Monday, May 3, 2021

MOTU: Eternia Minis | Orko

Masters of the Universe has a very diverse cast of characters from heroic warriors to evil villains that make up the franchise that also includes graphic novels, animated series, and film. This also includes the characters from Princess of Power, which is produced Mattel.

There’s a deep dive of interesting characters, but the basic supporting characters will always have a recall among longtime fans of the franchise that grew up owning some of the vintage toys. Orko comes to mind as one of those memorable character that regularly appears in the classic and 2002 animation, which sometimes considered underrated for most of his appearances.


Recently, Mattel revived the MOTU franchise aimed at general public as most of the toys and action figures were exclusively produced by Mattel and Super7 for toy collectors. After being exclusive for more than a decade, Mattel is making the effort to renew the interest of the franchise as part of the toy brand’s identity.

Slowly MOTU as a brand started with the “Retro Play” revival of the original characters based from the vintage action figures with modern aesthetics that adds articulation and better engineering on the tried and true classic. With that as they continue to release new figures from that toyline (Wave 5 as of this writing). They also spinoff a new toyline that aims for those who collect blind packaged figures as well as those who doesn’t have the budget for the MOTU Origins or have the space in their collection.

This was the “Eternia Minis,” they’re super deformed figures of the same characters based from the classic MOTU franchise. But this time they stand at 3-inch tall with limited articulation and some of them don’t include accessories, but still gives you that nostalgia for one of Mattel’s iconic franchise.









Trollan Magician

Orko is part of the fourth wave of “Eternia Minis” collection, which is no longer packaged like the previous wave of figures that were stored in either Castle Grayskull or Snake Mountain plastic containers. The figure is now packaged in tiny bloster bubble similar to the MOTU Origins toyline complete with the bursting rocks and starry skies that has been part of the MOTU identity.

You can now clearly see Orko in the bubble along with his wave mates. The wizard from the dimension of Trolla doesn’t come with any accessories once you open the packaging. There’s not much information at the back of the card other than the silhouette art work of the Slime Pit that was also featured in the Wave 3 4-Pack.

When you unpacked Orko from his bubble tray he only comes with a standee and a cross sell catalogue featuring the other characters that were released along him.











Heroic Court Jester

Originally, Orko was created exclusively for the Filmation animation as a comedic foil for Prince Adam and friends. But slowly gives the character a more stable role having known also the secret that Prince Adam and He-Man is the same person as explained in the opening credit for the Filmation cartoon.

The figure is smaller than the regular Eternia Minis and can be more scaled with the MOTU Origins figure than the basic Orko that was released from the hard-to-fine Wave 2 assortment, which makes this figure sought after among collectors.

Despite its size Orko is an articulated figure with the head sits on a ball joint and have swivel arms. The smoked white standee would have been great if the color was cast in clear for better perspective that Orko is “floating.” The standee’s tip is a tiny ball-joint that plugs underneath the figurine and can give Orko the stance that he’s running or avoiding obstacles, which clearly the only accessory that is included in the figurine.









Mage of Magnificent

Overall Orko can also be scaled with the MOTU 2002 series despite being taller than the current Origins figure as you see side-by-side with He-Man and Man-at-Arms. The details on this version of Orko has more of that Filmation cartoon design despite that there has been many iterations of the character in toy version.

This version of Orko still stands out in scale for the vintage and MOTU Origins figures as you can see that he never was half the size, but rather smaller as depicted in the Filmation cartoon series which really works and for the reason he’s usually the first figure to be sold out when this started showing up on local retail.







Eternia Minis Orko is released in the fourth wave produced by Mattel distributed by Richwell Global, which was acquired at Ollie & Co Glorietta in Makati City, Philippines retailed at ₱ 399.75 (**$ 10.83 AUD | $ 8.35 USD). For more about MOTU and other toylines follow Ollie & Co Glorietta on their Facebook!

** - Currency Converter via Google.com

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