Review > Sy-Klone (Masters of the Universe Classics, Mattel)

I never owned Sy-Klone as a kid, and as such, I don’t have any real attachment to the character. I was also always a bit confused by him–did the “klone” part of his name mean he was some sort of weird clone of He-Man? His face did–and does–look a lot like He-Man. I realize Mattel needed to make the figure’s name trademarkable somehow, but by introducing the “clone” question, it confused some of us kids.

X-Entertainment wrote an exhaustive analysis of Sy-Klone that I highly recommend. I was also quite fond of the Millennium version, which introduced a sort of cyberpunk street samurai look to the character. The new Classics version is of course based on the vintage Sy-Klone, with the small addition of the Millennium-style hula hoop.

Sy-Klone™ Bio

Real Name: Sy-Klone Son of Dy-Lex™

Protector of the Legacy Stones and the Last Defender of Anwat Gar, Sy-Klone™ joined the Masters of the Universe® after the stones were destroyed and his mission completed. He wears the last remaining TECH vest armor created by his Gar ancestors to terrorize Eternia® after the Great Wars. Its built-in wind rockets allow the user to create powerful vortexes of spinning energy as a defensive weapon or to fly through the air. Sy-Klone™ has upgraded his armor to also include a cosmic radar which lets him sense the physical presence of evil long before others. Sy-Klone’s wind powers and radar chest make him combat ready!

Portrait Art Source: Original card art

Packaging: Sy-Klone features the usual MOTUC packaging, as you can see. Nothing new to see here, but nothing bad, either.

Design & Sculpt: As mentioned, Sy-Klone is based closely on the vintage figure. That said, compared to many MOTUC figures he has quite a few new parts; only his shoulders, thighs, upper knees, and feet are re-uses. Everything else is a brand-new sculpt.

The sculpting is solid as expected with the Four Horsemen, right down to the sort-of-looks-like-He-Man head. From a design standpoint, I love the way the Millennium disc was integrated into the character. Unlike the Millennium figure, whose disc ostensibly was supposed to fall over his shoulders (but bent at an angle instead), the disc is not only removable, but it can be posed in a few different positions on the back, including straight up and around the torso like a hula hoop.

I actually wish they’d found a way to incorporate the spinning action feature into this particular figure, for two reasons: first, it’s a relatively unobtrusive feature in terms of causing problems with the sculpt, and second, with the disc around the chest it would have looked pretty cool.

This is also the first time [WRONG: Optikk had one too] we’ve seen the Horsemen sneak a non-functional reference to an action feature into a sculpt. The dial on the back of Sy-Klone’s belt is fairly innocuous, but it opened the door for the more annoying dial on Hurricane Hordak. I think the Horsemen should make more of an effort to stylize these sort of touches, as they did on the Millennium line. That said, if Mattel had, at any point, considered actually implementing the spinning feature, then we might have expected the Horsemen to sculpt this dial. Then, when they decided not to go with the feature, the dial became a static part of the sculpt.

Speaking of action features, Sy-Klone does have the full-fledged lenticular sticker of the vintage figure.I tried to get a couple of decent photos of it in action, but it proved difficult to capture.

To mimic the “fins” on the vintage Sy-Klone’s arms while retaining the arm articulation, the Horsemen attached the fins on the biceps section while keeping them from touching the shoulder or forearm. The fins are slightly bent at the bottom, and I’m not sure whether that was intentional, based on the assumption that most of the time he would be posed with his arms bent, or a production flaw.

It’s somewhat surprising that Mattel allowed the Horsemen to sculpt a new torso for Sy-Klone rather than trying to work one of the rubbery “armor” pieces like many other figures with unique torsos, but here’s my theory on that: we’re going to see a Strobo figure sooner rather than later. Strobo was basically Sy-Klone with Zodac’s head and King Randor’s cape, and he appeared in the fall 1988 issue of the official He-Man magazine.

Plastic & Paint: Man, Sy-Klone is yellow. The bright contrast of yellow and blue pops like crazy on the shelf; you’re always going to be able to find Sy-Klone in your collection. As you’d expect, his colors are a closer match to the vintage figure than the Millennium one, which used more muted shades yellow and blue.

The paint applications on Sy-Klone are, as often for MOTUC, minimal. But the lines are fairly clean and even, and I didn’t see anything glaringly wrong with my piece.

Articulation: Sy-Klone features the standard MOTUC articulation: a ball-and-socket head, ball-and-hinge shoulders, swivel biceps, hinged elbows, swivel wrists, hinged abdomen, swivel waist, ball and hinge thighs, swivel upper thighs, hinged knees and ankles, and “rocker” ankles.

The rocker ankles have a decent amount of flexibility, something that seems to come and go on this line.

Accessories: Sy-Klone comes with his vintage “cosmic shield” and the aforementioned removable “battle ring” (as named on his Mattycollector page).

The shield is a new sculpt, but the fun is really the battle ring. Not only can it be configured in a few different ways on Sy-Klone’s back, but it can be removed and placed in his hands for a variety of poses. I’ll admit I wasn’t that excited for Sy-Klone, but after playing around with him for a bit, I came to really enjoy the battle ring; it’s what makes this figure fun.

Quality Control: Keldor Foot Watch: As I’ve mentioned before, many of my figures with Keldor feet are often bent at the middle, meaning the foot won’t sit flush with the ground. This is presumably because the feet are yanked out of the mold too fast, while they’re still warm. Sy-Klone has a slight touch of this problem, but it’s scarcely noticeable, unlike earlier figures.

Overall: Sy-Klone is a classic MOTU figure, and the Horsemen have done right by him as always. The addition of the battle ring adds a ton of value to what was, in my opinion, a fairly average figure, bringing him just above average.

[raven 3]

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10 Comments

  1. FakeEyes22

    Action feature would have been fun, but I'm glad to have a Sy-Klone whose shoulders and waist aren't flopping around.

    I still think he best way to give the action features a nod would be with "energy effects," like red tornado's or pieces that could hook to his hands or arms to simulate motion, like the really cool effects that NECA's Kratos came with.

    If you pose him right, the red ring kinda works that way. The new super tight ankles make lying poses a little less convincing though.

  2. Snarf! Snarf! wrote:

    Sy-Klone looks a bit like George Takei!

    Maybe he's a Baeouvian!

  3. Snarf! Snarf!

    Sy-Klone looks a bit like George Takei!

  4. Dead Man Walking

    That said, if Mattel had, at any point, considered actually implementing the spinning feature, then we might have expected the Horsemen to sculpt this dial. Then, when they decided not to go with the feature, the dial became a static part of the sculpt.

    Occam's razor. Optikk came with a non-functioning dial, Hurrican Hordak is going to come with a non-functioning dial, and Mattel has said no action features. I know "action feature" is ambiguous, but I think this one would have clearly fallen into the no-no camp.

  5. slackrguy

    @ Poe:

    I've just had NA on the brain recently, plus Optikk has a lot of detail on his armor piece so his dial really blends in exceptionally well. imo

  6. I like the sculpted dials, both on Optikk and Sy-Klone. Its a clever nod to the original action features. I couldn't really see the dial on images I saw of Hurricane Hordak, but I know some people were already complaining about that.

    The battle ring is neat and a nice holdover from the 200x version. I don't just prefer it on his back as well. Using it as a shield or weapon looks just too goofy in my book.

    I always thought the name Sy-Klone was a play on the word cyclone. I'm not sure what the "Klone" might refer to, but I guess its better than "Twist-or" or "Tor-Nador" or something like that. I imagined that if he was a clone it was of someone from his own race. BTW, in my bible he is not a member of the Gar race. ;-P

  7. Awesome review in general! I'm surprised that your Sy-Klone's paint applications were done well. I've heard from a lot of folks (and noticed on my own figure) that many Sy-Klones' red rings are painted rather sloppy.

    I disagree on the "battle ring". I totally love it on Sy-Klone's back. But as a handheld weapon, it's a failure for me. It's just too huge to look believable. I would've preferred something like a yellow Zodac gun, especially since the shield's paint is relatively dull and peels off.

    I've never been a huge Sy-Klone fan and still think that the 200X design was much better than the vintage look. But whereas other figures I didn't care much about turned out great in the end, Sy-Klone's still just an also-ran for me.

  8. Thrawn

    Bad news on Strobo. I would like one, but apparently Toyguru confirmed that he is in legal limbo. So not happening, except as a custom.

    Good point about the newly sculpted torso. It makes one wonder why they didn's just do that for King Hsss, instead of adding on the "armor" piece. I don't like the added bulk it gives.

    I love the Sy-Klone torso though. I really ended up loving this figure quite a bit.

    How's the paint on your shield Poe? Easily and already chipped paint on his shield seems to be a common complaint that pops up. My figure had chipped paint on the shield right out of the package.

  9. Poe

    slackrguy wrote:

    Nice review. Poor Optikk gets no love for his nod to vintage action feature dials Where’s the NA love

    Dammit–y'know, I kept looking at my figures and thinking there was an earlier figure who had had a dial.

  10. slackrguy

    Nice review. Poor Optikk gets no love for his nod to vintage action feature dials 🙁 Where's the NA love 😛

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