Review of Fantasy Swords, Shields
Masters of the Universe Accessories

Introduction

It's a rough life for a Masters of the Universe Classics collector. For 29 days, 23 hours, and 55 minutes each month, they appear calm, cool, and completely normal. They go about their daily business with a song in their heart and a smile on their lips. Then for five minutes on the 15th day of each month, they lose their minds, screaming at their computer screens "DAMN THE RED SCREEN! I CAN'T GET TO THE SHOPPING CART! MY CARD ISN'T WORKING! CRAPPY DIGITAL RIVER! MATTEL SUUUUUUCKS!" Lather, rinse, repeat.

So what's a MOTUC collector to do between these periods of schizophrenic behavior? That's where Spy Monkey Creations come in, the brain child of long time collector Jeremy Sung who is a big MOTU fan as well. He's been producing unique accessories for your 6 - 7" fantasy action figures, just llike MOTUC.

I'm looking at two swords - The Blade of the Demon King in Blue Venom color (the one that looks like a bat wing), and the Master Blade of the Empyrean in the 200X colors. Both of these swords come in other colors as well, and they run $10 each.

I'm also checking out 5 of their shields. Three are Shields of Destruction: The Eye of Doom (with the cool red eye in the center); The Doppleganger version (with the molten red looking jewel in the center); and the Blue Venom version (with the faceted blue stone) which goes nicely with the Blue Venom sword. The other two are Shields of Deliverance: the Golden Royal version has the rounded purple stone, while the Weapons Master version has the rounded green stone. As usually, the good guy doesn't get as cool of goodies as the bad guy...the shields cost $10 each as well.

You can pick all of these up through Spy Monkey Creations web store, and find out more about them and their other products at their web page. They have a ton of other goodies like axes and energy beams, with more cool stuff to come!

Packaging - **
Mine arrived in a small shipping box, safe and snug in bubble wrap. Hey, you're not buying the box anyway, are you?

Sculpting - ****
When I hear about custom accessories like these, I always assume they'll be a bit rough. While customizers can do some amazing work, since they don't have to deal with the softening effects of mass production, they also tend to create sculpts that are a bit rough around the edges, shall we say.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that's NOT the case here. In fact, these are some amazing sculpts, with not just great small detail work, but the kind of straight, even edges that you normally only see coming out of expensive steel molds.

For example, check out the raised highlights on the blade of the 200X sword. Even the rounded, flowing edges on the bat wing type design of the Demon King blade are clean, smooth and most of all - precise.

The clear materials that have been used add quite a bit of punch to the appearance too, and the fine detail work on both hilts is impressive, especially in this scale. These two weapons are as good as the very best accessories that Mattel has given us in the MOTUC line, and blow away anything else.

They're pretty big too, both coming in at about 5" overall. The figures can hold them easily though, and they aren't too heavy for them to maintain in just about any pose.

The shields are nice as well, although not quite as detailed. The outer rim is the same sculpt across all five, and in back is a heavy duty handle for the figure to latch on to. On the front, there are alternating smaller/larger 'nubs', and a raised edging.

In the center is a crystal that varies from shield to shield. My personal favorite is the evil red eye on the Eye of Doom version, but all of them look great and are made from a very high quality material.

Paint - Swords ****; Shields ***1/2
There's not a ton of paint work on the swords, but what's here is great.

The 200X version has some shimmery flecks embedded in the blue plastic, a nice touch that adds some pizazz to the already bright translucent plastic. The Demon King blade has some of the sculpted hilt details highlighted in a lighter color, done with a very, very steady hand.

The shields score slightly lower here, largely because the main color of each is done with some inconsistency. I think that's actually done on purpose, to give the exterior a metallic, worn, beaten appearance. In person it doesn't quite work for me, ending up looking a little too much like sloppy paint instead of a cool effect, but your mileage may vary. Also, don't forget that each of these is done to order, so every one is slightly unique.

Fun Factor - ****
Masters of the Universe characters are all about conflict - that's what made them such great action figures. But what's conflict without weapons? Somebody starts spouting off about conflict resolution methods, like listening to each other and telling each other how you feel...and the good guy always ends up screwed.

That's not what we want for He-man, or even Skeletor for that matter. These weapons and shields are great fun, and add quite a bit of play value to figures that are already great toys.

Value - **
While I love these guys, they aren't cheap. At $10 each, you'll be picking and choosing which ones fit best with your plans, rather than buying them all willy nilly.

But while it might seem that a ten spot is a lot for an accessory, don't forget that these are hand made, cast and painted to order. There aren't tens of thousands of these being produced, and you'll have a fairly unique and extremely well made weapon or shield for your MOTUC figure that most other collectors will not.

Things to Watch Out For -
These are very hard plastic, but don't seem too brittle, so you shouldn't have much trouble with them. However, they are harder than the fingers and thumbs of the hands of your usual MOTUC figure, so take some care popping them in. Nobody wants to lose a thumb.

Overall - ****
If you're a MOTUC collector looking for something to make your figures stand out, you owe it to yourself to check these out. Yes, the price is a bit high, but considering the quality and the made-to-order nature, it's not that far out of line.

While you're at it, take the time to check out some of the other goodies, especially the axes. Spy Monkey Creations is doing a great job providing some much needed extras that can be used not just for the MOTUC line, but other fantasy series as well.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - **
Sculpting - ****
Paint - Swords ****; Shields ***1/2
Fun Factor - ****
Value - **
Overall - ****

Where to Buy 
That's easy - you can get them from Spy Monkey Creations direct. The swords and shields run $10 each.

Related Links -
I've reviewed a ton of MOTUC product, with more coming along each month:

- earlier this week, I looked at Tytus, and late last week I reviewed Optikk, the two figures released through Matty Collector in May.

- seems like it was just yesterday that I covered Evil-Lyn.

- prior to that it was Moss Man last month.

- check out the cool MOTUC Display stands.

- just before that I covered Battle Cat and Trap Jaw, and prior to that was Adora.

- I really liked Scare glow, although he's not exactly what you'd call a key character.

- Adora isn't the first girl in the series - Teela has that honor.

- before that there was Webstor, one of my favorite, and Tri-klops, another one of my favs.

- prior to that was Man-at-arms, Hordak, Zodac, Faker, Mer-man and Stratos, starting out with He-man, Skeletor and Beastman together in one review.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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