One of my favorite bits of Masters of the Universe lore is the origin story of Queen Marlena. As a kid, I certainly didn't watch the episodes in order, so even though her backstory was first told in the second episode (Teela's Quest), it was a late revelation to me when I eventually watched it. Captain Marlena Glenn was an astronaut/pilot from Earth who travels off-course and crash-lands on Eternia. She meets Randor, they get married, and then she gives birth to the twins Adam and Adora. The fact that the two main heroes of the franchise are secretly half-Earthlings was my favorite piece of trivia as a child (and will probably be a story point in the upcoming movie). I love that this new Cartoon Collection Queen Marlena figure continues the MOTUC tradition and has the option to be displayed as Captain Glenn (sort of). This Queen Marlena is perfection to me. For a character who appeared in the majority of episodes, she has been really neglected in the merchandising department. Let's check her out below!
Marlena's outfit is largely removable. I was surprised that her hairpiece was also removeable (to swap the helmet). It's obvious that this is the proper way to engineer her, but I just hadn't considered it. Additionally, I had seen a Marlena in the package with her hair slightly askew. I thought it was poor QC. Now I realize it was a non-issue.
I always thought there should be variants of these Marlena figures from the New Adventures cartoon where she has blue hair and wears a white dress. That would have the bonus of giving us a proper white astronaut body.
I performed a slight modification on the Captain Glenn helmet. I felt that it sat at an odd height on her head, with the bottom edge covering half her mouth. I used an Xacto blade to shave off some areas to let it sit a little lower on her head. Now her mouth is framed by the opening and the helmet doesn't sit so high off her shoulders.
Here are a few before and after pics.
What I did: (1) I used an Xacto to shorten the white peg inside the helmet that anchors in the top of her head. and (2) I used an Xacto to make the groove on that back of her head extend further toward her neck. The top 2/3 of that groove is how she was produced, the bottom (rougher) lower 1/3 of the groove is my extension of that groove.
Time for some Group and Comparison Pics!
Here are the two main display options for Marlena side-by-side.
And here are my Marlenas together. Altaya Figurine (2024), MOTUO (2025), and MOTUC (2011).
Cheers!
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