MOTUC Feature – Lord Dactus

Lord Dactus is the October 2013 Club Eternia figure in an extremely crowded month of Masters of the Universe Classics figures. He is pretty unique as the only real representation of the 2002 cartoon in the subscription this year. Let’s take a closer look at Lord Dactus!

Lord Dactus™ Bio
Real Name: Dactus of Spelea

Heroic leader of the Bat-like Speleans who live deep underground in Subternia™, Dactus waged a long war against his former ally Ceratus™ for possession of Hollow Eternia®. After a series of attacks by Skeletor® and King Hssss™, Dactus was convinced by King Randor® to put aside his differences with the Calligars and work together as members of his new Eternian Council. A born warrior, he often leaves his diplomatic duties to fight on the battlefield as one of the Masters of the Universe®. During one adventure he traveled with Chief Carnivus™ and Clamp Champ® to free Princess Vess from Skeletor’s clutches. Dactus’ massive wings and sharp fangs give him a frightening appearance which he uses to scare off and then attack the evil warriors!

This bio matches up with storyline from the 2002 cartoon episodes that featured Dactus and his rivalry with the Calligars and forming the Eternian Council. I do like that they included the line that he often puts aside his lordly duties to fight on the front lines. It seems to be a theme with the lords of Eternia with Randor, Stratos, Carnivus, and Dactus all being warrior kings. I suppose that makes sense in such a war-torn planet.

I find the last part of the bio interesting because it seemingly comes from nowhere in the MOTU mythos and refers to a heretofore unseen adventure with Clamp Champ, Dactus, and Carnivus. Is this something from the Mattel archives, or just filler made up for this bio? Who is Princess Vess? Maybe Carnivus or Dactus’s daughter, or the daughter of one of the innumerable Eternian Kings? Inquiring minds want to know.

Accessories

Dactus is a little light on accessories, coming with only a sword. The sword is straight out of the episode that features Dactus most: “Underworld.” In that episode Dactus gives Randor pretty much this exact sword and it is called the finest Spelean Steele.

The sword is a nice, sharp sculpt that fits the source material well and is made from a stiff plastic. I like the scalloped wing design in the guard of the sword. Normally one accessory feels a little stingy to me, but Dactus is larger than the usual MOTUC figure with the extra height and massive wings and armor, so I’m fine with it. Plus, it’s really the one accessory I wanted to see him come with.

Sculpt

Dactus has new armor, hands, ankles, loincloth, and head sculpt and shares the following existing MOTUC parts:

Whiplash Legs
Skeletor Boots and Forearms
Mosquitor Shoulders and Biceps
He-Man Chest
Draego-Man Wings

There has been a lot made of this figure not quite fitting into MOTUC. In some ways I can see that; the head sculpt feels more like a direct translation of the 2002 cartoon drawing of Dactus in 3D form; however, looking really closely I can see some of the adaptation to the MOTUC style that weren’t initially obvious to me.

For instance, the head sculpt is rounder and the sculpting is more naturalistic than the sharper edges of the cartoon. The armor is far more simplified with far fewer spiked edges and armor lines. The biggest departure from the cartoon design is the legs; they were much more spindly and bird-like and included thigh armor in the ‘toon whereas here they have the normal muscular thick legs and Skeletor shin guards.

The 4H came up with a clever way to create the sort of dog leg look by adding a long ankle bone/foot combination where normally there is just a boot.

The massive clawed toes help balance Dactus’ massive wings. Speaking of massive, the clawed hands are larger than the usual MOTUC figures and help make Dactus feel like a larger figure.

Articulation

Dactus has the standard MOTUC articulation with one major omission. The new ankle/foot piece does not have the rocker functionality of the standard MOTUC foot. I think Dactus would have benefited greatly from the Teela-style ankle to get more balanced poses.

The wide feet can only both be placed flat on the ground in certain poses and the rocker ankle would allow for wider stances and more naturalistic action poses. The armor pieces are all nice and soft, so they do not interfere with movement. The longer neck seems to allow for nice head movement as well.

Dactus also has the swivel-hinge jointed wings from Draego Man that pop into holes in the back of the armor.

Paint

Dactus has a striking color scheme with light blue skin and dark red armor. There is some shading on the skin and wings and dark shading and some metallic maroon accents on the armor. The paint detail is all really clean with no slop.

Overall

In all, it’s a great translation of a one of the more extreme 2002 designs to this toy line. Even though Dactus has relatively few appearances on the show, the design made a real impression on me.

The Speleans are probably my favorite of the 2002 additions to the MOTU mythos. I like the idea of a race of mutant bat-men. That’s just cool to me. I was looking forward to this character, but I was uncertain about how his design would translate into MOTUC and I was really pleased to see the 4H’s solution to this problem.

Dactus is a really fun figure and a nice addition to the collection. I love the heroic monster-men in MOTU and Dactus is a great addition to that group.