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GI Joe Classified Series Night Force Shooter and Tunnel Rat- SpartanNerd Review

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I picked up Shooter and Tunnel Rat from Walmart.com, fairly cheaply.  I was worried…a few times I have ordered from Walmart and had some trouble.  But no issues this time, and they came the next day.  What got me started was reading GI Joe #12 from the Energon Universe, where Shooter was the main character.  When I found her (I looked everywhere else first,) she was readily available and only $10, so I looked for someone else to also buy.  They are on the same “Night Force” team, and so this is how I came to get Tunnel Rat.

How did they turn out?  Keep reading!  You can find a video version of this review on YouTube HERE.

Because I am doing two figures in one review, I am trying to concisely write…my headings are a little different than usual.  I usually do Packaging, Figure, Accessories, Review.  I am lumping it together kind of this time.

Shooter

I mostly collected Cobra as a kid…they had the most awesome designs, AND I had the ultimate aircraft gifted to me, the “Cobra Night Raven.” So it surprised even me when Shooter stood out. The reason? The Energon Universe comics.

If you haven’t read them:

  • Void Rivals = space opera that features Transformers and Cobra-La
  • Transformers = classic alien war story between Autobots and Decepticons
  • G.I. Joe = fallout from the alien war to the humans.  
  • Recently M.A.S.K. has been included.
PICTURED: The issue of GI Joe that got me into Shooter. This is the Energon Universe Transformers Vol. 3 graphic novel. And don’t let the frumpy art on the cover of Void Rivals #1 throw you off…it is a great story.

It is a Hasbro remix that feels like the Ultimate Marvel Universe or the DC Comics Flashpoint.

But Shooter?  I never heard of this character before until reading this comic.

A three-time gold medalists marksman who never misses.  There are characters like that…Hawkeye, Green Arrow, etc.  But she is different because she carries her father’s medal for balance, who hears his voice guiding her — This is a detail the SpartanNerd just couldn’t put down…I even read the comic twice in an hour.

Packaging, Accessories

The front packaging. I don’t even want to show you more of this package. The only artwork on the whole thing is this image on the left of the box. It is bigger on the side, and there is a black and white version inside the box. The back shows the package contents.

Shooter and Tunnel Rat arrived in the stupid windowless box, part of Hasbro’s “plastic-free era.” Long-time readers know I’m not a fan of this packaging. No file card, no real bio, just a QR code that dumps you at Hasbro’s shop. The side artwork is decent but doesn’t make up for the downgrade.  (Go back and see my blog entry about Sgt. Slaughter.). The upside is that this packaging strategy didn’t sell figures well, and now figures with this style of packaging they are sold at steep discounts.  Hard to argue with that. She was very likely a shelf warmer (female action figures often are even if they’re Scarlet, Baroness, or some other headliner).

Inside the Package

She is tied down in this shoebox with plastic things…I thought the point of this dumb packaging was to not use plastic? It is also stupid that she is in the box with the gas mask on default.

When you open her package.. (Tunnel Rat’s is the same)…The figure is tied in with plastic ties to a shoebox kind of situation with the same artwork from the front but in black and white.

She comes with a cardboard “footlocker” setup similar to Sgt. Slaughter. Accessories include:

  • A pistol
  • A knife with quick-access sheath. (I didn’t realize it when I made the video, but this is a throwing knife, making use of her terrific shooting skills in a different terrifying way)
  • A sniper rifle (rubbery and slightly sagging)
  • Two hair pieces (braids & mask-compatible style)
  • Gas mask / night vision
  • Back mount for her rifle

I don’t like that she has the mask on as a default look…but since this is a windowless box I don’t guess that really actually matters.  It took me a little bit to find the nerve to remove the mask…But it came off without too much trouble.

FIGURE REVIEW

PICTURED: MASTERVERSE New Eternia Teela and Super7 Ultimates! Valeria Spirit, with GI Joe Classified Series Night Force Jodie “Shooter” Craig. Shooter appears to be a middle schooler next to these ladies.
PICTURED: My favorite GI Joe Classified so far has been Gnawgahyde. Do you see how they both have a sniper rifle, but Gnawgahyde’s is far better. He has a case, a tripod, as well as a scope, a silencer, etc. True, he is a poacher, not a sniper. But there is clear disparity here in what could have been done with Shooter.

She looks great overall, but:

  • Her shoes have no laces — they look more middle school trendy than military.
  • The sniper rifle is too rubbery and droops at the barrel.
  • The gas mask/night vision is removable, but requires some force.

Her hair attaches via slotted pegs — bald-head customs aren’t happening here for anyone who might have wanted to do that.  The gas mask/night vision is attached to a hairpiece.  Her face sculpt is pretty and the paint on the actual figure is good with a night-mission feel.  But I feel like there could have been a lot more paint on the accessories.

Tunnel Rat

Tunnel Rat came in the same windowless packaging, but at a slightly higher price and with way more gear — as he should. He’s nostalgic from the G.I. Joe animated movie, where he trained under Beach Head and pulled that “sewer tunnel shortcut” stunt.  (To the SpartanNerd, this was the precursor scene to the iconic Beach Head-cussing-at-Jinx scene, one of the reasons to watch the movie when I was ten years old!.)

Inside the Package

Tunnel Rat’s footlocker contains:

  • Backpack 
  • Attachable Flashlights
  • Dagger / combat knife
  • Heavy machine gun with stabilizers
  • Ammo bandolier
  • A magazine clip
  • Night-vision goggles

Sculpt and Notable Details

  • This version lacks the classic Tunnel Rat face paint.
  • The sculpt is based on Larry Hama (which I didn’t know until I checked Wikipedia).  Larry Hama has written GI Joe comics and stories for 30 years, and was a minor cast member of MASH!
  • Also from Joe-pedia, Tunnel Rat is Trinidadian-Chinese with a Boston accent — a wonderfully unique character background.

The tripod attachment on his heavy machine gun is far inferior to Gnawgahyde’s.  It looks like leftover sprue plastic from a Gundam model kit — Hasbro can do far better.

On the bright side, he stands up extremely well next to other Classified figures and outclasses the Super7 Ultimates! line in detail and at a lower price.  (I am not getting any more GI Joes from Super7.)

Ratings – Shooter & Tunnel Rat

PICTURED: GI Joe Classified Tunnel Rat and Jodie “Shooter” Craig, infiltrating Cybertron. They both definitely look like they are on the same Night Force team.

Shooter is up first.

Pros:

  • Great sculpt
  • Strong character representation
  • Two interchangeable hairstyles
  • Solid articulation
  • Fantastic value at $10

Cons:

  • Weapons lack paint
  • Sniper rifle boring gray and lacking in things like a case.

What does she add? This character resonated strongly enough with me on a personal level on the singular exposure in the Energon Universe comic book that I read. I ordered this out of pure emotion, and am glad to add her to my collection. She gets the feels point, but loses a point for the lack of detail on the accessories and that she was shortchanged in the sniper rifle department.

Shooter — 4 out of 5

Tunnel Rat is next.

Pros:

  • Loaded with gear
  • Great sculpt and colors
  • Strong nostalgia factor

Cons:

  • Tripod is cheap-looking
  • Missing the classic face paint
  • No ammo box to feed the bandolier

Getting Tunnel Rat was kind of a knee-jerk buy on account of Shooter being so inexpensive. Just the same, he gets the feels point on account of I watched him for hours as a kid on a Beta tape that included the GI Joe movie, recorded from what was apparently the only time it ever aired on TV.

Tunnel Rat — 5 out of 5

Do you have Shooter or Tunnel Rat? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Do you agree or disagree with my ratings? I am really actually just getting into GI Joe Classified. It has been slow for me, but the Cold Slither pushed me over!


And as always — thanks for reading, listening, and watching!


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MASTERVERSE New Eternia Mantenna- SpartanNerd Review

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See YouTube versions of this and other reviews HERE

I grew up with two younger brothers. Being the big brother and general winner, I usually had the good guys when it came to Masters of the Universe. One brother had Skeletor’s guys, and another Hordak’s guys. But near the end, neither of them were getting Masters figures. There were a lot more GI Joes, Ninja Turtles, and other stuff happening. So I got a few baddies of my own, and Mantenna was one of them.

I’m unsure of when I realized the character had four legs. The figure only had two…but if you look closely you can see that they are actually skinny legs sculpted together. Kind of genius. I probably realized it after watching She-Ra, but maybe from the mini-comic. But all around…one of the weirdest looking dudes. And he had a lever on his back to make his eyes pop up. So very cool to a 10-11ish year old.

So how did the MASTERVERSE version come out?

PACKAGING

You can see above that this is the same kind of packaging as we have gotten now for around three years. Why isn’t he from the “New Etheria” line? The recent Hordak was.

The wraparound image shows the Evil Horde attacking Eternia. The Horde mothership flies above the palace with a fleet of Klingon Birds of Prey (not). Isn’t that the Temple of Shakoti in the background?

The other side has the library image, with the alternate eyeballs extended on their stalks.

The back shows a photoshop of the toy, with what might be the Whispering Woods in the background. Mantenna is searching for pieces of Castle Greyskull. Interesting!

You have some action feature images…it shows off the weapon he has, which isn’t a crossbow (BOO) and his alternate looks with different eyes.

The cross sell features Anti-Eternia He-Man and Mosquitor (Review coming soon.)

I probably won’t get Anti-Eternia He-Man. Just…Why? I’ll accept it as a gift from someone, though!

FIGURE REVIEW

What do we get in the package?

  • Mantenna Figure
  • Eyeball Ray Gun
  • Two eye stalks
  • One alternate eye.

He was $23. So I’m saying this up front. He is a good hunk of plastic. But not much paint. Most of the resources here went to the four legs and the swapping eye feature.

I am actually showing you the closest you can get the figure to appearing like the vintage member of the Horde. You can’t pose the legs parallel to one another. Otherwise all of his articulation is good. I do wish you could close his mouth instead of him having this static toothy round cavity.

The good thing is, though, this may be a hint of how we will get Modulok and Multi-Bot. Both guys had four legs in their default mode. But here is a question…these legs have single jointed knees, and furthermore the knee area looks quite a bit like the Origins figures. So … are these legs swappable? I am not going to risk it, but if they are, then that is another hint about those two lego-type characters.

All around, the blue plastic…it is too dark and just needs paint. This was a cost-cutting measure I’m sure. I’m not a fan of Webstor or Zodac. Why? BORING colors. Mantenna wasn’t in that category for me, but they managed to do it wrong. Maybe the plastic is too dark…or maybe it needs a “wash” of some lighter color blue. I can’t really tell…photos and such that Mattel provides have super good lighting and it kind of offsets the effect. But if you don’t have it under that perfect jewelry store condition, you have overpowering dark blue.

ACCESSORIES

Is it really that hard to give us a crossbow instead of this dumb weapon?

You’ll have to make up your own story for this one. BUT…Snout spout can easily win by spraying water in his eyes. Thunder Punch He-Man can use that sword and … chop… the stalks… Same with Battle Armor Skeletor and the axe. If Mantenna shoots eyeballs with that gun, couldn’t Panthor just pounce on it? I’m just saying…PICTURED- MASTERVERSE New Eternia figures, Battle Armor Skeletor, Panthor, Two-Bad, Snout Spout, Thunder-Punch He-Man, and Mantenna. I DO appreciate that he is as big as Snout Spout, but at a lower price point.

I really wish they were giving us crossbows. Maybe updated ones. I wouldn’t mind this eyeball gun so much if they also included a crossbow. Or maybe if the gun was an eyeball-crossbow arrow or bolt.

The eye-swapping feature…to do it, you have to remove the upper face of the figure. THEN the eyeballs are in the socket pretty good. I had to use a guitar pick to wedge them out.

They alternate eyeballs they give us feel like a down-grade from the main eyes he is packed using. I don’t much see the point, these may be a reflection of the She-Ra cartoon. I haven’t watched it enough and don’t have much memory about it.

SPARTANNERD RATING

It’s a shame, but I just don’t have that much more to say. The blue darkness overpowers the positives. Mattel has opted to cut the paint and promote the plastic…something we see more and more. Kobra Khan was bland for this exact reason. That shiny green was OK on a snake, but not spectacular when seen through the larger lens of other available figures. GI Joe Classified…same price point, always better paint than this. Mythic Legions cost more, but face it…MASTERVERSE is competing against that brand, and all of the figures from plain skeletons to royalty have exceptional details in the sculpt and the paint.

It’s like Mantenna hits the big point from the 1980’s. He has bug eyes and a bizzarre head. Mattel hit these points, and everything else was an afterthought. I remember hearing the Four Horsemen talk about laboring to design figures. To make them epic. I’m afraid Mantenna doesn’t feel epic. It feels like a chore to take pictures of him…and that is a definite bad thing.

PICTURED: MASTERVERSE New Eternia Mantenna and Mer-Man. Do you see what I mean about Mantenna’s paint? Some of the same design elements are present in Mer-Man, but somehow it works better. Obviously more care was put into it. I feel like I have to add paint to Mantenna so that it will be right.
Mantenna decided to crash the office party. And you see what I mean. PICTURED: MASTERVERSE 40 Anniversary He-Man (retail), MASTERVERSE New Eternia Teela, Man-At-Arms, and Fisto. MASTERVERSE Revelation Sorceress Teela, King Greyskull, and Captain of the Guard Teela alternate head on MOTUC Battleground Teela body, and Super7 ULTIMATES! Battle of the Mounds Valeria.

You can see in the above picture different lines and even companies. And the colors on Mantenna seem to be more plain than anyone else. He’s big, blue and red. But that doesn’t make him epic.

Even if he is worse than these two, he does feel like he belongs with them.

I am awarding MASTERVERSE New Eternia Mantenna 3/5. He just doesn’t do it for me. The lack of accessories and the boring colors make someone who should be amazing rather bland. He gets a feels points because I NEEDED Mantenna on my quest to recollect the toys I once had. He doesn’t have stupid problems, but if a kid gets this they might have a hard time swapping those eyes. His sculpt is OK. Points subtracted because of accessory count and paint apps.

3/5…Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments!

MASTERVERSE New Eternia Kobra Khan- SpartanNerd Unboxing and Review

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See the Video Review HERE

MASTERVERSE New Eternia Kobra Khan- So easy to misspell! So forgive me if I mess up, Hub City Geeks! I remember Kobra Khan seemed to come out before the rest of the Snake Men. Growing up there was Kobra Khan in the SpartanNerd household, as well as Tongue Lasher and King Hiss. So we didn’t have an army of Snake Men. The SpartanMom is deathly afraid of snakes. I kind of lumped him in with Skeletor’s crew, rather than seeing the Snake Men as a different faction. He had a water squirting action, and there were a few other toys in He-Man that had this…Dragon Blaster Skeletor and Snout Spout. Water action was a cool thing then in the 1980s and continues to be a feature in toys today.

Of course, the MASTERVERSE figure doesn’t have a water feature. So how did they deal with that? Keep reading!

PACKAGING

This package is just as great as any of them. But let me say something here…I have had a rush of reviews lately…So Belualyth, New Eternia Moss Man, Cold Slither, New Eternia Teela, and New Etheria Hordak. And this character just feels…less epic. How much of that is my bias, I don’t know. But this is the reason I waited to do this one last. Apparently, like Battle Armor Skeletor and Blade, he has pretty much sold out everywhere. (I’m still feeling burned about Blade…just saying. That is the SpartanNerd failure of the year.)

So I need to keep it focused…I like that we have an image of Tongue Lasher, who is my favorite Snake Man. Hopefully he will come out soon.

The wraparound image features Rattlor.

Yeah…So Rattlor wasn’t on my radar as a kid. I think I must have been aware of him, but I never saw him and didn’t have him. So there’s that. Also, I didn’t even know about Blast Attack until I was an adult. AND…why is he considered a Snake Man? I did have a cousin or someone who had Snake Face, but I pretty much hated it. So Kobra Khan, King Hiss, and Tongue Lasher were MY Snake Men growing up. I did eventually own SSQUEEZE in Masters of the Universe Classics. (Tangents, Tangents)

The other side features the library image that also shows the alternate way of displaying the character…more vintage style or with the hood. Also, notice the Snake Men logo. This is either Classics or 200x. Good that they are keeping that.

The back is once again what you expect. A Photoshop image of the toy on an illustrated background. The bio reinforces the 200x story that it was Kobra Khan who released King Hiss and the other Snake Men from the pit in Snake Mountain. I like how they made this story track with the way the figure was released practically as one of Skeletor’s guys but then double-crossing Skeletor.

The cross-sell art might help confirm the first statement I made about why I was less excited about this one. (He looks dorky in between Hordak and Teela)

FIGURE REVIEW

What do you get in the box?

  • Kobra Khan figure
  • Cobra Snake Hood
  • Blaster Gun
  • Mace
  • Alternate chest piece
  • Alternate claw hands
  • purple “venom” spray effect
after messing with it for awhile, I swapped the hands for the claws for a more vintage feel…thinking maybe this would help me out with my problem here. Not really.

Kobra Khan is sculpted in pearlescent green plastic. Or is that metallic? He has the same lanky build as the other MASTERVERSE figures. There are bronze and brass painted details on the figure…his hands and the claws have a darker color than the main figure. (The hands make it feel like he is wearing gloves.)

Kobra Khan has the same eye effect that Panthor and Mer-Man have. A very realistic looking eye, that in this case kind of feels like it is something different quality than the rest of the figure.

Here is a little comparison with the Mythic Legions Ninian Infantry. I gave him Savage He-Man’s spear to make things even. And you can see that the Mythic Legions is easily a better sculpt. Kobra Khan should have more scales all over.

I guess the paint is alright. I mean, he is a green guy. But the big elephant in the room for me is the head sculpt. He looks “Rabbity” with those teeth. It is good that he has an articulated jaw…I was in fact worried that this was a static piece just from looking at the box.

ACCESSORIES

So kind of…the accessories and the figure run together a little bit. The hood and the breastplate…are these accessories? Similar to the wrist bracers…I guess they are technically accessories.

The hood just isn’t epic enough. So…weak head sculpt with a rabbity look, combined with a less-than-epic hood, means that Kobra Khan has kind of a “muppety” thing going on. BOO! (Serpentor hood? Cobra symbol? Mattel could have done better to compete with Hasbro here.)

Retreat! Wascawy Wabbit. For real, notice Cobra Commander’s snake on the hilt of his sword. Better hood than Kobra Khan. And those Cobra symbols from the GI JOE Classified Series packaging also look more epic. If there is a Serpentor, I will probably get it and compare, but I bet…

The venom spray effect is how they handle the water feature. This is purple, and not until taking the final photos did I start to realize that it looks kind of barfy. (I already did a video, and didn’t even have this thought then…)

She is the Snake Goddess. Shouldn’t he be more respectful?

Luckily, you can attach it to the end of the gun. Unfortunately, Snout Spout’s spray effect isn’t interchangeable with this one. Another missed opportunity by Mattel to do something cool that couldn’t have been that hard to accomplish.

I think it is great that you can swap out the chest plate. I prefer the one with the Snake Men logo, but the plain one is just fine and feels more vintage.

The gun has a snake sculpt to it. At first I thought it was the same as Zodac’s gun, but it is different and more flavorful. (I don’t own a MASTERVERSE Zodac…I am referring to my memory.)

And that mace. This is the weapon that came with the vintage figure, and is in fact the same that Clawful has. Which is stupid because those claws don’t hold it well.

SPARTANNERD RATING OF MASTERVERSE NEW ETERNIA KOBRA KHAN

Originally I rated this figure as a 4/5. But it has been a few more days with it, and I have changed my mind. The gun and the mace need paint apps. The hands are a strange color. The head sculpt looks rabbity and even worse when the hood is on. The sculpt doesn’t stack up to other Snake Men figures on the market. (Mythic Legions Ninian Infantry, for instance). The purple venom effect reminds me of the purple vomit scene in the movie The Sandlot.

Aww look…they are dancing. Kidding aside, even MASTERVERSE Revolution Sorceress Teela (a different sub-line based on Kevin Smith’s cartoon,) her hood looks more epic. In general New Eternia figures look better than the cartoon figures.

No. He isn’t anywhere close to a perfect five. I am awarding MASTERVERSE New Eternia Kobra Khan a 3/5. I am giving him the feels point because I needed him for my collection. He doesn’t have stupid problems…he stands well and has good articulation. And he came with a lot of accessories. But the paint and sculpt are just too bad.

I hope Tongue Lasher and King Hiss turn out better. Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments!

MASTERVERSE New Etheria Hordak- SpartanNerd Unboxing and Review.

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See the video review here

I grew up with two younger brothers (There is another even younger that I was as adult when he came along). Anyways, when it came to Masters of the Universe I was the leader with the most love, and so I took on the heroic characters almost exclusively. My oldest brother naturally took Skeletor’s guys, and third in line took on the Horde. Which wasn’t to say that I didn’t have any bad guys. I certainly did, with Evil-Lyn, Modulok/Multi-Bot, and Mosquitor to name a few. Oh yeah. Mantenna.

Just the same, we shared them all. So I played with Hordak plenty. And then there is the controversial thing for little boys at the time…She-Ra. Hordak was She-Ra’s version of Skeletor on that show. The only time I played with She-Ra was with my cousins, and it was like…Who are the evil characters? Catra, the “Jealous Beauty?” Not violent enough for my masculine tastes!

I picked up New Etheria Hordak (not a spelling error) when I ordered NE Teela and NE Kobra Khan. Does he do justice to the second-rate bad guys? (Yeah I always prefer Skeletor’s team) Keep reading!

PACKAGING

Hordak came in the typical MASTERVERSE packaging, with a very strong bat motif all over it. No other characters are depicted in the art this time, but the Fright Zone is the setting of this artwork you can see the figure clearly in the window, with a magic staff and pet on his left side. The image depicts hordak with the iconic cannon arm. In the corner is a foil sticker that tells us that this Hordak is a part of the She-Ra 40-year anniversary.

NEW ETHERIA HORDAK FRONT PACKAGE

This time the wraparound on one side doesn’t show us anything but more bats, but there is a reference image on the other side, typical of MASTERVERSE for those who like to file the figures on a shelf or something…GI Joe Classified does this with a number system.

NEW ETHERIA HORDAK SIDE OF PACKAGE

On the back you have a photoshop image of the figure at the Fright Zone and cross-sell images for this wave on the bottom, notably ignoring New Eternia Moss Man. (I have reviewed Teela already, and Kobra Kahn is coming soon).

NEW ETHERIA HORDAK BACK OF PACKAGE.

This bio tells us that Hordak is what devastated New Eternia, and is now moving on to Etheria.

I rather liked it better when he was banished to Despondos, a dimension where Etheria was pulled into.

WHAT DO WE GET IN THE PACKAGE?

Hordak is Cold Slither’s biggest fan! Notice the Roast Gooble CDs. The SpartanNerd last had music published on this CD. A new release, “PREACH!”, has been sent to the publishers! The first album in fifteen years.

Cold Slither Review was video only.

Here’s what you get:

  • New Etheria Hordak figure
  • Bat Wings
  • Cannon hand
  • Bat shield
  • Staff with a creature
  • Technically there is an arm band and two bracers also.

The big story here is the wings. They peg into holes on the back of the armor. And you really have maximum posability with these. They are molded in thin red plastic, with what may be gloss paint over the bones. Or maybe I’m imagining that. They look really batty.

And the battiness of this figure is what makes it awesome, but also kind of a complaint. Can you be TOO much of a bat? This guy out-bats Batman!

The paint on the figure is exactly perfect for Hordak. The Hordak I remember playing with as a kid was these colors. I know some people prefer a more blue-black-white color scheme from the cartoon, but this was awesome enough for me in the 1980s and it is for me today as well. There is a big red bat on his front armor, and some painted on his boots also.

As a kid I remember debating with my friends what exactly was Hordak. I said alien. One friend said robot. Another said vampire. I thought the vampire explanation was crazy, but this is what Mattel has went with in the past few iterations. In DC comics, he was a cosmic vampire, draining the life force of entire civilizations, and had made Zodac’s Galactic protector force (basically Green Lanterns) his enemies. Pitting both factions against each other having them fight to the death, he absorbed Zodac’s life force last…it was revealed he was his brother! A surprise twist. In the end he seemed to share a lot of cues with Emperor Palpatine.

The Kevin Smith show depicts him as a non-magic user but a people abuser just the same…another kind of vampire. His Motherboard virus basically enslaves everyone, and the way he manipulated Skeletor could easily be seen as vampiric.

The Masters of the Universe classics figure had something up on this guy because the “hood” was a separate part. In this MASTERVERSE figure his armor is all one piece.

I don’t have that MOTUC Hordak anymore, but I do have MOTUC Despara who is practically a girl Hordak figure. New Etheria Hordak wasn’t four horsemen sculpted and you can tell it, but it is cool to have both to display together.

ACCESSORIES

I decided the wings weren’t really accessories…more like a part of the figure. The Bat Shield has similar paint, and let me say I think both the wings and the shield could have more painted details. If that is indeed gloss red painted over the bony pieces, they could have chose a different shade or something. And if it isn’t paint then it should be. Your best bet to get the shield in his hand is to remove the hand and the bracer, then place the hand back on. So you see why I kind of counted the bracers as an accessory. The bracers are nicely painted in silver with the bat motif, and while I’m at it he does have an armband on his bicep that also has a bat.

You remove a hand to peg the cannon hand in. This one doesn’t have a bat motif, and looks good on Roboto and also on Trap Jaw. Notable that their accessories also peg into Horde’s wrist, and this is Mattel taking full advantage of what they should have done in the 1980’s.

Hordak’s arm cannon looks great on Roboto. Roboto’s paint sprayer…

And now…about the staff and the creature. Hordak was always depicted as having a pet. Imp…was this little pig with wings…probably a demon. This animal on the staff is NOT Imp. It is a skull similar to the Havoc Staff, but it has bat wing (of course) but also a snake tail. It is a rubbery piece that can be put on other figures or wrapped around arms or pencils or whatever. The staff has a peg on it, and the pet has a hole to keep in on the top. You can use the staff as a perch for a bird, however. I don’t remember the vintage toy having a staff. Maybe it did? I do know it came with a crossbow…most of the Horde members had a crossbow, most of them with a bat motif. Nowadays Hordak doesn’t seem to look right without having a staff of some kind. I think this might be because of the Classics version or something.

PICTURED: MASTERVERSE New Etheria Hordak with Masters of the Universe Classics Temple of Darkness Zoar.

SPARTANNERD RATING OF MASTERVERSE NEW ETHERIA HORDAK

HORDAK gets a point for this terrific sculpt. Mattel needs to bring this A-Game to most MASTERVERSE figures. There are a lot of re-used parts, and I suspect the way that they make figures nowadays is different than back in the Masters of the Universe Classics days. Like, maybe they have a computer that can mock up and produce molds and tools faster or something. The worse detail is the wings, which could have more sculpted details.

His paint is great. The gray, black, and red details are accented by the white face that could either be some kind of bone or what I used to believe a tribal mask. There is a pop of chrome on the arm cannon, and there is glossy paint on the bottom of his boots, with matte paint on most of the figure…but all of the red is glossy.

His articulation is usual. Which is pretty excellent actually. Hordak has double-jointed knees and elbows. He has a head swivel on a ball joint. Boot cuts, thigh cuts, hyper-articulated ankles, swivel and hinged wrists, and I’b bet underneath that armor there is a torso cut. Add the wings…and Hordak is one of the best figures for poses in the line.

He comes with all the accessories listed above, PLUS his bracers are removable and he has a removable Horde bicep wrap. Like I said, the wings are weakly sculpted and painted. Not so much as weakly sculpted, but they are sadly very symmetrical, which makes them seem more like a cheap detail. I’m not subtracting a point, but if one were subtracted it would be because of lack of paint on the wings or shield.

PICTURED: MASTERVERSE New Etheria Hordak usurps the Havoc Throne from Skeletor, and takes over his undead empire. Hordak is armed with the blast effect from New Eternia Thunder Punch He-Man, and New Eternia Skeletor is knocked to the ground with various Mythic Legions skeletons. There are also three grim reapers here, with MASTERVERSE Revelation Scare Glo, Mythic Legions Maxxilius the Harvester, and Marvel Legends Lady Death. And Panthor looking cute with a leg bone.

The “feels point.” Hordak gets this for me because of who he is. And he is a toy I used to play with a lot as a child, and watch on cartoons and read in mini comics even until today. I felt very burned when the 200x series ended the way it did, where we didn’t get a full story arc for Hordak. (It is said that Skeletor would have kicked his butt and took over.)

So the SpartanNerd rates MASTERVERSE New Etheria Hordak a 5/5. Do you agree or disagree, Hub City Geeks? Let me know in the comments! Also be sure to go over to YouTube to like and subscribe to my content. There you will find this review in a different form, as well as other recent reviews of MASTERVERSE, Mythic Legions, and other 6”/7” figures. (Six-Seven)

Mythic Legions Undead Builder Pack

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(See the video unboxing and review on the SpartanNerd YouTube channel!)

I went with my Apple Cash to the Toy Federation, hoping to find Beaulythe to be my first Mythic Legions lady. (I know I didn’t spell that right!) They had a few Mythics there, but not who I came for. So then I started looking around at other stuff. Eventually I came to something I actually never heard of…”The Undead Builder Pack.” Seemed like a winner for a guy with a big collection of skeletons. Keep reading to see how it turned out!

PACKAGING

This is the same Mythic Legions package, with the same “classic” kind of art. BUT. This time it is a full oversized image in the background, meaning I can now throw away the older small ones I have around.

The card image behind the blisters

You have a double blister inside that you can see the figure very well. And all the accessories. And that is what this figure is REALLY about. The back features the art from the Necronominus wave, but zoomed out.

The big skeleton god is appears smaller in this exposed version of the image. And let’s take a second to talk about him. I have been critical of this image…that the figure looks goofy. Blah Blah Blah. But I saw it in person…Like I almost bought it instead of the undead builder pack. That headdress can’t look right in a 2d image…too goofy. In full on person, it looks amazing. It is kind of like Maxillius the Harvester, with all these intricate bone details all over the armor, etc. The cross sell also features the other figures released in this wave, including the one I came to get but they didn’t have, but also the Turpiculi, which I suppose I will eventually get. I was just really shocked at how cool Necronomius (I can’t say it or spell it) came out. And so this means…the Undead Builder Pack must have been cool enough to come away with instead of those guys! Also of interest to the readers, the skeletal horse, Conabus (spelling?) also has far more details in person than I had detected from images.

We do have a brief bio…it says something like “the dead do not rest in peace on Mythos.” But it says it in a verbose and over-the-top way.

WHAT DO WE GET IN THE PACKAGE?

Rather than get the figure out and put him together in some way, I figured it would better serve us all to show a picture of the items in the two blisters. There is so much here!

  • Undead figure, with translucent ghostly jaw-less skull, arms, hands, and thighs, and feet.
  • two different “smoke” effects
  • Three alternate head sculpts
  • Opaque rotten arms
  • Opaque Rotten thighs
  • translucent and opaque angle joints
  • Opaque Feet
  • Mace
  • short handle axe (halberd head)
  • curved sword (khopesh?)
  • belt
  • shoulder armor
  • Back adapter set
  • small smoke effects
  • handcuffs with metal chain
  • alternate collar piece
  • Six ghostly hands
  • eight opaque rotten hands

And this is the WINNER! I have no other action figure with this many parts. Not even Black Falcon!

BUT…

FIGURE REVIEW

As a figure with all of this, like if this was the only one you had, that would be incredible. But I think the Four Horsemen were thinking people like me would be adding the parts of this as accessories to our other existing figures.

As a figure, vanilla out of the blister, he is pretty good. These translucent ghostly parts have a “gumminess” to them that is very welcome, and makes this figure extremely versatile.

It wouldn’t have been my choice to market him with the translucent half skull as the main look. It is OK, but that screams “ghost” to me and not “zombie.” They should have put the head with the open mouth on there. But this is me nit-picking about their choice. This doesn’t have any bearing on how great this set is!

The half skull head with ectoplasm effects really improves Warrior Beast Head Hunter. Also, add extra arms to Skeleton Legion Builder II!

He comes apart easily and is very modular, and also highly articulated as a positive consequence. The opaque undead parts are masterfully sculpted. These feel like the classic Mythic Legions, and you might need a hair dryer. (I didn’t). And the details. Wow! We could have had two symetrical thighs, but no the Horsemen went the extra mile and gave us different decayed details on each one. And this is so throughout the character.

Wal-Torr the Mad showing off those spectacular thighs!

ACCESSORIES

Yes. This can be a standalone action figure for a fan of zombies I guess. But the real magic is what it brings to everyone else. As such, I am giving you lots of examples in Mythic Legions as well as other figures.

The three weapons…we already have the axe head. The other weapons were new to the SpartanNerd.

All of those heads and hands!

And so here is my only one complaint. And the Horsemen did this on purpose I’m sure. We are a torso/waist, set of wrists and lower legs from having a second figure. In fact, I wish they had done this. Gave us TWO full figures in the package. One fully ghosted and the other fully zombified. I mean. We are literally six parts away from that.

But the nature of this set is that we will customize our other figures.

SPARTANNERD RATING OF THE MYTHIC LEGIONS UNDEAD BUILDER PACK

MASTERVERSE New Eternia Evil-Lyn energizes her staff while holding the spectral skull of an evil master.
Thulsa Doom, a figure that woefully lacked snake themed items, can hold the little smoke effect as a magic serpent.
In honor of Mattel giving us all kinds of cool origins figures in the $10 CLUB GRAYSKULL membership, I put the decayed head on Masters of the Universe Classics Despara. See the irony. The sarcasm! Why no MASTERVERSE in the Club Grayskull? They didn’t make this clear!

It can’t give anything but a 5/5.

  • Sculpt- The Four Horsemen bring us another incredible piece of art
  • Paint- The opaque parts are sickening gray, and the armor and weapons have very nice paint. The head sculpts are also painted very well. The translucent parts don’t have paint and don’t need it. (There is a dab on the face sculpts)
  • Articulation- The ghostly parts are very modular, and I didn’t need a hair dryer for the parts in this set.
  • Accessories- This figure is almost ONLY accessories, if you like to count alternate hands and feet as accessories. Otherwise the smokey energy effects and the three weapons are very nice.
  • Significance- I bought this so that it could add to my skeleton collection. And it does that very well!

And we are moving into the “Mega Bloks” kind of aspect of Mythic Legions. Masters of the Universe Modulok. This kind of figure. And I actually have the blue knight builder on order, so there is more like this to come eventually to the SpartanNerd. AND…Back to the Tupiculi. That guy is firmly one of my future buys.

I award the Mythic Legions Undead Builder Pack 5/5. Do you agree or disagree, Hub City Geeks? Let me know in the comments!

MASTERVERSE Revolution Man-Of- War…SpartanNerd Review

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Watch this review on the SpartanNerd’s YouTube channel!

Hello, Hub City Geeks, and here is the SpartanNerd coming to you this time from Summerville, South Carolina. You say, why are you at Summerville, SpartanNerd? Well, it’s a teacher conference, and you know I’m at Summerville, the birthplace of sweet tea. And while I’ve been here, I have drank no coffee and no Monster Energy because so much sweet tea just everywhere every day. And besides…it is WAY hot. (Heat Dome effecting half of the country).

The Sweet Tea monument in Summerville SC
What’s happening???…
Super7 Ultimates! Figures, TMNT Metalhead and G.I. Joe Cobra B.A.T. Are about to battle out for this giant jar of Sweet Tea!

So anyway, I did a little shopping with this money I saved at Target over here in Summerville. Walmart actually has some MASTERVERSE figures. Flying Fist He-Man…No, thank you. That thing does not look right (same head sculpt as Thunder Punch, which looked wrong and also I just don’t care for him). They also had New Eternia Evil-Lyn. She always looks right, but I didn’t want to buy another one. So, I’m reviewing something I picked up at Target in Summerville, and that would be MASTERVERSE Revolution Man-Of-War. The Man-Of-War is the same person as Man-At-Arms, but from the Netflix Masters of the Universe Revolutions cartoon. It is an updated Man-At-Arms. A 2.0 if you will. If you watch the Netflix show, then you know that Andra becomes Man-At-Arms. Duncan becomes Man-Of-War, and he has this mech suit and that’s terrific. I thought about picking this up when I got The Green Goddess (OK, Sorceress Teela). I’m pretty sure this was in the same wave and I was on the fence of getting it or not. I decided ultimately not to get it, and then I said…I think I even remember stating out loud, “Hey if I see it in a store someday somewhere, I’ll pick it up.” So here we are. Man-Of-War is now in my possession.

PACKAGING

The packaging is our basic, usual MASTERVERSE figure packaging. I call this the Transformer-style packaging because it has where you can see the figure inside, but it has mostly artwork. This minimizes the amount of plastic they’re using, which is good. It gives us more artwork, and artwork is always great, aways better than photos of stuff. They like to do this tilted picture on the side of the box, so with this picture you can see some more details. It looks to me like we have Man-Of-War fighting near the Wind Raider. If we get a vehicle in MASTERVERSE, the Wind Raider is a possibility, I’m sure it’d be pretty big. You could use Masters of the Universe Classics Wind Raider. But anyways, these are Horde ships, I believe. So he’s fighting against the Evil Horde.

The other side has the general library picture, that shows us the two ways to display his face…with and without the mask. If you happen to be a mint-in-box collector or just store your figures library style, this side image is very useful. I recently visited a store with lots of GI Joe classified figures done like this.

The back s a photoshop picture of the toy with some illustrations. I am not a fan of these, but you can see that we have artwork here of The Fright Zone or at least the inside of a Horde ship. And we’re seeing what Man-Of-War can do with mask and his weapon arm. And we can see a Horde Trooper here, which is a figure you can get from Mattel Creations. He’s really big. I never had one as a child, but I think he’s cool. And I like the Warhammer 40,000 vibe they’re bringing to it also. Making him oversized and you take that helmet off and see the goblin underneath. But it’s just not really for me, so I’m not getting that (I don’t think!)

We are given a new bio for Man-Of-War. Though he’s not the royal Man-At-Arms anymore, Duncan is still ready to protect Eternia at all costs in his plussed up battle suit as the powerful Man-Of-War. I like that they used the word plussed up. That’s for the D&D types. You know…people don’t talk about it much, but the DC Masters comics that came out going on ten years ago featured an evil version of Duncan called War Wraith. And he was indeed very cool.

Then we have cross sell images for other figures in the wave.

FIGURE REVIEW

All right, so I have the figure out to get photos, sorry about my setup. But I am in a hotel room!

That hotel room desk lamp can’t be moved, but it looks just like something Duncan would hang out around!

Man-Of-War comes with…

  • Man-Of-War figure
  • mask
  • alternate fist hand
  • alternate weapon
  • blast effect

The packaging has the accessories inside of one of those little baggies, and printed on the inside are the package contents. So you can see everything is supposed to be there. I checked to make sure everything was here. It was all here. Didn’t get done wrong this time. Didn’t get burned this time. So, there we are. We have a blaster, a hand, a mask, and a fist weapon.

He is as articulated as any MASTERVERSE figure, with the 30 points of articulation they brag about. He has double jointed elbows and knees, and also cuts at the thighs. Like most MASTERVERSE figures he feels kind of lanky, and wants to be stood up with a wide gait.

This Duncan feels like a dress-up kind of figure, so let’s start with the helmet. The head pops right off, but here we have our first stupid problem AND first complaints. The stupid problem is that the helmet is warped in the package. So it looks like it is on crooked all the time. The complaint is the paint job on the mustache and beard. The reason why I ultimately passed on this when I ordered the Green Goddess was because the image they had posted on Big Bad Toy Store seemed to look very wrong. I’m sure it is a painted plaster prototype or something, but it was off-putting enough for me to actually remove it from my cart before pulling the trigger on the other figure. This face doesn’t look that bad…but as a guy who cares about keeping his own beard straight, it is kind of unforgivable for Mattel.

This beard and mustache…kind of derp. And that bent helmet is what the SpartanNerd has come to call a “stupid problem.”

Anyway, you can use a hairdryer or just “force” and bend the helmet out of the way and slide on the mask. It looks great with the mask on!

While I am at it, I am going to go ahead and take off his armor. And it comes right off. Underneath is a silver colored body all over, reminiscent of New Eternia Mekanek (who has a shiny blue body). The weapon hand pops off and the oversized shoulder pad just slides right off. That shoulder pad is very 200x, anyone else think so?

Nothing to hide…(I also picked up the Turtle Van at Target)

What I wish we had was an alternate head. Or maybe the helmet should come off. But an alternate head with a ponytail or something would increase the appeal of this figure to fans of the 200x show. And let’s say the Man-Of-War head has the mask and helmet on permanently. But Mattel is saving money this way maybe…just the same. It wouldn’t take a new sculpt…we already have a Revelations Duncan AND a New Eternia Man-At-Arms they could have borrowed the head from. (I don’t have Revelations version…but I do have New Eternia. Remember April Fools Day?

SpartanNerd Nintendo Switch 2 Preview. April Fools (again)!

Now the armor and everything goes back on easily, let’s address the weapon hand. That shoulder pad takes some force to get in on the bicep tightly. And then the weapon arm…it really only loosely fits. (With some force, you can get it to stick). There is a hole for hands to peg in, but you don’t usually want to use that because it is a mace on the end.

This pays homage to the vintage weapon that Man-At-Arms always had, but it is morphed to his hand…the net effect however is something that goes over a stump arm. Which is cool and sad at the same time. (Barret Wallace comes to mind).

COMPARISONS

It turns out the SpartanNerd thought he might pick up something while he was here, so he came prepared with some figures that needed some attention. So I have with me Trapjaw. Now comparing Man of War with Trapjaw just ain’t fair. Trapjaw is maybe one of the best figures in all of Masterverse. But it tells us that for the same price, the same exact cost, we could have had that much more. Trapjaw here, better sculpted. I mean, yes, New Eternia, yes, a different line. So we could say artistically that Man-Of-War looks like the Revolution cartoon. But that doesn’t mean it has to be this bland. We could have better paint. I mean, there is a gold detail on some of the armor painted on, and it looks good. But most of the gold just looks like yellow plastic.

(You can easily put Trap Jaw’s weapons in Man-Of-War’s wrist).

Let’s compare him to the Mythic Legions Gold Knight.

Yep. I brought Easter basket Donatello with me also!

(The Gold Knight has not been doing his job. What job is that, SpartanNerd? Watching my funds. That’s what. He sits where I set my wallet. He’s a Gold Knight. Debit card got lost. He’s fired). Anyways, you can see the difference in the gold. This is clearly Mythic Legions, but it is a more gold-looking gold. The gold details of the paint on the armor here match pretty good with the gold knight, but a lot of this other, for instance the left boot, that’s just like yellow plastic is what that is. It’s not gold at all. So bland and boo. We are comparing the gourmet caramel apple with peanuts to the general red-delicious apple here. Not apples to oranges because similar scale, similar everything.

Man-Of-War actually gets the giant sweet tea!

I have someone else here with me: Super 7 Ultimates Metalhead (Link in the caption of the sweet tea). Metalhead reminds me of Man-Of-War here. They’re both from cartoons. They both have cartoon designs. I even say the yellow on Metalhead kind of matches some of the yellow on Man-Of-War. So the carapace here, the plastron, (ooo, use the biology words, SpartanNerd). Those are of a different kind of gold than the Mythic Legions. I’m going to say it’s still kind of similar. Maybe it feels more metallic than what is on Man-Of-War. So would Metalhead’s hand attachments work? The answer to that one is no. This peg is too big. Doesn’t work.

SPARTANNERD’S RATING OF MASTERVERSE REVOLUTION MAN-OF-WAR

This sculpt is fine. It reminds me of New Eternia Mekanek. Especially maybe because of that shiny plastic. But the face painting is a little bit derp. Like I said, the beard details, they seem a little bit off. It looks like Man-Of-War here might have had some kind of shaving accident. His eyes do not look derp, but that soul patch there does. And the mustache seems a little bit sloppy maybe. The paint on this is just kind of lackluster. So it’s got to lose a point for that.

Articulation- He is very posable. No problems here. So sculpt and articulation…that’s two points. I’m just going to have to rate Man-at-War here 3 of 5. I feel like he might be a 2 of 5. He’s not a 1. He’s not that bad. I’m just going to go for the 3 of 5. I mean, articulation is good. I wanted it bad enough to pay $22 for it. So it’s worth the $22, I’m saying. ($22 worth of feels…that’s the third point).

My Boy! (Roboto Review Here)

It’s another Man-at-Arms. If you’re a customizer, it’s a nice silver body. The paint is lacking. Accessories are okay…I wish he had more stuff with him. I think he would have been well served with another head. Maybe even a head instead of a mask. I know they’re saving money by doing the mask. But they wouldn’t have had to re-sculpt anything. If you’re like the SpartanNerd, then you probably already have another Man-at-Arms. You could pop that one on if you like better. But I’m just saying. This is the area where we could have gotten more. Mattel could have given us more and it would have been more satisfying. So I’m going to award it a 3 of 5 kind of reluctantly. And what do you think, Hub City Geeks? Do you agree or disagree with the SpartanNerd?

I will say, in person, out of the box, he looks better than the cross-sell or the Big Bad Toy Store promotional image. Be sure to read other blog entries and reviews on SpartanNerd.com, and also check out my YouTube Channel. There you will soon see a review of Final Fantasy Commander decks for Magic the Gathering, and also a review of the Mythic Legions Undead Builder set.