Aroo - The guardian of the City of the Ancients

Only appearing in the episode "Masks of Power", Aroo is a giant demonic blue gorilla-like beast, who was in charge of guarding the said masks in the lost City of the Ancients. He-Man and Man-At-Arms barely escaped with their lives when they encountered him and while the masks were taken, Aroo was just too strong to defeat, even for He-Man.

The giant, apelike Aroo

My version of Aroo is not full size, he'd need to be about 2,5 times the size, which would just make  him look out of place on the table and impossible to work into a scenario where you could fight him and win. So, I settled for a more practical size, which still puts hem at around 115mm tall, on an 80mm base. As he's based on an Eaglemoss figure of Grudd, skillfully converted by the talented John Pickford, he's also made of lead, so weighs a heavy 700g. Painting him was not so easy due to the added weight.

Aroo in the original episode

For size with Skeletor, who's hoping to control him, but may have bitten off more than those weathered teeth can chew

A comparison with the original figure. The Grudd figure is actually pretty close already if you don't care for an exact match. The only really required changes would be replacing the hair with a skullcap with horns and pointy ears poking out, adding a devilish tail and filling in the G to be a circle. As I wanted to get as close as possible, John also changed the mouth, necklace, armbands and wrist guards, belt, loincloth, and added claws to the fingers and feet, as well as turning the oversized skull into a rock.

Anti-Eternians - Anti-Goddess

If Anti-Eternia is the opposite of regular Eternia, then it stands to reason that its Goddess has also been tainted by the same evil. Being more brutal in nature, she fights with a mace, ready to bash in skulls, rather than to carry the snake staff.

Anti-Eternia Goddess

 There isn't really any precedent for this character (that I'm aware of), so her colour scheme was made up, using the usual Anti-Eternia palette and trying to go by what makes sense and gives the best contrast. As the regular version already wears a (dark) red snake collar, I decided to do the collar in the grey colour and work out the rest from there. I think the end result is pretty good.



The model is another old Grenadier mini from the 1980s. It's interesting that Grenadier made multiple poses of the same characters and it helps to further differentiate between the good and bad Goddess, although having duplicate models in different colour schemes doesn't bother me in this project, since it's a nod to the heavy reuse of parts and recoloured characters in the MOTU universe and toy line.

Anti-Eternia and Eternia Goddess

What sorcery is this? You are not the Goddess!

The Anti-Eternians so far (not including Man-At-Arms in Windraider)

Evil Warriors - Shadow Beasts

Shadow Beasts are great ape-like beasts who live in tribes throughout the dark hemisphere. They are named thus because they can only come out in the absence of light. Like most beasts, they are vulnerable to Beastman's powers and can be controlled by him to join the fight on Skeletor's side.

Shadow Beasts, the yeti's of Eternia

 I went with the Filmation cartoon colour scheme on this. Other media have shown them in darker, more apelike colours, but I like how the purple shade emphasises the alien, retro pulp quality they have. I originally was going to do their bases in a neutral colour, as they can also be used independently, but ultimately settled for the Evil Warriors scheme, as that will be their main purpose.

Beastman takes controle of the Shadow Beasts

Teela getting surrounded by the Shadow Beasts

The Evil Warriors so far (not including my alternate Skeletor)