A bunch of these have come up on MyComicShop, and so I got one! Probably there is a spike in demand because of the new Masters of the Universe movie!

This is from Summer 1986, exactly 40 years ago. Also, this one announces the contest where a kid will get to be in the movie! This came true as Pigboy was indeed a child who won the contest! (Follow the link for more information…I’m not taking any responsibility for anything you encounter in your searching around with that.)

The main idea of this one…”King Hiss and the Snake Men challenge He-Man” features fantastic Earl Norem artwork of the toy-style Snake Mountain, King Hiss, Cobra Kahn, Tongue Lasher, and Rattlor. He-Man anatomically swings into action with his battle axe and shield! (Yes…Norem was a master of anatomy…as my art friends say). Meteorbs are a minor push in this issue, Create a vehicle has promise, while Start a Summer Power Club sounds ambitious for a bunch of kids under 10.

I have another one of these magazines, and I collect them only for nostalgia purposes. No one should ever pay more than $20 for one of these except for possibly issue #1. You never see these graded, but if you do (I have) then it will be a low grade…more trouble than it is worth. And besides, the fun of this is going back into the past, reading the stories and letters, and seeing the old ads. You can’t do that if you have your magazine slabbed and are asking more than $75 for it, most of that value being upcharge.

You can tell that my copy is well worn. But it is all here! I am going to present photos and then some commentary behind them.

I can’t drink that red dye anymore…but Looney Toons were still popular back in the 1980s. In recent years, the most popularity you see of them is Space Jam. The erosion of values!

The table of contents…pictures on the right would indicate a Meteorb, He-Man with a tree, Kobra Kahn in a cool vehicle, and the Snake Men and Skeletor on the bottom.

There are two posters in this issue!

A Letter from He-Man, Orko Earth Report, and He-Man of the Issue are regular columns, you can read the features for yourself, but we have a movie article here not really mentioned on the cover.

Another add, this time for the Walt Disney Home Videos. You have Alice, the Cheshire Cat, Mickey Mouse in a tuxedo, and Winnie the Pooh. I believe the only feature movie here is Alice in Wonderland if you look close at the photos. Are these BETA-MAX? I looked close, and there’s no indication of Beta or VHS.

He-Man, Grayskull, and the Jet Sled. The Jet Sled was a recent accessory offering in 1986, Do you think maybe they pasted the Jet Sled over He-Man somehow?

I am keeping my magazine together, but removing the posters takes a big chunk out of the included comic book…something that bothered me big time as a child. So I never took them out until the magazine was falling apart. And then my mom WOULDN’T LET ME HANG THEM UP!

The Snake Men poster is the same as the cover, but here is the Meteorb poster.

This was already ripped and then re-stapled by fingernail obviously. The Meteorbs…we didn’t have them as kids. I felt like they were stupid anyway. If you look into it, you will find that they were actually a different, failed toyline that Mattel folded into MOTU. I feel like they were already seeing the need to have transforming toys in order to compete with the Transformers. I also never had Rokon or Stonedar. (Looking at the posters was skipping ahead…, oh reader).

A nice letters column. Notable that I have a letter published in Transformers #10...I have every cover that I could get. And I wonder if these kids still have their copies of this magazine?

I don’t remember which of these I actually had as a child. I had a subscription, though. If I had only known…In fact, if we all would have known we would have bought two of everything and kept one pristine in storage…

So is this our first look at the movie that would be come Masters of the Universe: The Movie? This is so relevant to today because of the recent Masters of the Universe just released on June 5 this year.

Because I already talked about Pigboy, let’s talk about Dolph Lundgren. As a kid, I had seen Rocky IV, and was truly sad when the evil Russian steroid-user boxer killed Apollo Creed, who was dressed in the American Flag, and so happy when the Italian Stallion who actually worked out fair and square took him down. We all knew the USSR were the bad guys…see Top Gun for instance. When I was told that the same villain was going to be He-Man…I didn’t…get it…if that makes sense. I was only 7 years old. He looks nice enough in these pictures. And I am now a big fan of Dolph. I also thought his He-Man was really good back then and now. But it was hard for me to digest everything…I was forming my ideas about what was real and what was fiction. Could I grok ideas behind the making of movies? Casting choices? Budgets? Limitations? No, I could not.

As we go through this magazine…be ready for this to be pushed some more. Kids loved the Statue of Liberty back then…the world was more patriotic. I remember cheering when the Ghostbusters made it come alive using a NES Advantage controller in Ghostbusters 2. (Yep. I out nerded you, readers!) It was apparently the 100th year of the anniversary of France giving the United States the statue. And I guess it was time to capitalize on that also to the smart kids who read magazines.

ORKO’S EARTH REPORT

Labyrinth– I have seen this a few times…they used to show it at school. It is similar to The Dark Crystal and The Never Ending Story. Kind of scary to see at times. When kids see things like that song reference in Stranger Things today…I mean…we lived it.

SpaceCamp– NASA had a real Space Camp, I’m pretty sure. If you were rich! I don’t remember this movie.

Ulysses 31– What amounts to an ad for a different fantasy cartoon…what? But no one remembers Ulysses 31, but everyone remember He-Man. I’m sure it was great, though.

Reading Rainbow– If you are reading this blog, you probably have had the theme song for Reading Rainbow stuck in your head before. I remember discussing LeVar Burton in college with my friends, and how we loved him in Star Trek: The Next Generation. One of my friends said he cried the first time he heard him cuss…

Oh yeah…

This is a cool picture of He-Man. I was glad to see this still in the magazine.

Never heard of any of this. NOTICE. This is the second time we see The Statue of Liberty Magazine pushed.

The USELESS Prince Adam. Now you know why I probably blog with all-caps a bunch of times.

Jet Sled, Cyclone, Spydor, Tongue Lasher, Rattlor, Kobra Kahn, King Hiss, He-Man, and Skeletor. The marketing strategy was SOLID in 1986.

Remember the “Meteorb” from the Table of Contents. Nope. It was a bait-and-switch. Spydor is throwing rocks and He-Man hits them like a baseball player. So 1980’s!

Trunk of Tree a Serpent Be!

He-Man shows a new power with his sword. He breaks King Hiss’s spell and changes the tree back to normal. I also like how he won’t hurt the snakes. The strong women in my family are so terrified of snakes. Deathly terrified. And typically a strong man would use a hoe or shovel to chop off their heads if one was around to ease their minds.

(I find this truly horrifying, Hub City Geeks. Poor snakes. I do feel this drastic action is necessary if it is a poisonous snake that will be around where kids or pets are playing. Most of my family hasn’t had the knowledge to tell the difference, and besides that my mom, grandmother, and aunts were so afraid. But there is a 6ft+ long black snake likely under my house right now…I don’t mind! It needs to be worried about my German Shepherd.)

Seriously…we used to swim at a lake house that my grandparents owned (Sadness!) We were told to stay on one side of the dock, because the other side “had snakes.” OK…the logic…

He-Man won’t hurt the snakes because they are innocent creatures…I love it!

I was a science nut as a kid. And I heard about tornadoes picking up frogs, fish, even people and dropping them in other places as hail stones. So, someone has a hailstorm of snakes. My grandmother and mom would have a true nightmare!

King Hiss’s gimmick…as a kid…me and my brothers generally thought King Hiss was disguised as a good guy, but then would reveal himself as evil. The mini comics and magazines like this pointed us in the correct direction. Also, at this point, shouldn’t the Snake Men have already been prepared for battle? The point here was to roll-call them for marketing purposes.

A classic Filmation move. Bowl the enemies over with a round boulder.

So…are they presenting the Blasterhawk as a potential fan-created vehicle? This was a toy you could buy in 1986! So this doesn’t seem fair. (I never had a Blaster Hawk)

The Bat Pak- I had to look up and see if this was ever produced. It seems so…logical. But they didn’t make it.

Rattle Trap- Wouldn’t this one have been cool to have?! They didn’t come out with any vehicles for the Snake Men faction, and so it makes you think…was this an idea that they decided not to go with?

Up-Scaler- With Moss Man driving. Also, this one looks kind of logical…why didn’t they ever make it? Leech was an action figure with suction cups…in fact suction cups and sticky toys were “cool” in 1986.

What vehicle would the SpartanNerd make…OK. The Sound Shocker. With Rio-Blast driving it. It is shaped like the Battle Ram (without the Sky Sled), but has giant amplifiers on all sides. Rio-Blast or WHOEVER can sit up front with the included guitar accessory, and assault everyone’s ears with glorious noise!

And here is our third mention of The Statue of Liberty Magazine. This time they are giving you a card to bug your parents with.

POWER PUZZLES- This page was all worked by a previous owner. The color-by-number is a picture of Orko. Matching…some of these characters go to more than one place.

True story. My first-grade-self had a true saint for a teacher. She isn’t with us anymore (she’s with Jesus). But I remember taking one of these magazines to her and telling her that she could run copies of the puzzles for the class to do. She just looked at me, and then said “I don’t want to!” I still remember it… But think about it. We were always doing word searches and coloring pages. A kid would like to contribute. So now as an adult, I include any reference to He-Man that I can into work that I create. For instance, Skeletor is one of the multiple-choice answers on my substitute worksheet response to a video about The Human Voice. I even included a picture of the more recent Golden Book “I Am Skeletor!”

This page wasn’t worked, but you can easily tell that the puzzles here are more difficult.

It says there are 17 power swords…they aren’t as easy to see as you think. It took me a minute to find them all.

Mystery Meteorbs. Once again, not a fan of the Meteorbs. In Norem’s poster, did you notice that one guy is a big red ball? He looks orange here. I don’t know…when I see these guys, they look like general 1980’s toys. Like they are an oval ball with an animal coming out. The robot guy and the lion are the best ones…Maybe the elephant. I mean…the crocodile? What croc looks like this? That is one fat bear. I know that Brontosaurus was a hefty boy, but not round like this.

The He-Man club. Anybody remember the movie The Little Rascals. They had a no-girls club called “The He-Man Woman Haters Club“.

So this brings up a question…because in 1986 this was when She-Ra came out…What if…

No question about Mary Lou Retton being an awesome athlete. I didn’t know, but just spent some time on Wikipedia. $30? for a 30 minute video? Notice that Mary Lou is apparently an olympic athlete wearing red, white, and blue. I’m just saying…this vibe with the Statue of Liberty. Wikipedia seems to indicate that she was a big supporter of the Reagan Administration, also very 1980’s. (NOTE: The Disney videos already mentioned in the magazine were also $30).

This is a cool story about Jason Isroff. It was good public service, and it was good that the publishers recognized this to encourage others to do right. I remember the principal of our school had a “Tiger of the Day” award to someone who served the school community. (Tigers was the mascot at Clifdale Elementary…glad they changed that when we became a middle school!)

Yep. I’m a rare kind of guy who has had three careers in the same place. I attended Clifdale Elementary, then as an adult I taught music at Clifdale Elementary. After moving to Cowpens Middle School to teach chorus, what was decided? To move Cowpens into a re-formated Clifdale Middle School. I say often, “The Lord Jesus really wants me to be at Clifdale!”

Check this ad. I remember Rainbow Brite fondly…and I remember the toys of the Popples. But I don’t remember anything about Ulysses 31. All three of these are worth looking at on Dan Larsen’s “Secret Galaxy” YouTube channel.

The back cover is yet another ad. This one doesn’t jump out at you as an ad, however. It invites you to order one of these personalized storybooks. But as you look closer…BAM…Fruit Rollups and Fruit Bars.

I felt like this trip down memory lane was fun, and am thinking about getting more of these magazines as people are putting their copies out for sale or trade while demand is up. Do you have any of these, Hub City Geeks? Let me know in the comments!

Masters of the Universe 2026 Movie- SpartanNerd’s Review

June 15, 2026 by SpartanNerd

This is a review with SPOILERS. You can see my video review of this movie if you click this link HERE.

First of all, I was one who for years has said that if they do a Masters of the Universe movie in the modern style of Marvel and DC, Star Wars, or Transformers, then they will certainly ruin it. I like the Michael Bay Transformers movies (at least the first two) but have some objections to things, like for instance Optimus Prime chopping peoples heads off. You see how I didn’t talk about the “insect-formers” design…I came to enjoy it. And while Marvel has mostly hit it right and DC getting it sometimes, everyone who reads this blog surely knows about all of the controversy around Star Wars starting with Disney. I figured a MOTU movie would have statements and content that rub the SpartanNerd the wrong way, like the movies Rise of the Beasts and The Last Jedi. I figured there might be “bad CGI” like in Aquaman.

But all of my fears were mostly wrong. This movie addresses Masters of the Universe in a modern style very well. The acting is top notch, and if the CGI is a little off, I feel that the producers wanted it to be like that to remind us that this is largely based on a Filmation cartoon from the 1980’s, I say mostly. It was a good move to stick to the Filmation fanbase. Watching that cartoon and playing with action figures are the things that the 40-something year-old fandom remember best. Mattel and Amazon needed to skew away from the super-nerds like me, and cater to a general audience of more casual fans. I am going to break this down.

Idris Elba’s Man-At-Arms is an incredible character, and Elba and the producers did something different with Duncan while maintaining the “mentor” aspect essential to who he is.
Jared Leto’s Skeletor was a surprise to me. I hadn’t heard his voice…it isn’t the same as Filmation or Mike Young Productions nasally voice. Instead it is a deeper voice with Shakespearean elements. Skeletor is overdramatic and retains his comedic villain self, but is also someone that everyone walks on eggshells around.
Allison Brie’s Evil-Lyn was kind of the exact same character that Brie plays as a wrestler on the Netflix show GLOW. In that show, she is an actor playing a wrestler with the character of “The Mad Russian” or something stereotypically grating. But when you see her go from her normal self to wrestler lady…that is where Evil-Lyn is. It is important to say that I don’t believe she was written to be as strong of a character as Meg Foster played in the 1987 movie.
Nick Galitzine’s Adam Glenn…that’s right…not Adam of the House of Randor. I have never seen this actor in anything before. I believe he is a little bit too small to play He-Man. He has muscles…that isn’t it…but they aren’t Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Conan the Barbarian muscles. Adam is a can’t-do-anything-right who becomes OP when he transforms into He-Man. Are Adam and He-Man different people? No…I think this is partially on what the movie hinges on. He-Man is inside of Adam. The movie handles this idea without hitting us over the head with it.
Camila Mendez’s Teela is a headstrong friend for Adam, the same as always.
Of the evil warriors, Trap-Jaw has at least THREE big fight scenes. Which brings up fight scenes…this movie feels like a bunch of action figures fighting against each other! Besides Skeletor, he is easily the strongest of the villains. We see the others fighting…Spikor has plenty of humorous scenes where his spikes are more of a liability. And there are scores of skeleton guys and monster men who are just fodder. Review of Chronicles Trap Jaw coming soon!

The Eternian Family- Randor and Marlena are indeed presented as Adam’s parents in the opening, with Randor being way too hard on Adam as he trains. Marlena doesn’t get much, but when it is time to protect Adam, she helps him get to Castle Grayskull.
Castle Grayskull and Snake Mountain…these places don’t feel as epic or weighty as they should. They are overshadowed by the drama of the relationships between the characters.
Vehicles- They didn’t give us much. A bunch of Fright Fighters and Rotons, along with Teela’s Talon Fighter and a Sky Sled. The Collector gets a moment, and the good guys show up with a bunch of generic ships.
The good guys…do you call them the Masters? There is a lot of self-deprecating humor.
Cringer- Really, Battle Cat doesn’t appear until the final scene. Cringer is a reluctant scaredy cat like he is supposed to be, but he also fights pretty hard against Beast Man. (Review of Chronicles Battle Cat HERE.)

So this brings up one of the criticisms. There is a lot of humor in this movie. Like every couple of minutes there is a jab, joke, pun, or zinger. This is in line with The Guardians of the Galaxy or Deadpool. It isn’t horribly dirty humor like Deadpool, but it is on the innuendo side, and as far as language there is a GD right at the beginning of the movie that makes Reverend SpartanNerd feel like throwing up.

THE PLOT- MAJOR SPOILERS!

Adam was sent to Earth by the Sorceress at the suggestion of Marlena during the opening attack on the palace. Part of this opening attack was Man-At-Arms being defeated by Trap Jaw and Randor being captured by Skeletor. Adam was separated from the sword when he exited the portal…touching the sword was his way home! Luckily, Adam never forgot where he came from, but as an Earthling he had a hard time adjusting to the boring life of Human Resources. I believe Adam Glenn works at a staffing agency, where he is good with people and helps them find a place in the workforce that is a fit for them. But he gets roasted by his boss, Susie, who has a problem with him looking for the Power Sword on the clock. Adam gets ghosted by “Julie,” advice at the gym from Dolph Lundgren, and admonished by his roommate Hussein. He gets a text at work to find the sword at a toy store called “The Fright Zone” and on touching it, a signal was sent to Eternia, where both Teela and Beast Man received it. The Earth scene really doesn’t take long in the movie…probably less than fifteen minutes.

On Eternia, Adam is worthless as a fighter. The good guys disbelieve Teela enough to throw her in jail along with Adam. Fisto seems to be the leader, with Ram Man second in charge. Mekanek and Moss Man are around also. In jail, Man-At-Arms is passed out drunk, and Roboto is a maid. I believe this scene takes place at Point Dread? Skeletor’s army attacks the base, and Roboto helps them bust out. Once again Adam is useless, and as Trap Jaw comes out, Man-At-Arms begins to have a panic attack. But Adam raises the sword and becomes He-Man, having a brutal fight with Trap Jaw and ripping off his arm, then using it to shoot down Skeletor’s army. There is a vehicle chase as Teela, Man-At-Arms, Adam, and Roboto escape in the Talon Fighter, only to be shot down. Skeletor stands there wondering who the new barbarian is that took out his men. Skeletor has all of the Masters taken to prison at Snake Mountain.

At the crash sight of the Talon Fighter, Adam and Teela have a tender moment as he picks up the ship with one arm, (but he does complain that it is heavy). Man-At-Arms breaks out his foot locker and puts on his armor, that has a flask hidden in the front of the chest plate that as kids we always wanted to know what that was. He says he would rather be a drunk than a failure. Skeletor appears in a hologram just like in the 1987 movie telling the new barbarian to come to Snake Mountain and surrender the sword to see his parents. Apparently they had crashed near the secret passageway to Snake Mountain…

Goat Man is guarding the entranceway, but Adam gets by him. At Snake Mountain’s iconic mouth, Skeletor has Randor. He-Man decides to fight, and another huge battle takes place, but Evil-Lyn traps him with a force field. He-Man breaks the spell with his incredible strength, but the shock causes the roof to collapse on everyone except for him. He rushes to save his dad, but his father dies. During the drama, Skeletor comes up behind He-Man and clocks him on the head with the Havoc Staff.

When Adam wakes up… yes…he was hit hard enough to revert back…he is in the Snake Mountain prison with all of the Masters. His Mother and Cringer are also there. Adam uses his Human Resources skills to rally the Masters to work together with their powers to break out.

Skeletor can’t make the power sword work. Evil-Lyn suggests taking it to Castle Grayskull to perform a ritual. The final battle takes place at Grayskull. Adam manages to get the sword from Skeletor, but before he can change, Skeletor blasts him with the Havoc Staff. Adam uses the sword to block, but the force breaks the sword. Skeletor uses the hilt with the shard-end of the sword to stab Adam in the chest. Then proceeds to read his mind.

As Skeletor reads his mind, he is dreaming about the gym, but instead of Dolph, it is Skeletor lifting weights, wearing an athletic hoodie! Next he is on the date with Julie, and Julie asks about Eternia. When Adam looks up, it is Skeletor wearing a dressy suit. he drags him out of the restaurant. Adam finds himself in Susie’s office, where she says something about having a performance review with Doug…when Adam looks over to where Doug was earlier in the movie, it is Skeletor drinking a thermos of coffee! (This was my favorite part of the whole movie!). Finally, Adam is passed out in his room, where Hussein comes in and places a drawing of the Sorcerss on his chest. Next Zoar flys in, and encourages him that He has the power…it isn’t really the sword!

This is enough to wake Adam wake up in the real world and remove the sword from his chest. As he begins to transform, the sword comes back together. And then instead of fighting, he tells Skeletor he just wants to talk. But Skeletor declines, saying that he is always going to be the villain. Adam actually punches Skeletor out like a boxing warmup, then turns on the Thunder Punches complete with lightning. Finally he palms the Havoc Staff like Michael Jordan, and then shatters it. The explosion is extremely powerful and appears to kill Skeletor as his skull bounces around on the floor.

The next scene is six months later. There is a celebration as Eternia has been rebuilt, which also includes Hussein. Adam gives everyone a pep talk. He also expresses his name as He-Man…the first time it appears in the movie. Then there is news of a problem at Avion. Adam and Cringer then run off to Grayskull to transform where nobody can see them, (but the characters question why?).

Three Credits scenes. The first is Orko presenting a moral that is something like “Muscle Guys are probably heroes and skull-faced guys are probably villains) as Mer-Man is arrested in the background. The second is a reveal of She-Ra about to attack the Fright Zone (Filmation design). And the final scene is Evil-Lyn returning to pick up Skeletor’s skull, and we hear him laughing maniacally.

MY THOUGHTS

You could take the first Thor movie and follow the plot…they are pretty identical, with Randor taking Odin’s place. There is also a little bit of Lion King in there. There’s just no doubt that Skeletor really takes this show. We saw more of Adam/He-Man, and it was good, but a reason to watch this is to watch Skeletor! I like how they started with the Man-At-Arms we expect, then deconstructed him and built him back up. Teela is also different in a way because this time she is compensating for her father giving up rather than the typical path to becoming the captain of the guard.

One thing…there is no origin story for Skeletor. There is no reason why he is evil. We get that he is greedy and power-hungry. Evil-Lyn serves as someone who can talk to him…the only person who CAN talk to him. And he is toxic to her, burning her skin with his hand in two scenes. But I question…do we really NEED to know why Skeletor is evil? Do we NEED a Keldor story? Do we NEED to know things like how old is Castle Grayskull? Where did the henchmen come from? Not really in my opinion. We didn’t know any of that in the Filmation show…we just took it for granted that Skeletor was evil and Castle Grayskull had to be protected. There was some canon to this story, like Marlena being from Earth and the Sorceress secretly being Teela’s mother (not directly addressed, but there). But for the most part, it was about seeing our favorite characters on the screen, probably fighting.

Some things that I appreciate…Roboto is a GIRL! Two of the Credits scenes are setups for sequels…We have references to the 1987 movie including Dolph Lundgren, The Great Eye of the Galaxy (did you catch it?), Pigboy, and Karg.

What did this movie add to the story of Masters of the Universe?

This is the first time we have ever seen Skeletor sleep
Skeletor is also is a mind-reader
Dian- This is a strong female character from the Newspaper strips. In Kevin Smith’s show there has been a strong female lead “Andra” recycled from the Filmation show. Dian is a similar character
Goat Man is now officially one of the Evil Warriors in my mind

SPARTANNERD RATING

As a MOVIE, I give this a 4/5. As a Masters of the Universe movie, I give it a 5/5. Not everyone is going to “get it.” There is a lot of talk about the viral movies Backrooms and Obsession…two sleeper movies that scored big at the box office, taking some market share. And this is unfortunately true…not even a fan-excuse (I saw Backrooms…it is pretty good!). Masters of the Universe is for 40-somethings, but Scary Movie 6/7 is for a 2000’s crowd. And up ahead is Toy Story 5, Moana (live action), Supergirl, and then Spider-Man Brand New Day. I kind of think Masters of the Universe is cooked in this box office environment. HOWEVER, it won’t be lost on people streaming. I predict Amazon is going to make MINT streaming this movie.

Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments!

Masters of the Universe- Thoughts on MOTU story iterations before offering a review of the new movie.

June 11, 2026 by SpartanNerd

See my video review of the 2026 Masters of the Universe movie HERE. (Spoiler warning)

I am going to give you a quick synopsis of my thoughts on every iteration of this fiction. Just a couple of sentences before I drop a review of the new movie with spoilers. This might help someone understand my take on things.

This is my copy of the mini comic collection. I have several of these modern “coffee table” kinds of books, but I have read through this one several times. It is always entertaining!

Minicomics generation 1- “Mini-Eternia” or “Miniternia.” These original stories were wonderfully barbaric, with more violence than we would see until the 1987 movie and some truly twisted plot points more fit for adults than kids, but sold to children no less. No Prince Adam. No Orko. No Cringer. I love most of these for their violence and weirdness.

I don’t have a whole lot of these mini comics (I do have a few…) but the large images and print of the minicomics collection is superior to the SpartanNerd’s old eyes.

Filmation- He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was the beginning-of-the-end for Filmation studios…a legendary studio that competed with Hanna Barbara in the more “budget” style of making cartoons with stock images. (Rather than through-drawn like Disney or Warner Bros.) As such, the animation was the peak of that cartoon factory’s life, and was truly wonderful by the time they were animating their final show, She-Ra: Princess of Power. These shows were light-hearted and aimed at a cautious children’s market with a demographic at the time of 2-10 year olds. And this, along with the toys, is where the CORE MOTU fans really are at. Very important when discussing everything else here on this blog entry and discussing the 2026 movie.

Image from superherotoystore.com Never have shopped there. If you are reading this, you likely know what it is all about.

Minicomics generation 2- These really are just smaller Filmation cartoons, but they are more laser-focused on representing current toys on the shelf. This is the nature of how they were made…kind of in the packaging department. So a wave would come out with a few new comics that represented the other stuff in the wave. They all generally kept the schema of Filmation in mind, each having a transformation sequence and most having at least Teela, Man-At-Arms, Orko, and Skeletor.

Print Media- These are all of the “other books.” DC Comics had a line that was closer to Miniternia. Marvel had a line that was closer to Filmation. The He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Magazine (American) also featured more of a Filmation style. This was more blatantly an advertisement, however. I like looking at these for nostalgia’s sake. Not only is it He-Man centric, it also brings up old cartoons, snacks, movies, etc. in the environment it was printed. (like old comics do). There were storybooks also, and these didn’t have ads! Golden Books, and others. Usually Earl Norem did the cover, which to me was worth the price. They were all Filmation-context, but usually had even more outlandish fantasy settings and problems. There was also a record-with-storybook. I loved the art in this as a child!

I still have my original copy of this from when I was a child, but it is missing the cover! I bought this complete copy at a comic con. Earl Norem did most of the cover art on these books. The image below is from the back cover, and shows off Time Trouble, one of my favorite He-Man images.

Non-USA Media- I don’t know a whole lot about this, but the regulations overseas (not-in-the-USA) were different, for instance Teenage Mutant HERO Turtles because the word NINJA was banned for children in Britain. For Masters of the Universe, they printed most of the same mini-comics but with localized language. There was an entirely different British magazine, and notably made use of a letters-from-Scrollos column that had a different take on characters that have been folded into the overall lore. Also, Goat Man was a prominent character in a British storybook. If you have heard of Anti-Eternia He-Man, that is from German audiobooks that were read on-air over the radio.

My VHS copies of the Masters of the Universe 1987 movie and an unopened Mike Young Productions He-Man and the Masters of the Universe “The Courage of Adam,” which was the opening story arc.

1987 Masters of the Universe movie- Sometimes called Masters of the Universe: The Movie. This one is its own thing. It threw out much of the Filmation story and became more of a science-fiction action film. The story wasn’t driven by He-Man so much…to me it feels like the “side characters” of Julie (Courtney Cox) and Kevin (Robert Duncan McNeil) were the leads, followed by Skeletor (Frank Langella) and Evil-Lyn (Meg Foster) and then Gwildor (Billy Barty) and then He-Man (Dolph Lundgren) as points to drive the story forward. It filled a lot of holes that budgets couldn’t address at the time in ways that have a cult following similar to the Mini-Ternia crowd commands. No Orko, so we have Gwildor. Most of the story takes place on Earth…in LA apparently. No Battle Cat. No classic vehicles. There are Star Wars-like Storm Troopers. The villains include Beast Man, Karg, Blade, and Saurod…Blade is pretty cool, and Beast Man is scary. The other two are “just there”. The real gem here is Langella’s Skeletor. You can see a my full analysis from a couple of years ago HERE.

I own this newspaper strip collection also. It would run everyday, with Sunday’s edition in color.

Masters of the Universe Newspaper Comics- I never saw these “in the wild” as a kid…our news didn’t print them. As an adult, I have the collected edition…and talk about a narrative that is kind of hard to follow. The problem is they have to often stop and remind the reader what is happening…you might have missed the day prior. So there is this slow movement on what happens in the story…it takes awhile to get through an arc. I have read two of these arcs, and I find it tedious and exhausting. However, there are plenty of funny moments!

New Adventures- As a kid we had a couple of the toys, and the first mini-comic that had Grayskull destroyed and replaced with Starship Eternia. That is all I have to say about it. I have never watched the show ever except for possibly a snip of an episode. Some of the character designs are cool, but those toys were very different from the originals. And destroying Grayskull is akin to killing Optimus Prime.
Mike Young Productions He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (200x)- There was a long break with no He-Man action after New Adventures flopped out. And this is what scares fans like me. I remember seeing the commercial for this well before it came out, and was completely overwhelmed! But then I couldn’t see it all until it was released on DVD because of the way Cartoon Network scheduled it. It was done in the style of “American Anime” which was a fad for cartoons for awhile. (Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender is an example). The designs were updated to be more EXTREME. I liked the tight continuity…kind of like three or five episode story arcs. And they built out a new map of Eternia with new races and creatures. Of everything, I like this about as much as I do Filmation, but some people criticize it for that forced style. (Hyper detail, hyper sexualized female characters, and lots of weapon twirling).
Masters of the Universe Classics bios- This was Scott Neitlich’s baby. He tried to pull everything together into a concise story. (In Transformers they call this “aligned continuity”). I feel like he did pretty good, but took a lot of flack from fans also. This was Scott giving everyone his “head canon”, but people like to make up their own…and that is one of the criticisms that his ideas were printed on the backs of official products. But he was successful enough to use this as a platform to introduce new action figures. Some were from “development hell” like Dare (He-Man’s son), and some were new ideas, the best of which had to be Draego Man, and the worst…probably The Unnamed One (Dark Orko). By the way…the current line of Origins figures…these are similar characters…brought about from production sketches, discarded stories, etc.
Modern Comics- DC had a good long run alongside the Classics line that was its own story. I have this entire collection, and love how they explored the Snake Men and the Evil Horde more in depth. If you see Despara, this is a character born from DC comics. (This is Force Captain Adora remixed into a much darker design). They also began the comics crossovers mostly using the artist Freddy Williams II. Dark Horse has been doing Masters comics for the past couple of years. Several of the crossover series feel a little “bad” to me sometimes, especially the Thundercats one. Dark Horse currently has a new ongoing comic with a new story that begins with “The Sword of Flaws,” which is kind of a story about Skeletor’s sword.

One of my prized comics! Not many people have this one…I was sent this cover when I complained about the issue that I subscribed to being ruined in the mail. DC sent this one…and I have never seen another.

Freddie Williams II has been my favorite MOTU artist for awhile, though he is stepping back. He describes his process as taking sharpies and letting the ink bleed and smear on the paper. The other stack is my complete collection of DC.

Netflix She-Ra and the Princesses of Power- I have watched most of a season of this and find it enjoyable. You don’t see many modern “magical girl” shows…this one has Adora saying “For the Honor of Grayskull! (What does that even mean?)” Which sums up the relationship of this show and other Masters of the Universe property. Netflix “divorced” it from the larger universe because of rights issues. You still have Hordak and the Evil Horde. The relationship between Catra and She-Ra is a main story in this show.

Kevin Smith’s Masters of the Universe: Revelation season 1 and 2, and Revolution- What Kevin did was TICK EVERYONE OFF with the first five episodes. First of all, this is the most beautifully animated cartoon of Masters of the Universe. It is like Filmation 5.0, but with no-holds-barred in the fighting. And there is an all-star voice cast, including Mark Hammil as Skeletor and Henry Rollins as Tri-Klops. Oh yeah…William Shatner as Keldor. Making this the first project with Luke Skywalker and Captain Kirk together! But back to him ticking us off. Imagine…the guy who created the movie “Dogma” making people mad…It was like he did EVERYTHING to rub everyone wrong in the first five episodes, including killing off He-Man and Skeletor right at the beginning. And then when the five episodes were done, there was a followup episode where he appears to be high as a kite and gloating about it! (Netflix took that down pretty quickly). There was so much hatred for it, it seems that Netflix paid attention and had Smith rectify a lot of what was done in Season 2. But I have to question the heart of that. If Smith wanted Teela and Andra to be a thing, or for Andra to be the next He-Man, that should have been his creative license. But at the end of the day it is all about the Benjamins I supposed, and making people mad doesn’t sell toys or keep people streaming. The Revolution show…now this was a beautiful follow-up. And it wraps up all of the Filmation/Kevin Smith storyline neatly with He-Man and Tri-Sorceress Teela apparently husband and wife. I have become a fan of Smith’s whole project, and wish he would make more using the cliffhanger of the Horde and Despara, but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen. One thing is certain, I would purchase figures of the Tri-Sorceress and He-Man in their design that appears at the end. Also, the Sorceress of Havoc is an AWESOME design.

Image from CBR of Kevin Smith’s Masters of the Universe project.

CGI Netflix show- Never watched it. Ram Ma’am? Orko is a robot? Hard pass on this one.

I have seen the new movie twice as of this writing, and have a review with spoilers coming soon. Thanks for reading!

Mythic Legions Névé- SpartanNerd Unboxing and Review (Ne’ve’)

June 2, 2026 by SpartanNerd

I have done a YouTube review of this, and it has been up for awhile. You can find it here!

I don’t know how…I guess things got away from me during the end-of-the-school-year concert season…but I never did a proper SpartanNerd.com written review of Névé! (Forgive me…it is pretty hard to type out her name. Also I don’t know how to say it. So sometimes, I am going to do Ne’ve’ instead of the French or whatever is going on there sometimes!)

I’ve had her for a little while, and she has become one of my absolute favorites! Keep reading to see why!

PACKAGING

I purchased this at the Toy Federation in Greer, SC. I was looking for … I wasn’t sure…that new Mythic Legions bear was a possibility. But when I saw her, I knew this was what I wanted! (Notable, today I was there and it was double the price!)

I don’t know…when I saw this, it struck a nerve. I was looking at Alloy. ACTUALLY, I had just purchased the video game Crimson Desert, and she more rightly resembles the Graymanes with that blue warpaint. You can see all that you get in the package clearly.

I really need a new iPhone. There is a bio on the side that basically reads that she is kind of an outcast. She is a frost giant, actually, which begs the question, is that blue warpaint a scar or an injury…does she have frozen blue blood? Her eyes are also solid blue.

The back shows off the other figures from this wave. I looked very hard at the minotaur guy. There are also a pair of dwarves in this set that I missed…(I thought about getting them but came away with Ne’ve’ instead.). We also have some Oni looking guy riding a black unicorn with war spikes.

WHAT DO YOU GET IN THE PACKAGE?

Névé figure
Shield with a bear emblem
Alternate helmeted knight head with metal “horns”
Double-headed battle axe
a medallion(?)
Sword
Pair of alternate hands
shoulder pauldrons
Arrows with different colored fletching (in the plastic still so I didn’t lose them)

Not a bad load out, really.

FIGURE REVIEW

This is a “1.0” female Mythic Legions figure. In other words, she has the same kind of parts and build as the first waves that came out. Most female figures from the past couple of years are of the 2.0 type, with a slimmer build. I only became aware of the differences when I got the Figura Obscura Father Christmas. Beneath his robes is a 2.0 supposedly male knight’s build. (mostly unpainted at that). Later I would get the Undead of Vikenfell skeleton figure, who shared some of those parts, and then I got the 2025 SpartanNerd figure of the year, which was Belualyth the Beastmaster. Essentially a modern lady. AND last week I reviewed the Cosmic Legions Cosmic Ladies. Check that out HERE.

Anyway, my point is, Névé is a bit heftier than some of the more recent ladies. But that fits her MO as a Frost Giant I suppose.

PICTURED: Mythic Legions Névé, Masters of the Universe Classics Battleground Teela (kit bash), MASTERVERSE New Eternia Evil-Lyn, and Masters of the Universe Origins Sharella. Névé feels a little more substantial than any of these.

PICTURED: Mythic Legions Névé fights against Demistros and a zombie build from the Mythic Legions Undead Builder Pack. Demistros (Not technically a Mythic Legions) is sporting one of the recent skull heads from a head pack, this one with vampire teeth.

Névé is super articulated, as are most Mythic Legions. Does that mean she balances well? there are things about her that are top heavy. Her hair is pretty substantial, and those pauldrons hinder her articulation so that her arms can’t help her balance. But it isn’t terrible, just something to keep in mind.

Her sculpt and paint are great as always, and I love the blue and gray details over her more barbaric pieces. She doesn’t seem to be old, but she has gray hair like a senior citizen. Maybe an artifact of being a frost giant? The pauldrons are one of the best colors…it is kind of a silver with a purple hue. This color reminds me of Micro Machines…long ago in the early 1990’s I had the set that changes colors in the sun. One of them was a jetliner in this exact same color. To me, one of the draws to getting this figure was the helmet, which is also in this brilliant color. And the pauldrons look best with the helmet, even if the articulation is compromised.

PICTURED: Mythic Legions Gold Knight II Legion Builder and Mythic Legions Névé.

I feel that Névé is at her best without the knight armor. But we kind of have two characters sort of don’t we. And that is one reason why this is a terrific Mythic Legions figure.

PICTURED: Mythic Legions Terpiculi with bone wing attachments, Névé, and Belualyth with her pet chimera. Notice the medallion hanging from her belt.

ACCESSORIES

I keep talking about those pauldrons and the helmet. The problem with pauldrons like this in Mythic Legions is they are so dumb to get on the shoulders…and the point of them is just that. Shoulder armor. You have to peg them into holes on her back that every Horsemen figure has. And it is such a tight fit. Sometimes I’ve had to use a hairdryer or run hot water to get it to work. Luckily this line isn’t for kids. They would be very frustrated, and parents likely would be too. Other than this problem, I like how they kind of have that “Bowser shell” look to them. That helmet is the exact same helmet we have a few times over, but this time with different side-horns. And of course this is the only one in that silver-purple color.

The next big and obvious accessory is the shield. This is the first time I have this round shield. It works like other Mythic Legions shields in that you could swap the bear emblem out from the middle. I won’t be doing that, but I could with the deer from the Xylernian Guard or the thing from Cosmic Legions Wal-torr the Mad (both would look dumb). What is new tech, though is that there are holes in the shield to install arrows! YES! At first I thought I must have been cheated a bow. But then I realized…that was what the arrows were for!

The double headed axe is nicely detailed, and you can store it or the sword on a loop that is on her belt. The belt has nice details, with an animal skull as the belt buckle. The sword, I know I’m bringing it up again, but it looks like it is a part of the Abyss in Crimson Desert. Also, the Masters of the Universe movie trailer has been showing some interior of Grayskull, and this sword looks like it could belong there. The axe has a sculpted “wooden” handle, with flat-topped curved-under heads. The rope is painted well.

I know these figures cost a little more than other lines (Masterverse, GI Joe Classified Series, Super7 Ultimates), but the Horsemen really are outclassing everyone else, for really not that much more. And the fact that this is a line of “generic” characters, it is like they are really rubbing it in to Hasbro and Mattel maybe for not contracting them anymore.

Oh yeah…I keep almost forgetting. Névé came with a medallion. This was bent in the package. It is a circle with a cross on it, and looks very Viking-ish. I have no idea what this is about. I usually hang it from her belt. It looks good, and I think it is not supposed to be bent or curled, so I’ve tried to flatten it out, but it keeps reverting.

ADDENDUM

This time it has been awhile since I first did the review, and I have some additional “BOOM!” pictures

PICTURED: All Mythic Legions: Sir Godfrey, Sir Uczajk, and Névé. Some of the best looking knights. BOOM!

PICTURED: Masterverse 1987 Masters of the Universe Movie figures, Chronicles 2026 Master of the Universe Movie Battle Cat, who is ridden by Mythic Legions Névé. Also notice the vintage storybooks, and also the popcorn bag I purchased when I saw The Mandalorian and Grogu. Névé has the blonde head from the Cosmic Ladies heads pack. BOOM!

SPARTANNERD RATING OF MYTHIC LEGIONS NE’VE’

I give my ratings based on sculpt, paint, articulation, accessories, and “the feels.” It is excellent in all areas except for articulation. The figure has great articulation…but when you put the pauldrons on you lose the range of motion in the arms. BUT also with the default white-haired head, those braids are just too awesome for her to be able to turn her head. (Same with the blonde head pictured above)

This figure is solid awesome otherwise. It was a moment when you didn’t know you needed something until you saw it. It was that kind of thing. She looks great with Masters of the Universe. I kind of chose skeletons as my faction to collect in Mythic Legions, but knights are turning out to be a close second place.

I am giving Ne’ve’ a 4/5 rating, taking a point only because of that situationally limited articulation. Do you agree or disagree, Hub City Geeks? Let me know in the comments!

Cosmic Ladies- SpartanNerd Four Horsemen “In Stock” sale haul with reviews.

May 30, 2026 by SpartanNerd

Find a YouTube video review here!

PICTURED: Cosmic Legions Cosmic Ladies head pack, Cosmic Legions Kalian Shunn, Cosmic Legions Zeerian Spyre, and Mythic Legions spare barbarian parts.

Four Horsemen Studios had a storehorsemen “in stock” sale…a situation where really they offer flat-rate shipping more than discounts. Still, they open the vaults, and this time they offered something a little special different. “The Cosmic Legions Cosmic Ladies Character Pack.” (I find this to be a genius way for them to do a clearance sale). My order took almost all of the four weeks to arrive…that hasn’t been usual for the greatest action figure makers in the 6-inch scale. I decided to pick that Cosmic Ladies Character Pack up, and went ahead and got Kalian Shunn and the Barbarian Spare Parts. So I am going to discuss the entire haul and offer a rating of the two Cosmic Legions figures. (My rating system is based on sculpt, paint, articulation, accessories, and the intangible “feels” point..why did I want it…and what does it represent to me).

BARBARIAN SPARE PARTS

So this is the most unceremonious thing I have bought from the Four Horsemen. They shipped them in a poly bag.

It is what it is. A torso, parts for an upper thigh, and parts for upper arms. I have had experience with the thigh…longtime readers will know that Kannox Vull’s stump leg broke immediately out of the package, and I had the Horsemen send me a replacement part. They only sent the lower thigh…not the thigh-cut joint. So I had to extract that from the old stump and that was SO DIFFICULT. Seriously…I almost cannibalized the Warrior Beast Head Hunter figure…I would have just had to paint his thigh purple.

But now I have spare parts for such mishaps. I will probably use them to customize…I might even add some red sharpie for…you know…blood! (These are of the same complexion as the Legendary Barbarian).

COSMIC LADIES CHARACTER PACK and KALIAN SHUNN

This came as two packages…I expected that because I have purchased head-packs before when they did a similar thing earlier in the year. (I got the blue snake heads and the alien heads, but I didn’t get the character packs that are actually still available). Basically, I would have never picked up the Zeerian Spyre (Zeeri) as she is such a plain character. Actually, I thought, and probably many other fans also believed this to be a “legion builder,” after all, the title Zeerian Spyre kind of sounds like a race name followed by an occupation. Which is probably why she has wound up in this kind of clearance sale. The two heads, which I apologize for the glare, these are Barbie heads in Caucasian and African-American style. With these heads I should be able to make lots of different female builds, and that is the draw of paying $40 for this set.

Kalian Shunn (Kailey) comes in a similar kind of box. This is one that appeals to me because of the colors. I have almost picked this up at a toy store a few times, but never felt it was worth a $70 price tag. So I always put it back…if I am going to spend $70, it better be something substantially good for certain. Usually I was looking for something else that they didn’t have. But during this sale she was only $34, and so I went ahead and got it, taking advantage of that lower shipping cost as well.

I won’t bore you with photos of the backs and sides…basically they both have bio information and a description of the “wave” of figures, in font that I can’t read. It is best to just go to the Horsemen’s website. The backs of the packages show off a cross-sell of other Cosmic legions, and I believe Zeeri was from wave 1, while Kailey was from a later wave. (You can tell because all of the available Cosmic Legions are on the back. My photos were all burry 😦 … I really need a new iPhone)

What do you get in the packages?

Zeerian Spyre

Zeerian Spyre (Zeeri) figure
four translucent peg pieces
a pair of alternate hands.
a hologram
a pair of pistols
a sniper rifle
a cloak
a re-breather
an alternate head with a different hairstyle

I can’t go any further without discussing the alternate heads. I think a couple of photos will tell the story.

PICTURED: Ne’ve’ with the Cosmic Ladies blonde head on the Masters of the Universe Chronicles movie Battle Cat. Notice the 1987 Movie Masterverse figures I have in the background with my vintage storybook collection…AND…that popcorn bag I bought at the Mandalorian and Grogu last week!

PICTURED: Cosmic Legions T.U.5.C.C. Pilot with the Cosmic Ladies alternate head. With the terrible 1987 Movie Beast Man figure partially shown, Dolph Lundgren-ish He-Man, and Frank Langella Skeletor. She fights Meg Foster’s Evil-lyn over the Cosmic Key.

In case you can’t tell, I’m ultra excited about the movie coming out next week! And I DID get a preview ticket! So I will see it Wednesday, and have a review ready for Friday!

So these alternate heads just add a lot of value, and they look great on Zeeri…more photos ahead.

Kalian Shunn

Kalian Shunn (Kailey) figure
four translucent peg pieces
a pair of alternate hands
a shoulder pauldron
a weapons strap or belt
a high-powered laser rifle
a rocket
a pistol
a bo staff
a cloak
an alternate helmeted head

It seems kind of humble after that above showing of what is included, doesn’t it. But really, as a basic figure, Kailey has more stuff than Zeeri…I just paid out for an upgrade.

Figure Reviews

One big thing to say…these are almost identical figures as far as sculpt and articulation. Kailey is a later repaint of Zeeri. And that tells this story.

PICTURED: Cosmic Legions Zeerian Spyre with a basic setup. Of all the photos I took today, I think this is my favorite.

PICTURED: Cosmic Legions Kalian Shunn with a basic setup.

Besides the obvious difference in the heads, they have different lower legs and shoes. And really that is about it. It is notable, and perhaps unforgivable, that Kailey has to wear a dress. She has a socket on the front of her waist that the Horsemen did not give us a part for. This is the only time I have seen this…for instance even the Figura Obscura Father Christmas, who has a similar body underneath all of that Christmas robe, has a loin-cloth piece to plug in there. You can see why I wanted this figure…she looks great, with a cool color scheme. But the more I messed with it, the more I realized that this was the Horsemen geniusly maximizing their value out of the already percolating on-the-shelf Zeerian sculpt.

PICTURED: Cosmic Legions Kalian Shunn vs. GI Joe Classified Series Jinx. Both with their bo staves. BUT…Jinx has a “naginata” or bladed staff, while Kailey’s is probably some kind of energy weapon.

Even that belt…it is the same. I was almost fooled! About an hour of taking pictures and video, and I started to realize it. Something else…in the photo above, you can see the alternate masked head. (You can remove that orange part on the crown, but underneath isn’t much to look at). Without the cape, you have a bare orange neck that just seems wrong. There should have been a blue neck peg or some kind of collar piece to hide the neck peg. Instead they gave us this hood that doesn’t work with the default head. Furthermore, she has a bare orange arm, limiting the head-swapping action to other orange or at least alien heads.

Because of this parts re-use, they have identical articulation…except for one thing. Kailey’s hair is so stiff that her head can’t move. AND, because of the shoulder pauldron and that hair, her right arm is limited range too! Big issues with Kalian Shunn. Otherwise, the articulation is at every joint. Mythic Legions, Cosmic Legions, and related lines use pop-and-swap to where getting new parts is actually a point of collection for some people, especially customizers. For what it’s worth, I find the parts collection of Horsemen figures to be WAY COOLER than Legos.

Accessories

Both of these figures really shine in the accessory department. And you know the SpartanNerd hates it when figures don’t come with much. (Evil-Lyn is notorious for coming with nothing…Why Mattel)?!

PICTURED: GI Joe Classified Series Shooter and Cosmic Legions Zeerian Spyre with one of the Cosmic Ladies alternate heads.

The sniper rifle that Zeeri came with is really great! Notice that I have slotted one of those pegs in the side as a power source or ammo source. With that head and the sniper rifle, we now have a comparable Legions figure to GI Joe Classified Series Shooter. And now I have some guidance on how to paint Shooter’s rifle in my Summer Break free time.

PICTURED: Cosmic Legions Kalian Shunn and MASTERVERSE New Eternia Man-At-Arms, armed with MOTUC 200x arm cannon.

I have this Kailey’s high-powered laser in other colors…this time it is painted terrifically, giving me ideas on how to improve my others. I didn’t even realize that she came with a wrist-rocket. You can attach this piece to the side of the gun as well.

These people are so fun to photograph it is hard not to just “run rabbits.” So here is some fun.

PICTURED: Left to right…Cosmic Legions Walthor the Mad with Cosmic Legions Greyborn alternate head from another character pack, Cosmic Legions T.U.5.C.C. Pilot, MASTERVERSE New Eternia Mosquitor, Cosmic Legions Kalian Shunn, Cosmic Legions Anthophilees, and Cosmic Legions Kalian Shunn.

PICTURED: Cosmic Legions Kannox Vull and Cosmic Legions Zeerian Spire with one of the Cosmic Legions Cosmic Ladies character pack heads. I also didn’t realize until late in the photographing that the blonde head is the exact same as Kalian Shunn’s head, making it even more frustrating that she has a bare orange arm. Dialogue for this photo “Baby Yoda is MY quarry!”

PICTURED: Cosmic Legions Anthophilees and Cosmic Legions Kalian Shunn discuss how to disarm the trap meant for Heatboys Donatello’s pet turtle drone. See how those heads are the same?

This is the same photo as earlier, take away the non-legions figures. The space men are 1.0 figures, while the ladies are considered 2.0 figures. I am not an expert on this, but basically in the past two years the Four Horsemen have added this 2.0 design for smaller figures like elves, but also ladies. But notice one of the first pictures I have…Ne’ve’ is a recent lady figure, and she is a 1.0. A heavier build than these two. One of the most obvious improvements with 2.0 is the neck peg, as opposed to a ball joint that is permanently attached to the torso. (See the barbarian parts above)

SPARTANNERD RATING OF COSMIC LADIES CHARACTER PACK AND KALIAN SHUNN

Well, both of these basic figures are 85% the same sculpt. And this is a good sculpt and design. However the cutting of corners that the Four Horsemen used to make Kalian Shunn…she is mostly a repaint with a different head. This feels like a strike against that figure. On the other hand, Zeerian Spyre is a humble paint job. That figure by itself feels a little less spectacular than Kalian Shunn. But that isn’t the full story, is it. The two additional heads that can make two completely different feeling figures, and that is where the strength is found in the Zeerian Spyre. But the fact that the Cosmic Legions/Mythic Legions/Figura Obscura/Infinite Legions build system is so modular and poppable-swappable means that the selection of character heads offered as a character pack with Zeeri makes it something extra special. Zeeri wouldn’t have the feels point if it weren’t for the option of the character pack…I would have never bought that figure. I considered getting Kailey several times before…(I only paid $37 during the “in Stock” sales event at store horsemen…not $70 at a local brick-and-mortar store). I guess I consider Kalie’s paint more awesome, even if that orange-ish skin-tone limits the swappability somewhat. Still…that hood covering up this problem is kind of a janky solution. And this is the only figure out of all of the legions that I own that has to wear a dress…she wasn’t given a piece to cover her front waist. You have no head articulation using the default head, and her right shoulder is also very limited, especially with the pauldron attached.

Breaking down the points, The Cosmic Legions Ladies set with Zeerian Spyre gets 5/5, while Kalian Shunn gets 3/5.

Cosmic Ladies/ Zeerian Spyre	Kalian Shunn
Sculpt- 1 Paint- 1 Articulation-1 Accessories-1 Feels point-1	Sculpt- 0 Paint- 1 Articulation-0 Accessories-1 Feels point-1

It’s just too hard for even a “legendary creature” kind of figure like Kalian Shuun to overcome the additional power of what is really three alternate heads. You have so many options. Kalian Shunn isn’t a bad figure…she just doesn’t measure up to what she is cracked up to be. Kind of like Kannox Vull turned out. Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments!

No Data Centers in Spartanburg County-SpartanNerd Protest!

May 17, 2026 by SpartanNerd

PICTURED: Masterverse New Eternia Whiplash, Super7 Ultimates Battle of the Mounds Conan the Barbarian, Figura Obscura The Mouse King, Masterverse New Eternia Evil Lyn, Masters of the Universe Classics Battle Cat, Masterverse Battle Armor He-Man (kitbash) , and Masterverse New Eternia Snout Spout. All will be featured protesting in this entry. (If I have a posted link, you can click to see the review of the figure!)

The SpartanNerd hasn’t been one to protest historically. But when they are building a hyper-scale AI Data Center a mile from his house…a data center that the community didn’t approve of and didn’t want…but the county council allowed to pass in under the radar…here is a reason to protest. I have attended two of these outdoor walk-around-with-a-sign events and also a “town hall” that seemed to be lip service only…voices were not heard. I have found a real mix of political differences, etc. But none of us want this. It is truly bipartisan…actually multi-partisan when you talk to these people. Everyone is concerned about multiple problems that will come up. So with a little help from my friends…

He-Man and Battle Cat lead this protest at the Nerd Fortress.

NO DATA CENTER IN SPARTANBURG COUNTY

We didn’t ask for it or want it. The old “Kohler” plant…yes it has been a useless empty building for awhile, and that is bad. BUT permits to put a large AI Data Center here were all approved behind closed doors in county council meetings. They have not been transparent and are obviously receiving kickbacks. People did not know about it…and it seems to have been designed that way. They have clear-cut the trees all around the property, have tons of earth moving equipment there doing things…and other large equipment. Everyday an army of workers are there, including some that arrive in a retired school bus. And the police are out there directing traffic on Pine Street for this giant nuisance of an eyesore. One of my children asks a question…”Did they think about the wildlife in the nearby Croft State Park?” NOPE. It’s all about the money. (The SpartanChildren are actually adults now with VALID OPINIONS!)

COUNTY COUNCIL LIED

The Mouse King (I actually see more of a rat than a mouse) is reminding us about sins of COMMISSION and sins of OMMISSION. There is some of both going on here.

If you are not transparent to your constituents and your community, you are in fact lying. If you stand up and tell people it isn’t a data center, and behold…it is a data center…then you are an abject liar.

There is a feeling among the community members actively moving against this data center that the “elite” in Spartanburg don’t really care about us in the county. They are “detached” from it because they don’t live in the suburban/rural area we live in, and so they don’t even care about how bad it will be for our community.

AI IS EVIL

Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan the Barbarian. Yelling like a crazy man. Because he’s pretty mad. (I wonder if the actual Govenator would be against this?)

AI…not to insult your intelligence, reader…but Artificial Intelligence is showing up everywhere. I have seen these tools and been told to use them at work. It is showing up in search results without me asking…in things like Microsoft Word and even WordPress that I write this blog on. But I am frankly a lot scared about it. It turns out that basically all of us are using it whether we agree with it or not. You can’t just “turn it off” if it is baked into something like Windows or MacOS. (Have you tried a Google search lately? It feeds you an AI answer before showing you the search results.)

These convenience issues aren’t the real issue in my opinion besides the fact that it is a “tool” that is everywhere. It is that AI “regurgitates” stuff that was actually created by humans. I work in the arts. When I studied for my Masters in Music Education, I took a class about experimental music. One of the things actually invented in the 1980s was a computer that had every measure of Mozart programmed into it. It could then create new music by Mozart. This was done for several other composers like Vivaldi also. As a part of the class, I played some fake Vivaldi and some real Vivaldi for my wife to see if she could tell which was real…she couldn’t…

Nowadays we have Johnny Cash singing Barbie Girl through the power of AI. Does anyone think He would be OK with that? I’m not. BUT…It is the future we have to think of. Are our children ever going to know what real rock, country, rap, gospel, or really any kind of music is? Something like Gorillaz or K-POP Demon Hunters is already a fictitious band. AI is just another step towards removing the soul from what used to be creative activities that were exclusively human.

One of my children has another contention with AI. It is PLAGIARISM. AI could listen to SpartanNerd’s album PREACH! And then someone else could virtually use my chops. I would never know!

KNOW MORE (No Data Centers)

Evil-Lyn reminds us that in order to have power, we have to know more. We need to be informed about how bad the AI data center will be for our community.

I haven’t heard a single positive thing about this data center. From the beginning of it happening to last weekend’s march. Do the people behind it not have anything positive to contribute? Do they know that the points I am about to make are TRUE?

Power consumption– It was said that the AI Data Center would only use 48 Megawatts. Last month the company applied for hundreds more.

Snout Spout and Brainy Smurf (on a vintage glass!) remind us that water is a finite resource.

Wasting water- The data center will have to be cooled using water. At one of the “town hall” meetings it was insisted that the data center would use a “closed system”…something like a car radiator uses. It was also said to use the same amount of water as a large Home Depot. This was a complete and utter lie! Already it is apparent that the area they are digging out, etc is much larger than a Home Depot or similar big box store.

This turns out to be another lie!

Noise pollution- There are going to be massive TURBINES running this data center! At first it was said to be something like 4 turbines. Now it is something like 14. Running 24/7. There is a train overpass about a mile up the road. I can hear it pretty clearly some days and times. I guess it depends on the weather, the train, and other variables. This data center is going to be pumping out noise pollution like that CONSTANTLY.

Light Pollution– I remember standing in my yard a couple of Thanksgivings ago with my brother discussing the world. It was a new moon or at least it seemed to be moonless…and the stars were so clear. You don’t have to get much closer to the city to lose that. But the data center is bringing the light pollution to us. I would like my pretty sky back, please!

What’s in a name- This company has changed the name of the project several times evidently. (It was called project Spero at one time). And these data centers are popping up all over the county, and one that the community fought has moved just down a little ways to Union county. Why do we need these things? Are they adding anything to anyone’s life? Someone might say “It is creating jobs.” Evidently not. Somewhere between 20 and 50 jobs. And the nature of what it is means that it might start with a larger number, but it will definitely streamline as AI becomes stronger so that there will be less workers needed to keep the servers and drives running. If there were good things for our communities, why aren’t the companies aggressively sharing that? I tell you why…they know it is bad. Did you know that they store spent nuclear fuel in South Carolina? It is like we aren’t valuable or something and politicians and companies just use us as a dumping ground. The brand new and sudden AI data center problem in South Carolina is the latest example.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Go to the protests. Write your congressmen or county council person. Or even better talk to them face-to-face. Show up at the marches. Go to the “town halls” and hope they aren’t just empty pageantry. VOTE! It looks like almost every County Council officeholder has voted for this thing to happen, and the community doesn’t want it. So we will vote them out! There’s also money pulling the strings if you look hard at the issues. I have made it a point not to name any real names (and I am using action figures!). But they are on Facebook. It is a large presence in the group “No AI Data Centers in Spartanburg County.” You should go there and get involved!

spartannerd

A blog about everything "nerdtainment!"

Author Archives: SpartanNerd

SpartanNerd Vintage Review. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Magazine, Summer 1986.