That’s right, you get not one, but two MOTU Classics Reviews today! Club Eternia subscribers received two figures this month. The Club Exclusive Wun-Dar and the regular April figure, Evil Lyn. If you weren’t a subscriber, you had six minutes to duke it out with the WSOD for this figure. I was online trying to pick up the Weapons Pak and couldn’t get to the site until after Lyn was gone. Yep, Lyn sold out in the same timeframe as Moss Man with the WSOD working hard to slow us down. It sure ain’t easy trying to buy MOTU figures.

I like the Evil Lyn figure, but I’m really tired of this sculpt. 75% of the women of MOTUC are wearing this dress so far. In a few years, if a healthy chunk of the She-Ra cast has been added to the line, it won’t be such a big deal. But right now, it looks silly. There’s one dressmaker on Eternia and creative isn’t in his vocabulary. Of the three figures who wear this dress, Evil Lyn looks good in it, but it’s most wrong for her. Yes, Lyn and Teela shard a body in the vintage line, but the Teela’s Classics dress was updated by the 4H to better reflect Teela’s package art. Evil Lyn, who had different package art, is getting taken for a ride here. I’m glad that a lot of this line is “just like we remember”, but this is one of the times where it gave us a weaker figure.

The head sculpt, though, is excellent. The paint is good, but I don’t think it does the sculpt justice (it’s a thick yellow over navy blue plastic). I like the look here, but I’d love to see this figure done in her traditional color scheme.

Articulation is what we’ve come to expect on the girls since they’re all basically the same from the neck down. I usually skip the articulation section in these reviews, but I thought I’d take a minute to mention her neck articulation since that’s a problem spot for the ladies of MOTU. She’s the best yet. She has decent range (down, slight side-tilt, and swivel). She’s not a bobble head like her predecessors, but there is a bit of a “wiggle” to it because Mattel is still using that strange keyhole piece to hold the neck peg in. It really needs to go. Lyn’s head does pop on and off easily and I’m not as fearful of breaking that piece as I am with the Goddess, Teela, or Adora. So there is improvement with the piece.

Maybe it’s just me, but the paint apps seemed sloppier overall on this month’s offerings. Wun-Dar’s face and symbol weren’t as clean as they could have been, and Evil Lyn details aren’t as sharp as Teela’s. The blue details aren’t awful, but they look messy when you look at them compared to previous figures. I’m wondering if they’re rushing a bit on some of these figures to fit the quarterlies and exclusives on the schedule.

Since Evil Lyn is mostly a repaint, she did get packed with a few more accessories than the average figure. If you’re a fan of the shorter scepter of the vintage Evil Lyn or the long staff of the modern version, this figure has you covered. She gets one translucent blue crystal ball that can be plugged on into either the short scepter or the tall staff. I haven’t been able to pick which one I like better. Since I have two Evil Lyns, she’s been carrying both around for now. Sure, it’s overkill, but Evil Lyn isn’t known for playing fair, right?

She also includes a dagger as a nod to the 200x version. I wasn’t happy with the dagger, really. I know that it had to be less than detailed to be in “classics” style, but it just doesn’t have much personality. I like the skull on the hilt, but the blade doesn’t look right to me. Still, I’m glad to get 200x elements and more accessories is always a plus.

And we’re not done there. Evil Lyn also comes with Screeech. And since Screeech is also a repaint (the fourth version of that mold if you collect MOTUC & DCUC), they’ve added his harness and perch. The new pieces are nice updates of the original, but watch out for the tail on the armor. All the ones we received have already got stress marks on them and are near to being snapped off. Mattel attempted to package Screeech in a way that wouldn’t warp the wings, but they overlooked this part of the armor being easily damaged and the wings still came out warped anyway.

Was it mean of me to put that picture of Evil Lyn with long hair in the thumbnail? Did it get you to click on it at least? Technically speaking, Evil Lyn has always been a short-haired gal (there’s nowhere for it to go in that helmet), but the only loose girl hair I have at the moment is Adora’s hair painted black, so that’s what I used. Frankly, I was surprised to find the helmet was a separately molded piece (and still Mattel chose to mold the head in navy blue). If nothing else, I hope this is a sign that a helmetless Evil Lyn is a possibility down the road. The 4H would just have to make the hairpiece and not need to redo the whole head.

The helmet doesn’t come off easy, so be warned. The thick yellow paint will want to come off her face and go with the edge of the helmet. And if you malign her face too much the thick paint will crack (you can kinda see the dark spot at the bridge of her nose in the picture). So, if you decide to try this out, just be careful. Oh, and the helmet won’t fit on Adora, her head is bigger under all that hair.

Overall, Evil Lyn is a great figure despite the lack of new pieces. I think I’m just noticing the reuse more this month because of the Evil Lyn / Wun-Dar combo. When you open them back-to-back and realize that the only new tooling is Evil Lyn’s head and a couple accessories, you might question where your $40 went. We’re 25 figures into the line, and months like this have me wanting some more unique sculpts. I know that we got Battle Cat with Gygor and Tytus on the way, but we’re paying more for those too. I guess I’m just ready for Whiplash and beyond. The line is ready for its third buck.

Still, that doesn’t take away from Evil Lyn. I’m disappointed by the reuse of the Teela dress, but I knew I would be when she debuted a couple months ago. The head is great and photographs really well. I gained a new appreciation for it while doing the Photoshop work. And the accessories help lessen the sting of the body reuse a bit and she still looks great on the shelf. She’s a must for any MOTU fan, so hopefully her reissue will come soon.

Be sure to check out our other review for today, Wun-Dar.

For more MOTU reviews, check out our MOTU Classics Collector’s Guide.