HOME...REVIEWS...TOYS...MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE

Masters of the Universe
Castle Grayskull

By Daniel Lipkowitz, Assistant Editor

Wow. Now this thing is what I call a playset.

Castle Grayskull comes unassembled in a large box. Assembly is straightforward, with well-illustrated instructions. There are a few stickers to place for the tower flag and command center controls. The electronic features require four AA batteries.

Standing nearly 20" tall at the top of its highest parapet, Castle Grayskull is one imposing edifice. Airbrushed in black and green to evoke the look of a musty, moldy old fortress, the stones are molded in beautiful detail down to the weathering, cracks and pockmarks of age. The namesake skull, appropriately airbrushed gray, dominates the castle's front, with the new stylized "H" symbol emblazoned on its forehead. Its fangs frame the asymmetrical drawbridge door, complete with a sculpted (but unfortunately unpainted) shield-and-weapons crest and a lion's-head knocker. At the base of the door is a sculpted dragon crest and gold-painted footprint, surrounded by worn stones and shattered bones and weapons. A chromed Power Sword can be seen through a narrow window in one tower, while the other features a second-floor archway and crenellated terrace. A double spring-loaded missile launcher, articulated to swivel and angle up and down, stands atop one tower, while the other features a skull-topped flagpole with a solid plastic flag and a key-shaped radar array.

With its sides folded in, Castle Grayskull has an incredibly narrow profile. Despite the playset's large size, its flatness when closed up makes storage or shelf display a breeze. Of all of the snazzy gimmicks boasted by the toy, this unexpectedly thoughtful one may well be the best.

Opening the hinged side-panels reveals an expansive three-story playset. The top floor is the castle's roof, featuring the missile launcher, flagpole and a flip-down central wall panel to let your castle defenders drop things on attackers. The second level features the lion's-head shield crest above a pair of translucent torches, a shrine with a golden stylized sword design and a large wood-detailed floor panel (folded in storage mode and supported by a pair of swing-out struts) with a dragon crest and golden footprint.

The left side of the bottom floor houses a prison cell, complete with decorative shackles on the wall and a skull and rat on the floor. Its barred gate, featuring a hinged door with a detailed but nonfunctional lock, is made up of two flexible plastic sections that plug into the castle's main wall and side panel (the sections must unfortunately must be removed to fold the castle flat). The sections hinge together, so as you move the side wall, the prison adjusts from rectangle to parallelogram. In order to provide room to actually play with an imprisoned action figure, the wall is amusingly short, seemingly allowing captured enemies to simply hop over the spikes to escape -- but hey, that's what your imagination is for.

On the right side-panel is a removable golden key and a weapon storage wall. A veritable arsenal of deadly implements, the weapons include a polearm, an axe, a set of spiked 'brass' knuckles, a trident, a rippled dagger, a multi-bladed throwing knife and three different firearms. Each is molded in dark metallic blue plastic and pegs to its own dedicated spot on the wall. The weapons are very detailed, and several bear the original cross-shaped He-Man emblem. A few feature mysterious small pegs and holes that in theory might allow them to be attached together to make larger, scarier weapons, but in practice don't seem to hold together very well. They're not mentioned in the instructions, so perhaps the pegs are an abandoned feature or intended to interact with another toy down the line.

Electronics

The main feature of Castle Grayskull is its recognition technology. Each of the new Masters of the Universe action figures has a small chip set into the sole of one foot. Grayskull is designed to detect these chips and respond to the character individually by name and allegiance. In general, this works quite well, although there is the occasional hiccup (a metal table, for instance, will interfere with the drawbridge's scanner).

To activate the castle's electronics, switch on the slider at the base of the inside command center. This will cause the castle's eyes (and the torches on the inside) to light up as a voice says, "The Spirit of Grayskull awakens," followed by a thunderclap. After 50 seconds without use, the castle automatically shuts down to conserve battery power. It can be reactivated by pressing the command center's button or by manually shutting the castle off and on again.

Drawbridge

The first recognition scanner is located in the rocky base directly in front of the drawbridge. Here's an example of how it responds to the He-Man action figure:

• Stand He-Man on the dragon crest in front of the drawbridge with his right foot on the golden footprint.
• The Spirit of Grayskull says, "He-Man, the Spirit of Grayskull has awaited your return. If you wish to enter the drawbridge, move the secret stone and stand clear."
• Move the "secret stone," a plastic stone on the top right of the drawbridge archway. This unlocks the door. If you do not unlock the stone, the castle repeats its instructions, "Heroic warrior, move the secret stone and stand clear."
• The drawbridge falls open with a thump sound effect.
• If you place He-Man on top of the drawbridge, the sensor can still detect his chip through the thin plastic and responds, "He-Man, the Spirit of Grayskull has awaited your return."
• If the drawbridge remains open, the castle says, "Please secure the drawbridge," then repeats, "Secure the drawbridge."
• Closing the drawbridge activates another 'thump' and the Spirit responds, "Drawbridge secured! Grayskull secured!" accompanied by a sword-clash sound effect.

On the other hand, if you place Skeletor in front of the drawbridge, you get the following response:

• "Beware, Skeletor! If you wish to enter the drawbridge, move the secret stone and stand upon the dragon."
• Since Skeletor is not warned to stand clear, when he follows instructions, the drawbridge promptly smacks him on the head.
• Alternately, Skeletor is sometimes welcomed with "Beware, Skeletor! You are not welcome here!"
• If Skeletor stands on the open drawbridge, the Spirit repeats, "Beware! Skeletor approaches. Secure the drawbridge."

Hall of Secrets

The second scanner is on the castle's second floor. There are three recognition options here. The first responds only to the He-Man, Prince Adam, Man-At-Arms and Orko action figures, as well as the golden key that comes with Grayskull. He-Man, for example, stands on the footprint and is greeted with:

• "He-Man, if you wish to open the Hall of Secrets, move the secret stone and stand upon the dragon!"
• or "He-Man, Grayskull has awaited your return."
• or "He-Man, what is thy bidding?"
• If you get the first message, then moving the "secret stone" on the left side of the lion's-head panel unlocks the Hall of Secrets, a small alcove behind the golden sword crest, whose door swings open with the sound of a sword-clash.
• If the Hall of Secrets remains open, the Spirit instructs, "Please secure the Hall of Secrets."
• When the alcove is closed, the Spirit responds, "Hall of Secrets secure!"

Inside the Hall of Secrets is a pedestal in which is set the handle of a silver-chrome Power Sword. Unlike the sword that comes with the He-Man action figure, the chromed version does not have a rotating guard. Although quite firmly wedged into the pedestal, the sword can be carefully worked free (the chromed plastic is fragile, so be careful when removing it!) and placed in an action figure's hand. In a very play-friendly extra touch, there is a small notch in the pedestal's edge that holds the handle securely if you want to store the sword but make it easier to remove the next time.

If one of the other heroic characters, for example Stratos, stands on the footprint, the Spirit's response is one of the following three phrases:

• "Stratos, the Command Center is ready."
• "Stratos, Grayskull has awaited your return."
• "Stratos, what is thy bidding?"

If a villain like Skeletor stands on the crest, the Spirit responds thusly:

• "Skeletor, beware! You are not welcome here!"
• or "Skeletor, if you wish to enter the Hall of Secrets, move the secret stone. Stand before the sword crest."
• A second later (as Skeletor follows the Spirit's instructions), a trapdoor in front of the sword crest swings open, accompanied by a trailing scream as the action figure plummets into the prison cell below.

The trap door is, by necessity, fairly narrow, and while an unarmed and carefully positioned Skeletor or Mer-Man will fall through the hole easily, the massive Beast-Man is a bit too bulky and tends to get stuck halfway.

Command Center

A silver and gray console with a radar tracking screen, several skull-themed computer readouts and a small red button, the Command Center on the bottom level has several extra functions of its own:

• Pressing the button causes a robotic voice to say, "Security armed," accompanied by mechanical beeping.
• If the button is held in for three seconds, the voice says, "Trap door armed." The next time the button is pressed, the trap door swings open. This allows you to activate the trap without a villain figure, or to let the villains turn the tables to capture the heroes.
• Holding in the button for longer than three seconds causes the voice to say, "Security override" and unlocks the drawbridge and Hall of Secrets door.

Other Features

But wait! That's not all! Here are some of the additional electronic features of the Castle Grayskull playset:

• The golden key that comes with the castle contains a generic chip that can activate all of the "good-guy" functions of the playset, including the Hall of Secrets. The Spirit responds to the key's chip as "Heroic Warrior." If Mattel ultimately releases characters whose names have not been pre-programmed into Grayskull, the castle will presumably still react to their allegiance and call them "Heroic Warrior" or "Evil Warrior."
• If the drawbridge is open when a figure stands on the second-floor scanner, the Spirit asks the character by name to secure the drawbridge.
• If a villain activates the second-floor scanner while the Hall of Secrets is open, the Spirit warns, "Beware! ______ approaches! Secure the Hall of Secrets!" accompanied by a thunderclap.
• If a heroic character has recently activated the second-floor scanner, the castle remembers and a second hero who stands in front of the drawbridge will be greeted with (for example), "Stratos, He-Man has awaited your return!"

Overview

Castle Grayskull does have room for improvement. The side panels don't lock very securely in storage mode, swinging open with minimal provocation. The weapons have a tendency to fall out, and with no dedicated handle for carrying the folded playset around, the individual parts of the castle roof often pop loose with handling. It would have been handy if the prison could simply fold flat rather than having to be removed and disassembled when the sides are closed. It would be very helpful to be able to turn on the electronics from the outside of the castle, and the chip-scanners are occasionally temperamental. Without the electronics, the interactive elements of the castle are fairly sparse, and the voice of the Spirit of Grayskull could be a bit more, well, "spirit-y."

But these issues pale in comparison to the playset's very fun and innovative features. Like the rest of the new Masters of the Universe line, Castle Grayskull is equal parts collector-appeal and child-friendly. The chip-recognition technology is great (especially since it's just a neat extra, not the dominant feature of the entire toyline), as is the fact that the castle has more than one basic line of dialogue for heroes and villains. Having only a few characters be able to unlock the sword chamber is clever, and the inclusion of the golden key and command center to activate features without having to use action figures is most welcome. The sculpting detail is top-notch, and you can tell that a lot of care and respect went into the castle's design and creation.

If you have a few of the figures and sufficient storage space, then I recommend Castle Grayskull highly.

Check out pictures of Castle Grayskull in our Gallery!

Copyright © 1999 - 2005 ASM Productions
A SkyJammer Enterprises Publication
ASM is not responsible for content of offsite links.