The release of the new deco Masters of the Universe Classics King Grayskull on MattyCollector.com is coming up fast, Monday, October November 15th to be exact! And with that in mind, I thought I’d do a quick little retrospective of the original King Grayskull figures that were sold at SDCC 2008 which signalled official start of Mattel’s fan favorite line, Masters of the Universe Classics.
As with many of Mattel’s SDCC Exclusive offerings, King Grayskull’s packaging is more than just a fancy looking box. It opens up into a mini diorama of Castle Grayskull complete with drawbridge, flashing lightning, sounds of rumbling thunder and King Grayskull proclaiming that he has the power! It makes you want… no, that’s not strong enough… It makes you need two so that you can keep one MOC.
If you didn’t know or couldn’t tell from the pics, King Grayskull was available for purchase in two versions, a normal, human deco and bronze statue variant. I don’t know the numbers for the ratio of bronze variants to normal versions but I was lucky and got one of each. When purchasing KG at SDCC in the Mattel booth (remember how easy that used to be?) the packaging was sealed up so that you couldn’t see which version you got. It was fun like roulette!
The paint apps on the bronze statue variant are very well done. It really looks like and aged, bronzed statue with a fine patina.
And so I can’t be accused of not telling the whole story… 😛
From MattyCollector.com > To help celebrate the return of Masters of the Universe® toys to collector’s shelves, Mattel created a special variant of their San Diego Comic Con exclusive King Grayskull™ action figure as a “Spirt” that will forever live in the walls of his castle. Only two editions of this all-clear version of King Grayskull™ were made for the public. One was raffled off at 2008 San Deigo Comic Con, the second was auctioned for charity at the 2008 Dream Halloween event.
As for the “normal” version of King Grayskull, he is the epitome of bad ass barbarian. He looks tough as nails and cops that warrior from the lands of ice and snow look. I can’t wait for February to get Vikor so Grayskull has a buddy to go pillaging with!
Just to show you guys and gals how much I care about getting y’all the full story, I stripped Grayskull’s cape off of him for the first time to shoot these pics. Unlike the accessories of all the other MOTUC figures, the SDCC Grayskull’s cape was made to be a permanently attached. I was able to remove it without causing damage it but you can see in the pics that it leaves a big anchor hole and nubs visible. Per VeeBee on Fwoosh’s First Look, the new release Grayskull will have removable accessories. Also should be noted that the SDCC KG’s head does not pop off like all other MOTUC figures, the head of the new version will.
King Grayskull is taller than He-Man due to his boots being a bit taller. Other than that, I’m pretty sure it’s the same body as the later MOTUC figures. I really wish Mattel had used these boots for He-Man and the other similarly booted figures. The standard use boots make He-Man’s lower legs appear unnaturally short and stumpy to me so I was happy to see in VeeBee’s article that the new version of Grayskull will have the original sized boots as well.
So there’s the skinny on the SDCC King Grayskull, something to whet your appetite (as if that needed to be done) for the new version that goes on sale at MattyCollector.com at 12 PM Eastern, Monday, October 15th.
Good luck battling the horrid WSOD! I know I’m looking forward to it.
*November 15
This is the only figure I’m missing, so I’m pretty thrilled about Monday.
Funny how after a single use, evidence of that backhole is still visible on most of the figures that followed.