Mattel has released army builder two-packs for the Masters of the Universe Classics line for most of the warring Eternian factions (Snake Men, Horde Troopers, and Eternian Guards), but so far Skeletor has no army. On one hand, he does have a large assortment of freaks and monsters who do his bidding, but those are his elite troops. I think he needs some faceless hordes of cannon fodder for He-Man to beat up on. Once you decide to make a Skeletor troop builder pack, the problem becomes choosing which one. Unlike the Horde and the Snake Men, it’s not so obvious what army-builders Mattel should release for Skeletor in MOTUC because he’s had quite a few over the years in different media. I’m going to rank the choices in order of my preference starting with the least wanted.
Honorable Mention: Movie Troopers
The movie troopers are an honorable mention as these guys aren’t on the table as far as I know since Mattel doesn’t have licensing rights for the MOTU movie. They are pretty cool generic troops with gloss black armor and would probably bump #5 on this list if I thought we had a shot at getting them. They would look great facing off against the palace guards since they are basically their evil counterparts.
They are a little tough to see in the movie, but some prop store pics show off the design a bit better.
It’s funny how similar of an armor design it is to the palace guards; it just has one obnoxious shoulder pad instead of two! I could see these being really easy to churn out for Mattel as they really just need to create the armor on existing pieces, but not having the license is a real impediment.
5. Skelcons
Skelcons are exclusively from the vintage UK Ladybird books. I’ve only ever heard of them because of James “Bustatoons” Eatock’s excellent He-Man blog often shared artwork from these books. The Skelcons do have a neat bony skeleton face… or perhaps it’s a mask; it’s not entirely clear to me.
They look a little dorky sometimes, but I can see some great potential with the 4H working their magic on that skull face and horned head. The outfit is a little bothersome as it’s this strange one piece belted furry short dress, but I wonder if it would work better if it were changed up a bit to use the traditional MOTU loincloth/belt combo. Then again, if they change it too much, are they still Skelcons and would their fans still want them? The design is a little iffy for my tastes, that’s why they rank lower on my want list.
4. Mutant Warrior
Arguably these guys have a good claim on MOTUC-dom. The Slime Pit Mutant was a figure released in the 2002 line with, you guessed it, the Slime Pit. It’s a super-stylized bony skeleton-ish looking thing with an almost bat-like face full of pointy teeth. The Mutant Warrior design made few appearances in the 2002 series: once as a giant skeleton warrior, once as a massive army that multiplied as each warrior was destroyed, and once as the skeletons covered in slime.
Now, the MOTUC bios refer to Clawful leading a troop of Skeleton Warriors. Could it be referring to these guys? Maybe.
I love skeleton warriors a lot, so it’s weird to me that I don’t love these. I think the design is a little too ’90s-extreme with lots of pointy edges and exaggerated proportions. Skeleton bat-warriors sounds cool on paper, but don’t quite work for me in execution. That said, I suppose the 4H could work their magic on this design and straighten out the proportions a bit and make it work. I’m not so sure on that score, so these rank a little lower for me.
3. Tataran’s Goblin Army
Tataran is a Goblin General from a couple episodes of He-Man.
In the episode “The Arena” he commands a goblin army for Skeletor. This one is a bit of a stretch, I’ll admit, but goblins are such a cool fantasy staple and “The Arena” is such a great episode of the show that I would love to have an army of them to fight my MOTU guys. They actually attack palace guards in this episode! These goblins actually feel a little like pre-Filmation characters even though they are from Filmation.
I think it’s because they mix up technology and Bronze Age arms. These guys have jet packs, ride giant lizards, and have these neat green-skull space ships.
I also like the color scheme gray skin and brown armor. They were shown off nicely in a few Fimation pan shots from “The Arena.” Thanks to Bustatoons for these images.
2. Hover Robots/Robot Knights
The main Filmation trooper for Skeletor, these guys had quite a few vintage appearances, so they have nostalgia on their side. It’s always cool to finally get a figure of a character that was on the show all the time and never had a figure. They are also featured in the new IOS MOTU game, so they have a bit of modern credibility as well.
I think the design is pretty cool as they look a little like prototype Horde Troopers, which kind of makes sense from a story point of view. It could be old tech from the time that the Horde was on Eternia that Skeletor appropriated. I imagine the real-world reason for their creation was so that He-Man could actually destroy a foe now and again and not draw the ire of parents groups.
Joe Amaro made some amazing custom versions (above) that serve as a great 3D proof of concept and show off the potential, including accessories and flight stand. They look amazing in a swarm. Just mold those guys, Mattel!
1. Skeleton Warriors
If you have seen any of my articles lately, you probably knew this would be my number one choice. I’m a little obsessed with animated skeleton warriors, the more Harryhausen the better. MOTU has it’s own version of the animated skeleton that was created for the 2002 comic and video game (illustrated by Emeliano Santalucia above). I also like this more animated rendering by artist Gbagok, and though they never appeared in the 2002 cartoon, this gives you an idea of how they would have looked.
This design appears to have been adapted for the He-Man IOS game as well, working as generic baddies in the game much as Horde Troopers, Hover Robots, and Snake Men do in other levels of the game. Now, I wouldn’t want them to keep the cartoonish style, of course, the skeleton parts would be sculpted with the kind of detail and grit we see on cool skeleton sculpts like Skelly himself and Scareglow.
The more traditional human skeleton look appeals to me more than the more stylized slime pit mutant warrior. I’m partial to the skeleton warrior design by customizer He-Mike, and I wouldn’t expect them to make warriors quite like this since there is no media design precedent for it, but I think this shows the cool factor potential for a bunch of skeleton warriors in your MOTUC display.
That’s my top five, what’s yours? Did I miss anybody? Let me know below or discuss on our forums.
