Monthly Archives: December 2022

Super7 Ultimates B.A.T. SpartanNerd Unboxing and Review

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Deck the Halls will Boughs of Cobra. Cobra La la laa, la lah la laaa.

Beautifully done, chorus teacher SpartanNerd. I ordered this as a part of the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales on Super7.com. It had been a long time since I ordered one of the Ultimates. Back when they did the Masters of the Universe Classics, I got Ram Man, and if I reviewed him, the post has been deleted because it got NO VIEWS. Come on, Hub City Geeks. Send some love! Ram Man was nice, but I don’t have him anymore. He was given up with the great purge that got me into the Mega Bloks/Construx/MEGA figures.

But I saw this figure earlier in the year and wanted it immediately. I didn’t bite then, though. Same problem as before. Where is the room? My sad little shelf is way overstuffed now. And I surely can’t go into collecting GI Joe’s. (I think if I did, I would go for collecting the vintage ones.)

But I bought it anyway. It was on sale. I figured to keep it in box beside Cobra Commander. (A similar thought pattern went into purchasing GI Joe Classified Series Sgt. Slaughter from GameStop.)

The Cobra B.A.T. came in a very nice package. I was totally floored at how nice this was! After opening Sgt. Slaughter, no comparison. This sleeve leaves me with a dilemma. I want the figure on display. But this part of the box, wow! It has this foil coloring, with Cobra blue camouflage designs, and silver outlines. Just this much did it for me. This puts Mattel’s MOTUC packaging to shame, and definitely puts the Hasbro windowless box to shame! When you remove the sleeve, you can see the figure still in a nice box, and you can read the details on the back. The back has this cartoonish robot feature with a screen that gives us what serves as a bio card for the Cobra B.A.T. Not a single person who purchased this would not know what the B.A.T… is about. But I paid $36 for this figure, and felt right away upon opening it that I was receiving a premium treatment. (Recently, the MEGA Snake Mountain box has underwhelmed me.)

As we continue, it becomes apparent that this is a collector-friendly package. You just slide out what turns out to be TWO LAYERS of blisters. This guy has alternate hands, a pistol, a machine gun, two backpacks (one traditional and another a barrel-shaped container), an alternate damaged head, and a spark damage effect.

He stands tall with no problem. He is tall and posable. In fact, it is just about exactly like the Masters of the Universe Classics figures. The pistol pic below was no problem to pose him into. His damage effects are also really cool…On the cartoons Cobra’s disposable army were really easy to beat up. I will say that I had trouble removing the clear chest piece in order to plug in the spark damage effect. Turns out there is a tiny little tab for you fingernail hiding behind the grenade strap. (Those grenades are not removable as far as I can tell.). The traditional backpack has holes that you can use to store his arm attachments or extra hands. The barrel has room for stuff, but contains some purple spark things. There is a silver feature on his right thigh that I am unsure of the function. It isn’t a holster. (He has a holster for the pistol on his right thigh.). I think this must be from the vintage designs or something. Nothing seeps to peg into that, and I haven’t found any pics on the internet showing it used for something. I like to think it is a communicator or a charging station or battery or something.

His arm attachments are a futuristic gun, a claw hand, and a drill. He comes with open hands, trigger fingers, and fists, and these are in a detailed style as well as in a more plain cartoon accurate style. These are alot of hands! I will say the peg joint in the neck is slightly loose, while everything else is very tight. The pegs on the arm attachments and hands might be too tight….

The backpacks attach by pegs that resemble straps. They peg in to the shoulders. I always feel that I have to force them just the tiniest bit.

The plastic on this guy feels pretty good. Maybe a little soft, which is surprising because the joints are so tight.

Here I have him posed with the GI Joe classified figures. You would think the scale discrepancy would be jarring, but in this case it really isn’t. Maybe Cobra Commander is a Napoleon type? Maybe Battle Android Troopers should be on the taller and bigger side. Sgt. Slaughter’s beefy sculpt offsets the tallness of the B.A.T. (What are the sparks in the barrel backpack? They are like sharp “devil-heads” and can be removed). The photos don’t show it much, but the Super7 figure does have larger feet and legs. I used the box background card (also removable!) to take the classic pic that looks like a vintage cardback. By the way. Why don’t GI Joe Classified figures contain this feature?

Below shows two more comparisons. Here with the few MOTUC figures I have left, you can see he really does fit right in as far as size is concerned. Of course he would fall to the barbaric awesomeness of Vikor and Despara. Check out how close he fits with Sir Lazer Lot.

Just for fun, I put him with the Snow Cat and Frostbite, and you can see how big he is compared to the vintage stuff. You get a “frost giant” kind of story.

I was having so much fun posing him and swapping the parts and taking pictures. And then it was time to put him back in the box. I thought to put the hands back the way they were when I opened it. And then…SNAP.

Just like that. I had another childhood memory. How many GI Joes, Corps figures, and others suffered such a fate? This really stung. After all that positivity, something had to go south. Maybe I wasn’t careful enough? Maybe it’s something more problematic, like cheap soft plastic. These pegs are really tight. But the hands are supposed to be swappable as a feature of the toy, and I can’t say for certain, but I bet they swap with other ultimate figures or MOTUC figures like Trap Jaw and Roboto who have a similar gimmick. I was able to soften it with a hair dryer and dig out the peg with a tiny screwdriver. But man. This really burns. He came with other hands, so it isn’t the end of the world. Only a little sad. And sadness should not go with this hobby.

I had my eye on an Ultimate King Conan the Barbarian with the Throne of Aquilonia. I mean, this made me think twice. (I caved and ordered it just before typing all this even though this tragedy is in my mind.)

So, it is time to grade.

My chorus teacher self wants to give this figure an A-. A 91. I wanted him earlier in the year. Waiting paid off as I got him much cheaper. His packaging was stellar. He went right back in the box and that sleeve went right over for future fancy feeling. He has tons of accessories and posing options. The joints feel good. He looks good.

The only negative would be the breakable nature of the peg on the forearm. Still, I am giving him a 5/5. It would have to be like 4.8/5, though. Do you agree or disagree, Hub City Geeks? Have you had similar issues with Super7’s ultimates figures? Do you think my issue should sully the experience of this guy too badly? Should I cancel my order for Conan? Let me know in the comments.

GI Joe Classified Sgt. Slaughter…SpartanNerd unboxing and review

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Jingle Bells! Jingle Bells!

The SpartanNerd got some new goodies!

First up is a “second”…that is, a second GI Joe Classified figure. (I already had Cobra Commander.). And now, I have Sgt. Slaughter, a figure of a person I actually met in person at the Retro Toy Con in Greenville last year. (Sgt. Slaughter is a real-life character.)

My history with the Sarge. Well, as a child I used to watch GI Joe. But we didn’t have many of the figures. Like Transformers, they were on the more expensive side. Which wasn’t to say we had none. Me and my brothers eventually accrued a small army, but we usually didn’t remember the names of the characters, and some of ours were of the more generic but WAY CHEAPER “Corps” variety. As the older brother, I always gravitated towards Cobra and the Decepticons in these rare but cherished acquisitions. The other issue…my mother didn’t want us to go into the army. I have an uncle who was eventually a colonel. And he of course encouraged us to join up. (Just a note. The character of Sgt. Slaughter would be a Marine before becoming a GI Joe.)

Anyway, Sgt. Slaughter was one of the few official Joes that we had. I remember specifically that he had a removable hat, that I remember specifically getting lost. So most of the time he didn’t have this. Some light research on YoJoe.com tells me that we must have had the version that came with the Warthog AIFV.

But this isn’t all, is it? Sgt. Slaughter was a WWF wrestler. I remember watching him. I didn’t watch wrestling that much. It was what came on after the cartoons on Saturday morning, so…BUT, (Confusingly, the sarge seemed to switch to our enemy Iraq sometime in the 1990’s for his wrestling kayfabe. Nobody’s perfect…). Sgt. Slaughter also appeared as a Saturday morning cartoon host and in commercials for GI Joe toys. And finally, the most memorable thing about Sgt. Slaughter for me was the 1980’s movie appearance. In this version, which I got to see dozens of times because we had it on BETA tapes hooked to our Nintendo TV, Sgt. Slaughter shines most of all. Without using a curse word (unlike Beach Head), he let us know what a drill sergeant is all about. “The only way your going home is in a ditty bag. An itty, bitty, ditty bag.” !!!!!!!!!!

(I asked the Sarge what this meant when I met him at the Retro Toy Con last year. The “ditty bag” is a small cosmetics bag that a soldier stores his razor in. At the con I was SO TEMPTED to get an autographed poster of Sgt. Slaughter saying this to hang in my classroom!)

On to the toy review!

WHAT? SERIOUSLY? I ordered my figure from GameStop…I got an e-mail blasting a sale. And so when I clicked, I saw it at a reasonable price of <$25, and ordered it. Having a Cobra Commander already, I knew this would be a pretty cool toy to display beside him.

BUT NOPE. REALLY!!

I had heard of “windowless” packaging for Hasbro’s toys. I might have seen a Star Wars black series Battle Droid hanging on a tab when I visited the store. I didn’t put it together that THIS WAS WHAT I WOULD GET. No window showing us the figure. I did not and still do not appreciate this. OK so there is virtually no plastic in this package. I guess that’s a win for the environment. But the environment has to take second place. We are talking about serious business here, Hub City Geeks.

What we get is a nice picture of Sgt. Slaughter in different situations. The top left is the GI Joe TV host (I think,), the top right is the comic book appearance. Next on the left is a person holding the action figure who is holding a micro action figure which is an included accessory. The right is the image of the Sarge from the movie. The bottom left is a picture of the toy posed holding the machine gun. And in the center, nice and tall, is a modern illustration of the character. If he seems less muscular in this depiction, this is what he really looks like in real life today, only an illustrated version. When GamesStop advertised that this figure would be Six-In-One, what they meant was the six versions that surround the illustration. And they are counting the micro figure.

The back shows us another picture of the machine gun pose, and also a picture of everything in the box along with a ruler showing us how big everything is in scale. Those symbols…

I didn’t pay that much attention to them on Cobra Commander’s box. I guess I just thought it part of the design. But with Sgt. Slaughter’s box next to it, I see that there is more going on here. Something deeper. These are the character’s stats! You can see a whole page about that here. Finally, it makes sense. Cobra Commander has strong leadership, light weapons, “psyops” (psychological warfare), and a mastered skillset for coercion. Sgt. Slaughter has strong leadership, great hand to hand skills, great strength, and a mastered skillset that is too secret to reveal!

The other side has nice art, comparable to Cobra Commander’s.

BUT…Trying to save the environment by removing the blister is a poor excuse for not getting to see the figure we are getting. AND…it looks dumb next to Cobra Commander who has a windowed package. Hasbro. You deal in plastic. Do it right.

Let’s open this up.

This is what you open. The figure is strapped to the open box with paper rope. The other box contains the accessories.

We get what my son in the army says is an AK-47, but you have to assemble it. The magazine and the flashlight were not attached. A pair of sunglasses. A “baton” (is this the right word?), a whistle, a micro action figure on card WITH BLISTER. Three alternate left and right hands, and that hat I remember so fondly.

I think the only couple of things I would add here are a figure stand and a pistol or grenades. But I don’t miss these that much.

Here I have Sgt. Slaughter posed as best as I could to his comic appearance.

I tried to do the pose of the big image on the box…the problem is that the baton will not stay securely in his armpit. Another one you can’t do is the arms folded. His plastic muscles are just too much!

He looks like an 80’s action star holding his AK-47.

In a future post, I will open this micro figure. Why did they include this? Do the recent GI Joe Classified figures all come with this? I really enjoy it, though!

The sergeant must be taller than Cobra Commander. With another upcoming review, you will see that it must be that Cobra Commander is supposed to be on the shorter side. More research needed, I guess. But I kind of like it if he has a Napoleon complex. Seems fitting. The Sarge looks like he could roll up Old Snake and throw him at some BAT bowling pins.

So what do I rate this GI Joe Classified Sgt. Slaughter? No question. That package is a disappointment. I was underwhelmed when I opened the shipper box. And that isn’t what you want in a hobby that is supposed to be about awesome fun. As a teacher that box gets a D+. The contents are clear and the pictures are nice. Blah blah blah. Less plastic. Blah blah blah. I. Want. To. See. What. I. Have. In. The. Box. for display purposes. I am a grown up. Are kids buying these figures? I don’t think so. They have no connection to them.

As far as the figure, it is excellent. 5/5. Hooray! It is a great representation of the classic GI Joe. He looks cool, is highly posable. Looks good with Cobra Commander. No issues with sloppy paint or anything like that. The joints feel right. The swappable hands kind of worry me, but they work just fine…just be careful.

If the figure gets a 5/5, and the package gets a 2/5, I guess I am giving this a 4/5. Do you agree or disagree, Hub City Geeks? Let me know in the comments!

Mega Construx Snake Mountain Review part 1

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This is such a massive build, I am breaking up the review into sections.

You can find a review of the packaging and figures here.

Build Review part 1 (you are looking at it right now!)

Build Review part 2 (coming soon)

If it has been awhile since you checked in to the SpartanNerd blog, here is a link to the main page! I suggest starting with “catching up” from July 4, 2022.

Part 1 of this review is the “Filmation” side of the mountain.

I am also highly distracted, so I feel like this is one of the most ADHD reviews I have ever done. (’tis the season for chorus!)

It took me from mid-September until last week (second week of December) to complete this side. This is working in spurts of an hour and a half or two hours. when I felt up to it. I would get a couple of the polybags out and assemble those steps. Then put the whole project away until next time. I think there are 27 steps here?

This playset really gives you the scale of a mountain with the mini figures around it.

The trap door is pretty nice. But beware that the figures fall a long way. I had to wrangle with it so that the mechanism would work smoothly.

Webstor is doing the “trap door spider” thing. Notice these pink squirelly things and the horns. They look cool. This place “oozes evil.”

Grayskull with Point Dread and the Talon Fighter is only barely taller.

Snake Mountain is even taller than Master Grade Gundam Epyon EW on a flight stand with beam saber raised!

Shades of purple. The Land Shark and my custom “War Sled.”

I want to begin by saying that just like Castle Grayskull, each small section of Snake Mountain is packaged in its own plastic baggie. They give you this set in small and manageable chunks, and the instructions are pretty clear. Sometimes I personally have a hard time seeing the correct shape of a piece in respect of it’s orientation and position in the picture…But this is more of a SpartanNerd problem. Because it is in such small bite sized chunks, I don’t feel the need to always set out the pieces and organize them like I do smaller sets.

While the instructions are easy and the sequence is clear, the build HAS NOT been easy. I am of the belief that Mattel has opted to use cheaper or at least different plastic than they used for Castle Grayskull. The effect of that is…I really have to work hard to get the pieces to snap together! I mean…sometimes I set the pieces and the table and have to hammer them with my hand. And all of the SpartanPets go running. And then…If you make a mistake and have to take it apart…Let’s just say that the “brick separator” is our best friend. The forks on the end have worn out from me having to separate blocks that are wedged together too tightly.

I recently had to rebuild Castle Grayskull. (YAY. It has crumbled TWICE on me.). I managed to get the castle back together in about four hours. (Large pieces stayed together negating the need for a total rebuild.).

Rebuilding that set in the middle of working on Snake Mountain let me see the true difference of what is going on. Grayskull’s pieces don’t stick together so tightly…Hence the lack of durability. That roof is also dubious. It is barely attached to the playset, Snake Mountain…I probably could drop it from 8 feet in the air like I did Grayskull, and it would mostly stay together except for the little horn details and such.

(OK. I decided to move the castle to the top shelf to be beside the new Snake Mountain which is too tall for the better shelf on the lower level. I had also attached the Talon Fighter to the top of the tower. And I dropped it. In the closet. Pieces everywhere and underneath stuff in the closet. A real nightmare.)

Earlier I said cheaper/different plastic. This plastic has a problem. There is a tiny discolored nib on almost every piece. Sometimes it is on a stud. Sometimes it is somewhere else. But it is ugly and uncalled for in a set that costs over $300. Mattel knows they will get their money from people like the SpartanNerd. But every time I would see one of those ugly artifacts, I felt a little burned. I felt this bad enough to where I thought…”Would I buy a Fright Zone, Eternia Playset, or Crystal Castle?” All of those are possible sets on a similar scale and price point to Snake Mountain and Grayskull. They can do better.

Now probably the economy has to do with this. Oil/Petroleum shortage. Biden-flation. ETC etc. Maybe they purposely wanted the plastic to be more rigid so that the set wouldn’t crumble. I don’t know. But people who put pupils in the eyes of a Man-E-Faces Mega Mini Figure pay attention to details, and those ugly nibs are a problem.

Next up. I have a problem with this piece (First picture)

Notice how there is a white scar on each of these blocks.

@#!$%&*@. This large piece is stupid.

Maybe this was a reprinted piece from some earlier HALO set. Seems a little familiar. Mattel/MEGA, you missed an opportunity here. By giving us this large hollow piece you have deprived us of the ability to build that piece. And on this subject, there are some dubious design choices on some of the interior. Instead of solid blocks, they have us use large flat rectangular pieces back to back with a row of studs in between. MIND BOGGLING. WHY!? I think it might have been to save money on plastic? Maybe it made the set weigh less? I don’t know. But that design choice seems wrong on a building toy.

Last complaint. The wraparound snake. This is another missed opportunity. This snake should have been a complete snake. We should be able to remove it for a monster battle. You say, “SpartanNerd, it didn’t do that in Filmation.” True. But it did in 200x. My point is, if we received a proper tail piece, this snake would have been even more epic. We could have disconnected it from the mountain and used it. Too much fun, I guess.

On to some positivity. IT IS HUGE. A good problem, but also a problem. It is as tall as Grayskull with the Point Dread and Talon Fighter configuration. The figures look great posed on it. You get a real sense of “mountain” that I always felt that the vintage playset failed to capture. It is that sense that us collectors and fans crave that pushed the Super7 Snake Mountain to be so large and expensive.

The little horns and pink squirelly things make this really evil. Also the monster face at the base of the mountain just appears from the build, and as I mentioned before, I prefer that! The trap door is a nice touch, but the figures fall a long way down and can get busted.

The “faces of evil” are a Four Horsemen design if I remember correctly. In the middle, that purple support snaps off way to easy. It is only for looks…isn’t a functional piece for stability. I could not get the face on the left to attach without bulding up the layer underneath with spare parts.

The only “extra” on this side of the mountain is this “sarlacc pit” trap under the trap door. I put The Sorceress here, with Evil Lynn clearly summoning the monster. The Sorceress seems to wind up a prisoner quite often.

You can remove this trap and sit it other places. “The Well of Souls?”

So what is my overall feeling? Can I rate this yet?

I think it will be awhile before I begin on the second half. It seems kind of daunting. And that isn’t what a toy should be.

On the other hand, the other side has some of the cooler parts of this set. Skeletor’s throne for one. The magic table from Filmation is another. There are others…That lava slide. But I also never was a big fan of the face on the other side. Or the rat/wolf microphone. But I really liked the bridge.

Well, I am glad that we got this side with the snake, that really looks like a Filmation Snake mountain sort of. At least they gave us a little more snake.

I feel that a person might be able to customize this set a little bit. I am building it as it is meant to be first, for now.

So far Grayskull beats this set, however. It might be because of my own personal attachment as a child. But I find it is also just really awesome…in the sense that Mortal Kombat II was more awesome than Mortal Kombat I. It is more, More, MORE! I had Snake Mountain as a child, but this set departs from the vintage design enough to where it doesn’t hit me the same way that Grayskull does. I know that this is based on the Super7 Snake Mountain design, which summarizes the toy and the Filmation version. But that wasn’t “my snake mountain.” If it was dark black and gray with a giant snake wrapped around and lava coming out of its mouth…That’s “my Snake Mountain.” or if it was an exact copy of the vintage toy. It’s still cool and it’s still epic, though!