Snakes! Why did it have to be snakes? Well, Doctor Jones, it is because we have been a little slight on the serpents in Masters of the Universe Classics up to this point. However, September and October look to really bolster the ranks of the Viper House since we will see the long-awaited Rattlor next month, but September 17th is the date to remember if you REALLY want to punch up your snake stable. Yep, the Snake Men army-builder two-pack is the third quarter “oversized” slot, and Matty is better at unleashing the slithering soldiers from the Void than even Kobra Khan. How many do you plan on ordering? I have 10 Palace Guards, so I will need to have at least that many nasty reptile men to combat those numbers, maybe even more. The Snakemen have plagued Eternia for millennia, so it is about time to rally them around the Viper Tower to besiege your Classics collection.
One of the great things about a collector-focused line is the potential to get appropriate army-builder figures. Where sometimes it might be risky to release no-named grunts in the retail environment, virtual shelves are a great place them. So, while the good guys got a shot in the arm with the first builder set, and the Horde Troopers (with General Sunder parts, please!) are a given, it is nice to see the Snakemen get an army as well (and we can hope, hope, hope that Skeletor’s Robot Knights will be released too). I mean, the upcoming Rattlor isn’t just the general of Tung Lashor, Snakeface, and Squeeeze, right? He has lots and lots of slimy soldiers waiting to do the his bidding for the advancement of their hideous King Hssss. So with one click of the mouse, and a big dent in the old wallet, the Snakemen can go from one of the more sparsely populated factions to the biggest.
The look for this set was mined mostly from the MYP cartoon designs and with the alternate heads and armor and weapons, there are a lot of possibilities to have some pretty unique battle fodder, even in a potential sea of rank and file snakes. The cool thing is that even though we are just getting the orange and yellow color schemes with this set (Bert and Ernie, no?), there is hope that we might be able to get this set refreshed in the future, maybe with some greens or grays or even purple. So the snakes might get multiple shots at becoming the biggest army on your shelf.
While I can hardly wait to amass my massive “horde” of Horde Troopers, I am a huge fan of this set. I mean, Hssss is the king of all snakedom so it would stand to reason that all that slithers on their belly would rally to his side. The Four Horsemen have ensured that with the budget allotment they had to work with for this set, they have maximized the display options and mix and match possibilities. It was pretty obvious from the onset that we were getting two different bodies in different colors and a couple of different armors, but I originally mistook the heads as just two expressions of the same two generic snakes. As you can see above, that is most certainly NOT the case and what you are actually getting is four completely unique character snakes complete with different details and eye colors ranging from enraged red to more passive blue. So these snakes are ready for anything from fierce battle to spying and slithering. If I have done my combining correctly, that means you have a total of 12 unique possibilities to display these guys just taking the bodies, armor, and heads in to consideration. Since the orange and yellow do not really match up in combining, say, a yellow head with the orange body, you can take each body (two) times each armor (three if you go naked) times each matching color head for a crazy total of snakes. I have taken a picture of each of the combinations so you can see what you have to work with, but, right now, my favorite construction is the orange body with the open-mouthed head and snake sword. This guy is ready to kill (and subsequently eat) every Palace Guard he can get his fangs on.
Snake Man 1
Snake Man 2
Snake Man 3
Snake Man 4
The yellow snake is essentially Kobra Khan in construction with the plain torso, and the orange is Rattlor with the plain torso. The slight swapping on the yellow body is good to keep some uniqueness to this figure and the orange snake does not make use of the Rattlor torso because he does not have a tail and the full body armor would not be able to fit around it anyway. The cool news is that if you want some armor for your upcoming Rattlor figure, the shoulder armor fits him nicely. Both figures have an extra neck cover piece (think Mer-Man’s gills) to bring out more snakiness to their look. Those are not removable.
The armors and the weaponry are also a lot of fun and all of them are very well done. The two armors are very different from each other with the blue being more like a standard MOTU armor covering the entire upper torso. I see this as the armor that the “guard” snakes would wear and putting that one the yellow body with the blue-eyed head with the shield and spear makes for a GREAT royal guard to protect his slithering king. Of course, you can use any combination you like, but that is how he is standing on my shelf right now and, yeah, I am going to need more to build out my slimy envoy. The half shoulder armor on the other hand (or other shoulder if you will) fits more of the “melee” fighter look, so I personally think it looks fantastic on the orange body with yellow-eyed head and sword, club, or both. This guy is SCARY looking and ready to jump into battle with little concern for his own personal well being. I have always pictured Hssss as having a bit of mind control over his nameless minions so if he want him to jump in front of a charging Ram Man, but the Goddess, he is going to do it.
I think all of the weapons have been designed from the ground up by the Horsemen (though, I need to re-watch some MYP to make sure) and they are all very appropriate for an army of serpents. The sword and the spear have a great snake tongue blade theme, the mace looks like it is covered in fangs and the shield matches the snake insignia that is used across all of our Snake Men. I would have loved to have gotten one more shield just because it looks good with the other three, but with all of the parts this set includes, it is hardly something to complain about.
Also, I know that we are seeing a few production questions rise to the surface on some of the recent figures, but I really cannot find anything to harp on with this set. All of the pieces are cast in the right color of plastic, the paint is neat and tidy with a lot of subtle spraying and the engineering in the joints is tight and strong. I am starting to think that the Rattlor/Orange Snake body is the overall best that we have seen in MOTUC so far. I know that is bold statement, but everything about is so spot-on perfect that it leaves me wanting another opportunity to get a figure using these parts. So yeah, add that to the list of reasons why this set needs to be refreshed in different colors.
Frankly, I could talk all day about this set, but it is a lot more fun to go and play with these figures, so I will do that instead. I love MOTU army builders and I am so very pleased that this one is included, I hope they do it again. Toy Guru has announced that they will do a higher production run on this set due to knowing a lot of fans will want multiple sets. That is good because I am going in for several. If you are customizer, you can take the mix and match possibilities of this set to an all new level when building up your serpent army and we might just have a little feature on that point coming in the not to distant future to help show that we need more of these guys. If you cannot find some love it in this set, I am not really sure what to say. It is a fantastic MOTU offering, but in the end, these are just well done and fun toys. Of all of the September offerings (Mekaneck and Dragon Blaster Skeletor being the others) I see this set as the one being the most universally loved, and it is completely deserving of that. Don’t miss out on the 17th at Matty Collector–the Nameless One demands you stock your shelves!
*Thanks for reading and thanks to the Viper House crew at Mattel for sending these guys along for a preview. Believe it or not, there is still more MOTU action coming your way soon so stick with us!
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