Baron Karl Mordo

By Hervé St-Louis
March 24, 2023 - 19:10

Baron Mordo is one of Doctor Strange’s original villains, introduced in Strange Tales #111 (1963). In the 2016 Doctor Strange film, Mordo was played by actor Chiwetel Ejiofor. In that film Mordo was one of the recruits of the Ancient One and helped train Doctor Strange. At the end of that movie, he left the Masters of the Mystic Arts and set out to absorb powers from other sorcerers.

The Baron Mordo action figure was released by Hasbro in the Marvel Legends wave related to the 2016 movie. This version was probably the first Baron Mordo action figure, although newer Master Mordo figure was just released in 2022 by Hasbro. This review is about the original 2016 action figure. Let’s find out how the older figure stacks.

Likeness

While modelled after actor Chiwetel Ejiofor the figure does not resemble the actor as much. It was sculpted before face printing was used and at a time were sculpted often did not match the facial features of actors. The skin tone is too dark. The intricate film look is present with the figure. Of course, Mordo looks nothing like the comic book character except for using green themes.

Sculpt

The sculpt is nice as the intricate pattern of the film’s costume are repeated and there is mock fabric texture in some areas. The best thing about this sculpt is the face which is detailed and would make great fodder for customs. The face looks better than actual actor! One of the hands is meant to hold the staff while the other one is more relaxed. It does limit posability as one set of hands are included with the figure. The thighs appear to be the same used by Doctor Strange, so there is a lot of reuses.

Paint

As is often the case Hasbro prefers to use base plastic and minimal paints. That’s what we see here with the tunic having a few shades of grey and green painted over their base.

Scale

This 1:12 scale figure will fit with other Marvel Legends figure and others such as G.I Joe Classified and even the Black Series Star Wars line, although it might be a bit taler than most. With Marvel Legends, Baron Mordo is on the shorter size. MCU figures tend to be shorter than their comic book counterparts.

Stability

Stability is a problem as the ankle joints are weak and the legs are difficult to adjust because of the skirt which covers them partially.

Articulations

The articulations are stiff and anything in the legs are limited by the long tunic. The articulations are stiff, but the plastic used back then was less soft and sturdier. The neck does not move, although is it separate part from the body. The head has enough range to move up, down, and side-to-side. There are no butterfly joints in the shoulders. The arms cannot rise up to 90 degrees, partly because of the shoulder pads. There are bicep curls and double elbow articulations. I find the double elbow articulations good for the time. The wrists bend inward and outward at the palms.

The torso is attached to the lower abdomen and has a ball joint allowing it to rock. It can bend down and back, a little bit and sideways. Whenever bending occurs, it breaks the mould so it does not look good. Technically, there should be a waist articulation, but it is covered by the tunic. While the hips should be able to move up and down, they are limited by the tunic, once again. Even the thighs’ curls are limited by the tunic. The figure has stiff double knee joints that do not look very good and too matte compared with the polished pants. I could not use the calf curls, if there were any. The ankles, of course, bend up, down, and a re on a rocker.

Plastic

The figure consists of PVC plastic with softer parts such as the tunic and the staff, and harder parts for the legs.

Props

Mordo has one wooden-like grey staff that is not spectacular nor impressive. He did have green power spell effects, but I did not get them with the second-hand figure I bought. The hand’s grip is too wide to hold the staff well. The figure came with the left leg of the Dormamu build a figure.

Packaging

At the time the figure was boxed in a Marvel Legends package with a plastic window. I bought my figure on the secondary market so I cannot say much about the package.

Cost

When released, Mordo retailed for $19,99. Its current price may be less than that today as it is not a popular figure and a newer Karl Mordo was released in 2022. To be fair, the newer Karl Mordo figure is also a peg warmer.

Availability

Both the old and the new Karl Mordo are peg warmers and the first one, even though it was released almost six years ago, should be easy to find anywhere in some specialty stores and at auction sites. Opened figures should fetch for even less than the original retail price.

I got this figure so that I could work on a G.I. Joe Classified Alpine but that figure may appear before the custom is ever ready. Mordo has the same base colour as Alpine and the same skin tone. He’s also in scale with the Classified line and the basic green get up should work well with some gear atop. This figure is not a must buy, of course.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12

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