Masters of the Universe Collector's Choice William Stout Collection - Toyark Photo Shoot - The Toyark

In what was to be one of their final 7″ scale Masters of the Universe releases, Super7 offered fans the chance to own a great assortment of figures based on William Stout’s production artwork for the Masters of the Universe film from 1987. The set offered fans three new figures, and a repaint of an existing mold. The figures included He-Man, Skeletor, Karg, and God Skeletor. Fans who have been collecting the Masters of the Universe Classics from Mattel and Super7 will be able to join these up with previous movie releases, such as Gwildor, Blade, and Saurod for a more complete movie line. The new figures began hitting inboxes last week, and I’ve put together a new photo shoot to showcase the figures. After the jump, check out my thoughts on the releases, and a full gallery.

Masters of the Universe Collector’s Choice William Stout Collection by Super7

Pros

Both Skeletor’s are outstanding
Karg’s new paint scheme looks great
Nice to have a film version of He-Man
Nice accessories all around

Cons

My He-Man had multiple issues
Some of the sculpted clothes hinder articulation

Overall
The figures are packed in the regular Masters of the Universe Classics blister card packaging. Each card back includes a bio for the figures. He-Man includes two portraits, a Sword of Power, a dagger, a knife, and a blaster. Evil Despot Skeletor includes a Havoc Staff, a sword, and a Cosmic Key. Karg includes a blaster and another weapon. God Skeletor (aka Hyper Skeletor) includes a Havoc Staff.

The figures look really good overall, especially when standing together. While they aren’t 100% movie accurate, since they are based on the production art, and not the actual film versions, they still compare favorably to the film itself. The two Skeletor figures are the clear best of the wave (to me). He-Man, sadly, wound up being my least favorite of the bunch, while Karg wound up impressing me more than I expected. Articulation is the same as we’ve been seeing on the MOTU Classic line for a while now. Is it outdated? Sure. But it works well enough here that it didn’t bother me. Both Skeletor’s have a few spots, like the legs, that are hindered a bit by the harder plastic robes. Heating up those areas with a hair dryer allowed for a bit of extra range of motion while I was shooting, but wasn’t a permanent solution.

Let’s start with the good. The Evil Despot Skeletor figure is pretty much perfect looking. While a bit of the cartoon aesthetic is still visible, as it uses the stock MOTU Classic body, the overall visual is fantastic. The portrait is spot on, the costume looks great, and his accessories are the best of the bunch. Running a close second was the God Skeletor, with a fantastic golden costume. Super7, thankfully, didn’t go for vac-metal here, but was able to still get a nice glossy golden paint deco that really stands out. The head sculpt, again, is excellent. Karg is a repaint of the figure released in 2018, but with a far more movie themed color scheme. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed shooting the figure, as the sculpt really shines with the gold highlights. These three made the purchase worth it.

Now onto the figure I had the most issues with; He-Man. He, unfortunately, didn’t quite live up to the other figures for me. My He-Man had a few problems right out of the box, which caused it to not be quite as enjoyable as the other three. Paint had rubbed off from the chest and shoulder armors onto the figure itself. It was mostly hidden as I moved the chest and shoulders around. But his shoulders, under the pauldrons, had a lot of black rubbed off, as well as glue that leaked onto the shoulders. The glue holding the chest/shoulder armor together was fairly weak, and I had to re-glue a few spots to hold it in place properly. He-Man includes two head sculpts. One is meant to look more like the artwork, while the other is meant to resemble Dolph Lundgren (this is the head sculpt I used throughout). It doesn’t much look like him, and looks more cartoonish compared to the other three figures. The “artwork” head sculpt has some poorly applied paint around the eyes as well, so I really didn’t photograph with it outside of the close up portrait. Objectively, the He-Man is close to being a solid movie figure, but it just missed the mark for me due to issues and a head sculpt that wasn’t as good as the two Skeletor’s.

In the end, a few issues with He-Man aren’t going to kill this assortment for me. I’m still really glad to have them all, and I can’t imagine Mattel would have tackled the movie if Super7 wasn’t involved. They’re absolutely worth tracking down if you didn’t pick them up, and a few online stores still have them up for decent prices. Check out a selection of images below, and the full gallery after that.

Backgrounds featured in some of the photos are from Extreme Sets – use code TOYARK at checkout for 15% off your order!