The Unnamed One is the 2014 Club Eternia subscription exclusive action figure, the design of which was supposed to be secret until he arrived at subscibers’ doors. Judging by some of the hyperbolic disappointment I’ve read online, it was probably good for sub sales that the character remained secret for so long. Let’s take a closer look at The Unnamed One.
The Unnamed One: Evil Lord of Chaos
Real Name: Gorpo
Formerly an Overlord of the Timeless Dimension, this great wizard betrayed his bretheren when he attempted to steal the Power of the Universe for himself. The Aura of the Gods was infused into the Sword of He for protection and Gorpo was stripped of his form and banished to the Nameless Dimension. Here he became known as the Unnamed One, spoken of only in whispers and myth. During his exile, he discovered a method of combining DNA of several reptilian species. He used this knowledge to create an army of cold-blooded warriors which he commanded to raid magical planets in an attempt to consolidate power for his revenge. His evil schemes were at last undone after Dare, the new He-Ro, confronted him in single combat slaying the ancient mage with the very power he once attempted to steal.
The first thing about this bio that stands out to me is the use of the name Gorpo. Gorpo, as you may know, was the original name for Orko in the Filmation series and has been used for Orko packaging in other countries.
There is precedent in Filmation for evil Trollans, so I don’t really take issue with that, but a Trollan is not what I first dreamed up when thinking of the mysterious creature that created and controls the Snakemen.
I could see where a fan who has been wondering about the identity of the Unnamed One since he was first mentioned back in the vintage mini-comics would be a little let down by an evil Orko being the great power behind the creation of the Snake-Men, but I haven’t spent years building up the character of the Unnamed One in my imagination, so an Evil Orko isn’t that disappointing.
In a way, the existence of the Unnamed One in any form diminishes the role of King Hiss and I don’t love that. I can’t really blame this figure for that, since the idea has long existed in MOTU continuity.
It is interesting that this evil Trollan created the Snake-Men, and then Orko literally unravels them in the MOTUC bio continuity.
Accessories
Gorpo comes with an alternate armored head sculpt, a sorcery blast effect, a wand, and the standard MOTUC flying stand for little creatures. The stand has a single peg rather than a ball-and-socket joint like the Orko flight stand, which makes him a bit more stable, but also limits the personality of the poses you can get with the figure on the stand.
The blast effect is a big green hunk of translucent plastic that attaches to Gorpo’s hand easily and securely. The sculpt looks like a liquid magic blast that turns into a bunch of snakes at the end. The cool thing about the snakes is that they are shaped to grip figure faces nicely.
The wand is also snake-themed and is an impressive extrapolation of the MOTUC Orko wand. I like that they included a translucent gem in the center to jazz-up the look of the wand a bit from Orko’s.
Wizards need translucent magical objects! Well, they really don’t, but I enjoy playing with the light shining through them for photos, so this appeals to me.
The alternate head sculpt is a metallic helm for Gorpo that has spikes, a mohawk, and skull details. You couldn’t ask for a more “metal” battle helmet for a Trollan magician… wait, why is this guy wearing a battle helmet? I never thought of mages using battle armor, but it looks pretty boss and fits nicely on Gorpo or on any standard MOTUC figure’s neck peg.
I’m tempted to buy an extra Gorpo from one of the fans disappointed with this figure to customize it into a regular MOTUC warrior by cutting the ears off the helmet and maybe adding some wicked big horns to it to make it even more metal.
Sculpt
Gorpo is a brand-new sculpt and has a very detailed costume that adds a more martial style to the standard Trollan look, including some light armor, belts, pouches, and a wicked-looking skull belt buckle.
The overall feel of the head sculpt reminds me a lot of Shadow Weaver’s look. I also like how the hood has the feel of a medieval cap a knight would wear under helmets or chain mail. The costume has a more traditional fantasy wizard feel to it than the standard Trollan design and the armor element makes it a little more unique.
It’s also blatantly clear that this is a bad guy. He’s got evil written all over the little bit of his face we can see.
Articulation
Gorpo has similar articulation to Orko, including:
- Swivel at the stand
- Ball-jointed head sculpt
- Swivel/Hinged shoulders and Elbows
- Swivel wrists
It’s about what I would expect for this kind of character, and the only thing I feel like it’s missing is the ball-jointed connector to the stand that Orko had. That ball-jointed stand allowed some subtle posing change that could convey the direction of his flight, but Gorpo doesn’t have that. Also the neck joint is one ball and socket so the head does not have the usual MOTUC range of motion.
Paint
Paint is pretty nice on this figure with some washes for the metallic sections and mostly sharp detail lines with little slop. There is some paint slop that’s not terribly noticeable in person that can be seen in close up shots.
Overall
As I stated earlier, I have no nostalgic connection to the idea of the Unnamed One, nor do I care about the name Gorpo. I’ve also become immune to any sort of hype when it comes to the marketing of this line by Mattel. Quite frankly, I set my expectations very low because the whole idea of not revealing the figure made me suspicious that he could be a turkey.
I must say I was pleasantly surprised. I’m judging this one based on pretty much the sculpt, and I actually like this sculpt quite a bit.
The 4H have taken a concept that on paper doesn’t appeal to me and made a great-looking action figure from it. This design appeals to me quite a bit more than say Filmation’s Dr. Zoog because of the more traditional fantasy feel of the accoutrements.
I also like to see new characters and designs, so even a new take on the existing Trollan design is cool in my book in principle, and the execution here is very nice.
Previous Features:
- Dark Soldiers
- Strongarm
- Two Bad
- Plundor
- Articulated Draego-Man head sculpt
- General Sunder
- Hover Disc
- Battlelord
- Teckno Jackal
- Conan
- Horde Troopers
- Geldor
- Nepthu
- Mantenna
- Lord Dactus
- Karatti
- He-Mike Skeleton Warriors
- Duskfang Conversion Kit
- Castaspella
- Batros
- Sky High and Jet Sled
- Shokoti
- Fighting Foe Men
- Icer
- Octavia
- Snake Face
- King He-Man
- Fang Man
- Ram Man
- Jitsu
- Netossa
- Granamyr
- Eternos Palace Randor
- Snake Men Two Pack
- Sir Laser-Lot
- Vykron
- Snake Man-At-Arms
- Stinkor
- Spector
- Draego-Man
- Thunder Punch He-Man
- Kobra Khan
- Fisto
- Fearless Photog
- Demo-Man
- Battleground Evil-Lyn
- Star Sisters
- Class of 2011
- Class of 2009
- Icarius
- Hurricane Hordak
- Man-E-Faces
- Megator
- Queen Marlena
- Clawful
- The Faceless One
- Battleground Teela
- Catra
- Panthor
- Battle Armor Skeletor
- King Hssss
- Bow
- Palace Guards
- Vikor
- Class of 2010
- Buzz-Off
- Grizzlor
- Roboto
- Chief Carnivus
- Whiplash
- Count Marzo
- She-Ra
- Keldor
- Optikk
- Evil-Lynn
- Moss-Man
- Faker
- Stratos