The Snake Men didn’t get much exposure in the 80s. They were the focus of a couple of comics, and Rattlor and Tung Lashor showed up in the Filmation She-Ra series at times as members of Horde and other times as Skeletor’s goons. The 2002 Mike Young Productions cartoon featured them as the main villains of season 2 though, and King Hsss had an army of unnamed Snake Men warriors at his command. So an army-builder 2-pack of Snake Men seemed like a great idea for MOTUC.

Build and Deco
The two figures are basically Kobra Khan and Rattlor with different heads.

Both figures share a new large neck piece, similar to figures like Mer-Man and Stinkor. The lighter, yellow-tan figure has the same arms, hands, legs from the knee down, and pelvis as Khan; the standard human torso; and the spiked thighs used on Whiplash / Buzz-Off. The right shoulder doesn’t seem to line up with its joint quite right, and looks like it came out of the mold wrong. I would think it’s a one-off, but I now see the same thing on my Dragon Blaster Skeletor. It doesn’t seem to affect articulation and it doesn’t really look bad, but it’s odd.

The darker orange-tan figure has the same arms and legs as Rattlor, the standard human torso, and the long loincloth. There’s something that doesn’t seem quite right to me about these Rattlor legs. I don’t like the look of them from straight ahead, so I tend to pose him with them bent in some way.

The lighter figure seems to have avoided the recent cost saving measure of painted-over black plastic. All of his tan parts seem to actually be cast in tan plastic. The arms and legs do have some paint for shading though, and the chest is painted slightly lighter. The shin guards and pelvis piece are brown with a bit of black wash, and the belt is painted a dark blue lined with metallic blue. His toe and fingernails are also painted a golden brown.

The darker figure unfortunately does seem to have the black plastic arms and legs. Like Vykron, the black shows through the paint a bit and looks kind of off. Since those parts are only used by this figure and Rattlor, I don’t see why they weren’t cast in Rattlor’s color instead of black. The torso does seem to be cast in tan, and is given some nice paint shading. Unfortunately it seems to have been put together too soon after being painted, and got its paint damaged by the armor. He also features a brown loincloth and fingernails, and a silver belt with a black wash and blue jewel.

Like the previous army-builder 2-pack, the Eternian Palace Guards, this set comes with 4 different heads: dark and light, open and closed mouth. They’re not just open and closed versions of the same two heads though. They’re all different designs, with different eye colors. So if you buy 2 sets, each figure can be a unique character. The lighter heads seem to look just fine on the darker body, but the darker heads look a little out of place on the lighter body.

Articulation
The lighter figure has all the normal MOTUC articulation: ball-jointed head; shoulders that bend out to the sides and rotate to the front and back; hips that bend out to the sides, front and back, and rotate; ankles, knees, abs, and elbows that bend; and boots, waist, wrists, and biceps that rotate. The darker figure has all that except the boot cut, since it has bare legs. Both figures have mostly tight joints, especially the lighter one, and they can stand fine. The lighter one has the clicky elbows, while the darker one’s elbows seem a bit loose. None of the heads can look up and down very well.

You can see paint slopped onto the back of the blue armor. There were a few dots and spots other places.

Accessories
The set includes 2 chest armors, a sword, shield, spear and club. The armor the lighter figure is packed wearing covers half the chest, is the same brown as his other clothing, with a green snake symbol, metallic blue trim, and a black wash on the shoulder strap. The armor the darker figure is packed wearing is blue with silver trim, and a smaller green snake symbol on the chest. Both armors are a thin, very flexible material that’s very easy to get on and off. I think this is what most armor in the line should be like.

Both the sword and the spear feature a snake’s mouth design, with the blade forming its wavy tongue. Very cool. The club has a twisted head with spikes on it. All 3 are silver plastic and have spiral handles painted metallic blue. The shield clips onto either wrist and looks really nice. It looks like the center part is bolted onto the outer part, it’s painted a couple of different grays and silvers, has blue jewels and a silver snake symbol. The darker figure can dual wield weapons, but the lighter one has the open left hand, so you’ll probably want to give him the shield most of the time. The darker figure’s right hand didn’t have a tight grip, so I used a hair drier to tighten it, but it’s still not great. On the other hand, the other hand does have a tight grip + it’s painted + the weapons all have painted handles, which seems like a recipe for trouble.

Extra Fun
Besides buying an extra set and swapping parts around, you can put the extra heads on some Palace Guards to make extra transformed snake men. Throw in some items from the weapons packs for more variety.

Wrap Up
These are both cool figures, even with a flaw here and there. This set is a great way to bolster the ranks of the snake men in your collection. Now we need some Horde Troopers.

The Snake Men 2-Pack was sold in September 2012, so you’ll have to check places like Amazon, BigBadToyStore or eBay to get it now. New figures go on sale on MattyCollector.com each month, usually on the 15th, and sell out within a few days (or minutes in some cases).

From October 16, 2012 to January 3, 2013 pre-orders are open for a MOTUC Castle Grayskull. It will only be made if enough people pre-order it by November 12. So if you want one, spread the word. The castle will be based on the original prototype design, which was the way it looked in the 80s minicomics. It’s not cheap though, and shipping can be really high for international customers.