On
paper this isn’t necessarily a two-pack I would have gotten super
excited about. I have as many He-Man variants as I might want and
there are a lot of 200X versions I’d prefer to have before King
Hssss (Teela, Sorceress, Roboto, Prince Adam, Skeletor, possibly even
Orko). But the pictures Matty showed when they first revealed this
set looked awesome. I still love the 200X aesthetic and wish we could
see more of it in the Classics line, so these two figures were a
welcome addition. Plus, I would at least have a King Hssss that I
wasn’t ashamed to put at the front of the shelf.
I’d
say that after seeing those pictures I was anticipating this two-pack
more than I had any Classics figures in quite some time. They’re
easily two of the most visually exciting figures in the line and they
looked to be positively packed with new parts. I was so excited about
these that for the first time in at least thirteen months I was
checking my shipping tracker daily to see when they would arrive (of
course, at the time I was still excited about their case-mate,
Ninjor).
First
Glance
They
look just as fantastic in person as they did in the first pictures.
Each figure is loaded with detail and the parts that aren’t new are
dolled up and covered up enough that you don’t even think about
them.
Except
for King Hssss’ staff, which has become the accessory I most loathe
seeing; even over stands.
Packaging
I
like the Masters of the Universe Classics two-pack window box just as
much as I love the rest of the packaging for the line. It’s all
uniform in design and shows off the figures quite nicely.
“The
Most Powerful Snake Hunter in the Universe” almost
crosses the boundaries of silly that I have established within my
brain for this franchise. Fortunately it is offset by “Slithering
Leader of the Snake Men”, which seems sillier and yet more
acceptable at the same time. I guess I needed a reminder of what
we’re dealing with here.
He-Man’s
bio is pretty straightforward – he gets special armor to fight the
Snake Men and ends up fighting his buddy, Duncan, who has been turned
into a Snake Man.
King
Hssss’ bio talks about how he sleeps all the time, only to awaken
when it’s time for Orko to commit genocide against his entire race.
Looks
Aside
from the iconic original He-Man, this is my favorite look for the
Most Powerful Man in the Universe.
He
has the 200X hairstyle and a slightly more stern facial expression
than other He-Mans. The head looks great. Despite the awesomeness of
this figure, it does make me want a regular 200X He-Man.
The
armor is incredible and translates much more easily to the MOTUC
style than I ever would have expected. Or maybe they just put a lot
more effort into this set than I expected. The base is a standard
MOTUC human body, but with the original King Hssss’ right thigh and
upper arm. There are new forearms, calves, torso armor, and a new
skirt piece and they all look fantastic together. This looks like a
guy that’s outfitted to hunt giant, murderous serpents. Even being
only half-armored makes a certain amount of sense – he would lead
with his right side and strike with his unencumbered left, which will
be able to move more quickly. Granted, He-Man is usually portrayed as
being right-handed, but I like to think that part of being the Most
Powerful Man in the Universe is being ambidextrous.
All
of the rivets, textures, and plates of the new armor pieces add an
amount of detail that we don’t often see in the Classics line. The
torso armor is rubber so as not to interfere with the figure’s
poseability, but it looks very solid. The paint apps are perfect.
There’s also a strap on the back to hold the Power Sword and it’s
even angled so that He-Man can draw left-handed. The lower torso is
just silver paint on the naked MOTUC buck, so his armor has a navel.
The abs are okay, as we’ve seen plenty of fantasy armor with
physiques sculpted into it over the years, but a belly button seems
like a bit much. But I get why it’s that way and it doesn’t
bother me.
The
new skirt is the most 200X-ish part of the whole figure. Well, that
and the crazy detailed wrist cuff. The cuff has a glossy red gem on
either side and some wonderful engraved designs. The skirt is rubber
with slits on either side to allow leg movement. There’s a nice
leather texture on the appropriate parts and the paint is excellent.
The
greaves have the same rivets and plates as the rest of the armor, as
well as some sculpted damage. Due to their design the usual calf
swivel has been eliminated, but I don’t care. While those and the
torso joint are nice to have, they’re also the ones that are the
least important to me.
I
would have preferred it if Mattel had called this King Hssss
“Battlefield King Hssss” rather than “Battle Armor King Hssss”.
The precedent has been set for “Battlefield” variations of
characters – Teela, Evil-Lyn, but so far the other “Battle Armor”
versions have actually had Battle Armor – He-Man, Skeletor, Faker.
It’s just an issue of semantics, but it’s instantly apparent that
this version of the serpentine monarch does not, in fact, have Battle
Armor. I think my issue is that the moniker Battle Armor suggests a
gimmick and this figure – while awesome – does not have such a
gimmick.
Okay,
enough bitching.
This
figure is awesome and puts the original King Hssss – that was very
well done for what it was – to shame. It fully embraces the
Egyptian aesthetic that many of the 200X designs used. This figure
uses the same base as the original, but adds so much fantastic detail
that it even makes that base look more exciting. This Hssss looks
like a warrior king (a neat trick for a guy that apparently spends
most of his time asleep). The way that the design elements match
across the figure is wonderful – the belt, bracers, and greaves
work together. The belt buckle and headpiece work together. And then
you’ve got the red loincloth and chest piece to highlight the whole
design.
The
head consists of a plated headpiece that suggests both a crown and a
helmet and a face that is probably among the scariest of the MOTUC
line. The blood-red eyes glare out from a pallid, emaciated face.
Hssss is almost vampiric in his severity. It’s interesting that
this figure sports a look of disgust that is almost the polar
opposite of the originals’ smug smirk.
The
torso piece is ingenious. It’s completely effective at making the
figure appear armored, but it is designed to leave the abdominal
joint exposed and free to move, as well as avoiding adding bulk to
the figure’s appearance. This looks much
better than most MOTUC figures with armored torsos. The paint on this
piece is excellent as well. The gold rivets and trim on the chest
piece are tightly applied and the snake sigil’s glossy green stays
on the design. All of this despite those portions being very fine in
detail.
The
bracers and skirt are full of snakey detail. The bracers have a
portion with a snake-like scale pattern while the skirt is more
traditional scale mail. The loincloth in front is formed of
stitched-together pieces of fabric, which is a cool detail.
The
greaves stick to the snake theme and have perfectly applied paint
apps, just like the rest of the armored portions. King Hssss’ feet
are totally gross. I haven’t seen sandaled feet this disgusting
since the second Lollapalooza tour.
Accessories
Snake
Armor He-Man comes with a slightly different version of the Techno
Power Sword and a “snake pincher”. The bio also mentions a
“venom-proof shield”, which is not a thing that this set came
with.
I
like the design of the Techno Power Sword, but it really is a bit
much. As Far as the general mythology of all of the various
incarnations of He-Man, I prefer the original Power Sword. I was
curious about how this version fit into the MOTUC bios, so I did a
little research and immediately got a headache. It’s complicated.
So complicated that I still don’t understand what the heck I just
read. There’s a reason I don’t pay too much attention to those
bios.
“Snake
pincher” is certainly one of the dumbest terms to come out of these
bios, and that’s saying something. This piece plugs securely into a
nicely concealed spot on He-Man’s right arm. It looks cool but
isn’t as big or functional as I would have liked. A hinge would
have been nice and a “pincher” big enough to actually put around
the neck of a figure would have been even nicer. The opening is large
enough, but you’d have to stretch the thing to make it happen and
I’m not willing to take that risk.
King
Hssss’ accoutrements include a shield (presumably venom-proof) and
that tired, old Snake Men staff.
These
are the same things that came with the original King Hssss. Both have
been repainted to match this Hssss’ color scheme. The shield is
fine, but I loathe this lame-ass staff. It was fine the first time
around is it were only ever going to be used as King Hssss’ Royal
Staff of Serpentry or whatever. Like Cobra Commander’s staff. But
Matty had to go and include some variation of this piece of crap with
almost every Snake Man, so not only is it a piece of crap that
clearly has no offensive value other than perhaps bonking somebody
over the head, it’s also
not a Royal implement because apparently they just hand them out at
the Subternia General Store.
Fortunately
I am a hoarder and keep all of the useless accessories I end up with
(even the stupid Snake Men staffs), so I still have the ludicrously
oversized scimitar that came with the DC
Signature Collection Ra’s al Ghul:
It
looks great
with King Hssss and the gold hilt even matches his deco. It took a
little while before it occurred to me that I had this thing, but I
had been picturing Hssss holding a scimitar. I think subconsciously
this is exactly the weapon I had in mind.
Fun
These
are both fun figures with the standard MOTUC articulation and very
little getting in the way of it. They can achieve pretty much any
reasonable pose you could come up with.
While
the quality of their accessories may vary, they do interact with them
in meaningful ways and definitely add value and play appeal. For the
most part Masters of the Universe Classics figures actually are very
good toys, beyond just being collectibles.
King
Hssss has an added perk if you have the original figure – his torso
and legs come apart and you can attach the original figure’s
terrifying snake body to the legs:
Or
you could mix and match the torsos and legs, though I have no idea
why you would want to do that. I’m just glad I have a second Hssss
so that I can display the snake body now. It doesn’t work so well
by itself, without the context of a King Hssss, but beside this Hssss
I think it’ll look fine on the shelf.
Also,
I think I remember Matty saying that they had plans to release a 200X
King Hssss snake body, but that they weren’t sure how yet. In all
likelihood I’ll stick that serpent body on the old legs.
I
did run into one issue with this feature. The first time I separated
Hssss’ torso from the legs, the peg on the torso broke:
Just
a small piece broke off, but now the waist joint is super
loose. It stays on, thankfully, but just spins freely. It’s
inconvenient, but not nearly enough for me to try bothering with
Matty’s legendarily terrible Customer No-Service department.
Overall
These
are a couple of awesome figures that I am thrilled to have on the
shelf. Snake Armor He-Man is a must-have variant (not a phrase I use
often) and this is the
King Hssss as far as I am concerned. They look fantastic and
complement each other so well that I actually kind of hate to put
them on separate shelves.
If
you’re not any kind of Masters of the Universe Classics collector
then I can’t say you have to get these. They’re great action
figures and it would give you a good guy and a bad guy, but they are
firmly from the world of He-man. If you are, however, a fan of this
Universe then you have to get these guys. I love ‘em. Despite a
couple of questionable accessory choices.
4
out of 5
Obviously
you should keep an eye out at cons or wait for Matty to offer this
set again, but if you have
to have these now and want to help out Needless Things, here you go:
I just got my Q1 shipment this afternoon. I quickly busted open all the packages, and this 2-pack is the best.
ReplyDeleteI am very happy with the execution on both figures. Because of your warning, I have not separated King Hssssssssssss's torso from his pelvis, so his waist joint is good and tight.
I am surprised at how good the paint apps are for both figures. He-man in particular has all these little details on his armor and loin cloth, and everything just seems to line up correctly. I haven't seen this level of execution in a MOTUC figure for a while.
I think this set is a high water mark for the line. Having reviewed these and seen all six of the 200X sub figures, it's heartbreaking that the sub doesn't look like it's going to go through. All six of those figures look incredible.
DeleteYeah, I just saw that the subscription is at 76% with 5 days left. I think the figures look great, but I only want the rock guy, queen Veena, and the big white fellow. Also, this 2015 sub is already going to be tough this year, so I just can't commit to it.
DeleteWhatever. If you don't buy ten subs just to keep the line going you're a communist that clubs baby seals.
DeleteWell, miraculously, the sub went through without my money. I forgot about Ceratus, so now my must-haves from the group is Ceratus and Calix. Veena and big white puppy dog guy will be a maybe.
DeleteI was initially surprised that the sub went through. I think I was so excited about the figures - I love all six and the heads - that I forgot my normal Matty cynicism. Once I tho get about it I remembered that I don't ever believe anything Matty says. So their percentages and numbers shouldn't mean anything to me. But I LOVE 200X and got all caught up in this one.
Delete