It's pretty amazing that Masters of the Universe's original action figures have almost all been completely updated - including some old prototypes and expensive foreign releases. We're getting a few main character variants in rapid succession to finish the range, with Terror Claws Skeletor and Flying Fists He-Man as the penultimate pairing. Interestingly, Mattel has seemingly started to get a little less resistant to incorporating action features - not on the figures, but at least He-Man's accessories spin nicely.
If you've been keeping up on your figures, you know what to expect from Terror Claws Skeletor. Ol' bone face has the earlier, less-spiny hands and feet of the first release but with the revised invisible pin ankles. His skin color is different - not as bright, a little greyer - and his face deco changes on each new release. The black lining is gone (as was done on Dragon Blaster Skeletor) and the face looks pretty much the same, except mine has more yellow on his forehead. This demon in a half-shirt sports metallic purple paint - very nice - with a skull on it, complete with red eyes. The feet are similar to previous releases, except the toes are now black.
The figure's accessories are what makes him interesting. A dragon head serves as an arm weapon, or plugs in a red port on his back - it looks appropriately like a 1980s accessory with more paint. The eyes and mouth interior are painted red, with silver mechanical bits on the face. Very nice. As an added bonus, the mouth opens and there's a hinge so it can whip around on his arm. The claws are simply snap-on claws. They connect firmly to his wrists so you can tear through tissue paper or do whatever it is you do. Without the spring-loaded waist action he loses some punch, but they look like big corny 1980s accessories. The end result is a perfectly good upgrade with met expectations for a goofy costume variant. I found the original to be pretty memorable from the TV spots, despite having never owned one... or having played with one.
He's joined by Flying Fists He-Man, who I pretty much have no memory of whatsoever. I know he existed because of the internet, but the silver armor with the big H doesn't ring any bells. He's got red bracelets and a matching belt, plus white trim on his boots. In many respects, he looks like a Thunder Punch He-Man with a tan and a new garment. The silver paint is applied cleanly and looks spectacular, complete with gold trim. This matches his accessories nicely... more or less. The silver paint is reserved solely for He-Man's armor, his gear is plain, unpainted grey.
He-Man's Power Sword is unpainted grey - bland, but appropriately toy-like. The shield is gold with a grey spinning blade with red highlights - it spins well and looks pretty slick. For a weapon in a collector line, it's a lot more fun than I was expecting. The weird bola arm claw thiing is black with a grey Garden Weasel at the end, complete with three gold balls. It bumps into itself when spinning, but it has a good weight to it and is pretty fun to play with. It's also long enough to form a "tripod" third leg for He-Man, so it'll keep him from falling over and that's always a plus. It won't wow anyone, but it's fun to play with and that's not something you can say about many (OK, any) of these figures most of the time.
While action figures were intentionally bred out of this line, seeing them pop up here in a limited capacity makes me wish we had a few more of them. Punching, kicking, and slicing figures are fun and there's only so much I can do with an elbow joint. I doubt anyone except the completists and a few nostalgists were left craving these guys, but I'm quite enjoying them so far. If the price drops any, do yourself a favor and get this set immediately. Even at $55 it's not half bad - you get a lot more fun accessories than with the standard versions.
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