This month’s Club 200X subscription figure is Grayskull’s Queen — Veena! Queen Grayskull, or Veena as she had come to be known, is one of the more oft-requested 2002 figures and is representative of the 2002 Sorceress’ more Egyptian-inspired design. Let’s take a look at Queen Grayskull!
Queen Grayskull Bio
Real Name: Veena Grayskull
After the death of her husband, Grayskull’s widow took up the lonely duty of Guardian, residing in Grayskull’s castle to watch over the secret Orb she helped create, containing the Power of the Universe. With the help of the Elders and her apprentice Sharella, she split He-Ro’s sword in two, knowing that the united blade was the key to channeling the Power once again. While she watched over the Orb, Sharella became the Goddess, seeking out brave heroes to guard the twin blades, preventing them from being combined by the hands of evil. The Guardian of Grayskull went on to protect the castle throughout her life, occasionally tapping into the Orb of Power to protect it, as she did during the battles with the Fighting Foe Men. Shortly before her death, at extremely old age, she located a new guardian to protect Castle Grayskull’s secrets and passed on her role.
The thing I like about this bio is that they make the old minicomics Sorceress (the Green Goddess) a contemporary of the original 2002 Sorceress. Over the years, I’ve somehow got used to calling her Veena, so I’ll probably use this name for the rest of the review.
Accessories
Veena comes with an eagle-themed staff and a little towel/shawl piece. Here wings are also removable. The shawl is a pretty soft piece of plastic, so soft that the rubber bands holding it in the package have dented the plastic. It wraps around her arms pretty well, but keeping it on there limits posing. It doesn’t always hang like you would like, but it matches well with the artwork
The staff is a nice sharp sculpt that matches well with the Sorceress from 2002. The wings are nicely sculpted and plug into the lower back easily and solidly. I think I may have two of the same wing, which I didn’t really notice until I took the last picture. There is a slight curving inward to the wing, and I can see they are curving opposite directions when plugged in. The wings are on a swivel hinge that give you a few poses, though it would have been nice if they were hinged so they could fold when Veena is on the ground.
The wings attach at the lower back, which is an unusual design, but it matches the show well.
Sculpt
The sculpt is very nice. The armor has nice, strong details and doesn’t have the “busy” feel that you can sometimes see in the 2002 designs. I would have like a neutrally posed or spell-casting hand for Veena.
Articulation
Articulation is typical MOTUC. The head is somewhat hindered by the long headdress, but there have been worse examples of this in the line. The skirt piece is pretty soft, so she moves well. It’s still disappointing to see a figure with no rocker ankles.
Paint
Paint is really nice here. I love the quality of all the gold on her armor and staff. It’s sparkly stuff, as it should be. There is a bit of a miss on the right eye on my figure that is really only noticeable in the close-up pics, but I may need to go in with a thin brush and add the lower eyeliner there.
Overall
Veena is a nice figure overall and adds a lot to the Preternia side of the shelf. I’m glad to get her, though it looks like I may have got a defective figure with two right wings, though I’m not sure it looks bad enough for me to try and figure out the replacement. Overall, these 2002 figures have been really fun and translate well into the MOTUC style.
