Hordak vintage figure review thread.

[Spacedust]

Another good thread last week looking at Spikor.

Anyway, this week's vintage figure review thread looks at another key character, HORDAK.
(Also, note how, as with the episode review threads, I have changed from "classic review thread" to "vintage review thread". I feel that "vintage" better describes the era, as not all episodes / figures were necessarily classic... if you see what I mean!)

Anyway, Hordak... this was a key introduction to the line. Up until this point, the battle had been purely between He-Man and the Heroic Warriors, and Skeletor and the Evil Warriors. But Hordak, leader of the Evil Horde, threw a whole different band into the mix. And (bar the odd short-lived truce with the Evil Warriors) were at war with both the Heroic and Evil Warriors!

I had seen Hordak advertised on television a few times, and I think by this stage, the very first few episodes of 'She-Ra: Princess of Power' had started to air here in the U.K. I remember mentioning the Horde and Hordak to my Mum. Seeing as she wasn't really into me playing with action figures, I was suprised when she said she was going into town on a shopping trip that afternoon while I was at school and offered to get me one! Guess I must have been really good or something!!

Hordak is a good looking figure. He has a menacing face, and always gave me the impression of being a human partly upgraded into a machine (kind of like a Cyberman).

It is interesting to note that, while the line by that time had very much had settled on giving each new figure a unique feature, Hordak was a standard "twist waist for power punch" figure. Maybe the designers felt that Hordak was such a key figure that he sold on this point, and didn't need any fancy gimmicks. I very much respect that. (The only other character to receive this no-gimmick treatement was the late King Randor).

The figure came with what would become the standard Horde crossbow, here in bone white, and a bat shield. The tie used to attach the bat shield to Hordak’s wrist broke easily, and before long my Dad had to repair mine with a standard garden tie-tag. I used to pretend that this bat was like Imp in the cartoon series. And the armor came with a cape - I loved this, I thought it made him seem much more powerful and authorative. One thing I would have liked to have seen on later He-Man and Skeletor versions, and the 200x versions, is them with capes. (It is one feature I really like about the 1987 movie version of He-Man).

There are also several slight variations to be found with the paintwork detailing on Hordak's armor.

Hordak's mini-comic, 'Hordak - The Ruthless Leader's Revenge!', and much of the other material dealing with him, was radically different to the Filmation interpretation (more of that in a minute). I kind of like a cross between the two.

Hordak and the Horde were an interesting addition to the MOTU world; although even then, I was one of the people who (as discussed in several current threads) loved the early barbarian swords & sorcery roots of the line. I loved the age-old battle between He-Man and Skeletor, and very much wanted things to stay focused on this.
But Hordak was said to be Skeletor's old teacher, and thus, even more powerful than old bone face. I wasn't sure about this. In my own little MOTU play world, I did have Hordak as once being Skeletor's mentor, but Skeletor had become far more powerful than him, and had overtaken him. Hordak was bitter for revenge, but never quite had the power to fully succeed. Skeletor occasionally utilised Hordak and the Horde as a sort of break-away hit squad, but the Evil Warriors were still the main force to be reckoned with, and Skeletor still the head honcho.

Of course, on-screen, the decision was made to transpose Hordak and the Horde to the world of 'She-Ra: Princess of Power', which was made in lieu of a third season of 'He-Man and the Masters of the Universe'. This version of Hordak seemed even more cybernetic, with ability to turn his arm into a cannon, turn himself into a rocket, a tank, and a variety of other things. I was never really too keen on this interpretation, it seemed a little too far fetched and unbelieable (even within the context of the series, if you see what I mean!). It was a very interesting concept of Hordak working for a higher force, Horde Prime, although I felt it was done a little too cartoon-y, and could have been made more menacing.

In the 200x version, Hordak only appeared towards the tail-end, before the line was sadly cancelled (in it's mainstream form, anyway), so we never fully got to see how he would be interpreted in this revamped version. From what we did see, it appeared that it wouldn't completely be following the Filmation "Etheria" version, but that's not to say it wouldn't have been incorporated if it had continued.

So all-in-all, Hordak... an interesting character, but I only prefer him in my own personal vision, as sort of the head of a sub-hit-squad working for the Evil Warriors. I know some will absolutely love him, but I'm going to give him a (slightly generous, but still fair) 8 out of 10.

That's my weekly ramble.
Please feel free to contribute your own thoughts, comments, memories... anything to do with Hordak. And whether you post or not, don't forget to rate the figure in the poll!

[braxsis364]

In my world of eternia hordak was a former mentor for Skelertor. but allso much older and knew more magics. a force to be reckonded with for Skelertor or He man, but I allways had skelertor hold his own against Hordak.

and Hordak had just a bit more mistic might then Skelertor. me and my brother tryed to follow the mini comic mythos. the thing about the the vintage Hordak, I did'int like that I recall is his legs were kinda off centered. did'int look right but I remember buzz saw Hordak, was my faveret figure. when he came out.

I played it out just like the mini comic, Eternia with him getting new powers. my faveret thing to do with any version of Hordak was that he could give you one mean headbut. with that bonehead of his, Hordak fought dirty. so for the first vintage hordak ill give a 8 for buzz saw Hordak ill give a perfect 10.tho ill adimt, I did think they could have done a little better job on the head sculpt. maybe give him a chomping pointy teeth mouth or something I don't know.

[stuecketor]

when the line was starting to get stale with re paints and recast, then came hordack, the guy who made skeletor look like an amateur and looked twice as mean. Bad enough to fight both he-man and skeletor. those cool crosssbows and the cape... hordak ranks easily as a nine and arguabley as a ten....

[bcrduke]

I loved the Horde, She-Ra, the Horde origin... I never felt like the two stories didn't mesh well... I just thought of the Fright Zone playset as the place where the Horde could enter Eternia from Etheria... the "portal" was the place where the hand puppet came through.

Anyway, I remember when they revealed in the mini-comics that Hordak had helped to build the Central Tower, that I started thinking of him as having been a good guy, a GREAT guy in fact, a grand ruler, but that he had been corrupted and overtaken by the Horde in some manner and was used by Horde Prime as a vicious, evil leader.

I loved his weapons - except I thought that the cross bow was kind of dumb because it didn't actually FIRE. so I used it as though it were like the laser batons the troopers carried in the She-Ra cartoon.

Loved that he was Skeletor's teacher and that Skeletor had been his pupil... PROBABLY similar in rank to what Shadow Weaver had become...

10/10... just because he was an amazing character and addition to the MOTU/POP mythos.

[coinilius]

I used to pretend that this bat was like Imp in the cartoon series.

My brother and I used to do that as well

[Spacedust]

when the line was starting to get stale with re paints and recast, then came hordack, the guy who made skeletor look like an amateur and looked twice as mean. Bad enough to fight both he-man and skeletor. those cool crosssbows and the cape... hordak ranks easily as a nine and arguabley as a ten....

Part of the reason they had to introduce Hordak, as a "even badder" nemesis, was that Skeletor had lost much of his menace (mainly to do with his pantomime treatment by Filmation). I liked that Hordak was more of a challenge, but at the same time it kind of marked the end of the golden Skeletor years in my view. Skeletor will always be the definative MOTU enemy.

[Orko's Magic Hat]

I like the Hordak figure, I bought Hordak over Spikor one day shopping at WH Smiths (those were the days ) and thought he looked more menacing than Skeletor and I also liked his grey/black colours. However I kind of grew bored of the figure after a while and prefered the other members of the Horde. It was probably the lack of a decent weapon. I didn't really like the Filmation version of him when he was shown in POP, I prefered him as an evil wizard.

The 4HM staction of Hordak is one of my favourites and its a great update on the old figure.

Figure Rating: 7/10

[Spacedust]

I like the Hordak figure, I bought Hordak over Spikor one day shopping at WH Smiths (those were the days ) and thought he looked more menacing than Skeletor and I also liked his grey/black colours. However I kind of grew bored of the figure after a while and prefered the other members of the Horde. It was probably the lack of a decent weapon. I didn't really like the Filmation version of him when he was shown in POP, I prefered him as an evil wizard.

The 4HM staction of Hordak is one of my favourites and its a great update on the old figure.

Figure Rating: 7/10

Those were the days indeed... do WH Smiths even sell toys now? (I haven't been in there for years, I get nearly everything on-line now, much more range and much cheaper). I remember in Owen & Owens in my nearest town, they had a really impressive dispay, with a special stand made out of perspex and everything. ...bit off topic, I think that's for another thread! (makes note)

I didn't really care for Filmation's depiction of Hordak, but I wonder if I would have liked the figure more if it came in the cartoon's bold blue colour scheme instead of grey. As discussed on other threads (ie. Stratos), grey didn't always work for the figures, sometimes making them seem slightly drab. ...Then again, maybe the colour scheme would have been a bit too similar to Skeletor's.

[Orko's Magic Hat]

Those were the days indeed... do WH Smiths even sell toys now? (I haven't been in there for years, I get nearly everything on-line now, much more range and much cheaper). I remember in Owen & Owens in my nearest town, they had a really impressive dispay, with a special stand made out of perspex and everything. ...bit off topic, I think that's for another thread! (makes note)

WH Smiths only sell board games, video games and arts & crafts now. Shame really as I used to buy mostly all my MOTU and even other lines (TMNT and Thundercats) from them and TRU.

[Arkan]

Hordak is great figure, very menacing and tough. The bat and the cape are awesome accesories.

Pros:
Super menacing face
Great colours, specially the armor.
Good accesories (except the crossbow)

Cons:
The legs are a bit weak
I find the crossbow useless, you can´t hit any enemy with that.

I give the figure
7/10

[Spacedust]

WH Smiths only sell board games, video games and arts & crafts now. Shame really as I used to buy mostly all my MOTU and even other lines (TMNT and Thundercats) from them and TRU.

Didn't have a Toys R' Us near me, my shopping haunts (or rather, looking longingly at the new figures haunts) were Smiths, now defunct tyoshop Zodiac (yes, nice similarity in name), and occasionally Owen & Owens.

During the 200x release, Woolworths had the best selection in my neck of the woods, although it just wasn't the same - they were just sort of all shoved ino the shelf, all jumbled up (though this did have it's merits, I used to unashamedly stand rooting right to the back of the shelf, and sometimes turned up trumps, finding the likes of Prince Adam and Zodac right at the back, and marked down at that!)

'K, really off-thread-topic now, must start seperate thread on this!!

[Darth Latveria]

As I recall, I think that when playing with Hordak he was slightly more powerful than Skeletor. I think I used him as a more behind the scenes kind of character, with Skeletor being more on the front lines. Actually, I think that it was similar to the Darth Vader and Emperor relationship.

[faker32828]

Got hordak Right about the time I got TP he-man. Then I had to get the rest of the horde. I gotta agree with something previosly posted. the were a break in the routine, but Skeletor and his crew were still the main threat. I also never got a deluxe hordak and am looking for both buzzsaw, hurriceane hordaks as well as all the gear for the original hordak. If you want to help me out, e-mail me.

[pain]

The leader of the Evil Horde gets a 10 from me.

Even though most people believe that She-ra is the tie that binds MOTU and POP, I have always believed that it was Hordak.

The awesome skull head, the black and red design, I have about 4 of these leftover from my childhood. (The Horde was my undisputed favorite)

The whole different crossbow for every Horde member was awesome, and he cam with a freakin cape. How awesome is that.

He has a great ministory, and his name just sounds evil. One of my favorite characters

[motu77]

I'm a little late here but I gave him a 10. I like the MOTU Hordak better than the POP one. But I understand that She-Ra needed a large army to fight so it turned out ok.

[Evil_Horde]

10 of course!! Is simply fantastic, and the version Hurricane is my favourite AF in absolute!

[PaoloKr]

Amazing! Bad, cool, scary and powerful.
10