Articulation for Adam is standard because he’s just a repaint of He-Man (right down to super, super loose ankles), but Orko held a few surprises. The biggest one wasn’t really on the figure, but on the base. If you’re a 4H fan like me, you’re familiar with the clear stand with the little black base. It works, it’s elegant, and it’s unobtrusive. I like it, but Orko’s has been upgraded and I want this one from now on. Instead of the usual post, it tops out in a ball joint. This opens up Orko’s poses like you wouldn’t believe. He can appear to float in just about any direction. Slimer could have really used this stand.
In addition to the stand, Orko’s got a ball-jointed head, shoulder, elbows, and swivel wrists. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but for a guy with no legs, it’s plenty.
Back to Adam for a moment, how are the ankles on the figures you’re receiving? Everyone at IAT has ended up with looser and looser ankles on the past few releases. Are you seeing that same trend?
Paint was good on both these figures. Orko’s colors are almost entirely dictated by his color change plastics, the only exception is the head and eyes. Orko’s left eye is slightly warbled as is the yellow paint on Adam’s belt buckle, but everything else is sharp. I’ve come to appreciate the pearlized wristbands on Adam, but I’m curious about how they’d look straight up silver.
Overall, Mattel and the 4H did a fantastic job on Orko. I don’t know if this one or the regular one will be my favorite, but it doesn’t matter. The sculpt, articulation, and action feature on this one is fantastic. I love the ball-jointed stand and while I still want an updated ‘magic trick’, I enjoy the different effects the color change plastic added to Orko.
Adam is what he is – a repaint of He-Man. That’s what I wanted, so no complaints there. I’m glad they tried the new head even if I don’t think it came out that well. I love his accessories and the idea of the second head, but the big drawback for this figure is the lack of a holster. If we could put the sword on Adam’s back and pose him reaching for it, he’d be that much better.
Update 8/10 – Standard Release Orko
After receiving the little guy via Mattycollector (the only way the non-color change version was available) on Monday, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to give him his own review. I had already covered the SDCC release which was mostly the same, so I decided to just snap a few pics of the standard Orko and tack them on the bottom of this review. For his great sculpt (including his flowing shirt & expressive hands), articulation (no loose ankles!), and accessories you’ll have to head back to page one as those are all essentially the same (save the book which does not feature a color change SDCC logo) as the previously released San Diego exclusive.
This add-on review will only concern itself with the colors and the paint work as those are the primary difference. Sadly, that one aspect wasn’t completely up to par.
For the most part, Orko looks good. I wasn’t sure which version I would like more, but I’ve decided that I like the fully colored Orko better. He fits right in with the line, his color pallet looks great, and he’s exactly the Orko I wanted when I first envisioned his inclusion as a Classics figure. While the colors are sharp, the paint is iffy. Some parts are good – the O is perfect, the yellow paint (always a gloppy color) came out better on this version than my clear one. The hands were oddly molded red and painted blue, but that seems to have worked okay. I guess the real problem with the paint is the ears. They don’t make it all the way to the hat.
Normally, when I get a paint issue like black marks on Wun-Dar’s face (again the odd choice of the molded plastic showing through) or the white on Zodak not being aligned properly, I chalk it up to “bad paint happens” -that mine is a relatively unique problem while plenty of other collectors got great paint. That doesn’t seem to be the case with Orko’s unpainted ears. At the very least, it’s a bit more widespread.
As the Matty orders have been arriving, fans have been posting their messed up Orko’s in thread at He-Man.Org. Toy Guru added his comments and asked for more pictures saying that he “will not stand for such poor paint issues.” I’m glad he’s paying attention, but the ears weren’t painted correctly on the preview samples handed out to the first look sites and it looks like that mistake got carried on through to the final version.
Truthfully, with a bit of blue paint and a fine brush, I can fix my Orko – far cheaper than the only course left to Mattel, a corrected reissue. I have mixed feelings about paint issues like this one. It’s an easy fix, but at the same time, it’s work I shouldn’t have to do. Quality control is a problem with any line, but things like loose ankles and bad paint suck that much more in a line where we can’t choose our figures.
Hmm… the ankles on my Prince Adam are pretty tight, actually. I think you guys might just have rotten luck?
But I agree with your review on Orko and his scaling! I really dig it!
As far as Adam’s head… I dunno… I kinda like it. It’s funny! Although, I think I wish it’d be more like the intro to the original Masters cartoon, sleepy eyes, smirk… That would’ve been funnier!
Oh, and the Prince Valiant hairdo, yeah, that would’ve been better lol
We must have rotten luck! Adam, Marzo, and Keldor to a lesser extent. I’m hoping on regular Adams will be good!
You’re right! The more smoothed out hair would have been great!
Hey dude whats up im a 4HM fan myself & i have no one else to ask but is there anyway to fix the ankle problem ? Dude all of ur reveiws rock they truly are a collectors dream come true plus there funny!
The Number One/Number Two joke is hilarious!
That was the one I was worried about. 😀
Awesome round of strips this time! I love the last one best. I always knew Orko could kill them all!!
Thanks! 😀
Nice. I caved and went for Orko because he was still available when I reached the order page. I figured “why not? Those $25 were burning a hole in my pocket anyway!” But the set looks promising and I don’t think I’ll regret the purchase.
I think you’ll like him. The Adam figure is very nostalgic for me and Orko is done well – the hemline, the hands, he’s just spot on.
I’ve had an awful time with loose ankles in this line. The loose footed Heroes don’t stand a chance against the evil forces of Skeletor because they’re all able to stand up properly 95% of the time. She-ra and He-man are sadly the worst offenders though Keldor recently gave them a pretty big run for their money.
One note about Orko: does anyone miss the removable hat? I’m not sure if I’m going to or not yet…
I thought I would, but I really didn’t think about it once I had him in hand.
The “He-Man” boot is usually the worst, but I haven’t been having good luck with the new boot ankles either.
i’ve been getting 50 50 figs for a while now, one ankle nice and tight, one floppy as my balls on a warm day.
Yeah! The right ankle is a much worse offender than the left!
This guy gets top billing as one of the three keepers of Adam’s secret (why didn’t Cringer count?).
Perhaps because Cringer also has a secret identity, and would therefore be more kept than keeper?
I suppose that makes sense…. :grumble:
The Lost joke is hilarious. Great job as always!
Haha, I was wondering if anybody else knew that was from Lost, too. Definitely funny and appropriate!
I’m so glad people enjoyed that one. I thought for sure it would fall flat! 😀
On the Org, Toy Guru said he didn’t know why the holster wasn’t back there. I’m not often unhappy with 4H decisions, but I was this time. His lack of holster really blows. 🙁
if the brand manager isn’t the guy who gets the proto fig and says “hey, this needs a tweak” then i guess i don’t know what the hell his job is. if he noticed the sword hanger was missing, isn’t it his JOB to tell the horsemen, “hey, put a frog on the back of the vest you pants pissing pansies!”? no, this, and the overall lackluster job on the face of adam lead me to believe adam was an in-house tweak on an existing he-man body, not a horsemen job… admittedly, i have no proof, only suspicion… but there it is.
TG rests on the 4H laurels, so I’m sure its a 4h sculpt. How often do we hear that the 4H made this, the 4H made that, and he has no clue what the backstory is? In one of the interviews, Pixel Dan I think, Guru outright MOCKED and laughed at fans for asking about the backstory of Carnivus shield when it was just intended to be an extra accessory.
Its definitely his job to look at Adam and ask where’s the holster, but I dont think that lets the 4h off the hook for not including it.
The thing about the shield annoyed me when I watched that interview. It was IAT who asked the question. We ask because we’re interested and care. We already knew “keep reading the bios” was more or less a putoff/lie but I felt a little embarrased/angry when he laughed off fans asking about the shield.
So I’m the only one who finds the strip with Orko carrying a head SUPER CREEPY?!
Geh, he’s probably got the spare heads all lined up and KEEP HIM AWAY FROM THE TEELA HEAD! NO! NO!
I didn’t think of it as a creepy, but I can see it. LOL
Great review! I read somewhere that the 4H intended the book to be tucked under Orkos arm instead of it fitting in his hands.
Yes, I’ve read that since too. I’ll include it in my look at the regular Orko.
Cute review!
Cute?? LOL Thanks!
Great review and pics! Thanks!! Can’t wait to get my solid Orko next week too!!
Thanks! My reg Orko should be here Monday! I’m excited!
I’m having the same issue as Dayraven. The right foot is almost univerally loose while the left ankle is fine.
Are the molds starting to wear out?
Me three. I suppose it could be that simple!
Cringer is part of the secret because he’s Battle Cat, but he could be considered a keeper of Adam’s secret. I don’t know. Were not supposed to analyze old cartoons like that!
I analyze everything like that…
“mystical properties of Eternia that turns Orko from the Samuel L. Jackson of magic into… Steve Urkel.”
LOL
😀 It’s true! Skeletor doesn’t want to run into him off Eternia!
I wish I could’ve gotten this yesterday. Matty wouldn’t let me submit my order.
I had another friend who had that same problem. I waited forever to get my order in.
Orko’s the smartest guy in the line; he’s guaranteed that he’ll never have floppy ankles by simply forgoing legs entirely.
LOL Exactly!
Definitely an interesting way to do an exclusive!
I enjoyed the color change immensely. I want a heat-sensitive sword!
I can’t wait for mine to arrive. He looks awesome.
Next week’s gonna be cool.
Great review! I always love your stuff. When are you doiing Mo-Larr?
Mo-Larr won’t be here until early next week, so we’ll get him on the schedule after that!
That list pic is hilarious! Orko should lay the smack down!
😀 Maybe he’ll get his chance someday.
Great pics! Orko’s hand sculpts are super expressive! 🙂
I didn’t talk about that, but they really are!
Q:”Hey, ToyGuru, why does Adam use teh teckno swrod?”
A:”Well…bee..because. Just because.”
LOL Yeah.
I know what I’m doing with the extra He-Man head with the dolphin forehead… I’ll pop that hair off, and hopefully Vikor’s hair/helmet will come off easily with some boiling… and thus with Vikor’s face and He-Man hair, I will have the greatest He-Man EVAR…
I have two subs for next year now, so I’m looking at Vikor’s face for something. I hadn’t thought of that, but that could be really good!
I hope my Orko doesn’t look like that! That sucks!