Guest Review > Weapons Rack (Masters of the Universe Classics, Mattel)

I love accessories. In my Toy Room I have more than three chests of drawers full of well-organised, catalogued, ziplock-bagged accessories from my decades of collecting. There’s something appealing about owning a miniature armory of tiny weapons, or scaled-down shopping trolleys and cupboards that wrestlers can hurl at the Simpsons, or little fake body parts that can be strewn around a gruesome horror display.

That said, I can rarely bring myself to purchase accessory packs. I love toys that include an array of bonus geegaws, but I rarely display action figures with anything but the character’s signature accessories. I like to have my figures displayed as “complete” as possible, and I have this stupid idea that accessories should only be to complete toys rather than sold separately.

The only accessory pack I’ve bought (before now) was the McFarlane Monsters Six Faces of Madness accessory pack, and that was done begrudgingly for the diorama extras. Even the amazing Spy Monkey accessory packs, despite their unique and awesome inventiveness, haven’t sold me.

Yet for some reason I decided to pick up not one but two of the Masters of the Universe Classics Weapons Racks. The fact that the weapons come with the rack makes them more appealing  – I dreamed of having them displayed behind sets of Eternian Palace Guards in a neat little diorama. Although this is the third accessory pack we’ve received, it’s the first to include a weapons rack, a nod to the original weapons rack that was came with the vintage Castle Greyskull, which is apparently enough to convince my dumb ass that it was worth buying. But was it? Read on!

Packaging: The Weapons Rack comes on a nice big blister card identical to the previous weapons packs that fits into the theme of the other MOTUC releases. It’s nice and presentable and will appeal to insane people who keep their collections mint on card (why would you buy an “accessory pack” if you weren’t going to open it?!). For jerks like me who very-very-carefully cut the plastic away and then keep the card backing, it’s really difficult to actually cut the plastic away from this blister card and not damage it.

Fortunately all those late night unnecessary surgeries have given me a skilled hand with a blade, and I was eventually able to get this away with minimal damage unlike that hooker who bled out. It unfortunately lacks a bio, which saddens me – a detailed history of this momentous character as written by ToyGuru would have really made this one stand out.

Design & Sculpt: It’s a weapons rack, made out of wood and nail-things to hold the weapons in place. Okay, it’s not made out of wood, but it looks like it does – despite its simplicity, the sculpt is pretty good. Some thought has gone into making this both aesthetically pleasing and useful, with the pegs moulded across three struts enabling multiple ways to display and hold the different weapons. There are cool wooden pegs on the side that allow shields to clip on, as well as sculpted metal rings alongside diagonal struts. Again, simple, but effective – this looks really nice in any MOTUC display, and a lot of thought has gone into it.

Plastic & Paint: The weapons rack is made of a hollow plastic, but don’t let that deceive you: it’s strong and durable, meaning it’ll stand up to proper play. It’s highly unlikely you’ll break any of the sturdy pegs, making it excellent – this weapons rack is made to last. The paint, though simple, is effective, with a nice wash over the “wooden” areas to make them stand out, and no overspray on any of the “metal” parts. It really is very well done.

Articulation: Uhh…

Accessories: Technically, this is nothing BUT accessories, but the mix of weapons here is really good and will complement a nice variety of MOTUC action figures. There are two different paint apps here: half of the weapons have a metallic paint job with a slight rusting wash, and the others have a metallic maroon color, a throwback to a variant of the vintage Man-E-Faces that included a similar bunch of weapons in red.

  • The halberd, seen previously with the Eternian Palace Guards, in silver with a wash
  • Man-At-Arms‘ pistol in silver and gray
  • The Scythe of Doom from Scareglow in silver with wash
  • Whiplash‘s spear in silver with wash
  • The Palace Guards’ shield, axe, and mace, in metallic red
  • Webstor‘s double-handled gun in metallic red
  • Man-At-Arms’ short sword in metallic red

These all fit in different spaces on the rack nice and tight, ensuring lots of customizability. Further, most of your other spare MOTUC accessories will fit on the rack alongside them, making it an excellent addition to any MOTUC display.

Quality Control: Nothing at all!

Overall: Despite my crazy ideas against accessory packs, I can’t deny this is an excellent little set with lots of appeal to MOTUC collectors, and perhaps any 7″ fantasy figure collector. Most MOTUC fans will have a bunch of extra accessories that can be added to this and it fits alongside all kinds of different characters, from Man-At-Arms and the Palace Guards to evil characters like Man-E-Faces and Beast Man.

It looks great, feels nice and sturdy and adds plenty to your displays without breaking the bank. If I had to strain to find a criticism, it’s that at $12 plus shipping it may have been cool to see some extra original weapons on there, but really it already has everything you’d want. Good show, Matty!

[raven 4]

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2 Comments

  1. The Evil of Man-E-Faces!

  2. Barbecue17

    Good review. This really was a nice accessory/ diorama piece. My only complaint with it is that Mattel chose to paint some of the weapons metallic red rather than all silver and rust colored. The early shots of this thing with the silver, rusty weapons looked amazing. Fortunately, it can still be displayed with whatever weapons one chooses. I have no problem with colorful MOTUC weapons, but all of those ancient looking weapons looked nice and nicely updated a very cool accessory from the vintage line.

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