The Search for Keldor is over. Yep, the conclusion to that mysterious minicomic from so many years ago is about to happen at Matty Collector. The special bonus quarterly figure for Q2 2010 is Miro’s indiscretion, Randor’s evil half-brother and He-Man’s nasty old uncle, the man that would be Skeletor, the Apprentice of Hordak (did we get all of the titles?), Keldor.
Remember when bad guys were just bad guys because they were bad? Back in the 80s when you were a kid the only reason He-Man needed to give Skeletor the most powerful whoopin’ in the universe was because he was a bad dude. By the same logic, Skeletor never needed a reason to want to sack Eternia and learn the secrets of Castle Grayskull, he was just plain evil and when things got boring in Snake Mountain he did not challenge Tri-Klops to a drawn out game of Eternian Boggle, he created havoc (with his Havoc Staff no less). No other explanation was needed for your plastic simulated clashes. It was a much simpler time.
Simpler yes, but not quite so engaging when you need a history and background for MOTU’s second-most recognized character. Skeletor needs to have a reason to do what he does and by the telling of the character biographies in MOTUC, he has had one hell of a tough (but interesting) road. You can read the whole thing for yourself, but he was a prince kicked out of the royal court due to racism, took up with a band of disgusting thugs (and one spicy bad girl), learned magic from the worst dude in the Five Dimensions, got his face melted off and then merged with some ugly guy named Demo-Man. No wonder Skeletor takes out his aggression on the Masters in his pursuits, judging by the ride he has had, they tend to get off easy.
While you have had over a year to play with your Skeletor, now you can recreate all of those plotting plot twists that happened before the whole Skeleton face fiasco. Keldor can take on Marzo with his brother to try to find King Miro (we NEED King Miro), or meet up with Beastman in the Vine Jungle, and even find some alone time with his best girl Evil-Lyn. See, the whole Skeletor story is getting more and more interesting by the second!
Even if you have the 2010 Club Eternia Subscription, you are going to need to be on Matty Collector on June 15th in order to try your luck at getting Keldor as he is NOT included in your sub. I have a feeling that is going to be a very busy day so plan well because you are going to want this figure.
For the most part he is made up of the standard muscle man body with the small wrist cuffs, making him very similar to Tri-Klops from neck to waist. He has Skeletor’s upper body armor (with the bones painted gray), his patented Roman-esque loin cloth with his shin guards, but all new feet for his boots (I see these getting a lot of reuse in the future) as well as a new cape cast in a nice, soft plastic. So, for those of you that are Filmation fans reading at home and realize that Mattel does not currently hold those rights, if you pop the TRU Skeletor’s armor and head on the Keldor body and take off the cape, well, you can see the results. I really dig it and I am going to try for another Keldor just so I can put this together on the shelf.
Keldor is cast in a very bright blue that really pops and it is much more dramatic than the blue used for the previous Skeletor figures. This has been explained in that over time, Skeletor is losing his natural Gar coloring due to his condition. Works for me! I really like his head sculpt too, it fits the feel of Keldor interpretations that we have seen in the past, but he is melded into that MOTUC aesthetic perfectly. His teeth are pearly white and really stand out against his flesh color and classic train-robber villain mustache and goatee. Poor Skeletor, he really sank to the depths of poor dental hygiene – next month he will be missing a tooth with Mol-Ar. His long hair is fairly flexible so he retains good head movement and it covers up the gap in the hang of his cape where he can hold his Power Sword Halves.
If I did have to pick one thing to name as the biggest strength of this figure, though, I would choose the paint. All of it is crispy clean on this figure and the color choices are very toyetic. He has lots of contrast from the blues to blacks to silvers to purples, but there is also a tone of subtle color changes in his armor and costume, very, very well done. I am usually a real stickler when it comes to paint and I cannot find one thing on this particular figure worth mentioning when it come to mess or slop, I hope they all turn out that way.
On top of his new cape, Keldor also comes with three accessories, his bad-timing acid vial and two purple half Power Swords. The former is very nice with green translucent plastic and a telling bone motif going up the sides. I am really glad they included this pivotal accessory, it is fun acting out Keldor’s “D’oh!” moment as your Randor sweeps the vial back at Keldor’s face via a trusty Eternian Shield. For all of the new sympathy you might have for Skeletor due to his bad luck, he did bring the acid to the party so he can’t really blame anyone but himself.
The latter two accessories, the half Power Swords are already the hot button issue surrounding Keldor, and I imagine they will remain so once people start getting their figures. I see what they were going for with the half swords. In the 200x story and cartoon, Keldor is a rocking swordsman that uses half swords in tandem with each other. So the interpretation of those swords into MOTUC has become half Power Swords. Makes sense, BUT, I wish they would have just given him two swords instead. He has a tough time holding the half swords so it is hard to get a good pose out of him. I suppose they could have gone with the 200x influenced swords, but I am not quite sure how much liberty they are going to go into with those designs. I was never a huge fan of any of the 200x swords anyway, but two full purple Power Swords not with standing, I would have preferred the 200xers over these. If you are a vanilla poser, you probably won’t even notice, but, while I can see what they were going for with the half swords, they leave me a little cold.
Really though, that is my only quibble with this figure – everything else really pops. I like him so much (especially standing with Kronis) that I am going to build a little group of Pre-Skeletor Skeletor minions to surround him with; maybe Mer-Man with his vintage head, or Beastman with the yellow armor… damn, now I need another Beastman!
I am very pleased and if you are on the fence about this one, you might want to give him a shot on the 15th, I think you will be glad. And even if you are not, you will be able to get him to someone that missed out with no trouble at all.
*Again, thanks to Toy Guru and Matty for sending along Keldor for this review, and thanks to you for reading. Check back later this week, we still have a few more Looks to bring you!
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