I felt lucky about this year’s SanDiego Comicon exclusives. Usually I’m scrambling to get five or six, but this year I only wanted three: two of MOTU Classics Queen Marlena and a Monster High Deadfast Ghoulia. Not only were they both incredibly easy to get, but I spent a lot less.
Marlena is a perfect example of what’s so great about the MOTU Classics line. Even though her character’s an integral part of the MOTU mythos, she’s never received a figure in the previous lines. It’s not really surprising. I mean, what kid wants to buy a figure of He-Man’s mom? But now that we have a line that’s not focused on retail criteria, fan favorites like Marlena are given as equal an opportunity as the many variations of her son. Man, I love this line.
Something else I really love about this Marlena is that she’s actually two figures in one. Normally that just means she comes with a second head, and I’m fine with that. I have a lot of doubles on my shelves just because the second head they come with does a good enough job of making them look different. With Marlena they took it a bit farther and not only gave her two heads, but also two costumes.
Queen Marlena is almost a perfect representation of the Filmation series. Her dress piece is a soft but firm plastic that wraps around her body and connects in the back. Most of the sculpted detail is in the flow of the dress itself, but there is also her belt and chest seam to break it up a bit. Her head is a fantastic likeness, and unlike Randor her crown isn’t a separate piece. Something I never realized is just how strange Queen Marlena’s hair style is. It’s almost like a windswept pageboy look, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone wear their hair like this in real life.
Marlena’s other look is as Captain Glenn from her astronaut days. The Horsemen were able to do a great job of actually making this head look younger than the other. They also pulled her hair back into a little ponytail. This gives her a bit of the 200X Teela look, which I like and would love to see as an alternate head someday.
Captain Glenn’s astronaut tunic wraps around her body and connects in the back the same way as the dress piece. Its simple sculpt is really offset by the complexity of her helmet piece though. I’m a huge fan of the retro-futuristic look, and seeing figures in bubble helmets is always a plus in my book. The 4H did a great job making this piece complex enough to actually be a space helmet while still keeping a simplified look, like it may have been designed in the original toy line. Continue to page 2…
I couldn’t find a SDCC hook-up for MOTUC this year and missed the online sale date, so I’ll be e-baying these two in the future. As for Cringer, think of him as a cub version. I’m sure the Battle Cat buck will be reissued with a new Cringer head or two soon enough.
Excellent review and fun pics, as always! I’m also of the opinion that an articulated smaller cat figure could be used not only for Cringer, but panther-form Catra as well. I’d happily pay to have those two in a couple of Quarterly Repaint slots. Not that toy companies ever listen to me. The number of toy lines that could’ve lasted longer if only they’d produced more villains and secondary characters and laid off flooding the aisles with all the “Neon Lightning Laser Jet-Pack Scuba Grappling Hook” heroes they made . . . .
Back to the subject at hand, what stumped me was that in order to find Captain Glenn on MattyCollector, you had to use the search engine to find the ordering page. Not a trace of her on the MOTU Classics page. Probably why she lasted so long.
The only issue I want to raise with the review is the mention of Queen Marlena in “200X Battle Armour.” I must’ve missed something, ’cause I don’t recall ever seeing her in that type of gear. Could you direct me to an image of that, please?
Looking forward to Megator and Man-E-Faces!
does anyone else think the tiny little handgun is kind of insulting? it’s so dainty and “feminine” when the rifle is so huge… if she’s a badass, let’s quit treating her w/ kid gloves and arm this bxtch, right?
oh, and beedo? peep here, it’s a panel from the episode where she appeared in armor and then a fan rendering of same http://www.he-man.org/forums/boards/showthread.php?t=180740
I think to think of it as ‘precise’ – one weapon’s a scalpel, the other’s a f*#k off great broadsword.
Except, you know, they’re guns.
I have her on display holding both weapons – coz she’s that good. And going by her face sculpt, really pissed off.
Thanks for that link, D.R. That’s kinda nifty, but I don’t recall ever having that outfit register when watching those episodes. Chalk it up to never paying much attention to animé-style drawings, I guess.
But, yeah, I think I’d spring for one o’ they Battle Armour Marlenas, provided there was a Battle Armour Randor to go with ‘er. But I’d rather get Two-Bad or Spikor first.
oh, totally, but the “ultimate battleground’ versions of marlena and randor would make for one hell of a 2 pack… but yes, i completely agree there that i want two-bad and spikor first. of course, i’m still apparently the only guy championing extendar for 2012 all over the web, so i feel kind of on the outside of the core fanbase.
Well, you can put my name down on your Extendar petition, if you like. One of my favourites as a youngster.
Been going through the MYP MOTU DVDs, and finally got to the episode with Battle Armour Marlena in it. It’s an episode I’ve only ever watched once, ages ago, so no wonder it didn’t register. Hey-ho.
Capt. Glenn rocks! I fell in love with her retro Sci-Fi look and love the helmet, but sue looks great without it, too. I don’t care for the Queen Marlena stuff as I’m not a fan of that aspect of He-Man. Same goes for Prince Adam and Cringer which I’m currently selling off on eBay. But Glenn I absolutely love!
Great review!
The inarticulate Cringer is rather unfortunate – on the one hand, nice to have him in the line, but his existence is an excuse for Mattel not to revisit the character with full articulation any time soon; on the other, the release of a fully articulated version will make this staction pack-in (or stack-in, if you will) a slightly pointless lump of plastic.
He is cute though.
Two things really struck me about Marlena when she finally arrived – first, the eyes are nowhere near as bad as they’ve been made out to be! The only real design difference is the lack of coloured irises (they’re just plain badly painted on the Captain head though, which doesn’t help). Second – I was going to display her as the Queen, right up to the point when I got her out of the box and changed her into that dress. It just didn’t look as fun – so now she’s forever the captain on my shelves, who for some reason needs to keep her awesome bubble helmet on even though all the other toys are looking at her funny.
I’m really hoping they’ll have another go at Cringer. I completely agree that they shouldn’t have tried him at all if this was the most they could afford.
It’s funny, but in the end all I can think of is how amazing a AdamFaker would be as a real figure… 🙂
I don’t really see a problem with Cringer. I tend to think of this figure as a ‘placeholder’ for some reason and soon enough Mattel will whip out a Cringer variant for Battlecat.
Yeah, I love me that ’50s retro EC comics/Wally Wood/ John Severin/Al Williamson look. Just needs tubing on the arms and legs for that David Clark T-1 high altitude suit look. (http://www.astronautix.com/craft/t1.htm) 🙂
For some reason, Marlena was the final push I needed to swap the heads on several of my female MOTUC figures.
Battleground Teela’s head went onto original Teela’s body (who also took the Queen’s gold scepter which looks great), original Teela’s helmeted head went to Battleground’s body, and original Teela’s head went to Captain Glenn’s body (she also looks nice wearing the Queen’s dress).
Both Queen and Captain heads went into the parts drawer.
all good points! any cringer is better than none in my book however! I would be ok if they made one jsut like this but in coering pose with a future figure….maybe the baby adma and adora two pack??? 😀
one question did you guys JUST get your figures or have a backlog of stuff to write? the Queens been in the residence for quite sometime now.
Really, I just read these for the writing and the humor, but it always amazes me how close you come to selling me on things I have no reason to want.
I haven’t bought a six inch figure in forever, all of them are boxed up and hidden away, but I suddenly need a Cringer, an unarticulated cartoonish green tiger.
For what? I have no idea. I think he would probably ruin Shipwreck and Polly’s relationship if I brought him into my current set-up.
The finally like that we actually have a Queen marlena figure in Classics but I really the Caption Glenn figure alittle more better. But I have both of them being displayed together. Cool pics & review as always!!
no one need this crap…i got the first 20 Figures matty released than i stop to collect couse i think that they kidding with releases like molar and this here