Toy Review: Turtles Of Grayskull — The Crossover Every 80s Kid Has Waited For Part 3: Mutated He-Man

We’ve now reached the third part of our look at the Turtles of Greyskull line of action figures. Last week, we looked at Leonardo and Donatello. Now we’re going to be able to look at the big guy himself — He-Man!

Frankly, when the line was announced, this was the biggest surprise to me. I love the premise of Skeletor and Shredder teaming to mutate heroes and villains across Eternia. It’s a fun story hook (for what I hope to be an eventual full-length graphic novel, and not just the mini comics). It’s surprising to see He-Man amongst the heroes that were mutated and turned evil.

I’m glad they did it though. This is a great figure.

Now, these four figures (yes, I found Man-At-Arms) are the first from the Masters of the Universe Origins line that I’ve ever collected. This is probably the best of the initial four figures.

A big part of that is how stripped down it is. He-Man only comes with a club and his chestplate. Where Donnie and Leo had issues because the accessories were bulky and fit poorly, He-Man has none of that. That means his arms and legs have a full range of motion allowed by the sculpt (more on that in a minute), and his bandana only needs a little manipulation for posing his head.

The lack of accessories might be a little to the figure’s detriment though. The lack of armor is great, because I can pose him however I want. But where the Turtles had armor, weapons and their shell-shields, He-Man has none of that. The club is a fun mutation of the Power Sword, and the figure would have been improved with some similar variations of his other most common accessories- specifically his axe and shield.

There is one small downside with the sculpt. His mutated arms- longer and significantly bulkier- do have less posability. It’s a trade-off for the design that doesn’t take much away from the figure though.

I also love the materials used here. The sickly green of his hair is a great halfway point between He-Man’s classic blonde locks and the mutagen. The black of his chestplate is a bit shocking, especially with the orange paint, giving him a great look of He-Man but wrong.

The best part though is the purple plastic used for the body. This isn’t just a sickly purple plastic with some green painted highlights. It’s slightly translucent, making this character feel like it’s more than just “He-Man but twisted.” It’s kind of got a horror movie vibe, and I like that.

So far, I’m glad to see the best figure of the line is He-Man (though the Leo fan in me is a little disappointed). Tune in for the last in this series of figures- for now- later this week when I take a look at Man-At-Arms.