Masters of the WWE Universe: The New Day

I know not every action figure collector cares for Mattel's latest amalgamation of Masters of the Universe and WWE, but when I heard the tag group The New Day was getting the treatment in the form of Man-E-Faces I was onboard.

If you aren't familiar with who the The New Day are, it's a trio of wrestlers - Big E, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods. The WWE put this trio together years ago and I'm surprised at how long they have been a team. Their antics on WWE programming is over the top and they are quite entertaining. In addition to their charismatic personalities, they are also formidable performers in the ring.

The idea of mashing together this tag group and the Masters of the Universe's Man-E-Faces is pure genius. Seriously Mattel, whoever had this idea needs a raise. If you're a fan of MOTU then you should be familiar with the Man-E-Faces character. His gimmick if you will is that you could turn a knob on the top of the figure to rotate through three different faces - humanoid, robot & monster. The same idea applies here the New Day figure, just with all three members each having their face on rotate.

Out of the package the figure comes with Big E's face in view. The figure's buck is pretty ripped and more than likely is meant to be Big E himself. Like with other Masters of the WWE Universe (and MOTU Origins) figures you can pull off the arms and legs to mix and match with other figures. The head however is not meant to be removed due to the gimmick.

(from left to right: Big E, Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods)

Speaking of the gimmick, the unicorn horn that plugs into the top of the "helmet" comes packaged in a small plastic bag. Before this is plugged in you can remove the "helmet" portion of the figure and get a better look at just how this rotating face gimmick works.

If you ask me, this is kinda disturbing to look at! It is cool however that it's not just a small portion of their face and that more of their head/face was sculpted.

The New Day doesn't come with any accessories. I felt that Mattel missed the mark as they could have included Xavier's trombone or a plate of pancakes. I'm sure this doesn't make since if you don't follow WWE programming. However I'm very pleased with the figure overall. I love the pink outfit as it matches all 3 character's over the top personalities. The rest of the sculpt is perfect, especially when Big E's face is in view. The figure features all of the normal articulation that you would come to expect out of a modern action figure.

I just happened to finally get the Masters of the Universe Origins figure of Man-E-Faces so I thought I'd show them side by side. New creation versus the source material if you will.

I'm not picking up every figure in this Masters of the WWE Universe line as I'm not a fan of every figure, however I do really love this figure. Some of the amalgamations don't work as well as others, but Mattel has hit a home run with this figure. Still somewhat hard to find at local retail (or online for retail prices), but if you are on the fence and you find the figure get it...you won't regret it.

Masters of the WWE Universe: Sting

I had to admit that I was skeptical when I heard the idea of Mattel crossing over Masters of the Universe with WWE. While I'm not the biggest MOTU fan, I have bought several toys in the past. I'm also a WWE fan and while I don't really buy wrestling figures, I have liked the changes Mattel has made over the years. Once I heard they were going to be Walmart exclusives I knew my chances of finding them on local retail shelves was going to be a tough task. Originally I could only find Triple H and Fin Balor, but the figure in the first wave that I wanted the most was Sting. When I finally found one, the blister card was bent and curled...but I didn't let that stop me from buying it.

The packaging is a nice combination of the two brand, including the logo. Mattel made a backstory which is told via a small comic that is included with each figure with everything taking place in WWEternia. Corny? Clever? You be the judge.

These new figures are based of the new, upcoming Masters of the Universe Origins line. These molds look closer to the original 80's figures, but with increased articulation. The heads and hands are detachable so theoretically you could build your own original character by swapping parts if you so choose. The figures themselves stand about 5 1/2 inches tall and are full articulated. 

Sting is done in his classic "Crow" look from his days in WCW, prior to his appearance in WWE. While the upper body may be a little larger than the character it's based on, Sting's face looks fantastic and captures look of Steve Borden, the man behind the Sting character.

Sting is based on the classic Masters of the Universe villain, Clawful. He was always one of my favorite villains so I was happy with this mishmash. Sting comes with a removable claw and some stoy of claw nunchuck. I don't care too much for this weapon as it's large, heavy and hard for the figure to wield. It took me several chances to even get this photo as the figure wanted to keep falling over with this heavy weapon in his hands.

The actual claw that slips over his closed fist is pretty cool. I don't have an original Clawful figure to compare the size of the two claws, but it appears to be scaled well with the figure. The claw is articulated, allowing the bottom pincher to open and close.

The upper body will spin if you twist the upper torso. Action features were once common place in figures like this so while it's not my cup of tea, it's still a nice throw back feature. Thankfully though it doesn't take away too much from the figure itself.

While I'm not planning on going all in on this line, this is a fun novelty if nothing else...especially if you are already a fan of both brands. As of this post, wave 2 is already on store shelves with at least two more waves planned. I look forward to what else Mattel has up their sleeves while I wait for the MOTU Origins line to be released.