DEMO-MAN Masters of the Universe: Classics REVIEW!!!

Okie-dokie...my first review of one of Mattel's Masters of the Universe: Classics figures! They've been putting these out for a while now, and I figured I'd start with Demo-Man, since he was an odd sort of prototype for an early villain for the famous 80s toy line...before it was famous...or even in existence! For those of you who don't know, the Classics line was conceived as a toy line for adult collectors still in love with the old property. So, dorks like me, pretty much! I had MotU toys back in the day like every other boy in the 80s. I didn't have every single figure or vehicle, but I had enough to like the toys and 'toon. I researched it in the late 90s into early 2000s when I got on the 'net and fell back in love, even harder! Mattel had planned to give the series new life, and did. Sadly, the new figures and show were kind of a flop...only old fans really got into it. Eh, it had its flaws. The toys were cool, but the distribution sucked! It was hard to get the obscure characters and such. The show was okay, but they tried too hard to make it action-heavy...plus the stories were sub-par...cool in their own little way, but not awesome. Anyway...MotU never really came back in a BIG way. The show got canceled, and the new toys soon followed. Mattel ended up giving the revival another chance, but as a toy-only thing meant for serious collectors. Hence, the Classics line was born. The figures capture the look and feel of the old characters, while adding more mature details and aesthetics. Cool. These were only released a couple o' figures a month and only on Mattel's website. I tried to stay away from the line, wanting to save money, but got sucked in...that's its own story! You could join a club and get a subscription, but I didn't want every single toy. Yeah, you can buy up to ten of each figure which sucks for the "little guy"...I ended up getting most of mine from eBay scalpers, sadly...thankfully, I didn't pay too much for most of 'em. To this day, fans are still whining over certain issues with the Mattel site, the ordering, and pricing (myself included), but at least the figures are kick-ass enough for me to come a-crawlin' back!

So, who is this guy, Demo-Man? Well, see...this guy was basically a preliminary drawing for the villain of the toy line. Back in the day, legend has is that the toy line that would eventually become Masters of the Universe was gonna be a toy line for the Conan property, but said character was considered too violent and grim. That's ONE story of the MotU origin, but anyway...He-Man looked a lot like Conan on paper. He had the dark hair, and horned helmet and all that jazz. They actually made a figure of that early He-Man in the Classics line earlier and called him Vikor: Heroic He-Man of the North! The opposing bad guy was gonna be this dude: Demo-Man...and if you know anything about MotU, you may see and odd resemblance to the main bad guy to come. In some ways, it's like Demo-Man was split into Skeletor and Beast Man based on his designs. Interesting stuff...I'd prattle on, but I hate typing so much! The figure is damn close to the original sketch. The color was added later by the artist (eh, forget his name all the time). The toy itself is awesome, and I actually like it much better in person. See, I was only kinda interested in him at first...but couldn't pass him up. Glad I didn't! He seems to use a bunch of all-new parts...even the limbs. See, in true MotU fashion, Mattel reused/recolored the body components of the old toys...so for the new line, they followed that old tradition. Some may say that's cheap...and it is. In the old days, they were just a company trying to get money. After MotU got bigger, you can look back and notice how the toys got "better" and used more original parts. The limbs and main bodies got reused the most in the early days, and even a lot of weapons. They even reused old parts a bit in the closing days of the line's popularity. The Classics did that to to keep up with the faith. I can prattle on, but like I said...too much typey-type! Aside for the obvious new head (s) and weapons, looks like the arms and legs are new sculpts too! Nice. You can remove his shoulder pads, his shirt, and to an extent his arm band...if you pop his arm off. He comes with a sword and mace, like in the original vintage drawing. He even comes with a little skull-head from the background of the drawing...which you can use as an actual head...Demo-Man's can pop off. Most of the Classics can do this, as most have interchangeable heads for whatever reason. Eh, the skull doesn't look that great on any character, really. Just a neat idea. The toy itself is just plain cool. I love it. I love this weird green ogre man that would have been the main baddie for MotU. He seems to be half-rotted or sickened by sheer evil. Look at that mug! He seems to have a row of worn-down cranial ridges above his bejeweled brow. A small bone is knotted into his grimy beard. An adornment...or a dining mishap? You decide! His garb is that of a man who cares not of fanciness...a rugged tunic and a haphazardly constructed shoulder pad set rest on his back. There's even a tuft of green hair poking through the armor...just like on the old art...nice detail! I just love the sculpt on his new limbs...veiny! So beastly and raw...love the new foot sculpt too! Oh, and like I said, you can pop off his head. Yep, one last accessory is a third head. It's a new Skeletor head...one sculpted to look like the one from the oldest mini-comic where the character first appeared!

Oh, yesssss! See, in more modern times, fans have tried to make sense of all the weird inconsistencies in the Masters of the Universe mythos...seems you get a lot of story hang-ups in the various media...the mini-comics, the regular comics, the cartoon, the storybooks, etc. Skeletor was originally a guy named Keldor in most canons. We never really got to see a vintage Keldor, since he was only referred to. See, before he became Skeletor, Keldor was a servant of Hordak (another MotU baddie, as well as a She-Ra foe, too). Keldor was supposed to eventually free his teacher from his dimensional prison, but didn't...and then Keldor was mortally wounded in battle and got fixed up from afar by his master, Hordak. It wasn't until recently, that the idea of using the old Demo-Man character in the mythos came about. The designers and writers for this stuff decided that Keldor should be magically bonded with a powerful entity named Demo-Man to fix him up form his wounds...and THAT would be how Skeletor became so powerful and came to have his boney puss! Only, so fans wouldn't freak out that Skeletor wasn't Skeletor, they made it so Keldor had the dominant mind (so to speak) in the backstory on Demo-Man's packaging. Sadly, I kinda threw it out before I started writing this...damn! This also explains why, in the first vintage mini-comic, Skeletor was trying to free "his people" by using the power of Castle Grayskull. See, story-wise, Keldor had gone temporarily mad form the bonding process to the spirit of Demo-Man...and Hordak used that to screw with his mind and coax the new Skeletor to free him. Didn't work, but Hordak eventually got free by other means. Eh, it works...I accept it for what it is...as a true dork!

For the new head...it looks nice on the Demo-Man body...the skull matches the skin...almost as is Demo-Man had a nice shave! It looks way creepier than the first Classics Skeletor noggin...and just like it did in the first mini-comic appearance. That alone is too cool for school! This shall be my new default Skeletor head. Not that the older one was bad...this one is just better...look at that thing! Creepsville U.S.A.! Well, hopefully I'll do more MotU Classics reviews...maybe cover some older releases...who knows.