SpartanNerd Unboxing and Review…Masters of the Universe Classics Evilseed

September 5, 2015 by SpartanNerd

When Evilseed went on sale, I decided I would get him, only to be held off by circumstances. I thought I would have to catch him on Cyber Monday, maybe. But he remained on sale…perhaps he didn’t sell out? Regardless, I ordered mine, and over a week later he arrived in this mailer.

I quickly opened it, to reveal the sealed packaging.

The front of the box has a nice window that has Evilseed on display. You can clearly see his accessories…he has the tag line of “Evil Master of Plants.” And that’s about it. Just from seeing here…he is quite incredible looking, if you are a MIC collector. But that’s not me.

I flipped the box over, and check it out! For the first time, I own all of the characters on the back of the box!

Evilseed gets a new “real name” and bio, photographed here for you, oh Hub City Geeks. But I’m just throwing away the package. Notably, the bio says that Moss Man created Evilseed. A good story. But I prefer the Mike Young version that this figure is based on.

Removing Evilseed from the package isn’t difficult. He did have some rubber bands, and the vine-whip accessory had to be wrangled out of the blister. But other than that, it was all good. Notably, there was no “smell” associated with this figure. (If you will recall, Moss Man” had a very strong pine scent.)

Here he is in the first pose I made for him.

Evilseed has a terrific sculpt. When I first saw this revealed, I knew I had to get one to go with my Moss Man. The Four Horsemen hit a homerun every time! Check out all of the little scaly looking parts. Check out the thorns and vines. I went back and watched “Orko’s Garden,” “Council of Evil” part 1 & 2, and “The Last Stand” today to check my facts. I have ready other reviews, and there is some criticism of this version being too bulked up. In the MYP cartoon, his IS skinner at the torso and waist, but the entire upper body looks almost perfect. The thicker torso here is welcome, if you ask me. While they could have used some amalgamation of Lizard Man’s parts, I think this was the way to go. It doesn’t look wrong at all. Maybe he’s been working out?

Evilseed has that terrific sculpt, and also the standard articulation that all of the other MOTUC figures have. Rocker joint ankles, hinged knees, ball jointed shoulders, waist twist, ab crunch, ball jointed shoulders, bicep swivels, hinged elbows, a swivel wrist, and a ball jointed head that can rotate freely and be swapped out.

The cool new addition to the articulation is the way the vines look on the legs. They are made of a more rubbery material, and are a continuation of the waist piece. These come down and loop around the knees, which means Evilseed has both loose vines on his knees and articulation there!

How about this face! If he had a mother….

For real, this is one of the most evil faces ever sculpted for MOTUC. Evilseed’s overall green color is a stark and EVIL contrast to this sinister eyes and mouth, which are bright red in color. This is the only red on the figure…everyghing else is green, black, or brown. This highlights the evil human nature of the figure, and even makes him appear alien. Where his hair should be, we have this bunch of creepy looking vines/grass/seaweed.

The torso is evidently just the same sort of Torso that He-Man or most of the others have. But this time there is non-removable armor sculpted with he specific viney details demanded of Evilseed. There is a very striking collar that comes up beside his head on both sides, giving him a plant/vampire look. You can see the vine details on his back, and also two mysterious green thorns in the middle of his back.

One of Evilseed’s two accessories is “The Scepter of Power.” My research tells me that this Filmation artifact was in the episode, “The Magic Falls.” I don’t personally own this episode on DVD. I started to watch it on YouTube, when I discovered that all of those videos appear to be playing at too fast a clip, giving a chipmunk effect to most of the music and voices. It was unbearable to me. And As a music teacher, the difference in key created by the effect was just too jarring. Anyways, Evilseed looks really good with the Scepter of Power. It is supposed to be for King Randor, but since I am not a fan of “Throne Room Randor” and, nor the Burger King version of the regular Randor, I decided to settle on letting Prince Adam hold it. (He would inherit it anyway, right?)

Not bad at all.

The other accessory is this vine-whip creature. You can position it almost anywhere on his body. I think I might try and order more of these! I think he should have come with more of them. Watching the MYP version made me realize how ridiculous and over-exaggerated the vines that Evilseed controlled were. But it worked really well in that cartoon. Evilseed even made T-Rex sorts of plants, and hydra plants also. He also would use them to transport around on…Mattel could have given us an interchanging waist so we could display him as seen transporting around on a “trunk” of vines!

In getting this figure, one of my aims was display him in battle with Moss Man. Here is my first attempt!

Even with the “plant god” head on, Moss Man appears to be from a different line entirely. Both are green, but the flocking on Moss Man blurs his details.

Evilseed looks pretty good with Moss Man’s weapon, but the seed-bag armor with knife doesn’t fit properly across Evilseed because of the collar piece of the armor. It fits loosely around his waist, which is something I do with Moss Man sometimes.

It might be better to use it to imprison him…

Heheh…looks like Orko is going to set him free…

Evilseed was a part of Skeletor’s Council of Evil…We can compare Evilseed to Count Marzo and Skeletor by reenacting a scene from the cartoon.

SpartanNerd Rating of Masters of the Universe Classics Evilseed.

Evilseed has terrific sculpting. He is highly articulated, even specifically for his figure. (With the vines around his knees.) His paint looks good, and there was no “pee plastic” smell like I detected from King Hsss and Snake Armor He-Man. He comes with two accessories…the only complaint I can level is I wish we had MORE vines. But this can be easily done.

So I give MOTUC Evilseed a 5/5! I am not the least bit disappointed in this figure. Every detail matches my specifications! There are some people who complain that this isn’t Filmation’s “turnip head” version. But I don’t even like that version…it was even a reason I might not subscribe to that little add-on sub. This 200x version looks evil, not goofy. He is ready for battle…ready to kick some plants!

The SpartanNerd gives Masters of the Universe Classics Evilseed a 5/5. Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments!

SpartanNerd and SpartanTeen Review…Neo Zeon Mobile Suit MSN-06S Sinanju “Ver-Ka” (Titanium Finish)

July 21, 2015 by SpartanNerd

Of all of the Gundams we have reviewed, the Sinanju is the most impressive. In several ways. This Gundam has a “titanium finish,” basically vac-metal plastic. It makes it shine! Combine this effect with the size of the figure at Master Grade 1/100 scale and the many accessories and even an additional stand, and you have an incredible item. Above is the box. And longtime readers know that the SpartanNerd really likes his foil!

This item cost $140, and we purchased the stand for an additional $20. (The stand is usable with most if not all Gundams, but is detailed specifically for Sinanju Ver-Ka.) This is a special edition, with the vac-metal. The normal Ver-Ka would cost around $80.

The box is almost entirely in Japanese. As well as the instructions. This is commonplace for basically every Gundam we have built.

Above is the instructions for the decals and stickers. The SpartanTeen used the regular sticker decals, rather than the water-slide decals.

I am going to show the Gundam in pieces, sort of. There is so much here I had to “cull down” the amount of photos.

The head really shows the small details. The two “holes” on the side of the mask are meant to be vulcan cannons! You can see the vac-metal and the plain gray plastic. The crimson color goes well with the flat gray. There is an eye detail that can’t really be seen because of the size and impressiveness of the rest of the head.

Here is the backpack, showing all of its details in 3X faster mode. (The legs also have details for “3x faster mode.”) The backpack was the only truly “stupid problem.” The backpack WOULD NOT attach to the figure as it was supposed to. It works by a little slot mechanism that seemed to be obstructed by excessive plastic. We solved the problem with some super-glue. We checked other reviews of the figure, and found that ours seems to be an exception rather than the rule.

Here the Sinanju stands, unarmed, and without his backpack. It is very articulated. The fingers all move like human fingers. The arms move like a humans, the legs move like a humans. It is a “super-articulated” design. The shoulder armor and knee armor move to accommodate the most articulation.

The stickers are very much a foil item, and the Gundam doesn’t look right without those details. All of the gold pictured here is a reflection of the flash of my camera! That is how shiny it is!

The feet are on a rocker joint, and divided into toe and heel sections.

The cockpit opens, revealing Char Aznable inside. The cockpit is surrounded by yellow “psycho-frame” components. The Gundam came with two different pilots. One to stand beside on display, and one to stay in the cockpit. The SpartanTeen (nor the SpartanNerd) can paint the tiny details required….We would if we could. But that is a little out of our skill level at this point.

Here are most of the accessories. I say most, because, the Grenade Launcher/Shotgun wasn’t ready at the time of the review. Notice the “beam-effect” parts. These are interchangeable with the axe, and with the shield.

You can see, this opens up an incredible array of display options! The shield is very large and impressive. The SpartanTeen doesn’t prefer the axe. (This is more of a SpartanNerd thing. See He-Man!)

The beam saber isn’t a lightsaber at all. The beam effect is detailed and rippled, rather than being a straight lazer sword. It did come with two beam effects, we just wanted the readers to see the hilt disarmed as well as armed.

The gun has expandable options as well. The scope can move, and you can add parts from the shotgun/grenade launcher. (Not pictured.) Notable, the shield has a place to store the shotgun/grenade launcher.

Here is the Sinanju standing on his own. The backpack adds a lot of weight, causing some balance issue, but not much. Notable, it was easy not to have the legs snapped all the way in. They kept coming off until the SpartanTeen figured out how to fully snap them in. (Sorry, the lighting system took accidental damage, and so this picture and all the rest are using flash only

Here is the Sinanju holding the shield an on his custom stand. The stand is a separate item, and will be reviewed later. But the stand is the perfect way to display this incredible investment.

As we have done in the past, we are now going to give this Gundam a grade!

Here is our criteria, each item getting a score. We would like to say ahead of time, this Gundam is almost perfect!

Each item gets a score…

1 Too wrong

2 not right enough

3 could be better

4 pretty good, but…

5 perfect

Construction

Was it difficult considering the level it is supposed to be? 4

Stupid problems? 3 (cables around the legs, and backpack had to be glued.)

Instructions easy to read? 5

Diagrams clear? 5

Stickers? Paint 5

Articulation

stands easily? 5

moves without falling apart 5

posable/interchangeable hands 5

lots of articulation points 5

Dynamic poses 5

Accessories

Weapons 5

holds weapons/appropriate weapons 4 (some problem holding the gun and shields.)

Stand 5 (available as a separate item.)

expansions 5 (see above)

Weapon storage 5

playability

durable 4

photogenic 5

holds weapons? 5

Reasonable Facimile to media representation 5

Aesthetics 5 (that shiny plastic is incredible!)

Figure-specific features

morph/ transform/ change form 5

action feature 3

LED lights 1

Diarama 5

Pilot included? Does he fit in the cockpit or is he in scale or not. 5

To tabulate the score, we add up all of the values, and then come up with an average.

The SpartanTeen and SpartanNerd Gundam Evaluation Checklist says that the Sinanju receives a 4.92. So far the only Gundam coming in higher is Char’s Zaku II-S (2.0), which had a score of 5.2.

What do you think? Leave us some feedback in the comments!

SpartanNerd Project…Earl Norem Poses

July 20, 2015 by SpartanNerd

I had this crazy idea. Really more of a dream. I could get each person who is interviewed in the Masters of the Universe Art Book to sign their article. Or maybe a piece of art. I know it never would happen…I am not a well traveled person. But it was a fine thought.

But not soon after the book was published, one of the greatest artists of Masters of the Universe passed away. Earl Norem. I wrote my thoughts right here on the SpartanNerd Blog. (Link)

To help illustrate my love for Norem’s work, I thought I would attempt to emulate it with the incredible Masters of the Universe Classics figures. So here is my attempt at “The Sunbird Legacy.”

A few Caveats have to apply.

The figures have one expression. Some have alternate heads. But you still have a limitation.
The hair can be wrong.
Norem didn’t always paint the weapons the same way.
I don’t have the diorama piece. As this stuff becomes more available to me, I will see about photographing some of it.

I chose this picture because I thought it was one of the most do-able. My favorite is the one with He-Man on a lion and Skeletor leading an elephant army, with the space battle among the meteors a close second. But you’ll see.

I tried the Snake Armor He-Man head. But it doesn’t look as good as the original. In the picture, Skeletor’s sword is more of a scimitar. The closest I had available is Draego Man’s sword. The Havoc Staff is bigger than the one in the painting. This proves to be the biggest problem. I felt like the pose above was too…boring. Not capturing the motion of Norem’s work.

This photo is closer to Earl Norem. Still not perfect. It is really hard to get Skeletor to balance like this. If you look at the Norem at length…(as I have,) you can see that He-Man and Skeletor have very parallel hips. He-Man’s figure can’t quite stress his head back or hold his shield at quite the same angle, and still keep balance. (He-Man has weak ankles.)

The colors are pretty good. The white background is about as good as I could do. I applied a filter to mute it a little.

So, Hub City Geeks. What do you think about my new venture? Can you do better? Send me your pics, and let me know in the comments!

SpartanNerd…Follow up on “He-Man: The Eternity War”

June 2, 2015 by SpartanNerd

I have been very impressed with the current run of DC masters of the Universe. “He-Man: The Eternity War” has really been developed. And we are seeing the characters presented in ways we have never seen before.

Here is a pic of all six issues I have. I have two of the covers from Issue 1.

The version with the toys came only to subscribers, if I am correct.

What is so impressive? Here are issue by issue thoughts.

Issue 1. Hordak returns to flesh, using He-Man’s blood, drawn unintentionally by She-Ra in the preceding story arc. And then he becomes a super charged version of himself by tapping into the power of Grayskull. See what I mean…We’ve never seen Hordak presented like this.

Issue 2. Man-At-Arms converts Roboto into a flight suit to take out the Horde’s orbital disruptor. (This weapon wiped out most of the Masters of the Universe and the Eternian army in prior issues. Kind of a mini-death star.)

Issue 3. The deal with the Eyes of Grayskull returns from the digital-only books that began DC’s current run on Masters of the Universe. She-Ra finds the Eye of Chrono and unintentionally leads Hordak to it.

Issue 4. She-Ra takes a beating, but Skeletor rescues her using the eye of Chaos, which he had in his possession. (Now Skeletor has both eyes!)

Issue 5. Skeletor witnesses She-Ra use her sword to heal herself, and asks her to heal him. Then he explains that he has had a change of heart and doesn’t wish to be constantly defeated, as he has seen over and over in different versions of himself as he traveled the Multiverse. The Green Goddess (or Sorceress, or Teela, what should we call her now?) lets He-Man know that “The Goddess” (adding to the confusion) has three faces, Serpos, Zoar, and Horokoth. Eternia has witnessed the age of Zoar, but she fears the Age of Horokoth is inevitable. He-Man chooses to look at the future behind a door with the Horde symbol on it, (which means Horokoth, the destroyer now.) He sees himself as King He-Man, with the normal skinned (and naked) Teela as his queen. A military state is evident.

Issue 6. “The Problem with Power.” He-Man sees a vision of the future. DC uses King He-Man…an impressive draw to this story…the cover is magnificent. We see more of the kingdom that King He-Man will bring about. Notably, Skeletor’s allies are now his allies, while the “Good Guys” are now “The Great Rebellion!” At the end, He-Man breaks the sword in half, destroying it and relinquishing the power to return to the form of Prince Adam.

I can’t wait for issue 7!

Skeletor’s romp through the Multiverse let him see many versions of himself, each one ending in defeat. He never acquires the power of Grayskull. Check out my Skitch below…

“The Problem With Power” was the title of perhaps the greatest Filmation episode, where He-Man changes into Adam…a reverse transformation rarely seen, and then throws the sword into the abyss. He decided in that episode that being He-man wasn’t worth taking the life of someone. In this issue, there are echoes of the same, but all of Eternia is the victim as King He-Man is a despotic leader.

This page kind of captures the state of things. Beast Man is wearing Battle Cat’s hide as a cape! He-Man is riding Panthor, and the Eternal Guard are riding Nightstalkers! Also, notice the weaponry all over castle Grayskull. In this issue, He-Man also orders an insurgent’s head on a spike…exactly the the thing Mattel told the moviemakers to avoid in the 1980s. (I recall seeing the the Art Book instructions for “No Heads! No Spikes!”

Finally….

He-Man destroying “The Sword of Eternity.” (A new name for “The Power Sword.” Christened thus for only a few panels.) a moving panel…Prince Adam appears so weak in the next few panels walking away, and I wonder how this is going to work.

“He-Man: The Eternity War” is a terrific read, and keen fans will see little allusions and nods. I see it as the comic writers have a box full of toys, and are constantly playing with them in new ways. Shaping a story the way little kids would have, and then making modern comics meant for an adult audience.

I hope DC keeps making MOTU comics. I don’t ever want that dry spell that seemed to happen for so long to ever return. I want to see toy versions of these comics characters. The work is certainly deserving….

SpartanNerd…Cool Idea- Photograph Toys with a Black Light!

April 10, 2015 by SpartanNerd

Just some fun I had today…something really substantial forthcoming, however, oh Hub City Geeks!

Skeletor is just about my favorite subject to photograph. With a black light, his face looks extra gruesome.

I thought it would be cool to put the Havoc Staff that came with the Faceless One in the black light. It isn’t that apparent in the pic below, but the pink translucent details on the “powered up” part of the staff changed bone white!

Here is Modulock wearing the alternate Beast Man armor. The unusual and unexpected thing is the plastic on the torso and visible in his joints at the knees and elbows glow a different color in the black light! I noticed this with Draego Man too. (Not pictured)

I’ve never thought that the vintage Mantenna was a very menacing looking figure. (This is my original toy from the 1980’s.) Placing a blacklight on him changes this. The red details become that salmon-isn color, which contrasts to the blue parts of his body that disappear in the blacklight somewhat. His eyeball paint is about gone, but because of this it makes that weird thing that is his mouth seem extra creepy!

The cool thing about Grimlock isis weapons. They look translucent amber in person. In the blacklight, though they pp like the science fiction things they should pop like.

Last but not least, LILIANA! The cool thing about this pic is as I was editing it with iPhoto, I was playing with the sharpness controls. Lilliana almost disappeared when the control was at 0. As you moved the slider, she would slowly appear or disappear! Just like magic! Because her substantially exposed skin is “flesh-tone”, and her clothes are all purple, this caused the disappearing effect. I wish I had a modded Liliana card with this picture on it!

SpartanNerd Unboxing and Review…Masters of the Universe Classics “Snake Armor He-Man vs. Battle Armor King Hsss” Two Pack

March 3, 2015 by SpartanNerd

I always wanted to have Snake Armor He-Man from the 200x line. Unfortunately, I’ve never seen one in stores, and apparently it only was sold in Europe.

When Mattel revealed the MOTUC version, as a double pack with 200x King Hsss…I was very surprised. Here is a company that has consistently said they weren’t going to do “anime stylized” figures. I, like everyone else interested, watched Pixel Dan’s video review…and I knew this would be my next purchase. Then came the big news of a 200x subscription line…I am still deciding on that. But I am very glad to know that they are visiting that old line and bringing new figures from the show that were never released, like Ceratus and Calix.

I ordered this as soon as it was available on February 16, and today it arrived on March 2. Not so good. Not that the amount of time the shipping took has anything to do with the value of the figure, but it is kind of a bummer that it took so long.

Anyways, on with the review!

The toys arrived in this mailer box. Similar to what we have seen in the past. You can see the names of the figures prominently on the front.

Removing the inner box from the mailer reveals this packaging. It is similar pakaging to what we got with the Palace Guard two pack. There is a Snake Men sticker conspicuously on the blister bubble.

Flipping the box over…wait a minute. (sniff sniff). What’s that (sniff sniff) smell?

I’ve heard of new car smell. And there is/was a blog or show on the web “That New Toy Smell.” But I never actually smelled a new toy outside of a toy that was supposed to smell. And I have to say, it isn’t very pleasant. It is a strong smell, that overcomes the packaging. I heard complaints on Roast Gooble Dinner podcast about some of the new plastic Mattel using smelling “like urinal cakes.” I wouldn’t quite describe this smell as that bad. It smells of chemicals, though. And like new paint.

Onto flipping the box.

We get some pictures of other snake men in the line, notably Tongue Lasher, my favorite Snake Man…until today!

The bios are interesting, and you can read them on your own time, Hub City Geeks. I am just throwing this packaging away. (As I type this, I am looking at the two figures on my kitchen table, and they continue to smell funny.)

Both figures are MAGNIFICENT! The sculpt of He-Man’s armor…what they’ve done with the concept is incredible! And there are lots of tiny details. He-Man is one of those figures I could stare at for a while and keep finding new things. King Hsss likewise, has a remarkable sculpt, and this time, they adapted the 200x look into his Armor instead of making a new buck, or whatever. Both figures feature loin cloths reminiscent of the 200x time period. King Hsss comes with a snake staff and a shield, just like the older version…

No shoulder swapping has been done to the new King Hsss! The older version has a certain nostalgia, but the newer version carries Egyptian details.

He-Man has received a new head sculpt, and this is what has people excited the most about getting these figures, I think.

No more fish-head haircut for He-Man Notice that there is a sword holder on his back, designed to hold the 200x sword!

He-Man also has the claw accessory that was prominently featured in the cartoon. It just clips right into his gauntlet.

He-Man and King Hsss have all of the articulation of other MOTUC figures: Ball jointed head, ball jointed shoulders, bicep swivels, rotating wrists, an ab crunch, rotating waist, ball jointed legs, knees with a hinge, and rocker ankles. Neither figure has a boot cut swivel, but that is generally unnecessary.

King Hsss’ head swivel is hampered by his headdress a little bit. Otherwise, all of the joints feel tight and the figures stand very nicely. I would like to point out that the loin cloth on both figures hampers their ability to ride on a steed…He-Man can’t properly ride Battle Cat (if you happened to get Battle Lion and armor swap.)

You can remove King Hsss torso and swap out with the snake form from the previous figure. Mattel is promising a 200x snake form to be packed with a different figure. I feel that the older snake form looks like a buck-toothed rabbit.

You can try trading He-Man’s head sculpt onto different figures, and vice versa. You can make a truly 200x regular He-Man now if you have King Grayskull’s armor. Or you could take the armor off of the 200x He-Man, and use that…it fits the classics figures just fine. (I don’t have these options available, sadly.)

But putting that 200x head on Prince Adam looks SWEET! He looks like some kind of model, don’t you think!

Here is a COMPARISON TIME: Wolf Armor He-Man 200x and Snake Armor He-Man MOTUC

Hsss’ staff and shield are given to us in muted colors this time. I especially like the staff in this color. It looks extra evil. And the darker colored shield is also better than the brighter shield we got before.

He-Man’s sword is the same as the other swords we have from 200x, but this time the cross on the hilt is highlighted in black. Some things are lacking in this department for He-Man.

Sure we have awesome new armor…(incidentally, non-removable armor). But Snake Armor He-Man needs a snake shield. He also needs a sword that can open up to fire the power of Grayskull at Serpos, like we saw in the final episode of the 200x series.

So what’s my rating?

I had a blast coming up with cool poses for each figure. They look absolutely awesome together. My favorite thing is the action pose you see above, where He-Man is fighting King Hsss. This armor lends makes you believe this figure is a real snake fighter!

But no way around it…I have to take off some for a couple of reasons. We didn’t get all we need with these figures. King Hsss missing his alt mode. He-man not having a transforming sword or a shield. And then there is that smell. That has to be enough to really effect some people’s fun.

But the positives really outweigh the negatives. The sculpts are amazing. The customizability that is opened up with these figures is also very nice. The figures are fun to play with and look at. I can’t say enough about all of the details. The paint is very intricate as well. This has to make up for some of the bad.

So I am going to rate this set a solid 3/5 or a cautious 4/5. If you are a fan of 200x, or just the snake men in general, then this product is for you. I mentioned above, this sculpt of King Hsss has promoted him to my favorite snake man. And I really like the part swapping options opened up with the new 200x head sculpt.

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Category Archives: Masters of the Universe Classics