Toy Review: ‘Masters Of The Universe’ Origins She-Ra Is Pretty Fun But With A Big Flaw

One of the silliest elements of Masters of the Universe lore is frankly one of the best. Thanks to that spin-off we also got some very fun figures.

After the resounding success of He-Man, a spin-off was inevitable. It eventually came as She-Ra: Princess of Power. Set on Eternia’s sister planet of Etheria, She-Ra was Adora, the kidnapped twin sister of Prince Adam. It was a bonkers set-up that turned into a great part of MOTU lore.

Adora wasn’t the pampered royal that Adam pretended to be though, or even the valiant hero that Adam (and He-Man) actually was. No, she was the lieutenant of Hordak, the MOTU universe’s greatest evil. Yet, He-Man was able to show his sister the evil of her ways, which led her to betray her master and join the Rebellion as She-Ra, the most powerful woman in the universe.

This figure is far from the first that Adora has received in the last few years. There are two She-Ra figures in the Masterverse line — one that’s a 7 inch scale adaptation of her classic design and one that’s a modernization and redesign — and one Origins figure that’s a straight adaptation of her original action figure, with her evil form Despara/Force Captain Adora hitting stores in the next few weeks. This figure comes from the Cartoon Collection though, which adapts the character’s cartoon appearance almost one-to-one.

And immediately, I have to say I’m struck by how well this does what it sets out to do. This figure is flawless, design-wise at least. This is one of the (few) figures that Mattel released for She-Ra’s fortieth anniversary last year, and it’s very nearly the cartoon cast in plastic. Every bit of the design is pulled from She-Ra’s titular cartoon, and it’s exactly what I wanted when I picked her up.

As far as play/posing, I’ll say this first, she needs a stand. It looks great, but her cape does make the figure fairly unstable. Once I had a stand for her though, she hit everything I was going for. The Origins line doesn’t quite have the posability of other collector lines, but that’s not really a drawback here at all.

Now, my big downside is in the accessories. Simply put, the Sword of Protection is a failure. My figure’s sword had been broken already by the band holding it in the package (which wasn’t even necessary because the packaging held it tight). Beyond that though, when I started to pull it from the package, it was incredibly flimsy, to the point that I was worried I’d break it at the hilt.

I didn’t though, and was fortunately very careful from this point on.

So overall, a great figure. But it’s a pretty big mark against it for the signature accessory to fall so short.