- 4 weeks ago
Mattel Masterverse Vintage Man-At-Arms Review – Better Than the Classics?
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00:00Well, at least they put enough places on them to store all this stuff.
00:03Here's your look at the Mattel Master Universe, Vintage Collection, Man-at-Arms, Heroic Master of Weapons.
00:20Fateful to the original 1982 Mattel toy, this version of Duncan features a clean-shaven face.
00:25Built with 30 points of premium articulation for dynamic combat posing, includes a signature
00:30mace with two swappable heads and a combat dagger.
00:33I wonder if there's anywhere in that armor that's storing a drink.
00:36Water.
00:38I was drinking water.
00:39Before that, we get a closer look at the Vintage Collection, Man-at-Arms.
00:42Maybe let's take the tape measure and see how tall the figure's going to stand.
00:45Recently, in fact, we've actually looked at the Vintage Collection, Merman.
00:49While I may have had better luck finding Merman on Walmart, I ended up having to pick up Man-at
00:54-Arms
00:54on the Facebook Marketplace.
00:55He's just...
00:56Vintage Collection figures seem to be some of the hardest things to find for Masterverse,
01:00and I'm not sure why.
01:01I've heard that they're Walmart exclusive.
01:03I mean, again, like, Walmart here is, like, hit or miss.
01:06The fact that they had Merman doesn't mean at all that they're going to be also having
01:09other Vintage Collection figures, and it clearly was the case here with Duncan.
01:12For how tall the figure's going to stand, you're looking at Vintage Collection Man-at-Arms
01:16being 7 1⁄4 inches.
01:18That's going to work out to be a figure that's 18 1⁄2 centimeters tall.
01:21Does anybody mind at all if I bring in other Duncans?
01:24I certainly hope not.
01:25First of all, here's what the figure looks like with the Masterverse, Duncan from New
01:29Eternia.
01:30Years before that, we also, of course, got the Maddie Collector.
01:33This was the Master Universe Classics, Duncan.
01:35And you can already see, like, Booktend on both sides of now the Vintage Collection.
01:39The ones, though, on both sides have more like a dark olive green, and they have then
01:43orange armor.
01:44Because this guy is supposed to look more like the original 80s Master Universe Man-at-Arms,
01:48he's supposed to really, in theory, look more like this.
01:51Now, really, that's not the best reflection, because I still think, like with the Origins
01:54Man-at-Arms, the colors for his green were way too bright.
01:57But again, like, armor-wise, he's a little bit more looking like this.
02:00He's a little less looking like this.
02:02He's also looking a little bit more like this.
02:05Here's what the figure looks like with the only other Masters that I have, at least on
02:08the good guy's side.
02:09Here's what he looks like with the Vintage Collection He-Man and the Vintage Collection
02:12Zodak.
02:13Before you think to throw away the packaging, make sure you check, though, the side compartment,
02:18because inside the compartment, you'll find yourself a blue bag.
02:20Although, to be fair, the bag was a lot longer than this.
02:23I've ripped this open, and inside the bag, because there's nothing else there at all,
02:28was all these sprinkled accessories that we're going to be looking at right over here.
02:32Stop flailing your fingers.
02:34Speaking of fingers, though, the figure, first of all, does come include some swappable hands.
02:38The downside to having hands like this is, because he has two weapons to wield, the moment
02:42you go and swap either one of these out, you're now subtracting one additional accessory that
02:47he can now hold.
02:49Well, technically, he can also hold and store it in other places as well.
02:52What?
02:53This hand would go on this side, based at least on the rule of thumb.
02:56And then this hand, the closed fist, would go on this side of the figure's body.
03:00Again, if you wanted to pop the hands off the forearms and swap them out with these.
03:04I have no plans at all to be doing that, because I'd like to have my figure being gripping
03:09hands all the time.
03:10Say I take this guy off my shelf, and I decide at any given point that I want to have
03:14him
03:14storing or holding any of the accessories.
03:16I don't want to have to then go back to find a bag, go rummaging through the bag just to
03:20find the accessories, though, for man-at-arms, and then swap out the hands.
03:24I'm a kind of guy that really generally likes to have gripping hands always on the figure,
03:28because I have less than I have to worry about looking for later.
03:31That's my prerogative when it comes to swappable hands.
03:33Here's my prerogative when it comes to a knife.
03:36I like knives, just don't point them at me.
03:38The knife itself, though, is actually really decoratively detailed.
03:42You can see that it has like a ruby stone there on both sides, and it handles painted
03:47pretty well, too.
03:48Much like, though, the Maddie Collector of Master Universe Classics days.
03:52Where's my figure?
03:53Right over here.
03:54No, no, that's not the one.
03:56But actually, the Masterverse had the same thing, too.
03:58Where's my Maddie Collector?
04:00The Maddie Collector had this.
04:02Masterverse has this.
04:03Now the Vintage Collection has this, too.
04:05There's always usually storage spots on the back of Duncan's body that you can take the
04:08accessories.
04:09So let's say you're a guy that generally doesn't like to have man-at-arms with holding a knife.
04:14Well, I guess in the movie, he's good to hold the knife at the beginning of the movie.
04:17Well, I'm not going to give so much away for if you haven't seen the movie.
04:20If you haven't, by the way, seen Master Universe, what's wrong with you?
04:22Go see the movie.
04:23Go support the film.
04:24But he can hold the knife in either one of his hands, based on at least the fact I like
04:27to keep the hands in place.
04:29But if we flip the figure around, let go, please, on the back of the figure's body, there's a
04:35space to store the knife.
04:37And there's a space as well to hold the mace.
04:39This does also slide off.
04:41And it works sort of the same way that the Masterverse did as well.
04:44So if you don't really like to have the extra bulk of having clips on the back of his body,
04:47just take it off.
04:49Although now it looks like a socket, like I need to be plugging in a hairdryer.
04:52Let's not plug in a hairdryer.
04:54We're going to instead push this all the way down.
04:57You take this area.
04:58Now, it has to be this for the knife and it has to be this for the mace.
05:01You can't, I guess you could try to fit the knife in there, but you'd have a hardest
05:05time trying to get the mace in there.
05:06So let's just take the knife, slide it in place.
05:08Looks good.
05:10Then let's have a look at the mace.
05:11I love the way they've handled this mace.
05:13Now, in the past, we've actually had companies like Mondo release a man-at-arms where a ball
05:18and chain has been removable.
05:20This would be really hard to kind of get your fingers in there and try to pull this out.
05:23What they've done instead, though, is they've given two different head options.
05:26What?
05:27Head options for maces.
05:29So if you'd like to have just your conventional man-at-arms mace, you got this one.
05:34If you'd like to have one, though, that has a chain.
05:36Now, the chain isn't real metal, which I guess isn't.
05:39To add then a metal chain would then increase the price of the figure.
05:41Then, you know, everybody would be complaining, well, I don't want to pay that extra premium.
05:45Well, you're paying the premium of having metal chains.
05:48But this has a plastic chain instead.
05:50It doesn't fold into itself because, again, like if it was to do that, it basically would
05:54just be doing this now.
05:56To change out the head, you just pop the head off the peg and take the new mace and
06:02pop it in place.
06:03Now, I noticed, though, with the new mace, this one has a harder time getting in there.
06:07But if you'd like to have your mace with, of course, the ball and chain on the end, you
06:10can also display Duncan with that as well.
06:13Now, the only downside to that is if you clip the mace with the way it's displayed right
06:19now, it's going to look a little awkward.
06:21So I would recommend, first of all, you could really also have the mace going the opposite
06:26way as well.
06:27But I think for like Duncan to be able to pull the mace, I mean, first of all, that looks
06:30a little ridiculous.
06:31But I would think, though, it'd probably be easier for him to pull it from the handle
06:34and not try to pull it from the top.
06:37But if you have plans, though, to do this, I would certainly, though, say don't swap out
06:41the head because it's going to look a little strange.
06:44The only one downside to this, I'm almost even tempted to glue this, is that constantly
06:48when you're trying to pull the mace off, you'll find yourself frequently sliding this
06:52back piece off, too.
06:54I think also the Masterverse version of him also had that same problem.
06:57But of course, the mace can also go into his hands.
07:00How much of a bummer would it be if it couldn't actually do that?
07:03Just take the mace, get it in between his hands.
07:06Now, sometimes, though, the hands could be a little difficult.
07:08It's more really the thumb that gets in the way.
07:10There we go.
07:12I like that.
07:13It makes it for a much heavier accessory for him to hold.
07:17And a lot of times, of course, with the way that the hands are kind of designed anyways,
07:20you'll find like the mace often droops or the hand droops when the mace is in his hand.
07:25Taking the mace, we'll just put it off to the side.
07:27And maybe while we're all set at it, too, I don't feel really comfortable with him having
07:30a knife on the back of his body.
07:32We'll take those away as well.
07:34Now, with the thing about this being a vintage collection, man-at-arms, obviously, one thing
07:37that they had to 86 was the mustache.
07:39If you like mustaches on man-at-arms, I suppose if you had a very steady hand, not too broad
07:45of a marker.
07:46I mean, obviously, if you had a much wider, like chiseled marker, just to write that across
07:50his lip, it would just smear it across the front of his face.
07:54Don't do that.
07:55I like now, I mean, I used to really like mustaches on man-at-arms when it came to like
07:59the vintage toys.
08:00I even did that really with like the origins.
08:02But now lately, though, because I wanted this to look like the original 80s toy, because
08:06I don't have an original master's man-at-arms, I generally like to now display my man-at-arms
08:11without the mustache.
08:12Because of that, and because of what this figure is really supposed to be, it doesn't bother
08:17me that the figure doesn't have a mustache, because the original toy never had that either.
08:20The face looks good.
08:21Of course, he does have the plate guard there on the front of his chest.
08:25The armor is technically removable, so you could just attach these, attach this, and then
08:30he would just take the entire armor off.
08:32Basically, though, what you'd be seeing underneath is, I think it's still the Master Universe He-Man
08:37vintage body.
08:38Although, the more I kind of look at it, I feel still like He-Man's body is still a little
08:41more swollen.
08:44But it does look like, though, like the body proportions are generally going to be the
08:48same.
08:48It looks like his arms and also his legs seem to be shared the same as well.
08:52It does also, too, look like he's got the exact same boots and the same loincloth.
08:58One thing I did notice, though, and just before I actually finish my sentence, let's just get
09:02the armor back on him, because it just makes the figure look more complete.
09:05Take the tabs, bring them around, tab it on one side, and of course, we'll also do it
09:10here on the other.
09:12What was I saying?
09:13Oh, yes.
09:14When I got this figure out of the packaging, I noticed like this arm was really tight and
09:17that the bicep, so I won't do it on this side, but I'll kind of do it on this side.
09:21The bicep sort of looked like this, kind of like that, and then the shoulder pad armor
09:27was over top of that, and it looked off, and I couldn't really bend the arm, so what I
09:34put the armor around the bicep and then turned the arm to correct it so it was going really
09:38the right way.
09:40The arm still feels like it's tight on this side, like I can't quite get the full bend
09:44all the way down, whereas this arm, I feel, fits more flush to the body.
09:48But again, overall, the body looks really good on this.
09:51I did notice, though, that it seems like his armor and his forearm guard isn't really quite
09:56the same color that they use for the front of his chest.
09:58It's very similar, though, but it seems like maybe this is just a little bit more orange.
10:03Of course, he does have the loincloth underneath, and underneath that, obviously, being polite,
10:07obviously, they've sculpted and, well, they painted in the brown there underneath there
10:11as well, and there's actually fur there, too.
10:13Of course, he's got the leg guard down below.
10:15One thing, nice at least to see with the vintage collection man-at-arms, he doesn't seem to
10:20have very loose armor.
10:21It's always something that really plagues this character.
10:24They always generally have loose armor, but even like the calf down below, seems like it's
10:28pretty tight.
10:29And there's only actually one place to peg this, so it's not like it's actually got
10:32multiple holes and multiple places to tighten this.
10:35There's only one peg.
10:36There's only one hole.
10:38For men-at-arms articulation, though, the head's going to be an emboled joint, and it does
10:41fairly rotate fairly easy all the way around.
10:44I thought perhaps because he had the faceplate that would make things a little bit more difficult
10:47if you also want to have him sulking a little bit.
10:50Of course, maybe, you know, he's got a cold.
10:52He doesn't want to get everyone else and the rest of the palace all sick.
10:54He can keep his face down in the front of his plate.
10:57Just don't sneeze, because that's just going to be there with you for the rest of the day.
11:01The head does angle back and forth.
11:03Of course, it does look up and down as well.
11:05Both arms do rotate all the way around.
11:06Despite really having the large shoulder pad on one side, he can still almost pull off
11:11a 90 degrees.
11:12Obviously, this one does the job a little bit better.
11:14He has swivels on both his biceps.
11:17Despite really, again, having the straps there on his armor, I don't find really that things
11:21get too much in the way, other than if you go to start to bend the elbow.
11:24This elbow bend on the side bends a whole lot easier.
11:27And actually, he has a double hinge on the elbow, even though with the size of the bicep
11:31and the size of his forearm, getting a double hinge to bend on this is pretty difficult.
11:37Of course, the hands do rotate all the way around.
11:38You can hinge them back and forth there as well.
11:40A waist swivel.
11:41No bulge, right?
11:42Anything like that.
11:43And only just by me moving this up and down.
11:44The only thing I'm really actually doing is just moving the armor up and down.
11:48Legs split, and they split pretty good too.
11:51Forward and back motions on the legs.
11:52Three quarters of the way up the thigh.
11:54There's a swivel cut, so you can rotate the leg all the way around.
11:56Can you see that?
11:56I hope you can see that.
11:58Double hinge on the knee.
11:59You got the, well, you got the boot cut, so you can swivel on this.
12:02I just don't want to swivel on this side.
12:04It's a little harder to do.
12:05This swivels back and forth.
12:06An ankle pivot up and down.
12:08An ankle rocker as well.
12:12I would say so far, I mean, of the figures that we've looked at from the vintage collection,
12:16my top three would be Man-at-Arms.
12:20It would be Merman.
12:21I'm trying to think of the other one.
12:22I actually really like Skeletor too, even though I like Skeletor.
12:25Seems to be just like missing a neck altogether.
12:27I find like I don't notice as much of a neck absence on the vintage collection Man-at-Arms.
12:33I think a lot of it really also has to do with the fact he's got the armor there on
12:35the front of his chest.
12:37Once again, to bring back in He-Man, who again, seems like he's using the same body.
12:42Even though, again, I think it's probably just the illusion of seeing like the armor on the front of Man
12:46-at-Arms' chest
12:47doesn't then make it look as swollen as what He-Man's chest was.
12:51And of course, we also have ourselves Zodak.
12:54I'm not really sure what other plans Mattel has for vintage collection figures.
12:57It doesn't seem really that there's a whole lot they've been releasing.
13:00I still got to get my hands on Tila.
13:02And I still want to get Beastman too.
13:04Has there been any other announcements for vintage collection figures?
13:07I hope so.
13:08Because again, I really like what they ended up doing with Man-at-Arms.
13:11If you're used to generally Man-at-Arms with a mustache,
13:14and usually with armor that's orange instead of yellow,
13:17don't necessarily pass on this guy.
13:19Because you'll actually be quite happy to see this guy once you finally have him on your shelf.
13:23The benefit of also this Man-at-Arms too is that he has a swappable mace.
13:26So you can pop that off, swap this then instead,
13:30and then you can have yourself a ball and chain.
13:32Just though, by having it like this,
13:34I would probably not really recommend having that attached onto the back of his body.
13:37Especially for the fact if this figure ends up walking,
13:40I would imagine it would be quite painful.
13:43Not so much for you, but more for Duncan.
13:45Aside from paying the extra dollars to get this guy on eBay,
13:48the vintage collection figures of the Masterverse line have generally been scarce.
13:53Now I've heard though that they're usually a Walmart exclusive,
13:55which then means as a Canadian collector,
13:57if you go to your Walmarts right now,
14:00and I have gone to a Walmart as of late,
14:02they've got nothing,
14:03nothing at all in the way of Masterverse figures or Master Universe figures as a whole.
14:07So it means though that unless I can go to walmart.ca,
14:11and like I've done with Merman,
14:13happen to find a listing for that,
14:15the only option that I have is either places like the Facebook marketplace,
14:18or what I said already, eBay.
14:20I don't know again like what lineage this line is going to have anyways,
14:23because with Mattel changing the focus,
14:25changing also their scope and size,
14:28now introducing with the core class and the chronicles,
14:30with what they've done now with the movie,
14:32does that mean then this is the end for Masterverse,
14:35and anything that's attached to Masterverse like the vintage collection?
14:38I guess it had a good run,
14:40but we didn't get nearly enough figures for vintage as we did with Masterverse.
14:44I mean the only again other figures I still need to try to get are the Beastman and the Tila,
14:47but what chances are there going to be for anything else,
14:50when we already know there's a Chronicles size class scareglow,
14:53and that's probably going to be the size that Mattel's going to run forward with,
14:57with all their future larger scale Master Universe figures.
15:00If it is a case that this line is now dying,
15:03and we only again just have the few ones now that's been circulating around,
15:07and maybe a few that have been announced after the fact,
15:10I guess for what we got, it was a good line while it lasted.
15:13I would certainly say though,
15:14this is one of the better man-at-arms figures that we've gotten.
15:16And overlook perhaps the fact that if you are one that likes your man-at-arms with mustaches,
15:21yeah, you'll be a little bit disappointed that this one doesn't have it.
15:23But if you love the original 80s Toya of Duncan,
15:26this one does pretty much the same idea, just a little bit bigger.
15:31Mattel has also run with the idea that Master Universe's man-at-arms
15:34does store all of his accessories on the back of his body.
15:37The Maddie Collector did that,
15:39the Masterverse did that,
15:40and it's nice to see that the vintage collection does that as well.
15:44If this is, again, the end of the line,
15:46it was good while it lasted.
15:47I just wish, though, that we could have got a whole lot more.
15:50What do you guys think of vintage collection man-at-arms?
15:53Let me know down below in the comment section.
15:54Do you guys also feel like the size class of Masterverse,
15:57and anything, again, that's affiliated to Masterverse size,
16:00so like the vintage collection,
16:01do you think it's now dead in the water?
16:03Or do you think Mattel still has plans to release a few more figures
16:06before they switch their size altogether?
16:09If you guys did also enjoy this video,
16:10you can do us all and throw it a like.
16:12If you guys want to stick around for more so,
16:13I do hope so.
16:14We're going to have some more content coming your way.
16:16We will, yes, of course.
16:18So I hope you guys are going to be coming back for that.
16:20As always, thanks for watching.
16:21See you guys next time.