Toy Review: Teela

04/22/10

Masters of the Universe Classics Teela

I’ve been putting off getting into Masters of the Universe Classics (MotUC) line since it came out. Though I’ve been a long time fan of the Masters of the Universe characters (longer in fact than I have been of Transformers), the fact that it’s only distributed online via MattyCollector.com was a big factor in my disregarding it. Though we do get the figures here in the Philippines, it’s usually already through secondary sources and the mark-ups are killer.

I normally see MotUC figures available at various stalls at Greenhills for Php 2,500.00. That’s roughly a whopping $55.00 at today’s exchange rate. You can see why I’m hesitant to tease myself. If my Collector’s Completist Compulsion gets going with this line, I’ll be up to my eyeballs in debt faster than you can say “Nordic Homoeroticism”.

So I promised myself I would only get a few figures. On the list were He-Man, Man-At-Arms, Battle Cat, possibly Skeletor and Trap-jaw, and Ram-Man. Oh, and Teela.

Teela was the Captain of the Royal Guard of Eternia. She was that crush worthy chick we saw on Saturday mornings who would yell at Adam and act totally sensible until she got stuck in some evil plot and had to be rescued by He-Man (Adam in a loin cloth for the uninitiated). The whole set-up was a nerd’s wet dream come true.

So when I saw this Teela going for only Php 1,850.00 (about $41.00) I decided I wasn’t going to find a better deal and forked over the cash.

The package is pretty nice if you’re into that sort of thing. It’s an oversized bubble on a small card. Since these aren’t meant to be displayed on shelves in a toy store, there aren’t any J-hooks on top. It’s a pretty space conscious design.

The figure is displayed nicely with a good view of the toy from the side as well as the front. If this was in a toy store, I’d say it would be easy to pick a figure with good paint, but since you’re stuck with whatever Mattycollector decides to ship you, forget it.

The card back has some of the other figures available, and the numbers are growing at 1 each month. In the States these are something like $20 per figure, plus $10 shipping or so, so you can see how this can get expensive very, very fast. There’s a blurb about who Teela is at the back, but I’m sure if you bought this figure, you already knew who she was. It would have probably been a better idea to give us some nice artwork instead.

There’s a tray inside the bubble which you can pull out once you open the package. Sadly, it’s not one of the toylines where you can re-use the box. Once you open it, it’s pretty much garbage. The figure is held in place by rubber bands, but thankfully, no twist ties.

She’s supposed to be in the 6″ scale, but Mattel’s never been able to get their sense of size right. She’s HUGE next to other toys in the scale. She dwarfs Power Girl and the rest of the DC Universe Classics (DCUC) line, even Wonder Woman. She’s even bigger next to the Marvel Legends (ML) crowd.

She comes with quite a few accessories, which adds a point to her in the value department. Many of the MotUC toys I’ve read about only have one or two accessores. Teela has 6.

She comes with a sword and buckler for those everyday days on Eternia. Both are nicely done, with sculpted details on both pieces. The buckler clips on nicely to her forearm. It’s pretty secure, but comes off easily when you want it to. It doesn’t really have any paint, but then it’s a brown leather buckler, so what do you want?

The sword is nicely made, with more work put into it than He-man’s Power Sword. Granted, that sword is iconic and they can’t really tweak it, but that doesn’t mean this one shouldn’t be applauded. The design goes well with either the of her two motifs, the falcon or the snake.

Teela also has the Staff of Ka and a Snake headdress. This is where my wiki-fu and google-jutsu skills run out. I don’t remember why she had a connection to the Snake-men in the MotU lore, but I do remember the original toy and some of the art had the same when I was a kid. In any case. Both look well done and provide an excellent second look for Teela.

The fifth accessory is the extra head that fits into the Snake-Men headdress. You can pop it out and you have Teela adorned with a plain gold helmet. If she was just a skotch smaller and I had a ton of money, she would make a perfect Amazon to put next to Wonder Woman. She can even use the DCUC accessories so I’ve got a few extra gladiator weapons for her, too.

Not to mention this…

The last accessory is Zoar the falcon. In the MOTU mythos (or at least as I remember it), Zoar was an animal form of the Sorceress of Grayskull. In the cartoon, she was Teela’s mother, who gave her up. In the comic I think Teela was a clone of her or something. There was an episode where Zoar the falcon led Man-At-Arms, Teela’s adoptive dad, to her as an infant, which explains why she’s included here.

Even if the toy is a multi-time re-deco of one that’s been included in many sets, it’s still a good one. You’ve seen it in the Wonder Twins pack and with Beast Boy. Still a great looking accessory. They fit on the haft of the Staff of Ka, but sadly not on Teela’s wrist. Unless you’re an ornery bastard who won’t quit until he gets a photo for his review. Then it might cooperate.

Paint is so so. Overall it’s good, the face being clean and sharp especially. But there is some slop around the body, especially where the gold meets the white on her costume. It’s not really a big goof, but for the price Mattel is asking, I’d expect better.

Sculpt-wise she’s pretty near what I remember from my childhood. Maybe not as buxom or voluptuous as some people want, but nice for what she’s supposed to be. I don’t see a lot of female soldiers or atheletes with huge breasts and asses, do you?

I would have preferred her face have a little expression though. It’s a little empty to look at, but then I guess that’s a limit of the technology as well as the design. I doubt they could have put a lot of expression unless it was hand made.

Articulation is pretty good, with a good range of motion that allow her to do some deep stances and dynamic poses. Her foot print is relatively good for a female figure, giving her pretty good stability.

The post that her head sits on is a little long, but that just means that she’s got more clearance to move around. You can’t really see the gap at the back anyway, unless you’re looking for it.

The rest of her is about the same as a DCUC female. She does have a waist swivel, but it’s restricted by her rubberized suit. To tell you the truth, I didn’t really notice the omission until it was pointed out to me. The rest of her is just so impressive to me.

As my first foray into a new line, I gotta say that Teela has me sold on the MotUC toys. While I can’t say that the high price is worth it for all the toys, Teela’s great sculpt and nice assortment of accessories really up the play value, giving you alot of choices of how to display her.

She’s not for everyone, but if you have some extra cash, and have a few 6″ or better yet 7″ barbarians hanging around your display, you should pick one up.