Masters of the Universe Classics: Battle Cat

Yeah. Okay. So I'm ridiculously late to this party. I could never justify racing to Matty Collector's website on their sale dates just to fight for a chance to maybe buy an overpriced toy then get gouged on shipping (since there's usually not much opportunity to combine).

But then Black Friday rolled around, and Mattel made a massive number of exclusives available, many at discounted prices (Battle Cat, for example, was marked down to $27). Add that to the fact I could combine shipping with a couple other toys I wanted, and the math suddenly looked a lot better.

As every other toy collector on Earth learned more than a year ago, this is pretty amazing toy. The Four Horsemen did a phenomenal job sculpting something that was simultaneously true to the original concept, while looking completely modern. Not to mention intimidating.

I love the work on the head, both with and without the removable armor. This guy's extremely scary - if I were Skeletor, I'd think twice before making trouble.

I will admit to having mixed feelings about the headpiece. It's amazingly well done, given the design of the original, but it looks equal parts cool and, well... silly. Then again, there's something realistic about that: real world armor doesn't always look as frightening as it's intended to.

The articulation is good, though I do have a gripe. The shoulders and hind legs are all joined with swivels instead of ball joints, which limits your options. The knees and ankles, on the other hand, are ball-joints, which mostly makes up for it. Mostly.

There are quite a few other joints, giving you quite a bit of movement. I also love the mouth, which looks fantastic open or closed.

He-Man looks good riding, but not great. The limitations in the Masters of the Universe Classics' leg articulation become apparent.

He works quite a bit better standing in front of Battle Cat: this is a good vehicle, but an amazing backdrop.

I'm thrilled to have finally gotten my hands on one of these. Truth be told, I was awfully jealous of my fellow collectors last year when pictures of these started showing up online, but I couldn't justify the price until now.