If anyone wonders why Masters of the Universe has trouble reaching new fans, consider the reactions of some of the old ones. They’ve responded better to a toy line that tries to slavishly recreate the original figures better than any that have attempted to update them, rejected a couple of reboot cartoons as too different (love or hate the Princesses of Power and CG He-Man shows, they were definitely trying something new), and then when they got one that faithfully continued the original story, were mad at producer Kevin Smith for supposedly misrepresenting his fandom and making the female characters stronger. Some of us long for new characters and adventures, and not just the umpteenth version of Trap Jaw that looks just like all the previous versions.
One Big Mother
This Comic-Con, Mattel gave us an amazing exclusive figure, based on a surprise new character revealed at the end of Masters of the Universe: Revelation. Motherboard will be voiced by the original. live-action Evil-Lyn, Meg Foster, in the follow-up series, and is the first giant in the Masterverse wave. She’s only the fourth giant character in any Masters toy line (not counting beasts) after Tytus, Megator, and Procrustus. And yet, as of this writing, she is still not sold out on Mattel Creations. Granted, $65 isn’t chump change, but its’ the price of some 7-inch Super7 figures, and a whole lot less than the $200+ Mondo asks for their 12-inch Masters.
Incidentally, she scales pretty well as a “normal-size” character next to the Mondo figures.
Motherboard actually ties into pre-existing storylines well, as the source of the techno-organic virus which canonically created the Preternian cyborg dinosaurs, and in Classics continuity gave rise to Intergalactic Skeletor. She also paves the way for Hordak as her techno-cult turned out to ultimately be a front for the Evil Horde. The outer cardboard box depicts her projecting the Horde symbol — the box’s seam is on the wrong panel, but if you cut the right corner it can fold out to give you a bigger picture.
Open that box, and her proper box emerges, depicting the robotic form of Screech. Open the front up, and the leaves of the box clamp to the sides with magnets to stay open. Motherboard comes encased in plastic and shirt tags inside but makes a nice enough display piece as-is.
Thinking Out-of-Box
Bonuses that may not be overtly obvious are extra hands (for weapon holding, and with short nails) and a square plastic stand with circuitry details and a waist-clamp pole that can plug into it. These are taped behind and below the figure. If you want her to really spread her wings, though, you’ll have to free her.
Motherboard’s cloth cape, poseable wings, and rubbery input cables are all part of one piece that plugs into her back. Because of the small plug, posing her hefty wings too high above her head might make the whole thing fall out. But thanks to four ball joints, the wings can adopt many other poses, serving as shields and weapons depending on the stance.
The body itself is rotocast and light, but in hard plastic. Ball joints are self-evident and part of the sculpt, though the kneepads create an illusion of double joints which are not there. She does have a mid-torso joint that may not be obvious. The sculpt is all new and probably not reusable, though Mattel can surprise us on that score. Maybe the arms and feet.
You May Worship Her
She towers above typical Masterverse figures, at almost double the size. And you can pose one on either side of the stand, Tri-klops and Trap Jaw ideally, though He-Man and Skeletor must suffice for our purposes. Mattel really ought to re-release her two acolytes now, but at Comic-Con, the brand manager would only answer “no comment” to almost every inquiry on that score.
For kids, Motherboard ought to make a formidable new foe for heroes and villains alike to battle. For collectors, her display box/base is really nice and can work for other figures as well.
It seems unlikely that Mattel would make this elaborate a figure just for Comic-Con and never reuse it in any form, so down the line it’s easy to imagine a version without the cloth cape and rubber cables on a basic card. There’s certainly no guarantee of that, though. Masters fans should take advantage of the remaining quantities and snap up one of the best and most elaborate figures to ever hit the line. It will be in demand years from now.
Need a little help deciding? Take a look at the rest of our photos below.
