It’s Halloween, and Skeletor and his Evil Warriors will be up to no good tonight. With that, we’re taking a look (and catching up) on one of the most iconic characters from the 1980’s, Skeletor, which was offered as part of Super 7’s Ultimate Edition line. We actually just purchased this figure from Super 7 as we originally passed on him thinking he was a straight repack, and since we already own every version of Skeletor in this line, it didn’t seem necessary to purchase him again. That was a big mistake, as we learned later on that there were differences compared to earlier offerings, such as some new tooling and deco.
The first wave of Super 7’s Masters of the Universe Classics line is into the hands of collectors, which includes Ultimate Editions of previously released figures. This includes He-Man, Skeletor, Teela, Faker and Ram Man. As you know, Super 7 is the sole company that will be making and distributing Masters of the Universe Classics line on behalf of Mattel, and will continue to work with the Four Horsemen to make new characters going forward. The Ultimate Edition line was an idea that came from the Four Horsemen themselves, as Mattel abruptly cancelled Mattycollector with all of the lines including ThunderCats, this left Super 7 with very little time in 2016 to offer anything for most of 2017. The Ultimate Edition figures were meant to refresh older characters, which all come with all of the parts previously available for the character as seen in other releases throughout the line.
What has also changed is that these are made to order as opposed to a subscription, which means that these will likely have fewer produced compared to what Mattel has done in the past, and the price has also gone up. For those of you that missed out on the order deadline, sadly Super 7 will not be offering extra’s. So your best bet are places like Amazon.com and eBay.com.
Super 7 is off to a strong start of their Classics line, as Mattel is now completely hands off on this. How can we tell? Well for starters their logo does not appear anywhere on the packaging. Which for a He-Man line is definitely not common for Mattel. Speaking of the packaging, this is an entirely new direction for it as it pays homage to the packaging of the 1980’s vintage line, back when He-Man was packed on store shelves. The artwork brings back that vintage vibe to it for the packaging, with the blue and red detailed artwork, and the back of the packaging has an action shot of the character, instructions on removing the head, as well as a look at what is to come from Super 7 as we previously reported. What is not shown in our gallery below are the brown mailer boxes that Mattel had switched too from white, which are also offered to fans by Super 7.
Last year, Mattel had stopped printing the bio’s on the back of the packaging of their Classics figures, leaving fans wondering and without a story to read that was either a history of the character, key elements and story plots in the Second Ultimate Battleground, as well as a continuation of other stories. This is because since Scott Neitlich left the brand, the people running Classics and working behind the scenes were less passionate and not as interested to keep the bio’s and mini-comics going according to our sources at the time. Super 7 however have brought the bio’s back, which come as collectible cards located behind the figure that can be removed. On the front of the cover, there is detailed artwork as if it was the front page of a mini-comic, and on the back is the original bio, along with an update to it below it. The bio is also printed on a scroll just like how it was when Mattel was offering this. Only now it’s no longer part of the packaging, and more fun to collect. It’s a great thing that Super 7 brought this back, as this was a core element to the line that was missing. The only thing missing now is the revival of the mini-comics, which we hope to see Scott Neitlich back on this and we hope that this is something that Super 7 does offer in the future.
Availability: August 2017
Essentially, every figure in the Ultimate Editions line-up is a repaint/reissued figure that comes with every head and accessory ever offered for the character throughout the history of the line. This new Skeletor figure is a great way to refresh the character, as well as to give fans an opportunity to own this Classic character in his original mold. This particular figure has been retired now by Mattel for years, and if you look at the secondary market prices (check out Amazon.com) that reach in the triple digits, you would have been vastly overpaying for Skeletor and the rest of the figures in the Ultimates line-up.
If you’ve been collecting this line since 2008/2009, you will be more than familiar with this particular sculpt as this has been the base for many Classics figures over the years. Skeletor is given every accessory that the 2009 Skeletor figure came with, Keldor, and even the extra Skeletor head that Demo-Man offered. Skeletor is a repaint and retool of the previous figure, which includes a brighter blue tone for his skin that just looks better than the previous offering (see above). This new shade of blue also looks to be more accurate to the vintage figure, and works better with his repainted purple straps, belt and straps hanging in front, and boots. Originally, the 2009 (and reissue) Skeletor figure had a purple and black outfit, which at the time looked good. With this new blue, the purple stands out even better, and while most of the clothing is painted the same way, the straps hanging down from the belt are now purple, as opposed to black, and the calves are retooled giving it a textured and pattern design, and the feet are painted in purple as opposed to blue. The stone on his chest is a also repainted, and this has a brighter red as opposed to purple. The face deco is also slightly different, but maintains the same colors such as the bright yellow and green deco, and purple and red eyes.
The extra heads work out nicely for him, included a repainted Keldor head as well as the head that came with Demo-Man. The bio states that Skeletor was resurrected thanks to Evil Lyn and an aging Beast Man. Having these extra heads with this bio is a great idea especially for his transformation from Keldor, back into Skeletor. These heads are also repainted, and definitely works well with this body.
Skeletor also includes every accessory that the character was offered with, including Keldor’s cape (which we left on for the photo shoot) that is removable.. Also included is a havoc staff, the half Power Sword, and two Power Swords. The staff is pretty much identical to what has come before, and we couldn’t tell of any paint differences. The Power Swords are repainted into different shade of purple.
The articulation is the same as the figure uses the 2009 mold, and besides the calves, there doesn’t appear to be any other retooling. The sculpt is still as good as it was back in 2009, and with the new deco, this is the definitive version of Skeletor made-to-date.
Overall, Skeletor is one beautiful figure, and the changes in deco and accessories easily make the figure worth getting.
Purchase:
