The big paint issue heading into the figure was, strangely, the boots. There was some hullabaloo over them when Skeletor was first shown with his typical bare feet. After some fan input, this version of Skeletor features full boots like the classic figure, though it’s really just his blue feet cast in purple instead of something cooler like Hordak feet. Really, I’m fine with this combination, but I still don’t get the painted toenails on the boots thing. It’s weird. And why no paint on the clasps and hinges?
Boots aside, Skeletor didn’t feature too much paint, but there are some nice touches here and there. The metallic on the armor and torso is great and the mixed use of gloss and flat finish on the black armor and loincloth really pops. And Skeletor’s finally got a head that’s more like the classic toy! I’ve still come to really enjoy the all-yellow face of the TRU 2pk best, but it’s nice to finally get a Skeletor were the green stays out at the edges like the figures of old. Skeletor is also sporting painted fingernails.
Skeletor features the standard articulation of the line: ball-joints at the head, shoulders, & hips, swivels at the biceps, wrists, waist, thighs, & calves, hinges at the elbow, knees & ankles, rocker ankles, & the ab crunch. The joints around the armor are restricted by it, but only slightly. All the joints are tight – especially the waist! Geez! I’m not sure what was going on there, but the joint was frozen solid when he arrived and still tends to stick even after some play. I’m guessing the glossy paint on the loin cloth and the metallics on the torso are getting a little too friendly with one another.
With quarterly figures being included in the subscription this year, Skeletor probably should’ve come with more gear, but I’ll give Mattel the benefit of the doubt on this one and assume Skeletor was budgeted before the “all in” subscription was green lit. Bikini Teela looks to be a figure with more “development”, so things seem to be moving in the right direction for the quarterlies despite the apparent “cheapness” of this particular Skeletor.
That said, I’m really pleased by the one accessory Skeletor did get! We first campaigned for his purple axe way back in 2009 when we realized we were likely just to get another purple sword or havoc staff. It’s nice to have the accessory in a new deco and, truthfully, the battle axe just goes better with the battle armor than any of the other accessories Skeletor was likely to reuse. It’s got a nice deco and looks great with the figure. Course, now we really want a purple shield…
Amazingly, I didn’t have any issues with Skeletor other than the frozen waist, but fellow toy blogger Philip Reed wasn’t so lucky. Have a look at his Skeletor over at BattleGrip.com. It isn’t so much that Mattel needs to replace it (they do), but shouldn’t someone be kicking the bad nuts out of the assembly line?
I probably should have placed this closer to the pic of the figures, but I wanted to mention that the chest plates are somewhat interchangeable between the two Battle Armor figures. He-Man’s snap into Skeletor’s like just fine, but Skeletor’s have to be propped into place against He-Man’s chest. I find it odd that they’re not all uniform in size, but I suppose they all had to be sculpted invidividually and interchangeability didn’t really come up. I admit it’s a bit weird to want to swap ’em, but it did make for a funny picture, didn’t it?
Overall, I really couldn’t be more pleased with Battle Armor Skeletor. I’ve been waiting for him ever since we first saw Battle Armor He-Man nearly two years ago. As a fan that prefers the Battle Armors, I finally feel like I have “my” Skeletor. The armor looks great, though I might have liked him to keep his classic loin cloth. I did appreciate the classic toy face and purple axe quite a bit though. The only thing I’m missing now is something for Battle Armor Skeletor to ride…
Holy Hell! they DID make the Plates fit to each other! 1 step closer to BA Faker!!
Sort of… Skelly’s plate is just loosely sitting in there.
I found this kind of amusing – your ad-bot gave me an ad for a local nail salon 😉
Jo
LOL
i always get groupon ads.
Tiger Direct is the one I always get. No idea why.
Yeah, I *like* this BA Skelly, but it still feels a bit half-assed.
Typical of their fan Q&A behavior, again Mattel misses the boat on the whole “purple boots on BA Skelly” thing.
When fans are asking for purple feet, it’s because the vintage one had ’em, and it completed the “armored” look in a more cohesive way, but the problem is the kind of feet used on the vintage BA Skelly don’t exist in MOTUC because the 4H sculpted the original Skelly to match the cardback art, and cheap-ass that Mattel is, they figured they could just use that ONE pair of feet for pretty much any figure they felt like.
So that said, I’m not digging the purple feet at all, especially with the painted nails.
The face paint is a slight improvement, I do dig the green widow’s peak effect from (again) the original cardback look, but the teeth are still very cartoony, Karloff Frankenstein’s Monster scar-style.
The way they did the green here paired with the more detailed and subtle teeth paint on the first release, and they might finally have a Skeletor head worthy of the 4H’s sculpting . . .
I totally agree with you on the teeth. His mouth did look more like stitched-up lips a la “Origins: Wolverine” Deadpool than proper teeth. It took me all weekend but I finally got his teeth to look more like teeth (more like the vs. DC Skeletor).
Another thing I noticed–for some reason the preview reviews all made a big deal about Skeletor’s neck peg being green, but mine is brown.
I checked on mine and it’s blue. The early reviewers get the production samples that Mattel doesn’t use, so I can why here is different – but you got a brown one? Weird.
Yep.
http://i473.photobucket.com/albums/rr92/IronGrenadier84/SANY3594.jpg
I do agree on the boots! We need some new Skeletor feet, I just wasn’t thinking about that during my review. And the painted nails are like the cherry on top.
I’ll have to look at the different teeth more closely in the future.
Great review as always! I love my BA Skelly!
I totally get what you’re saying about the slimmer torsos though. King Hissss looked inflatable from certain angles and its worse on guys like HeRo & Duncan too.
Thanks! He does have some blowup doll qualities from certain angles..
I would’ve really appreciated the Hordak boots on Skeletor as well as some type of armor on his arms or wrists. He just looks too naked for being the battle ready version of Skels.
The arms do look a little bare. I wanted to mention that in my review.
I laughed pretty hard at that last image of page 1.
🙂 Glad you liked that one.
Another funny review. Best looking Skeletor in Classics form for right now!!
Thanks, Sy!
I like BA. I want a BA for every figure there is……..I’ve said my piece.
I’d be okay with that. 😉
I wouldn’t mind a BA Faker. Would we want him to come with He-Man armor and a BA Skelly bat plate? Or Skelly armor and a He-Man “H” breast plate?
I think He-Man armor with a bat plate probably.
Anyway, I love BA Skelly. He’s always been my favorite variant of Skelly. He still should have come with a Havoc staff though. He-Man and Skelly should always come with their iconic weapons respectively. It’s ridiculous that they didn’t.
I’m very happy with the figure, but I’m so tired of seeing the three toed demon feet. If anything, BA Skelly should have come with the three toed Hordak armored feet since it was said Hordak may have helped him. I like more originality.
BA Skelly is still one of my favorite figures in this line though.
He-Man Armor with Skeletor’s plates would be the best bet for BA Faker…
I kinda feel like all Skelly armor would be best.
I’m happy with a new one over a reused one, but he definitely needed more gear at $20 and selling at the same level of the other figures.
Great review, Noisy! I think I like your MOTU ones best.
Thanks!
I really enjoyed this figure, but my face didn’t come out as nice and clean as yours did. And I agree with the rest of you that think Hordak boots should have been used here.
Some of the other IAT ones weren’t as nice, but I think they did a better job this go round than previously.
And Hordak boots overall? Even the tops?
“Battle polish.” Ha! Just what I’d expect two dolls…er, action figures to argue about.
I like this figure a LOT more than I thought I would…definitely more than Hsss. As for accessories, I’d have loved for him to come with the crossbones sword he used in one of the Filmation episodes…I swear I’m not hallucinating when I remember this.
Regarding Mattel’s ongoing problems with getting the shoulders to function properly with armor, I’ll be VERY disappointed if all the Snake Men end up with similar horribly oversized torso pieces like what Hsss got.
🙂 Dolls! Meh!
I would’ve loved for him to come with any new accessory, but he was likely planned outside the sub, so I’ll give him a pass.
They really need to do something with the torsos. I don’t know why they have to make room for a normal chest under there.
Battle Armor Mer-Man, please.
That would be awesome! Any luck getting your Skelly replaced?
As ever a good review. Mine actually turned up in the post today so I was able to compare and contrast for real which was nice – This is still the Skelly I had as a Kid so it’s the version I have the soft-spot for but I think I agree about the feet, they just don’t work on the umpteenth version and boots would have worked so much better here.