MOTUC Feature – Nepthu

My impression of Nepthu’s popularity is that even in a light Masters of the Universe Classics (MOTUC) month he wasn’t going to get much attention, so he really doesn’t stand a chance in one of the most MOTUC-goodness-packed months of the year. There is still a lot to like about this guy, so let’s take a closer look at the October 2013 Filmation Subscription figure: Nepthu!

Nepthu™ Bio
Real Name: Nepthu Sencri

A devoted servant to Count Marzo®, Nepthu™ was devastated when his master was transformed into a powerless, old man and vowed revenge. Without magical ability of his own, he spent years scouring the Sands of Fire and Sands of Time until he was also an old man. Nepthu™ eventually found the Temple of the Sun and within it the Sun Scarab and was transformed into a young wizard with a fervent desire to control the universe. His scarab was destroyed by He-Man®, leaving him powerless, but he transformed once more when he pledged his devotion to King Hssss™ during the Second Ultimate Battleground. Nepthu™ has powerful magical abilities that include freezing energy blasts as well as the ability to block telepathy and create an army made out of sand.

One thing about the Filmation cartoon that I find fascinating as an adult is that even though there were already many excellent villains in the toy line, Filmation would create new baddies for one-off stories. I appreciate Filmation’s creativity in this regard and love that we have a line to celebrate it with the Filmation mini-subscription.

I can only hope they do another one next year; however, not all characters are created or valued equally. While I desperately wanted figures of Shokoti, Plundor, and Sea Hawk, and I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing characters like Hawke, Vultak, and General Sunder, Nepthu did not make a similar impression. My issue with this bio is really my issue with the character.

We see his origin, his weak campaign for power, and downfall all in 22 short minutes. He-Man renders him powerless in that episode, so it is nice that the bio mentions Nepthu’s original devotion to Marzo and subsquent regaining of his power, though I have to say it’s a shame that they limit it to once more. It limits his utility as a character. I’m going to choose to believe he got some power back a few more times, probably through Marzo’s return to power.

Accessories

Nepthu comes with two accessories: his Scarab of Power and a crystal form of Zoar (she is frozen in this form by Nepthu in the episode). The Scarab is a thin piece of semi-flexible plastic and is sculpted to match the ankh/scarab appearance from the cartoon and is painted with a nice, shiny gold with a glossy orange scarab. The highlight accessory is the crystalized Zoar.

The sculpt is perfect representation of Zoar in the episode and is a cool looking sculpt in its own right. The crystal-shaped bird hits a couple ’80s nostalgia veins with Silverhawks and Crystar wrapped up in one. The one odd thing about it is that the plastic is slightly yellow cast.

Sculpt

Nepthu looks to be built on a standard MOTUC base like Tri-Klops with Bow boots and a left hand from Marzo. He has newly sculpted head, biceps, loincloth, accessories, and neck thingy.

The Egyptian-style accoutrements have some extra geometric clothing designs added to them to spice up the design a bit from the somewhat plain lines from Filmation. The head sculpt doesn’t quite give the impression of evil you get in the episode; his expression seems somewhat bland. What’s interesting is that I’ve seen a picture by customizer Leo Aquino that showed Nepthu with his face paint removed, and it actually looks more evil without the paint.

The sculpt by itself has a bit of an evil, pompous grin to it that seems appropriate for the character, and his eyebrows are lowered in a more intense stare. Not wildly evil, but more intense than the final product. The paint on the eyebrows transforms the expression to a more placid, benevolent look.

Another nitpick I have with the sculpt is the white skirt part of his hat. It seems to me that it is illustrated like it is cloth, but the sculpt is very stiff and doesn’t really rest like cloth.

The bow boots also don’t quite match up with the modified sandals Nepthu wears, but that doesn’t really bother me.

Articulation

Nepthu has the standard MOTUC articulation. It’s not hampered by the loincloth, but the neck movement is somewhat limited by the headdress skirt piece.

Paint

Paint is quite nice on Nepthu. He has the usual muscle shading to bring out the MOTUC muscular details, and each item of clothing has some sort of metallic accent paint that adds a lot to the overall look, much more in person that what shows up on photographs.

Overall

Nepthu is not a character I was particularly looking forward to, and I feel as a one-shot villain he was pretty one-note, lame, and easily dispatched, and the bio doesn’t open up the character much for wider use.

That said, the pulp-fiction appeal of an Egyptian-themed character in my barbarian fantasy is pretty appealing, and the final figure turned out nice. I think I may take a shot at repainting the eyebrows to match the sculpt a bit better.