Teela vintage figure review thread

[Spacedust]

After looking at one of the very last figures (Blade) in last week's thread, let's this week travel right back to the very beginning, to look at another of the core characters - TEELA, the Warrior Goddess.

Teela was present from the very start of the toy-line, introduced in the very first mini-comic, 'He-Man and the Power Sword' (where her name was spelt Tee-La).
Much of the early material showed Teela to have blonde hair, in a pony tail, but the actual figure had darker hair, more in the style of that which she would have in the Filmation series.

Of course, there was much confusion early on, as without her Cobra armor she was referred to as Teela, yet with her Cobra armor on she was called The Sorceress (sometimes The Goddess)! This confused the heck out of many a young fan. It was explained in the rare second wave mini-comic "The Tale of Teela!", which described how Skeletor made a clone of The Goddess that became Teela. This bizarre (though interesting) story was never built upon beyond this, and was soon forgotten about in MOTU lore.

There are a number of variations on the Teela figure. Some have dark brown boots and hair, others have lighter red boots and hair; Some have pink lips, some have red, and there are several other paint variations to be found.

I brought my Teela figure the same day as Tri-Klops, with some birthday money that a relation had sent me. I love that figure!!
In my modern collection, I have numerous examples of slightly different paint jobs.

Skeletor seemed to have a bit of an obsession for Teela in the early stories, often kidnapping, and in one colouring book tale, he even tried to marry her! (And who can blame him!)

The UK Ladybird books occasionally showed Teela to have mild telepathic abilities, and her Cobra staff allowed her to communicate with some wild animals.

No matter what the version, Teela always seemed to have a crush on He-Man.

Teela was one of the core, most regular Heroic characters in the Filmation cartoon series. Here she was shown as an able tomboy, Captain of the Royal guards and assigned to protect Prince Adam. She was often annoyed by Adam's seeming laziness, oblivious to the fact that he was really He-Man. And, of course, in this version, Man-At-Arms was her step-father. As introduced in the classic second episode, "Teela's Quest", her biological mother is really The Sorceress, and Teela would one day take over that position. Nearly all other versions of the MOTU lore followed this notion.

The 1987 movie version of Teela showed much of the same character traits as the Filmation version, but her costume was altered to an all-body cat suit-type-thing with some armor over, and consisted of drab colours as opposed to the original's bright ones. Many fans felt that the part was miscast, and didn't really do the character justice.

In the 200x revamp, the new Teela figure was one of the rarest (at least, it was here in the U.K.). It stuck to the basics of the vintage version (although didn't include the cobra armor), but gave her a ponytail (a nod to the original drawing of her?) and made her a bit more youthful. They also gave her a sword, which I liked.
In the Mike Young Productions cartoon ... I'm sorry, but I really disliked what they did with Teela. They made her a bit TOO young, to the point of being bratty. I wasn't keen on her voice casting, either. I would point to Teela - one of the core characters traditionally - as one of the biggest mistakes of the 200x revamp.

All-in-all... I really like the vintage figure. It is a nice sculpt, and was one of my favourite figures. I'll give it a 9 out of 10.

So that's my Teela review.
Now I'd like to hear your own thoughts, comments, criticisms, memories, and anything else Teela-related. And whether you post or not, rate the vintage figure in the poll!

[krugos]

I love the Teela action figure, for some reason her armor and weapons are stuck in my memory as one of the things I liked the most about this figure. She was together with He-Man, Skeletor, Stratos, Man At Arms and Battlecat in the first bunch of motu toys I ever got, and that makes them all really special and score high in my nostalgic values.

You can somewhat see in this pic the incredible joy of looking Teela for the first time in my life one Christmas of I don't know what year:



I'll give her a 10 out of 10!

[JonnyTyler]

Teela is one of my favorite Masters of the universe figures. I remember getting her and Point Dread from my grandma one year for my birthday. At first I wasn't sure I liked her, cause she was a girl, but once I started playing with her along side the other figures she kinda became the star of all my adventures. I remember her having to save He Man on quite a few of my own adventures. I loved her sanke armor. It just looked so cool, and she truelly looked like a different figure wearing it. Hence for awhile Teela becoming like an Eternian superhero for a bit, at least in my little play world.

I also agree with Spacedust that the MYP was a horrible rendition of Teela. I always loved Teela because she was so "smart ass" and sarcastic, and she had the chops to back it up. That new Teela, like Spacedust said, was just a cry baby brat, most of the time. and Teela being one of my favorite figures as a kid, I was really looking forward to the new Teela. I was more than a little let down, to say the least...

But yes, Classic Teela is just that, Classic. She's great, And I have the fondest memories of her from my childhood. So I gave her a 9. If she would've came with that neat looking sword she had in the comics and the Filmation show(which I know came out after the figure was released) She would've gotten 10. That is truelly my only gripe about her. And the ONLY thing the new Teela got right, they finally gave Teela her sword.

[motu77]

She gets a nine from me.

[Dr Bo]

You can somewhat see in this pic the incredible joy of looking Teela for the first time in my life one Christmas of I don't know what year:

Wow, precious picture for a fan! Thanks for sharing!

I always liked Teela, she really hit something as a dashing Warrior goddess figure. As a figure she really looked like a cool amazon huntress.
Along with her bold curves that really shaped her like those big botomed, leggy Frazetta women her corset, fur boots and snake armor really made her a damn fine incarnation of these bold warrior women of fantasy.

As a kid I always would say she could throw spell and magic bolt from her open hand. She was one of the first figure I had. Always found the way they positionned her hand suited this pretty well with her arm extended. Of course, in the mythos her magical aspect dropped pretty quickly (as Filmation appeared) but what the heck, she was an action figure and I could tell the story I wanted with her. She also could throw cool karate chop with that hand.

And, well, she's a rednead, so what's not to love?

[TriKlops1971]

Although I liked Filmation's version of Teela more than Mattel's, I thought the action figure was pretty cool. Still a hottie, even 25 years on!

[evil-lyn167]

I think that the old Teela is beatiful and great figure.

[Flint]

Teela rocks! I gave her a ten for a few reasons. The first being that she was one of the first 3 figures I got as a child so she certainly earned her fair share of play time.

The sculpt was feminine, without being too girly, which in a little boys eyes is a plus. Her staff was cool and I love the cobra armor, it's a really good accesory and unique as well. The colors worked well, although I had always wished that she had the white fur on the top of the boots

Once I saw the cartoon, her dynamic changed a bit when played, but she still kicked some ass on a regular basis. I just picked up a new vintage one to replace my old one because she is a must have in the collection.

[Spacedust]

I agree that Teela's dynamic changed a little between original Mattel version and Filmation version, but IMO both of them kicked butt!

Either one was better than the terrible 200x Teela, one of the most mis-realised and mis-used characters of the entire revamp.

[Evil_Horde]

Only 7 beacause i love the Filmation style and less the minic cominc design!

[PaoloKr]

10!
Teela is one of the best figures in the original line.

[Teelor]

10!
Teela is one of the best figures in the original line.

I agree. Teela received a 10 from me. One of the best, if not the best in the original line. The only "flaw" with the figure is it did not come with a sword for use as warrior Teela (versus Sorceress/Goddess Teela).