The original Sorceress barely made it out in the 1980s, despite being a key character in the cartoon. (Most folks know the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon as arguably the main and most important storyline of the franchise in the 1980s. Many hardcore fans will say it's the mini-comics, or other fiction. They are wrong.) Her appearance is not insignificant, and as important characters go she's probably not the first one you would want as a toy. You'd want Teela, because, well, hot redhead. Man-at-Arms and He-Man are pretty significant, and who doesn't love Orko and He-Man? It makes sense Mattel would hold on to a fairly significant character like the Sorceress until roughly the fifth year of the line, because it's important for something to look forward to. And she made my February quite exciting this year.
Mostly made of new parts, the Sorceress has a swell sculpt with tons of features which were the kind of things most toy fans would half-ass in the 1980s. Go ahead and take a look at bird toys from that era-- maybe you got a few feathers, and had to imagine the rest. The Four Horsemen sculpted dozens (if not hundreds) of feathers on this figure, with coloring similar to the original cartoon. Her articulation is good, but not great. The range of movement is pretty nice, but there are these strange wings which can get in the way. Granted, I don't have a better way of doing it, but she has these big pegs on the back of her shoulders where the wings fold over, and fall to display like in the pictures you see here. For a display piece, she's great. If you ever want her to do gesturing or combat, they tend to get in the way. While most figures in the line are pretty great no matter what you want to do with them, the Sorceress' functionality dictates her form on your shelf. You don't have as many options.
Accessories are nothing to sneeze at here, as she has a swell bird staff and, of course, her bird form Zoar. An eagle was included with Teela a couple of years back, but the Sorceress sports the mold in Zoar colors and it looks fantastic. The Zoar figure has jointed wings and ankles, plus sports red armor and a red perch for displaying. Mine just basically sits around, but I really do dig how it turned out, particularly since they didn't skimp on the armor. Aside from the orb and orb display stand with the white repaint of the Sorceress, she has pretty much anything you could want in this set.
Now in the $40-$50 range, this figure is starting to get expensive. I would wager it might go up more, as Mattel claims there won't be another run and that probably means you won't see any more from Mattel unless you want the white one. My guess is you'll want this version because it looks great, even if the wings prevent her from doing much other than standing around and looking cool. Of course, that's mostly what these figures are going to do anyway. If your finances permit, you won't be sorry when you buy her-- just be prepared for slightly hampered mobility.
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