It hasn’t happened often, but finally we’re getting another figure based on a character in the 1987 Masters of the Universe film. While I don’t pretend to know all the ins and outs of the copyright situation, Mattel seems to be currently limited to producing only the movie characters that had figures in the vintage line. And that would indeed be what Blade, Gwildor and Saurod all have in common. And since Matty’s goal this year has been to complete the Classics line with updates to all the existing vintage figures, we all knew Saurod had to be coming. And that’s fine by me because I’m all for lizard warriors in space armor.

There isn’t much new to say about the packaging. I am surprised that Matty didn’t opt to put a sticker on the bubble for the movie figures, but again they might be restricted by all that copyright nonsense and the bio is designed to wrap him up in the Classics canon. His tag line is “Evil Spark Shooting Reptile.”

I have to admit to being blown away by this figure the moment I got him out of the package. I think it was the coloring that caught my eye first. Admittedly, the coloring doesn’t seem to match the big screen character all that closely, but I’m fine with that because it looks so striking. The copper colored armor is fantastic on its own, but when coupled with the blue-green underneath it, the deco really ups the wow factor big time.  I’m a little confused as to whether all that blue-green paint is supposed to be Saurod’s skin or not because the sculpt in some areas makes it look more like chain mail and yet it more or less matches the areas that are obviously textured with a scaly skin pattern. And then you’ve got what appear to be his green undies, which also have a scaly lizard skin pattern, but matches the color of his tail underneath. Am I over thinking this? Well, either way, I love the coloring on this piece.

The armor itself is intricately detailed with panel lining on the legs, circuit-like patterns on the arms and a wonderful hammered and pitted look to the shoulder pieces. Sculpted straps secure his upper leg plates and the lobster tail armor above his tail looks amazing. A stray nick and scrape here and there makes the armor look well used and battle worn. I have no idea what that thing is hanging off the back of his helmet, though. A lizard pony tail? Hey, it’s Eternia, so why not?

Saurod’s head sculpt is mostly comprised of his impressive helmet and mask. There’s a little of his scaly skin showing around the eye holes and two cold and piercing reptile eyes peering out of his rather intricate mask. The right eye on my figure is a little out of whack, but compared to some of the googly-eyed Saurods I’ve seen out there, I’ll definitely take what I got.

Despite the distinctive armor and sculpting on display here, Saurod retains all the standard articulation found in the MOTUC buck. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps and wrists. The legs are ball jointed with hinges in the knees and ankles, and swivels up at the top of the thighs. Saurod can swivel at the waist, has an ab crunch hinge in the torso, and his head is ball jointed. The tail is rubbery, but not really poseable. It does, however, help with balance on some of the more action orientated poses.

Saurod comes with one accessory and that’s his trusty laser pistol. It’s a simple piece with a decent sculpt. The sidearm can be stored in his functional holster or wielded in his right hand.

Whatever bad blood Matty earned for making me shell out money for that ridiculous Hordak variant last month is now forgiven, because Saurod here really is a spectacular figure. I have no particular love for or nostalgia for the character, but this figure is so damn striking that I can imagine I would probably have wanted him on my shelf even if I wasn’t collecting the MOTUC line. The coloring, the sculpt, and the personality of this guy all come together so beautifully. Now if only Matty could work out the licensing rights and get us some more movie figures, particularly that blinged out version of Skeletor, I would be a really happy camper.

At last, I’m getting around to opening up the final Masters Classics figure from August: Buzzsaw Hordak! This was one of the first figures in this line that I can remember not really being terribly excited about getting. Don’t get me wrong, I love The Evil Horde and I love Hordak, but did I really need yet another variant of the guy? Let alone one that looks almost exactly the same as the original? Well, let’s see if Buzzsaw can win me over.

Nothing much new to say about the packaging, although it’s worth pointing out that the up and coming Dragstor figure is pictured on the back of the card and looking great. The bio is downright weird and attributes Hordak’s buzzsaws to a mutation brought on by attempting to steal time travel secrets without the Cosmic Key. Um, what? Firstly, what does one thing have to do with the other and secondly, that’s a pretty convenient mutation. In the end, there’s only one answer… because, Masters of the Universe! If you can’t accept that, I’ll ask you to take another look at Snout Spout. I rest my case.

So what we have here is basically the same Hordak figure (which I reviewed back in 2010 and recently revisited!) that we got originally only with some paint variations and the chest gimmick thing. Instead of wearing a vest over a regular MOTUC buck, Buzzsaw’s got a totally new torso, but it still looks very much the same. The loin cloth is shorter on the new figure, but that’s the only noticeable change to the sculpt. In fact, with the chest door closed up, the only real differences are the silver-grey used for the trim on the original Hordak’s outfit has been changed to glossy black paint and the weathered looking grey belt has been changed to straight silver. The face on my figure is a little paler than the original too. That’s not to say what’s here isn’t good. The paintwork on this figure is excellent and overall, he looks fantastic.

Of course, with the whole point of this figure being the gimmick, I doubt many will display it with the chest door closed. Nope, if this guy is going to take up valuable space on the shelf, you might as well showcase that gimmick. That having been said, I don’t care much for it as a display option. It’s just an open compartment with the buzzsaw piece rattling around in there. You can balance it on the tab that secures the door to make it look like it’s getting ready to launch, but even that is rather precarious. For a gimmick that required an entirely new torso to be sculpted, this still manages to feel like an afterthought.

Obviously some articulation had to be sacrificed to make this work, but only the ab-crunch. Everything else is intact and right in line with what we’ve been seeing all along from the MOTUC male buck. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, hinges in the elbows, and swivels in both the biceps and the wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have hinges in the knees, and ankles, and swivels up near the hips. The neck is ball jointed and there is still a swivel in the waist.

Besides the buzzsaw piece, Hordak also comes with his crossbow. It’s the same piece that came with the original Hordak only now cast in white plastic with red paint apps for the eyes. Sadly, Matty chose not to repack the staff from the original figure, which seems kind of cheap on their part.

In case you haven’t already guessed, I’m pretty underwhelmed by Buzzsaw Hordak. I imagine that collectors anxious to get modern versions of all the vintage toys will be happy to get him, and that’s cool. I suppose he’s a decent pick up for collectors who missed out on the original Hordak, but then that’s not an expensive figure on the second hand market, so if that was the case, you’re probably better hunting down the original. I don’t know what else to say. It’s not often that my Matty Masters Sub disappoints me, but this is one time that it did. This is one that I would have happily skipped had I the option to.

As you may remember, last month was a pretty big one for Matty Subbers. My net haul was no less than three figures and a packet of heads. I’ve already checked out Evil Seed from the 200X Subscription and today I’m taking a look at Mara of Primus who hails from the regular Club Eternia Sub, although the character comes from New Adventures. Or at least that’s what I’m told. Truth be told, I have no idea who this chick is.

Nothing new to talk about with the packaging, other then it has the “Galactic Protectors” sticker on the bubble, so I’m going to jump right to the bio in order to edumacate myself about the character. This is the part where I remind you that I don’t need to know who these people are to enjoy their action figures. Unfortunately, there’s nothing here to suggest that she’s a Transformers-Masters crossover so the whole Primus thing is just a coincidence. Also, it turns out her bio is just a bunch of boring stuff about her made up titles and accomplishments and is surprisingly silent about the fact that she uses her hair as a goddamn flail to pummel people with. At least they didn’t name her Hair-Flailia or something like that. Oh, and that reminds me… COPYRIGHT HAIR-FLALIA, SUCKERS!!!

With Mara out of the package, I have to say I’m digging this gal a lot. I get a kind of space-gladiator vibe off of her. Actually, the top of her outfit looks like a proper uniform a crew member might wear on a space ship in a 70’s sci-fi series, complete with high shoulders, some insignia and decorative piping. Below that things just get wild. She’s serving up an ample helping of bare midriff, a spiked bracelet on her right wrist and a purple and gold arm bracer on her left. I like the attention paid to her boots. The gold paint on the armor looks great against the purple, I really love this gold paint, and the buckles are sculpted  on the sides, which is always a great little detail.

And then you’ve got her weaponized ponytail. Mara features a super long braid with a gold band holding it together in the middle and it ends with a spiked ball. I think I like this concept a lot more than it deserves, but I just think it’s ridiculously bad ass, especially for someone who’s an ambassador. You know, just in case diplomatic talks break down, she can club the other diplomats to death with her hair-flail. All kidding aside, the hair looks great. The braid is intricately sculpted and the plastic is soft enough so that she can hold it in her hand to wield it. Personally, I prefer to think she just whips it around with her head.

Speaking of heads, Mara’s got a pretty good looking portrait, although there’s something about her eyes that creep me out. It’s clear they were going for something to match the animation art and let’s face it, the Space He-Man aesthetic doesn’t exactly jibe with the Filmation. I think T4H did the best they could to meld the two and what we got is fine, just a little different.

As for articulation, Mara includes most of what I’ve come to expect from the MOTUC ladies. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinges in the elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, hinged at the knees and ankles, and also have rockers in the ankles. Mara can swivel at the waist and the neck is ball jointed. The only thing that I’m really missing here is the swivels up in the hips, otherwise she’s pretty fun to play with.

While a hair flail might be enough for some, Mara comes with two additional accessories. You get her pole arm and a shield. The shield is larger than most of what we see with this line. It’s got a gold and purple motif to match her armor and there’s some texturing in the background of the five pointed star. The pole arm features a blade on one end and a spiked ball on the other. The girl is really into those spiked balls. Oooh, I’ll bet that sentence will lead some interesting people to this page off the Googles.

I dig pretty much everything about Mara. The colors are nice, the outfit is an interesting mix, and I can rest easy knowing that far in the future hair-flails will be a thing. Obviously, she’s not a character I was looking forward to, but that’s what I love so much about this line. The figures are great enough to hold their own and I can either consult the bios or fill in the blanks with my own crazy imagination. Plus, my Space Mutant population was really starting to overpower my Galactic Protectors, so I’m sure NA She-Ra, Hydron and Icarus will be happy to have another warrior for their ranks. Damn, I really need to track down that New Adventures He-Man.

Another month, another mad attempt to get in the month’s Matty figures before the new one is upon us. It’s doubly hard now that I’ve cordoned off more than half the week to dedicated franchises, so that’s something I may have to rethink. Anywho… this month’s Club Eternia figure is one that I think a lot of fans have been waiting for… Sssqueeze. Yeah, there was also a Quarterly figure this month as well, but I’ll have to get to him next week.

What is a normal sized bubble for most other Classics figures is tight quarters for Sssqueeze as his arms are all coiled up by his sides. Aww, it kind of looks like he’s giving himself a hug. Otherwise, the packaging is business as usual with the lovely Greyskull inspired deco and a bio on the back.

With Sssqueeze out of the package, the first thing I’m going to say is how much I love the coloring on this figure. The green and purple and orange all look amazing together, but I think it’s the beautiful bright green that really shines out in particular. Plus, the under sides of his arms are painted yellow and look like the belly of a snake. You also get some matte grey for his boots and leg armor with some silver gloss paint on the fixtures.

But just because I’m starting out with the coloring doesn’t mean the sculpt here isn’t something special. The scale patterns sculpted into the arms is impressive, as is the musculature in Sssqueeze’s six-pack of abs. I like the barbed fixtures on the front of the leg armor and the sculpted Snakemen logo on his chest armor is nice work.

And the portrait is pretty stellar too. I love how T4H have managed to give each of the Snakemen their own personality. In this case, Sssqueeze is looking particularly vicious with the extra long jaw and rows of serrated teeth. It’s a thing of beauty.

Articulation is the usual fare for MOTUC figures with the obvious exception of the arms. Instead of swivel cut biceps and hinged elbows you get two long pieces of gloriously bendy plastic, presumeably with a wire in there to help them hold their shape. They are capped off with large hands that can easily double as fists and have swivels the wrist bracers. The rest includes the usual rotating hinged shoulders, ball jointed hips, hinged knees and ankles, swivel at the waist, ab-crunch hinge, and ball jointed neck.

Lastly, Sssqueeze comes with a Snake Staff. It’s actually not the same repackaged one we’ve been seeing over and over again. The curled tail makes it look more like a seahorse to me, but then the angular head gives me a Norse vibe, like it belongs on the prow of a Viking ship. Pretty cool.

If there were a running theme to my Snake Men features it would be called “How I stopped worrying and learned to love the Snake Men.” I never cared much for these guys, but Classics has given me a new found appreciation of them with each and every release. Ssssqueeze is certainly one of the goofiest, but I mean that in the most complimentary way possible and I totally dig him. This is one of those figures where Matty was able to work the gimmick into the figure without compromising the aesthetics of the line. Those big arms make him tons of fun to play with and his bright and beautiful colors really make him pop on the shelf.