Battle Armor Skeletor Evil Lord of Destruction Masters of the Universe Classics Action Figure Item No.: No. T5805 Manufacturer: Mattel Includes: Battle axe, clamshell armor, 3 armor plates Action Feature: Swappable armor plates Retail: $20.00 Availability: March 2011 Other: Based on a toy from the 1980
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I'm a big fan of Skeletor. He-Man, eh, whatever. But Skeletor's the man. At the end of one cartoon series, he got the girl. As villains go he's goofy and awesome, so Battle Armor Skeletor manages to mix equal parts He-Man, Barbarian, and Skeletor into one delightful package.

Unlike the original Battle Armor Skeletor, this figure has an axe-- just like He-Man. The original toy had a wheel mechanism to simulate damage, but to keep costs down and reuse tooling Mattel instead opted for a unique clamshell armor with removable plates. As such, you can have him wear a green, purple, and pink bat on his shirt and it swaps out for increasingly scraped-up takes on the design. It's a great attention to detail and an innovative way to combat the additional costs incurred by tooling new mechanisms, although I personally don't think the "damaged" plates sere particularly necessary. It's a nice touch, sure, but I certainly didn't need them here.

The figure is made up of mostly recycled bits and pieces, as he should be. The head is similar to the regular figure, complete with red eyes, green plastic skin, and a ghostly yellow paint applied to his face. His limbs are a pale blue with subtle highlights, while his torso is, oddly, purple. He has He-Man's furry briefs (just like the original toy), and typical Skeletor feet and hands. I should note, they painted his fingernails and claws, giving him an extra few cents worth of awesome. I like this one lots.

The armor itself locks on with tabs, and I assume these could snap with too much pressure if mistreated over time. So far it seems sold enough, but after I finished taking all my pictures for the review, I don't foresee changing them out much. This is one place where I would prefer the original mechanism just so I can play around with it, but this works too and with no spring-loaded bits to break, it will probably hold up quite well in your average adult's collection. But if your kids get their hands on it? Well, don't have kids. There you go, I solved your problem.

Between the Mo-Larr set, the comic pack, this figure, Keldor, the standard release, and no doubt one or two I'm forgetting, there are PLENTY of takes on Skeletor for you to buy. Too many, I say. Given this figure's unique outfit, I think this might be a good second stop on your journey to collecting all things Skeletor... it's disarmingly retro, fun to pose, and dang if that axe isn't supremely fun to play around with. I quite enjoyed the original Skeletor figure, but as something dumb to play around with I vastly prefer Battle Armor Skeletor.

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