Shogun Masters Skeletor – New Shogun Warriors Style MOTU Line – In Hand!

This one came out of left field this weekend – a nice promotional box from Mattel arrived hyping their new Shogun Masters line with none other than Skeletor!  This is a re-imagining of the Shogun Warriors line that Mattel did in the 70s which imported Japanese mecha under one banner here in the US, but with a Masters of the Universe theme.  What would happen if Skeletor got his hands on Shogun tech?  Here you go.

We’ve run the figure for a full set of pics after the break, read on for those and some additional thoughts.   The figure will be going up on MattelCreations.com and is listed as “soon” in the UP NEXT category.  Keep your eyes peeled for the drop!

UPDATE:
The product page is now live at Mattel Creations.

So yeah, BIG GUY.  Wasn’t expecting this.  For those who need a refresher (I know I did a bit), Shogun Warriors was a blanket branding for Mattel to license Japanese mecha and promote it to Western Audiences.   I’d suggest checking out these articles to catch up (ToysYouHad, Wikipedia, Wikipedia Comics). The line featured Japanese mecha including Gaiking, Great Mazinger, Raideen, ones from Getter Robo G, and more.  Godzilla and Rodan even got tossed under the name for a while.   They came in a variety of sizes, from 24 inch Jumbo to 5 inch die-cast to 3 inch collectors series.  It even had a run of Marvel Comics for about 20 issues.   As a big robot fan of the 80s, I’ve run into this over and over through the years.  I also am pretty sure I had a couple of the smaller die-cast ones as a kid, even though they were slightly before my time.

So now that we are all caught up, this Skeletor is a play on the 24 inch Jumbo items from the 70s.  It features artwork on the packaging homaging the Shogun Warriors font and style.  It’s about 23 inches tall, made of hard light weight plastic.  Very faithful to the originals from what I remember, but a bit more premium feel.  Articulation is limited – head turn, forward/back on the arms at the shoulder, wrist spin, and the legs slightly rotate a the hips.   He features a couple action gimmicks – the feet have roller skates on them.  The staff has a missile firing feature, and a key Shogun Warriors feature – a launching fist.  All of these aspects work well – he rolls around easily, and the launching aspects shoot them suckers nice and far.

Visually it’s sharp.  Lots of raw plastic but it works for Skeletor.  The painted parts are crisp and bright.  When all set up he looks great hanging out next to Castle Grayskull like he just conquered it.

Bottom line – it’s a great piece for those looking to mix up their MOTU setups.  Retro feels from two angles all while providing something new.  We aren’t sure when this will drop on MattelCreations.com, how much it will cost, if it will go to mass retail, or if there will be more.  They just kinda dropped this in our lap this weekend.  As more info comes to us we will update this article.  For now, check out the figure below and keep your eye on Mattel Creations for the release!

UPDATE: Official Press info is saying the item will be USD $300, and drops on Friday 4/23/21 (THIS FRIDAY).

CompaniesMattel
CharactersSkeletor
Sub-LineShogun Masters

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