Mattel Creations MOTU Origins Grizzlor In Hand Review
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Summary
The new Mattel Creations Grizzlor is a long anticipated release and a fan favorite! When Grizzlor came up for pre-order a couple weeks ago, little did I imagine, that I would have him in hand so quickly! Grizzlor, member of the Evil Horde, nemesis to She-Ra and her band of Rebels on the planet of Etheria, the Evil Horde is an interstellar empire, bent on dominating the Universe! Grizzlor was often featured in Hordak’s throne room, where many a time, Hordak would send poor Grizzlor thru the famous trap door. Dark Face Grizzlor has been previously released in the 2021 Power Con Exclusive Origins Evil Horde 4-Pack, but now we are getting the more common version of Grizzlor in his lighter skin tone and fur color. His head has real fur rooted hair and he is wearing a “fur” body suit in 2 halves which allows his body to retain the interchangeability as the rest of the origins figures with the removeable torso section and removeable arms! I just love this furry guy and am super excited to bring you this Mattel Creations MOTU Origins Grizzlor in hand review, so let’s get to it!
If you own the 2021 Power Con Horde 4 pack, you already know what to expect with this Grizzlor release. He is the exact same figure but with a lighter brown skin tone and light brown face. This is the traditional Grizzlor we all know and love, as opposed to the more rare version of the dark face Grizzlor. This figure still features all the same removeable interchangeability of the rest of the MOTU Origins figures. You can swap his head, arms, torso and boots just like the rest of the figures. His furry hair is basically like a fur suit that is worn on his body and it is rooted to his head. He sports classic Horde body armor and a horde arm band and horde boots.
Here you can see Grizzlor from all four sides and you can see how his fur is wrapped all around his body and then separate on his head.
The Origins of Grizzlor
Grizzlor has always been a fan favorite, but let’s take a look at where did Grizzlor come from. He was a member of the Evil Horder as seen in the 1980’s She-Ra Princess of Power Filmation Cartoon series. He was often see with Catra and Leech. Hordak was always in a bad mood whenever Grizzlor would visit him and often found himself the the victim of falling down Hordak’s trap door!
Grizzlor was first released by Mattel in 1985 as part of the Evil Horde Subline. A total departure from the rest of the Masters of the Universe figures to date, Grizzlor was a completely furr covered character and looked totally different from the rest of the figures that came before him.
According to Grizzlor | Wiki Grayskull | Fandom
Grizzlor is a fictional character from the popular toy line Masters of the Universe by Mattel.
A member of the Evil Horde, Grizzlor is a hairy man-beast creature from the wild, covered in thick brown fur and sharp claws, who attacks his opponents with the power of brute strength. Most story media have portrayed him as a mindless brute with little in the way of intelligence.
Grizzlor is introduced into the Masters of the Universe toy line in 1985 among the first wave of Evil Horde figures. His figure was packaged with the mini-comic “Grizzlor: The Legend Comes Alive!” which portrays him as a kind of urban legend among the Eternians, a product of apparent “tall tales” about a wild man-beast which roams the night stalking its prey. After Buzz-Off disturbs his Heroic comrades with tales of the creature, it later transpires that Grizzlor is a real creature and has been hired by Hordak to fight against He-Man and the Heroic Warriors. Grizzlor is portrayed as a mindless, savage killing machine, who is defeated by being shown his own reflection in a mirror; he apparently fears nothing but the sight of his own gruesome visage.
Grizzlor also appears in several of the Masters of the Universe comic series. A notable one of these are the UK comics published by London Editions, which portray him as one of the least intelligent of all the evil characters. In this series he is frequently used for comic relief and has a childlike mentality, implying he is not actually evil and has merely been misled by Hordak into helping with his schemes. An origin story in a later issue explains that he comes from the jungle world of Jungulia “on the outer edge of the spiral arm of the N24 galaxy” and is a member of a race of man-beast creatures. Although his race was peaceful, by the age of 428 he had developed a savage anger that shocked his family, and stumbled across a range of powerful weapons in a cave. His youthful nature led him to see them as toys, and play with them as such. When detected with the weapons by Horde Prime‘s sata-spies, they mistook him for an evil warrior and reported him to Hordak, who beamed him on board his ship, erasing all memories of Jungulia from his mind so he would willingly serve him. At first, upon seeing the advanced weapons, Hordak mistakenly believed Grizzlor must possess an incredible mental genius, but subsequently Grizzlor proved to have no remote intelligence, rendering Hordak confused as to why Horde Prime wanted him in the Horde.
Filmation series
Grizzlor appears in animated form in the cartoon series She-Ra: Princess of Power, in which the Horde are the main villains. The cartoon series plays down his savagery, presumably to make his character more suitable for a children’s audience. At times it even seems as though he may be more human than animal, particularly in the early episode “Beast Island” in which he is competent enough to operate a computer console and command a series of Destructotanks. However, he is far from intelligent and is usually portrayed as a generic bumbling villain, constantly fouling up Hordak’s schemes. Although he appears frequently in the cartoon he has no spotlight roles and is mostly consigned to background
Grizzlor | Wiki Grayskull | Fandom
Packaging
The Mattel Creations Grizzlor comes packaged just like all the other Mattel Creations single carded exclusive releases. It includes a brown shipper box on the outside and then the cardback package on the inside. They even include a little piece of folded cardboard on the inside to now help keep the card back from bending.
Shipper Box
The outter brown shipper box comes with a beautiful pencil sketch of Grizzlor on both sides of the box. The front features Grizzlor in a full body shot with the moon in the background and a large Horde logo. The rear of the package shows a close up of Grizzlor’s face.
Cardback
As the rest of the Mattel Creations Exclusives, the front of the package gets an artwork illustration of our hairy friend! The rear of the package features a beautiful illustration by Axel Gimenez and Fetch Francisco Etchart showing Grizzlor battling a long haired blond girl, perhaps Adora in front of the Fright Zone. The Fright Zone is illustrated in the vintage playset style complete with the Puppet Snake and Dead Tree! You can also see Modulock standing at the footsteps of the Fright Zone! Could these be more character teasers?? Only time will tell but sure exciting to see!
Illustrations
These are close ups of the illustrations from the cardback. Grizzlor is illustrated to look fierce and furry! The details on the illustrations are spectacular and so fun to see the playset and character teasers!
Packaging and artwork is brought to you by:
Art Direction & Graphic Design by @manuel_eduardo_caritas
Artwork by @axel.gimenez & @fetch.franciscoetchart
Toy Design by @katanarama333
Story by @yesreallyrob
Grizzlor Figure
Official Product Information:
The Evil’s Horde’s savage man-beast returns to terrorize Eternia! Wild and untamed, Grizzlor has a full body of faux fur. He’s highly articulated and comes with a crossbow for poses to display his brute strength. Fans will love the savage details like his Horde chest plate and lighter fur, just like his vintage version. Offered for the first time as a stand-alone figure in the Origins line, Grizzlor is the perfect addition to your MOTU collection. Whether terrorizing the denizens of Eternia or fighting She-Ra on Etheria, fan favorite Grizzlor brings the fur and the fear. Introduced as a member of the Evil Horde in 1985, we’re excited to give the fans another opportunity to land this awesome collector’s item outside of the Horde 4-Pack. This tribute to the vintage lighter-color fur comes with Grizzlor’s signature crossbow, battle axe and red Horde chest plate. And just like in the classic cartoons, this brutish henchman fears nothing but his own reflection.
- MOTU Origins Grizzlor Collector Figure
- Stands 5.5 inches tall
- 16 points of articulation for ferocious poses and displays
- Savage details like a wild faux fur and removable chest plate
- Comes with crossbow accessory
Head
Grizzlor’s head is an homage to the 1985 vintage light skinned Grizzlor figure. His furry hair is rooted on his head and wraps around his face. He has bright red eyes with beady yellow pupils and yellow tusks. I have to admit, it is super fun to style Grizzy’s hair! Just can’t stop playing with it!
The fact that his head is still articulated and a separate piece is wonderful because it breaks up the sculpt unlike the vintage figure that sometimes looks like one big continuous ball of furr.
Chest & Back
Grizzlor’s chest design is a standard MOTU Origins buck covered in a brown furry suit. Grizzy is wearing his classic Horde arm with the giant red Horde logo on the front and yellow straps on the side and back.
His back is also furry with his seamless fur suit that acts like real body hair. They really pulled this off great! Grizzlor still separates at the torso, just like the rest of the Origins figures and there you can see his fur suit. You can notice at the waist line that he is wearing furry bottoms but its made to look like one continuous body fur.
Arms & Legs
Grizzlor shares the exact same arms as the 2021 Power Con-Exclusive dark face Grizzlor. He comes with furry sculpted arms in the lighter brown skin tone. His right hand is open, where his left hand is a gripping hand. He is also wearing a black and red Horde branded arm band on his left bicep.
Legs
Grizzlor shares the exact same legs as the 2021 Power Con-Exclusive dark face Grizzlor. He comes with furry sculpted legs in the lighter brown skin tone. He is wearing black boots with red Horde logos on the front.
Accessories
Grizzlor shares the exact same accessories as the 2021 Power Con-Exclusive dark face Grizzlor. He comes packed with a green Horde Cross bow and a silver axe. This is the same short axe that came packed with Ram Man.
Mini Comic
Trial of Grizzlor
The mini comic that comes packed with the Mattel Creations Grizzlor is called “The Trials of Grizzlor”. The cover features Grizzy attacking a blonde looking character in front of the classic toy version of the Fright Zone.
The young girl is chased at the Fright Zone by Grizzlor, and is saved by some new companions Slitherian and the Ozar the Trollan. After a scary encounter with Grizzlor and the Snake of Fright Zone. At the end, Hordak finds the blonde girl who turns out to be Adora who has cleared the trials of Hordak and ends up being Hordak’s adopted daughter! And so the story begins….
Figure Comparisons
Mattel Creations Grizzlor vs Power Con Dark Face Grizzlor
The Mattel Creations Grizzlor shares the exact same head, arms, legs and boots as the 2021 Power Con-Exclusive dark face Grizzlor, except his skin tone is lighter. Here you can see the two figures side by side. They both also come packed with the exact same accessories, a green Horde Cross Bow and short axe.
Mattel Creations Grizzlor vs Vintage Grizzlor
The Mattel Creations Grizzlor is a stunning homage to the 1985 vintage Grizzlor as he has all the cool modern articulation of the modern MOTU Origins figures but has that cool fur of the vintage figure. If you ask me, the fur around the head on the new MOTU Origins figure fits the figure better because you can articulate the head yet his fur still wraps around it. Unlike the vintage figure that was all one piece and his head did not move. This sometimes gave the vintage figure a monolithic big fur ball look. The advantage the vintage figure did have is that it is much more furry than the new Origins figure and the fur seems to be attached better.
Mattel Creations Grizzlor vs MOTU Classics Grizzlor
The Mattel Creations Grizzlor is a 5.5 in tribute to the vintage action figure, where the MOTU Classics version is a much more detailed 6″ figure with great articulation and very detailed accessories. You can tell the difference in quality of the MOTU Classics version which is vastly superior to the Origins version. But the Origins version has the cute vintage charm that can not be duplicated in the larger scale.
Photography Fun
If any of you follow our Toy Habits Instagram page and The Toy Sorceress Instagram page, you will see the Toy Sorceress loves Toy Photography, so here are some photographs for your enjoyment and inspiration! The new Mattel Creations Grizzlor is hanging our with his Evil Horde friends!
Rating
Toy Sorceress
Michael
This new Mattel Creations Grizzlor figure is super adorable and I absolutely love the way he came out! He is beautifully executed with his furry body and wonderful articulation! I love styling his hair and he is so cute! I own the 2021 Power Con version, but could not wait to get this one in hand and Grizzy did not disappoint. He looks amazing on his gorgeous single card back and is super fun to style his hair! I really love this figure and give him a 7.0 out of 7.0 stars!
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