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  He-man has a body sculpted in a very classic Masters of the Universe style, which means he has very large rounded muscles and a generally more squat form than the most recent MotU line. It's a great look that hearkens back to yesteryears without losing a glimpse at slightly exaggerated realistic proportions. The sculpting on the body is the usual crisp Four Horsemen standard where muscles groups look great. The details on He-Man are definitely well done too. He has veins in his hands, carved boot straps, very clean fur on his boots and loincloth, and very crisp wristbands and belt. That said, this is honestly a pretty basic design that just take advantage of what will become a lot of reused parts. The accessories are pretty simple across the board, but they look the part and have any necessary sculpted detail. It might be worth mentioning that his half sword doesn't really fit with Skeletor's because of a poorly shaped peg, but it could be fixed easily. This figure's face is in an almost quizzical grimace that suits the character just fine. It looks nice I think. The eyes are very tight with a cleanly sculpted mouth and eyebrows. I feel like his hair is just kind of a mop plopped on his head because of this sculpt, but that may be a product of the weird design and not a poorly done sculpt. In the end, this is a better sculpt that you're going to find on most figures, the only weaknesses are born out of the character and not the technical aspects.     

Sculpt Score: 9 / 10

 As much as this figure costs, I was expecting some really strong paint, and yet I'm actually a little disappointed. Starting off on a positive point, I think the colors work great. I like this skin tone a lot, and the boots' and loincloth's shade of brown is just about perfect. The orange on his wrists and waist looks like it was made of some ancient clay or brick and I love it. His accessories are all the same molded gray, and although it's a little boring and plastic-looking, I still think it works fine because of the brighter silver accents on the sharp parts. The applications are where my disappointments come to fruition. Just starting from the bottom, the straps on his boots didn't do a good job of following the sculpt lines, even bleeding over into the lighter brown in some spots. It also looks like the brown underneath is coming through in a lot of different places, although a really nice tough was continuing the straps on the bottom of his feet. A lot of the loincloth brown is sneaking its way up onto the orange belt and the red circles around his waist are just painted horribly. They don't even come close to meeting the sculpt and most of them are just sloppy looking. The same thing is happening on the wrists with the darker orange application. If you look in the last picture before the final score below, you'll see that the cross on his chest is really sloppy, running off into the gray quite noticeably. I do love the bronzing effect on his skin and even think the kind of odd "blushing" around his eyes looks good too. I'm tired of seeing all these action figures with a perfect solid skin tone and appreciate this attempt at offering some color variation. His eyes and eyebrows are perfect, so no complaint there.  

Paint Score: 8 / 10

 He-Man has what is becoming the standard Mattel 6"+ figure articulation with some subtle changes. Since this is my first MotUC review, I'll go through every point real quickly. He-Man has hinges at the ankles (with some side to side movement too), knees, abs, and elbows. He has ball shoulders, ball-type hips that also function like a thigh cut on DCUC figures, and a ball at the neck. Finishing off the articulation are swivels at his wrists, biceps, waist, and boot tops. This is a lot of articulation that will allow He-Man to get into a varied number of cool poses, although these options are limited by a large movement restriction in his hips. It's hard to get him into a deep stance or kick forward because of the loincloth and limited of the hip. This can be annoying when looking for the perfect fighting pose, as He-Man is mostly stuck standing up. My figure also has really loose ankle joints, so even if I could get his hips out, he wouldn't stand up anyway. On a figure at this price, I expect every joint to be tight, and everyone was except for his ankles, so it gives an "almost there" kind of feeling. There were no stuck joints and nothing fell off because of a broken joint, so that's a relief coming from Mattel.      

Articulation Score: 8 / 10

 

 I absolutely love any character that has this fantasy barbarian look, so I might be a little biased here. Kids and collectors alike will cling to the visual style and design of He-Man. He's obviously a fighter and this toy represents that so well. He also benefits from offering a huge nostalgia factor for anyone who had the old toys or watched the cartoon and he's going to be fun to a lot of people simply because of that factor. His above average articulation and bevy of accessories definitely add to that too. He has some cool poses in him, even if you have to work hard to find them, and the numerous accessories are a blast to play around with while posing him, especially his shield. He came out in good condition, so the only frustrating factor was his loose ankles, otherwise he's a stress free figure (except when pressing the "buy" button). 

Fun Score: 9 / 10

 This is a pretty good action figure that's big, durable, and quite well made, but it's still overpriced. He's about 6.5" tall, as well as wide and made of very solid feeling plastic. Nothing feels susceptible to breakage and he includes 4 accessories: a power sword, half power sword, shield, and battle axe. He-Man is also packaged on an interesting card with a biography and images of other characters. Everything is adding up a great value, but this guy costs $28 at the minimum to get him shipped to you, and if you've already missed him, then he's going to go for even more on Ebay. This feels a lot more like a $15 figure that you'd get from Mezco or NECA than it does a $28 toy. At the very most I'd want to pay $15 plus shipping instead of $20 on top of shipping fees. This is just a decision everyone has to make on their own, are you going to get $30 of entertainment out of this toy? 

Value Score: 7 / 10 

Summary

 9 - Good proportions that blend styles, great muscle work, good details on "costume", nice face sculpt, hair is a bit wonky, basic design doesn't take advantage of the sculptor's abilities.

 8 - He has some really sloppy applications, great color choices, love the skin color effects, very cleanly applied face. 

 8 - Quite a bit of articulation, some points are really limited, loose ankles, everything else worked well and is tight enough to hold poses.

 9 - Great character, design, and simple story, buckets of nostalgia, load of articulation and accessories, some small frustrations (loose joints and price).   

 7 - All the necessary components for a high value are here, great packaging, durability, size, accessories, but he's just too expensive.  

Overall Score: 83 / 100 - This is a Great Toy - P.S. I'm implementing a slight reviewer's curve into reviews from here on out, it will only adjust scores by a point or two if I feel like a toy doesn't totally match up to my originally holed scaling. 

I think I missed the hype that makes people idolize this figure, but he is still a solid first entry into the MotUC line with his amazing sculpt and huge degree of fun. 

P.S. This could be the figure I'm giving away this month, just leave a comment for a chance to win (if it's the one).

-The Articulated One