When someone writes the history book on this line, the Unnamed One will make an interesting footnote. His real name, Gorpo, is based on a preproduction name for Orko and only the second Trollan character to make plastic after three decades. Unlike previous years it was produced without letting fans know it was coming - the idea was that it would be a mystery until delivered, sight unseen, avoiding criticism or analysis until it just showed up. It did leak out early, and as subscription bonus figures go it's probably the least anticipated by virtue of the fact it's one of very very few completely new-to-us designs and a new character. This guy is responsible for the creation of the Snake Men, something which I honestly never really thought about. On the other hand I've thought a lot about wanting to see more Trollans and while I expected a Montork or Dree-Elle, I'm not complaining about the Unnamed One. Honestly, I kind of wish I had more time to look forward to it - it hasn't been something I spent much time thinking about, so its appearance lacked the joyous enthusiasm I had for Wun-Dar or Shadow Weaver. Anticipation is an important part of collecting!
It would be easy to complain about this figure for what it isn't, but I was more impressed by what it is. The default head has massive, pierced ears and a ragged mask over his eyes, with creepy slits for eyes rather than Orko's big friendly yellow peepers. Other than a tiny bit of blue skin and that mask, the similarities to Orko are pretty limited. The armor and its vertical ribbing feels more like Darth Vader's body suit, and his tattered robes and armored shoulders have a look both fantastical and alien. The hat head feels like a better fit for a distant relative of Orko's, but the alternate armor head plays up the Darth Vader similarity with the whole man in the iron mask vibe. His mouth is covered in a toothy plate of armor, with a metal mohawk and painted spikes. The individually-decorated rivets, glossy buttons on his belt, and red skull show that while there's not a lot of plastic, there's a heck of a lot of paint here.
In terms of overall quality, the engineering isn't quite as fun as Orko. The red-robed runemeister had a ball joint on his stands, letting him sort of flail around and be posed in mid-air. Gorpo here has a peg, so he can only stand upright - and balancing him on the stand can be tricky with his weighty accessories. The heads can be swapped at a ball-jointed neck peg, with swiveling wrists and the bend-and-swivel movement on the elbows and shoulders.
Aside from stand balance issues, the figure has a green construct that fits on his left hand quite nicely. If you look closely, those little energy things have snake faces on them. I think it's designed to grip an accessory orb but I haven't bothered to test them all yet. His right hand is designed to tightly grip a wonderful magic wand, cast in green plastic but painted in a metallic bronze color which really sings. It's one of the better accessories in the entire line, it just looks so marvelous. The serpent wrapping around it helps cement his connection to the Snake Men, because just looking at him it doesn't seem like he'd go well with King Hsss or Snake Face. This figure seems like a wonderful addition to long-time fans and supporters as it's a rare, entirely new entry to the line that didn't come from well-known existing reference material. It doesn't come with a full-size figure like Orko did, nor does it stand out as an impressive feat, but it's not every day we get a 100%-new figure that has a gorgeous paint job. If it didn't come with the subscription I might pass on it were I on a budget, but like so many figures in this line I can't imagine parting with it now that he made the trek to my desk. Aside from the fact that he's kind of small, it's easily one of the most impressive figures to look at. It doesn't do much, but it's gorgeous - and the spare head option is nice so that I have something to do after I get him balancing on his display stand. If you think this figure look cool, you're going to love it - if you need 30 joints and a sack full of swords, this isn't that.
It's also worth noting that this figure includes a mini-comic entitles "The Fall of Eternia Starts Here!" And indeed it does - we get a "New Adventures" story with Space She-Ra and Space He-Man teaming up with Space Skeletor to do battle on Horde World. We get to see Horde Prime and a copious amount of cameos from fan-designed characters and other obscure faces from the mythos, including Eye-Beam. (I love that design.) Not to spoil anything, but it moves along quickly and gives us a look at future figure costumes in addition to what I think may be the first solid look at the "Son of He-Man" character designs beyond the legendary Skeleteen. In a few short pages, Mattel and DC gave us a look at what would probably be 6-12 issues of a normal comic book - it's super-compressed storytelling but I'm delighted that it advances the narrative a bit. If you have the means, read the comic.
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