Tag Archives: Masters of the Universe MEGA

Skeletor’s Throne

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Skeletor’s throne…

I remember watching the Filmation show as a kid, and wondering why we didn’t get this throne with Snake Mountain. It was clearly awesome, and Grayskull came with a chair. What was the deal? I didn’t ponder too much, though. I was just a kid!

As an adult fan, who was watching the 200x Mike Young production show, I noticed Skeletor’s throne was massive. Ridiculous, actually. Such were the times of the early 2000’s, when Dragon Ball Z and similar were the flavor.

With Masters of the Universe Classics, people were making custom bone-thrones for their figures to sit on. These looked so cool, but the ones for sale required a wait time, and you talk about something pricey too.

And then…and OFFICIAL Classics throne for Skeletor came with the Super7 Snake Mountain. The very final MOTUC product. And at that price tag ($700?) no way did it feel the SpartanNerd was ever going to have this thing. And people weren’t selling the pieces off of the gigantic Super7 thing.

BUT…a little tease. The MEGA Snake Mountain came with one! (Sigh)

So to actually have this MASTERVERSE Skeletor with a throne is pretty incredible. Watch the video below to see my unboxing and packaging commentary.

UNBOXING (Also includes Movie Beast Man, review soon)

I took the box cutter to that top box and got the art pieces off to take pictures. This is great stuff!

REVIEW OF SKELETOR

Here is everything you get in the box

  • Skeletor figure
  • Alternate hands…one punching the other open.
  • The Havoc Staff
  • Armor with cape attachment
  • Removable hood

Maybe this next photo will explain this a little more

Skeletor getting ready for…church…

This is exactly the same figure we got with New Eternia Skeletor (Viking). It just has different, arguably better paint. But this head is different. And as far as I know, this is the first non-hooded, bare-boned Skeletor head. The New Adventures design had techno parts. There is also an articulated jaw.

I hear a prominent fan criticizing this head sculpt as appearing to be a chimpanzee skull. And then taking a hair dryer to it. DON’T DO IT! This is by design. Go back and read some of those early Alcala mini comics. I always felt that some of those Skeletor designs of his had that protruding top mouth part, and it looks very chimp-y. But that was how he drew it.

The only criticism I have here then is the one I have gradually gotten from the other New Eternia Skeletor. His left leg is loose at the boot cut and thigh cut. And they didn’t fix it for this offering…his is already loose and he has some trouble standing on two feet.

INTERLUDE

Mattel seemed to celebrate this product just a little bit. Check out the covers of this month’s comic!

So I decided to make a photo of the green cover using the figure. I had the SpartanWife paint his nails. I am not showing this, but when I removed his battle harness, there was purple “bleed” left on his back. It was faint, but it looks like I am seeing some of these kinds of issues recently.

The photo turned out pretty good. I took off the armor and hood, laid the figure on some “green glass”. And placed a green gel in front. I shone a flashlight on it and the surprise imperfections in the gel plastic film made the image extra good.

REVIEW OF SKELETOR’S THRONE.

It didn’t take long for me to assemble it. The diorama card was the hardest part…I had to cut some of the tabs off of the bottom. They come with a design that isn’t supposed to disassemble once put together. But that didn’t suit my storage needs.

But as I stepped back and took a look at it…Then back at the instructions and some promo images…The skull head on top is TOO TALL. We are led to believe the back wall is taller than the chair. NOPE.

So you can see, I had to put some black cardstock from other packaging up behind the head to get proper photos.

You can see the furry seat cushion, and this is a solution to a problem. If you have been following the SpartanNerd blog, then you know that King Conan’s throne can’t be properly sat in by MASTERVERSE figures, making me worry about this. That seat cushion disguises the awkwardness of their butt not being perpendicular to the chair. Cool solution, Mattel! There are also foot pegs on the platform under the chair, so you can peg him in for even more stability.

Here is some more description. Look near He-Man’s feet. Two alien insect skulls with antennae. There are these mandibular halves with teeth coming up beside the throne…this must be the jawbones of wyvyrns. And no way around it…that is a demon skull on top.

…Let’s be real for a minute. Why did Bob Jones University types protest He-Man and the Masters of the Universe as being demonic back in the 1980’s?…

On the back side of the throne there are two stands made of cobra snakes where you can place the Havoc Staff and the Staff of Ka. These are rubbery, and press down and spring back to shape when you load the weapons for display.

Skeletor SHOULD HAVE come with a Staff of Zoar. That has to be what Mattel was going for with the lighting effect. Orange for Zoar, green for Ka, and blue for Havoc. Each a type of magic presented on the Revolution cartoon. But you can give him the Sorceress’s staff. It is too small, but it works.

I swapped the head for this New Eternia (Viking) alternate head. This has been my main Skeletor head, until now…

At first I thought the lighting effect was broken on mine. I put some batteries from the junk drawer in, so I swapped them with new ones from the store, and it still wasn’t working right. I would hit the switch, and it would turn on orange. But it wouldn’t change colors. I walked away for a day to think about it.

I recently had a QC issue with Mattel regarding Sy-Klone. (Review yet to come!) Essentially, they listened to my complaint and offered me a Mekanek to replace him (complimentary) or my money back. I didn’t want to go through this again with the much larger and more expensive Havoc Throne. I didn’t want them to say I was defrauding them or something. I thought…”I can fix this. And if I can’t, I’ll call them then.” So I got to work. I removed the bottom screws, and that was it…it worked! I put them back in loosely and haven’t had any trouble since. Evidently the screws were too tight or something. If you have trouble with yours, try my fix.

You can watch the lighting effect by clicking this link

LINK TO VIDEO OF LIGHTING EFFECT.

You can see I went ahead and cut up the box so I could make a larger display. Evil Lyn, Beast Man, Mer-Man, Panthor, and Screech look on as Skeletor charges his Havoc magic.
Here is Mythic Legions (NOT!) Demistros sitting on the bone throne, energizing the Staff of Ka. His giant devil head looks like it might be a brother to the one on the top of the chair.
And here’s Black Falcon, holding the Staff of Zoar which would surely be his weapon of choice.

SPARTANNERD RATING OF NEW ETERNIA SKELETOR AND HAVOC THRONE

I have to take this objectively. Subjectively, I am really, really happy to have this thing. I have basically all of the bad guys now, and this throne pulls them together on display. (I don’t have Screech or Panthor. My Whiplash is a compromise. Review coming soon!)

Anyway. Objectively.

Skeletor’s new head with an articulated jaw and removable hood is excellent. His new purple and gold paint details are also very good on the battle harness and cape armor. This is also metallic purple paint on the Havoc Staff that matches his armor. This figure didn’t come with any other new accessories, and is in fact exactly like the New Eternia (Viking) Skeletor that we already had, take away the Viking skull and classic head. The packaging is nice, and is slightly different than what is on the cover box, featuring the battle harness instead of the cape armor (I didn’t point that out in the video.)

I gave the original New Eternia Skeletor a 4/5, taking off a point for loose leg joints. It is the same here with this “new” New Eternia Skeletor. 4/5. He has the same leg problems. The new paint and the head with removable hood are very good upgrades, however.

Objectively, about the Havoc Throne. I have to set aside my love for this item and instead point out the strengths and weaknesses.

It is very well done. Easy to assemble. Nice packaging that falls short in the tallness category (see what I did there!) But the artwork on it is wonderful. The furry seat cushion is a novel design that solves the problem of figures sitting awkward, and really any 6-inch figure sits nice on it. Super7 Ultimates!. Mythic Legions. Very nice! The Staff of Ka is a little bit thick, and we are used to seeing it smaller, say for instance in Teela’s hand.

If I am messing with this, I never leave the LED fire lights off. I mean, clear fire is fine. But the colors add much depth, and if you turn off the lights, a real evil atmosphere can be created.

I am giving this throne a 5/5. Sure, I did have to take a screwdriver to it, but I can’t say if that will be everyone’s experience. Maybe mine was an exception. I DO wish the diorama was taller than the skull head. But the packaging is so nice otherwise that it kind of cancels that out. The throne can be stored in that box, or you can use it to display the throne with Skeletor kind of as a statue.

So 4/5 for Skeletor and 5/5 for the throne. What do you think, Hub City Geeks? Am I justified in this rating? Let me know in the comments!

Mega Masters of the Universe SDCC By The Power of Grayskull set

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For thoughts on the original Mega Construx Castle Grayskull, click here.

For my review of Snake Mountain (Part 1) click here. (Part 2 by the end of Summer break.)

And because it comes up, check out the Slime Pit. Click Here.

I stayed on the fence about this one. Eventually I ordered it before Christmas 2022, with the intention of building it when it snowed. (It never snowed, so…)

On May 15, 2023 I decided to get to it.

The box is flashy, with this half pink and half yellow sword and lightning all over it. It glows in the dark! so this is just perfect for a set called “By The Power of Grayskull.” Besides this, the box is foil underneath with a rock design. This package is designed to never be parted from the set, so this is extra important. (The box becomes a diorama)

Here is the back of the box. Just the name of the set and more lightning, and the “regal, legal palaver.”

Here is the open box. You get a nice backdrop of a castle. Of course it is Castle Grayskull, without the skull. The skull face and minifigures is all this set really is. The instruction manual is is a little pocket on the back of the box. you can see it at the top with the lightning bolts. The instructions are a nice little book that just didn’t want to stay open easily while I built the set. That tray on the front is the underpinning of the main set, and also serves as a nice little tray for minifigures, weapons, whatever within reason. It also has a nice “ground” painting to add to taking good photos, which is exactly what I did below.

The set came as expected, in lots of smaller baggies. I went straight to the minifigures first, of course.

I am going to just show pics and then comment after the pictures..

Here are the two that came with the set.

Here is the new He-Man and an older one.

Here is Prince Adam with another Mega Prince Adam.

Well, at least the sword glows in the dark.

The designers at Mattel were thinking they were giving us figures that are stylized like the animation on the Masters of the Universe: Revelation cartoon. The animation on that show is beautiful, I would say the most beautiful we have had in a MOTU cartoon. I didn’t like everything about it, for instance the “manning up” of Teela and Evil Lynn. And I surely didn’t care much for especially the first five episodes and then Kevin Smith’s “We killed He-Man twice!” commentary. But for the most part, the animation was terrific. One feature of the style was these “shadows” or “cell shading” I have heard it called. And this is what they are trying to recreate with these figures. But instead it appears as a muddy mess. And I don’t like it at all. I mean, look at it. “Diarrhea He-Man?” “Pee Pee Pants Adam?” To my knowledge, though, this is the only time we have seen the more modern “H” symbol instead of the iron cross on a traditional He-Man. Prince Adam isn’t as bad, but he still has a muddy face. And let me point out that these figures are not “on model” with the cartoon. They are still the classic molds with a different paint job. Prince Adam would have been an opportunity to make a more slender male to use for other figures in the future. (I have been saying and thinking this for awhile.)

Well. let’s talk about the build.

The “shield” beside the figure is the key/knob to make the mechanism work.

The idea of the set is to have the Castle Grayskull facade with a flipping door that allows Prince Adam to transform into He-Man. You plug that knob into a keyhole on the side of the set to make it work.

I want to point out that the figures are pegged in on the back, and there is very little wiggle room while they hold the sword up if you want to use the action feature.

So how does it look with other figures…for instance if you didn’t want to use these badly painted mega figures.

Much better!

This set took me about two hours to build. I had very little trouble. I must complain about the little white scars on most of the bricks…you can see them just blatantly there…you don’t have to look closely or anything. Mattel has done better and needs to return to that. (The Snake Mountain was when we first started seeing that mess.)

So what are my thoughts.

It is what it is. A Grayskull facade on stilts with two badly designed figures of characters that we already had. An action feature that could have been designed better with just a little bit more headroom for He-Man. A nice package that is meant to remain on display as a diorama for the set.

I mean, what purpose does this set fill? We already had a Castle Grayskull. We had Prince Adam and He-Man. For someone who has been a “selective completist” for this line, it kind of creates some “bulk.”

I believe I am going to have it on display in my chorus classroom.

At the beginning of the post, when I mentioned I was on the fence about purchasing this back in December. This is the reason why. I knew this bad paint job was on the figures, and I already have a Castle Grayskull.

Here is what could have been done instead.

GIVE US A BETTER SLIME PIT. The miniaturized size of this Grayskull would have been the correct scale for a proper slime pit. As an SDCC item, it could have included Hordak, Zombie He-Man, and two new members of the Evil Horde. You could make a frame across the back and attach a big skull head similar to what is on the Battle Bones. The tray at the bottom could be the pit. (The slime pit they gave us in the Skeletor head set is just sad.)

WHISPERING WOODS. Give us some She-Ra figures. The box could have been a backdrop. We could have been given a canopy and a base.

THE WELL OF DARKNESS. Make an evil compliment to Snake Mountain, and have a precipice overhanging the tray, which is a pit with a big eye looking up and some teeth to devour its sacrifice, in this case Evil-Lynn or He-Man. Include a Skeletor and a Flocked Panthor.

THE BACK WALL OF GRAYSKULL. This would have been designed to show us the walls we never get in a playset. It would have a spine, and come with some things like the little robot/space suit as a figure, or just an improved turret gun even. It might include a portal room like we saw in Filmation.

THE CRYSTAL CHAMBER. The Sorceress hangs out here. The set would look like Grayskull on the outside, or even like the thing we saw in Masters of the Universe Revelation that Skeletor opens. We would have lots of crystal pieces. Maybe even some type of throne for the Sorceress to sit on.

All five of these are ideas that the same style of diorama box could use with 400 something pieces of brick. I did feel like two mini figures was too few.

I rate this set, no way around it, 1 out of 5. It is easily the one I could have passed on. Now it awkwardly takes up space in my closet. At least the package glows in the dark. I am thinking of trying to add a motor so the mechanism can move automatically, and maybe there can be lights and sounds. This will be something I have never done before, so if anyone who reads this can offer advice on that, please do!

SpartanNerd Review…MEGA Snake Mountain Packaging and Minifigs

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Well it finally came! After months of waiting. Honestly, I was suprised to see that the arrival date was to be ON OR BEFORE August 31. And in that way of thinking, I wasn’t suprised to see that it did not ship until mid September. Still, it is a faster turnaround than say, Magic the Gathering Secret Lair Drop Series. (You have to wait sometimes a whole year!)

Now I ordered this item because Castle Grayskull was terrific, and I have approached collecting the Masters of the Mega Construx as a sort of selective completist…(I don’t want that Battle Cat or the Havoc Staff.). I have every character on card and loose, almost. Still looking for another copy of Man-E-Faces and another copy of Scare Glow. My point is, I couldn’t pass up on the MEGA Snake Mountain.

NOTICE I KEEP SAYING “MEGA…” Mattel has changed the name again. Why? Mega Construx was a dumb name. But the way they are expressing MEGA now looks exactly like what they were trying to avoid when they moved away from the word “Mega Bloks.” That big MEGA looks like one of those blocks!

What else…I still have Castle Grayskull’s box. Because I must be insane, right?

When I compare the two boxes, it is very noticeable that they have “updated” the design aesthetic. WHY? This is very bad. There was art before…now only photos. Even as recently as the Monstroid and Land Shark, it seems there was more “art.” While it is notable on the front, on the back it is very very apparent. Castle Grayskull had this drawing on the back of the inside of the castle, that called back to the Eternia Maps that they did for the MOTUC line. Indeed, the Wind Raider also had something like this on the back. (I should go look at the other boxes. I am pretty sure Battle Bones, Wind Raider, Roton, and Talon Fighter did.). I believe I might ask Scott Neitich about this… Maybe he’ll make a video addressing it. (I notice that there is a re-issue of Castle Grayskull with this new boring style packaging.)

I am showing you more of the packaging…You can see striking differences on the side. I was curious what I would see as I opened it up. Castle Grayskull had what amounted to comic panels using the minifigures. There was a “drawn” element to them. Maybe not even any photos. But here on Snake Mountain, we just get action poses with the mini figures.

Mattel and MEGA missed an opportunity here. Now not only does this Snake Mountain needlessly mismatch to the first printing of Castle Grayskull, it makes fans like me just a little less joyful about it. The boxes were part of the wonder of getting new toys as a kid. Now we have this big downgrade. This packaging looks alot like the stuff they are doing for the MasterVerse line, (which I am not collecting.). Those boxes are a basic window with the figure on display. I daresay I even prefer what they did with the Heroes line with sporty gray and orange boxes to this style. BOO!!

But woefully, I have more to bad news to report…

What the crap! With Castle Grayskull, we got small boxes each containing a large component of the castle. And these boxes each featured the characters that were a part of the set. But here, we only get two large boxes. Not only that, these boxes have this flimsy sleeve over the top.

Now I really like the old Castle Grayskull box. It is useful for storing other MOTU related items. And because it was four interior basically shoeboxes, they lend some sturdiness to the box. There is not doubt in my mind that what they have done with Snake Mountain was a way of reducing packaging. But this Snake Mountain is a premium product with a premium price tag. It should match or exceed what came before. Instead, we have a flimsier box, a worse design choice with the two large boxes and the decorative sleeve, and boring images on the front. This packaging is getting a big F in my summation. I will use my apple pencil and color the images from the inner sleeves on my iPad when it snows or something…I did this with the Castle Grayskull art.

I will give props for ONE piece of artwork. This shows up when you open the box completely.

This is the only thing close to the style of what we got with Grayskull. And this image is on both of the instructions manuals.

SO I’VE GRIPED A TON ABOUT THE BOX.

What about the minifigures.

I’m glad I don’t have to say anymore bad stuff. The Minifigs offered here are very cool and welcome (for the most part.)

Let’s start with our feature character, Dragon Blaster Skeletor.

As a vintage toy, you put water in the dragon and pressed its head down so that it would spit water. It was kind of a specialized water gun. Here we have Skeletor with this dragon on the back. The chains pictured on the packaging look more silver, while these are light-gray-approaching white. It is cool that we have a dragon blast effect. Skeletor also comes with the purple sword. I wish they would give us proper stands with names instead of these green flat pieces. By the way, I had to dig through the boxes to get package number 1 which always contains the figures. The figures were spread across both boxes.

Thunder Punch He-Man.

No caps this time. But on his back the gunpowder cap is sculpted on, and the shield also features one. You can use the holder on the shield to place the fantastic clear-yellow sword.

Ram Man

You never know what they are going to do with Ram Man. There are a few different versions…200x he was huge. In Filmation and the vintage toy he was shorter. The MOTUC version was a very large and heavy figure. No versions have had springy legs since the 1980’s. But here they made a good Rammy. I thought we might get to remove the helmet, but it doesn’t seem to be removable. This is a bummer because you could give him the flat steel bald head. You also could use that helmet somewhere else.

Another Evil-Lyn. This time in vintage toy yellow. But the magic staff she has is much less impressive than all of the other versions we have gotten, including the “Heroes” printing in the same color. If I have to complain about one of the figures it is Evil-Lyn because we have so many versions of her, we already have this colorway…why not give us a Clawful or Jitsu or almost anyone else that we haven’t gotten yet. A Snake Man would have been outstanding, and they are tied to the lore of Snake Mountain. Now I have three Evil-Lyn sealed in box and three out of package. (If I am counting right.)

We get Screech.

This is Temple of Darkness Zoar’s stand, as I haven’t opened the castle yet to get out Screech’s feet and its own stand. It is the same as the other two birds we have, only purple. They really should give us proper birds with the wings spread out.

Webstor.

Here is one I didn’t have as a kid…I was actually only vaguely aware of him for some reason. I am unsure if the vintage one had those extra legs on the back…that seems like more of a 200x detail. He has a rope feature and an orange gun. I feel like he is kind of a plain kind of character without those big insect legs. (I do have some of the cartoons on DVD.). I really like what they did in 200x with this character…extra creepy.

And finally….Trap Jaw in vintage toy colors!

Love it! Notice I used these purple pieces to highlight the black details. I complained about getting Filmation colored Trap Jaw in my review of recent figure releases. And we have Minicomics Trap Jaw that came with the improved turret gun for Castle Grayskull in a Skeletor head set. But here is the Trap Jaw that I remember the best. My only complaint about any of the trap Jaw figures it that there is no little clip to hang the accessories on his belt.

The minifigures recieve a 5/5 because they are great. Snake Mountain’s packaging is a solid F because Mattel has done better and just didn’t seem to try this time. I give that packaging a 1/5. (I’ll probably still hang on to it because I am insane.)

Do you agree or disagree, Hub City Geeks? Let me know in the comments! I will keep posting updates as I work through Snake Mountain. (I have only built six little baggies so far, and there isn’t much to see yet.)