One of the coolest parts about the Masters of the Universe property is that, as a native toy line, it has inspired countless forays into the imagination of old and young alike for decades. This is shown in the passion for the brand, the bevy of insanely talented artists that realize Eternia in stunning fashion every day, canonical debates, and, in more recent times, the emergence of custom MOTU Classics action figures. Have you seen some of the truly amazing Classics customs that are out there? A lot of very talented people use their skill to make some great figures. However, we are fortunate enough to be able to bring you a Look at something just a little different. In a joint effort from two of those aforementioned customizers — Kevin Kosse (aka TIN) and Rock Vivien — the elusive backstory of the enigmatic Scareglow has finally come to life! Yep, the story of Karak Nul can finally be told! Come check out this great fan creation that gives a loving homage to the property we all love so much.
If you have been collecting MOTU Classics for a while, you know that the character biographies often attempt to give some background to the characters (with a varying degree of success). Scareglow is no exception to this, and in his story we learn that he had a shifty past as the man known as “Karak Nul,” and he actually made many attempts to break into Castle Grayskull. Thus, he was cursed to walk as a skeleton-man with the key to the castle locked forever in a reliquary chained to his wrist. But what about the man BEFORE all of that? Well, Rock Vivien and Kevin are now bringing us the story in a great custom and fan-fic mini-comic.
The amount of care and respect to the character given in both the custom head and the comic is really great and particularly charming. I think of it as one of those cases in which I probably would not have given much thought to the background of Karak Nul on my own, but I now have a great story to keep with me and it has made the character so much more interesting.
Again, the motivation to do this type of thing really comes from the imagination that this property can inspire. I know a lot of people throw out the phrase “In my canon…,” but I rarely see any mythos that is so personal and causes people to, essentially, write their own backstories and fan-fictions — it is inspiring. Well, Rock Vivien and Kevin Kosse have taken it to a whole new level and their comic story and custom head will no doubt be enjoyed by many fans.
I do not want to spoil too much of the actual comic story of “The Stone of Cosmic Energy,” as that is Rock Vivien’s corner of the world to tell, but you can find out more about it on his Facebook page. I can tell you that the story is very well thought out and it makes for a fun read. You can always tell when a person has a passion for a particular character or story and this really comes through. There is some unique use of other characters as well (that I never would have thought of), and don’t worry — He-Man gets to be a part of the action as well! The art is nice too, with interior credits going to Ana Costef, and I particularly like the back cover done by Mome Keke. There is just something about his style that I absolutely adore.
To make this realization complete is a custom Karak Nul head sculpted and painted by revered artist and customizer Kevin Kosse. Now, if you are familiar with his customs, such as a “FilMation” Skeletor (see below), MYP Clawful, and the original Horde Prime interpretation, you know that his work is second to absolutely none and his paints are just as strong as his sculpts, something that can be hard to come by due to the difficulty of both. Teaming up with Rock Vivien for this project seems to be a natural fit, and the duo’s interpretation of Karak Nul has turned out to be wholly unique and very cool.
Karak here has a very interesting style and one that is very suggestive of an Eternian ne’er-do-well. He has a purple Mohawk (to match Scareglow’s cape) and some wicked head tattoos that that kind of recall the black “negative” space on the paint design for Scareglow’s body. The real “crack” Eternian detectives out there will notice that he also has a zig-zag scar coming down the left side of his forehead, in the exact spot where Scareglow has a crack in his dome. I really like the idea that the scar has been in place prior to his curse and those little details are of the type that always get us MOTU nerds giddy. He also has some devilishly pointed ears suggesting that he was probably not 100% virtuous prior to being cursed.
If you check out RV’s Facebook page, you can see that a custom MOTU body has been painted to complete the Karak Nul look. That costume makes it easy to see the direct translation from Karak to Scareglow, but since I don’t have that particular body, I found that the Faceless One’s chassis makes for a pretty good stand in as well. The colors match up well and when you toss in Scareglow’s cape and the silver scythe, it really completes the look.
I love fan projects, especially those that take pure passion and creativity and realize them through very well done works of story and custom creation. The Karak Nul Project has all of that going for it and it is really cool to be able fill in some of the gaps that the actual line will probably not be able to completely cover. I know we are in an age where you don’t have to look far to see great custom creations, but this should not numb us to the fact that so many of them are truly fantastic. Karak Nul is a case in point. The end-to-end creation is second to none and I know a lot of MOTU fans will be excited to see this one. Please check out the links at the bottom of the article to get all of the latest news on Karak Nul, and also get a look at some of Kevin’s other outstanding creations!
BONUS!
Kevin was also kind enough to send along a few other of his custom creations so I just wanted to show them off. They are all incredibly crafted and can be used with any of your “barbarian style” action figures.
“Cartoon Skeleton Man”
You know, we might not ever get an actual Filmation-inspired Skeletor, but man this one is great to stand in for it. It is really an essential to all FilMation and Skeletor fans.
“Neptunian”
This guy is a completely original creation and can be added to a number of properties to help flesh them out. He might be an enemy of Aquaman, a minion of Mumm-Ra, or a rival undersea king to Mer-Man. Either way, he looks good on the Clawful body.
“Battle-Damaged Fake Guy”
This is by far my favorite of the group and I can tell you this — my Battle Armor Faker now has a new and permanent head. I absolutely LOVE this interpretation and as you can see, it takes its influence directly from the original vintage 1980s Faker/He-Man head sculpt. This makes Faker more menacing to me and the damage compliments the Battle Armor perfectly.
-Please note that all of the above are custom fan creations and are in no way officially affiliated with any existing property or product line.
*Thanks so much to Rock Vivien and Kevin Kosse for sharing their creations with us – go check them out, there is a lot of cool stuff going on out there in the customizing world!
Additional Links
