Written by Adam McCombs
At the most recent Power-Con I got the chance to check out the Formo Toys Legends of Dragonore table, and even watch the table with my son while the Formo crew were busy with their panel. I got to play with the wave 1.0 figures on the table and absolutely fell in love with them. Below you can find some images of some of the wave 1.5 and 2.0 prototype figures they had on display:
I picked up a Barbaro figure while I was there, and I thought I’d share some photos and a few thoughts. The figures are inspired by the 5.5″ Masters of the Universe line, but they maintain their own unique style. The packaging is familiar in shape but otherwise doesn’t borrow heavily from any vintage toyline. The front slightly recalls the Powers of Grayskull packaging that would have been used for He-Ro and Eldor in the vintage line, but the back is really its own thing, with a parchment and stone theme. Featured is an illustration of Barbaro, complete with a bio and cross sell photos of all of the figures in the first wave.
The figure comes with a few accessories – a removable horned crown, a battle axe, removable armor and the right arm of the Divine Armor. Each of the six figures in the first line has a piece of it – you can collect all six to complete the Divine Armor, which works as the McGuffin of the story. In MOTU parlance, the Divine Armor is like the two halves of the power sword.
In every Universe exists an ancient Secret Well. These Wells are portals between worlds and dimensions. Passageways used by heroes, monsters, and adventurers to explore new realms across the galaxies. Through Castle Dragonore™, the fearless Barbaro has left both his tribe and world to enter the Well, leading a group of Heroic Champions in a quest to retrieve the ancient Divine Armors of Power™ scattered across the dimensions. During their adventures, the Heroic Champions will encounter the dark magic apprentice Oskuro™ and his Evil Masters, who possess the power to transform the heroes into terrible monsters! Who will attain the Divine Armors of Power™ first?
– Formo Website
Part of the fun of the line is that you can mix and match parts between figures. There are the usual five points of articulation on this figure, plus extra swivel joints at the boots and right gauntlet (the left one seems to be glued into place). The figure is also backwards compatible so you can mix in parts with the vintage Modulok or Multi-Bot figures, if you wish.
To me this feels like a lost MOTU figure that never was. It has a high amount of detail, like you would see in the old Tony Guerrero sculpts. In many ways I prefer this style to the MOTU Origins figures – I find I prefer the higher level of detail, and I don’t miss the extra articulation, personally. I find these to be quite charming and I look forward to collecting the series!
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I like the look of these a lot. The Kirby-esque touches such as the armor, and in Barbaro’s helmet are nice.
Mark Taylor was involved with the original line before his passing, but Mattel quashed their first series of designs for resembling the work he did under contract for them. Calling the line “Lords of Power” probably didn’t help their case. These revised Dragonore characters are much better, frankly. I see a tribute to Mark’s MOTU “Stalker” art work in the Green Man character, which is nice.
I support Formo with my purchases, I just wish they weren’t doing so many repaints already. You’d think they’d have a steady queue of new characters ready to capitalize on the consumer’s excitement, as you expressed in the article.
Thanks again for the great site, and belated congrats on the Dark Horse book!
Wouldn’t it be interesting to point out this was originally to be a reproduction of He-Man’s very first “viking” prototype, as most of the other figures too, before Mattel forced them to cancel the project? Even when Mark Taylor had given them permission to transform his concepts into figures, Mattel still destroyed it all. Formo had to re-sculpt the characters and we got Barbaro instead. Cute and cool, sure, but we all seriois collectors wanted Taylor’s characters, not so much these made up ones.
Thanks very much! I was sad that they had to change at first too, but in the end I think this allowed them to be more creative. I have to say the blue version of Onitor looks even better than the red. But I do understand repaints aren’t everyone’s cup of tea.
The Divine Armor really does look Kirby-esque!
I remember reading about how the Mark Taylor play mat would have added the “Well of Souls” to the entire concept of MotU, in that Eternia was a nexus point and all other realities intersected with it via this well. This explained why you’d have barbarian hordes running around next to magical beasts, wizards and even see Science Fiction stuff thrown into the mix.
If Mark Taylor was part of the initial start of this Legends of Dragonore line, I guess they finally got to use his never used concepts in here. Honestly I think these figures are fantastic and the Devine Armor is a PERFECT McGuffin as every part of the armor can have “power” so you can give the right arm armor to Barbaro here and then maybe he can shoot energy blasts from it? Then as he finds more pieces of the armor, he’ll slowly become stronger. I think that’s a fun play pattern 100%.
I love the Origins line but I’m so upset with distribution for the Rise of the Snake Men assortments this year. They were my favorite faction as a kid and I’ve only seen the Deluxe offerings and the vehicles. At least with Legends of Dragonore, I can actually BUY the product.
This looks like a very cool line, but I’m afraid I just can’t jump into collecting another line, at this point. I wish them success, though!