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Series: Masters of the Universe Masterverse - Revolution
Year: 2024
Prelude: Remember the ending of the 1980 Flash Gordon movie? Where Emperor Ming the Merciless died, impaled by Flash Gordon’s spaceship, and vanishes, only for his ring to be picked up by an unseen hand in the post credit scene? Well, now we know whose hand that was, because Hordak is certainly doing his very best Ming the Merciless impression here for this new Masterverse figure, Emperor Hordak. So pray that he will not get bored and turn you into HIS plaything instead, acolyte. Let’s say go!
Figure: Emperor Hordak is a figure that’s both easily recognizable as the familiar character Hordak, but also quite different. Usually Hordak figures are quite bulky, dressed for war, armed with various weapons like crossbows, spinning rotors or saw blades buzzing out of his chest. Not this Hordak here, no. He is tall, relatively slim (for a MotU figure), and his long robes seem better suited to a political conference than a battle field. His face is a tad more human-looking than on most Hordak figures, I’d say, and carries a nice scowl / disapproving glance to it. Also, black fingernails. Not sure why, but the idea of Hordak painting his own nails black to look more menacing is somewhat hilarious.
Look-wise this figure is a pleasure. Due to the stiffness of the clothes, though, its articulation, while excellent in theory, is somewhat limited. The arms can move more or less freely, but that non-removable skirt he wears very much restricts his leg movements to some slow walking poses and slightly broader stance.
For a weapon Hordak carries his familiar Horde staff (MotU bad guys really like staffs), which he can wield one- or two-handed. So bottom line: a brilliant figure for looking at, not quite so much for playing with.
Remarks: Like many MotU characters, Hordak has gone through many permutations. He started out as an evil wizard, far more powerful than Skeletor, who attacked Eternia and basically became the new foil of He-Man in the comics. In the Filmation cartoon he became a planet-conquering warlord, but one using technology and shape-shifting instead of magic. Later comics and the 200X cartoon made him a magic-wielding mega-threat once again, before the Netflix Revolution series turned him into a tech-using warlord once more. Personally, I kind of like the idea that someone who has little to no skill in magic but uses technology instead ends up being possibly the largest threat in the magic-based world of MotU, but that’s just personal preference, really.
As mentioned above, Hordak is a pleasure to look at, even though it’s not really the classic Hordak look. Just be aware that it will be difficult to put him into any sort of dynamic poses.
Rating: B-
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