Tag Archives: SpartanNerd Review

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….

World’s Smallest Micro Figures Masters of the Universe 4 Pack- SpartanNerd Unboxing and Review

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That is the longest title I have ever typed!

Here is a product I didn’t even know existed! And the SpartanWife gave it to me for Christmas! I knew about “The World’s Smallest Figures” but haven’t been collecting them. Last year someone put World’s Smallest Battle Cat in my stocking. But this year, I got a four pack, which like I said I didn’t even know was a thing.

The front is a nice window box. The back tells us what a Masters of the Universe fan already knows, with artwork that I think is from the new Origins line of figures. And I am pretty sure the art on the sides is Emiliano Santalucia’s art from the DVD collections. (I might be wrong about that.). I appreciate how the Masters of the Universe logo with the exploding red rocks on the bottom is present.

There is a black blister on the inside. This four pack is a great display on its own because of this blister. We also get a pamphlet showcasing other products by Super Impulse. The Micro Figures are there most prolific product. I didn’t know there was as much of it out there. We did have the MTG Jace vs. Chandra decks once. Isn’t Super Impulse the best name for a brand of novelty products like this?

Here are all of the items outside the blister. I went ahead and opened the hinged boxes on the two cats so you can see how these each have their own collector friendly package. On He-Man and Skeletor, you get the little door on the back.

You can see how this works. There is a little pull tab on the back of the micro blister. A polybag has all of the accessories.

For some reason He-Man came with two power swords? A mistake at the factory? I am not used to photographing such small things. You will have to forgive me. It is amazing how different the lighting can be when you focus on tiny objects. And then I cropped what I had and adjusted the lighting using Apple Photos.

I want to say how hazardously small these figures are. I am not even kidding. It is a feat of toy engineering! They are about the size of a dime. The sculpt is pretty good. The arms and the head move, but the legs are stiff and unarticulated. The armor appears to be glued on…I didn’t try and remove it. He holds the sword reasonably well and the shield snaps onto his forearms and elbow OK. The armor doesn’t have a functional holster for the sword or the battle axe. The battle axe really, really, really is hazardously small. The handle is loose in He-Man’s hand. It is like the thinnest piece of plastic. It is about as thin as a high e nylon guitar string.

Here is a size comparison for you. Sorry, not opening the 200x He-Man for this! You can see how very tiny this is. Someone at a toy store told me that the World’s Smallest figures go well in the Hot Wheels vehicles. I’ll have to try that when it snow. (You can see how the 40th Anniversary Masterverse figure’s sword isn’t holding up too well. :(. )

Amazingly, I have one smaller figure! This one came with GI Joe Classified Sgt. Slaughter. If He-Man wasn’t on a stand, the Sarge’s hat would not even tough his belt. However, this tiny figure isn’t articulated.

I KNOW. THEY ARE DIFFERENT THINGS. Still, the detail of the head sculpt on the micro figure makes the MEGA minifig seem derpy and comical. World’s Smallest He-Man doesn’t sit on Battle Cat so well…

Here is the whole set. Skeletor also doesn’t fit on Panthor so well. Both cats have the same articulation. All four legs move. Their heads can turn but not go up and down. Their tails are articulated, and you can remove their armor. This Panthor is not flocked.

Here is Skeletor beside He-Man. Once again, sorry about the blur! Skeletor can’t hold the Havoc Staff so good either. It has the same handle thickness as the battle axe. Also, his armor looks kind of wrong. But I do enjoy the redness of his eyes.

I had lots of fun taking pics of these guys. As miniature action figures, these are the smallest you could get without becoming a rubber slug like Sgt. Slaughter’s micro figure. (Still puzzled about them including that. It is cool though!). The sculpts are great and they come with appropriate accessories. I guess the issues with them holding the Havoc Staff and the battle axe are ignorable. Just be careful. The axe is so small I was afraid of it getting stuck under my Macbook Pro keys! They go right back in their packages, and then that goes back in the blister no problem. Panthor was an exclusive for this set, another bonus!

I am giving it a 5/5. Do you agree or disagree, Hub City Geeks? Let me know in the comments!

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.