Mantenna was one of my first MOTU figures in the 80s, and it absolutely made sense for me, because I was fascinated by insects and spiders since I could walk. 40 years later I will admit that Hordaks bug man and me, we have a love-hate relationship. And here’s why. When you are familiar with the basic anatomy of an insect, you will have sniffed out that Mantenna’s ears (!) must be a product of humongous fantasy. I mean ears! They do look like a giant version of Hordak’s ears, don’t know if that means anything. As a boy I thought Mantenna is a spider, but there was much more creativity behind that figure. It’s an insectoid bug horde monster thing.

Then the eyes, definitely hypnotic, but otherwise very human as well. No hint of compound insect eyes. I guess it’s a repeating pattern in the MOTU toyline. They don’t make sense, it’s not logical, and that’s what keeps it in your head. You chew on the imperfection trying to understand it.

The eyes-out-feature worked perfectly, great quality! ‘The spy with the pop-out eyes’ as Mattel called him, was able to shoot beams with them. So they might have thought a spy needs proper hearing, what goes of course hand in hand with the size of the ears.

The black patch where you would expect a nose in a face always looked like a spider to me, like a logo, but it would have weirdly aligned 10 legs. It just now appears to me it could be meant as a hole, even a mouth! My photo is taken under uv light, and the mouth looks like a sandworm’s mouth from Dune.

Then there’s two prominent fangs, like tarantulas have them parallel to the body.

What bothered me even more than the ears are the legs. It must have been an economical decision to merge two legs to one, so that Mantenna has four. It makes the legs look weirdly broad, almost like he’s a cowboy in chaps. Counting the arms in, we find six limbs on our Horde creature. Somehow Mantenna’s arms are a bit bent, making him look ready to draw his guns.

Compared to other figures, Mantenna seemed smaller, flatter, and kind weaker, but luckily the toy didn’t look as ridiculous as the cartoon character. His awesome quality, and the decent colors made him a great toy. Together with Leech, Grizzlor, Modulok and Dragstor, the Evil horde was a gang of unique monsters. The kind of monsters that made parents roll their eyes.