It's not easy being green

Mattel just released news and images for their San Diego Comic Con exclusives. I don't care to go on about all of them or about my feelings for Mattel and exclusives and if or when they will also be available online yadda yadda.

What I want to do is show you Swamp Thing. Because Swamp Thing is super cool,  and his recent shift back into the DC Universe proper means we'll probably be seeing a lot more of him in comic and toy form.

Starting with this Mattel offering, which is as usual a beautifully designed and sculpted figure and also as usual will be difficult to obtain. Look at the bright side - at least he isn't a C&C - you know how near-impossible trying to complete one of those can be.

For those of you lucky enough to get one (I'll be trying myself) here's hoping Swamp Thing does not suffer from the 'as usual' quality of most Mattel DC Universe Classics product.

Tobes of Hades lit by flickering torchlight

An ardent Masters of the Universe fan, I had until recently not taken the plunge into the MOTU Classics line. Primarily, I was turned off by the difficulty in obtaining them from Mattel's exclusive online shop Mattycollector.com. Toys, and all residual actions regarding toys, should be fun. I've been caught up in the "gotta have it" fervor of the past, and just had no inclination to get into it again.

But through a recent toy trade I finally came into possession of two MOTUC figures - Skeletor and Mer-Man (more on him later.)

Skeletor was one of the first releases in this line, so I am sure you've read and seen plenty about him, so I'll just show off some groovy pics I took.

I will say that he is impressive in person. A little bulkier than DCUC figures, but still in the same general scale - kind of like how Arnold Schwarzenegar is in the same scale as you and me. Which is how the Masters Universe should be - these guys are built!
Skeletor comes with his goat head staff, a "full" sword and a "half" sword ala the original MOTU release.
The MOTU Classics Skeletor is everything he should be, amped up just a bit. The perfect marriage between modern action figures and an eighties character we all grew up with. This action figure is what we THOUGHT we were playing with back in 1983!

I really want Scareglow, the next offering going on sale in mid November. Skeletor will be re-released soon as well, with the only change being the packaging. So if you missed out on him the first time around, and you are an opener, avoid the scalpers and pick him up when he becomes re-available.

There has been a lot of talk about the price of these guys as well, but now that I have one in hand I can say that it's worth it. I would never be a completist of this line at the going price, but getting a few must-haves is certainly worth the pursuit.