accessories. Paint makes a big difference!
After selling out, the secondary market has been kind to this figure-- he runs anywhere from $20-$40, so it seems patience is in order if you decide to track one down today. It's worth getting, and it's really cool, but you probably wouldn't want to overpay for it given the cost of each new figure in the line. It's a wonderful figure, but it is effectively a new version of He-Man. A neat one, a Conan the Barbarian-influenced one, but still basically just a viking spin on Prince Adam's famous alter-ego.
A fun packaging note: the box art shows the concept drawing for He who would be Vikor, which is a nice touch.
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