I ordered the ToyFare exclusive Faker yesterday. For those of you who don't recall, Faker is He-Man's "evil twin." Mattel has thrown collectors complaining about the lack of villains a bone with this exclusive, which is essentially a repaint (except for the little mechanical sticker on his chest).
Of course, it's difficult to be a convincing twin when your skin is blue and you're wearing an orange version of Skeletor's armor. I suspect Faker has a pretty simple real-life origin story. Mattel constantly reused molds for the original MOTU line, and by making an evil twin, they got to make a new figure at no extra cost (except for the sticker, of course). On the cartoon, Faker actually looked like He-Man, but Mattel couldn't simply repackage a He-Man figure and call it Faker - even kids still in the womb would have seen through that. So they colored him blue and gave him orange armor, which made him a very cool-looking villain, but sort of negated the "Faker" name.
I admit I'm somewhat disappointed with the ToyFare Faker. While it's exciting to get another villain figure, I'm wary of this reuse of a mold - Mattel is up to its old tricks once more. I was also looking forward to a Four Horsemen-style Faker, complete with Terminator-like battle damage. Mattel says they've reserved the right to make their own Faker in the future, so that could still happen.
In the meantime, I'll be satisfied with my Faker. After Skeletor and Trap Jaw, Faker was my favorite villain (I guess I found blue skin appealing when I was a little kid). I actually ordered two Fakers, because we at OAFE plan to hold a contest for it in March when it arrives.
