This review is later than I would have
liked, but I hit this weird stretch where I wrote about a bunch of
stuff that wasn’t toys.
When I first heard the name “Castle
Grayskullman” announced as the winner of the 30th
Anniversary contest to let a fan design a figure, I groaned. It
sounded fucking absurd. But then we got a visual of the design and he
actually looked kind of cool. Maybe a little ridiculous, but since
when has that been a bad thing in Masters of the Universe? And the
more I looked at the design, the more I liked it. If the bio somehow
managed to be cool enough this guy might actually be a big win.
My only reservation about the guy was
his blonde hair. I felt like it should be black and was even planning
on painting mine. But once he arrived I dug the blonde and decided
that if he had shown up on the old Filmation show, this is what he’d
look like.
Essentially, the 30th
Anniversary Collection was a great addition to the MOTUC line. I
passed on Spector because I didn’t like him, but I will defend
Scott Nietlich’s right to have produced Spector (or anybody else he
might dream up) all day long. The bottom line is that whatever you
might think of Toy Guru, he is the reason we have this line and he is
the reason it’s as good as it is. I’ve spent plenty of time here
bitching about him (and he’s deserved it), but in the end I feel
that the positives have outweighed the negatives. But to get back to
my original point, I bought and was satisfied with five of the six
figures from the sub-line. I think starting with Photog – a true
creation from a young fan of the 80’s – and ending with
Grayskullman – from a grown-up modern fan of today – was genius.
The perfect bookends to a nice little piece of MOTU history.
First Glance: Like most
Masters of the Universe Classics releases Castle Grayskullman looks
better in person. A lot better. Well, it might not so much be that
he’s better as it is that you can tell just how good he is.
Articulation: Castle
Grayskullman features the same great articulation as the rest of the
line.
Head – ball joint
Shoulders – ball joint
Biceps – swivel
Elbows –pivot
Wrists – swivel
Abdomen – pivot
Waist - swivel
Hips – ball joint
Thighs – swivel
Knees – pivot
Boot tops - swivel
Ankles – rocker joint
Grayskullman’s head has a fairly good
range of motion, even considering his long hair. His abdominal joint
is – like every other figure with such things – restricted by his
chest armor. It isn’t a big deal at all, but it’s there.
The ankle joints are mostly pivots.
This seems to be the new standard. There is a tiny bit of
side-to-side motion, so you can still call them rocker joints, but
just barely.
It has been a while since I’ve
received a MOTUC figure with joint issues. Actually, I’ve never had
a whole lot of problems anyway. But all of my figures lately have
been coming in with the same quality of functional joints.
Sculpt: Grayskullman has
a new head, forearms, hands, boots, and feet. These new parts come
together with the figure’s paint job to make a truly iconic new
figure.
The head is meant to resemble the front
of the actual Castle Grayskull and it totally does. Also, it’s
totally creepy. The hair is stringy and dead-looking and hangs
from the top of the head in a kind of Crypt Keeper-y way. There is a
sort of circlet that is reminiscent of one of the castle’s towers.
The face is the truly creepy part. Those dead, empty eye sockets
seated above the fanged, gaping maw are just creepy. It’s an
awesomely done rendering of the castle’s face.
Grayskullman sports Clawful’s (and
maybe other people’s) shoulders, regular human arms, and the new
forearms/hands. The shoulders work just well enough with the new
parts and the gloves formed by the forearms and hands look great. I
like the small size and irregularity of the individual stones.
There’s a standard crotch/hip area
with human upper legs with the new boots at the bottom. These match
the gloves and the new chest armor. It’s interesting to think that
the gloves and boots on this guy can’t really be reused on anybody
else. Not that I can think of, anyway.
Coloring: While I do
like Castle Grayskullman’s coloring, It does not match the vintage
Castle Grayskull that I own. This is honestly a negligible point.
First of all, my Grayskull probably isn’t the same color as it was
thirty years ago. Second, the only thing this figure needs to match
is the forthcoming MOTUC Castle Grayskull and one would assume that
the Horsemen have that in mind. Well, I suppose he needs to match the
Grayskull stands as well, but I don’t own any of those so I don’t
know if he does.
Whatever the case, the shade of green
that was chosen is nice. It does match the packaging for the line and
is immediately recognizable as “Grayskull Green”.
Side Note: This
should be a trademarked color and sold as a paint at Home Depot. Like
the Disney colors. I would also like to repeat something my son has
said more than once: “It’s green. Why do they call it Castle
Grayskull?”
I don’t know,
son. I just don’t know.
There are actually about three colors
at work here and they are all blended well, from the wash in the
stonework of the boots, gloves, and chest to the highlights on the
regular portions and the work on the loincloth.
The head features the same greens with
some additions – the blonde hair and the white fangs. The hair is
not as bright as it looks in pictures. It actually has more of a
greenish tint and is fairly subdued. I haven’t decided how I feel
about the fangs yet. The bright white certainly brings out the face a
bit more, but Castle Grayskull does not have bright white fangs. They
don’t look bad, but I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer if they
matched the rest of the figure. I’ll just assume that either the
Horsemen or Mr. Benedict tried that and it didn’t work. The actual paint job is sloppy - as you can see in the close-up picture. It's also kind of weird that the rest of the teeth aren't white. Yeah, I don't think I like the white fangs.
Flair: Castle
Grayskullman has a new and unique piece of chest armor and the
standard furry loincloth and belt.
The chest armor has a nice design that
matches the gloves and boots in being reminiscent of the castle’s
design. I'm especially impressed by all the pitting and texture in the individual stones. The crest on the front is the one from Grayskull’s
Jawbridge (as well as the figure’s shield). It is accurately
reproduced here and is a nice, raised piece. I’m disappointed that
the Horsemen went back to their old design here. Dekker’s
chest armor had the clasps more toward the back so that their
thickness didn’t interfere as much with the figure’s arms being
lowered. But Grayskullman’s armor has the clasps back directly
under the arms so he has that Maggie Simpson-in-a-snowsuit look. It
isn’t a huge deal, but I like it better the Dekker way. I like that
the crest on the front is a grey color rather than blending in. I do
wish that there were loops on the back to store the figure’s
swords, but I’m also pretty sure that this guy is never not holding
them since his sole function is to whoop ass and slice motherfuckers
in two.
The right choice was made for the
belt/loincloth. Grayskullman is very reflective of the standard
heroes from the line and I like that he has the most common piece
here. I love the bronze coloring of the belt. It breaks up the
coloring of the figure while still blending in nicely. The furry part
is a slightly darker shade of Grayskull Green and compliments the
rest of the figure nicely.
Accessories: This figure
comes with an impressive three accessories – two swords and a
shield.
The swords are the design and colors of
the ones from the vintage Grayskull’s flag. They’re made from a
sturdy plastic and share a mold. Both swords feature a couple of
paint apps with some small, detailed jewels on the hilt. They fit in
the figure’s hands perfectly.
The shield is also an all-new sculpt.
It is based on the same crest as the one on Grayskullman’s chest.
The clip fits on the figure’s wrist nicely. The coloring matches
the grey of the chest crest, with three bronze (things) that match
the color of the belt.
Packaging: It’s the
regular MOTUC blister card. Still neat and still effective. Here’s
his bio:
That’s great. As I told Beau on the
podcast, I could really see this guy showing up for one episode –
Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man-style – and then ending up so well-liked
the writers figured out excuses to bring him back a few more times,
despite being a one-shot character.
Value: I think I
overlooked this on the other 30th Anniversary releases,
but I’ve been paying more for these than the regular figures since
I did not subscribe. But I will say that just the fact that they are
Anniversary figures lends them a certain something that makes them
feel a bit more special. I’m not saying they’re totally worth
$22; but they feel closer to being worth the high price.
Overall: I think this is
the second-best figure to come out of the MOTUC line this year. As I
said in my Best of 2012 article, Fisto was the best, but
Grayskullman is a close second. I really love this guy and
particularly admire everything that went into creating him.
Especially this:
4 out of 5
Yeah, there were a couple of nitpicky
little things like the lack of a place to store the swords and the
locations of the closures for the chest armor, but overall this guy
just hits the right notes. The only true flaw is the sloppy tooth paint. He feels so classic, but is entirely new
and an excellent tribute to both the MOTU legacy and the current
line.
You can check out eBay and BigBad if
you’d like to own this guy and by all means, you should.
-Phantom
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