When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. No one has put that tired old cliche into practice better than Evil-Lyn. Since the early 1980s our favorite sultress of Snake Mountain has made her lemon curd complexion work beautifully. As a child, color was always important to me when it came to picking some of my favorite toys. I am sure I did not realize I was doing it, but strong palettes with dynamic color combinations have always appealed to me. Any hue will do, just so long as it is done well. I am positive that wiring was one of the things that played a large role in making Mer-Man my favorite He-Man guy. I mean, I have always loved the sea and sea-based characters, but his blue-green skin, bright yellow armor and orange and sea foam shorts still make for a very visually striking combination. Okay sorry – I am not sure how a lead-in to a First Look about Evil-Lyn turned into a Mer-Man conversation, but Lyn was also one of those vintage figures that had a strong color combination going for her. You did not need an explanation as to why her skin was so lemony, she is a Masters character. That was a part of her; at least in the toy line. However, ever since the FilMation cartoon, various forms of media have attempted to provide their own takes on how Evil-Lyn should look, probably more so than any other character. Thus, since the on-set of the Classics line, Lyn has caused almost as much divisive havoc amongst the collector community as she has on Eternia. So, in the spirit of adding more fuel to a blazing nerd fire, we bring you our First Look at Battle Ground Evil-Lyn.
So here is something that makes me happy just about every single day – I got MY Evil-Lyn back in April of last year. Yup, for 18 months she has been standing proud next to her main man Skeletor along with the rest of the denizens of the Dark Hemisphere. I am sure there is a large population of MOTU fans out there that are in the same boat. However, once the MOTUC line really started to take off, I always considered Evil-Lyn to be a good candidate for one of those “A-List” variant quarterly spots. There are certainly a lot of possibilities out there for such a thing and I have always been open to the idea of seeing new executions for her. And so here we are, but with a twist – all this time I think that everyone just assumed (me included) that we would get an already established incarnation, like FilMation or a comic appearance, but in that fashion of predictable unpredictability that approach was not meant to be.
See, back in June of this year, Mattel introduced us to the “Battle Ground” concept with, wait for it – Battle Ground Teela. But what is this “Battle Ground” description? Is it like Battle Armor? I know what that is. Hmmm… not really because the Teela we got with that name is really the comic version, though admittedly, she looks like she is ready for battle. Now we have Evil-Lyn ready for her “Battle Ground” debut, but she is not wearing a metal bikini, nor does she have long hair or animal pelt panties. It looks like the “Battle Ground” moniker is applied a little more loosely and that is fine – ultimately what really matters is that it gives us more options for important characters down the road to have memorable, or in this case all-new, variations. Or maybe there is some grandiose scheme now in the works and the Battle Ground means the Ultimate Battle Ground and these are fantastic fashions the two principal Eternian babes will be sporting at the big throw down. I will keep reading those bios.
So, at SDCC, I was willing to take BG EL on her own terms – a new version of Evil-Lyn. The thing is that it seems fans attending the Matty panel were doing the same thing or, if not, did not summon the nerve to ask about her. She was a hybrid of the vintage look with a color scheme more akin to that of her father, the Faceless One. Works for me, all I know is that I have a way to display Evil-Lyn with Keldor, blue Mer-Man and Kronis now, but I also like the continuity with her dear old dad. She brings lots of options. I can also show off her locks (something she is partial to doing in the cartoons) and wait to hear what is really going on with her complexion – is she naturally yellow? Naturally gray? What caused the change? I have seen some rather neat explanations for this from some talented artists on line, I think Mike Bock gave my favorite though – careful when you decide to take on Shadow Weaver. So, for now, this is my Pre-Skeletor Evil-Lyn, back when she ran out on her dad with matching clothes on her back and married a suave and mustachioed blue royal reject.
However, in no time at all a riff in the online communities started a faction of fans to tear down this version of Evil-Lyn as a failed attempt at some kind of “200x” version. Okay, I guess I did not think about that at first as I am not one to ever gravitate in that direction, but the colors are pretty close and the hair matches that era. Honestly, as I am not a supporter of many (if any) 200x designs for already-established characters, I am not really going to get into it. In the weeks following SDCC I started to freeze up anytime I saw the name “Evil-Lyn” in a post. It is not because I enjoy people not getting what they want, this line is going to eventually evolve into something that MUST provide as many reference points as possible, but I am not convinced that this version of EL was ever meant to be that. Now, I could be wrong and I can say with a pretty safe assumption that we will never get the “behind the scenes” story about the direction and motivation with making this the “Classics” versions of the 200x Lyn, or if that consideration even came into the conversation. It very well might not have as this is the CLASSICS line. Not the vintage. Not the NA. Not the PoP. Not 200x. Those lines are done, they are all a part of MOTU’s celebrated history. Classics is about paying tribute to the past, while establishing a look and structure all its own. Thank goodness!
Now, that is not to say that I don’t think we will get a more “Zalesia” Evil-Lyn (see 200x bodice design), but really, since that seems to be such an in-demand variant at this point, the line doesn’t need to do it right now. What I mean is that, when the line gets to a point where it will become more and more dependent on A-list character variants, that is when she will be used. And she will probably be a younger version or fit in a time and place we don’t know about yet, or some other time that has yet to be revealed. As it stands, I don’t think we have begun to scratch the surface of the Classics storyline, there is just too much left wide open right now.
Okay, so I don’t usually climb up on the Eternian Soapbox like that but my point is: relax. Your version of Evil-Lyn will come out eventually and there is a good chance that THIS version might just be a cool figure to add to your collection in the meantime and this version might also be fleshed out to be the coolest incarnation of Evil-Lyn yet. She might be the transition Lyn, where the character is while she makes her descent into true darkness with Keldor, casting aside her past with Nicky Powers. Could be! If you are like me, you were ready to welcome this Lyn to your shelf with a plan already in place. However, if you have a pretense about the figure but are willing to maybe see through it to take a toy on its own merits, you might find that this is actually cool figure.
Like I said, my version of Evil-Lyn is yellow. However, as a proponent of growing the Masters mythos, this version of Lyn has a place too, and like said, for now it is at the side of Keldor. While I don’t find the overall color palette to be a dynamic as the yellows and blue, the scheme is still really catchy. Plus, there is a LOT going on! Her skin is now kind of grayish, her hair stark white and her costume has black, bone, lavender, violet and magenta all mixed in. At first thought it might seem like Ronald McDonald’s pal Grimace threw up all over her, but really the scheme does work remarkably well. The costume was designed by the Four Horsemen and if you follow any of their proprietary properties like Gothitropolis, you know they have a penchant for making a diverse palette work together. BG Lyn is a great example of this. I particularly like the magenta accents. They are used sparingly and, if I remember correctly, are completely unique to her. She does not borrow that color from daddy or hubby so maybe that is her “free to be me” hue. Her helmet matches with some nice accent colors too, my particular favorites being the silver skull and the glossy black base. The colors are certainly her “darkest” so far and I don’t mean that in a strictly tonal way. They just give off the vibe of being evil, even if she did not have the word as part of her name. The other good part about her dress is that, even though she is built on the less-posable 1.0 lady body, it is nice and soft so she can turn at the waist and sit comfortably. I am hoping that the days of hard plastic outfits are behind us and Mattel seems to be making good on that promise over the last several months.
Oh, did I just say that she is the same body as the first Lyn? Well, that is not entirely true. Mattel design added on small articulation detail to the arms – her gauntlets can now rotate. Yep, while Teela’s bracers were modeled after the original card back art that had them raised to the inside, if you prefer, you can now flip them over into a more defensive styling. I think this will make a lot of people happy, not only for the option but also because this is another one of those small improvements that Mattel too right from the fan base (and their customers) so progress is progress, even in a hidden little point of articulation.
She also comes with a repurposed arsenal from her previous incarnation. She has a repainted staff (but not the wand, unfortunately as that is my preferred magic vessel) in black and silver with her dagger to match (an accessory I have never been particularly fond of) as well as two crystal balls. The first is in silver and matching translucent purple that works well with her new look. I the original blue colors a bit better, especially the ball itself, but this one is nice, even though I don’t think many people will be using it as their display piece. I say that because her other crystal ball glows in the dark – just like you remember! Yay for glow in the dark! This is the one I will be using as it recalls the past feature and I love to stand in my toy room with the lights out and find all of the little GitD points of light. I will note that I have always had trouble swapping out the crystal ball form wand to staff on the original figure and it is just as tough to do so with this one. It takes a good amount of force and I feel that I might be applying too much as I don’t want anything to break. Just putting that out there.
So, those are several fun updates to the figure, but my favorite new instances with her are her cape, helmetless head and spell-casting hand. These three things really help set her apart from her previous release past being a repaint. I am usually one to prefer my heroes and villains without capes (the usually just get in the way) but if a character can pull it off, I am good with it and Evil-Lyn has been pulling it off since the FilMation days. It fits her well, matches her outfit and is made of a nice flexible plastic. I am not sure if you could really ask for anything more in a little action figure cape. I like that it bring some continuity to Keldor’s cape as well. Since I am displaying the two of them together, it works that once he loses his face, and she turns mellow yellow, they also ditch back fashion. It slips right over the raised collar and does not inhibit any of the movement so if you don’t want it on your figure, off it goes.
I realize that something seemingly so minor like changing the form of a hand can seem like a trivial detail, but for Evil-Lyn, it is a great touch. My only nit with the last Lyn was that she had two grippy hands so you could not have her casting a spell or waving her hand over her wand. It is the same hand originally used for Catra’s scratchy hand but you will be glad to know that it is cast in a much firmer plastic. She does retain her darkly-painted finger nails too and they just add to the brooding sultress look so I am glad that paint application was included on this figure. I know, I might be making a larger deal of this, but it really does enhance her display options in my opinion.
Finally, and by finally, I mean FINALLY we are getting an Evil-Lyn without her elaborate helmet/headdress thing. Don’t get me wrong, after her yellow skin that is probably her most defining trait, but this figure seems to be all about going against the grain so – when in Rome. I have to say, I really, really like it. It adds even more variety to the character and she might look even tougher without the helmet than with it. Her hair is pretty white, and from the front it has a no-nonsense (but kind of cute) pixie cut that recalls the more recent cartoon. It fits her well and I daresay that Lyn was a sultry fox before her total descent into darkness, but she is still better than Nancy Spungen by a long shot. Maybe on the next version of Lyn we can get a repainted version of this head with dirtier hair to match the color from FilMation (but hopefully NOT the do – yuck). I will nitpick the back of the hair though, it kind of has a distinct bowl line too it that looks a bit mannish – even Bow’s hair is blended better. Overall though, and certainly from the front – this is a look for her that is a long time coming and it goes with the theme of “getting those requests done” of the Classics line.
Nope, this is not a “200x” Evil-Lyn. Then again, this is not the 200x line and I don’t think there was a promise made that this figure was supposed to be that in the first place. This is Battle Ground Evil-Lyn and while I may not know exactly what that means yet, on its own terms, the figure is pretty nice. I realize that some collectors might not be able to let go of that pretense, but I think as more people get her, the more support she will garner. The colors pop, she has a cape, hair, spell hand, glow wand, flexible tunic and movable bracers. I would still take a version of the 200x bodice in Classics styling at some point, but maybe that could be the long-haired version. Even if you like counting what is NOT there, she certainly brings a lot more that one might assume she leaves behind. At any rate, she is going to go great with my Keldor and Kompany and this is my take on her before she got locked behind the Mystic Wall. Decide for yourself though, that is the way it should be, but give her a shot for what she is, I think you will dig her.
*Thanks to Toy Guru and company for sending Lyn along, I can’t wait for the reveals at Power-Con tomorrow!
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