Review > Preternia Disguise He-Man (Masters of the Universe Classics)

I covered the origin of Preternia Disguise He-Man pretty thoroughly in an earlier post, so I won’t rehash that here, aside from mentioning that he’s based on the characters appearance in the 1980s minicomic “The Powers of Grayskull – The Legend Begins!”

PD He-Man is the 2011 subscription exclusive figure, a decision which made most people happy, since people who bought the subscription are generally big enough fans to want the figure, while those who didn’t were happy not to get another He-Man variant; and those who did buy the subscription but didn’t want PD He-Man could easily sell him to those who didn’t buy a sub. Which is an incredibly complicated way of saying yes, he was a good choice for a subscription incentive figure.

The “Powers of Grayskull” concept came about very late in the MOTU line in the 1980s, just as the movie was flopping. As such, it makes use of some of the movie’s ideas, including the Cosmic Key, a device which can open a portal to other worlds–including Earth, which conveniently lets you film 90% of your epic fantasy movie on the streets of Los Angeles. Mattel got a bit more creative with the concept, sending He-Man back to the time when dinosaurs ruled the Earth–I mean, Eternia.

Packaging: The figure comes in the standard MOTUC packaging; I like the pose with He-Man cradling the Cosmic Key. The rifle is crossed behind his back, and my only regret about that is it looks so awesome I wish there was some sort of holster on his back so that he could actually carry the rifle that way.

The factory forgot to slap on the “Powers of Grayskull” sticker, so it was included as a loose sticker in the box.

Design & Sculpt: Only the head and tunic of Preternia Disguise He-Man are new parts; the legs and arms we’ve seen before. The forearms are the ones with the narrow bracelets from Tri-Klops, rather than the asymmetrical ones we usually get on our He-Man (which is accurate to his comic depiction).

The new head is great, with the hood sculpt shadowing He-Man’s face and the raccoon mask covering his eyes. As I was inspecting it, something occurred to me: given how interested Mattel is in re-using sculpts, PD He-Man has a fairly significant amount of new tooling, what with the head and tunic. But the face isn’t attached to the hood…and doesn’t that hood, coming down as it does past the chin, look an awful lot like the hood of 200X Skeletor? It’s hard to say whether this could be part of a planned bonus-figure 200X Skeletor or an abandoned extra head for a previous Skeletor release, but I’ll keep my hopes up for the former.

Plastic & Paint: The tunic covering the chest and legs is made from a nice, pliable material, and the reddish-brown coloring matches the comic. His boots are more reddish than the standard He-Man as well, again capturing the look of the comic art (which was inked by Bruce Timm, incidentally).

The one negative is the gray belt, which is poorly painted with a lot of uneven edges between the dark and light gray parts, and some slop around the part where it meets the tunic.

Articulation: PD He-Man features the standard MOTUC articulation: ball joints at the neck, shoulders, and hips; swivels at the waist, wrists, biceps, top of the thighs, and top of the boots; and hinges at the abdomen, elbows, knees, and ankles. The ankles are the old exposed-joint type, rather than the hidden-joint type of Vikor, which makes the ankles a bit loose (but not floppy, at least for my figure). There’s no “bobblehead” effect on the neck joint, most likely because it’s the old neck joint, not the new one we saw with Vikor.

Accessories: The accessories are my favorite part of this figure. In addition to the standard Power Sword, PD He-Man comes with a large laser rifle based on the one he wields while riding Bionatops in the “Powers of Grayskull” minicomic. I love the gun, but it’s a shame it doesn’t have any paint applications. It’s also slightly warped from its placement in the package.

But the real appeal here is the Cosmic Key. The sculpt is based primarily on the device’s look in the movie, but the Four Horsemen added a handle a la the Cosmic Key that came with Gwildor. My understanding is that Mattel does not own the rights to the movie, so I’m not sure why they can get away with such an obvious movie-based accessory, unless there’s some sort of loophole due to the Gwildor/minicomic appearance.

The Cosmic Key looks great, with detailed bronze paint apps on the “keys,” chromed “forks” and a blue metallic sheen on the rest. The forks can spin. Clearly, the accessory budget went to the Cosmic Key. The Key, like the rifle, is a tad bent due to the packaging, reflecting the softer plastic they’ve been using for MOTUC (I’m wondering if they’re saving money by using a regrind plastic mix).

Quality Control: No problems with my figure–he’s assembled correctly, no major loose joints, no glaring scrapes or damage.

Overall: I know a lot of fans were underwhelmed by Preternia Disguise He-Man–a figure based on an obscure appearance of the character in an unfinished storyline from the minicomics. But for whatever reason, I really like him. He reminds me of the “Bruce Timm era” of MOTUC, the post-Filmation cartoon period when the world of Eternia, thanks partly to Timm, began to look and feel more modern and cohesive (at least to me).

It’s a shame we never got to see where the Powers of Grayskull might have gone in the 1980s–if it had been given a chance, He-Man, like G.I. Joe or Transformers, might never have gone away.

[raven 3.5]

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20 Comments

  1. Monkey boy

    I really think people are giving this figure the benefit of the doubt because its MOTUC. Imagine this figure in some other line in a discount store. It wouldn't be desirable at all. I suppose maybe the 4H were limited and HAD to sculpt the tunic around the standard buck, but I just can't for the life of me understand how anyone doesn't find that thing to be WAY too bulky and oversized. He seriously looks like he's going to fall over. Also, if you're gonna bulk out the torso, compensate by giving him a larger belt. As it is he's really cinched tight at the waist, and it accentuates how unrealistic the tunic lays. I know I know cosmic key this and cosmic key that, but is a cosmic key worth $30? I know everyone has their own opinions, but I really can't see anything positive about the awkward, patchwork execution of this figure.

  2. Valo487

    This figure has definitely grown on me. And I hope you're right Poe about 200X Skeletor, although if they make him I hope they resculpt the face, the 200X one looked much more menacing than the classic figure did.

  3. Barbecue17

    @Harlan Rosen: A slot for the sword would have been nice, perhaps similar to what Adora has and what Adam was supposed to have. Then PD He-Man would have been able to hold all of his accessories at once.

  4. Harlan Rosen

    It's a good figure but I would've preferred that the Horsemen went the extra mile on the tunic by having places to store the accessories. That would've propelled the figure into a solid 5 out of 5 for me. As it stands, this He-Man is a 4/5.

  5. Lovable-Bill

    I love that from SDCC to today people still don't like this figure.

    I think he was a great sub figure, obscure choice for the hardcore fans and not too important for sparse collectors. I was excited at SDCC and was excited when he showed up.

    I am currently displaying him with my villains since he's disguised, Undercover He-Man.

  6. Dead Man Walking

    I enjoyed the protos of this guy, but now seeing him in this review…well…the hourglass shape of the tunic just looks wierd. I can see Monkey Boy's tootsie pop reference.

    And the Cosmic Key looks like stupid whiffle ball bat with that handle

    Also,

    To me the incentive of the subscription (in theory) is not having to login to Matty Collector on the 15th of each month to get the figures.
    –Perfect Tear

    I think Poe sums it up nicely.

    Mattel really needs to start offering an opt-in feature for subscribers for non-sub items. They ask subscribers to commit to spending hundreds of dollars on toys sight unseen, then negate the single advantage subscribing offers–not having to worry about visiting Mattycollector–by not including the items most likely to cause a frenzy, i.e., the brand-new stuff like large beasts (in 2010) and display items/vehicles (in 2011). It’s maddening.

    –Poe

  7. toyman2581

    @Lemonjuice_McGee:

    @PrfktTear:

    I think you guys are right on the money here. I wasn't all that excited for this figure when it was shown. I liked the idea but the pictures didn't look exciting enough. Having him in my hands makes a world of difference.

    The draw of the sub has always been having goods show up at my door with no effort involved but it's nice to get these exclusives, and this guy was surprisingly cool once he arrived.

  8. Thrawn

    Fengschwing wrote:

    I like this guy, he has a Kirbyesque vibe to him and would work (for me anyway) as some Silver Age Morrison like proto-hero or something.

    That's what he reminds me of. Thank you.

    Anyway I like the figure much better in hand. It's the cloak combined with the little racoon mask that sell the figure to me. I don't know. I just really dig the Saturday Morning/Comic book goofy feel to it.

    Also he comes with an extra power sword and the kick butt cosmic sword.

  9. misterbigbo

    I think he looks neat. I have a soft spot for the historical or obscure figures like him. I wonder why his torso piece is painted brown?

  10. dlia

    Guess no one's going to be campaigning for a Bionatops anytime soon. He has enough trouble as it is staying on Battle Cat.

    And yeah, here comes Gwildor in the next year or so. "By mid-2012 you'll have a good picture of the MOTUC storyline" or something like that.

  11. I can understand not being interested in the figure or just flat not liking it, its not really for everyone, but I think that’s the point. If it was a must-have character or variant, everyone would get pissed, so they made a figure only die-hard fans will like, and people still grumble.

    That said, I don’t really see how the 4H “failed” for taking the basic buck and then creating a tunic for it. I can see the “man boobs” but as @Lemonjuice_McGee pointed out, it is much better in person. If anything it looks more like he’s just huffed & puffed and is gonna blow your house in.

    I realize in essence we’re paying for the bonus figures, they're not "free" but let me just say Preternia Disguise He-Man was not an incentive for me to buy in on the subscription. To me the incentive of the subscription (in theory) is not having to login to Matty Collector on the 15th of each month to get the figures.

    Anyway, the real prize here is the Cosmic Key. Anyone with a soft spot for the film is going to love it!

  12. Fengschwing

    Not a fan of MOTUC, but I like this guy, he has a Kirbyesque vibe to him and would work (for me anyway) as some Silver Age Morrison like proto-hero or something.

    I'm sure that made sense to someone….

    Um, basically I would probably buy him if I saw him at a reasonable price.

  13. Mark

    Like King Hssss the torso is far to wide. Just awful. Of all the He-Man variants, (including 200X) this is the worst…..although the Cosmic Key is cool-ish.

    Whats with the mask, who is going to recognise him in Preternia?

  14. Barbecue17

    I'll be opening mine up this evening, but I'm not seeing anything about this figure I don't like, either. The accessories just seem fantastic.

  15. Poe

    @dayraven: Yes, the upper part of the tunic is removable, and the standard muscled torso is beneath (in reddish brown).

    @Lemonjuice_McGee: I agree, he's a lot more fun when you've got him in your hands.

  16. I actually really like this figure. I think it's definitely a case where the toy is better in person than in photographs…

  17. dayraven

    am i seeing that correctly, that his upper body robe has pins (hence, it removable?) and it appears he has a brown under armour on under that? that might be how i end up displaying him…

  18. I think he generally looks terrible. This is the first time I really think the Four Horsemen just flat out failed. He was a big part of the reason I skipped the subscription and I dunno, something about him looks worse now than he did in the protos. It still looks like crossdressing He-Man to me.

    A cloth cloak probably would have worked better me thinks.

    The Cosmic key looks great, though. Hopefully Gwildor gets one as well. I really like it, though I'd prefer a slightly more muted color scheme.

  19. Monkey boy

    Sorry, but dude looks ridiculous. He looks like a tootsie pop with that huge upper body and that tiny belt cutting off his circulation. And what's with the man boobs? While I'm not a fan of this line for a lot of reasons, I can usually respect the design and look of the figures. In this case, not at all. I keep checking those pics to see if theres some appeal I'm missing but..nope, he looks like an awful custom. His upper body reminds me of violet from willy wonka and the chocolate factory.

  20. Cade

    You're right that hood is very 200X skeletor, it's also similar in the way it squares off.

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