There’s an old Roxette song from 1994 that starts with church bells ringing in the far off distance. While the title is Love Is All, there’s a little bit in brackets afterwards – Shine Your Light On Me. It’s the main lyric in the chorus, and the song builds to its full orchestra ensemble climax. When you get there, it really hits you. I won’t lie to you, the song is 6.44 long, but at 4.54 it strikes like lightning, brightening up the sky with a deadly glow. That is exactly how it felt when the 2024 Lion-O and Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living exclusives arrived at my house and I switched the buttons to ON…
It’s a strange comparison, but since they’re my favorite band anyway, a lot of my musical references start there. Ironically, a UK-based record collector and avid ThunderCats fan said something to me that struck a chord: what if ThunderCats had started like this, with LEDs in all the characters. That’s food for thought. Of course I’d love that. And of course I’d love to get future reissues. But if it is only this, ever, I’ll die happy.
So why the comparison to the slow building song? Receiving these two suddenly made me feel like I was looking at the life of the ThunderCats ULTIMATES! line from the start to where we are now. 11 waves already delivered, one mighty playset and two vehicles in the bag, with more to come. That’s a mouthful. We always want more ThunderCats. But do we ever stop for a minute to sit and think about the humble beginnings? It was a risk and a challenge Super7 happily accepted years ago, and with the world shutting down around us two waves deep, they pulled right through it, and have hit that peak that has me swooning. Very much like the slow progression of this melancholic Roxette melody. When it hits you, it hits all the right spots in glamorous splendor. You can read I am in awe…
Rewind to July 2024, when these two debuted at SDCC. This was by far the most unexpected surprise ever. And to top it all off, there was a third figure available too – Ghost Grune. Now we’ve received that one already long ago, but these two finally made their appearance on doorsteps in March 2025. If there was ever a way to follow up Cats Lair’s debut in 2023, this was going to be it. It was a shock to me on a personal level. My first thought was “they did it! They actually did it!!”; referring to an interview I had with Brian Flynn in May 2022. Ask and you shall receive. This was a dream come true. The next punch that threw me was the revelation of the Jade Dragon as an accessory. I thought – hadn’t I just talked about this a few weeks back when we talked about Hachiman? Yes, yes we did. Brian played it cool. Man do I love it when dreams come true.
There was another surprise at the time – Lion-O was brand new. Super7 moved away from the old MOTUC buck and gave us a more cartoon accurate version of Lion-O. Look there was absolutely nothing wrong with that Lion-O. It was great. I loved the pinless version we got with Mirror Lion-O. But this was something special. I only had one disappointment with it – why wasn’t there a regular head with Lion-O? Never fear my beating heart, your vibes were picked up by the Super7 Radar Machine! More on that later.
Now that he is here, I am still so giddy. Granted, we got this sculpt late last year in the form of a DX version, but with the differences in paint apps, it was like that grandiose song climax to finally unbox an ULTIMATE Lion-O. And this is by far the most ultimate version of him we’ll ever get. I don’t need anything else to go with it. Ok maybe Snarf. But no, the focus here is the mighty Lord of the ThunderCats. And he is a smash hit.
So with most of us being familiar with the new buck, there’s not much difference here in terms of the articulation. Legs and arms work very well, with nice and tight joints that doesn’t feel cheap or easy to break. I already enjoyed the DX Lion-O, but this LED version elevates him. Like I said, these are ULTIMATES! so there will be changes in terms of the paint applications. There’s beautiful shading on him, and the skintone appears a lot darker than the paler DX Lion-O. There’s even shading in his hair, and additional detail on his face. Even the color of his uniform is different. And I approve of all these updates and modifications.
There’s one big difference here: his neck pulls out. And this is to accommodate his LED eyes. It’s a nifty little column which houses the batteries. There’s an ON/OFF button at the bottom. It’s tiny, and if you have big fingers like me, you might need a toothpick to toggle it. The unique thing here is that the head actually pops off this plastic column, and the top of it is a little clear bulb that acts as the peg. The inside of the heads has a clear yellow plastic embedded inside his skull, if there’s any other way to put it, so that when the light is on, the eyes shine so bright! And shine they do.
These action figures are in-hand time machines, and they transport you right back to the 80s. I never thought I’d have that first-time-feeling of seeing a Lion-O figure with his eyes light up. What’s more, he is cartoon accurate, has all the bells and whistles in terms of articulation, and his eyes light up!! I cried inside. I did. What a beautiful moment.
But the fun doesn’t stop there, besides the magnificent figure, it has three head choices. We were sold on the idea of having a stoic face and a more expressive face with teeth grinning and hair windswept backwards. We got a surprise at Toy Fair this year when Super7 revealed a third head – a painted regular head. But don’t be fooled by this. It glows too! Yes, change the head out (and it does so very easy I might add), and see how these painted eyes light up too from within. Gotta give it to the team – they really gave this head double the value. I would’ve settled for just a regular head, but knowing that it glows too is fantastic.
There’s more than just the heads – we get three versions of the Sword of Omens. The regular full sized one. And then there’s the small sleeping version. (By the way it fits right into the one clawshield via a little hole in the middle!!) Then there’s a third sword – sized right in the middle of these two, right from the cartoon, and I guess that’s where the one head comes in, because it looks like the scene where he shouts “thunder, thunder”, and the insignia is busy evolving into the fully fledged logo we love. What’s more, both this version and the full sized sword glows in the dark. Rock on! Double whammy on the glow here with Lion-O.
What’s a Lion-O without his gripping hands? Or his fists? Or even hands that express whatever it is you want your figure to say. I’m sure these can exchange with the regular DX version if you wanted to, but what more do you need to give your Lion-O the most epic pose ever? His sculpt allows for all kinds of poses, so you have the perfect kit to create the best Lion-O-ish stance you want. And talking about hands, with two shiny golden Claw Shields included, you can decorate your Lion-O whichever way works for your display. The open Claw Shield has a hidden peg worked into the sculpt. This is different from previous Claw Shields, who had an added peg hole above. I am impressed that this was hidden so discreetly. And yes, it plugs right onto his belt with ease. And of course, the small Sword of Omens can be carried inside, with the blink and you’ll miss it hole I never saw. Heck, I don’t even remember it from the previous Claw Shields (but they’re there, I checked!). The almost-closed Claw Shield can hold the Sword of Omens, and it slides onto his arm with ease. Like I said, it can recreate all those cartoon moments you love.
I mentioned his little accessory earlier – the Jade Dragon aka the Double Headed Dragon of Doom. It was sorely missed in the Hachiman release, and now we know why. It debuted here. So if you are a completist, then you need to hurry on up and get this figure while it is still available. The dragon is a nice clear blue plastic, with bright red eyes on both heads, perhaps not as detailed as the solicitations, but this thing is really small. It still looks awesome. And I’m so happy that the Treasure of Thundera is growing.
This release has its own unique box art, and yes, we see the return of the sleeve. Well, just for this one I presume. But the sleeve art, like Mumm-Ra’s, is focused on the glowing feature, and it’s spot on. Open it up, and you get beautiful new designs. Lion-O has Cats Lair as the main motif, while Mumm-Ra sports his tomb. (Talking about the tomb, if we ever get that as a playset, this should give you some idea of how big it actually will be. Don’t forget that!) So we might have seen the art on the back of the box before, but this time it too is updated with glowing eyes on both characters’ portraits. The bio is pretty much the same as before, so there’s nothing new here. Of all the boxes I’ve owned and threw out in the past, these two will stay in tact. They make for lovely display pieces, even with the sleeves off. But be sure to spot them in my one display if you ever come over for tea.
This then brings me to the quintessential version of Mumm-Ra we’ll ever see. And with this release, they’ve really achieved greatness. The irony? It’s the little things that count here. So I’ll start with these first to give you an understanding as to why this one will go unrivalled for years to come.
First up is probably the most glaring difference: his skin tone. Look I didn’t have any issue with the bluer color of the original Wave 2 release, but somehow this just hits home a little closer. There are the tiniest hints of sea green and grey when you compare them next to each other, but it is the shading on him that concludes that this color works.
There’s the return of the clips that plug into his wrists, so you can once again have his cape on the side the way it was with the original release. I like that.
The color all over is different when you compare it. The gold is shinier and feels expensive, the fluff on his feet is more vibrant yellow. Even his “mini-skirt” is different shades of blue and red. You’ll be sure to catch Mumm-Ra on the catwalk with this one!!! But the most striking difference that I never picked up in all of his releases is something that caught my eye in the packaging already. At first I thought that it was a new color wire they used to hold him in place. But upon closer inspection I realized it was not – Super7 had correctly added the black line just above his skirt that was absent from his original release. Was this a mistake? Why didn’t I remember this? Back to the source material, and yes indeed, there it is: a black line. Boy oh boy did they really give us the perfect Mumm-Ra!!? Yes they did.
We have four sets of hands this time round. Three we’ve had before – fists, gripping and expressive. We also have open hands this time round, probably so that he can properly carry the Golden Sphere of Seti. There’s probably one I would’ve liked with it – and that is the pointy fingered hands from the Dream Master release. Just for the fun of it. But fear not, you can still plug those blast effects onto the open hands with ease.
The Sword of Plun-Darr is here in its GITD form too, albeit yellow blades and a more shiny hilt than the OG release. It does feel like the blades are on fire. I nice flame affect would’ve been cool, but as we know, those are very heavy in itself and would easily topple the figure.
Mumm-Ra doesn’t come with an alt head, but he does have two accessories here that I love. First up is the Chain of Loyalty. Yay, another piece of the Treasure of Thundera. I’m impressed by the raised print of the ThunderCats themselves. It’s a nice soft plastic so it can easily fit around a character’s neck. The other is of course the aforementioned Golden Sphere of Seti. I love that episode and watched it again in preparation for this release. These little pieces of plastic expand the world of ThunderCats on my shelf and I’m here for it. Keep them coming. It’s a proper solid piece of plastic, or it feels like it. The gold is shiny. The sphere is dangerous. Watch out kittens! Watch out Char! Watch out Ancient Spirits of Evil!!! This treacherous ornament is in the house.
It’s not only the figure that boasts new coloring, his cape plays a huge part here too. Unlike the original release, there is no clip in the back of his body to hook the cape onto. This goes straight over his neck column – just slide it over from the bottom. I didn’t want to try and pull the head off, as it is tight fitting. But I am so happy to see that the colors this time round are navy and red, not black. The fabric is strong and sturdy, and like with Dream-Master and Black&Red-Ra, the cape only has wiring in the body of it, not on the edges. I’ve said this before, I like this because it makes the cape hang more naturally.
Last but not least, there’s the matter of his glowing eyes. He glows red indeed. And he doubles up with his danger signal by also glowing on his chest. The symbol is a clear plastic that is lit up from inside. Like Lion-O, the plastic column removes from his neck. You’ll spot the light for the symbol at the bottom near the switch. Now it only faces one way, so when you do turn the figure’s head, the light will move along with it. Not that it matters, it’s hardly noticeable. The eyes glow with envy and spite. And what I love most about it is that after 40 years, we have a Mumm-Ra cartoon head that matches that old art piece from the vintage toys. Yes folks, this is a brand new head sculpt. And it’s wonderful. I don’t need any other Mumm-Ra heads. It doesn’t feel like it needs more. This is just sublime. The snakes on here are painted differently too. Way more in line with the cartoon’s coloring. The sharp teeth and gaping mouth makes for the best possible expression. And what I really like about this face is that even if the lights are off, it doesn’t look like he needs it when the sunlight falls just right on him. That was my biggest worry at the start, but it was all for nothing.
So where to go from here on out? All I know is that these two action figures made me fall in love with ThunderCats all over again. And if you’ve stuck with me through this essay, I hope that they awaken feelings of nostalgia within you too that you haven’t felt in 40 years. I’m still on a high. And very soon that high will rise exponentially when my Cats Lair arrives. Until then, this is as good as it gets. Perfection in a box. And my eternal gratitude to Super7 for giving us the ultimate Mumm-Ra and Lion-O. Now let’s press play, because I want these toys to shine their lights on me… ok on my shelf, but you know what I mean.
* Cats Lair art by Mark Moore