Recommended music: Savatage – Gutter Ballet
Howdy MOTU fans! This #MastersMonday post, we’re taking a look at the Mattel Masters of the Universe Masterverse: Horde Skeletor!
During the eighth episode of the Netflix Masters of the Universe: Revelation animated series, “The Gutter Rat,” Skeletor has a slightly different look. This look is quite distinct from what was seen in animation for the previous 40 years. In a flashback, Evil-Lyn (the gutter rat) recalls a very different backstory. In the Revelation canon, Evil-Lyn runs away from her starving parents, who intend to eat her, and finds herself living a life of crime and magic on the streets. When her back is against the wall against a couple of tough characters, Skeletor saves the day by showing up via a magic portal and steering Evil-Lyn’s life down a very different path.
Fortunately, the Skeletor design seen in this scene was captured in this Masterverse figure. Mattel labeled this figure simply as ‘Skeletor,’ but the ‘Horde Skeletor’ nickname has stuck due to the Horde bat emblem on Skeletor’s belt. The expanded backstory of The Evil Horde was eventually revealed in the Netflix follow-up series Masters of the Universe: Revolution.
The fun thing about this design is that once you’ve removed the soft-goods cape, it’s easy to see that the black-and-red outfit is essentially an update of the ‘200X’ Spin Blade Skeletor figure. Only this time, instead of a silly accessory on a repaint that practically spelled the end of the 2002 toyline, this figure includes a havoc staff with a semi-transparent ram head.
Not only does the weapon get an upgrade from the wave one Skeletor, but the paint applications on the face are also a significant improvement. The figure includes 30 points of articulation, an extra set of hands, and a much better soft-goods cloak than the one included with the first release. The biggest downside to this figure is that the skin tone is slightly too purple compared with the traditional blue-skinned skeleton.
Thankfully, Mattel included this one last Revelation figure in Masterverse Wave 10 before moving on to Revolution and ‘New Eternia’ designs.
Masters of the Universe Revelation/Revolution turned four years old this year! I “figure” there’ll be a new figure from this series to share here for the rest of the year!
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