Deluxe Skeletor isn’t technically Mondo‘s second pass at Masters of the Universe‘s arch-villain and evil lord of destruction, as they’ve made a straight-up faithful Revelation version — and at least one color variant.
This is, however, the second Mondo design to allow them a creative license in the interpretation. There’s a twofold reason for doing Skeletor again so soon before other characters — one is that he’s the primary villain in the line and, thus should always be available. The other is that since they decided to make his steed, Panthor, they should have him up for sale as a rider so fans could buy both at once.
A bare-bones (no pun intended) version of this Skeletor is still available from Mondo for $235. The deluxe Skeletor sent to us for review, however, is the timed edition, which features parts to create two-and-a-half of his classic variants. The two? Battle Armor Skeletor and Dragon Blaster Skeletor. The “half” is Terror Claws Skeletor — he includes the terror claws themselves, but not the “sports bra” armor or the snap-dragon weapon. He also includes a cloth cape, alternate cloth hood, and two extra heads (classic minicomic style and Mondo-exclusive bone style).
Both editions include a plastic sculpted hood, eight hands, a havoc staff, sword, battle axe (a repaint of He-Man’s, with an orb attached to the top instead of a point), and bonus classic ’80s head, which looks more like a Halloween mask than a Skeletor face at this scale. All the heads, save the ’80s one, have a movable jaw.
Now and Then
Mondo’s first Skeletor design went for a more “realistic” design, for lack of a better term, aesthetic, as if Skeletor were a character in an R-rated Conan movie. The ram skull on his staff was depicted as an actual ram skull, while the new one is purple and metallic, like all the Mattel toys. The current figure uses the classic armor design everyone’s familiar with in purple and mainly just adds a lot more detail, though it differs in one key area: version 1 had three-toed feet like the first action figure, and version 3 has the full five toes, which makes logical sense. All mammals tend to have the same number of digits on their hands as their feet. But then, none has a bare skull for a head, so…logic only works so much here.
One surprisingly more realistic detail on the new one is that the crossed bones on his chest are sculpted like actual bones rather than the cartoon dog-bone style most are familiar with. The head style has been changed completely, as the original had a solid hood piece with plug-in faces, while the new features full skull heads that can either be wrapped in the cloth hood (which is wired around the edges for extra possibility) or the sculpted hood. Both include bonus minicomic/Alfredo Alcala-styled heads/faces, but it’s surprising how different they look from each other.
Another key difference is the cape. The old was black outside, purple inside, and hung very loosely on the shoulders with a chain. The new is purple, attached to the neck with elastic, and Todd McFarlane-level oversized, full of wires to pose it dynamically or as a cover-all. Like He-Man and Trap Jaw, he has soft-good furry undies.
Quite the Package
Now that we’ve covered the changes a bit let’s back up. The bio on the back of the box has fixed the “Grey Skull” typo:
The flap on the front of the window box is now held by Velcro rather than a magnet. As I tend to toss the packaging anyway, it’s no issue here. It may be to you, hence the forewarning.
Everything’s pretty easily accessible once opened, and you may notice the display base has changed — it’s now an oval with faux-cobblestone deco rather than the Mondo M logo. It’s an improvement for display for sure if perhaps maddening for line consistency. The stand uses the crotch underhook style metal clasp.
Skeletor uses an all-new body, though it looks quite similar to previous versions. The ab piece seems distinctly different from the recent deluxe He-Man, but if the body is totally new, it’s also apparent that it’s the same aesthetic, with muscles looking similarly shaped. Waist articulation is supposedly improved; I didn’t want to push it much, but certainly there were no waist breakage issues as I had with He-Man. Most noticeable is that the head and hands are a little tougher to pop off now, which is not a bad thing, though the right wrist, whichever hand, tended to be a bit loose. Old Skeletor easily holds his havoc staff upright, while the new one will quickly swivel it sideways, requiring a steadying extra hand or a place to rest it. Articulation appears basically the same, and it was good the first time, so there are no issues there.
Undress to Kill
To get the alternate armor on, you’ll need to get his classic “Centurion” armor off. Pop open a peg in the back, pop off his head, and the shoulder pads lift off over the neck. They’re still attached to the straps, though, which do not open — you’ll need to slide those down over his legs and off. That’ll leave your Skelly bare-chested.
The Battle Armor uses magnets, but make sure his torso is absolutely straight at the mid-joint, or it won’t fit. The magnets feel a touch weaker here than on He-Man, especially on the two different green bat logos. There, a “clean” one can swap places with a “battle-slashed” one.
The Dragon Blaster armor also has magnetic clasps, but they’re also a bit weak and have the burden of having to support the weight of the dragon, a solid and fully articulated figure. The dragon features disc-and-pin articulation at the neck (twice), mid-torso, tail, and all four ankles; the four hips are true ball joints, and the jaw opens and closes.
Chains of Hate
No complaints about the figure, but the toy’s biggest issue is in the execution of the Dragon Blaster assembly. On the vintage figure, a lock hooked around the dragon’s collar and the end of the chain. Since this padlock does not open, that’s not possible. You’ll need needle-nose pliers to open the metal ring at the end of the chain and hook it around the collar, but only AFTER you’ve threaded the chain through the front armor because the other end of the chain is permanently attached to a green handcuff for Skeletor.
So once you’ve assembled the armor, the dragon is chained forever through the breastplate, with the only way to detach said breastplate being if one uses pliers again to open the end of the chain. Not a great solution. It could have been solved if the dragon’s collar were simply removable, but it does not seem to be.
Now, if detaching the dragon is not a problem? Dragon Blaster Skeletor looks awesome. The dragon’s classic spitting action is reproduced with a sculpted mist cloud that slots into the roof of his mouth. The collar has a tab that easily slots into the back, and the cloth cape even has an open slit in it so the dragon can hook on to the back through the cape.
I might have preferred a slightly more muted or tarnished green — to make them look metal rather than plastic — but obviously, the classic aesthetic was targeted here. It’s best to remove the classic wrist guard in order to pop the green one on.
Nine Inch Nails…
The Terror Claws come with their own wrist guard attachments, and the claws are articulated at the knuckles — all four finger claws are one piece that can bend inward. If your Skeletor likes to do the Mr. Burns “Ehhhhxcellent,” that works.
Whichever version you choose to display, the cape makes all the armors look better, and posed properly, the cloth hood beats the sculpted. But you have options. Honestly, if money were no object, I’d want three to display them all. To get the deluxe version now, though, you’re looking at around $450 on eBay. Good thing the classic armor-only version, which is still available for $235, may be the best looking version anyway.
Now that you’ve had your moment of Zen, check out many more images and angles in the figure below:
