No doubt a lot of casual MOTU fans are wondering where the heck “Preternia Disguise He-Man” comes from. The answer is the vintage minicomic “The Powers of Grayskull – The Legend Begins” (inked by Bruce “DC Animated Universe” Timm and lettered by Stan “Usagi Yojimbo” Sakai). I have to say, I think this is one figure that really needs to come with a reprint minicomic to be appreciated, and I hope Mattel has a plan for that–at the very least, they should have a nice version of the comic available on Mattycollector.
You can read the entire comic on He-Man.org here, but I’ll summarize it for those of you who don’t want to bother. He-Man and the Sorceress are hanging out in the Eternia playset Three Towers when He-Man starts wondering about the Towers and the return of the Snake Men. The Sorceress takes him to a magical portal, formed by the Cosmic Key, that lets them walk right into the past (I hope they keep a velvet rope around that or something–you just know Ram Man’s going to wander in and get lost). They witness King Hiss tormenting some peasants. He-Man wants to help, but the Sorceress forbids him to interfere with the past lest he step on a butterfly or something. However, Skeletor sneaks into the Central Tower and crosses through the portal, quickly joining forces with King Hiss in hopes of changing Eternia’s future for the worse.
Now that Skeletor’s involved, the Sorceress lets He-Man join the fray–but only once he’s disguised, “for reasons that will made clear to you in the future” (I’m guessing this has something to do with He-Ro being his ancestor, but who knows). The Sorceress conjures a Bionatops and He-Man rides it into battle, but even as he defeats Skeletor, He-Ro (unnamed and seen only in shadow) appears and sends He-Man, Skeletor and the Sorceress home. When He-Man asks who the shadowy figure was, the Sorceress replies, “the greatest Sorceror [sic] of all!” “But who is he?” He-Man wonders, and the caption tells us to learn the answer, and more, in the next amazing issue of “The Powers of Grayskull.”
Sadly, that issue never appeared as MOTU was cancelled before it could be published, and it would be nearly thirty years before He-Ro was officially incorporated into a MOTU toyline. In any event, here are the pages showing He-Man’s disguise.
Mijet
To those talking about the key and Gwildor, there's actually 2 keys, and Gwildor will still come with one when he comes out. So this figure is an insinuative for the fact that when Gwildor comes out only subers will have both cosmic keys. I also look at it like Mattel could say give us $20 for a sub and we'll give you just a map and insurance of the monthly(in '11s case monthly/bonus/large) figures, instead they're like as a bonus you get a map and an obscure figure those who aren't getting a sub couldn't carless if they had it.
JediCreeper
see… I got the sub this time around, simply because I'm sick of matty day.. and I could add the GB sub too, and save shipping, since I was getting the stupid things anyway..
now I only need to worry about after-con day and the legion 12 pack, which I think will sell, but slowly due to the HUGE price tag
Frogster
LOL@ PrfktTear! "Trick or Treat He-Man!" As for RM; just because people have a different opinion than you doesn't make them crazy or stupid. To your point, including a figure no one wants to sell a subscription is asinine in and of itself in the same way that making an A list character, an exclusive is. No one wants to see Man E Faces as an exclusive but this line doesn't need to go the Star Wars and Batman way yet by hammering out costume variants/obscurities this early in the line's infancy.
PrfktTear
I think the whole point of the incentive figure is to make it something so obscure that only the hardcore fans would want it and thus not alienate any casual fans/collectors who would see it as an essential.
Look at Wun-Dar… he was basically an urban legend of MOTU, nobody knows where he came from, supposidly not even mattel, and for the most part only exists in people's memories. I didn't even know of his existence until I stumbled upon him on the dot Org. I'll be honest, I just put my Wun-Dar back in the package. Its not something I want to display with my other figures, and I figure its better in there than to get jostled around in a ziplock baggie.
At least Trick-or-Treat He-Man™ is something that only completists or a very small fraction of the fanbase would actually want. Even if they had chose something like Battle Armor He-Man or Thunder Punch He-Man, it would leave a lot of fanboys with their panties in a bunch.
Mountain-man
Suprised by this, It’s not gonna sell me on club eternia as much as Wun-dar did. Cosmic key is cool. But Vikor is kickass!
Newton Gimmick
If you make the sub figure a good one, you lock people into buying 12+ figures a year from you. That actually makes sense.
If you make the sub incentive figure He-Man in a bathrobe, you dupe your subscription people into buying a dumb figure for $20 OR you convince people who were on the fence, not to opt in.
That would be me.
I did the sub this time. Wun-Dar was cool. He had a mythos to him. I guess that's the Matty plan, to force you to get 1 crap figure with your sub… But to me, that's a stupid plan.
I'd put a cool obscure character in my sub, so that I locked people into spending a lot more money with my company. That makes sound business sense to me.
But I think as we start to get more and more obscure, I'm losing my interest in MOTUC anyway. Dentists. Prototype chracters. Guy who appeared in panel of birthday napkin comic.
I like the ability to pick and choose more now than ever. It's not like any of the figures are hard to get anyway. Those days are over.
The incentive figure needed to be good, to sell the commitment for me and I suspect a lot of other previous subscribers. Otherwise you're paying $8 more a month to not have to deal with Matty… But it's cheaper to just buy the figs off BBTS then.
Plus they release so much stuff each month that there was really only like 3 months that I wasn't already buying off of Matty. So the sub just worked against me.
Mario
@RM: Agreed. Imagine the hullabaloo that would have ensued had he been a sub figure.
It just makes sense. The incentive of the sub is not the bonus figure, it's not having to lose your mind attempting to purchase the desirable figures. Duh.
As always, you just can't please everyone.
FakeEyes22
@RM
You are wise. How would things have gone if Man E Faces was the sub figure? I'm actually impressed by the new tooling involved. Objectively, he's a far superior figure to Wun-Dar because of new tooling and an actual story appearance. I do love the novelty of Wun-Dar though.
Preternia He-Man is kinda neat since he represents a link between the two time periods being developed in the line.
Replicant
I actually like him. Wish I could afford a sub.
Demonicfirefly
I have to agree. I enjoy obscure figures, but this is pretty stupid looking. At least wun-dar is a cool looking repaint.
RM
People are crazy/stupid.
The sub figure HAS to be one that almost no-one wants, or else you pisso ff everyone who doesn't want/can't afford the sub.
Me, I'm not thrilled with this figure, and I was going to get the sub anyway, but looking at it all OBJECTIVELY, it's a great choice.
Frogster
In my opinion this was letdown and a bit of a copout on Matty's part. Another He-Man variant and one that appeared briefly in a hard to find minicomic at that. I know some fans wanted this, but I personally would have preferred another Teela that was blonde and bikinied or how about a Lodar, or Geldor from the minicomics instead? I can't see this being a great incentive figure to sell the subscription, I am only getting the sub to avoid WSOD and I love MOTUC, but this figure is not the reason to buy it. A nice to have, but something better suited later.
Mario
I think he's dope. Gives him a nice Hanna-Barbera feel.
How gorgeous is that Vikor?
misterbigbo
I'm glad to see the cosmic key here instead of with willow.
PrfktTear
I was a bit puzzled at the choice. I vaguely recalled this incarnation of He-Man but they are going REAL obscure on this one. At the very least this figure is ripe for customizing… maybe Eldor?!! 😉 Plus, the Cosmic Key is pretty frakkin' awesome.
Snarf! Snarf!
Aren't those the Thunder Punch He-Man boots?
I'm guessing that the vest is not removable
The Cosmic Key needs to be reissued with Gwildor… it's creator (who should not be a CE exclusive…)
RageTreb
Is that the Cosmic Key? Why not include it with Gwildor?
mistergigbo
Coming from a fan who's decidedly more casual than many around here, I have to disagree. I think that this is a nifty incentive for hardcore fans, and really, he looks no more stupid than virtually every other character in MOTU, a line more or less devoted to goofiness!
Newton Gimmick
It's not the obscurity that bothers me with this figure… It's just that he sucks.
I want the cosmic key though. Gwildor would have been a billion times better incentive.
If we were getting a lame He-Man variant, I'd much rather had the DC comics Adam/He-Man. At least he looked cool.