Mattel invokes the Green Goddess

I’m not particularly excited about this bonus figure myself, but I know some of you are, so here’s the scoop, courtesy of Mattel’s Facebook page.

Here’s her bio:

Real name: Sharella

After the death of King Grayskull, the Power of the Universe was transferred from the Sword of He to the Council of Elders who hid it deep within his castle. Knowing the full sword was the key to channeling the power, they split it in two to prevent it from falling into the hands of evil. For five centuries they waited for a worthy heir to be born. During this time their spirit guide, the creature known as “The Goddess” of Eternia, trained secret heroic guardians to keep the two halves of the sword separated. Many of these brave warriors took the name “He-Man” in honor of the sword they protected – giving birth to many different legends of the protector of Eternia.

So there you have it–that last sentence alone explains both the early minicomics and, presumably, Wun-Dar.

For those of you who know nothing of the Green Goddess, she was the original concept behind Teela before the character was reworked, and even appeared as “The Goddess” in some of the earliest MOTU media, such as the minicomic “He-Man and the Power Sword.” Of course, it still doesn’t quite work due to the presence of Man-At-Arms, Teela and so forth, but I suppose one could argue the story in the minicomic is a legend that mixes up one of the earlier He-Men with our Adam-era He-Man. One could argue that–if one was a huge, huge nerd.

Oh, and where’d that name “Sharella” come from, you ask? Oddly enough, I encountered it earlier today when reviewing He-Ro’s original bio in the Powers of Grayskull Licensing Guide from 1987:

“Reared under the tutelage of his mentor, Eldor, and the tribal chieftess, Sharella, Gray was one day…” and so forth. That’s the only mention of Sharella (whose name keeps reminding me of Zurella from Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders–not a good thing, but really my problem). It’s a bit weird, really–who is this Sharella and why is she mentioned at all? At least Eldor had a figure planned.

As for the toy, it has translucent green skin, but otherwise it’s a straight repaint of Teela that includes a new staff, Teela’s shield and He-Man’s harness, axe and shield (a reference to the aforementioned minicomic). For me, it just doesn’t have enough novelty to part me from my twenty bucks plus shipping.

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18 Comments

  1. Poe

    @RocketPunch: Thank you, sir–I found the pic: http://bustatoons.blogspot.com/2007/04/origin-of-

    @Reilly: I agree–I'll be giving the Snake Staff to GG and the regular one to Teela.

  2. I still ain't sure about the transculent skin. Her face looks kinda odd on the pics, whereas it seemed fine on the painted prototype.

    The He-Man accessoires are a complete waste for me. I so hoped that Mattel would at least give us bluish repaints just like in the minicomics. But a straight reuse? Great that's three more useless accessoires going into the toy box. The only good part about them is the way they're displayed in the blister along wih the Goddess, recreating that minicomic panel.

    Rocket Punch is right, that staff was the original lance displayed with Teela's prototype. In fact, I'm most likely gonna switch the staff so Teela has the lance and the Goddess the kobra staff. (Yeah I know, Toyguru calls it "Staff of Ka". But I still prefer "Kobra staff" from the Ladybird comics).

  3. @MegaGearX: Those are some interesting explanations. I certainly enjoyed reading them!

  4. RocketPunch

    @Poe – 1. The original concept art for Teela showed her with that spear, while the Goddess had Teela's cobra staff. Their early prototype figures had those weapons too.

  5. MegaGearX

    I think I have it figured out. Barbarian He-Man was from 200 years ago. I get this from MAA's bio, where it states how there's been a MAA since 200 years ago.

    • Man-At-Arms: Alcala Man-At-Arms is explainable. For two hundred years there has been a MAA. So this guy isn't Duncan or Dekker, possibly before Dekker. Maybe he was the first MAA and started cobbling together vehicles that he unearthed from The Great Wars.

    • Stratos, Beast Man and Mer-Man: The Alcala versions of Stratos (Caucasian Skin and Beast Man's feet), Mer-Man (Blue Skin and scaly underwear) and Beast Man (All red) are merely the precursors of the current versions and just other members of those races.

    Another explanation for Stratos could be that it's actually the normal Stratos, since we don't know how long those races live. The Caucasian version could be when he was much younger, so his fur hasn't fully grown in yet. It would fit in with his MYP characterization which presents him as an "older" warrior.

    • Skeletor: Skeletor might actually not be Keldor, but Demo-Man–the actual demon from another dimension, which keeps with his original origin. "Skeletor" returns when Demo-Man gets merged with Keldor. So that means that barbarian He-Man must have defeated him, became King of Castle Grayskull, took Blonde Teela as his queen and they begat…The Sorceress of Grayskull we know?

    • Teela: Could Blonde Teela be The Sorceress of Grayskull when she was young? Or Blonde Teela might be the Sorceress' mother? If so, this shows a trend in Teela's becoming the Sorceress eventually.

  6. BTW, How weird is it looking at the back of the box and seeing Scare Glow, Randor, The Goddess, and ZodaK? Not to mention He-Man and Webstor all together?!

  7. @americanhyena: Thats exactly how I'll display them. Even as a kid I never used Teela's snake armor, and I really don't associate her with it (though I'm glad they're including it nonetheless). The armor is part of the Goddess' look though, so I'll definitely have her with it.

  8. Yeah, I'm a huge huge nerd too.

    Understandable that she's not your thing Poe, but as you can imagine, I'm ecstatic about her and her release. 🙂

  9. RageTreb

    She looks like she's hitchhiking in the box.

  10. Heli

    Also of note in that panel Poe posted would be some boots. Might as well give us the whole He-Man outfit.

    (Plus it looks like her skullcap should be red instead of brown.)

  11. Nicholai

    So much like Teela and the added weapons and harness don't seem like they have much use. I may pass. Besides I need to pick up the re-release Skeletor that month anyway.

  12. Poe

    @Mario: Just having some fun for Halloween.

    @americanhyena: That's actually a really good point–I'm never going to display Teela with her snake armor. You may have just convinced me to get the Green Goddess.

    Of course, now that I'm more interested, I'm going back to the minicomic and finding a few new things to wonder about, such as:

    1. What MOTU-related media depiction, if any, did the Horsemen base the design for the top of the Green Goddess's staff on?

    2. Instead of three pieces of armor we already have, why couldn't they include the cool runesword seen <a rel="lightbox" href="http://www.he-man.org/assets/images/collect_toy/052_full.jpg&quot; rel="nofollow">here?

  13. Translucent green skin!? Translucent green skin?! I had no idea she had translucent green skin and that makes her waaaaay cooler in my book.

    WIN! I'm buying it.

    Of course I already was, but still…

  14. americanhyena

    I think I'll most likely be giving Goddess (who I WILL be getting) Teela's snake staff and displaying Teela sans helmet and with the spear and sword.

  15. Mario

    I'm down.

    Whoah! Just noticed your new skull head, Poe. Me likes.

    What's the deal with it?

  16. dayraven

    i like the idea of the character a ton more than the imodium-tinged goddess fig we're actually getting. i'm a big he-fan, and a lifelong devotee of the horsemen… and this still doesn't do it for me. oh well.

  17. I guess I am a huge, huge nerd.

    For whatever reason it does have the novelty for me, so I'm definitely crossing my fingers for this one! 😉

    I suppose if someone wanted to, they could pretend this was a Snake Woman Teela like the 2002 exclusive! 😉

  18. finkrod

    I can't make up my mind if I like this figure or not. In one way, she's more visually interesting than Teela. But on the other hand, she's kinda creepy looking too. And not in a good way. Also, for some reason she has a weird vacant stare that doesn't seem as noticable in the Teela figure.

    And check out that cool Fonzie-like thumbs up! Ayyyyyyy!

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