Evil Warriors - Faker with Powersword

While he has had different backgrounds in different media, the main consensus is that Faker is an evil robot built to impersonate He-Man and serve the forces of evil. Being blue skinned, depending on the medium this scheme either only works in the dark or Faker can temporarily assume He-Man's colours. Either way, he is an iconic character. As the majority of my collection is Filmation inspired, I chose to paint him here in the alternate "pink" colour scheme featured on his cardback art, which is also the version that was used in the Filmation style fanmade hommage "The Return of Faker" (sadly unreleased for viewing due to IP issues). I think this version adds more interest to the model and a welcome bit of contrast with Copy-Cat.

Faker, with his imitation Powersword

The model is another private commission done by a fan, that was available in limited quantities for a short while. The base is the usual blank lipped base with texture sculpted on and painted to match the rest of the Evil Warriors.

Some more "action" shots:

Rise, my puppet. I have created you in He-Man's image, therefore I shall name you "Faker", nyaaah!

I have created this pet for you, to aid you in your battle against that goody-two-shoes, He-Man.

"I have found you! Wait, you're not He-Man!" (in unison)

"At last, now we shall learn who is the stronger!" - "By the Goddess! What's this madness?"

Battlecat: "I hate to say this, He-Man, but we may be in some real trouble here..."

 He-Man and Faker, side by side:

And a shot of Faker and Copy-Cat for the family photo album:

For those not familiar with it, a look at the inspiring original cardback illustration and "The return of Faker. I did initially consider giving him blank white eyes, like the second image, but I wanted him to look more alive.

Heroic Warriors - Gender-swapped He-Man on Battlecat

A while ago I converted a Hasslefree Daphne figure into a gender-swapped version of He-Man. The idea being that He-Man (or Prince Adam) was temporarily turned into a young girl through some ancient artefact or magic spell (possibly one of Orko's spells gone wrong). This is the mounted version of that character. I'll leave it up to you to imagine whether Battlecat also had a sex change or not if you're into that kind of thing.

Mounted and Unmounted version

I used the same base figure for the mounted version, with reposed legs and the addition of fur panties and boots and a swap for another spare Quest Miniatures power sword. Battlecat is yet another of the Grenadier OOP Battlecats, which I've collected over the years. The base is a blank lipped base from Fenris (the closest match I could find to the large Battlecat mini), with added tile texture with putty.

Fighting Skeletor's minions

All my (good) He-Man versions so far...

Battlecat(s)

Heroic Warriors - He-Man on Battlecat

As if He-Man and Battlecat weren't impressive enough on their own, the sight of He-Man riding on Battlecat's back is enough to strike terror in the hearts of the denizens of evil. The riding he-Man is a conversion of the Quest Miniatures He-Man, I cut off and reposed one leg and bent the other one slightly, some putty to cover the gap. Battlecat is of course another copy of the OOP Grenadier model. The base is a lipped base blank by Fenris Games and the tile texture was added with putty.

Foot and mounted version together

Heroic Warriors - Gender-swapped He-Man

To the best of my knowledge, there has never been a gender-swapped He-Man in any of the MOTU canon. Still, there is no reason it could not have happened (temporarily) through the use of an ancient artefact or a magical spell. I'm sure there could have been an interesting moral in that story somewhere. So to make up my own fluff: while fighting over a mysterious artefact, Skeletor and He-Man inadvertently unleashed it's energies with unexpected results. Temporarily finding himself in female form, He-Man's ability to lead the good fight was in no way diminished.

She has the Power!

The model is Hasslefree Miniatures' Delphine, with some conversions. I added fur to her panties and boots and swapped the original sword for a spare powersword from a previous conversion, for a closer match to the male He-Man figure.

Male and female He-Man side by side:

They have the Power...?

A different take on the origin story perhaps, where Evil-Lyn enacts a spell of her own to turn He-Man into someone more... well... her own size:

* Sniff * * Sniff * - Yes, Battlecat, it's still me!

'll be honest, He-Man, I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand I still find you attractive, but on the other hand, your breasts are bigger than mine...

Evil Horde - Slime Pit He-Man

Slime Pit He-Man (sometimes also referred to as Slime Monster He-Man) featured in one of the mini-comics that came with the toys. Hordak managed to trap He-Man in the slime pit, and had a toxic green slime poured over him that turned him into a mindless killing machine. Hordak then proceeded to send He-Man after Skeletor to eliminate his erstwhile apprentice. The mind controlled He-Man almost succeeded in this task, but with the telepathic help of the Sorceress, He-Man was able to shake off the effects of the slime right before delivering the killing blow.

The model is a converted Quest Miniatures He-Man, with the weapons removed and some slime sculpted over in places to suggest a thicker coat of it clinging to his body. The flagstone base was painted with a reddish tone this time, as that is the colour I reserved for the Evil Horde faction, and it adds some colour other than green to the figure.

Slime Pit He-Man about to crush Skeletor once and for all...

 A page from the mini-comic featuring the event:

Anti-Eternians - Anti-He-Man

Hailing from the Antiverse, a mirror dimension in which good and evil have traded places, Anti-He-Man is the most ruthless tyrant that Anti-Eternia has ever known, and the arch-nemesis for the heroic Prince Keldor. The character was originally exclusive to a German audiobook story, though a popular character among collectors for custom action figures, given that he's a straight repaint. Eventually, his story came full circle when an official MOTU Classics figure was released by Mattel a few years ago, cementing his position in MOTU canon.

When Skeletor utilized the Elixir of Schneidor to open doorways into other dimensions, he inadvertently created a pathway to the Antiverse, allowing Anti-He-Man to cross over into Eternia. His evil powers unstoppable, He-Man and Skeletor had to unite to fight him. Since such an uneasy alliance can only end in betrayal, Skeletor sent both He-Men to the Antiverse. The story didn't end there of course and He-Man helped Prince Keldor overthrow Anti-He-Man in Castle Hellskull. He-Man was finally returned home by Gwildor and Zodak using the Cosmic Key.

Filmation fans should check out this gorgeous fanmade tribute by Grimbot that looks just like the real thing:

The model is of course the standard He-Man sculpt by Boris Woloszyn for Quest Miniatures, converted to remove the empty sword scabbard and with a custom base. The black skin didn't turn out the way I wanted, but it looks fine in person, so I'll leave it. I looked at a lot of images of Anti-He-Man art and customs for the best colour combination and pretty much ended up with the one from the fanmade video, which is appropriate since I'm trying to stick to a Filmation theme with these figures. Some versions online only use black and red, but I feel the grey bracers add a much needed flash of contrasting colour to keep the figure interesting. Unlike the video version, I did keep the glowing red eyes seen on most incarnations. Some people paint the sword black, which, while cool, can't beat the awesome vintage toy feel of a bright red version of the powersword.

Anti-Eternia He-Man in all his glory.

Duel of the He-Man:

Heroic Warriors - He-Man

Of course, the first miniature to get some paint had to be He-Man, or should I say He-Men, as I painted two at once. The base model is sculpted in 30mm by Boris Woloszyn for Quest Miniatures. It comes with sword and shield, an empty sword scabbard for the back and a loose axe, like the toy, but is based on He-Man's appearance in the Filmation cartoon.

I converted both of my models. They were glued to their plastic bases and then I sculpted some tile texture over it with putty. The first was a minor conversion to be armed just with the powersword, like in the Filmation cartoon, without the shield or the empty scabbard. In the cartoon, the scabbard tended to appear when it was needed and disappear when it wasn't.

The second conversion was slightly more extensive. The powersword was cut off, and the hand was drilled, so the axe could be pinned into it. A new pommel was added under the hand with putty. In order to keep the powersword, I cut a plastic sword grip and crossbar from a sheathed sword from a Fireforge medieval men-at-arms set and glued it to the top of the empty scabbard, so my He-Man was complete.

Starting these was a bit daunting as it's been over a year since I painted anything in this scale and even then I wasn't too happy with it. But they came out well enough, I can look at them and have that feeling of familiarity and recognising the toys of my youth, so that's something. I think those two will be the only regular He-Man variants I will do (unless Quest Miniatures brings out another pose), but there is a wealth of "evil" clones to bring to life in miniature, such as Anti-Eternia He-Man, Negative He-Man, Slimemonster He-Man,...