Review – Masters of the Universe Classics Draego-Man

Draego-Man is one of the coolest of the new Masters of the Universe Classics action figures released in 2012 and, at the moment of this writing, the toy is available again at Matty Collector as part of their Black Friday event. But even if you miss the action figure at Matty Collector I suggest tracking one down because this really is a fun toy. The added parts — especially those wings — really change up the basic Masters of the Universe Classics buck and make it a unique, bulky toy.

A Great Combination of New and Old

As several other reviews have already pointed out (such as Poe Ghostal’s review), Draego-Man is a mix of older parts and completely new pieces and it all comes together perfectly. The new parts — the armor, wings, head, forearms, and hands — are as beautifully sculpted as anything else we’ve seen created by The Four Horsemen and those wings, and the way they snap into the armor, are my favorite new parts. Now I want to see another dragon-man character because new armor and a new head would be all that’s needed to give us another great design.

Articulation

Draego-Man uses the standard Masters of the Universe Classics articulation design, with swivel-hinge shoulders and hips, hinged elbows and knees, hinged-rocker ankles, an ab-crunch (slightly restricted by the armor), a swivel waist and wrists, and a double-ball neck. The wings are also ball-hinged and snap right into the armor; the wing articulation is minimal and I wish there had been some extra joints so that Draego-Man could spread his wings.

Other than a slightly loose neck — the head slowly sags down over time — all of the joints are perfect without any weirdness or looseness. Even those rocker ankles, which have given me problems in the past, work very well. If you’re familiar with the line then you know exactly what to expect from Draego-Man’s articulation.

Sculpt

That dragon head is truly astounding and my only complaint with the sculpt is that when Draego-Man looks up you can see a black gap where the neck joints hide. I would have loved to have seen the orange and red scales of the neck made out of a soft vinyl so that it could have draped down and hidden the joint, but that’s likely a lot more than we could have gotten without sacrificing something. But even with that complaint the head really is nice; click any of the pics for a close look at the sculpt and be sure to check the scales.

And the armor, which is connected to the body beneath, doubles as both decoration and the mount for the new wings. The wings plug into the back of the armor and once they’re snapped into place Draego-Man looks suitably dragon-like. And the leathery texture of the wings is another example of the great sculpting put into the toy; The Four Horsemen really did some of their best work on this design and you can tell that Draego-Man is a toy that got an equal amount of passion and professionalism mixed together to bring us an action figure that’s one of the best of 2012.

Paint

And Mattel didn’t go cheap on the paint apps. The paint isn’t completely perfect, but the red plastic is covered in a dark wash that helps the details of the sculpt and the orange of the wings combined with the red body makes Draego-Man as fiery as we could hope for. The purple armor has metallic blue accents and the entire color design of the toy makes me so happy that I can forgive the couple of minor blemishes where paint got a little outside of the lines.

I have mentioned how very cool the toy is, right?

Flaming Sword

Draego-Man — already loaded down with a massive head, giant wings, and a tail — comes with a translucent plastic sword that’s shaped to look like a blade made of fire. And it works really well, with the sword cast in yellow-translucent plastic that is then hit with some paint sprays to add some depth to the colors.

It may not be everything that was shown when the toy was first revealed (see Poe’s Draego-Man review), but what we get is great. And if you really want more accessories for Draego-Man then the Great Unrest weapons pack (see the review at The Fwoosh) will make you very happy.

Closing Thoughts

Between the design and heft of the toy — I cannot stress enough just how much bulk those wings add to the feel of the action figure — Draego-Man makes me quite happy and really stands out as an incredible piece in this year’s Masters of the Universe Classics line. The toy feels like it would have worked back in the eighties, has a beautiful sculpt, and is overall a quality piece that really shows just how great a job Mattel can do with a toy when real love is sunk into a project.

I almost don’t want to open another Masters of the Universe Classics action figure after playing with Draego-Man; it’s gonna be tough for any regular-sized figure in the line to top this guy.

Philip Reed is going to run a new theme week in a month or so; vote on what you want to see in the poll (at right).