Greetings
Phantomaniacs!
I
am back with another Masters of the Universe Classics review of
Stonedar and Rokkon, The Comet Warriors!
The
Comet Warriors were the 2013 San Diego Comic Con Exclusives.
The
Comet Warriors were released in Wave 5 towards the end of the line.
This was the year the Snakemen were introduced and a year after the
Horde had entered the scene. There was a departure from the reuse
kitbash style and this wave saw a lot of new tooling and
transformation style action features along with Rio Blast and
Extendar. They saved the reuse for variants like Terror Claws
Skeletor (AWESOME), Hurricane Hordak (AWESOME) and Flying Fists
He-man (LAME).
I
don't really think that they made a very exciting SDCC Exclusive for
the year. They are not super in demand characters, so not having them
be part of the sub was a good idea and people were still butt hurt
over expensive multi packs like the Star Sisters. As far as being an
exclusive though they leave you a little wanting. That is the trick
with exclusives. You want it to be something that gets people excited
about the brand and talking about it but that people might be okay
living without it they can't get it. If everyone got it, it wouldn't
be that exclusive. STROBOOOOOOO! But I digress.
However
since they were not part of the sub it meant I needed to aquire them
from SDCC without being there. Kathleen (see
Temple of Darkness Sorceress Review) came to my rescue again and
picked them up along with the two mini masters He-man and Skeletor
from the App Game. My sister in law also picked up a pair for me so
now I have two sets. Sure wish they had been army builders. I am very
lazy about selling things on the secondary market but hopefully I can
unload the other set at some point. I don't really see myself wanting
two pairs to display in boulder form and in humanoid form.
I
really like the idea of guys who survive and travel in space by
turning into comets. That is pretty cool. What always threw me though
is when they call them boulders. "Rokkon – Young Heroic
Battling Boulder" That is when they lose me. Comets are cool.
They streak through space, they have tails and are cosmicey. Boulders
not so much.
From
their bios we learn that the Comet Warriors were just minding their
own business out in orbit when Horde Prime unleashed a light storm
from Horde World that knocked them out of orbit and sent them
hurtling through space. Eventually they crash land on Eternia and
team up with He-man and the Masters. So I guess they just chill in
orbit and when they detect trouble they propel themselves, maybe with
their chest guns, to wherever they need to be. I don't think they can
transform in the vacum of space. To me it makes sense that their
comet forms allow them to survive in space. There is detail of tubing
and electronics sculpted into the inside of the comet "shells",
this could totally be a life support system.
It
says Stonedar is the leader of a peaceful clan of Comet Warriors. I
did not know there were peaceful warriors but okay. It also suggests
that there are non-peaceful aggressive Comet Warriors out there as
well. I think the Comet Warriors would make interesting antagonists.
Especialy a whole lot of them. An approaching meteor shower turns out
to be an invasion force. If I was Horde Prime I would be enlisting or
brainwashing these guys not wiping them out. They make an excellent
first wave attack. You get the double damage of having a metoer
shower strike a populated area and then all of the meteors turn into
soldiers with impenatrable armor and chest guns.
Here
we seem them look pretty badass and some awesome art of the Horde as
well.
Have
you ever thought to yourself, "Man, I LOVE shooting people but
sometimes I want to make a sandwich too."? Well worry no more!
With new chest mounted blasters you can enjoy hands free firing!
It
says Stonedar has blazing armor that can temporarily blind attackers.
I could buy that with Rokkon who's armor has a more crystaline look
to it, but Stonedar's is very flat.
The
Comet Warriors were featured in the the minicomics as well as in
FILMATION. By the time the Comet Warriors were released, He-man was
over and She-ra was on so they were only featured on She-Ra. Much is
said of their peacefulness
Here
in this classic character profile we learn that they in fact navigate
through space with sonic waves. However upon getting a little science
on that we find that sound waves require air and therefore they could
not in fact navigate space with sound waves. FINE SCIENCE! Have it
your way. We also find that they were called the Comet People which
does not sound nearly as cool as Comet Warriors but makes more sense
for Stonedar to be a pacifist. While that makes more sense, we learn
that in spite of his attempt to destroy a planet called Comet World,
the fact that it's inhabitants can turn into comets and fly through
space is a surprise to Hordak. It seems Hordak needs to reallocate
some resources from the Horde Red Bat Marketing Public Awareness
Campaign to the Horde's Intelligence Division. It is some rad imagery
though. A space station in orbit around Comet World ready to drain
all of its energy when suddenly comets come racing into space from
the planet punching hole after hole in the space station until it is
destroyed. Surprise, Asshole! I think that is a cooler back story
then them just being knocked out of orbit by a light storm (whatever
that is) from Horde World. I'd like to think that after that though
the Horde would have put the full might of their Empire into a full
scale assault and destroyed their planet anyway.
It
is a neat tie to the Horde. It helps make the reach of the Horde
Empire appear vaster. That a whole planet of people are gone except a
handful of survivors that have joined up with the Masters on Eternia
isn't something we get much in the old canon. You get stories like
Snout Spout who was living on Etheria and was experimented on and
turned against the Horde, but a whole planet getting wiped out raises
the stakes significantly. It helps put the Universe in Masters of the
Universe.
As
for the actual figures, they are a faithful recreation of the
originals. In order to utilize existing parts they are not able to
fold up on their own like the originals, which were 100% new tooling.
Extra pieces had to be added to complete the transformation. Which
means you have some very space consuming extra pieces that will not
fit in my extra accesory bags. So they do eat up a lot of space. They
also had to add butt flaps. Yeah the butt flaps. Personally I think
they are hilarious.
They
have very sort of Tron meets, well, rocks I guess, look to them. In
order to allow them to bend over all of the way they do not have any
sort of loin coverings like other figures. This exposes the ball
joints at the hips and looks funny. Particulary from the back.
All
of their rock covering pieces are removeable with the exception of
the sculpted on part at the back of the head. So they always have
that sort of saintly halo thing going on around their heads. We get
the Trap Jaw legs. Again. Their rock parts, heads, chests and
crotches are all new. Those crotches... they do look pretty goofy.
We
get reused parts in the arms, shoulders, and legs. Their chest armor
does not appear to be removeable. As mentioned before they each come
with a blaster that they can hold in either hand or attach to their
chest. In order to fully forward for the transformation they have
open hips showing the ball joints. The way that the arm and leg rock
pieces clip into the reused elbow and knee joint holes is pretty
inspired if you ask me. Once again the Horsemen did an amazing job of
adapting old action features into Classics....if you look at the
beginning and final forms. The actual transformation leaves a lot to
be desired. The old figures you just bent over and adjusted their
arms and viola, comet. Not even a second to do. The classics version
takes considerably more seconds to complete. It is slow and it
involves a lot of fiddling to finally get them looking right.
There
is also the issue of where to display these guys. I have 10 shelves
all with different factions or scenes on them and these guys just
don't fit anywhere. Right now they are just one their own on top of
one of the cases with a few other things without places to go.
There
are not my favorite figures by far, but they deliver on the promise
of Classics. Every vintage figure. So we have these guys., check them
off the list.
I
give the Comet Warriors a 3/5. They are good enough but not that
great and I dont have anywhere to put them. That being said I've got
an extra set if you are interested....ehhhh?
Till
next time Phantomaniacs, good journey!
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