Review – Masters of the Universe Classics King Hssss

Next week King Hsss is scheduled to be released at Matty Collector, but through the generosity of a fellow blogger I found myself with a copy of the action figure at New York Toy Fair last month. In the interest of actually posting a useful Masters of the Universe Classics review I’m getting this up now, before the toy is released, to help you decide whether or not to jump in and grab one for yourself.

Cool Design

A recreation of the original King Hssss action figure from 1986 (see he-man.org), this new King Hssss action figure takes that classic design and upgrades it to fit with the rest of today’s Masters of the Universe Classics line. In his “disguised” form, shown below, he’s a human used car salesman type — look at that smirk — but hiding underneath is a snakey secret.

The figure’s sculpt looks great, and with this toy Mattel has given us almost a completely new sculpt. Poe Ghostal’s review goes over the sculpt in detail — and he has a lot more experience with the line than I do, so be sure to read his review — but basically every key component of the figure is a new design. Impressive, especially since most of the figures in the line have been a lesson in reuse of parts.

What is Up With that Plastic?

King Hssss feels cheaper than the other Masters of the Universe Classics toys I’ve bought, with the torso really standing out as a different type of plastic than we’ve seen before. Poe speculates in his review that the cheaper plastic was possibly part of the toy’s torso-swapping feature — I’m getting to that — and I can see where that makes sense, but a $30 action figure shouldn’t feel cheap. And King Hssss does, and not just because of the light plastic . . .

Articulation Problems

Collectors have reported problems with the line for a few years now, with warped legs and broken parts not exactly common but also not nearly as rare as they should be. I’ve been pretty lucky so far, and King Hssss didn’t come out of the pack broken, but this toy has some real articulation problems with both a mix of tight and loose joints plaguing the entire body. The rocker ankles are almost fused solid, the hip joints are far too floppy for my tastes, and the ab joint is so blocked by the armor that Hssss can tilt backward but he can’t really lean forward. The articulation problems are frustrating, but they aren’t catastrophic and I suspect that not every toy in the release has this problem.

Not-So-Perfect Paint

King Hssss doesn’t have much in the way of paint apps, but what he does have are a few sloppy spots. The staff itself is pretty good, the shield is okay, but the buckle, snake emblem on his armor, and the paint on his mask don’t quite hit all of the necessary spots of the sculpt. It’s really not bad, though, and the paintwork on the toy is perfectly acceptable for a shelf display toy. My only real complaint with the paint is that the face looks dead . . . but maybe that’s kinda appropriate since Hssss’ real “face” is hiding beneath the body.

A Snake Torso

King Hssss’ upper torso pops off and is replaced with a separate part to “reveal” the character’s true form. In the classic toy the human torso was removable and the snake was hidden beneath it, but in this form the two torsos are separate parts. That’s not nearly as cool, but using this approach Mattel was able to give the snake torso a lot more bulk than if it was concealed within the human torso. The snake torso is rubbery and bendy, with wire of some sort hiding inside the arms and giving the snake arms limited poseability. See the photo above to get an idea of how the toy can “hold” his accessories when in snake form.

Closing Thoughts

King Hssss will be available on March 15th at Matty Collector so you’ve got about a week to decide if you want to try to order one or not. He’s okay, but I think I prefer the figure in his human form than I do in his snake form. The bendy snake body was a cool idea, but if King Hssss’ snake torso had been articulated parts with a rubbery covering I think it would have been a lot neater than what we got.

I wouldn’t have ordered King Hssss on my own, but now that I have one I’ll happily display him with my other Masters of the Universe Classics villains.

Philip Reed still wants that Battle Armor Skeletor. Maybe he’ll get lucky and score one next week.