Masters of the Universe New Eternia Skeletor review

One of my main hang-ups in not immediately signing up for the Masters of the Universe Masterverse line was the initial head sculpts for He-Man and Skeletor left a lot to be desired.

Of course, I knew eventually Mattel would get around to making better head sculpts for them. I’m still waiting on my ideal He-Man head, but with the New Eternia Skeletor, I’ve got the new look version of the main MOTU villain I’ve been waiting on.

The whole concept of New Eternia is for Mattel designers and sculptors to come up with original ideas for the Masters. Skeletor’s new look is definitely inspired. Let’s see if this take of the classic enemy delivers or deserves a spell to be banished from our memories.

Packaging: There’s not a lot of major changes from the Masterverse Revelation line with the biggest being the switch to New Eternia along the front.

It still has the sharp deep blue with the open window so we can actually see paint issues, swapped accessories or missing parts. The two portraits — one on the side and another on the left is a nice touch.

The side portrait is really useful here in showcasing this new look for Skeletor. As usual, his bio is incredibly well done with a true sense of storytelling and opening up a new era for the Masters. 

Likeness: Skeletor’s new look skews close enough to the classic design without going too far from what makes the character stand out in the first place. This is an homage to the original Mark Taylor designs for MOTU.

Granted, Skeletor has had plenty of variant armors and attires over the decades, but his classic harness with crossbones is too iconic to be replace for an extended period of time. 

Skeletor is rocking a helmet that’s a hybrid of a Spartan and Barbute style. The Taylor design had it more like a crown with a jewel in the center. That’s carried over with this design while it more closely resembles a standard helmet. 

A big distinction from other Skeletor figures is the head sculpt, which ghastly more angular eyes and nose with the addition of a beard. Taylor didn’t throw in a beard since Skeletor had a skull head. I’d probably like this addition more of the beard were done in a different color as opposed to the visual of a skull growing facial hair instead of skin. 

Another difference is Skeletor is rocking an armored chest piece harness with what seems to be a bat (Horde shoutout??). This also includes a cloth cape for a more regal look. His shin guards are new elements as well with less angular edges and they also have the bat wing design.

If that’s not your bag though and you prefer a more classic take, you can remove the harness to reveal the crossbones and more detailed wider collar armor piece. I love the ability to go completely new version or skew classic.

Skeletor’s belt has another beast-type sculpted in the center while his gladiator style skirt piece hangs much longer than his typical look. This is the lone area with texturing go convey a leather-like appearance.

Paint: Despite an attire change, Skeletor retains his classic color scheme with the sky-blue skin tone. The previous Revelation Skeletor had a darker shade or blue, which wasn’t a great fit. The purple has a nice deep hue that complements the blue sharply. 

Skeletor’s eyes look fantastic with the red standing out strong against the black. And the gem at the center of his crossbones armor has a nice sheen to it like it’s almost glowing with power.

Scale: With its 7″ scale, the Masterverse figures largely just exist on their own with little difference in height from one character to the other.

 

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Articulation: Skeletor features 30 points of articulation, which is pretty good even though the articulation model lacks the smoothness of your average Marvel Legends figure.

He is able to hit a variety of dynamic poses in his battles against the Masters.

New Eternia Skeletor has:

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

Accessories: Skeletor’s got some cool accessories. I’ve covered the removable outer armor piece with cape. 

He also comes with swappable hands — a open left hand and a right fist.

As always, he’s got his Havoc Staff. This one is thicker with a far more detailed and sinister looking rams head. 

Skeletor also has a new weapon with the Scimitar of Chaos, which is a great name. It features an ornate hilt and an exaggerated curved blade with little nicks and grooves along the edges.

The best accessory is a classic head sculpt. This is fantastic with rounder, deep set eyes, a wider nose and an insidiously creepy half smile. I’m really impressed by this sculpt and glad I held out for this take on Skeletor in this line. 

Worth it?  I got New Eternia Skeletor for $22. His prices have fluctuated a bit higher lately and I didn’t want another Tri-Klops situation where I waited for a cheaper price and it jumped dramatically.

Rating: 10 out of 10

I can’t find much to complain about with this figure. It’s a fantastic update to Skeletor with a tremendous creepy head sculpt and a great two in one option.

Where to get it? You can get Skeletor from Amazon

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