Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Action Figure Review: Man-E-Faces from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe by Mattel

 

   I haven't gotten the chance to watch any of the new episodes of the Netflix He-Man and the Masters of the Universe yet but I have found quite a few of the new figures recently. Man-E-Faces didn't appear in season 1 but shows up in season 2 voiced by Stephen Fry. I'm pretty excited to see his appearance. I still believe that Man-E-Faces is one of the greatest MOTU characters and vintage figures just because of how unusual and cool his action feature is. What a concept, right? This figure definitely has a different outfit but the colors are similar to the vintage toy and the action feature is still present. Ready to see how this human...robot...monster translated in this new line? Let's check him out after the break...



The Facts: 

Height: 5 1/4ths inches

Articulation: Swivel knees, swivel hips, "Power Attack" balljointed mid-torso, swivel shoulders, swivel wrists, and a swivel face.

Accessories: Energy effect

Non-Scalper Price: $10-$11 dollars








The Positives:

* Man-E-Faces is pretty big and bulky, closer in size to He-Man than most of the other Masters are in this series. While the original Man-E-faces was dressed like some sort of spaceman or miner, this guy's outfit that does seem to have some flourishes showing off his role as an actor. I'm assuming he's still an actor in this one, though who knows? The cape and drape in the front definitely seem very stylish. Also, I'm loving those shoulder pads.


* Man-E-Faces is still wearing a dome shaped helmet to hide the mechanics of his face switching action feature. His standard face is pretty cool. He definitely looks like he's going to be a fun guy. Is that grayish-white hair hanging out the side? Is MEF sporting mutton chops? Groovy!



* The heads actually spin vertically rather than horizontally like every other Man-E-Faces figure previously released and you can see the knob on the left. The second portrait is the monster face. It's cool looking kind of lizard-like this time around.



* The third portrait is my favorite! It's a really unusual but very cool robot face. The paint details on the face look really cool here. I love the copper highlights.






* Man-E-Faces is wearing an actual soft goods cape. it isn't removable but it looks pretty sweet and seems to be shaped like an M. For "Man-E-Faces I guess?




* Man-E-Faces doesn't come with a weapon. Instead, he has an energy effect that can fit over either of his hands. It's a simple, hollow piece of yellow plastic but I dig the way it looks on the figure. 



* If you pull Man-E-Faces back using the "Power Attack" torso (the balljointed mid-torso is a springy balljoint) you can have him "launch" the energy burst. It's kind of silly but also kind of fun. 

* Man-E-Faces is sturdy, his hands swivel to show off his cool armored gauntlets, and the Power Attack feature is pretty fun.

The Negatives:


* Unfortunately, Man-E-Faces doesn't have balljointed hips. They're standard swivel/ hinge his which, when paired with the swivel shoulders that are standard with this line, makes him fairly static. 
   This is a very cool version of Man-E-Faces. If you're not a fan of this show or the style then you probably won't be too thrilled with most of this line but I think Man-E-Faces is just a really fun version of the character. With the "Power Attack" energy burst and the rotating faces, Man-E-Faces is pretty fun to mess around with. I wish he had his classic red blaster, but the little details on his costume like the swanky cape and the cool shoulder pads definitely make this a fun, new take on the character. He's a Great and a 1/2 figure and probably the best standard figure released in the line to date. Hopefully he's pretty cool in the show, too!



   For more of Man-E-Faces check out my reviews of the MOTU Origins Man-E-Faces, the Mega Construx Man-E-Faces, and the M.U.S.C.L.E. green Man-E-Faces from the Masters of the Universe Set #1 and the flesh colored M.U.S.C.L.E. Man-E-Faces

For more toys from Mattel's 2021 He-Man and the Masters of the Universe line check out the following:




8 comments:

  1. Stephen Fry in a MotU production still seems so bizarre to me. Anyways this figure looks fun.

    I got the Mega Construx Land Shark today. It's pretty darn cool. Weirdly it has actual working rubber treads (connected to it's jaw mechanism) when the much larger vintage and Origins Land Sharks have fake treads and roll on wheels underneath. Anyways fun lil set and figures. Hordak's Monstroid comes tomorrow. :)

    Also not MotU related but I feel excited so want to tell another toy collector. I got one of my 'holy grails'. A Mafex RoboCop. :O Robo's always been one of my fave characters and I've had various figures of him over the years that have been good but never quite there. The NECA one being the one I had most of (since they did multiple versions... and have a new one coming out with unmasked Peter Weller head.. but depressingly the same old limited articulation body) but the weird stretched tall head and the limited posability (even for Robo) always bothered me. Figma's was very well articulated but too small and the mouth looked drawn on. Mafex RoboCop has a ton of articulation to replicate just about every iconic Robo-pose and then some. But was always too expensive for me. Usually well over £100. Well I have a saved search on eBay for Mafex Robos and the other day a RoboCop 2 version went up with auction price of £49.95 (plus £8.95 postage). I thought yeah ok I'll make a bid but I been outbid so many times before I didn't think anything would come of it. Monday I got email saying I won. :O No one else had bid. Had me worried I'd misread something about the auction. Nope. And the package arrived the next day (yesterday) special delivery. And it's awesome. :O Fantastic paint with the blue and purple hints that he is supposed to have. Has three lower face sculpts (which are all recognisable as Weller's mouth even though legally they aren't :P ), has alternate battle damaged helmet and chest piece, various hands, parts to represent his gun holster, gun and muzzle flash piece and cos it's RoboCop 2 version it has RoboCain's brain and a pack of Nuke and the wrench Robo uses on his helmet in the final scene. It's a 6 inch scale figure (rather than the 7 inch scale of NECA) so a lil smaller than most of my figures (Revelation is 7 inch scale and dominates my figure shelves now) Robo has teamed up with my 20th anniversary Hugh Jackman Marvel Legends Wolverine figure of similar scale. Anyways I dunno if you into Robo or not but you can probably relate to finally getting an awesome figure of a character you love and for that figure to feel almost perfect. AND to have got it at much cheaper price than you ever expected. :D
    I shush now. :D

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    1. I'm glad you got your Land Shark. My preorders haven't arrived for the new Mega Con stuff yet though my daughter and I did finish building the Havoc Staff over the weekend.

      I am into RoboCop and that sounds fantastic. I have a few of NECA's figures (the original release, video game version, and the ED-209) and I've got the new unmasked one preordered. I saw the Mafex RoboCop 3 version on BBTS but I tend to go with NECA for my 80s action heroes since he's posed along with all of my figures from the Terminator, Rocky, Predator, Commando, etc. That's a great deal, though. I love when you get a chance to add a piece to your collection that you've kind of given up on.

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    2. I got the MCX She-Ra vs Hordak & Monstroid delivered earlier too and it's another great set. Hope you get those soon. :)
      Havoc Staff looks cool. I haven't bought it cos I'm just sticking to regular scale stuff (also why I didn't buy the larger Battle Cat brick set even though I like the look of it and that it's to scale with Origins and has far more articulation than the underwhelming Origins Battle Cat does).
      And yeah I'm really pleased with the RoboCop. Posted a bunch of posey pics of it on my Insta. It can mimick almost any pose he does in the films and his paint is gorgeous. :)

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  2. AH - I always get him mixed up with Tri-Klops, but love the action feature of the turning faces for both.

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    1. Yeah, it's that MOTU symmetry. Tri-Klops/Man-E-Faces, Zoar/ Screeech, Fisto/ Jitsu, and so on!

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    2. I find it a lil amusing that Teela/Evil-Lyn wasn't one of your first choices there. :P

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    3. There are just so many choices! I was thinking gimmick wise rather than just mold reuse, but, yes, they would have easily been in the top 5 if I had kept going.

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