As we continue on with our Looks at a very diverse group of new Masters of the Universe Classics figures, I think we have reached the point of more grandiose consideration of what this universe has always been about. Sure, we have classic adventure stories, barbarians in skimpy outfits using futuristic pieces of weaponry and even some nice monsters to boot. But has a property that made its bones appealing to the 4 to 8 year-old crowd really had something deeper going on all along? Are there parts of MOTU that serve as metaphor, or are there things that are symbolic comments on human nature and dynamics as a whole? Believe it or not, yeah, there is some of that going on and in true Masters fashion, it lands on one of the most universal punching bags of recognized goofiness – Snout Spout. He is NOT an animal! For decades, your mother and Orko have been teaching you that it is wrong to judge someone on appearance. You should know better than that and look to what someone is on the inside when deciding a person’s worth. And yet, here you are, judging poor Snout Spout because he has a giant robotic pachyderm head. That symbolic nature of him being (literally) Eternia’s Elephant Man is not at all subtle, and John Merrick even taught Hannibal Lecter compassion. So, it is time you turned a compassionate eye to a valuable and misunderstood Master.
Guess what? It took me growing up to appreciate a character with a giant elephant head. Seriously, you would think that would be an insanely awesome concept for a kid of 4 or 5, but back then I thought Snout Spout to be a weak Master. I suppose I never thought of him as being particularly goofy (do I REALLY need to start that rant about MOTU?) just that he could not really hold his own with the likes of He-Man, Ram Man and Man-at-Arms. Plus, my brother considered himself to be quite the card when he referred to him as “Snot Spout”. I mean, the water feature was fun, but he did not ever get a lot of play from me as kid. But at the time I did not really know anything about his fleshed-out background and, in the end, not every figure can be your favorite. The concept does seem to be taken to the extreme with Snout Spout though and over the years I have actually seen a good amount of resentment tossed his way. I suppose robotic elephant head guys just don’t fit into a mythos of skunk men, mystic bird ladies, cybernetic cowboys and Hec-tor Kurs. C’mon now! Okay, I realize that I am probably not going to win over any converts with my pleas for Snout Spout’s character, but the Classics figure might win you over for his appearance.
I am still going to try with his character though, and I am going to go out on a slight limb and say that, from his history given in his bio as well as some of his comic background, he actually has one of the most interesting characterizations of any Master’s character. See, he was once Jaxton – one of three handsome specimens and Etherian athletes taken by Hordak and tossed into his Experimentation Matrix. I don’t know what that is exactly (I will keep reading the bios) but since it involves Hordak, it is most likely something tortuous and gruesome. I like my Hordak as the embodiment of cruel evil and his experimentations on the populous of Etheria makes him even scarier than just the ultimate villain for countless good and bad guys. So, the future Snout Spout, along with Extendar and Dragstor became subjects of Hordak’s tortuous machinations and turned into three pretty freaky-looking dudes. Bummer. I mean, Jaxton was on Etheria after all and that planet is jumping with beautiful lady rebels and Bow pretty much has them all to himself after that.
So, a gifted athlete is spirited away by the Horde, transformed into a guy with a giant robo-phant head and force to serve the Ruthless Leader. That is a tough break for sure, but it really does make for some snappy characterization and when the Horde busts through the Laser Gate to invade Eternia for the second time, Snout Spout jumps ship and joins He-Man and She-Ra in the battle. That sounds good to me, my own Masters mythos is a giant hodgepodge of established backgrounds, inferences, things of my own imagination and good ideas from fellow fans – but I like this pretty much off the card so I think it will work well for my Snout Spout. I say that, but I also dig the story (from the more recent comics if I remember correctly) about how Snout Spout is a member of the Eternian Fire Brigade and instead of hauling around big clunky hoses, they have elephant-like helmets that work to extinguish outbreaks from the Sands of Fire. Hmm… I like that too. Maybe after Snout Spout joins the Masters, he also establishes the Eternian Firefighters brotherhood. You know, if you think about it, there are a lot of options here.
My point is that characters are ultimately what you make them, and Snout Spout has a very classic background, nothing too original in concept, but the execution is 100% Masters. While I certainly appreciate him more now than I ever did as kid, I have always felt that from a “gimmick” perspective, he has always fit right in with the rest of the Eternians, so I have no trouble welcoming an updated version of him into my collection. I realize that he will never be heavy hitter (what I have begun to refer to as a Q1 figure for sub bait) like Ram Man or Shadow Weaver or the Horde Troopers, but at the end of the day, for any action figure collection of mine it is about diversity. Once a line picks up steam the way MOTUC has and all kinds of characters go beyond options into actual figures, the collection as a whole starts to take priority over specific wants. Yes of course I want my Frosta and Spikor and Clamp Champ and General Sunder; but I also want characters like Snout Spout because they add to the overall expansiveness and variety, and when all is said and done, that is how any toy line is ultimately judged.
Plus, I get to add what I consider to be a “defensive” character to my ranks. Just about every MOTU character is presented with a power that used to help aid him or her in besting their opponent for the ultimate power of Castle Grayskull. I see Snout Spout as the guy that helps get the Masters (as well as the people of Etenia and Etheria) literally out of the fire with rescue tactics. Oh man, that village is on fire! He-Man and Stratos will go chase down Gizzlor and Mantenna while Snout Spout puts out the fire and saves the villagers. Oh crap! Whiplash knocked the crap outta Mekaneck on the Second Ultimate Battle Ground and broke his leg! Snout Spout to the rescue! Sure, it is not the most glamorous of Masterly duties, but it is certainly needed and definitely noble. Damn right, Snout Spout. He probably has more “I owe you ones” than any other Master around.
So, from a toy perspective, Snout Spout is about as “Classics” as you can get. He is very much an update to his vintage figure, and while there are some that would have preferred some influences from his more modern appearances, I wonder if perhaps there is room for that figure somewhere down the line, perhaps as some more generic Eternian Firefighters. I could totally see myself using them for that. At any rate, his head is really the most interesting part of the entire figure (as it should be) but everything else also matches up well with influences from the past, including his vintage and more modern weapons.
He elephant head is pretty much exactly what I expected it to be – a very faithful update to the original. All of the little cybernetic lines and wiring are there and his “ears” even have a touch of back and forth articulation. The head is big, both in height and in girth. So much so that Snouty is most certainly the tallest of all the heroic Masters at this point, and by a good amount. I am cool with that as elephants are large creatures with pretty good sized heads in relation to the rest of their bodies. It is also very wide so if you like to think of Snout Spout as a regular guy with a firefighter helmet, it is completely believable. I would have LOVED for Mattel to have included a “Jaxton” head in this case, but I know a lot of people are looking for any excuse to get some kind of use out of their Mo-Larr figure, so maybe his head can be used in that place. Or, if you are good displaying your Icarius figure with his helmet on, his alternate head is great for that too. Or, maybe you prefer using and Optikk head, or even an extra Teela head for such a thing – have it your way, baby! This is Masters of the Universe.
All of the cybernetic lines are pretty clean with it comes to paint as are his angular yellow eyes. I have to admit that I had to take a hard look at his eyes at first because I thought that maybe they were decals, but they are just very cleanly painted with a pretty glossy finish. It is funny, they look almost sad and somehow vacant if that can be achieved through machinery. This fits very well for the character of Snout Spout and while he fights hard for the safety of Eternia, he still has a sadness from the lot that cast his way.
The most important part of the entire head though is the real base of his classic gimmick – the trunk. I am positive that you well remember his ability to shoot water and I am sure a good deal of you chased around a sibling with your mighty elephant cannon. Ah, for the days of Snout Spout and Kobra Khan locked in plastic combat, one not able to best the other in their aquatic crossfire. Gone is feature, but the effect is still there. I had a feeling that his trunk would be posable with some kind of inner bendy wire and it is, I am just surprised at how well it can actually be posed. Usually with something thin, the outer rubber is too thick and you can barely get any kind of variety of movement from the feature. Well, Snout’s trunk gets around that limitation by being constructed out of a different material entirely. It almost has a foam-like quality to it. I say that, but it feels much sturdier than say, the Stay Puft figure, but it is soft enough to move pretty fluidly. I am sure the material is going to freak some of the more fastidious collectors out with questions of durability, but I don’t *think* it will be an issue. I mean, to me it feels more durable than the aforementioned Stay Puft, but also the DCUC Clayface and Swamp Thing. Since the internet has not gotten tactile yet, you will just have to wait and see for yourself, but the trunk does not feel like it will rip or fray without trying to do so specifically and hopefully this material isn’t subject to “rot” like a lot of plastics and rubbers often used for these purposes. But as you can hopefully see from the pictures, it certainly does aid in getting SS into a variety of different poses.
Below the neck the figure is the basic “human” base body in the burnt orange color you remember with some standard new parts to give service to his unique aspects. His gloves and boots are all new and have the sculpted ribbing in them. His boot cuffs are BIG and I am not completely sure but they might be responsible for adding some of the height to the figure. Both of his hands are open so he can grip his two weapons, but it seems like they have been sculpted to hold each one in a specific hand due to the space, but more on that in a minute. As he does not wear the standard-issue furry short pants, he has a new crotch piece. It is smaller than most any we have seen so far (like he needs another reason for a complex) and the material is VERY rubbery. I mean, this is the softest material yet for a hip piece and as it stands, it does not limit his hip/leg articulation in the slightest. I think this might finally be the material that people have been asking for in these pieces so I will be interested if it was a choice only for Snout Spout or if it will be used on characters going forward.
Finally, the Spoutster comes with two weapons – his classic fireman’s axe and what I am calling a “rescue” clamp. The axe is patterned right off of the vintage version and you can still prop up his snout with the non-bladed end. I am glad they included this feature and you can recreate the “prop pose” very realistically. The blade on the axe is pretty big, so much so that it looks like it could hack down the very Jawbridge of Grayskull if the Sorceress accidently burns her bowl of spoo in her Eternian toaster oven. The good news is that if you are going to use SS as rumble fighter, his axe will get the job done in de-tailing Whiplash or cracking the shell of Clawful. His other weapon looks to be something along the lines of the Eternian Jaws of Life reference to his old Staction implement. However, instead of having wicked cutting blades, the articulated pincers look like they are more for rescue or capture. Clamp Champ might have a thing or two to say about that, but as it stands now, Snout Spout has a MOTUC figure and he does not. Burn. I think this weapon will appeal to those that like the more detailed aesthetic of more recent incarnations of MOTU media as the axe is pretty simple in its design, even though I personally prefer it.
I know, I know – Snout Spout is one of those MOTU characters that is love him or hate him for most fans. He stretches the appearance limits of even this rich and wacky mythos, but I think that perhaps he gets dismissed a little too easily. Personally, Mattel, the old comic writers and the new(er) comic writers have done a great job in putting interesting takes on what I consider to be a misunderstood character. Towards that end, I think that if you are a fan of Snout Spout, you will be quite pleased with the rendition. If you are not then maybe he will get a new chance with a new figure and some background on the character that has recently been provided to us. Either way, Jaxton here has cemented himself in what is going to ultimately be the most expansive MOTU toy line ever (if you don’t already consider it to be so) and he can stand tall with the likes of He-Man, Man-at-Arms and She-Ra. Remember: when your Masters run into trouble, this Etherian athlete with a cybernetic cabesa might just be the best option for pulling them out of the fire. Thanks for reading.
*Many many thanks to Toy Guru, Danielle and the rest of the team for sending Snout Spout along for this Look, I think it is time we switched universes though so stay tuned for some DC flavor.
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