Battle Armor He-Man & Battle Armor Skeletor vintage figures review thread

[Spacedust]

Well, last week's thread on the Wind Raider got some very good responses, actually more than I thought it might.
I've had my fingers wrapped (hehe) for starting too many polls (Wind Raider review, and Sy-Klone vs. Kobra Khan battle scenario are no more). For reviews I thought it was a good way to get a quick rating of each figure/ep. I don't mind dropping it for the episode reviews, which generally don't generate as much feedback nowadays (maybe because we've done all of the season one classics), but think it's maybe a shame for the figure reviews.
But dems the rules!

So, with a poll which will be my last for a while..... I don't ordinarily do two figures at once, at this is likely to be the occasion (bar maybe Rotar and Twistoid much later on), but these two guys are so similar that I thought I'd roll them into one. It's the first variant versions of each, it is... BATTLE ARMOR HE-MAN and BATTLE ARMOR SKELETOR.

Coming at the start of the third wave, these were the first variant versions of each figure. We'd had the original He-Man and the original Skeletor, and these two versions started the trend of having new versions of each with each new wave. Although

The gimmick of these two versions that the emblem on their new body armor would spin around to show 'damage' when hit (akin to several other Mattel 'damage' toys, such as cars, etc.). With another hit, they'd spin around to show even more damage (although with a hard enough hit, the spindle would spin straight around from normal to double-damaged). You could then use your fingers to walk it back into undamaged position (although some young kids that I knew found this a bit awkward to do with their tiny fingers, often having to get a parent to do it!).

I like the designs of He-Man and Skeletor's new armor. They were shown to be wearing this armor in a great many other MOTU material (although, as with all He-Man and Skeletor variants, never in the Filmation cartoon series).

Especially here in the United Kingdom, Battle Armor He-Man & Battle Armor Skeletor were very commonly available in a double pack. Also I wasn't as keen on some of the later revamps, thinking they were rather pointless, I really liked these versions; I always longed for them, but never had them originally. As I think I've mentioned on past review threads, one trip to some relations I seldom saw, they gave me a Tri-Klops, not knowing I already had one (actually it was a stroke that they got the right toy-line). I took it to the local High Street, without receipt, where I tried to exchange it for a Battle Armor Skeletor, but the lady on the till said she couldn't. But it worked out okay, as I took it to another toy-shop where I swapped it for the newly released Sy-Klone!

The figures are quite common on the second-hand market, though the damage spindle is sometimes worn and lose. They can be found in both soft head and hard rubber head versions.
The figures are sometimes incorrectly referred to as "Battle Damage He-Man / Skeletor".

Nowadays, I have quite a few BA He-Man & Skeletors. I also have a French produced BA He-Man, with bright yellow hair, different belt and skin colour, and slightly different detailing on the damage spindle.

I've also seen possible evidence of a variant silver sword, possibly issued with some Battle Armor He-Mans, but have never found hard proof (see this thread).

Battle Armor He-Man and Battle Armor Skeletor were sort-of-ish present in the revamped 200x toy-line. There were figures called Battle Armor He-Man and Battle Armor Skeletor, but they resembled the vintage figures in name only.

I really like Battle Armor He-Man and Skeletor, they are possibly my favourite variants (maybe excluding the ultra-rare Laser Lights). I give them a high scoring 9 out of 10.

So there are my thoughts on these two figures.
I'd really like to hear your thoughts, comments, criticisms, memories and what-not on them. And whether you post your thoughts or not, don't forget to rate them in the poll - it may be the last for a while!

[DestrongerLupus]

I LOVED BA He-Man as a kid,and LONGED for BA Skeletor,which I never saw in the wild until I was an adult. I think even as a child the normal outfits seemed a little impractical for battle, and while as an adult I like the later variants quite a lot, as a kid I thought they seemed a little odd, but the Battle Armor versions were just sensible. The gimmick was too cool too!

I ALSO have a great double-figure story relating to the BA's.

My folks split up when I was pretty young, so the year of BA He-man's release I was having 1/2 of X-Mas at my Dad's Mom's house. Got a BA-HM, and was THRILLED. Discovered his sword hand was defective (too small to hold accessories) and was crushed. Dad and Nana made a valiant effort to open the hand a little with a razor...chopped too much,and then made a second valiant effort with glue to repair the damage. The result wasn't awful, but it was clearly flawed.

Flash forward a few days to actual X-Mas at my house w/ Mom. One of the first things I open is....A BATTLE ARMOR HE-MAN! This truly seemed like providence at work, for Mom was unaware of the problem with my first one (More on that later), but was more likely a result of him being the most comonly available figure at the time

Anyway, I frantically started unwrapping the rest of the presents, burying the NEW BA-HM safely under a mound of other crap. You see, I was terrified, that if Mom realised that I already HAD one, she would take it back, claim an intent to exchange it, and never do so, all pleas of the first one being broken would do me no good. In hindsight, I both realize that this sounds like childhood foolishness, but I also realize, as an adult, that my Mom really *IS* more than slightly crazy, and my instincts on the required steps to save the new BA-HM were probably well founded.

So, once I had a quiet moment for covery action, I broke open the new BA-HM, inspected it, and found the sword-hand worked. I then took BA-HM Alpha (The broken one) and discretely deposited him between layers of whatnot in the garbage. Destroying the evidence you see. I believe I was wise enough to save the extra accessories though, and I seem to recall now that I think of it, that I was at times mystified by the extra Power Sword I had floating around.

So that's my story...Yeah, I probably need therapy. Lots of it...

D/L

[panthorscub]

These figures were good, but I didn't like them as much as the originals. They were however probably my favorite variants as well. They followed the traditional color schemes and went really well with Battlecat and Panthor.

[He-Fan]

Chris here...

Can I stick my neck out and start this post by saying that I am a major fan of the figure and episode review threads, and that the "poll" aspect of both has never ever bothered me - even though time constraints prevent me from taking as active a role in them as I would like, I consider the threads that you start, Spacedust, to be the absolute lifeblood of this particular Board. Speaking as someone who's been discussing He-Man online now for seven years, your threads certainly make MOTU discussions feel fresh and exciting, and that's no mean feat!

On the subject at hand - the Battle Armour figures are easily not just my favourite He-Man & Skeletor variants, but actually two of my very favourite figures out of the entire line! I never got mine until about 2003, and when I did I was knocked out by how clever and exciting the action features on these were! In me what you have is the perspective of a self-confessed "big kid" who still loves to play with these things, and the Battle Armour figures make for many exciting battles between the ultimate good and evil warriors - I love them, and so they get a resounding 10 out of 10 from me - if there had been an "11", I would've voted that!

Take care...

[Vahn]

Unquestionably the best variants, and even two of the best figures in the line, they had one of the most fun action features ever! The only thing that kept me from giving these a perfect ten is the fact that when I was a kid, I was a little disapointed that the only thing that was armored was their chests. I figured if they were going to wear armor it should've been on their arms and legs too. A small nitpick, but enough to make me say they could've been better (albeit barely). I gave them a 9.

[Captain Atkin]

By far the best He-Man and Skeletor variants EVER MADE! Nothing in the classic or new line ever touhced them in the coolness factor. Infact, I would say that Battle Armour He-Man is cooler than the Original He-Man (!) My hope is they update his look for the new movie. From what I have seen with the 4H BA He-Man staction, that is the look to go with. Cool and classic!

[Spacedust]

I think that, after the 'classic' armor design, Battle Armor He-Man's armor is the coolest design; I always imagined him wearing this in colder weather, to keep his body warmer! Classic armor will always be the definative versions, but after that, these are definately my favourites.

I'm glad there is support for the polls - the whole idea, as I said, was for an easy way to keep a rating for each figure / creature / vehicle, as not everyone wants to post but it's easy just to click your rating. I think I might drop the episode reviews for the summer, as we're onto the shakier second season episodes now, which just don't generate as much feedback as the early classics. I might get away with just posting one poll a week for the vintage figure reviews. Can understand the reason, but still think it wasn't too good to delete a whole thread (Wind Raider) that had a load of good posts. Oh well...

[Arkan]

Super cool figures, I give them both 10/10. These armours give them a "warrior like" look instead of the barbaric first versions. In my opinion the gimmick is pretty original and funny.
BA-He Man (which is my favourite of both) looks great if you put the classic shield in his left hand, try it.

[Arkangel]

I'm lucky, as i prefer the cheapest giftsets and battle armour figures to the originals

[Captain Atkin]

It always surprised me that they never made a Battle Armour Hordak.

[Spacedust]

I forgot to mention how similar 200xs' Battle Sound He-Man (which is the first 200x figure I bought, as I couldn't find the regular one) looks to vintage Battle Armor He-Man. The armor is definately influenced by it, and a really nice homage.

I agree that vintage BA looks more warrior like, and I really like Battle Sound He-Man's addition of the waist armor, maknig it look almost Roman-centurian like. In fact, I had been drawing He-Man BA style with waist armor long before the 200x line was released - it was great to see it realised.

[TheShadow]

He is my favorite "He-Man" version. I always wanted him to appear in the Filmation cartoon.

[2-bad]

Best variants of He-man & Skeletor ever!! I give them a 10/10.

[Spacedust]

He is my favorite "He-Man" version. I always wanted him to appear in the Filmation cartoon.

It's interesting how Filmation always steered clear of promoting new variant He-Man and Skeletor versions, yet the Mike Young Productions cartoon came up with loads of storys showcasing new variants. (Sadly in most of those cases, they just came across as one big toy advertisement IMO).

[braxsis364]

yea Battle armor He man and Skelertor where way cool. but you couldint fight them against each other. the only thing you could really do was ahh, sliced you He man. Ahh I sliced you skelertor, got kinda redundent. and whenever I played. ether He man had aquired the battle armor before Skelertor or vise versa and was not able to make. I give Battle armor He man and Skelertor A perfect 10

[Spacedust]

yea Battle armor He man and Skelertor where way cool. but you couldint fight them against each other. the only thing you could really do was ahh, sliced you He man. Ahh I sliced you skelertor, got kinda redundent. and whenever I played. ether He man had aquired the battle armor before Skelertor or vise versa and was not able to make. I give Battle armor He man and Skelertor A perfect 10

Oh I don't know, you could still fight them regular-style, and the battle damage was just an added bonus.

[VaderLives]

Quite simply put, Battle Armor He-Man is the best figure of He-Man ever made.

[Dr Bo]

Super cool figures, I give them both 10/10. These armours give them a "warrior like" look instead of the barbaric first versions. In my opinion the gimmick is pretty original and funny.
BA-He Man (which is my favourite of both) looks great if you put the classic shield in his left hand, try it.

10 / 10 for me as well. I just love the big emblem they put on their chest, and like Arkan point out this is the armored version of barbarian character, which is clearly kept in mind.
I like how (even if it's re-utilization wise) they kept the big bicept exposed and the fur undie with the big chest armor. The color are right one, and the devilish Hammer Horror style design on Skeletor are perfect.
The big cut effect are pretty cool, and work fine to show the effect of a big brawl. As a kid I used to have Skeletor put is armor (trade figure) and be beaten up anyway in the big final battle after the big scorn had appeared.

Was this the first time they used the big stylized "H" symbol (maybe with the Dragon walker) for He-Man? In any case, I always liked that sign, it look heroic, noble and medieval and fits He-Man perfectly.

[faker32828]

This was actually my first he-man, and oddly the one version of Skeletor I never got. I loved and still like the battle damage feature, but broke a few of them.

[motu77]

I'll say 10. I love the designs of the figures and the way the armor could be damaged was awesome.

[suckator]

I also agree that they were the best of the he-man/skeletor versions. 10/10

[TriKlops1971]

The Battle Armor figures really looked neat, and they were fun to play with. But I really liked the original action figures better. Still I had to give BA He-Man and Skeletor a 9, for sentimental reasons if nothing else.

It would have been fun to have seen the Battle Armor in use in the animated series. The closest I think they ever came to doing that was in the episode (I forget the name of it now) where Skeletor fashioned some of the Widgets' Corodite into a partial breastplate which gave him physical strength nearly equal to He-Man's.

[kylefromdirtnapp]

BA He-Man rocks, but I'm not so fond of Skeletor. I don't know how to vote!

[The Trollan Stud]

10/10 easily. I received the BA He-Man/Battle Cat and BA Skeletor/Panthor giftsets for my birthday and Christmas (respectively) in 1985. I still have them to this day, all beat to hell. The BA He-Man was the only He-Man I had back then, since the original was nearly impossible to find.

I wish I could find and afford some MIB samples of these giftsets.

[Evil_Horde]

I loved this AF especially He-man! The mechanism of armour is very cool! Voted 9!