Only a few others share this secret. Among them are…
Light Hope, Madame Razz, and Kowl! With that, dear friends, we now have all of Adora’s Etherian secret keepers in the Masters of the Universe Classics line. The funny thing is, aside from MAYBE Kowl, it was probably touch and go with whether or not we would get ANY of these characters due to rights issues, and, well, a lack of bodies. You read that correctly, once the Filmation hash was settled we kind of knew it was just a matter of time before Madame and Broom entered the line, but the spirit of the Crystal Castle is another ball of wax entirely. Light Hope is one of the most time-tested enigmas in all of the MOTU mythos. A native to the Princess of Power cartoon, he was used as a sagely counterpart to He-Man’s Sorceress, but he was never depicted as anything other than a voice and a shimmering column of light.
His “character design” has had fans in a tizzy since it was first considered that he might be a figure in the MOTUC line. Like Horde Prime, there has never been much to go on to translate him into a toy. I remember it was kicked around that perhaps Light Hope could make into Classics as a diorama piece of shimmering plastic, wrapped around a base to recreate the look of the cartoon. While that is a neat idea, I think it would have been a hard sell, especially at a (probable) $20+ price tag. So Mattel and the Horsemen went in a different direction, and, like most things that come out of that amazing house of creations in north Jersey, Light Hope has emerged as something better than (most of us) could have been expected.
Yep, Light Hope is FIGURE now. He has a form, a body, a corporeal (for the most part) form. You can look at a design and a figure and see what Light Hope looks like, and, thanks to Mattel’s willingness and Horsemen’s realization, the spirit of the Crystal Castle can now stand as a cool and unique addition to your Rebel shelf. However, the circle was expanded beyond Mattel and the Horsemen for this one, and as a fandom, we are very fortunate because the incomparable Nate Baertsch (aka Baena) jumped into the driver’s seat to give us an all-new design for Light Hope. The fruit of Nate’s work is one of the most unique and eye-catching figures in the Classics line thus far.
When the rumors started flying that we were going to possibly get an actual figure of Light Hope, I really had no idea what he was going to look like. In the end, when I set eyes on him in person at Toy Fair this year, I was pleased, surprised, and dumbstruck all at the same time. The pleased speaks for itself, the surprise is that I had nothing in my head as to just how he was going to look, but the dumbfounded comes from the fact that the thought process behind the design is so incredibly obvious once you see it. I mean, we are essentially looking at “Crystal Castleman” just like Castle Grayskullman and even Horde Prime as “Fright Zoneguy” are living embodiments of those play sets. What an awesome concept! The spirit of the Crystal Castle has taken form and it is like a love letter to the most iconic designs that structure has ever had.
I am not even sure where to start when calling out all of the nods and homages to not only the original play set, but also the more well-known Filmation design. Nate’s keen eyes absorbed so many things, from patterns, to shapes, to colors and placements that it can almost be overwhelming. Just look at him – it is like the castle got up and started walking about and all of the visual cues came with it. There are some homages that are easy to spot – LH’s crown and staff are obvious recreations of the Filmation castle exterior, and the star motif has been present in the She-Ra patterns for a long time. This gives a nice connection not only to the castle, but to She-Ra’s crown as well. Digging a little deeper, you see the rock shapes from the vintage play set as well as the rounded patterning from some of the interior rails and accessories. I love that he’s made of rounded shapes as it is a perfect contrast to the hard geometric lines of Horde Prime; those two really start to contrast with one and other, and it is totally appropriate. If you know the designs from the Lord of the Rings movies, it is like the elves versus the dwarves. Very cool.
The figure also takes his color cues from the actual Crystal Castle(s) as well. The gold is obvious as it is an important color in both the animated and toy designs. In addition to that, though, he has deep red gems, like the cartoon castle, and his clothes are mostly white to help recall the clouds around the vintage play set. Even Light Hope’s “body” color is reminiscent of the old toy – he is cast in a translucent light pink plastic. That not only helps capture the color, but gives him an ephemeral quality as well, so he retains a bit of the quality of his “light form” from the cartoon. I find the effect to be really great, and I can tell you – all of the plastic feels just fine. I know that the collectors of this line are gun shy about the clear plastic due to the Goddess issue, but I really do not see it being a problem for Light Hope.
I am at a bit of a loss on this one because there is just so much to this figure, and it is a lot to take in. I think letting the pictures speak for themselves is probably the best thing for this preview, but I really want to say that I find this figure to be really, really awesome. Everything that Nate considered in his design is spot-on, the Horsemen sculpted and fabricated him perfectly and Mattel gets credit for considering Light Hope to be a very important character that needed a figure in the Classics line. I think he is the perfect foil for Horde Prime and that is going to facilitate a backstory for both of them as entities of Etheria and the Horde respectively, locked in an eternal struggle. I have always had a tough time with Horde Prime because Hordak has always been THE MAN of the Horde, but this helps make Prime more of an entity with strong opposition.
So hats off to Nate, the Horsemen, and Mattel for this one. Light Hope is one of those surprise figures that you never really knew you needed until he became required the moment you clapped eyes on him. I think A LOT of fans, not just PoP fans, are going to find a great appreciation for this figure. LH is very well done and though he is new, he is steeped in MOTU and PoP tradition that is like a big love letter to the design aesthetic of Princess of Power. That makes him the perfect figure for Club Etheria, and hopefully you signed up because he is exclusive for subscribers and will never be sold as an in-stock item. If you did sign up, he will be shipping to you automatically in October so you can celebrate the 30th anniversary of She-Ra and crew in style.
*Thanks to everyone who worked on this great figure, it shows the potential of Classics beyond the vintage line. Thanks also to Mattel for sending Light Hope along for a preview.
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