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A brief comparison of the original MOTUC He-Man vs. the reissue
While the first MOTUC He-Man took weeks to sell out, the second release–which had a much higher production run–sold out in less than a day. Evidently Masters of the Universe Classics has drawn in a significant collector following beyond the diehard MOTU fans whose enthusiasm drove the line’s creation. For all the complaints about the price, it’s clearly not that hard to swallow for many people.
The first He-Man re-release had a few problems: reversed shoulders (though I could hardly tell), a fairly glossy texture, and a reddish shading around the eyes that made it look like He-Man just watched the scene in Wrath of Khan where Spock dies.
The new figure has a very noticeable matte finish, more than any other MOTUC figure I compared it to. If you prefer your figures with a matte texture, then this is the figure for you.
The head’s glossy look has been cleaned up as well.
And finally, I guess the shoulders have been fixed. I’ll take their word for it.
There’s one area where my old figure beats my new figure, though–the ankles. My reissue He-Man’s ankles are loose, making it hard to get him to stand up straight. The older one’s ankles are rock-solid. I was able to tighten my reissue’s ankles using the superglue trick. But the fixed shoulders, matte finish and dry eyes give the reissue the edge as my new display figure.
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This item has 24 comments (now closed):
Dev
11.27.2009 15.58
I ordered this but it hasn’t arrived yet as I’m in the UK. Me first MOTUC figure so hoping it gets here soonish-like.
I heard there’s one other change; the reissue apparently has a softer, more flexible loinclothe. Did yours have that, Poe?
Grenadier
11.27.2009 16.18
Looks good. Hope I can snag the reissue Skeletor in a few weeks.
PrfktTear
11.27.2009 17.10
Thanks for posting this! I’ve been curious how He-Man V2.0 stacks up against the original. I’m pretty happy with the first figure, glossy finish, “red” eyes, and reversed shoulders and all. To be honest I’m pretty happy with him, other than the fact he’s a little glossy, so at some point in the future I may get my hands on one, I’m sure they’ll do a third run. I wish Mattel provided pictures to compare the two versions. I’m kinda thinking I’m on board for Skelly V2.0, but on top of Randor, Green Goddess, and Wintston, it might not be possible. Maybe I’ll get my Christmas bonus early!
Thomas B
11.27.2009 17.49
yup it also has a softer loin clothe and he crotch piece in-between the legs is smaller
Mark
11.27.2009 19.51
@Dev: My mate ordered both of us Teela and she still has not arrived.
Mark
11.27.2009 19.52
I am not overly against these bonus figures when they are done like Zodac….but this sucks. Its a bit crap for people who went out of their way to get the first He-Man only to dicover the shoulder problem etc etc. Personally I am not to bothered about the shoulders but when they bring this out you can’t help but fell a little cheated. They should be sending these out to people who bought the first one to make up for their mistakes.
Dev
11.28.2009 0.00
@Thomas B: WHOA! They NEUTERED him?!? Bad Mattel! BAD!
Still, that’ll make the legs even more articulated. Yay.
Dev
11.28.2009 0.03
@Mark: Bloody ‘ELL!!! Did they send you the shipping confirmation e-mail?
I’m hoping they re-release Teela next year, with softer vest-thingy for the waist movement.
Mark
11.28.2009 5.11
@Dev: My mate in England gets them then sends mine on to me but this time they havent come yet. Would have been here a lot quicker if I had just bought it from an ebay scalper.
Another reason why I am losing interest in the line.
Kid Nicky
11.28.2009 10.18
“Evidently Masters of the Universe Classics has drawn in a significant collector following beyond the diehard MOTU fans whose enthusiasm drove the line’s creation.”
I think they’re called “scalpers”. Seriously,when the first release came out,noone knew how big this was going to be,so the only people buying were fans. Now that everyone in the toy collecting hobby knows these are hot and hard to get,the scalpers are coming out of the woodwork.
And of course,you have to consider the character,too. A lot of people don’t collect whole lines of figures,just the one or two main characters-so it’s no surprise He-Man sold quickly.
dayraven
11.28.2009 13.56
@Kid Nicky: oh come on, that’s a bit crap isn’t it? a lot of my friends are’nt the level of net-surfing, toy chatting geek i am, and i know throgh my testimonials to people, i’ve gotten at least four new collectors to buy these figs, one of whom always buys two of each fig for loose and MOC collecting… so let’s not be so obtuse as to think that scalpers are the only new bodies buying these figs. THEY’RE GREAT TOYS!! not to mention, motuc has converted michael crawford, whose website gets MEGA hits every month… bet he’s converted more than a few skeptics as well.
dayraven
11.28.2009 13.57
thank you for this review poe, i was really looking forward to a side-by-side… and i have to say, i think my old hhe-man stands up pretty well.
Poe
11.28.2009 14.21
I just swapped the boots and the right hand from my old He-Man to my new one. The ankles are much tighter on the old one, and the grip on the old one’s right hand is better.
The loose-ankled, loose-gripped, glossy He-Man will now go to my work desk.
Newton Gimmick
11.28.2009 16.34
The new figure’s eyebrows are CLEARLY higher. You can see it in the side by side you posted. It looks pretty terrible on mine.
I don’t dig that at all. I was fine with the first He-Man. I’m tempted to repaint this one’s eyebrows.
Improvement?
Dead Man Walking
11.28.2009 21.46
I’m surprised so few people noticed the reversed shoulders. I noticed and they bugged the hell out of me.
Kid Nicky
11.29.2009 13.31
@Dayraven-
I didn’t mean the ONLY new people were scalpers,the comment was at least partially meant to be funny.
That being said,I think we all know the scalpers are all over this line,as they are every other popular line.
Toy scalping IS a great way to supplement your SSI income,after all,and now you can do it in the comfort of your own home!
Mark
11.29.2009 16.24
@Kid Nicky: I think the majority of the scalpers work to Mattel….in fact as far as scalpers go I’d say Mattel is the biggest scalper about.
Andrew
11.29.2009 18.59
Eh. If it weren’t for secondary online vendors, I wouldn’t collect at all. And if these things cost 30 USD from Mattycollector.com, the 34 USD I paid at bigbadtoystore.com ain’t that bad at all, especially since they havea feature whereby I can bundle up items to get shipped together.
dayraven
11.30.2009 0.40
@Andrew: hang up a sec bro… it’s a 20 dollar figure @ mattycollector… it’s 28.75 to most folks’ homes after you factor in shipping. it’s approaches 30 if you pay sales tax on top of that. bbts starts the price of the fig at 35 i believe? and then you add shipping (which obviously, the pile of loot helps extrapolate)… but you definitely do pay a substantial mark-up for the convenience of not having to be on the comp @ noon on the 15th.
dayraven
11.30.2009 0.46
@Kid Nicky: well, ok, but humor aside, the secondary market on these is horrible. as an example… when hordak was released, i decided to try to sell an extra one, as i figured a decent score would help defer future costs… the week of the 15th, hordak was selling for as much as 55 bucks on ebay. i got mine the second week… and sold him for 30 bucks. now, 10 bucks is 10 bucks, but it was totally not worth the hassle. and it wasn’t because there were a ton of hordaks being offered on ebay at the time, i counted the sales going at the time i listed mine and there were 10, when mine ended, there were 8 others for sale. and none of them went for any sunstantial amount more than mine, though some did go less.
look ‘em up sometime, unless there’s another huge mass market scalper haven out there, ebay is not replete w/ tons of dealers unloading extra motucs at surreal prices. most of them can be had now for about what we paid for them the first day or a tad more… and i know plenty of guys doing customs and such who’ve acquired figs below retail price off ebay.
i know we like to joke about scalpers around here, but truth be told, i’m just not seeing the market there for motuc.
Mark
11.30.2009 7.11
@dayraven: I had to stop collecting them as each figure is costing me £30 and upwards since the great Matty.com won’t accept my credit card.
Mark
11.30.2009 7.13
Having said that my mate orders them but it still cost £30 with postage etc etc.
PrfktTear
11.30.2009 19.50
The whole scalping thing has been hashed and re-hashed again and again. Poe even posted an unscientific look at it, and in the end the results were that it just really isn’t worth it to scalp these figures.
Andrew
12.08.2009 15.02
@dayraven: With pile of loot, I paid two dollars for shipping.
And it’s not so much convinience as I have a job. Living on the west coast, it means being on the computer at 9 a.m., and by the time I got home when the He-Man re-issue was on sale, they were all already gone.
And if they’re not 30 bucks on Mattycollector, people need to stop lying, because I took that figure from you guys.