Horde Prime’s second head comes from a British book series. I like the head itself, especially the insect qualities. I think the design fits really well in the MOTU Universe, but I don’t think it makes for a very good Horde Prime head. He just doesn’t look intimidating enough to be running a multi-versal empire. But I’m still glad they included this with the Prime, this way people can choose what they want without having to buy a separate figure.
The quality of Horde Prime’s paint job is pretty good. I didn’t really have any slop or errors on mine. The only thing that gives me hang-ups is that the figure feels a bit flat. His only metallic pieces are his hands, and they almost stand out too much from his matte black body. I also feel like his Hordak face is kind of dull, with too much red covering up the sculpt instead of highlighting it.
Horde Prime comes with one accessory, a crossbow that can attach to either arm in place of his hands. I love this feature, and I’m really glad the 4H were able to fix Roboto’s left hand for it. This crossbow looks different from the other Horde member’s. Instead of having the animal motif, it has a very distinct techno feel. And like everything else he owns, it has his face on it.
Unfortunately Prime was also supposed to come with an all new Horde themed staff. Like the more detailed paint jobs, this was also cut due to raising costs. But the good news is that Toy Guru says they’ll work it into the line, similar to what they’re doing with Draego-Man’s other accessories. It’ll be interesting to see where it turns up, and I hope that the rise in prices next year means no more budget cutting on the figures.
This figure’s a bit silly to me, mostly because I can’t not see his giant fish hat when I look at him. But I’m really glad they were able to make him. He’s almost a new character to the series, and he definitely helps fill out the small group that makes up the Horde army. But with Prime’s inclusion in the line, and the addition of the Filmation rites, I really need to see an Inspector Darkney. Preferably with a new thin buck body. Hopefully SDCC with be kind.
-Vault
Funny, you see a robofish in that helmet, and all I can see “Brute Chieftain” from the Halo series.
I don’t buy this whole “Horde Prime” thing. If Horde Prime was in charge then why is he wearing Hordak’s face on his chest. It doesn’t fly. Looks like Hordak is the big boss man. I’m looking forward to this guy showing up just so I can do some part swapping and make a even bigger badder and more scary Hordak.
Wow Same Day Horde Prime Reviews!!! Horde Prime Friday!!!
Great work as usual Vault!
i loved the figure immediately. i will absolutely agree that the red on the face is too piled on, he looks like hordie fae baker there, and it’s not cool. a red wash, preferably in two or three tones of red, would have looked really friggin cool and popped his sculpt detail a bit better… and anyone w/ those gundam paint pens lurking around can have an incredible horde prime w/ highlighted veins in just a short couple hours.
that said, i love the additional heft, the mechabow hand swapper is fly… i immediately wanted to start telling stories w/ the guy. so far, he’s been changed into hordak’s dad, he’s hired lobo as his body guard, and confessed to his kids that he’s worked w/ lobo once before, in the killing of “grand high horde,” whom he then used black magics on and transformed his dad’s corpus into the Mausoleus Armor he currently wears that protects him completely from death magics and scrying, a phobia he developed after the ancient Horde empire lost Eternia to Scarabus. i’m still considerng where to take this next, but i’m looking at my playsets and noticing that the fright zone completely lacks any trace of the technology that the horde clearly embrace… so i’m thinking HP needs some new digs, or at least, some modification to the existing digs. the term “Horde” is being tossed around, and this dude lacks the support numbers that the word evokes… so he needs a conversion shop. too bad i had to discard my swamp thing transducer some years ago, otherwise i think that would have been a better fit for the big guy. hhmmmm……
Swap that Brit comic book head onto a MAA body and see what that does. I think the Palace Guards have a new recruit. Maybe paint the antennae to match the face.
Mecha-Koi! Mecha-Koi!
Yeah, I agree with Fire King, I don’t ‘get’ that everybody has Hordak’s face on their stuff if he’s not large and in charge. I mean, isn’t that somewhat assumed when the dude is named ‘Hordak’ and is group is the Horde?
UNLESS the entire ‘ruling class’ of the Horde are CLONES and they ALL LOOK ALIKE… hmmmmm. Growing your middle management. scarey. 🙂
(me? I always thought Hordak was supposed to be an evolved/power-up Skeletor, kind of taking a page from Dr. Doom and forging a skull-like mask to hide/protect his exposed skull face. Then of course POP ruined all that. 🙂 )
After Snake MAA lost his head, and MAA donated his mustache face… Bug head went on original MAA, and looks pretty funny. I’ll keep it like this for a while.
“During one of Orko’s attempts to make a spell to help regain his wand, Duncan was magically transmorphed with an alternate universe Man-At-Arms, where insect/human hybrids rule. Now called Bug-At-Arms, efforts are made to…”
Oh, that’s just too silly. Just say he’s a dude from the Sectaurs universe. 🙂
I agree regarding the disappointment with Hordak’s inferiority–he was always the top-notch bad guy in the original toy line (how can you top “Skeletor’s Mentor”?). The storyline of Horde Prime is interesting, but perhaps would have been better if Hordak had gotten a “taste” of the power of Grayskull, transforming him into this super version of himself (Horde Prime).
Haha! The terrible wrath of the mecha-koi. Your not alone in that thought tho. i put the helmet in my accessory bin for that very reason since the second i opened him, cant take em serious. Also, a surprise for me was the fact that i actually really like the bug head, more so then The new secret one, idk why, but something just seems anlittle bit off
There is something a little off-putting about that oversized helm, but i kinda like it. In a way, it really works for a line that had quite a bit of odd humor in its designs. He certainly feels worth the cost, simply due to his heft.
I’m looking forward to the Prime staff. In the mean time, my HP is carrying the 200x power sword from MAA. I never got into that series/look, but the sword sure has a kinda technomancy feel to it that works for prime. At least in my book. Plus, he needs to hold something so he doesn’t look too unbalanced with that huge brain-bucket up top.
Horde Prime: “Hordak, you displease me once again.”
Hordak: “Sorry, but i just have to ask: how do you fit through doors with that helmet on?”
Mabye that’s why he has Hordak do his dirty work. He’s laid up with a bad back due to the top-heavy load he carries around all day…
Fantastic review! Really looking forward to getting this guy (probably on Monday, if the customs charge notice I got this morning is any indication). LOVE the Office Space ref in the last panel, especially as I just took delivery of a Rio Red Swingline stapler a couple of days ago! As soon as Mantenna comes out, I gotta make him a red stapler prop. Mmmmmmmnnn . . . I could set the buildinnnngg on fiiiiirrrre . . . .
Gotta say, I hate the British-comics-style head. Parts box. The other one, while nifty, looks a bit overly cartoonish for my taste. I think I’ll mostly be keeping his gigantic helmet on, which, if you squint, does look a little like the designs you could see through the smoke when Horde Prime was dressing down a minion on the PoP cartoon.
And if you want to draw up a petition for an Inspector Darkney, I’ll happily sign it.
As for the bat-logo’s face, I reckon that since HORDak and HORDE Prime come from HORDE World, the dominant native species all look like these guys, and while Prime is hyperexaggerated, Hordak has a more “typical” face for the species, and the face of the logo predates Anilis’ reign, being a generic Horde Worlder representation.
Got my “spare” Horde Prime today; still waiting for the main June shipment. (I usually order an extra figure outside my subscription if it’s got a cape or other feature I could try to “fix” with a quick bit of customising, then I have a backup in case I royally mess things up.)
Rassafrackin’ thing had a huge divot taken out of the red on his cranium. And then, for some reason, I had an MST3K flashback, and can’t stop thinking of Horde Prime as the Horde World equivalent of The Brute Man. Maybe he’s on Horde Steroids or something (Monsteroids?), which makes him look like that.
I need sleep.
Horde Prime’s helmet is reminiscent of the armor that the Jaffa wear in service of the Goa’uld System Lordsin the Stargate universe. The helmets themselves can retract and fold to reveal the face and they are meant to intimidate enemies!
I too also see mecha-kkoi fish.
I’m kind of disappointed by the head. I don’t know what I was expecting really, but its kind of like “oh, it looks like an older, crankier Hordak… I’ll call him ‘Get off my lawn! Hordak'”
It also goes against my hatred of thinking there is someone bigger/meaner than Hordak — just like King Hiss who serves The Nameless One, or Voldemort or whatever.
Despite having grown up reading the UK comics where Horde Prime was a frequent player (even personally fighting against a team-up of He-Man, She-Ra, Skeletor, King Hiss and Hordak) I never liked the idea of Hordak having a superior in the Horde. My mind was made up early, through the 1985 Swedish toy catalogue which explained to my young self that Hordak created and founded the Horde, his personal army of horrible monsters. Because of this, this is the only Horde-themed figure I have no interest in. There simply is no room for a “Horde Prime” in my toy shelf.
That being said, I love that they included a UK-comics styled head and hope this means some of the unique characters from that series will be included in MOTUC (especially their unique Snake Men, Blaster (not the Transformer) and the unique Horde minions like specialized Troopers). However, that head doesn’t really fit on that body either, since he had a very different outfit in the comics… Ah well.
As usual the review is well written and very funny, with great pictures!
I REALLY HATE HORDE PRIME, HE IS AWFUL, SEEMS A TRASH CONTAINER
I have to do a Magicarp imitation whenever I see HordePrime standing around in his awesome hat.
I wonder if Hordak plays paper football with his helmet during meetings…
This dude is big and well worth the money. My only complaint is that the helmet is so large, he seems about 1/4″ or so too short in the legs and his arms seem kinda puny, as well. Even without the helmet.
As for what the helmet reminded me of, I was thinking more along Decepticon. What was that Seacon that was a big fish with legs? yeah, that dude.
http://tformers.net/i/a/universe/sea1.jpg – top right
I do agree that the red head is just too red, and needs something to break it up. Considering the size of his ears, I’m almost surprised you didn’t have Evil-Lyn making an Oomax joke in there. “It’s all about the lobe, baby!”
as for the Brit-HP head, I was thinking he would fit in with the Palace Guards, too, once those dang antennae were clipped. Seriously, that dude’s face is NOT scary.
I had no idea who/what Darkney was, but a quick Google search turned him up, as well as several customs…and “Horde Inspector Adam” aka Amish Adam??? (and an IAT joke!)
A few short years after I first got back into Masters of the Universe, I thought the idea of Horde Prime was incredibly lame. As more time passed, I came to love the idea of Hordak simply being the leader of *that* sector of the Horde, with an intergalactic army spanning….well, the universe. To me, it opened the door for so many possibilities; the icing on the cake for me was knowing that the Horde was the reason that Skeletor exists. I’ve been a die-hard Horde fan ever since, and Horde Prime really grew on me from that point on.
Gary Cole as Horde Prime in a new She-ra live action movie for the win.
Would Glimmer wear the suggested number of pieces of flair?
Classic picture caption. You, sir, are a master.
The cape looks like DCUC Batman’s cape
For him not to have a body on the old cartoon show FH did a excellent job of designing him. I’m a Chicago Bulls die hard fan from the Air Jordan era so the Red/Black fits him perfectly!! That red face with those giant bat ears –PRICELESS! I’m not to much sold on the UK head but it will do for now. Cool review!
I liked everything on this guy except for the heads.
The UK comic one is just silly, plus it doesn’t match the body at all.
The standard head would have looked great with some paint apps, but I’m not digging the all red look. Should be Hordak colored.
I don’t collect MOTU but I do read your reviews and that friggin TPS reports qoute had me laughing out loud in the airport!!!!
On my way to the con!!!!
“Yeah…seems like you forgot your cover on your TPS report. I’m gonna need you to remember to include the covers on your TPS reports.”
I like th elook, but agree the “secret” head is just too red-washed. As for the lack of accessories, I took the laser from Preternia Adam, painted it black and red, and voila!
It’s good to see Horde Prime ‘Monkey’ around with some attachments.
Nice “Office Space” parody at the end there. The helmet looks like something right out of a Jack Kirby comic. I’m glad that the cape is removable because caped figures suck for me in this line. I never got that far into the Filmation stuff to learn about the Horde so along with MO2K Snake Duncan and the Griffin, June was likely the worst subscription month yet for me.
LOVE the Office Space pics! LOL