A Tale of Two Teelas

The third wave of characters included Orko, the court magician and Teela the daughter of Man-At-Arms.  Teela is the first female character of the line of the new millennium.

Feminism has gone a long way since the eighties and the Teela of the new millennium has been updated and upgraded to perhaps reflect this.  Now no longer the warrior snake goddess, Teela nevertheless retains many of the elements of her snake goddess roots while getting the makeover into a less-butch, more feminine, yet tough character.

Teela comes on the typical trilingual card.  The front is devoid of any markings personalised for Teela.  The back of the card, common with all wave 2 and wave 3 figures, has a picture of the contents with arrows pointing to areas with special features and pictures (some edited) showing what those features are and how they work.  There are no words to the features alongside the pictures, but as the cliche goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.  The other figures in wave 3, including Teela, appear near the bottom of the card.  These are pictures as opposed to illustration, and are arranged not sanitarily in straight rows, but posed in an eye-catching arrangement, although Orko and Teela seems to be lost in the logo.

The ubiquitous stick is here as well and like all the wave 2 and wave 3 figures, there is nothing special about Teela's sticker.  The plastic that the sticker comes on, is similar to that of Wave 2 (e.g. Mekaneck's).

The name of the character is not printed on the card this time, but instead on a piece of plastic which is placed around the figures feet inside the bubble.  The picture of Teela, tries to suggest motion, but is so blurry, that it fails in this aspect.  The bottom flap contains all Mattel's information and the contact details.  The red lower half of the printing is textured, fading to clear as it goes upwards, as is typical of all the toys this time around.

Like all wave 3 figures, a sticker on the side of the bubble advertises that the figure will work with Grayskull.  A chip that is implanted into the figure will interact with Grayskull when Teela is around Grayskull, although on its own, it does nothing.

This time around, Teela has lost some of her body fat and has gained more hair.  Although the hair is tied back, is no longer in a bun and there are strands at the sides and a pony tail at the back.  Because the plastic is flexible, it does not hinder her head from turning.  Her face has been given a huge makeover and she now sports a smile.  Her limbs are more slender and her flesh is painted a nice healthy hue.  Consequently, because of all the modifications she looks more feminine. 

Her skirt this time around is not some tight fitting spandex thing, but a proper skirt with golden leaves and as a whole, it looks more attractive.  The details on her bracers, armbands and knee guards are more refined this time around, and these together with the boots give Teela that feminine, yet tough, demeanor.  There is a "holder" at her back which enables one to hang her sword there, a nice new improvement.

Teela has six points of articulation - heads, shoulders, waist and hips, the same as the classic figure.  Teela still suffers from being too tall and slender and thus she is unable to stand up properly when placed on any surface.  The snake staff can to be used "stabilise" her, much like a tight-rope walker's stick, but that still does not make things satisfactory.

Gone is the snake skin armour, but Teela still retains the snake staff and the shield.  The snake staff has been made bigger and more rigid this time around and is sculpted with more details than the previous staff.  The shield has actually reduced in size and the clip is more rigid this time around.  The sword is the new improvement and care seems to have gone into sculpting this sword for Teela.  The sword is reminiscent of He-Man's, albeit less elaborate and coloured to match Teela's other weapons.

The new Teela is about half head taller, from the top of the bun to the top of the ponytail.  Like Mekaneck, this increase in height is attributed to the different leg height - notice how the new Teela's legs are longer and slimmer and cast in a more attractive flesh like hue.  Unlike Beastman and Mekaneck, the new Teela at first glance may seem to be right handed.  In actual fact, the sword, staff and shield can fit on either hand, making her an ambidexterous figure.  The classic figure though, is right handed.

Overall, Teela has undergone an huge change while retaining the basic elements and colour scheme that defines her.  She has been made more attractive and more ladylike, yet her mien posture will make anyone think twice about hurting her.  For Nostalgia value, she edges Beastman slightly and gets a six out of ten.

Links: classic Teela card art, Mattel.

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