Category Archives: Masters of the Universe

Halloween Figure Haul- SpartanNerd’s first Mythic Legion

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Halloween always has been a good day, except for exactly one time out of 43. (SpartanNerd is 44…). That one time is enough to throw a wet blanket on the whole celebration. Without me getting to specific, Hub City Geeks, some years since this personal tragedy, I don’t do anything. One year I bought a new iPad with my mom. One year I paid some taxes and bought some donuts. This year I got my alignment tuned and then drove to the Toy Federation in Greer, South Carolina.

I am feeling a little burned on the Super7 Conan the Barbarian situation. I have five figures on order, and none of them set to ship until the Summer of 2024. Yep. King Conan and the throne were ordered on Christmas 2022, and won’t arrive until June 2024. This is irksome. And the Battle of the Mounds collection which I ordered earlier this year is set to ship at the same time. But I have a barbarian itch that needs to be scratched. So on October 30 I looked into it, and there are new Mythic Legions out there.

If you didn’t know, Mythic Legions is the Four Horsemen toy sculpture studios own line. I’ve never bought any because they are all a little bit generic to me, besides also they are quite pricey, and finally hard to find. For instance, I really want the Bird warriors that they came out with. They rarely appear on the secondary market, and when they do, you are looking at $200. Used. Opened. Played with. Etc. But they are so awesome!

What I found was on the Toy Federation Facebook page that they got in a ton of new Mythic Legion product. New at retail will definitely be an option on sad Halloween. So off I went.

Here is $40 worth of skeleton warrior. A simple package…or is it? What attracted me here was that big axe! And so shiny. Since I was in the market for barbarians, I could envision Conan taking out this guy, or him sneaking up behind him with that axe held up.

Examining the package, you can see a polybag on the inside. Mystery accessories? The box seems to be a card with DND style graphics. The bottom says Mythic Legions. (Just so you know, there are some sub-lines. Seventh Kingdom (animals), Gothitropolis, Cosmic Legions, and Figura Obscura (real-life)) But Mythic Legions is their main property.

Here is the back. This image looks like something from Elden RIng. (I am about to finish my first play through!). And one more thing, see how the plastic window wraps around. YES THIS IS COLLECTOR FRIENDLY PACKAGING!

You just flip out the bottom plastic tabs, and the cardboard back slides right out!

We got this message..

A good warning. I hate breaking my figures.

So what do we get in the polybag? shoulder pauldrons, a strap with a holder loop for the sword. The sword. The dagger, and another hunk of axe. What?

This axe is very modular! Outstanding! It turns out, that the figure is ALSO. I had no idea. Every part of the figure can be swapped with other parts from other figures in the Mythic Legions line. WOW! As for the axe, you can go with executioner style, barbarian style, or just style…the spike at the bottom is even swappable.

Here he is, completely decked out. He stands just fine. I had no problem getting him out of the blister. I decided to toss the blister…the collector friendly box will do just fine without it. The weapon fits nicely in his hands.

This is a big sword.

Time to get Vikor.

Vikor is my favorite subject to photograph. And this is great…the image to shine a little light on my Halloween.

So how does the Mythic Legion stuff work with other property.

First off, the head swap.

Vikor is a Masters of the Universe Classics figure, and his head joint is a little smaller than Mythic Legion skeleton army builder. It just sits loosely. But it does look very cool.

Masterverse Movie He-Man didn’t come with a battle axe. This axe fills that purpose terrifically. It didn’t stretch the hands either.

How hard is it to separate the pieces of the Mythic Legion Skeleton? Well, I had to apply some force. The neck joint is a separate piece, which was why I was first surprised at how each figure is meant to be completely swappable with other. Getting the torso off takes a good bit of pressure. I haven’t felt that I was about to break a piece. And after playing with it for awhile, the joints have become pleasant rather than stiff.

I also got some other figures…Raven Spawn and Anti-Spawn (Redeemer).

As I began to leave Toy Federation, I just glanced around for something else. And in the glass case they had several tall off-card figures, and one caught my eye.

The Anti-Spawn, also known a Redeemer is the subject of Spawn issue 16. I just read this a few days earlier, and that’s why I was drawn to it. $10. BOOM.

(Let’s be clear…Redeemer is the title, like Hellspawn is the title. Anti-Spawn is the name of this Redeemer. Spawn is the name of Al Simmons, the Hellspawn. Not confusing at all!)

I mean this is a used figure. The left wing is a little bit loose. He came with a stand, but he doesn’t really need it. (It is a just a round disc with the word Spawn on it and a foot peg.)

The man behind the counter incorrectly labeled Raven Spawn as Curse. Curse is a cyborg cult leader. Raven Spawn is someone forgettable from the comics. But…I didn’t even know it was a Spawn figure. I just thought it looked awesome! (Also $10!)

All the chains and the scythe. And the spikes. He doesn’t scream “bird” at all. The only color here, green necrogenic eyes.

These two figures are articulated like Marvel Legends figures.

Yep…He ripped the wing off…

These are both highly posable and well detailed. But taller than the other figures I have. The Marvel Legends I have…comic book Thor is terrible. Thanos is great. Deadpool (I can’t find him) is one of the top figures I have ever had. These are just like Deadpool, with less accessories.

Even after that paragraph…look how creepy Raven Spawn is in the shadow. Anti-Spawn looks exactly like he was ripped out of Spawn #16.

I believe These two were sold at Target or GameStop originally. I saw some Spawn figures there before, but felt they were too pricey or I wanted something different.

So what does the SpartanNerd rate all of this?

Mythic Legions Skeleton Army builder. 5/5. I mean the packaging graphically is a little weak, but it more than makes up for that shortfall with the collector friendly features. The figure is great, and I can totally be hooked on Mythic Legions. I am planning on what I will get next from that line!

The two extras I picked up. Anti-Spawn gets 4/5 on account of the weak wing. Raven Spawn is perfect. 5/5.

Do you have these figures, Hub City Geeks? What would you rate this Mythic Legion? Let me know in the comments!

Masterverse 1987 Movie Figures- He-Man and Skeletor SpartanNerd Unboxing and Review

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I remember going to see the 1987 Masters of the Universe movie. I would have been nine years old. But such a memory! We went as a family, mom and dad, me and my two brothers, and we ate at a cafeteria style restaurant. Back then we had a mall on the east side of Spartanburg, “Hillcrest Mall.” The same theater is there, but the mall is gone. I remember when the movie was over and we got out to eat at the place, my father expressing dislike for the movie, which was shocking to me. I thought it was great! I may have been experiencing a hype fantasy…not hard for an extreme fan like 9 year old SpartanNerd. I had most of the toys and watched the show every day. I got the magazine.

I remember this being a hard time…we were seeing less and less of the toys at the stores. I would keep getting some MOTU toys for a few years…when I was as old as eleven or twelve I got Tyrantisaurus Rex and Evil Lyn for Christmas, and was made fun of by my uncles. I didn’t care.

I just wanted to set the scene for you. We would eventually get the movie on BetaMax and I would watch a blurry copy a whole lot. Sure, when I was 13-16 years old, not much toy business for me. A few legos, and some models cars and things. But I remember clearly being a Senior in high school and getting on the internet for the first time. Our teacher said, “Go to Yahoo.com. There you can type anything you want and the internet will search for it.” And what did I type…”He-Man.” I found Adam Tyner’s page, or what must have been the beginning of fan pages, and ever since that is how I have stayed afloat. In college I took my Mosquitor toy with me. I have no idea what happened to it. But Masters of the Universe have been my jam.

Why this trip down memory lane?

I saw these on sale last week during the Comic Con…I saw it online of course. But Movie Skeletor had the ominous “Only a few left.” At $33 each, I didn’t want to miss out.

I didn’t get the Super7 MOTUC version of He-Man, and their Skeletor was God Skeletor from the final scenes of the movie. (Was there a MOTUC of regular Skeletor?) But these were so cool I couldn’t pass them up.

I don’t collect this line. I have mentioned a few times that I was immediately put off when I saw the first images of He-Man. And it isn’t as elegant of a line as the Masters of the Universe Classics. The only one I had before these was 40th Anniversary He-Man. I don’t have the Skeletor, but I picked up that figure at Target for $20. I was drawn to the packaging and just the 40th anniversery-ness of it. But these guys come in the “boring” packaging that is one of the things that put me off of this line.

But I might be evolving on that…I will need to have a look at some other boxes next time I make my unfortunate visit to the department store (probably Wal-Mart.)

The side of the boxes give us some images. I won’t say they are wonderful, but they could be worse. He-Man looks like a member of 1980’s hair metal band. Skeletor looks like the mascot for Iron Maiden or similar. He-Man DOES NOT resemble Dolph Lundgren in the art. (The other side of the package just has the name of the character.)

The two boxes on the back can combine to create a scene…this represents the Great Eye of the Galaxy. Or something like that from the movie, where Skeletor is about to open up the power of Grayskull. As a piece of comic book art, this is great. I was about to throw this box away…instead I am going to cut off the back of the boxes. This would be a great poster. HINT HINT MATTEL!!! And at this point, isn’t this rare official art? The last official movie art we had would have had to have been Erle Norem’s work from the magazine, or maybe some movie posters.

LET’S LOOK AT HE-MAN

The inside of the box isn’t bad either. This rock texture makes for a good diorama. Here is what comes with He-Man. This figure boasts of 30 points of articulation, and it’s true. But it isn’t pretty. You can see the joints all over the place. He-Man comes with two knives (sheathed in the picture), a lazer pistol (in the holster), the power sword, two extra fists, and a classic toy sculpted head.

I remember after seeing the movie that my mom was concerned about a couple of things. The cursing, and He-Man used a gun a good bit of the movie, which was uncharacteristic of the character. We had toy guns, GI Joes, Transformers, but she didn’t like us playing with them. But our uncles kept giving us stuff…You can see that He-Man has no problem getting into this classic lazer gun pose. You can see the armor on his legs…this is sculpted on. It has good details on it. Very busy. What do you think about this head sculpt? Does it resemble Dolph to you? Not to me. You can tell they were trying really hard to capture his likeness. But it just isn’t quite there.

These two knives…I don’t think He-Man used these in the movie? The one on the boot keeps coming up. It is from an early He-Man design, and it must have been present in the movie version. The one on his belt seems superfluous. But I guess He-Man is “EXTRA” like that. Notice the cape. It is soft goods. It reminds me of old Batman toy capes. Just a note, it was taped to the blister card in the box, and I was freaked out a little removing it…I was afraid I would tear it. The pauldrons on the shoulders don’t hinder the articulation much, but his joints are very tight. His shoulder joint is massive, and I was worried I would break something in moving it around. But he is tougher than you think. I am uncertain what the design on the center of the chest is or on the belt. A dragon? A tornado? A lightning bolt?

You can evoke a more cartoon vibe by putting on the fist hand and the classic head. Once again, this looks a little bit too…something. Naive? Oblivious? Is he smiling? Is he talking? To me there is something about this head sculpt that takes away from the character of He-Man. Maybe he seems too “soft” or something. I will also say, this is the same “baby hand” fist that we got with the 40th anniversary figure. (Comparison below. Notice that 40th anniversary has a much larger chest.)

And I guess I have to show this off too.

The sword goes through a look at his neck, and the point end fits in a scabbard on the bottom under the cape. Why not a whole scabbard? Maybe this is what the movie props did? I don’t know? You can see that the armor is removable. They missed an opportunity here to put some stripes on his back from Blade’s Lazer whips. Then I would be inclined to remove the armor!

LET’S LOOK AT SKELETOR

Skeletor comes with what you see here. The Havoc Staff, a dark version of the same sword as He-Man, the Cosmic Key, and a fist and a chopping hand. Was this sword in the movie? I guess I need to go back and watch again. Pay attention SpartanNerd!

Skeletor’s articulation. isthe same as He-Man’s, but there is a problem…The Samurai armor that he has hanging down is stiff and so Skeletor can’t be on his knees. Which is fitting…Skeletor kneels for no one!

You can’t do much with the Cosmic Key. But it looks nice. It really can’t be held and doesn’t have anywhere to hang on Skeletor’s belt like it did in the movie.

Here we can compare the two swords. I guess they are similar, but they are. a little bit different at the hilt.

The sculpt of Skeletor is terrific! You can remove his head, but the hood remains attached. Under that is the ribbon chain, and under that is shoulder armor, and the soft goods cape…all removable. There are bone details sculpted onto the chest armor. Like He-Man, I can’t make out what the symbols on the armor are. The missed opportunity here is another hoodless Skeletor head, so we can do the post-credit’s scene “I’ll be back!” (Of course this turned out not to be true…very sad.)

So how does the SpartanNerd rate this sort-of impulse purchase?

Like I said, Skeletor is just about perfect as far as a sculpt. He-Man misses the mark as far as Dolph Lundgren goes…but the rest of him is pretty good. He-Man is very articulated, but you can see every joint in exposed detail, which is unsightly. Skeletor’s sculpt is so busy that you don’t see the seams so much.

There were missed opportunities on both figures. A hoodless head for Skeletor, and stripes on He-Man’s back.

The packaging was surprising. The art is good, but He-Man looks a little too “Motley Crue” to me. The scene on the back is epic…it reminds me of the big Todd McFarlane splash pages. (But no art is as good as McFarlane’s! Well…Maybe Norem’s.)

I felt like I had good value. I am going to go with 5/5!

The SpartanKid (College kid now….) He said “What other figures like this would you get. There is no market.” I disagree!

Give me a Kevin, Julie (Courtney Cox fans rally!), Music Store Guy, Lubbock, Movie Man-At Arms, Movie Teela, Movie Sorcerous (old crone!), Movie Evil Lyn. Surely there will be a Karg, a Movie Beast Man, a Saurod, a Blade, and a Gwildor. Maybe a dark shock trooper with a flying disc. Maybe even a Robbie’s Ribs cow!

Are you as enthusiastic as me, Hub City Geeks? Do you own these? Are you into the 1987 movie? Let me know in the comments!

Mega Snake Mountain Review part 2

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This is the third part of a huge review.

Part 1- Packaging and Minifigures (Click)

Part 2- “Section One” (Click)

Part 3- “Section 2” and final thoughts (You are here!)

I mentioned in the Part 2 review that this is a “daunting” project. I kept putting it off. I actually figured it would snow some during the school year, but that never materialized, and so a lot of the projects I would work on never happened. But this one…the first part took hours and hours. And I knew this part would also. Throw in that this is my least favorite looking piece of Snake Mountain, and it finally just took me getting tired of the box taking up all the room in the closet.

This build took about 10-12 hours. I would work on it for 1.5-3 hours and then stop. (I would take brief breaks to do normal things, of course. I mention the box was taking up my space. I ultimately decided to throw it away. I kept some of the more “diarama”-ish pieces, which is why you see the build sitting on the black and gray “brick” packaging. Going forward with vehicles and such, this will be nice! I saw someone on FaceBook used HeroClix floor pieces to fill out their displays, and that looked fantastic! Using the box this way gives a similar vibe I think. The other thing…I used a large poster board we had sitting around as a backdrop. It is kind of beaten up and has a conspicuous label on the side, but I blurred that out in case anyone was wondering what that was about.

I have never been a big fan of the “face” on the vintage toy Snake Mountain. As a kid it was kind of confusing to me that the Filmation version had such a radically different design. All these years later, in order to make the most fans happy, they have amalgamated the designs. I don’t dislike it. But I still am not a fan that stupid face. As a kid I think I supposed it to be a snake…only the ugly face we can see. As an adult I learned that it was supposed to be a demon face. Well…it is a stupid face either way. It has a lever that you can used to open and close the mouth to make it “speak,” but I thought it more fun to have it eat Ram Man.

Up at the top where He-Man is being eaten, I still don’t know if that is a rat or a wolf. The original toy featured a removable microphone “voice changer.” This is still removable, and you can move its mouth also.

I like to joke about the Battle Bones having a “secret action feature.” One or two of the claws, they just launch off! I guess it is the type of plastic, the thickness of the pieces. But usually when I move it around, I lose some toes. Well, the back cheeks of the rat/wolf also have this problem. Eventually, not really caring as they aren’t that necessary of pieces, I just took them off.

I’m getting ahead of myself! What about the build.

I almost had a seizure when I saw the discoloration on these bricks. The SpartanWife decided I shouldn’t complain…it was probably on purpose. Turns out she was correct! Easily some of the most rewarding Mega building I have ever done was the lava slide!

You can take a flashlight of some kind and shine it behind and it makes a really cool glowing effect! The way the pieces are layered is also very fun and satisfying. The mix of translucent yellow/orange, opaque red, plus those unsightly paint splotches are what makes this work. (Isn’t the bridge a cool feature. And it is designed to break down like this also!)

Fans will sure get the picture reference of the above!

I don’t have pics of the other two sections alone. But the lava slide was just fun!

As you can see, there is a nice stairway going in front of the face that leads up to the bridge that crosses the lava slide. There is a ledge with shackles…actually a piece of the vintage design that I had forgotten about! In order to get a minifigure on it correctly, you pretty much have to take the chains off and attach to the arms, and then put them back on the wall. Beneath the ledge there is a false wall so that prisoners can bust out! It has a much better switch to cause it to open than the ones that came with Grayskull.

There are lots of pink squirel-ly things and a couple of “faces of evil,” as well as pink horns all over the place making this place into a corny, campy, obvious base for bad guys. One of the problems I had more than once in both sections of this build was getting the “faces of evil” to work. I wound up adding a round or square stud piece in several instances to make them fit. (You can’t tell I added a piece.)

Let’s look at the inside.

We have a jail. (Guess who is inside…) Filmation’s magic table. (Notice I placed Filmation-type figures around it. You don’t get more 1980’s than this!). A ladder leading from the top floor. The top floor also has the computer, which I think was in the vintage toy (maybe?). And the bone throne!

I love that more is going on here than in the vintage playset, where there was nothing but a hollow shell.

The magic table. This is the most worthy item! And the bone throne! If you watched the unfortunate “Some Kind of Monster” rockumentary about Metallica’s “St. Anger” disaster, I think I remember Kirk Hammet having a similar item. He said he likes to sit on it and think. In Filmation, we saw Skeletor sit on this quite often. I love the design…so evil! I like how Super7 made one for their MOTUC Snake Mountain, and was positively envious as it would be something I would never have. But this is great for Mega! Now, I do have a complaint. There is almost no floor space in front of the chair.

The throne rests on some flat gray pieces that have a single stud, so it is easy to take it out to set in other places or on other playsets. Traditional Skeletor works better. (Hub City Geeks, do you think this havoc staff is a darker color than the carded one?)

Notice that we have the correct stand for Screech also. It is red, and he (she?) has dark blue or black feet. Sorry, the SpartanNerd isn’t great with colors!

Thoughts on the whole set.

When you put it all together, it is massive!

You can store your figures in here. But there isn’t really that much room. For instance…

By the way, the instructions state that this table is supposed to lock in here. NO WAY! It doesn’t, and I don’t want to.

Ultimately, in the interest of space, I am going to keep it on display like this…

The table, the throne, and the sarlacc pit monster are ultimately cool pieces to use anywhere. I don’t recommend relying on this castle to stay locked together as you move it around. Remember, the SpartanNerd has dropped Castle Grayskull and had rebuild it. On the other hand, the pieces here are very tight. Almost unreasonably tight. The little pink horns and teeth and such…those things break off very easily. But also, that is an area where you kind of have artistic liberty also if you wanted to change them around.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I mentioned I might have to think twice about building an Eternia three towers or Fright Zone on account of some of the frustrations I had with building this set. But if you have been reading my blog, then you know I already have Eternia tower. In other words, it wasn’t bad enough to deter me from getting it.

The box got on my nerves enough to finally toss it out.

Do I regret this castle? Not really. As a Mega set, it has its quirks. The pieces not fitting together well, or fitting together TOO well. For. the price, looking back, I know I gave the minifigs a 5/5. I can stand by that, but why didn’t this set come with more? Where are the Snake Men? Why did we get another Evil Lyn?

In total, it probably took 24 hours to build this set. Your mileage may vary. I am an adult with the responsibilities of jobs and a family, and do other things also to be entertained. Some things have to give sometimes, and Section 2 of Snake Mountain kept getting procrastinated in favor of spending time with my wife, playing Magic the Gathering with my son, building other sets, playing with my dogs, fishing, etc. When I began building section 2, it sat on the kitchen table taking up everyone’s space for several days.

I guess I am saying, this was probably too much. There are complaints that the new Eternia Tower is too small…even I said this. But looking back after building this behemoth, I don’t think I want anymore sets this large. It is too tedious, and I think Mattel/Mega believes the same thing.

Let’s consider $300…and. it has been almost 365 days since it first arrived.

The packaging was a fail.

The selection of minifigures…Dragonblaster Skeletor (Great), Thunder Punch He-Man (Great), Ram Man (Great), Webstor (Great), Trap Jaw toy colors (should have been available apart from the set), Evil Lyn (meh), Screech (OK I guess. Why can’t we have open wings?). Snake Men (MIA). Skelcons (MIA).

(Rather than a Battle Cat large set build, they should give us Zoar and Screech. That would be worthy!)

The Filmation Side was terrific.

The more toy accurate side had a cool lava slide and terrific accessories.

A lot of hours of work. I am going to give the whole set a 3.5/5. Why the decimal? I believe there is alot of fun ahead with this set. I already have plans to make a comic! But the build was daunting, tedious, and lengthy, perhaps moreso than the feeling of accomplishment when it was done. More like “I’m glad I am finally finished.” I know I am old and such, but who is this marketed towards? The mid 30’s to mid 40’s crowd. I am optimistic that I will really enjoy it as a part of my almost complete set (Battle for Eternia II is hard to get). This piece is essential to having a complete set on account of the minifigures and on account of being a Masters of the Universe fan.

Thanks for reading if you did follow all of this! Do you agree with my 3.5/5 rating? Let me know in the comments or let me know of FaceBook!

Mega Eternia Tower- Attak Trak and Mini Figures. SpartanNerd review

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The Eternia Towers. As a child I only dreamed of this set. I knew of it from the toy catalogue in 1987? and also from the mini-comics. (Here is a picture below.). In person I have only seen this toy one time, at the Toy Federation in Greer, SC. And it is truly a marvel. HUGE! Which is why the size of this set is a little bit of a downer.

Now I am NOT building the tower yet. I figure I would wait until I got all three pieces. Surely Grayskull Tower and Viper Tower will come out before Christmas this year. Just up front, this set looks to be smaller than the vintage set was.

Instead I was super excited that we finally got the Attak Trak! I don’t have much of a nostalgia connection to the tower. But the Attak Trak, now we are talking! I might have skipped this set if it weren’t for that specific vehicle.

But first, the packaging. This is one of the best boxes in awhile. (Pictured at the top). It features the Eternia Tower prominently, and shows off the mini figures with an illustrated vibe. You also can see the Attak Trak. Important…it also shows paintings of Grayskull Tower and Viper Tower, as well as Castle Grayskull and Snake Mountain. Eternia Tower is supposed to be a place of balance between good and evil. (I think this is the original lore anyway.). I heard sometime awhile back that the intention was to create a Grayskull 2.0. This set was to feature a piece of Grayskull and Snake Mountain, both of which were out of production but demand was expected to go up with the movie and all in 1987. The Eternia Tower story was to launch off new property, He-Ro and the Masters of Preternia, or something like that.

The sides and the back of the box are terrific, featuring retro blueprint types of designs in red. I can’t express how great I thought this was! And this box is much smaller than Grayskulls or Snake Mountains. Of course, this set is alot less pieces though.

Now for the figures.

We got Battle Armor He-Man. This is the same as the one we got before (I am going to show comparisons on all of the duplicates.). The only difference is this armor has the one scratch on it.

We got Webstor. This is the same Webstor from Snake Mountain, but with a darker color scheme (hard to tell in the photo) and also a larger lazer.

I couldn’t help but do an Erle Norem reference. We get Buzz Off. I prefer Buzz Off without the helmet. It seems I lost it when I was a kid, and kind of forgot about it until I was an adult. But he came with it, and his little axe also. This is the first Buzz Off we have had, and so Clawful and Whiplash couldn’t be too far behind soon… (They use the same chest piece and monster legs.)

And finally, Ninjor. This guy is a walking weapons rack! He comes with a bow and arrow, a katana, and nunchuks. Admittedly, this character wasn’t one I had as a kid. I have expressed that I had about 80% of Masters of the Universe stuff as a child. But Ninjor just wasn’t one of them. I don’t know much about the character either. I remember Jitsu quite well, and am surprised that we haven’t seen him yet to balance out Fisto.

I went ahead and built the weapons rack/computer system.

We have been given so many different weapon racks. But this one is different. the computer on one side…I just am not familiar enough with the Eternia Tower set to know if this was part of the original toy. I like how the graphics on there show the three towers. I almost think of it as a charging station for the Attak Trak. The weapons are in bright orange, and frankly I don’t really like that.

Here is some comparisons with other weapons racks we have from this line.

Here is a comparison with a Skeletor Head computer.

All of this is pretty consistent. On to the Attak Trak!

As a child, this was my FAVORITE vehicle. It ate the C batteries…that was the problem. But I loved it from the cartoon (which was more of a big talking van) and I loved the toy with the awesome treads to run stuff over.

Those blue things on the side were always a puzzle to me. Were they supposed to be guns? I never could tell, and really almost can’t tell now. It has a rocket design on it, so maybe a missle launcher?

They included nice vintage printed blocks to go where the stickers would be, just like they did with the Battle Ram.

On the vintage toy, figures could grab the handle basically with the same design as the battle ram. Here we don’t get that option. It just has some studs that stick off to the side and nothing for the figures to grab. The wheels work exactly like the vintage toy. Which is super fantastic. You have to push it yourself, of course. But it is a genius design.

In Masters of the Universe Classics, we got a few vehicles. Roton, Battle Ram, Wind Raider. But they skipped the Attak Trak. And that was actually truly shameful. I don’t even think we have had any Attak Trak re-dos or analogues since the 1980s. I don’t own a single Masters of the Universe Origins figure. But if they come out with a new Attak Trak, I bet I am the first to get it!

And now you know how this story will play out…

Here is a bug theme setup, Buzz Off vs. Monstroid.

Well, I rate the Attak Trak a solid 5/5. I think it is weak to give us another Battle Armor He-Man and another Webstor. Ninjor is cool, but doesn’t really belong in my head. Buzz off is terrific.

They need to give us more mini figures. You all know what. I really want. It is that Battle for Eternia II set. But no one has it. So….

MASTERVERSE Comics Collection

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I finally got the Cover B of issue 2, so now I have a complete collection of Masters of the Universe MASTERVERSE comics.

I am going to discuss in a little bit of detail my feelings about these, so there will be spoilers. I am going to leave some dead spaces for your protection, readers!

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So the MASTERVERSE comics start off with a rather weak and throw-away connecting story. Zodac has visited the Sorceress to discuss the balance of the universe, and how He-Man might be unnecessary or dangerous. She shows him the Nexus of Realities, which looks like a portal crossed with some kind of screen, and they watch He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and their consequences across a variety of settings.

Which encapsulates what they have been trying to do with this brand recently, doesn’t it? They are trying to kind of say, “It doesn’t have to be what you remember it being.” The prevailing stories that people have are Filmation and Mini-Comics. I would say the movie, New Adventures, 200x, box art, and others are out there, but not the main stories that people have. Mattel wants to skew this view maybe as marketing, maybe as philosophy…who knows.

Issue 1 is one of my favorites! Prince Adam and Orko have ventured into the forest or something, and they are attacked by Webstor, Batros, and finally Scare Glow. And you keep thinking, “Why doesn’t he change?” It is like he is putting it off, or hesitating. Finally, as Scare Glow has him down, he transforms by saying “By the horror of Grayskull!” into…”Castle Grayskull Man!” What? And then he beats down scareglow and absorbs his soul. The final panel shows Castle Grayskull with shining eyes, and there is narrative saying “The castle must feast again.” or similar.

This is a FREAKY angle. I loved it!

The second story is based on the art and style of Groo the Wanderer. I have never read that comic before, but I could just kind of tell the gist of what it might be like to read it by the cover art. So…This is basically a newspaper comic strip style of story. It is told with slapstick elements…He-Man and Skeletor are just goofballs. It ends with them playing video games together…I mean. I think it is cute. But it just isn’t for me.

Issue 2 both surprised and disappointed me.

The first story, the surprise, is a pirate story. Basically General Adam is leading the ship on a treasure hunt to find the power sword. Keldor is the one who had the king send them, and you can tell he has the king hypnotized. Sending Adam away served two purposes…get him out of the way of the usurping scheme, and then either have Adam killed on the journey, or he comes back successfully and gives up the treasure. This story presents us with Jitsu as a prisoner who knows how to access the island, and we get a sympathetic look at him. This was something different and nice. Essentially a monster destroys the ship and kills everyone on board, but Adam saves Jitsu and swims to shore, dragging him and cursing about the giant metal hand. When he finds the sword, he transforms, and then it is revealed Keldor’s true intentions, for the Power Sword reveals what its potential users would do with it.

The second story is the one that disappointed me. Here is why…Cover B shows a character. It is a noir style drawing, and that is fine. I thought it must be EXTENDAR. Look at what you see there.

That mask looks like Extendar’s mask. And so I thought maybe we would have a rare Extendar Story. Nope…it’s dust Man At Arms. This story presents Duncan as a detective, with Evil Lyn as his lady sidekick/secretary/lover? We get a glimpse that both of them have been exiled from their team of good guys or bad guys. This story doesn’t even have He-Man or Skeletor in it…Orko comes in saying he cast a spell that made Kind Randor disappear, and so he created a fake Randor to prevent alarm. But his imperfect copy says “meow.” Evil Lyn brings him his “tools” so he can collect evidence, and he finds an orange hair on Orko. So of course they go to a bar to find Beast Man. (Of course in this noir style they had to visit a bar). It is Trap Jaw’s bar, and all the bad guys are there, but they don’t seem very healthy, and they are drinking to forget how bad things have become without Skeletor. They also accuse Evil Lyn of being a traitor. So Man-At-Arms kicks all their butts. Evil Lyn chases Beast Man outside where it is discovered that he is high and hallucinating the good ole days from inhaling magic fumes that shouldn’t be there. So detective Duncan figures it out. There are unstable dimensional portals popping up because of “overuse.” The magic fumes were transported to outside the bar from wherevere their origin was. Man-At-Arms figures out that another portal must have done the same thing, causing Orko to hallucinate that the king was missing. And that Beast Man must have been there by accident, wandering between the locations using the portals while hallucinating himself. Oh yes, Duncan also implies that Evil Lyn might have had some hand in that portal being open like that, just so they could get some business. Meaning they are in cahoots flim-flamming people!

Really, a dumb story. The last noir Masters of the Universe story we had was SO GOOD. It was the one where Evil Lyn seduces the guy to get the Eye of Grayskull. Hub City Geeks…look this story up. It is terrific! I believe it was a web-only DC comic, setting up the New 52 He-Man books. That story was one of the best Evil Lyn stories, but also in that black and white style, it was wonderful. The story presented in MASTERVERSE is just dumb.

The third issue was probably the darkest of them all. Story one presents an “end of time” story, where Teela and her unicorn (this keeps coming up…that she rides a unicorn…an artifact from the original minicomics) are lone survivors. That great wars have come and gone, and the world is savage. She happens upon a lynching. Beast Man is tied to a stake to be executed. She starts to not intervene, but then her “ancestor spirits” tell her she must. These include Veena from 200x, and other former sorceresses. So she attempts a rescue, but as she begins to be successful, out of nowhere Savage He-Man attacks her! She comments that they are equal combatives, but she outsmarts him with a headbutt. When she is about to kill him, she is warned that she must not, that he is essential to the survival of the universe. Beast Man came to this world to find her because as a shaman, he also has ancestor spirits that told him to seek out the two of them.

The second story is highly enjoyable. But so dark. I became interested in this artist…David Rubin. He publishes something called “Ether.” This one is a riff on Thor. He-Man is with his drunk viking friends Ram Man, Man-E-Faces, and Stratos. They are adventuring around looking for their next drink, when they happen upon Skeletor about to sacrifice The Temple of Darkness Sorceress in a pit of fire. He is doing this to obtain more power apparently, and holds the Sword of Chaos. He-Man just says, “Oh Well. Not our problem!” though the other drunken masters believe they should intervene. They all set up camp and get into a fight over some beer that Ram Man had stashed in his armor. Obviously He-Man won the fight, and got drunk and passed out. When he woke up, he found the Masters were gone. He followed their tracks back to Skeletor, where he found them dead or dying. They implored him that he must save her! He-Man goes into a black rage and recounts being banished by Randor, (as he was once Adam Randorson,) and then beats Skeletor down and takes the sword. He actually catches the blade and rips it out of Skeletor’s hands, and beats him with the hilt, causing him to fall into the fire he was trying to use for the sacrifice. It turns out that the Sorceress could have left the whole time, as she was an astral projection. This all happened so that He-Man could wield and contain the power of the Sword of Chaos and save the universe.

I like both of these stories, especially the viking one. He-Man and the Drunken Masters of the Universe is a very strange twist for the story. (I mean…it is Thor and the Warriors Three, right?)

And the final issue. This issue doesn’t so much seem like a Masterverse presentation as it is a re-assertion of more recent stories. One thing both stories have in common, however is “We have the power!” I really just can’t bear the Netflix designs, the story pacing and dialogue, the character portrayals…None of it. To me it is just awful. I don’t even want to try and explain it here. I got a headache just reading it, similar to watching “Transformers, Dark of the Moon.” The other is a He-Force story. The He-Force was given to us at the end of the comic series “He-Man and the Masters of the Multiverse.” They are kind of a Justice League made of He-warriors from different universes…Hence “The Multiverse.” It is notable that the first thing we see in this story is He-Sol beating Skeletor in what appears to be a movie accurate Eternia. (He-Sol is basically the African American He-Man). He gets called away from this fight to join the rest of the He-Force to take on a Red Menace. It turns out to be Multiverse Modulok becoming inter-dimensionally present (They even call him Megabeast) as well as his brain, and this is causing everyone to be on his side to take over all universes. The original He-Man, dressed in his New 52 end of series armor, says that the He-Force has to give him his power back so that he can take out Modulok. This happens out of the story, where we see He-Man meet with Zodac and the Sorceress, as Modulok comes in to attack. And it is over pretty much in one punch.

Ok. The He-Force. I am not against it. I think all of the characters in it are interesting. Why can’t we have individual comics detailing each one by themselves?

I’m proud of my complete collection. Now i need to get some of them signed!

Mega Construx MOTU Custom War Sled

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What got me started on this was this image that I took when I picked up the McFarlane toys Cy-Gor and wanted some pics. I got this one with MOTUC Man-At-Arms on the MOTUC Battle-Ram. And so I was messing with the filters in Apple Photos, and this color scheme came up. And instantly, I thought…this looks like the enemy version of the battle ram! The “War Sled.” (As opposed to “Sky Sled.)

I don’t remember how long ago this was. At some point between taking this photo (August 20, 2020) and selling off my MOTUC toys, I picked up two Battle Ram Mega Construx sets. It became my intention to make one of them “evil” in purple. After all, the set comes with a griffon head and a serpent head. They encouraged us to use our options!

Basically I just bought some purple-flake spray paint. I taped up all of the parts that have stickers and removed the wheels. And sprayed away. I had alot of success with crimson flake on the Gundam Epyon model, and I knew this was the effect I wanted.

I only recently really began to paint things. I felt like it turned out pretty good.

You can compare the original with the purple one. I couldn’t do anything with the round control panel. I thought I might use some warhammer brushes on it or something. But in the end, I decided just to take it off. It looks more evil this way in my opinion. I mean, maybe the evil warriors are driving the old model. Or maybe they want to pollute, and that thing on the good one is some kind of environmental control. Or maybe (more likely) the Battle Ram is a relic of the old world, and Man-At-Arms has improved upon the design, while the bad guys just get the clunker model. I believe that part underneath to be some kind of turbine from an earlier non-motu set.

The War Sled vs. the Jet Sled. I really need to get some flight stands.

What about the “ram” side?

How about this for an impromtu battle scene!

I am encouraged by the customizing scene for Mega Blocks. For instance, you can find all kind of mixed recipes to make characters and sets. What I mean is, people mix and match Mega Blocks, and Mega doesn’t seem to care. Lego, well, it seems like they care alot. In this case, painting a common, readily available set was cool. There is a more green version out there…I should try and make that sometime. Hey maybe I’ll make one with a long seat, like from the He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special!

(Image from Awesomer Than Thou.)