Day three of our First Look Marathon brings us to Wednesday – and what a Wun-Darful Wednesday it is! Yeah, sorry, I promise that will be the only time I do that. Promise. Yep, we have a preview of the April-shipping, 2010 Club Eternia exclusive Wun-Dar figure. The He-Man with a mysterious origin finally, after decades in the shadows, takes his rightful place among the heavy weights of the MOTU mythos. However, don’t bother fighting the Red Screen of Death to get him because, well, you can’t buy him! If you are a 2010 Club Eternia member he will be traveling with Evil-Lyn and the map of Eternia in April as your club incentive figure. If you are not a Club member, well, we have some pictures for you to look at!
It is strange to take a First Look at a toy that is not available for purchase. I mean, you already know if you are getting a Wun-Dar figure or not (unless you are going to attempt to acquire one via ebay or another third party route) so Club Eternia members will be basking in his Wun-darous presence… wait sorry – I said I wasn’t going to do that. Anyway, this club incentive figure will be shipping to you in a couple of months and he will bring with him whole-grain sustanence for your battle-weary Eternians, but we will get to that in just a minute. I really like the idea of Club incentive items, it is a nice way to get even more new figures and I hope there is still more to see in 2010 for this, as well as into 2011 and beyond.
As alluded to before, getting a figure of Wonder Bread He-Man>Savage He-Man>Wun-Dar is actually really cool if for no other reason than the good story that goes along with him. As I am sure most of you know, back in the 1980s there was apparently a joint promotion from Mattel and Wonder Bread that involved sending away for an exclusive Masters of the Universe figure. Back then, before he had such a clever name (I really like the name, by the way) photos show a dark-haired, tanned He-Man wearing a black version of Zodac’s armor was to be the figure. But who was this flour-enriched man or mystery? Well, not many people had the opportunity to find out back then. Neither Mattel nor Wonder Bread can 100% confirm that the actual promotion was seen through, but there are some people around the internet that claim to own the elusive figure. Now, the skeptic in me has never been completely convinced that any of the proof of these actual figures is real as they can be easily replicated due to the fact that the figure had no new tooling. I am not saying that the figures are not out there, just that we have never gotten official confirmation that he was actually released. Makes for some good MOTU lore, right?
Well, fast forward to 2010 and in a line that has already brought us unreleased figures like He-Ro, Masters Fans will finally get to own their very own “savage He-Man” appropriately re-dubbed Wun-Dar. Mattel is sewing up a lot of loose ends and previously unexplored historical footnotes of MOTU and, for a lot of people, Wun-Dar is crown jewel Masters mystery and intrigue. Further more, in addition to the new name, Wun-Dar has also been given a neat little back story that helps integrate him right into Eternian history as the Savage He-Man (we have learned that “He-Man” is actually more of a title than a name) and was the original saviour of the Goddess and defender of the secrets of Castle Grayskull. Neat!
So, once again, old becomes new and while Wun-Dar’s history and title fresh, what the original figure was (or intended to be) is recreated here with care from the Four Horsemen that matches all of the other figures we have gotten in the Classics line. He is essentially a repaint of He-Man, but you knew that already. He now has a darker loincloth and has gone from a fun-loving blonde to a sensible brunette (I am a real fan of the dark hair) with black and silver gauntlets and belt. The Zodac armor is present and accounted for, again re-colored in black, and a matching cosmic ray gun is also included. I previewed the back pack a few days ago but, as you can see, Mattel design slipped in a little tri-colored wink to the fans on the circle. I am sure no official stance will be made on this, but if you are familiar with your popular American logos and marketing, it should be pretty obvious. At any rate, it is a fun “Ah-ha!” touch.
Wun-Dar also comes with black and silver (are you picking up on the theme yet) repaints of the Power Sword in both full and half varieties. I have to say that I REALLY like this repaint, it makes the sword look really bad ass and you can combine the half with the one that came with Faker and celebrate Halloween on Eternia. Finally, he has also been provided with an Eternian Baked Good (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) to keep up with his robust, barbarian appetite. Oh, and it should be noted that you will also get a full-sized map of Eternia with Wun-Dar (if I remember correctly it is 20×30 or somewhere in there) that has “Eternian Secrets” printed on the back.
Personally, I think the idea of Wun-Dar is really fun and I am glad to finally have a version of this mysterious character on my shelf. The cool part is that he makes for a great figure, I am really a fan the black accessories and dark hair. I guess the only other thing they could have added was a “fresh-baked bread” scent a la Moss Man pine, but that is really pushing it. Like I said, Club Eternia member, you will have him soon, to the everyone else, I wish you the best in acquiring him by other means if you desire to do so. We have already gotten word that there will be incentives that will go along with the 2011 subscription so I hope we can get another fun figure like this, Eldor perhaps? and maybe a map of Etheria too.
*Thanks again for reading and thanks to Toy Guru for giving us a chance to preview this not-for-sale figure, we really appreciate it. Check back again tomorrow, we have more to bring!
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Faker’s expression makes him look SO bored in that Heads of He picture.
That is a really good looking figure and probably the only figure I would consider after Skeletor.
These Masters of the Universe Classics action figures are an awesome toy line not only did they bring back the orginal look of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe action figures during the 1980’s era they made it even better the only bad side is they were sold only on Internet Websites Shops not on the public market just like the good old days.
Can’t wait to get my Wun-Dar! And he’s such a gentleman for escorting Evil-Lyn in April! 😉