After being at it for more than a decade, the Four Horsemen have become masters of bringing back that old, nostalgic feeling when it comes to action figures. The work that they have done on the Masters of the Universe and DC properties goes without saying, but they have also had their hands in other iconic toy property updates, like the Outer Space Men. Now they are taking on that same challenge with the slightly more obscure, yet very cutting-edge (especially for the 1980s) Power Lords line. The brainchild of sci-fi movie and literature magnate Wayne Barlowe, defunct toy company Revell released the highly eclectic line based on his design. Now the Four Horsemen are bringing it back with all kinds of new updates, and front and center is the main protagonist ADAM POWER and his alter ego – LORD POWER.
I will be perfectly honest, I don’t think I even knew about the existence of the Power Lords until Pab’s posted his article about them a couple of years ago. Then, by some strange twist of fate, the Horsemen announced their new line shortly after, so I decided I needed to look into past to see what the future held. I realized pretty quickly that there were some things about the original line that 1980s me would have loved, and there were some things that I would have absolutely hated as well. All of the aliens and play sets would have been right up my alley, and to be honest, I would love to get my mitts on some of the play sets even now. I would not have liked the “change” feature of Adam Power, though, because as a kid, and even now, I would have dismissed the reveal because the Lord Power alter ego was just attached to Adam Power’s back.
However, like so many instances that have come before, the Horsemen have found a way to capitalize on the strong points of the line (the character designs, for instance) and find new ways of translating the shortcomings (the aforementioned “change” feature). However, even though Adam Power is the main protagonist, the line actually has more villains and monstrous characters, which is a plus for me, and Horsemen’s bread and butter is in the creatures and monsters. So, as I got to know the property better, I quickly found that the Power Lords is a very natural progression for them.
Like the Outer Space Men, this line is built off of a smaller scale, right in the 3¾-inch range, so that falls just, ahem, short of my preferred 6-inch scale. My personal preference does not detract from the overall success or appeal of the line, even though it would be cool to have Adam Power in scale with my other ’80s icons, and there are many things going for the line that lend themselves to the 1:18 scale very well. First, a lot the designs blend really well with popular lines of the same scale, like Star Wars and G.I. Joe, so if you are looking for some new heroes and villains to help expand those universes, this line could easily be your bag, even if you are not necessarily a fan of the property. Also, once again, the Horsemen have employed the Glyos joint and articulation system with the Power Lords, so the figures are instantly compatible with lines like OSM in terms of part sharing and customization. The reassuring part is that this is something all Four Horsemen make, so you know that the sculpts will stand up at any scale.
ADAM POWER
Now, even though Adam Power kicks off the “official” relaunch of the line, there have been several prelaunch figures that have already been released using the pieces created for Adam. The Elite and generic Power Soldiers are new entries into the mythos, but they help expand the conflict with soldiers that can be lead into battle. So if you have been collecting this line in its prerelease, you are already going to be familiar with most of Adam’s makeup in terms of parts and sculpts. If this is your first time venturing in, we covered a lot of those things in our previous article. So it is like seeing them again — for the first time!
You are, of course, getting the Adam Power head sculpt for the first time, and it is, of course, very nice. It is stoic, but there is personality there of a Superman quality. Adam has a chiseled jaw and perfectly coiffured hair that is obligatory of the heroic centerpiece of any respectable action figure line. As an added bonus, you also get an alternate helmeted head that matches the sculpt of the previously released Elite Soldiers. This gives you some room for interpretation as you have Adam with his own helmet, or you can build a new subset soldiers in Adam’s trademark colors.
Speaking of colors, the paint on these figures is very impressive, especially at such a small scale. I know the Horsemen are taskmasters over their Chinese factory counterparts (you have to be), and even then, things can always go awry in production, especially with paint. However, I think that all of the figures in the first series have turned out remarkably well (at least in these samples) and that is even in the face of most of the preview items being very limited in the paint department. Adam Power’s costume has a lot of very small lines that are highlighted with paint details and all of the edges are nice and clean. Plus, orange is a very unforgiving color in the world of paints, so the factory did a great job.
I know that some collectors were feeling the prerelease “fatigue,” so it is nice to finally have the main man himself in Adam Power, and I can tell you, it was worth the wait. If you are fan of this property, I think you are going to dig this figure. He does include the same gun and staff that we have seen before, but again, these weapons were really designed with this figure in mind. Now, I talked about his transformation feature into Lord Power above and how the vintage gimmick would not have appealed to me at all, but for this line, I don’t have to worry one bit. Why, you ask? Well, because the Horsemen have given Lord Power is very own figure!
LORD POWER
Yep, Adam Power’s charged-up alter ego is ready to roll, and you don’t have to worry about that whole “my secret is just on my back” predicament. Don’t get me wrong, just because I know it would not have been for me, I am positive that the action feature of the vintage figure went over very well with kids in 1980s. So, even though they probably had to make a hard choice with how to execute Lord Power, I think the 4H went about it the right way.
While Adam Power can be relegated to “guy in an orange jumpsuit” status, Lord Power’s design is very eye-catching, and giving the “character” his own figure gives the Horsemen much more of an opportunity to do the great design justice. There are very few cues left over from Adam’s design to indicate that he is also Lord Power, so if you want, he can be a completely unique character. In the story, though, Adam is powered up via the Power Jewel that adorns Lord Power’s forehead. The powered-up version gives Adam hair that stands on end, threatening red eyes, and a complexion that would make the bluest Smurf jealous. So, right away, just by looking at the figure, you know he is someone powerful and important.
Lord Power’s blue skin contrasts the orange pants very nicely and the red “power veins” make him instantly imposing. Again, those cuts into the skin could have been a production paint nightmare, so am pleased that they came out clean. I am not sure if this is in keeping with canon or not, but I see those grooves as a way for him to harness more power and the Power Jewel as source for blasts and energy pulses he can send out at his enemies. If he cannot actually do that, he does include the same staff and gun that comes with Adam Power, so he is certainly armed and ready for combat. Lord Power also comes with the standard soldier helmet in the orange and blue color scheme. It does not really look appropriate for him, but if you put it on Adam, it looks great and opens up a whole other look for that base body, be it Adam himself, or yet another set of soldiers to army build.
Whew, I think that all of the Power Lords fans out there are breathing a collective sigh of relief – after several previews, we finally have the main man himself. I have to say that I was quite taken by the very clean look of the black and white Elite Soldier, but Adam and Lord Power both surpass that figure in terms of quality thanks to some great paint applications. I am slightly fearful that some fans might already be feeling a little bit of fatigue with all of the incarnations of this base body already released, but this official drop is not only the real start to the line, but also the point where it can start to move forward. I am looking forward to what characters are in line for the next release (we have seen a few of them from Toypocalypse) and what the Horsemen have up their sleeves. This line is a little more pointed than several of the things they have worked on before, so hopefully there will be plenty of support. You can show yours by preordering at Store Horsemen now!
*Thanks for reading and thanks to the Horsemen for sending along this set for a Preview. Don’t worry, we have more coming soon!
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