Psst! Hey you! Yeah, you – the diehard Masters of the Universe Classics collector. How many Horde Trooper packs did you buy? A lot? Yeah? Good, good. Break your wallet? I bet you did. Need an excuse or two to go out and pay an inflated price on the aftermarket for more? No? C’mon, I thought you said you were die-hard? Gotta catch ‘em all. Masters never say die. And such and such. Well, I plan on bringing  you great joy and great pain all at the same time because our man Kevin Kosse (TIN) is back at it again with his amazing MOTUC add-on kits. This time he is going to help you expand and diversify your grand army of the Horde with two new heads: the Navy Trooper and the Flashback Trooper. Yeah, you are going to need more Troopers just to accommodate them, aren’t you? See, I knew I would get you. Yeah, gotta have the biggest army on the block.

Okay, okay, I am not really trying to be your pusher here, especially since so many collectors had to walk away from “Red Tuesday” (aka “Bloody October”) empty-handed as the Horde Troopers sold out in under 10 minutes. Hopefully that will convince Mattel to go back and make more (even though Toy Guru has already said that is not in the plans), but in the meantime, for those of you that did get your Troopers, you are in for a real treat with these two new Kosse Creations.

When I say that these two heads are so incredibly obvious, I don’t mean that as any kind of slight towards Kevin. Really, I just thought that he would not get the opportunity to make these because they would have been included with the official Horde Trooper release. I am not cutting down what you get with the Troopers at all, but unless Mattel is planning on releasing different variations of the Troopers, not getting the Navy Trooper head, Flashback head, and GENERAL SUNDER head in the set seem like a missed opportunity. Granted, I cannot imagine the Troopers selling out any faster than they actually did, so maybe this is just stating the obvious for Mattel to go back to the well on these guys.

While Kevin is currently hard at work on the his new General Sunder head (YES!), the Navy Trooper and Flashback Trooper heads are going to be available for purchase very soon, so keep your eyes on the MOTUCHeads Facebook page so you can stay up-to-the-minute on when you can plunk down your Euros for a set of your very own. Now that I have one of each here, you better believe that I will be getting at least one more of each because I ordered some extra Trooper sets just for these babies, and let me tell you – they are totally worth it.

Kevin has provided the MOTU Classics collector community with a lot of really neat things over the past few years. Getting a more vintage-styled He-Man head, a Filmation Skeletor and, of course, a Karak Nul has been a great opportunity to enhance an already great line. Since all (or most) of his creations have been based on more living or organic designs, these Trooper heads are the first time I am experiencing a real geometric sculpt from Kevin. Well, if for some reason you were worried that these would not live up to the offerings we have seen before, let me blast those fears right into Despondos. In fact, these two pieces might just be my favorites from him so far.

The Horde Troopers are a lot of fun just on their own, but when you get a chance to flesh (or metal) out Hordak’s army even more, it just amps up the coolness factor. Both the Naval and Flashback helmets were seen in the Filmation PoP cartoon and the way the show quietly differentiated them from the regular troops added a lot of layers and depth to the infantry ranks. Well, now you can do that one your collector shelf and enhance the adventure.

HORDE NAVY TROOPER

For the Navy Troopers, it really helps that Octavia came out in the subscription earlier this year. I mean, these helmets would sell themselves because they are so well done, but getting the leader of the Horde Navy to lead them ramps up the urgency of them so much. There is not any way that I will be able to have my shelf complete without having Octavia flanked by a couple of these Navy Troopers. It will just seem wrong to know that they exist and not take advantage of it.

The level of detail in this helmet and the sharpness of the sculpt are both to be marveled at, and I really mean it. These LOOK like factory production pieces of prototypes that were fabricated out of materials that had clean lines and nice geometric curves. The basic shape of the standard Trooper helmet has been retained, but with the added pieces, this helmet is much more ornate. The hose/breathing apparatus is spot on perfect and the fact that is was sculpted (rather than fabricated) makes it all more impressive.

So, let the bath time adventures begin! Sea Hawk is going to have a hell of time dealing with these guys (and that pesky Octavia) all by his lonesome.

HORDE FLASHBACK TROOPERS

Remember Secret of the Sword? The five-part episode/movie used to introduce us all to She-Ra? It is awesome. Might be the best thing that ever came out of the entire Filmation run of the MOTU world, so if you have not seen, it check it out. If you have, go watch it again and come back. I will wait and it will make these Flashback Troopers even more awesome.

Are you back? Good! So, as much as I always considered the Navy Troopers as essential to Hordak’s army, the Flashback Troopers just bring a smile to my face. It was a BIG deal to see the Horde on Eternia for the first time and watching Hordak lead these odd looking troopers in a like uniform on a raid of the palace was kind of a big deal to me. Plus, with expansion of Eternia’s pre-history via the Classics bios and stories, their relevance to the line has never been higher. Now these are the guys that were running amok 5,000 years ago and were there to see Hordak send King Grayskull to his doom. Yeah!

You would expect that the Horde’s technology would progress throughout the centuries, yeah? Well, Kevin has made it so your toys can represent it. Do you have a cool Preternia shelf going on? Add a couple of these to the Horde side and flesh out your scenes a bit more. Want to put a Hordak head on a Trooper body and recreate the “baby stealing” scene from SotS? Put two of these guys at his side to seal the deal. Have miniature DC Legion of Doom display happening? Repaint this helmet black and use it for the Hall of Doom. I am just kidding on that last one, but don’t these troopers look like the HoD? My point is, the Flashback helmets are a lot of fun and thanks to the recent fleshing out of Eternian history, they are more and more essential.

Go! Order now! You NEED these helmets to make your Horde army even more awesome. Like I said, these two pieces might just be Kevin’s best offerings so far and the quality and craftsmanship cannot be touched. I cannot wait to see what he has up next for us…

*Thanks to Kevin Kosse for sending these along for a preview, I will be placing an order for more soon!

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