Tag Archives: Masters of the Universe Classics

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 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 Snake Mountain Review part 1

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

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

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

Build Review part 2 (coming soon)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Masterverse 40th Anniversary He-Man- SpartanNerd unboxing and review

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I am going to take a moment away from Snake Mountain, which is slowly coming together, to review the 40th Anniversary He-Man I didn’t know existed. It was at Target, where I was looking for some Christmas presents for one of my sons. At $21.00 I decided this was a good purchase

Here are some pics for reference. The big one is the 40th anniversary He-Man. You can see the art on the back of the box, and how the cardboard tray can slide out revealing the blister with the action figure inside. You can also see my sealed 200x He-Man, and also my vintage He-Man. (Might be the re-issue. I know that the Grayskull door was mine from childhood.)

I have mostly avoided the Masterverse line of Masters of the Universe toys…The first wave, which featured He-Man and Skeletor, just threw me off. He-Man’s belt was colored too closely to his skin tone, making it seem like he had a “gut,” which just wasn’t right for the character of course. This one item, plus too much focus on the Revelation show just kept me from wanting it. It seemed to me right away that this line was going to be far inferior to the Masters of the Universe Classics line, which it was supposedly replacing.

Let me settle this up front: Mattel, Masters of the Universe Classics was the line of toys the fans deserved. It was a high bar that you set yourself. Now whatever you do that is pointed at adults has to match it. The Masterverse line does not match it. I have watched Scott Neitlich’s videos and I understand what is going on…that it was a small line aimed at collectors only and sold online. I get it. But you have set a gold standard as far as highly desirable action figures.

So now that I got my sermon posted, which they will surely never read or care about, here are my thoughts on this 40th anniversary figure.

This is my first purchase of a Masterverse figure. I have seen the boxes and all of the other figures, and thank you Mattel for giving us a good box for this one. The other figures in the Masterverse line come in boring and ugly blue boxes with plain text. But this box is not only great, it is collector friendly too! You can see from the above pic that you just open the top flap (mine had a little piece of tape) and slide the tray out. I was carefully able to remove the figure without damaging the bubble. I sold all of my MOTUC figures when I ran out of room. (This is where the funding came from that got me into the Mega line). If there is anything that this Masterverse line is doing better, it is this collector friendly package. On all of the MOTUC figures you pretty much had to destroy the package if you wanted to touch the figure. After selling the MOTCU collection, I have been collecting the Mega figures on card and also off card. This is economical enough, and helps me feel like a real collector. I have since picked up San Diego Comic Con She-Ra that had a similar collector box, and also GI-Joe Classified Cobra Commander. I am sad that in the instance of the 200x He-Man that I have on card he has to just stay on the card. (That figure seems to have come down in value recently. My box is in awful shape anyway. Notice my version is the more rare “cross” on the chest version.)

The figure looks OK in the box. Let’s get him out and play awhile.

He-Man comes with this: Power Harness (armor), Power Sword, Shield, and Battle Axe. He also comes with a fist hand and a chopping hand. I guess I should count the left hand Wrist Bracer that also comes off.

His articulation is pretty good. Shoulder, biceps, double jointed elbow, and wrist with a 360 rotation as well as a hinge for up and down. The hands just pop out of their socket, and as mentioned, the left hand bracer comes off which might help you to display him equipped with the shield. The classics version didn’t have the double jointed elbows…but…I’ll say in a minute.

He-man’s head has 360 rotation and can nod up and down. He has a torso that is more likely to bend backwards rather than ab crunch. (Remember what I said about the first Masterverse He-Man having a gut?)

You get a waist swivel, legs that come out to do a split, and now thigh cuts. Double-jointed knees, boot cut, and rocker and hinge ankles.

Go have a look at my review of MOTUC He-Man from 2013. Now let’s talk. The double-joints are supposed to be an improvement on the design. But they look bad. Also, the thigh cut doesn’t do anything for me. It is kind of similar to what we had with the female figures in the MOTUC line, where when you moved their waste, you had a flat surface that just “looked wrong.” The thighs here just look wrong. No other way around it.

The top left pic shows He-Man in the same pose as the artwork on the back of the box. (very nice art, by the way.). He has no trouble getting into this pose. The second pic shows a near-transformation pose. But can you see what I see? The arms are out of proportion. His hand is too long. This head sculpt has an unsettling facial expression. You can compare the original sculpt to the new one in the third pic. The original looked menacing. Barbaric. They have given him a more vertical head, larger eyes, and distinct eyebrows, making this He-Man appear less confident. And He-Man should exude confidence. You can really see this when posing the fist. This fist looks like Deadpool’s baby hand compared to the rest of the arm (don’t look it up if you don’t know). The backside pic shows off the way the sword fits in the harness, and the muscle flexshows the off-proportions. I will say, the furry shorts and boots have a nice wash. But there is a contrast between the molded plastic belt and bracers that seems incongruent.

He-Man goes back in the box nicely, where I think he will stay.

I didn’t have any trouble getting him back in the box. Here he is with my other carded Masters figures.

I think I believed this purchase would scratch the itch of collecting He-Mann figs again. In the box, maybe. But he just isn’t as inspiring as was the MOTUC figures were. I don’t think I am likely to remove him from this package again. Maybe when it snows.

So what do I rate this figure?

The packaging is a 5/5. The toy is about a 2/5. So this puts it in the 3/5 camp. You would think that a 40th anniversary figure would be a solid 5/5. It should be. At least it was affordable, unlike the Magic the Gathering 30th anniversary fake cards (60 fake cards for $1000). Thanks professor! I didn’t know this product existed, so it was kind of an impulse buy. I wonder if they will make a Skeletor. Surely they will. But I will probably pass on it.

UPDATE: I had a good look at the first release of the Masterverse He-Man today unsealed in a case in a store. This 40th anniversary figure has a MASSIVE chest in comparison.

ONE MORE THING: I was just moving the MEGA CONSTRUX Castle Grayskull to the top shelf…It crumbled. I guess I am taking even more of a commercial from Snake Mountain.