Review > Dekker (Masters of the Universe Classics, Mattel)

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These Millennium-based figures are always a bit tricky to review, because the characters they’re based often have had minimal character development and never had a toy. One or the other is generally required for me to establish enough of a connection to a figure to get excited about it – though if the design is awesome enough, a lack of characterization can be an asset, because it allows your imagination to run wild (see: pre-prequel-era Boba Fett, Draego-Man). But if the figure has had minimal characterization, no childhood nostalgia for a vintage toy, and a relatively uninteresting design? It becomes really hard for me to get excited about that figure.

To be fair, Dekker had an entire episode devoted to him during the Millennium cartoon’s run. Titled “The Island,” the episode established Dekker as a former tactician for King Randor and a mentor to Man-At-Arms. Written by Michael Halperin, who wrote the series bible for the Filmation cartoon back in the early 1980s, “The Island” is one of the series’ more memorable episodes (“memorable” in that I vaguely recalled that there was an episode devoted to Dekker and had to look up all the preceding information).

Ultimately, Dekker is just regular a guy. In a world populated by people with cybernetic suits, giant freakish metal hands, or reptilian ancestry, he’s the MOTUC equivalent of a guy in a suit. He’s like Ra’s Al Ghul in the Dark Knight Movie Masters line – a character first and a figure design second. But unlike, say, Filmation King Randor, Dekker is a regular guy

Packaging: If you’ve seen one MOTUC package, you’ve seen them all – it’s the standard blister, with the vintage-box-art inspired graphics.

Design & Sculpt: The only parts of Dekker we haven’t seen before are his two interchangeable heads, his tunic, and his boots.

The tunic has a great sculpt and is nicely detailed. I have no complaints on how it looks, but on its effect on the figure’s articulation: it restricts the legs almost entirely. The tunic for the plastic is very hard, so moving his hips in any direction is nearly impossible. While perhaps it wouldn’t have been episode-accurate, I think the Four Horsemen should have slit the sides of the bottom of the tunic to free up the legs.

The new buccaneer boot sculpts are great.

We also get one “young Dekker” head and one “old Dekker” head. Both sculpts are great, and I appreciate the way the braids on the older sculpt don’t inhibit the head movement.

I do question the usefulness of the “young Dekker” head. We don’t really have any other characters who quite fit the “young Dekker” era – I suppose you could argue that Keldor, Count Marzo and King Randor can work, along with mustache-less Man-At-Arms. But I can’t really imagine being able to create a display in which using the young Dekker head would make sense. On the other hand, I can’t think of another accessory except a helmet-less Man-At-Arms head, which probably wouldn’t have made much sense coming with Dekker (though it would have made a lot of fans happy, increasing his value).

Plastic & Paint: Dekker has a lot of color, which I appreciate. The paints are applied a bit thickly in places, but on the plus side there’s not a lot of bleed or slop.

Articulation: Dekker has standard MOTUC articulation (click the link to see it if you need a listing), but as mentioned above, the hip articulation is severely limited by the tunic.

Accessories: Dekker comes with a mace. It’s interesting, because this isn’t just a re-use of Man-At-Arms’s mace but a new “techno-mace,” no doubt meant to double as a Millennium Man-At-Arms mace. Sadly it has two problems: it’s orange (which may or may not be accurate to the episode, I can’t remember), and more disappointingly, it’s made from soft plastic and tends to sag. I like the sculpt, but wish Mattel could have managed to swap the plastic used for the tunic with the plastic used for the mace. Then Dekker would be able to walk and have a mace that didn’t sag like an old-timey bologna.

Quality Control: I truly, truly hate the “Keldor feet,” because they almost always curve in a little bit, no doubt due to the way they’re yanked from the mold still warm. There’s a smidgen of that here, but it’s not too bad.

Overall: If his rather plain design doesn’t bother you, then Dekker isn’t a bad figure at all. If it weren’t for the way the articulation is restricted and the saggy weapon, I’d have given him an extra raven.

I appreciate Mattel’s effort to make MOTUC so all-inclusive of every era. But I just don’t buy the idea that these Millennium characters – Chief Carnivus, The Faceless One, Dekker – have enough of a fan base to warrant their inclusion in the line over important vintage figures that still haven’t been remade. And while Carnivus and Faceless One at least have arguably interesting designs, Dekker is a guy in a tunic.

Perhaps I’m wrong. Perhaps, were I still deep in the throes of full-on MOTU obsession, I would love the hell out of Dekker. But even when I was watching the Millennium cartoon, I know I would have wanted Prahvus or Lord Dactys before Dekker. On the other hand, Dekker was put into development at a time when the MOTUC subscription was doing very well. Ever since the 2013 subscription’s near-death, I think I (and other fans) have become more sensitive to the idea that there are a limited number of characters left and each character like this takes up a potential spot that could have gone to another character who may not get made.

But that’s not Dekker’s fault, really. And that’s why I revised this “Overall” section from the earlier version and added an extra raven.

[raven 3]

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16 Comments

  1. Cade

    A hard plastic piece of cloth and a soft plastic weapon…It's like DCUC all over again. Ares weapons were immediately bent and saggy but his cape wouldn't flex at all. It's good to know four years later they still haven't figured out what plastic should be used for what.

  2. stack32

    Just a thought: Maybe stripping away nostalgia and enthusiasm for a character makes it easier to see the issues common to all MOTUC figures?

  3. Harrig

    Hey Poe, are you getting Granamyr?

    • I asked Santa for him. We'll see how Santa makes out with Mattycollector, though. Santa was very unhappy with Santa's experience getting me the Wind Raider last year.

    • Harrig

      Santa should bust a cap in Mattycollector's ass.

  4. ero

    A damn fine figure. I love the boots (including the feet). But I don't own him. I've liked most of the 200x stuff that's made it into Classics, but you can't collect everything, and so I've had to draw the line there.

    • Bigbot

      Even with the black friday sales?

    • ero

      I used to buy anything I thought was cool, but now I keep it to a near laser-like focus on nostalgia. Less about money, more about space.

  5. Mario

    I'm ok with him, but he doesn't get my juices flowing either… Giving him the Tri-Klops cross sell sword really helps him out, me thinks.

  6. Bigbot

    Also, based on that screen capture it looks like he translated very well to MOTUC.

  7. Sunny

    Put me down as another one who hates the Keldor feet – they look clumsy and blocky and look bad on whoever is sporting them. Time for a resculpt I think.

    • I don't mind the look, but I'd say 75% of my figures who have them have that annoying bottom curve that prevents them from being flush with the ground.

  8. The_Fun_has_been_Doubled

    I made Dekker fit in my fan continuity with 3 Words: Eternian Big Boss. Young Head on a Palace Guard Buck became the Eternian Solid Snake… (A clone made by Marzo)

  9. dayraven

    i will say this poe… you mentioned earlier a design that inspires the imagination to come up w/ a story, and cite draego as an example of that… for me, dekker was a perfect character that inspired a story.

    the reason being, as you point out, he's a normal guy in a world full of cyberfreaks, animal men, and magical badasses… dekker is friggin batman. yup, you heard me, the guy is batman. how does a normal dude fight off half-ton crab men w/ a stick? takes more than teak to make it through that scenario. and honestly, he's only carrying that mace till jitsu gets here, than he's working w/ paired kamas.

    i might have to send you some more photos too… the tunic, as it's sold, does inhibit the range on those hips, and that's bogus.. and sadly, we know from scarabus that the horsemen figured out the overlaying layers problem some time ago, it's mattel and their stupidity that won't let the boys do their work, but yes, that's a tragedy… but not an irreperable one. dekker too can be saved w/ a couple of quick slits, though, his tunic, once sliced, is more visually noticeable than CGM's lioncloth was…

  10. Bigbot

    I think being Duncan's mentor is enough to warrant a figure, but I'm glad we have these Millennium inspired figures in the line.

    I really wish Mattel would stop it with the gummy weapons. You wouldn't think these figures are for adult collectors based on the way they handle most weapons.

    If you have the Figma Link, I think Mattel's design (or the Horsemen when they're not Mattel's scapegoats) should follow what Max Factory did in regards to Link's tunic. They slit the tunic on the sides all the way to the waste, and the front part has flaps that tuck underneath the back part to the back. When you spread the figures legs to do deep poses, the tunic moves forward but gives the illusion it's still cloth. If this figure had that design I'd move it to the top of my favorite list. I'm just a sucker for the grizzled veteran with a missing eye (it also helps that Sagat is my favorite SF character).

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