MOTUC Feature – Granamyr

Granamyr is the second oldest creature on the planet Eternia and my latest MOTUC aquisition. Let’s take a look at December’s bonus figure — Granamyr!

Granamyr™ Bio

Real Name: Granamyr™ the Wise

Granamyr™ is one of the oldest and wisest of the Eternian Dragons of Darksmoke, an ancient kingdom in Eternia’s Dark Hemisphere. He greatly distrusts most men after the Great Wars between dragons and humans in ancient times. As one of the most powerful magic users on Eternia® he possesses such extraordinary might that even Skeletor® dares not challenge him. When Man-At-Arms® was turned to glass by an evil spell, Granamyr™ provided He-Man® with healing magic, but only after Eternia’s bravest warrior proved he had not only great strength but great mercy and wisdom as well. The ancient dragon Granamyr™ guards Eternia’s magical secrets and rules all of Darksmoke.

This bio fits in fine with what we know about Granamyr from his mini-comics and first Filmation appearance, titled “Dragon’s Gift.” “Dragon’s Gift” is unique as one of the only stories to appear in both the mini-comics and the Filmation series.

This bio doesn’t throw in any curves or new information, which is fine, but I do like to learn new stuff from these. I do like the real name “Granamyr the Wise” as it has a nice fantasy feel to it and it fits the character.

As an adult MOTU fan, Granamyr’s episodes have become some of my favorites since I really enjoy his character. He has an amusingly cranky and superior attitude, and that’s pretty refreshing in the very earnest Filmation cartoon. I also love the idea of an erudite dragon in the MOTU world. It just feels like a classic fantasy concept that fits in nicely with MOTU.

Accessories

Granamyr is a big old beast of a dragon and does not come with any accessories. Thinking back on his episodes, nothing really jumps out at me as a necessary accessory other than the treasure in his lair. A pile of books or a treasure chest could have been a cool pack in, but there would need to be a lot to fill his dragon horde.

Sculpt

Having seen the 4H’s Draego-Man, I expected a beautiful Granamyr sculpt and they did not disappoint. The main shape of the Filmation design of Granamyr is all there, but the 4H have managed to up the cool factor quite a bit with some sharp detailed sculpting.

The most amazing piece to me is the face. Granamyr’s head sculpt really conveys his ancient intelligence. He’s clearly a thinking creature, not some mindless beast. The added detail of a row of jagged teeth sticking out of his closed mouth, something I don’t think I’ve seen in any iteration of Granamyr, looks really cool and dangerous.

I love the face sculpt a lot, but the body is also really great. I especially like how they have worked the musculature into his limbs. His arms have a powerful, lanky look to them under those scales.

Speaking of the scales, the texture of Granamyr’s leathery skin and how that transitions to scaly parts is absolutely fantastic. I love all the little details packed into this guy. Little things like warts and a broken tail spike add to the realism. The hands are also really detailed and gnarled with some great big black claws.

Granamyr doesn't fight, he wins! — Granamyr doesn’t fight, he wins!

Articulation

Articulation is a little different than we are used to with MOTUC. He has a ball jointed neck; swivel shoulders and hips; and swivel-hinged elbows, wrists, ankles and wings. Granamyr seems to be sculpted for seated poses for the most part, but he can stand up somewhat awkwardly. I don’t fault the articulation for the awkwardness as that seems to be the design of the creature.

Articulation is the one gripe I have with this figure. First off, Granamyr comes unassembled and his shoulders and pecs are a separate piece from his belly that snaps together. There is a perfect spot to add a barbell ball and socket joint for poseability, but there is no movement here at all, not even a swivel. I’ve noticed that Mattel has done this sort of thing before with their female figures in the DCUC line. They have that cut joint there, but it doesn’t really move at all. Either the engineers just don’t understand that joint, or some sort of internal policy prevents them from implementing it correctly.

Speaking of swivel joints, it is pretty disappointing to find out that the arms are just swivel joints. It’s something I never really took notice of all the times we saw the Granamyr figure up close, so it’s a little more disappointing than the swivel shoulders on the giants that I knew about ahead of time. Even if they couldn’t cost out a regular swivel/hinge joint like most MOTUC figures, a simple ball and socket configuration could have added to some more natural arm poseability with no extra tooling cost. That said, I can get Granamyr into 9o percent of the poses I want, so it’s not a deal breaker.

Paint

Paint is good on Granamyr. He has some nice highlighting on the chest to blend in the red of most of his body with the purple of his stomach scales. The toenails are all a glossy black that looks pretty wicked. I especially like the shading on the helmet horns. There is also some darker shading and lighter highlights on the face that brings out all the great lined detail there.

Quality Control Alert!

Most people reading this have probably already heard of some of the QC problems with this figure. I can’t really speak to them since my figure came together fine, but you may want to take care when assembling Granamyr, as some of the interior parts of the joints have broken for some. Fwoosher Scud wrote an excellent blog post on preternia.com here that goes over the issues and gives tips for assembly.

Wrap Up

Even with the articulation SNAFUs, Granamyr still comes out as my favorite figure of the year. He’s just darn impressive sitting there with the MOTUC collection and the sculpt is so beautiful. I really love this character a lot, so it’s great to get a figure of him, especially considering his unusual shape and size.