I've slowed down a bit on my vintage MOTU puzzles, as I'm down to my last few, but I felt the itch to do one after polishing off that Dowdle much more quickly than expected last night. The scene depicted is a bit of a nail-biter, with He-Man struggling to wrench his half of the Sword of Grayskull free as Mer-Man and Trap Jaw close in. Stratos knocks Skeletor's half of the sword from his grasp, as the skull-faced fiend was undoubtedly about to unleash an energy blast on his nemesis. Too bad he didn't bring his Havoc Staff, too! The scene is evocative of the early MOTU lore that pre-dated the Filmation animated show, as those early stories often focused on Skeletor's quest to unite both halves of the Sword of Power, which had been hidden from him, so he could enter Castle Grayskull and gain access to the power of the ancients, which would enable him to enslave the universe.
This is another piece from the underrated R.L. Allen, who provided quite a bit of MOTU art for licensed products during its early years. Much early MOTU art based the looks of the characters on prototype designs, but Allen's renderings here are entirely faithful to the toys, right down to the "surprise prostate exam" expression on Mer-Man's face. Another nod to the early MOTU lore is Stratos' ability to unleash an energy blast, something various characters did at different times in the first few minicomics. The dramatic scene and use of colors makes for a visually interesting puzzle, and it's fun to imagine the adventure that led to this point. However, with Skeletor disarmed and He-Man wielding half of the sword, it doesn't require much brain power to imagine the ass-beatings that are about to be doled out! The pieces are thin, but fairly sturdy, and nice and large to make them easy for small hands to manage. The fit is loose enough that there's no chance of being able to move sections greater than two or three pieces without them crumbling, but there were no issues with false fits.
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