Masters of the Universe Classics Feature

I’m catching up on missed figures this week with a close-up look at February’s Club Eternia Subscription figure Glimmer! As sometime leader of the Great Rebellion and an oft-recurring supporting character, Glimmer has been at the top of many a Masters of the Universe Classics top ten most-wanted lists for quite some time. With Glimmer, and now the upcoming Madame Razz, my Great Rebellion is feeling tantalizingly close to complete.

Glimmer™ Bio
Real Name: Glimmer™ of the Royal House of Brightmoon

With the power to light the way, Glimmer™ uses her abilities against the darkness with her staff and headdress which glow in the dark. This brash, impulsive, ever-cheery, young lady is one of the deposed princesses of Etheria, a fact she never lets anyone forget. Her recklessness often causes problems, but she is a fun, young woman who can laugh through the direst of circumstances and pass on her good cheer to her comrades. She followed She-Ra® along with several other members of the Great Rebellion to Eternia® to join up with the renegade Masters of the Universe® and continue the noble fight against The Evil Horde®. After She-Ra® left Eternia® for the stars, Glimmer™ returned to Etheria taking her rightful place helping to rule over the Kingdom of Brightmoon.

Most of this bio is directly from the She-Ra style guide, which makes me think it was written before they got Filmation rights.

I do like the somewhat corny description of her personality as she sounds like a funny, if somewhat bratty, young woman.

It matches up with her characterization in the cartoon somewhat as she was often the one who had to be taught the classic Filmation “lesson of the week” morals by the end of the episode.

She did get to have bright moments showing leadership, battle competence, and a dazzling array of light-based super powers every once in a while.

I do like to hear that she travels to Eternia for further adventures, and we get a glimpse of her as ruling Bright Moon after the conflicts are over. It’s nice to read a bit of a happy ending now and again.

Accessories

Glimmer has two accessories: her staff and a clear orb. The staff is clearly modeled after her toy staff, which is a nice nod to the vintage toy. The staff is basically a scaled up, more sharply detailed version of the vintage accessory and is cast in a fairly stiff plastic.

The gem in the center of the staff and metallic purple paint make for a pretty bright and attractive accessory. I didn’t really anticipate the staff much since she never used it in the show and I’m more of cartoon She-Ra fan than a She-Ra toy fan, but I really like the way she looks wielding this thing.

The orb is probably supposed to be the Moon Stone from the She-Ra episode “Glimmer’s Story.” It was the magical power source of Castle Bright Moon’s defenses. I do like that they went episode-specific for this piece, but it’s just kind of a neat crystal ball accessory to have around. It does often fall from Glimmer’s hand and I’ve almost lost it countless times, but it’s still nice to have.

Sculpt

Glimmer’s design looks to be closely based on her Filmation or Style Guide look with flourishes from the toy (her diamond boot detail) and some extra clothing seams and lining details to add a little more dimension to the costume.

I’ve mentioned the skirt issue in the past… I don’t get it and never understood why they can’t make these leotard looks work for the females when they can make pants work for Bow, but I’ve finally reached the acceptance stage on this flaw. That’s not to say I wouldn’t welcome a fix to this issue.

The head sculpt is really pretty and a good match for the Filmation style. I appreciate that they managed to give us Glimmer’s massive head of hair, but she still retains all neck articulation. One slight flaw I’ve noticed is that she turned out exceptionally tall — a little too tall for Glimmer, who was often depicted as shorter than Adora.

Articulation

Glimmer has the standard MOTUC articulation with the exception of the ab crunch that all MOTUC females lack. She gets good range of motion and is a pretty stable poser thanks to the exceptionally nice ankle-rocker joint. Love that ankle.

Paint

Glimmer literally shines in this department with metallic blues, purple, and gold in evidence. I like that her legs are a metallic blue; it reminds me of Spandex from the ’80s. The face makeup is not quite as nice as the prototype paint master, but she came out pretty good for a factory figure.

Overall