The Manta Raider is an independently produced toy based on a painting by Rudy Obrero, painter of classic Masters of the Universe box art like Castle Grayskull and the Battle Ram, and designed and sculpted by master customizer Joe Amaro. Click through for more pics and some thoughts on the Manta Raider!
This is not an official Masters of the Universe toy, but it definitely feels inspired by and fits in perfectly with that world.
The Manta Raider is a hefty, solid chunk of resin. It comes with a solid stand that allows for stable hovering effect.
The sculpt is sharp and detailed with lots of cool panel etching, smooth curves, and tech detail. It’s a great match for the source material and I think it’s really beautiful piece. I do love panel etching.
This is a completely professional looking piece and compares favorably to the sculpt of any mass-produced toy I’ve bought. Joe knows his stuff.
There are four pegs that fit MOTU figures perfectly. Most MOTU figures I tried fit on the pegs without scraping the paint off the peg, but I did scrap one peg with my Prince Adam figure. I did really force his foot on there, so I feel a little responsible for that. I’d advise that you not try and force the foot on there if it doesn’t go smoothly at first.
The paint on the Manta Raider is pretty great. Most of the body is a solid metallic copper paint that really sells the metal effect for me better than metallic paint usually does. The paint is also very precise on the center plate’s red and black details.
I don’t usually cover packaging in anything I do because I rarely care about that sort of thing. Most of the time packaging is just an impediment to me getting the toy or what have you. This is different. First off, Rudy Obrero is an important artist to me.
His artwork on the Battle Ram, Battle Cat, and Castle Grayskull boxes was completely enthralling and energized my young imagination back when MOTU was first on the shelf. I never knew, or probably never even thought about, who created the art when I was a kid, but thankfully that information is available online now. One of the great parts of internet fandom and forums for me is finding out more about all these people that influenced me back then and what the process of creating this stuff was like.
I was lucky enough to tell the man in person at this year’s Power-Con how much I loved his artwork and what it meant to me back then. It continues to be an influence on how I play with my toys now and geek out with my photo reviews. I didn’t bring that up when I met Mr. Obrero… I wonder what he would have made of that.
Anyway, the packaging features some excellent Rudy Obrero artwork on both sides. The clamshell is easily removable so you can take out the Manta Raider and replace it without damaging the card. The front painting shows the Manta Raider in action and I love the storytelling. You can imagine the barbarian warrior has just fought off pursuers as he made his escape from that mysterious Island castle in the background. The cardback has a beautiful illustration of the Manta Raider in the style of a set of blueprints. I love how the design features are all spelled out here and they have actually thought out how the vehicle might work. Great stuff.
The Manta Raider is a great display piece. It looks fantastic with MOTUC figures, but you can also use it for other toy lines. The $50 price is pretty high, but when you consider it’s a low-run, handmade item, I feel like that’s fair.
Black Manta feels like a natural fit for this. The foot pegs don’t fit securely on DCUC figures, though.
Maybe Donny cooked this up for cruising the Hudson River? Who knows?
I love to see this kind of fan-driven material released for purchase. It’s like fan-art rendered in three dimensions and you can feel the love that went into crafting this piece.
It’s so great to see when talented fans create things like this and give fellow fanatics the opportunity to buy one for themselves. It definitely adds an excitement around the toy lines that have this kind of fan-produced material that I feel can only help sales of the official product.
I know Joe hopes to make more Manta Raiders next year, and I’m sure he’ll update his blog when he is ready to do so. Joe also has a new project cooking up with Warlords of the Universe.com. I’ll have to try and track down an extra Castle Grayskull Man in the hopes of getting in on this one!
