Extendar
There's only one He-Man figure I can remember buying as a child and it was this one: Extendar. I say 'buy' but I actually received it as a birthday present. It's also one of the very few that I can remember the story of the minicomic, despite not having read it in a great many years. I was therefore a bit sad when my daughter tore his arm off last year.
The new Extendar has had his action feature simplified compared to his 80s counterpart. Instead of his 'extensions' hiding within the figure you have to pull him apart, add in the extensions, and then plug him back together again. It achieves the same effect, but does take an annoying amount of time to do.
In addition to his 80s shield, Extendar now comes with a lance. I know many people liked this, but sadly I think it's a bit rubbish. If Extendar had come with a horse, then it might have made sense, but he doesn't. Other than Swiftwind there aren't even any horses in the line that he might ride. Plus once he's in 'extended' mode a lance becomes useless anyway...unless Extendar somehow uses it as a sword, in which case why not just give him a sword?
Generally, despite the irritations I stated above, Extendar is a great figure and one that will be welcomed by almost everyone into their collection. The only real downside is that the bulky armour means that articulation is limited in a number of places on the figure. Probably not on all figures, but mine has a big paint rub on the shoulder.
Scorpia
Despite being a major character in the She-Ra cartoon this is the first time there's ever been a Scorpia figure. Overall this is a very well done figure. The facesculpt in particular is fantastic. The figure would have been perfect, except for one thing: the tail. It's made of rubber, having one articulation point at the bum-end. More would have been welcome and I'm a little worried that the rubber, particularly at one point, is going to tear eventually.
Blade
Finally the Classics line gets a movie figure. There was a lot of excitement when Blade was first revealed, however I thought then - and still do - that the figure is over (hyper?) detailed compared to almost all the other figures in the line and thus stands out a mile. It's not just the chain-mail, there are a bunch of other little details added which aren't present on anyone else. I mean, just compare him with Extendar or Scorpia and you'll easily see the difference.
Weapons-wise, Blade comes with his whip as seen in the movie, plus a movie-inspired sword and one from the original toy. The whip has zero problems. The swords... Putting aside the fact that it would have been better to have 2 matching swords, the paint on them is almost non-existent. They look like Playmates weapons. This wouldn't be too bad if Blade himself wasn't all silver. The dull grey weapons don't go with him at all.
Battle Lion
Essentially Battle Cat with a new head and new armour, Battle Lion is one of those figures many fans could have lived without. I don't mind the character, but I do mind the execution. There are a number of quality control problems on mine (sloppy gluing, mostly) and the leg joints are very loose, meaning posing is hard. The big issue, however, is that due to his cape, King Grayskull can't sit on Battle Lion properly. I really wish He-Man had the same level of 3rd Party companies as Transformers does so that a replacement cloth cape was easily available. You can, of course, remove the cape altogether (at least on the 2nd version of King you can) but then King Grayskull has big bumps on his shoulders and generally doesn't look quite 'right'.
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