Dark-Lyn

A lot of people, recently, have been reporting coming across some really impressive finds at closeout discount retailer Ross. Like, we're used to them having something minorly interesting once or tice a year, but right now it seems like some new, surprising thing is showing up every week. And sibling, let me tell you, I would love to go to a Ross as well-stocked as everyone else seems to get! I keep checking, to see what they have, but so far nothing spectacular. Until Dommy Mommy Evil-Lyn. Realizing that Skeletor is more reliant on her power than she is of his, Evil-Lyn steals the Sword of Power and becomes Dark-Lyn, the new Goddess of Eternia. With all of the power in the universe flowing through her body, Dark-Lyn sees nothing but chaos. She sees only one answer: destroy all reality and reset the universe to bring about cosmic order. Did you know Mattel has their own version of HasbroToyShop? It's true, apparently! It's called Mattel Creations, and you'd think they would want to publicize its existence, especially if they're selling exclusive toys on there, but here we are. This figure was released February 14, 2023, and sold for $33; but because she was only available on a site no one ever heard of, three and a half years later she's showing up on the shelf at Ross for just $8.99 (plus tax). Revelation's Evil-Lyn was voiced by Lena Headey, who is absolutely wonderful at played wronged women who feel like they could spit literal venom if one more thing goes against them (which is why it's sad she never got the chance to be Mystique), and if that description doesn't fit Evil-Lyn to a T, then what does? Getting empowered gave Lyn a whole lot of cosmetic changes, including a new, short haircut, a pointy crown/tiara thing, and dark "Angela" markings around her eyes (Spawn style, not Marvel style). It wasn't just Skeletor that Evil-Lyn turned her back on, it was Skelegod: Revelation was the story that introduced the idea that Adam isn't the only one who can call on the Power of Grayskull, so this is Lyn's version of that. The Masterverse figures were already oversized, but Dark-Lyn stands more than 7½" tall, and wearing scant enough clothing to really show off the cheesesteak. This was the era when Mattel was still trying to make an alternate logo for He-Man happen (and boy, the movie just completely ignored that entirely, didn't it?), so instead of an iron cross, Lyn has a golden H hovering in front of her chest. A collar/halo floats around her neck - in the show, it just hovered there, but for the toy it serruptitiously plugs into her just below the throat. Similarly, her floating shoulder pads are secretly part of a wide backpack piece, with her cape helping hide it. The figure's loincloth is molded PVC, but the rest of the skirt hanging from her waist is softgoods. The colors are a decent match, as long as you have her bright legs separating them, and they even bothered to include the gold trim around the edge. Her actual cape, in the cartoon, had visual effects to make it look like a galaxy behind her, but since a toy can't duplicate that, at least we get purple with a smattering of stars printed on it? The sides get posing wires, which for a company like Mattel sadly counts as being super deluxe. The Revelation figures never had great articulation, and Dark-Lyn isn't the one to break that trend. She has swivel/hinge ankles, swivel shins, double-hinged knees, swivel thighs, balljointed hips, a swivel waist, balljointed chest, swivel/hinge wrists, double-hinged elbows, swivel biceps, swivel/hinge shoulders, and a barbell head. The floating pauldrons are mounted on balljoints of their own, , so they can move a little bit when you move her arms; not enough to go with her if you move the arms straight forward, though. The hips move fine to the side, but trying to move them forward is utterly unforgiving: like, the plastic ball inside the joint doesn't let the leg move on it, instead moving with it, and that means the bar that connects to the torso proper is twisting and flexing every time; that's bad for long-term durability. Dark-Lyn had phenomenal cosmic powers by this point, so she doesn't need any accessories like her magic staff - instead, all she gets are a selection of extra hands, and a pair of translucent blue energy effect to fit on them. The hands include flat, gripping, or fists, and unfortunately my figure got two left fists and no right, but again: I got this for nine dollars, I can live with a small mistake like that. Especially since the hand in question will almost always be hidden inside a ball of magic. Dark-Lyn is sold in a simple box with her portrait on the front and an image of her sitting on her throne inside Castle Grayskull on the rear. Inside is a folded carboard backdrop with an image of Lyn wielding her new powers, and the figure itself is lashed to a cardboard tray by simple paper ties. Considering Mattel usually goes fully wild with their exclusives' packaging, something this plain and straightforward is surprising. Of course, if they hadn't, they probably wouldn't have been willing to offload their unsold stock to Ross, or at least not to do so at such a fair price. At this point in the story, Evil-Lyn was so flowing with juice that she could take on He-Man and Skeletor both at once, so this toy will look fine even if you want to put her with smaller figures. Revelation was a good cartoon, though with only 15 episodes between it and its followup series (so far), it will definitely leave you wanting more. Evil-Lyn underwent a lot of changes during the story, and it's really awesome to be able to pick this one up for less than $10 at a discount chain. -- 09/07/26 What other toy companies never do anything to promote themselves? Disagree? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.