He-Man Ken: Doll Review

Hi people. For those of you who prefer video reviews, there's good news: I recorded one. The bad news is that I'm new to editing, forgot to really give the skirt much time in the video, and today, midway through my video review, the local emergency siren test happened. When the sirens started going off, my dogs went absolutely nuts. One of them screeches like a barn owl husky hybrid, and I am not subjecting you to that. The video is delayed because I need to figure out how to do a voiceover, but I'll link it here when it goes live, hopefully sooner rather than later. For those who prefer reading and pictures, on with our regularly scheduled program.

Here he is, my Masters of the Universe He-Man Ken, in all his glory.

Today I'm going to start with his costume. I like it. It's iconic, easily recognizable, fun, and my favorite part: it was designed to be fully removable. Little plastic clips rather than anything requiring scissors to liberate him from his own outfit. Nothing had to be cut, nothing had to be sacrificed. Well done, Mattel. This is legitimately an awesome change, thank you! More of this on future superhero dolls, please. High five.

The boots in particular are worth calling out. I love these.
I mean, just look at them, wow:

There's real detail in them, they photograph well, and honestly, they gave me ideas for a costume further down the road. They're versatile enough that I can see them working outside of the He-Man context entirely.

The hands come off easily to remove the bracers, which is really cool. I hope this is a change they carry forward on all future dolls, because I have broken so many doll hands trying to remove accessories. Please, Mattel. Keep doing this.

As you can see, the bracers have some of the same really nice detailing on them.  Though again, Mattel isn’t great at making plastic look like metal.  The faux leatherwork and buckle details here are excellent. 

The leather skirt is nice, though I do think it could use a little more depth and texture. Again the “metal” details look very plastic (because they are). I haven't seen the movie, so I can't speak to accuracy, but at this scale it's genuinely difficult to capture that kind of richness, so I'm not holding it against them.  

Mattel pulled this same shit on Queen Hippolyta: leather underwear beneath the skirt. I understand the impulse toward modesty and all that, but I'd like to have a word with whoever decided that leather undergarments were a good idea for people going into battle. The chafing alone. The smell after a few hours of combat. Ew.  Anyway.

Leather is welcome on the chest piece. The riveted straps and buckles are genuinely lovely, the faux leather finish is convincing and detailed, and honestly Mattel hit a home run with that part of it. The metal breastplate itself is a little less successful: up close it reads as plastic, which it is, and the finish doesn't quite sell the illusion the way the leather elements do. That said, the red cross emblem at the center is bold and eye-catching and the whole piece photographs well from a distance.

There's also a scabbard on the back to hold the sword in place, which is a neat practical touch. Speaking of which..

I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I like this very, very shiny sword. It doesn't have any heft to it (being plastic), but the hilt wins me over completely: it has a fake leather finish that's beautifully done and elevates the whole piece considerably. Based on the trailers that appears to be fairly movie accurate.

What I can praise is how visually consistent everything feels: cohesive is the word I’m looking for here. The hilt is finished to match the softer plastic used for the boots and harness, and it all holds together as a set. This is a step up from some of their previous armor sets. Really nice work.

One practical note on the sword: he can hold it, but you have to sort of “push” his thumb out of the way, and then let it return to the position so his hand closes around the hilt. There's no actual joint on the thumb, it's just softer plastic, which is exactly why I'm nervous about forcing it. A snapped-off thumb would not be ideal.

But what about the doll?  Alright, alright…

This first shot was taken in the same light that the rest of the review, namely a bit natural but mostly crafting lights. But I don’t feel you can really see his eyes very clearly, so I took a few shots in natural light as well.

This is a new face mold based on Nicholas Galitzine. He has a beauty mark, which I think adds a lot of character. Worth noting: it's not three dimensional, so if you're planning to have him repainted, make sure you mention that you want to keep it, because it won't survive as a natural bump for the artist to work around. That said, if you don't want the beauty mark, that's equally good news.

I also got lucky: my fellow can actually look down, which sounds like a strange thing to celebrate until you've reviewed a doll who couldn't. The King Ocean Ken had very limited head movement and couldn't look downward at all, which creates some genuinely awkward posing situations. If your doll has a shorter partner, how exactly is he supposed to look at them? Whatever caused that issue, it seems to have been sorted here, and I appreciate it.

The hair had an enormous amount of product in it straight out of the box, to the point where it was unpleasant to touch. Crunchy, actually. And I discovered just how bad the situation was when I removed the breastplate: some of his hair came out with it. I washed it and the good news is that the brittleness was entirely down to the product rather than the hair itself. Much better.

I'm not sure where they were going with that, but I'm also very clearly not a hair stylist , maybe someone else can explain it to me. Is it just meant to be effortlessly messy and cool? I'm so not the person to judge this.

How does he measure up against the other guys?

Turns out He-Man is on the exact same body type used for Cole, the Man of Steel Ken. So they're evenly matched on articulation, which is fine, but he does not have the made to move body, which is a little disappointing, because Mattel has proved they can put that level of articulation into a buff male body. They just chose not to here. I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe they assumed more people would keep him boxed, or maybe someone decided his abs looked better this way?  No idea.  There's no articulation on the thigh, which limits leg posing, and no articulation on the chest, which limits upper body movement somewhat.

Here he is compared to a buff made to move Ken doll, and Logan who is a standard made to move Ken (though he’s obviously been upgraded in all sorts of ways).  I do wish they’d used the buff made to move body, but well.  It is what it is, he’s still a new face mold Ken with rooted hair, and that’s fantastic.

By the power of Grayskull, I have the POWER... to completely forget to photograph him standing until the hobby space had already been taken over by another project. Rather than excavate the entire area, I relocated to Moira's living room. Talk about a weirdly dressed door-dasher. You're welcome for this juxtaposition. Yes, he can stand all on his own (the boots undoubtedly help):

Overall, this is a solid doll. Removable costume, genuinely great boots, a face mold I really like, a beauty mark, rooted hair, and fabulous faux leatherwork I have perhaps an unreasonable attachment to.

8.5/10. Not quite two deductions: the articulation is a disappointment when we know a fully articulated buff body exists and simply wasn't used here (-1 point gone). The amount of product in his hair was excessive enough that I lost a little of it removing his chest armor, however, washing it revealed no bald spots and that his hair isn’t all that brittle once the gunk is cleaned out (-0.5 points gone). Neither is a dealbreaker, but both are avoidable. He's a very good addition to the shelf, and I’m glad I got my hands on him.

Hope you enjoyed the review. My luddite ass is working on the video, so wish me luck. Have a good week, everyone. And if you're on the fence about this doll, I hope this review helped.