Review: MOTUC Horde Troopers

How did we cope?

When I was little I had one stormtrooper. There was never any thought to owning any more. Even if I had, my parents would have answered with a resounding "No!" upon being asked to purchase a second. "You already have that one," they would have said, "Why don't you have a figure you haven't already got?" Which would have made complete and total sense. In many ways it still does. But in many others, it really doesn't. Stormtroopers come in packs, in units, in legions in hordes.

I never owned a Masters of the Universe Horde Trooper when I was little. I had most of the other Horde members, in fact the Horde was by far the largest faction I had He-Man figures for, but never a Trooper. And even if I had, I'd only ever have thought of owning one.

In more recent years, upon collecting those figures I was missing as a child, I've managed to pick up a Horde Trooper. But only one. Others, however, have hundreds in their collections, which is probably why the price of a Horde Trooper is generally more than the rest of the Horde characters. The trooper is the main army grunt, the stormtrooper of the Masters of the Universe world. There needs to be more than one to be an effective and imposing force of terror.

How did we ever manage playing with one?

The Horde Trooper figure in Masters of the Universe Classics has been a long time coming. It is, really, the last army building character released. We've had Eternia Palace Guards and Snakemen, but the set people really wanted was the trooper.

And now it's here. And I ordered a few.

Review: Matey Bath Book

When I was little we always  bought Matey bubble bath (except when there were other, exciting 'shaped' bottles available - Hero (/Ninja) Turtles and the like) because of its magical changing colour ability. The gloop is one colour and then, magically!, it changes colour once it hits the water. In the intervening years I've learnt how it not-so magically changes colour. While this goes to show my extensive education hasn't been a complete waste, it has taken the magic of the experience away a little.

We were sent this bathtime book from Matey to review. You will have to forgive the lack of 'bath' involved in this review as it has yet to hit the water, as it were. Once it arrived my 2 year old girl grabbed the book and it's been kept in her backpack ever since (along with a bunch of Megablocks, Jo Grant and Peri action figures and Blaster from Transformers).

Review: Transformers Prime: Beast Fire Predaking

When I was a kid, more than any other media incarnation, I loved the Marvel UK universe of Transformers. The box bios I never once read, the cartoon was annoyingly split up on Wack-a-day to ensure one episode lasted all week and the US comics...Well, those just weren't as good as the UK-created stuff used to 'fill in' while waiting for the next US story to reprint.

One of my favourites was a story featuring the Predacons and the Dinobots. In it Swoop, the Autobot pterodactyl fought with Divebomb, the Decepticon Vulture who'd long ago 'stolen' Swoop's old name. Riveting stuff for a young boy, and still so today. The Predacons had the ability to join together to form the mighty Predaking, a toy I never owned as a child (but thankfully managed to buy as an adult just before all the prices shot up).

This Predaking has absolutely nothing to do with the character from the 80s, except, I suppose, the colour scheme.

Review: Rock Lords

What's the most boring thing a Transformer could turn into? Tom Hanks suggested a building, but I think there's something even more dull. To make matters worse, they didn't just stop with the prototype on these, they went into production and made a huge bunch of the things. And a movie. Yeah, you know where I'm going with this, you've read the post title, it's the Rock Lords!