Category: MOTU Origins

MOTU Origins

MOTU Origins Retro Punching He-Man & Skeletor (2025)

Posted on by Adam McCombs

Written by Adam McCombs

I remember when MOTU Origins first debuted in 2019 – I was very excited for a new retro-style 5.5″ line, but what I really wanted as a return to the simple six points of articulation of the vintage line. I’m a simple man and I’m pleased by simple things.

Of course Mattel already did that back in 2001, when they released the Commemorative Masters of the Universe line. They didn’t get all that deep into the vintage roster and stuck mainly to figures that didn’t have many unique parts on them. And the Commemorative line certainly didn’t explore prototype designs or mini comic looks for the figures. But it was a nice little series of toys. Notoriously though, the face of the He-Man in that line didn’t much resemble the 1980s original figure. His head almost looked like it had been squished in the pantography process.

Commemorative He-Man, 2001

Mattel has recently released the “Retro Punching” He-Man and Skeletor two pack, which once again goes back to the original form factor of the vintage line. This is in celebration of Mattel’s 80th anniversary, so it’s far from clear that this represents a new line of Masters of the Universe figures. I do sincerely hope that we get more of these though! These are apparently considered Origins figures, despite the simplified, vintage bucks.

Here are the official Mattel photos of the packaging. The artwork was done by the excellent team of Axel Giménez (line art) and DC Alonso (colors).

When these figures were announced, Mattel released a photo of the prototypes, which we can compare with the final production figures:

Prototype Retro Punching Skeletor and He-Man

He-Man

Once you open up the external packaging, what you find is a collector-friendly card reminiscent of the 1980s packaging. It’s not an exact reproduction, and it has darker colors and modified graphics. The back of the card features a great scene that fills the whole card, reminiscent of Errol McCarthy’s artwork on the 1983 and later He-Man packaging.

The figure includes a replica of the 1982 mini comic, Battle in the Clouds, written by Don Glut and illustrated by Alfredo Alcala. The back of the comic has Alcala-style cross sell art again by the team of Axel and DC:

The figure itself is an attempt to create a plussed-up version of the vintage He-Man. He has the spring-loaded waist of the original figure, and even has a soft, hollow head as well, although it’s not as squishy as his ’80s counterpart. Unlike the vintage figure, he has some extra paint on his boots, and his bracers are painted orange. His harness and weapons are also cast in a shiny metallic silver plastic.

Compared to previous Origins releases, He-Man gets a new harness, a new vintage toy-accurate axe, a new vintage toy accurate shield, and a re-release of the MOTU Origins half Power Sword. I should note that the shield fits on his arm very loosely and falls off easily.

Retro Punching He-Man accessories (left) vs vintage He-Man accessories (right)

While the Origins line was mainly based on the vintage figures, the Origins He-Man was really more based on a prototype version of He-Man as well as his appearance in the first mini comics. Fans have been waiting a long time for vintage toy-style accessories for He-Man. We’ve got that now for all but the Power Sword. The prototype Retro Punching He-Man image shown at the top of the article actually showed the figure coming with an extra Filmation-style Power Sword, but it wasn’t included in the final product.

So how does Retro Punching He-man stand up to his vintage counterpart? I’ll say it definitely doesn’t knock the vintage He-Man off the throne of Grayskull. While the new figure has some nice extras in terms of paint applications, the head is a little too large with a softer sculpt. It doesn’t have the detail or intensity of expression of the vintage head.

One thing the MOTU Origins team has struggled with, from my perspective, is color, and unfortunately that also applies to the Retro Punching He-Man. The colors of the body and hair are too light and make the figure look washed out. The metallics on the accessories are nice, though. I also appreciate the power punch feature and the soft head. The legs have a more durable ball joint instead of the vintage rubber connectors. That will give him long term stability, but the leg joints seem pretty stiff.

One thing to consider is that the face paint on this He-Man seems to vary from figure to figure. I found four of these sets at Target. Two had misapplied eyebrow paint, and one had some bleed from the white teeth paint going into the corners of the mouth. I picked the best of the group.

Another difference compared to the vintage figure is the harness. It’s a bit larger in front than the vintage version, and it lacks the raised/embossed shape on the front where the cross sits. Also it has four red squares going up the top straps instead of three. Also, as on seemingly every other modern harness, the red squares are true squares, and they lack the angled rhombus shape of the vintage version. No one seems to get that part right.

Skeletor

Skeletor has the same collector-friendly card as He-Man. As before, it’s not an exact reproduction, with darker colors and modified graphics. The back of the card features a great scene that fills the whole card, reminiscent of Errol McCarthy’s artwork on the 1983 and later Skeletor packaging.

The figure includes a replica of the 1982 mini comic, The Vengeance of Skeletor, written by Don Glut and illustrated by Alfredo Alcala. The back of the comic is the same as shown previously.

As with He-Man, Retro Punching Skeletor is a plussed-up version of the vintage toy, complete with spring-loaded waist and squishy head. Unlike the vintage figure, he has some extra paint applications on his chest armor, removable belt, and even on his toes (which should be covered by his boots really, but there you go). Compared to the prototype his paint was dialed back considerably. The prototype was probably over-painted, although I wouldn’t have minded if they had kept the painted bat emblem.

Interestingly they gave him the “orange cheeks” face paint, which was from the first release of Skeletor. That version had purple trunks and half boots. This figure has black trunks and fully-painted boots, however. In fact, the boots are painted a bit differently, with extra paint going up the back of the calf, with some dips inside the calf. The paint follows the sculpt, while the vintage figure’s boot paint went around the leg in a straight line. (I’m referring of course to those versions of Skeletor with fully painted boots – read this article for more information on that).

I’m pretty sure this new Skeletor is reusing accessories from his highly-articulated MOTU Origins counterpart. For the most part that makes sense, since the Origins accessories are nearly identical to the vintage accessories. The exception is once again with the sword, which is based on the Alcala look rather than the vintage toy.

Retro Punching Skeletor (left) vs vintage Skeletor swords

So how does this new Skeletor measure up to the vintage version? Reasonably well, I would say. The face is a bit wider than the vintage version, but it’s not that noticeable. The biggest differences come down again to color – the skin and face coloring look flat and pale compared to the vintage toy. If the Origins design crew at Mattel would pay more attention to their colors, they would save obsessives like me a lot of frustration. Still, despite those flaws, I think Retro Punching Skeletor is a cool-looking figure overall.

Despite my few gripes with this set, I still like it a lot. I really hope we will see more in this vein from Mattel. Imagine a line of these figures that included figures based on original prototypes. Or how about reissues of expensive and hard to find figures like Scare Glow or King Randor? There’s a lot of potential here, and I’d like to see these Retro Punching chaps expanded out into a full new line of toys. Time will tell if that’s in the cards.

Vintage Battle Cat & Vehicles

Since publishing this, it has been requested that I show Retro Punching He-Man riding on Battle Cat and in some vintage vehicles. There was some concern that the new leg articulation might pose a problem. Here he is on vintage Battle Cat, Wind Raider, and Battle Ram. It’s true that the figure doesn’t have quite as much range of motion as the vintage figure with the rubber leg connectors. He does fine on Battle Cat and Battle Ram, but he just barely fits into Wind Raider. He is not able to ride the vintage Dragon Walker, which requires the legs to be at a 90 degree angle to the body.

Thank you to the following individuals who are current Patreon supporters or Facebook subscribers!

  • Adalberto V.
  • Adam A.
  • Allen B.
  • Allison T.
  • Andy Y.
  • badtaste®
  • Barbarossa
  • Ben M.
  • Chris C.
  • Chupakaibra
  • Cory from Make Shape Create
  • Dane R.
  • Eric H.
  • Erik B.
  • Garry H.
  • Gianluca V.
  • J Man
  • Jacob T.
  • JackieX
  • James Z.
  • João S.
  • Johnny L. 
  • Jon E.
  • Juan P.V.
  • Kris K.
  • Lyca
  • Max I.
  • Michael M.
  • Mike G.
  • MotuOriginsCork
  • Nate B.
  • Oprah D.
  • Orion W.
  • Ove K.
  • Øyvind M. (Patreon & Facebook)
  • Patrick F.
  • Philip O.
  • Rich S.
  • Robert B.
  • Scott B.
  • Stephen B.
  • Steven K.
  • Tate W.
  • Todd G.
  • tupalev
  • wolfliche

Want to support the blog? Consider becoming a Patreon supporter or Facebook subscriber. You’ll also gain access to exclusive content and early access to posts on the blog. Thank you!

2
MOTU Origins

MOTU Origins Demo-Man Review

Posted on by Adam McCombs

Written by Adam McCombs

Introduction

Demo-Man has long been one of my favorite figures in the MOTU Classics line. In fact Demo-Man and Castle Grayskullman are the two figures that got me into collecting that line, which eventually lead to me revisiting the vintage line and at the end of a long chain of dominoes, creating this website. So I’ll always have a soft spot for the character. But can the Origins version live up to the Classics figure? Let’s find out!

Before I launch into that, you might consider checking out my previous article (or if you prefer, this short video I made) about the character. Long story short: despite a long-running theory that the character fans know as “Demo-Man” was an early version of Skeletor, designer Mark Taylor said that there was no connection between the two. This will be important later. While the original character was unnamed, it was given the name Demo-Man in the Classics era because of the supposed connection to Skeletor (Skeletor’s early concept name was De-Man). Mark eventually gave the character the name “The Merciless,” which seems to suit him better.

Concept art by Mark Taylor

Packaging

Demo-Man was sold direct from the Mattel Creations site for the price of $20. Not a bad deal considering he comes with three heads. One funny note: on the Mattel Creations site, the marketing text claimed that Demo-Man had been made as a figure before, but not by Mattel. Of course that’s not true – Demo-Man was first released in Mattel’s MOTU Classics line in December 2011. There seems to be a weird blind spot in the current marketing team when it comes to acknowledging the existence of MOTU Classics, even though they have occasionally reused some of the tooling from that line.

This is Classics erasure!

Demo-Man shipped with collector friendly packaging. The bubble is a kind of sleeve that can attach itself to the card without any glue, allowing you to remove the figure from the packaging and then return it to carded status without any damage to the card.

The packaging artwork is, as has been consistently the case since the inception of Origins, top notch. The usual team of Axel Giménez and Francisco Etchart are responsible for the awesome art on the front and back of the card.

Figure

In reviewing this figure, I’m reminded of my review of the Power-Con Exclusive Lords of Power 5-pack. While the LOP set contained a delightful set of figures that I continue to enjoy, there were a few cost saving measures that irked me. That’s the case with Demo-Man too.

Demo-Man actually comes with very few new parts, although several of his parts seem new because they are borrowed from lines other than MOTU Origins. His feet come from the Cartoon collection Mer-Man and his shins are from the Masters of the WWE Universe John Cena. His knees, thighs, loincloth, chest, biceps and hands are the familiar standard buck of the Origins line. His main green head and flail weapon are actually just repaints from the original MOTU Classics figure. His extra Skeletor head comes from the Keldor and Kronis two-pack, and the skull head with the helmet comes from the MOTU Origins Skeleton Warriors set. His sword comes from the Origins Fang-Or figure, designed by Axel Giménez.

His only new parts are his forearms, his tunic, his shoulder armor, and his bicep armor, which shows how they could include three heads at the price point they did.

As with the Classics figure, the inclusion of the Alcala-style Skeletor head is meant as a call-back to the character’s now-debunked connection to Skeletor. I have to say, I do like the paint on this Skeletor head more than the version that came with Keldor. The green shading is very subtle, almost invisible, and it is a better match to the original Alcala source material than the Keldor bonus head. The “gems” in his eyes are also darkened to the point that they are mostly invisible.

I’ve put the extra “Alcala” head on the Lords of Power version of Skeletor, which also has custom bare feet by Guillermo Grande. Other than one small stray black mark, it’s quite nice.

The two big areas where Demo-Man’s parts reuse hurt him are in his feet and in his sword. The character is supposed to have four toes on each foot, not three, and his sword is supposed to be a classical curved scimitar with a dragon head hilt. Additionally, the decorative skull head that came with the original had no jaw. The reuse from the Skeleton Warriors set for this figure makes sense I suppose; it’s a far more practical extra head than the jawless head.

Classics vs Origins
In both cases the skull head is too small for the figure, but the Origins version works better as a head. The Classics version was really just there for decoration to complete the original concept illustration look.

Origins feet vs Classics feet
Classics “Alcala” Skeletor vs Origins
Reused flail weapon from the Classics line, this time without paint apps
Reused portrait from the Classics line, with reduced paint apps

The other notable change in the new Demo-Man is his plus-size tunic. It affords him quite a bit more modesty than the original design. Whether that’s good or bad is of course a matter of taste, but my default is to always prefer something more accurate to the source material. The size of it makes it look like he’s wearing his older brother’s shirt. It does have a nice cloth texture, though:

Blowin’ in the wind
Underneath the tunic he sports the usual Eternian Y-fronts

Comic

As usual, the figure comes with a minicomic. This one sort of rehashes MOTU Classics bio, in which Demo-Man was merged with Keldor to save his life, thus completing Keldor’s transformation into Skeletor. It was a plot derived from a mistaken fan theory about the origins of the “Demo-Man” character, but it’s the only canonical backstory we have for this character.

Demo-Man on the cover of the comic is based on the MOTU Classics version, while the internal illustrations are based on the Origins figure.

The story is somewhat confusing though – it appears that Demo-Man is exercised from Skeletor on two separate occasions, once by Evil-Lyn and once by He-Man, but there is no indication why it had to happen twice. In the end Evil-Lyn traps Demo-Man into an orb and he is hurled into space, where he is intercepted by Hordak. Most of the art is pretty good, although the font for “Soul Keeper” on the cover is terrible – it looks like it belongs on an early 90s Trapper Keeper.

Personally I prefer to think of Demo-Man (or “The Merciless” as Mark called him) as a separate character from Skeletor. I think if he had been made in the vintage line he would have just been one of Skeletor’s allies, and he makes more sense to me as that. The Classics bio and the Origins comic make him seem like he must be an incorporeal spirit, but he doesn’t really read as one, design-wise. He seems more like an undead ogre, ready to hack and slash his way through anything.

Final Thoughts

While overall I enjoy the new Demo-Man figure, he does seem more like a custom than the real thing. The shortcuts taken in the “good enough” philosophy of the Origins line bother me, particularly when it comes to characters I’m heavily invested in. That’s classic collector OCD, I know. My biggest issue with him is his feet. I would have preferred that the extra heads were dropped and that budget was spent getting Demo-Man to better match Mark Taylor’s artwork. But he’s still a nice figure overall. These days I’m mostly focusing on other lines (vintage MOTU, MOTU Classics and the new Frazetta Girls figures), but basically if there’s a Mark Taylor or Alfredo Alcala-themed figure in Origins, I’ll buy it.

Lords of Power figures with Demo-Man, and a custom prototype-style Castle Grayskull created by Guillermo Grande.

Thank you to the following individuals who are current Patreon supporters!

  • Adam A.
  • Allison T.
  • badtaste®
  • Ben M.
  • Cory from Make Shape Create
  • Eric H.
  • JackieX
  • James C.
  • João S.
  • Jon E.
  • Lyca
  • Max I.
  • Michael M.
  • Mike G.
  • MotuOriginsCork
  • Orion W.
  • Øyvind M.
  • Philip O.
  • Robert B.
  • tupalev

Want to support the blog? Consider becoming a Patreon supporter. You’ll also gain access to exclusive content and early access to posts on the blog. Thank you!

7
MOTU Origins, Reviews

Custom MOTU Origins feet by Guillermo Grande

Posted on by Adam McCombs

Written by Adam McCombs

I wanted to follow up my recent review of Guillermo Grande‘s amazing custom Castle Grayskull with a quick write-up about his feet. Well, not his feet per se, but the custom feet he’s made for MOTU Origins.

I have slightly mixed feelings on the MOTU Origins line – I love the concept and minicomic-based figures. I mostly like the main vintage toy inspired line, although there are a few things I would change (Battle Armor Skeletor’s frowny face, the retail Beast Man’s face paint and armor color, Mer-Man’s face light paint, Battle Cat’s helmet and chest area, Castle Grayskull’s overall design, etc.) These are things that probably aren’t going to bother any kids who are collecting these toys, but as a (purportedly) grown-up collector, they do stick out to me.

Despite its flaws, I love the potential of the line. I love the idea of having modern toys in the scale and build of the 1980s line that are homages to vintage minicomic and prototype designs. I also love how easy it is to customize these figures.

Although oddly not called out on the packaging, all Origins figures have easily removable heads, arms, hands, boots, and waists. With a bit of added heat (through hot water or a hair dryer) you can also separate the feet at the ankles, the shins at the knees, the legs at the hips, and the forearms at the elbows. This makes it so easy to mix and match different parts.

The 2020 Power-Con exclusive Lords of Power Set is amazing and my favorite thing in the line so far. But as with most limited exclusives, the tooling budget tends to have some limits as well, and some of the parts used in the set were “good enough” reuses from existing parts. The two that stand out the most are the feet on Skeletor/De-Man and Beast Man:

LOP Skeletor
LOP Beast Man

The original Skeletor/De-Man prototype had bare feet, but he had five toes, not three toes (the bare three-toed feet on Skeletor would work great for a cross-sell art inspired variant, however). Poor Beast Man is given “sock” feet that were used on the retail release of Beast Man. The vintage Beast Man prototype based on also had five-toed bare feet. Guillermo Grande has created a foot design that works well for both figures, and can be easily swapped out with the originals with some added heat to temporarily soften the plastic.

Beast Man finally takes off his socks

Both of them are definite improvements, but Beast Man in particular really needs his bare feet – the sock feet really undercut the savage look of the rest of the figure. It’s amazing how such a small change can completely alter the character of a figure.

Those interested in buying these feet, or any of his other customs/commissions, can contact Guillermo through his Instagram page.

Want to support the blog? Consider becoming a Patreon supporter. You’ll also gain access to exclusive content and early access to posts on the blog. Thank you!

3