It's basically just Faker in a new shirt. But that's OK.
Sure he's just called "Faker" on the box, but it's obvious this is Battle Armor Faker. A new outfit unseen in the original lines, this Faker slaps Battle Armor Skeletor's armor on He-Man's body and makes the whole thing blue and orange. It's ugly and bulky and I love it. Since it was sold at Comic-Con 2011 at the Entertainment Earth booth (as Toys R Us sells their wares there) I assumed, incorrectly, that it would be sold at retail stores later. Nope! ("Well, folks, when you're right 52% of the time, you're wrong 48% of the time.") I overpaid for this bad boy in a loose figure lot on eBay and I can honestly say I don't regret it. It's a great figure and it's a shame that this isn't the kind of weirdness/fun we saw at Toys R Us for their DC Universe vs. Masters of the Universe 2-packs. Superman vs. He-Man? Snooze. Bizarro vs. Faker? YES!
Of the entire DCUC vs. MOTUC 2-packs range, this is the best and hardest-to-get set. This is the first genuinely new outfit for Masters in the entire range, and it really brings something new to the table and to the mythos. Stratos is different enough, Mer-Man is confusing, He-Man and Skeletor are givens, Zodac is different enough to be Filmation-esque, and She-Ra.... well, I had a hard time figuring out she had a new paint application on her accessory. But Faker? New armor = new figure. Kudos to Mattel on putting out a clever idea like this, and I hope they can squeeze out one or two more figures similar to this one. New Adventures Faker? Dragon Blaster Faker? The more ridiculous, the better. I'm on board. Try to turn my love off, Mattel, because you can't.
If you have the original 2009 Faker, this one is pretty close to it minus the armor. The red and blue are just a tinge different, but when you get right down to it you'll never notice without a side-by-side comparison. The sword is also a smidgen different, although not significantly so. If you ever mixed up 2009 Faker with 2011 Battle Armor Faker's swords, you'd be hard-pressed to tell them apart. It's cast in orange with a metallic orange blade, which really makes it look so much better. Sometimes just one or two little paint applications do wonders to add value to an already good figure.
The clamp-on armor is, as mentioned above, repurposed from Battle Armor Skeletor and features a bunch of metallic orange highlights. Rivets, bones, and other little bits get a tiny bit of barely-noticable paint that subtly brings out sculpted elements in a way that, for all I know, I'm just justifying for what I paid for the figure. His purple boots and shorts look great, as do his silver bracelets and belt. The faux-pewter finish really looks fantastic and is up there with some of the best MOTUC has to offer, if you ask me. But I'm easily pleased by ridiculous ideas, of which this is king.
Once again the figure features a breastplate with one, two, or no "strikes" in the chest. The bat is painted multiple colors, with a silver gash as needed. Because it's Faker, showing him as anything but damaged just seems wrong... so be sure to display him with a strike.
While not cheap, it's nifty. The 2-pack usually goes for north of $130, which is way, way too much for it. I'd love to see Mattel consider putting out the Battle Armor in various colors so we can use it with other figures, like toss in red Zodac battle armor or maybe give a Weapons Pak some black Trap Jaw armor. It'd be fun.
I got my money's worth out of this one, even if it basically just is an existing figure with one new accessory. Sometimes that's all you need, and this is one of those times. Nicely done, team Matty.
--Adam Pawlus
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