|
The Four Horsemen are the artists responsible for creating the McFarlane Toys "house" style - that was never more obvious than it was when Mattel's first line of He-Man figures reached shelves.
The new MotU toys looked a lot like the first Spawn figures did back when Todd Toys got started - big, and detailed of course, but still with a slightly animated look to them. He-Man was a bit more cartoony, since those were his roots, but the basics were the same. That lead to a discussion with some fellow toy fans in which we imagined the Mattel line following the same path blazed by McFarlane; start with the Horsemen, then grow tired of making good toys and wander ever-further into over-detailed colorless lumps. If that happened, we imagined, Mattel's line would, in about ten years, look much like McToys looked now. So I came up with the idea of "Masters Unbound," a set of MotU characters customized from McFarlane toys.
The first was Skeletor, created from Spawn series 23's Raven Spawn. I boiled and popped the figure completely apart before painting, which made things much easier. I think Skeletor would look better with a nice black wash - detailed as they are, Spawn figures just don't show off their sculpts without it.
I really like how Raven Spawn's skull face looks painted yellow and peering out from beneath his purple hood; it's truly creepy.
Just like my Sports Picks, I figured Skeletor would sell better if he came packaged. Using the basic red and blue design of the MotU figures, I created a great insert card for him. At a glance, there is no evidence that this is anything but an official release. The packaging took about twice as long to make as the figure did, but I think it's worth it.
Want to see more of the Unbound line? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.
|
