Skeletor MOTU Origins Sketch Book Series Official Images

We’ve been keeping an eye on this one and it’s great to finally have our answer, because when the Sketch Book Series Man-At-Arms surfaced not long ago, we immediately noticed something curious: the figure was packaged in Skeletor’s card back, giving us a tease of the Lord of Destruction’s Sketch Book treatment without actually showing us the figure itself. We knew this figure would eventually come as it was known that both Skeletor and Man-At-Arms were coming to the MOTU Origins Sketch Book Series. Man-At-Arms official images surfaced first and now it was time for Skeletor. It was one of those moments where the puzzle pieces were right there but not quite assembled, and now thanks to @in_demand_toys on Instagram we can feast our eyes on the official images of Skeletor in the MOTU Origins Sketch Book Series, front, back, and a clean look at the figure out of the packaging. I love how this line takes the raw, illustrative energy of early concept art and translates it onto the familiar Origins buck, and seeing that approach applied to Skeletor is something I’ve been genuinely curious about ever since that Man-At-Arms box threw collectors a curveball with its mismatched card art. The front of the packaging carries that same hand-drawn aesthetic we’ve come to expect from the Sketch Book Series, while the back gives us a nice breakdown of the figure and its accessories. The figure itself leans into that stripped-down, pencil-sketch style deco that sets this sub-line apart from the standard Origins releases, and on Skeletor this one may have missed the mark between artistic reinterpretation and faithful character design that I thought the figure would like but I guess it’s a mash up of several concepts. The saving grace is that we get to see more amazing artwork from the talented @fetch.franciscoetchart so let’s dive in!

Official Images

The packaging for the Skeletor MOTU Origins Sketch Book Series is covered in incredible pencil sketch artwork featuring various characters and creatures, giving the whole box a real concept art sketchbook feel. His Havoc Staff is packed right beside him in the window, prominently alongside the figure.

The back of the box features a painted battle scene with Skeletor and Evil-Lyn fending off unfamiliar characters in front of Snake Mountain, all rendered in a vivid, fiery palette that leans heavily into reds and purples. The surrounding border carries the same pencil sketch artwork from the front, tying the whole package together with that concept art aesthetic.

As for origins of the box art, the Battle Ram blog explains in a Facebook post: “Here’s a sampling of Hordak’s concept art, just four images, and not the whole story. Hordak’s design began at Filmation and was finalized (in toy form) at Mattel. In the concept drawing (by Gerald Forton and Herb Hazelton), Hordak looks much less human, and more menacing, in an alien punk-rocker kind of way. The overlapping plates on his armor give him a bit of an H. R. Giger quality. An early Shadow Weaver concept is included.

Skeletor MOTU Origins Sketch Book Series gives us a full look at the figure alongside the Havoc Staff, and honestly, we were hoping this one would pay better homage to Mark Taylor’s Evil Incarnate. The head sculpt nods in that direction with its hood and skull face, but the rest of the body is a repaint of existing Skeletor armor we’ve seen before, with the same spiked shoulder harness, bone-detailed chest straps, and loincloth sculpt, though the Havoc Staff does look pretty cool.

Skeletor Concept

The Battle Ram Blog is aalways a fountain of amazing information and according to Adam from a Facebook post, “De-Man (Skeletor), by Mark Taylor! De-Man was supposed to be pun on “demon.” Mark’s B-Sheet shows Skeletor with a decaying mummy face and decaying flesh on his arms. The decayed look was later dropped, and he was given a skull face instead. He has the five-toed bare feet and yellow bat detail around his shin guards and chest armor that would later appear in the first mini comics illustrated by Alfredo Alcala. The head of the staff was meant to be attached via string and would have doubled as a flail. The De-Man B-sheet was translated into a clay model (inset) by legendary Mattel sculptor Tony Guerrero. The paint details on the face were altered to the familiar yellow/green scheme. Image courtesy of Andy Youssi!”