Masters of the Universe Revelation He-Man review

I’m still very much on the fence with Masters of the Universe Revelation the cartoon series. It’s really going to depend on how the back half of the season wraps up, but I do really like the figures and different take on familiar characters with the new designs. He-Man might not be the star of the show, but his presence is felt through every episode.

After waffling back and forth for months, I finally decided to give the figures a shot and there’s no way I could start this without taking a look at He-Man first. Let’s see if this Revelation He-Man has the power.

Packaging:  I always appreciate when a company seems to pay attention to what’s already on the shelves when conceiving its package setup. There’s not a lot of lines with blue packaging and while green seems more of a base color for any Masters of the Universe line, it’s hard to argue with this setup.

Mattel went with a nice wide window so you can actually see the figure and the accessories. This is becoming less common with changes to packaging materials so I appreciate it. The right side has a fantastic portrait of He-Man and even better the rear doesn’t just reuse the same artwork.

I love the writeup as it clearly frames He-Man’s role in Eternia and more importantly, how dire things would be if he were absent.

Likeness: My main struggle with getting into this line was I’m not a huge fan of the head sculpts for either He-Man or Skeletor.

There has been many peering through the package at various stores to see if I’m missing something. In hand, it still doesn’t blow me away, but it’s not as bad as I thought all this time. I think it’s the mouth/lips that make him look more disappointed than ready to charge into battle. And I’m having a tremendously hard time not seeing it as a Cabbage Patch Kid mouth.

He-Man’s hair sculpt is solid and frames his head just right with a hint of a breeze blowing his bangs slightly off center. His musculature is perfect for the most powerful man in the universe with muscles on muscles.

While most of the characters have drastic changes from their vintage looks, He-Man is basically a modern update of the 1983 figure. He’s got his traditional bracelet around his right wrist and a gauntlet on his left arm.

The loincloth shorts are a bit more pronounced so He-Man can’t be accused of wearing furry biker shorts. His boots have the appropriate furry top and wraps.

He-Man’s “armor” also skews old school save the iron cross replaced with an H. That’s not a PC over correction as the Origins figure does have it.

Paint: He-Man’s paint job is pretty simple. He’s missing his cartoon style Hulk Hogan tan though, which takes him down a few points even though this is entirely accurate to Revelation. It would have made for a sharper contrast to his hair color.

I wish Mattel could have dirtied up the Golden armor bits from the belt and gauntlets just so they don’t look so pristine.

In seeing various He-Man figures over the last few months they’ve been consistently solid with the paint job. The only area with any issue is the chest armor with the red paint not properly applied.

Scale: The Revelation line is a 7″ scale so they’re taller than the Masters of the Universe Classics figures.

He-Man wasn’t a giant but he shouldn’t be looking up at too many other figures.

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Articulation: With 30 points of articulation this is the most we’ve gotten from a Masters of the Universe line. This is far more like with a standard Marvel Legends figure.

I wish he had more range in his arms as even with double-jointed elbows his punches seem restricted.

Masterverse He-Man has:

• neck
• ball-jointed shoulders
• bicep
• elbow (double-jointed)
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• torso
• waist
• hip
• thigh
• knee (double-jointed)
• ankle

Accessories:  Naturally He-Man comes with his power sword. I’m old school so I wish his axe were included as well. The sword is fine if a little plain, but it’s got nice length and fits in He-Man’s hand snugly.

He’s also got his shield. Like the sword it’s not flashy and could have used a metallic sheen paint job to help it stand out some.

Finally, he has a set of swappable gripping hands. Mattel probably also should have thrown in a left fist so He-Man can knock out Skeletor’s goons or punch mountains with both hands.

Worth it?  I grabbed He-Man for $20. For a seven-inch scale figure at the older price point that’s not a bad value at all. Prices are raising on this line to around $21.99. That’s not awful, but it might make me more selective with which figures I get in the future.

Rating: 9 out of 10

I wish the head sculpt were stronger and he had the axe. The double jointed elbows are nice, but he still doesn’t have enough range in his arms to pull off great looking punches. But this is a nice first effort from a figure we’re sure to see plenty of figures over the next few years with this line.

Where to get it?  I found He-Man at Target, but he’s also available at Walmart. Failing that, he’s easy to grab on Amazon and Target.com and Entertainment Earth.