MOTU Classics King Hsss Video Review by Pixel Dan

[Pixel Dan]

Our first Snakeman! Enjoy!



As always, ask any questions and I'll do my best to answer!

[Staff Of Ka]

Whoo HOO! this is just superb!

Dan, did your Vintage Hiss come with a red/Brown staff? Im pretty sure mine came with a bright green one?

fantastic review...Bravo!

ka

[Pixel Dan]

Whoo HOO! this is just superb!

Dan, did your Vintage Hiss come with a red/Brown staff? Im pretty sure mine came with a bright green one?

fantastic review...Bravo!

ka

No. But I think the correct staff is lost in my MOTU tote somewhere. I grabbed the first one I had access to, just to show the comparison.

[LEE-RO]

WOW!
That's one really cool Hssss figure.

I wasn't convinced from the SDCC pics, but now I can't wait for this one.


Nice work Dan, your videos are always good. And I loved the nice scenes at the end there.

[GrtEternal]

As always, ask any questions and I'll do my best to answer!

Can I have your MOTUC King Hsss figure?


Awesome review! Can't wait for March to come around.

[CobraKaiDojo]

Great review as usual, Dan.

King Hsss was definitely in my top 5 MOTUC wishlist as I still remember back in the day spotting the Snake Men wave at Kay-Bee in the mall, begging my parents to get them, especially him.

Anyway, a question: Do the torso(s) hold pretty solid? They looked like they come off with ease, yet I also saw you handling the figure and it seemed to be holding.

[lorde trooper]

Nice review Dan, i totally agree i love the 2 tone colours on the staff and shield, but that staff looks great. Ive been looking forward to Hsss since seeing him at SDCC (in picture form)

[Darkspecter]

Human King Hssss = perfection. I've always said that. They nailed him and his accessories.

Snake King Hssss is the best snake version we've seen in toy form, but is still a tad disappointing. I miss the snake around his neck the vintage toy had and wish the two little snakes had articulation like the longer ones.

The cover of Hiss on the MOTU magazine in the 80's was pretty darn awesome and fierce looking. He would have looked sweet sculpted after that.

He is a great figure though and I've been looking forward to seeing him in toy form since his first appearance as a prototype. Even though I'm disappointed in his snake form, I do think it looks a bit better in the "rubber" form than it looked at SDCC. So, that's good. It's rare to look better in the production version from prototype.

I'd give him an overall B+ or A-.

Also, March will be the milestone of all the major villain groups being depicted in toy form (Skeletor's warriors, NA villains, Horde, Snake Men). The only major hero faction to yet be immortalized in toy form would be the "Galactic Protectors," so we have that milestone to come too.

I'm SO excited for King Hssss. Thanks for sharing PD!

[kinggreyskull2011]

Damn, looks so much better in this video...now I want it! lol! AGH!

Love my 200x King Hsss too though...

P.S. Only thing I don't like is the staff...

[Snake Hunter]

I can´t understand why a snake have a belly...

Im pretty glad that we get full body armor, but seeing the belly under is pretty ugly. I hope to get a sculpted abd piece without belly or 4H could use the Hordak flat abd piece in Hiss...

[kylun flac]

curious if the arms & leg pieces can be used for kobra khan or any other figure. Khan had smooth arms & legs unlike the 200x one.

[Orko's Magic Hat]

Who looks so cool - can't wait until March - well middle of April for me.

BTW I think Evilseed will be able to use this body

[Prahvus]

OK. So obviously, the general look (or sculpt, if you prefer), is great... well, at least for "human Hssss", I mean.


But there are some important things we must pay attention to :


- Bobblehead issue : AGAIN !? I'm sorry, but at this point in the line, this is NOT ACCEPTABLE ! On the forum, fans even warned about potential neck problems with the new Vikor neckpeg, and the whole neck peg problem was actually part of the recommendations that were supposed to be given to Mattel at NYTF in a letter. So there is NO VALID EXCUSE for another bobblehead ! I wonder... does King Hssss have the same neck peg as Vikor (which was different than the usual male neckpegs), and is that the reason for the bobblehead effect ? Other question : from now on, will we have bobblehead males too ?

- Old ankles with the round hole = potentially loose ankles. And here we have Mattel LYING to us (it's not the first time) when they said that ALL figures after Vikor (except Preternia Disguise He-Man) would have the new "Vikor Ankles"! What worries the most about this : when you look at the NYTF reveals, I think all of them (most of them anyway) still have the old ankles ! So it seems that's another problem that will persist with our MOTUC figures : the weak ankles that prevent the figure from staying up like it should ! Once again, this is not acceptable.

- The TORSO (be it the human or the snake form) seems to pop off TOO easily ! If I take Hsss by his torso, I'm afraid the legs and crotch might actually fall on the floor.

All in all, this shows that the apparently "perfect" human SCULPT we saw is plagued with UNFIXED QC issues... and that's really sad. It seems like when Mattel has a great figure, they just can't help themselves and have to botch it somewhat.

And now, let's go to what we already knew from the start : King Hssss snake torso is NOT great at all ! (I hope you all noticed how hard Pixel Dan commented and INSISTED about the beautiful design and "coolness" of this torso... there are many fans to REASSURE before Hssss goes on sale, and I guess PD did his best on that one, but I don't think it will be enough to convince those who were rightfully wary about the snake torso).

With Hssss, Mattel introduced us, during SDCC 2010, to a "new rule" : all sculpts are "FINAL" ! This also means that you can be sure that Man-E-Faces head, which hides Man-E-Faces eyes, won't be fixed either. And from Toyguru's comments and excuses, Faceless One's face (which causes some problems with the fans community) will remain the same too (PRESUMABLY because the 4 Horsemen tried several other heads - that we'll probably never see - which looked "not as good" as the current one). On Hssss, not even the teeth were changed (please take a look at the front pic of "snake Hssss" with his mouth shut : he looks like some kind of rodent or something !)

Back to the snake torso : although I'm happy there's an actual jaw that we can open and close, the overall appearance of this snake torso is completely disappointing : less snakes than even the 80's figure had (the snake that's coiled aroung the 80's figure's neck is missing), very thin and unimpressive snakes, very straight back, and it's even impossible to turn his snake head to the left or to the right ! So much for articulation...
Another BIG concern : there is NO WAY such thin bendable arms can resist repeated poses. I believe that some fans tried to warn about the whole bendable problem, but I guess you'll have to discover it yourself to realize how fragile that kind of bendy part can be...

I was at first VERY enthusiastic about Hssss (human form) and his sculpt. I'm now unsure I'll buy him, due to the quality and potential problems (bobblehead, old ankles, torso that can be removed too easily)... not to mention the poor snake torso, which could have been much better (look and quality).

I know somebody else is now doing more critical video reviews of the figures on the forum... I cannot wait to see what he has to say about Hssss.

[Colton]

I wasn't convinced from the SDCC pics, but now I can't wait for this one.

Count me too! .... i feel eerily surprised how much i like this figure.
Great review as always Dan! .... let the leaders come together.

[Grayskull's Heir]

I'm so glad that we finally get a fully articulated human form of King Hiss. I was always very idspleased witht the fact that neither the vintage nor the 200x version had a lot of articulation. You couldn't even move the head!
I'm a bit worried about the buble head thing, though. It seems like a step back from the usual male head design that the other male figures have.

[Spacedust]

King Hiss came from too late in the vintage line for me to care about (as I say like a broken record, even as a kid I was solidly a barbarian / pre-Filmation fan). But, although not one of my favourites in terms of character, this is a pretty decent update of him IMO.

Interesting to note they're still using the "Hsss" spelling - I'm assuming that "Hiss" is somehow copyrighted?

Anyway, it's a good update. The original figure looked too clunky for my liking, and the 200x was too... cartoony (does that make sense?).
Unlike others, who I know are going nuts for the guy, I'm not as excited over KH as some of the other forthcoming releases (hurry up Man-E-Faces!!), but still won't mind adding him to my collection.

[JimPansen]

Kudos to Dan, that was a perfect review!
That figure is awesome, he looks as he comes right out of the minicomic!
I think i have to have two now
One for the snake one for the human!

[13977]

Great review Dan. Was surprised the snake body is rubber, but if it works. Shame we didn't get the fifth snake but like you say it doesn't take away from it. As always a 200x head would have been nice.

[Keldor/Skeletor73]

Ha, was expecting this figure since 2008!
Bobble head sounds like a nuisance, but if its the only one i'll take it over most of the other issues with most of the past figures. Also you can fix it with little work.
Cool, hope i'll be able to get mi second piece (the non sub one) via matty rather than shell out lots of bucks on the secondary market...

[Woodland Warrior]

Nice review Dan. I feel happier about the snake form now. Actually looks prett cool and I love the hinged jaw. Very dissapointing about the bobble head. You would think they would have sorted that by now!

[Staff Of Ka]

I just kept marveling at how tall and sleek he looks, It must be the new 'undies' his legs look longer. Dang impressive figure!

[MOTU_Maniac]

Great Review of a GREAT-LOOKING KING HSSSS!!!!

[Larry Waters]

Great review, Dan! I love the sculpt on this guy.

But I do have a question about the bio...

Five CENTURIES?

Um, didn't Mattel change Preternia/King Grayskull to 5,000 years before Adam?

Did I miss something?

[PaTrIcKfOgArTy]

Looks nice! Can't wait to get mine. I do wish as many others have said that we had got the 5th snake, even if it had been just a bendy accessory, for around his neck. I'm really surprised the 4HM left this out of the sculpt. Being you can't turn the snake head left of right it seems even more a miss.

I agree best version of the character to date, thanks for the great review!

[zodak74]

For a character I've never liked much outside of the classic mini-comics, he looks REALLY good! I like the old-school representation of the character as someone "working alongside" Skeletor (though we all knew he had ulterior motives!) with his Snake Men henchmen, rather than the unstoppable force of nature the Snake Men were presented as in the 2002 series. I am also not-so-much a fan of the 2002 redesign of Hssss and so am pleased that he's classic all the way in MOTUC! The bobble head thing is something I didn't even notice in the review until it was mentioned... and honestly- it looks like it only bobbles if you put your finger on the head and wiggle it around... so it's not much of an issue with me this time as it was with Teela's bobble head. Bring on the Battle Armor Skeletor review!
PS- imagining how they did Hssss' torso is how they are going to tackle Mermista... as detachable pieces... but with a set of legs and a tail to switch out... should be very cool! Maybe the same type of deal with Extendar and Tallstar too?