One of the more fascinating.shtmlects of Masters of the Universe Classics is seeing previously unseen figures given form. Light Hope went from being, well, light to a dude who looks a lot like She-Ra. The boots, gauntlets, and coloring is very She-Ra esque and he's got clear, pearlescent skin on the more or less standard buck. Elements of this figure should look familiar, but he's got a ghostly clear face that looks a teensy bit like Tom Waits. This works.
Arguably one of the more interesting.shtmlects of this figure is its staff. The staff is basically a tiny Crystal Castle on a stick, which works. It could use a little more color or a red gem or something, but as it is it's a great accessory for this figure because it actually helps you identify who this mystery man may be, rather than go "here's a clear dude, enjoy." The staff itself appears to be rendered in a clear, milky-white plastic which is really cool because it comes up from time to time in conversation as something that doesn't generally happen in toys. We get clear colorless, or clear grey, but clear white? Science rarely took time to prove this beyond a myth, and here it is. The detail is good enough and the paint is sharp, so as long as the gold paint ages nicely we're in good shape.
The figure has a similar design on his hat, complete with a red gem on his forehead. The eyes are plain and white, and the clear pink head looks pretty good in a dark room. It makes sense that the guardian of the Crystal Castle is himself a man made of crystal, and I assume is also a fan of the band Crystal Castles, because who isn't? There's not a lot of color here, but the gold paint does all of the heavy lifting on the head and you get a lot more detail than you probably would expect here. It's nice. Some more color would also be nice, but such is the way of things.
The costume rests on the more-or-less standard buck, which features about 21 moving parts. The detail on the limited armor is kind of funny in how it recalls the She-Ra toys, and also how it really is kind of silly to see that much exposed skin on a male hero figure. If a lady figure were similarly covered we wouldn't blink, but a clear gem on the chest and high thigh cuts around the loincloth while not unheard of do look a little odd in this format. As the figural representation of the castle from the series, they did a bang-up job making sure you can easily tell where he's from if you've seen the cartoon. The toy design was a little different, and a lot pinker than this very pink crystally man.
It's expensive and obscure, particularly when a clear brick of plastic could probably convincingly stood in for the previously-unseen Light Hope. The cape and everything comes together nicely, and seeing a figure with a decent number of new parts shows Mattel still wants to do some nice stuff when there's an easy way out. Since it is a new design there's not a lot you can say bad about it - it's a great representation of the figure, and if the armor had a few rivets in other colors I bet it'd look even more awesome. As it is, it's a great figure to hang out in the back of your Great Rebellion shelf until the day never comes when you get a new Crystal Castle toy for him to bum around and generally be awesome in. I can't honestly say it's something I'd go out of my way to track down, but seeing as it's here and it's not bad I have to give the team behind this line praise for coming up with something original enough to be endearing.
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