The Horde Troopers are arguably THE most important army builders in the MOTU universe. While having legions of Snake Men or Palace Guards is an impressive sight, nothing says “mass domination” like scores upon scores of robotic soldiers marching across a shattered landscape without remorse or pity. So, of course, they sold out way too quickly. If any troop-type needs to stay in heavy rotation on Matty for impulse purchasing, it’s the Horde Trooper.
Ever since the Horde first popped their head into the line, the inevitability of the Horde Troopers has dangled over our collective heads. With so much hype and buildup, finally having them in hand I can definitely say that they live up to all of the pent-up excitement. These have all the care and attention to detail that we’ve come to expect in the line, and the end result is a perfect upgraded translation of the original figure with all the added bells and whistles necessary to make a fun, play-worthy, great-looking toy.
I only had a single Horde Trooper when I was a kid. There were too many toys to focus on rebuying the same one multiple times, so I had to make due with a single trooper to bedevil the good guys. He was always bittersweet based on the fact that he sometimes all-too-easily came apart due to his exploding action feature. But those playtime woes have been eradicated, and I don’t have to worry about where or how to hold these when I’m smacking the good guys around. I mean… artfully posing. No I don’t.
These troopers look great as singles, but they really excel in multiples. I shake my fist jealously at the legion VeeBee bought. Too many toys coming too rapidly meant I could only afford a single set with my subscription. I foolishly thought I’d have a chance at these later… boy, was I wrong. But no matter, if I have to stick to two, then so be it.
The Horde Troopers come in two distinct flavors: clean and battle damaged. This has caused a minor uproar among the fans due to the fact that many want a legion of clean, unblemished figures, and to do that they have to either find a way to remove the paint or buy twice as many. And lord knows they don’t want anybody to have to buy twice as many toys…
Ka-ching!
The “battle-damage,” such as it is, is very slight, and while I could see how it could bother someone wanting unmarred armor, it doesn’t really bother me at all. They’re very minor, a smudge on the helmet and a smudge on the raised neck guard. Again, they might bother some, but I don’t really intend to have them being inspected for cleanliness by Hordak, so it’s fine. I never liked the aspect of the Troopers that they can be easily destroyed with a simple hit, so to me these troopers have all seen plenty of battle, and their processors have catalogued the fighting styles and weaknesses of their enemies, making them harder to defeat each time. That’s how the Horde consumes world after world, with battle-hardened, combat-ready legions ready willing and able to destroy anything that gets in their way. Cheery!
Their articulation is a bit hampered due to their design, and while this would bug me in any other figure, I don’t see these guys as doing deep lunges, so what they do have is more than sufficient for my needs. They do have plenty of articulation for a lot of expressive poses. They feature those swivel hinge joints, more commonly referred to as “elbros,” in both the knees and elbows, but they also have the regular, full ball-jointed hips and bicep swivels, as well as the rest of the standard articulation we’ve come to expect from these figures, so, as I said, they move fine, if not fully 90 degrees at elbow and knee.
There were complaints that their helmets were ill-designed so they didn’t have that “angry V” look of the troopers on the cartoon, but it’s more to do with how you pose them if you want to replicate that very specific look. Just tilt the head down a bit and bam; you can approximate it as close as possible. Due to the unique saucer-like nature of the head, you get a good range of motion out of it.
The chest armor is made of the more flexible type of rubbery plastic they’ve been using, which doesn’t seem to hamper posing as much as hard plastic might. With the chest armor off, you can see that the Four Horsemen weren’t content to sculpt a blank body under there, instead sculpting a fully detailed torso festooned with all sorts of technical robotic detail.
They come with a variety of accessories: two shields, two stun batons, two staffs, and two stylized crossbows.
The shields seem purely ceremonial to me because the design itself doesn’t look like it would lend itself to much protection. That’s fine; it does look pretty snazzy when they’re lined up. I can imagine a few dozen would look pretty nice all lined up in a row with their red shields.
The staff is nicely sculpted, ornate, and technical with a dragon-type creature on top.
The crossbow diverges from the standard Horde crossbow by having a representation of their helmets on the tip of the crossbow instead of the standard Horde symbol. I have to admit, though most of them come with a crossbow, I’ve never really used them with the figures, because each member of the Horde seems to be a weapon all on their own, but I like these for the Troopers. They’re not my favorite weapon for them — a standard rifle blaster would have been better — but the Crossbow weapons make more sense for the troopers than the standard Horde guys.
Finally, they come with Stun batons. I like these a lot, they’re simple and understated, but they have an angry feel to them. Crowd control, prisoner punishment, sadism — these seem like something that would get a lot of use.
The Horde Troopers hit every right note they could hit and end up being a super-fun set of toys that look great alone, in pairs, or in vast multiples. October was a strong month full of awesome, unique sculpting and great toyetic designs in figures like Dactus and Mantenna, but the troopers held their own and left us wanting more more more, which is all you can ask of a great figure. I hope those that want more (incuding me) get what they want in the future. Come on, Matty, make it so. It can only be profitable in the end.
