Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living

Mattel managed to make a little Mumm-Ra when they had this license, but it falls to Super7 to make the big one. Mumm-Ra is the Thundercats' evil adversary. Mummified and otherwise weak, he is energized and made immortal as a servant to the Spirits of Evil, who grant him magical and transformative powers to carry out their wicked bidding. "Ever-Living" Mumm-Ra is such a big guy, he had to be sold in larger packaging than the rest of the line. Like, significantly larger: wider, deeper, taller, everything. The toy stands 8¾" tall (to the top of his crown), leaving him towering over the other characters. He's sculpted with the chunky, Four-Horsemen style this line uses, and has a few limp strands of mummy-wrapping still hanging from his body. His armored greaves are sculpted with both smooth and hammered textures, and there's fur on the top of his feet. His skirt has a sculpted pattern on the lower edge, and underneath it, he's completely bare - guess the Icon Heroes statue was right after all! Mumm-Ra's helmet has a spiked crest in the center and "horns" that are actually twin snakes curling up and hissing at one another. Molded strips of cloth billow around the lower edge, apparently blown about by nothing more than the power rising off him. The figure includes two heads: one with the mouth open wide, the other smirking and showing off his... Rami Malek teeth? Since when has Mumm-Ra had an overbite? Bandai's 6" Mumm-Ra was a grayish-green, but Ultimates Mumm-Ra is blue - it's a difference of what the lighting was like in any given scene he was in. Like that figure, though, the snake symbol on his chest is a raised disc rather than simply being painted on the body. Well, the pattern on it is just painted, but the whole thing still sticks above his chest slightly. There are airbrushed shadows to accentuate the anatomy, but overall this is a pretty simple paint job: no real problems, no real standouts. You may recall that Bandai's figure was lacking its big trademark cape. And that Icon Heroes' statue had its cape, but couldn't move. This figure both moves and has its cape, thanks to the magic of softgoods. To connect the cape to the figure, a plug pulls out of the center of his back and fits through a hole at the top of the piece, and there are holes at the edges that fit onto hooks on his wrists. The upper edge of the cape has a wire stitched into the hem so you can pose it, rather than just having it fall however gravity would mandate. You may be inclined to put the red side facing forward, but remember: this is a red cape with a black lining, so the red goes on the outside. Since the cape can move, the figure is free to be as mobile as all the other Mattel/Super7 Thundercats toys. When this figure was announced, it was announced to come with the Key to Thundera, but Pathro already included that, so you have to wonder if that was just a case of some copywriter working from a template and accidentally forgetting to delete that. What does he come with, then? The stick with the ball on the end of it is the Mighty Gyroscope's regulator, which Mumm-Ra stole to incapacitate the machine that made New Thundera's gravity work. Then there's the Sword of Plun-Darr in its full glory, not just the hilt that "Decayed Form" Mumm-Ra had. Naturally, he gets a few pairs of hands: fists, gesturing, holding. This technically counts as a two-pack, because Mumm-Ra also includes his faithful monster canine, Ma-Mutt! Mattel never gave us that, Bandai never gave us that... the closest we've gotten has been the statue, but now we get an actual toy. Technically Ma-Mutt should be the same color as Mumm-Ra, not this darker blue, but we're not too stressed about that. He's got a sculpt that's just detailed enough without going overboard, from the wrinkles around his mandible fangs to his serpentine little tail. His head and all four legs swivel, which isn't a ton of articulation, but is definitely more than the alternatives. Mattel's Mumm-Ra was only available to those who subscribed to the full "Club Third Earth," and then they folded their line before doing any more with him. Ideally both forms would have been available in a single deluxe two-pack, but Matty gave up really fast and Super7 doesn't do things that way, so if you want them both, you'll be making two purchases. Mumm-Ra was one of the most intimidating villains of the '80s, and it's taken nearly 40 years for us to get a truly good figure of him. -- 08/25/22

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