Masters of the Universe, Fully Painted!

Bonus He-Man with BattleCat!

Oh boy was this more fun than I thought it was gonna be. I bought this starter set on a whim at Colours and it did not disappoint. (As my previous review post can attest.) There is a definite warm glow of nostalgia when it comes to these characters that wasn't even cooled off when recently I watched the old series again when they were added to Netflix. (I would also recommend the recent new animated series also on Netflix, Revelation, very good. Avoid the other one where Adam is a kid, not so good.) Yes the animation is ropey, including some sequences repeated multiple times to save money, but that is part of the charm. Even the blatant way the cartoon is there to serve the sale of toys as admitted by the people that made them in the excellent Netflix documentary The Toys That Made Us. There is something primal about a Hero that solves all issues by the application of a well placed punch towards the camera. (It's amazing how little he actually did with his sword.)

Everyones favourite moral learning Wizard, Orko

 

I have always thought that I have enjoyed painting fantasy/sci-fi more than historical as I had a choice of pallettes, but when I made the decision to paint these models strictly to their original colour schemes, I still really enjoyed it. I chose to go for a different style of shading/highlighting than normal, going for more distinct crisp lines and obvious highlights. This was really fun and I feel work well given the subject matter.

 

 

Ram-Man

The bases need a clear indicator of their front facing for the rules and so have a notch mark that I have painted white to make it really easy to spot.

He-Man and Skeletor facing off

 

Some colours I had to pallette mix to get a reasonable match to the original toys, although interestingly as they are toys, they would have re-used colours, so there are duplications.

 

Cyclops

 

 On the subject of repetition, I never noticed before but He-Man, Man-At-Arms and Cyclops all have the same waist and legs. Why waste a well sculpted waist?

 

 

Lockjaw

 

The sculpts from Archon Studios (that are different however) have just the right amount of detail to make the models not too difficult to paint, but also still look great. I sadly don't have a collection of the original toys to make a comparison myself (I did have an idea at one point of making a participation game for a wargame show of a skirmish involving the original models stuck to bases fighting over an original Castle Greyskull until I worked out how much it would set me back to Ebay them all) but I would hazard a guess that the level of detail has been raised a bit higher than the source material without straying too far.

 

Mer-man

 

It took me some time to get the Evil Lyn yellow right, especially important as basically she is just blue and yellow.

 

 

Evil Lyn

 

The models seem to have a mix of basing styles, some have rocks, some metallic, then for some reason just Orko has cobblestones. (I like painting cobblestones though, all those highlights and crack lines.)

 

Stratos

 

 Painting the characters was fun and simple, I am really pleased with how they all turned out.

 

Man-At-Arms

 

I then had to attack the job that was the large amount of terrain pieces that came in the box. I couldn't very well have these models fighting in front of plain grey plastic walls could I? So, after a lot of drybrushing I got all this done.

 

The mountain of terrain

Of course now I just need to get a game played. I'm looking forward immensely to it, the system looks good and as it has a hex board to play on I can definitely fit the game on the dining table. I'm looking forward to painting some more of the characters from this range when I get them. These include Teela, The Sorceress, Beastman and Scareglow. (I might need to investigate some glow in the dark paint.) If the range does expand into the She-Ra characters I think a winged unicorn or a sentient broom is definitely worth a go.

Masters of the Universe - Battleground, a review.

Master of the Universe.

As per my last post, I picked up this starter set on an impulse at Colours wargame show. I had seen it online when released and the reasonable price per kilo (Seriously you get a lot of heavy plastic in there) plus the freebie added He-man and Battlecat mini, was enough to convince me.

The box contains a cardboard hexed board, a lot of plastic scenery and ten minis, five each of heroes of Eternia and villains. Even if the rules were rubbish, the plastic components were definitely worthwhile. The terrain pieces are generic enough to be used for other games and the minis are great quality too.

The set is produced by Archon Studio who also make the Dungeons and Lazers range of plastics including their great range of dragons, one of which I own:

Like the dragon, the plastic pieces fit together so perfectly, there has been a lot of thought put in how these kits are made. I would say though, that to produce the dynamic poses they have, each model is comprised of around seven to ten pieces, meaning there is a lot of craft knife work to be done on their contact points to the sprue. (Not a project for a first timer.) It took me a couple of evenings to glue them all together, but they look great.

I have yet to play the game, but a quick read through of the rules seemed to make sense. Each player has a deck of cards that they use to 'bid' for priority then use the same cards to assign mana and action points to their models. Mana is used to cast spells or re-roll dice, action points for moving, shooting etc. The cost of an action increasing if attempted multiple times in the same go. Resolving attacks is pretty simple, roll a number of dice equal to the relevant stat, succeeding on a 4+ and then the defending player cancels out successful rolls with their own test.

There are lots of exceptions to the rules on character cards and item buffs to keep the game interesting. For example, the sword of power can use mana to increase its attack. Characters can also spend a turn focusing to improve their odds the following turn.

A well set out and clear rulebook, an additional book of different missions and some high quality plastic parts make this a great starter set. There are two 'Wave one' add ons available now with a third 'Wave two' coming in October with extra characters and cards. Fingers crossed eventually we might even get She-Ra and Swift Wind!