Last year, Super 7 offered their Ultimate Edition Masters of the Universe Classics figures to help them kick off the first offering of this line, which also continues what Mattel has offered since 2008. Both He-Man and Skeletor are figures we recently acquired as we did not pre-order these in advance. He-Man is the last figure we needed to complete the set.
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.
In 2016, 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 He-Man 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 He-Man, 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. He-Man is given every accessory that the 2009 figure came with, along with additional head sculpts offered throughout the line. He-Man is a repaint of the previously figures, which includes a slightly different skin tone, and the boots, shorts, and various other parts of the body do not have that grey wash that was caused by the plastic. instead, this figure is truly the “Ultimate” edition, with more defined paint applications and better plastic used. The boots, shorts, and other parts of the body are darker, and more detailed. In addition, the belt is also repainted with more brown deco as opposed to most of it being orange as seen with previously offered figures.
The head sculpts is everything that came before, and are all slightly repainted with different hair colors and some facial deco. The heads are from the re-issue He-Man figure, Oo-Lar, and the toy accurate He-Man head sculpt that was originally included with Oo-Lar. For anyone that needs to own every variation in this line, The Ultimate Edition He-Man comes with a lot of new offerings in terms of deco changes that we previously were unaware of. Just like Skeletor, Teela, Faker, and even Ram Man (if you prefer the mini-comic deco), the deco changes on He-Man are superior than what has come before, and also offers a way to refresh that toy shelf with a He-Man figure that has better paint applications on his clothing.
He-Man also includes all of the accessories that were ever offered, including two Power swords, a half sword, an axe and a shield. The accessories are pretty much identical to what has come before, and we didn’t really notice too many deco changes on these (but didn’t check everything as all of the original items are in storage).
The articulation is the same as the figure uses the 2009 mold. The drawback here is that the ankles are hinged jointed, and this sculpt is prone to falling over as it’s not as updated as later figures when Mattel fixed these joints. The sculpt is still as good as it was back in 2009, and with the new deco, this is the definitive version of He-Man made-to-date.
Overall, He-Man is one beautiful figure, and the changes in deco and accessories easily make the figure worth getting.
Purchase:
