Mattel Masters of the Universe Classics Wun-Dar Mattel, 2010
Day #424: June 19, 2012
Wun-Dar The Savage He-Man
Masters of the Universe Classics Action Figure
Item No.: No. R6249 Manufacturer:Mattel Includes: Black sword, black half-sword, black Zodac gun, Eternian baked good Action Feature:n/a Retail:$20.00 Availability:April 2010 Other: It's a He-Man, but not the He-Man
As the first-ever subscriber-only figure, Wun-Dar is a pricey Masters of the Universe figure. He's based on a legendary rare and mysterious Mattel figure which fans and Mattel can't quite seem to peg down. One of the popular theories was that it was a mail-away figure from Wonder bread, so Mattel made a new figure based on this "Savage He-Man" and called him Wun-Dar. Which is why he comes with a loaf of bread. As a Club Eternia exclusive, it was a killer choice-- weird enough for the hardcore collectors to love, but not so weird that fans may feel there's a massive hole in their collection if it was missing.
When you get right down to it, the figure is a repainted He-Man body with brown hair, mostly black costume elements, and Zodac's armor. There's nothing new here, and as a gag piece it's pretty awesome. Aside from the name and the bread, the figure has a tiny 3-color tampo on his backside which looks vaguely like the Wonder Bread logo with red, yellow, and blue dots. The original toy is basically a He-Man variant, but this toy is a different character who ran around Eternia before Prince Adam became He-Man and for some reason, he has cooler armor and a gun.
There's no denying the in-joke factor of this figure, which isn't a "gag" figure as such so much as it is a great tribute to one of the long-running mysteries of collecting this toy line. As there's still no real consensus as to what the original "Savage He-Man" really is, or what he included, the fact that this one includes accessories derived from the vintage Weapons Pak makes perfect sense.
If you love this line and need these figures, you won't be sorry paying $100 or whatever the going rate is this week for this figure. Well, OK, maybe you will-- $100 is a lot of money. It's such a weird and delightful figure, it would be a real head-scratcher that it exists were it not for the obvious fact it was a quick, easy repaint with minimal development costs. It almost seems like it would be more at home as some 30th Anniversary release, but Mattel was kind enough to crank it out earlier giving us all a shot at a new version of one of the original line's grails. I have a lot of fun playing with this one, because I am a child and I like guns.
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