Recommended music: Iron Maiden – The Number Of The Beast
Hey MOTU fans! I hope you had a great weekend and maybe caught Masters of the Universe at your local theater. The movie is still a blast to watch again, but it’s showing on fewer screens now that Toy Story 5 has arrived. For this #MastersMonday, let’s check out another figure from The Loyal Subjects: Battle Armor Skeletor!
Dangerous Games was released in the summer of 1985 as part of the Golden Books Heroic Champions series. In this story, Man-at-Arms decides the best way to keep Eternia strong during peacetime is to organize an “Eterniathlon,” a set of military games and physical challenges held across the land to toughen up the warriors. Seeing the Heroic Warriors distracted, Skeletor actually takes over Castle Grayskull for a bit. However, his plans are thwarted before he can discover “the secrets” of Grayskull or gain any new power.
The story is a lot of fun and has some great artwork, especially the scenes with Beast Man’s army of scary creatures. It also includes several vehicles from 1984, such as the Road Ripper and Roton, as well as characters from that year, including Buzz-Off, Clawful, Fisto, Jitsu, Meckaneck, and Webstor. Mark Sufrin wrote the book, and inside, Charlie Pietrafeso drew Skeletor in his classic style. The cover by Fred Carrillo shows Skeletor in his 1984 Battle Armor. Not many MOTU products used that Battle Armor look, but it was always one of my favorites when I was a kid.
The Loyal Subjects included Battle Armor He-Man in the second series of their Masters of the Universe Action Vinyls in 2019. This 3-inch mini-figure has a chibi-style oversized head, over 10 points of articulation, and plenty of nice details. It was a great update, arriving 35 years after the original Mattel version.
I pointed out the more than 10 points of articulation because Battle Armor Skeletor also has a moving jaw. He doesn’t have the changing-damage feature on his chestplate, but he’s more poseable than the vintage release. Skeletor also comes with several purple accessories, including a battle axe, his classic power sword, his havoc staff, and an extra Filmation-style bone sword.
The first wave of figures came in blind boxes, but most of this series was sold in window boxes, which was a nice change for the $13 to $15 price at the time. Overall, it’s a fun line that doesn’t take up much shelf space, and I’ll keep sharing more of these on future Mondays. Good journey!
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