STRIDOR

Super7, the licensee of the Masters of the Universe Classics, made a great decision to release Stridor as their first MOTUC steed in 2018. Fans had hoped Stridor would follow Night Stalker, but when Mattel dropped the line the prospect of seeing the heroic warhorse became uncertain. Fortunately Super7 picked up the slack. Stridor and Night Stalker are identical in design but have very different colour palettes.

I should really get straight to my review of Stridor, but before I do there is something that must be mentioned: the packaging. While I'm happy to commend Super7 for doing a good job with the toy, the same can't be said for how they shipped him out to customers. Up to this point we have, quite reasonably, expected our purchases to be packaged carefully, with the collectible packaging placed within another box.

Yes, I know many goods are shipped in their product packaging with a shipping label stuck on the outside. And yes, I know the MOTUC boxes have always been referred to as mailer boxes. But we're talking about collectible items where the packaging is actually very important. You'll see how Super7 taped boxes together from the photo below. The inevitable scuffs and dirt marks picked up in transit left the boxes in very bad condition. Super7, please don't do this again.

Right, moving on, let's talk about Stridor himself. Once liberated from the internal packaging (which still uses unnecessary plastic inserts, ties and rubber bands, just like the Mattel days), Stridor reveals himself as one impressive looking beast. The colours match the vintage toy, and he has the leg articulation which was lacking in the original. He's reasonably sturdy and nicely sculpted. The laser guns, though, aren't straight and they bend inwards around Stridor's neck.

I mentioned in my review of Night Stalker that this warhorse design doesn't actually include a seat for the rider. The back is there, of course, but placing a figure inside is an awkward task. This relates to the problem of scale that the steeds and vehicles of the MOTUC line suffer from: they're too big for the figures which use them, although the degree of fault varies. Stridor, thankfully, isn't in quite the same overscaled league as the Talon Fighter, but he's still huge.

Stridor has traditionally been associated with Fisto since the publication of The Clash of Arms minicomic, in which He‑Man, in discussion with the master of hand-to-hand combat, refers to Stridor as 'your good steed'. It's a pairing which works really well and gives a certain authority to the older warrior. I've included Fisto in some of the photos below.

Stridor was supplied with a vintage style helmet as well as the Classics Night Stalker helmet. (The original Night Stalker was helmetless.) The inclusion of both was a good move by Super7. Both can be seen in the images here. Some fans are disappointed that the shield design on vintage Stridor's flank wasn't replicated on the new model, but I don't think it's a significant loss. Overall, Stridor is a success, and I like the figure a lot. Does this, I wonder, pave the way for the Attak Trak?