Toy Review: MOTUC Adora (Mattel)

The first Masters of the Universe Classics figure of 2010 and the very first Princess of Power figure in the line was January's figure of the month, Adora. Adora is special for a lot of reasons, but mainly because this is the very first action figure version of the character. While there were a few different versions of She-Ra in the POP line, until now there has never been a dedicated Adora figure. It's always great to get these never-before-produced characters in the the MOTUC line. Adora might very we be the fastest selling figure to-date, having sold out in under a half hour on the mattycollector.com site. She was also the first figure of the 2010 subscription program.


Like the other figures of the line, Adora has a short bio on the back of her card. All of these bios have the sometimes difficult task of reconciling different MOTU continuities and Adora's is almost straining from the effort. The difficult part is this whole "Sword of He" mythology that goes back to the He-Ro bio and details the sword having been passed on the Grayskull, and the imbued with his power and then the power of The Elders and then split in half. And now cloned. Nothing goes with swords and sorcery like fractions! And then the cloned sword looks different from the regular sword. Ugh.

Suffice to say, Adora is a really beautiful figure and she puts to rest some of the concerns that people expressed after seeing the 2nd prototype, which featured pasty skin, weird eyes and puffy granny panties. The sculpting and paint on the head are really elegant, and Adora features her characteristic voluminous blond hair and side curls. For all of Mattel's timidity regarding Filmation characters, Adora looks surprisingly like her animated counterpart. If there's a flaw in this figure it comes from the somewhat bland outfit, basically a dark red one-piece suit. Fortunately, the bottom portion is a bit tighter than the second prototype and doesn't have the same poofy appearance.


Adora comes with three accessories. The first is a small pistol which fits snugly into a removable holster. The third accessory is Adora's Sword of Protection, which is a slimmer, more feminine version of the Power Sword, inset on both sides with an aquamarine plastic "gem." It would have been nice if this gem were actually one piece so that light would be able to pass through it instead of two pieces glued onto opposite sides of the sword. Again, the design of the sword is very Filmation. I think I would have preferred something more like He-Man's sword but with an inset stone, instead of giving Adora a thinner, more "girly" blade. Especially since it was to have been cloned from the Power Sword.


Having heard all of the horror stories about the 2009 subscription program, I was quite nervous about how and when I would get my items. Despite a small problem regarding combining shipping on subscriptions made on two different dates (which was eventually solved) I got my items without any issues. My two Adoras went out before my bonus/reissue figures as they should and I got them a week after they had gone on sale, which is normal. So, it looks like after the 2009 subscription program, Matty and DR have learned how to do this right. On the quality control front, my Adora is near perfect, with the exception of some red slop on her left forearm. I have to say that she has the best and tightest joints of any MOTUC figure that I have purchased to-date.



Adora is a welcome and long overdue figure. She's a great debut figure for Princess of Power in the MOTUC line and gives me hope that the Horsemen can give us a truly amazing She-Ra figure later this year. Her stunning sellout is a testament to the popularity of both the POP line as well as female characters in MOTUC.

Patrick Garone
Senior Reviewer