Captain Glenn

I'm not a big fan of the MOTUC line, mostly out of disinterest. But when they showed off the Queen Marlena figure as the SDCC exclusive, I was impressed by the retro spaceman feel of the alternate Captain Glenn accessories. So when the figure was made available in alternative packaging as Captain Glenn on MattyCollector I braved the site and purchased one.

And yes, the shipping was excessively high.

The figure itself is pretty cool, and does indeed embody a 1950's sci-fi serial. The over-sized bubble helmet harness is particularly neat, with the bulky simplicty you associate with the '50s. My only complaint about the helmet is that since the Captain Glenn packaging has her wearing the helmet as default, when you take the helmet off, it would seem that a lot of the silver paint has rubbed off onto the neck. It mars the figure a little, but isn't a deal killer for me. Although I can see how it might be for some people, especially for a $25 figure that had a mandatory $14 shipping/tax charge. As it is, I find it highly annoying but forget about it once I start to play around with the figure.

Since this is the Captain Glenn figure, it comes with all the pieces you need to create the Queen Marlena alternate look. The alternate head was a nice touch. The dress seems flimsy, but the interlocking mechanism on the back of the dress works surprisingly well to combat the unsightly seam you would think would be noticeable on what is essentially a large sleeve. The back of the box has a different profile than the Queen Marlena figure. It plays up her Space Captain past and her military abilities that were completely absent in the cartoon. Seriously, it says the queen is a marksman but she doesn't carry a gun with her, ever, even though she's in a land where there's a magical evil army that attacks her castle constantly. And we know Captain Glenn carried a gun, her figure comes with a gun holster and two guns.

I dunno, part of me feels that by playing up "He-man's parent before she married his father"  angle that we're sort of introducing a time travel Back to the Future-esque plot device, where if Captain Glenn doesn't have weird incest feelings for a time travelling He-Man, then at the very least we see some wacky hijinks where He-Ma has to ensure that his parents meet and fall in love. Maybe even featuring a scene where Marlena sees Prince Adam transfrom into H-man. And that could explain why Queen Marlena knows her children's secret identities. But I may be over thinking things.

The figure also comes with a Cringer figure that features almost no ariculation! So in many ways that means its like the original 80's Battle Cat.