RetroBlasting calls in a favor and gets He-Man to tour the vintage Mattel Snake Mountain from Masters of the Universe! #RetroBlasting #SnakeMountain #Skeletor
As a kid I had both Castle Grayskull and Snake Mountain and I liked snake mountain better. It was more of an action play set while Castle Grayskull didn't really do anything except unlock the door with the power sword. Grayskull's elevator was pointless and I remember ripping it out and throwing it away so more toys could fit inside. Castle Grayskull was basically just for storage while Snake Mountain actually got played with. The bridge is supposed to tip over. It was part of the design as a trap. The manacles worked fine as long you didn't break the fastener. The trap door always worked and was pretty cool moving part for an early 80s play set. As for why figures didn't enter through the cave you answered your own question. It was too small. The best part about Snake mountain was the sound affect machine. This was NOT a micro phone. It was just sound effect. You had to talk loud enough so your own voice voice was not drowned out by the speaker. If you can hear both your own voice and the sound effect it was pretty cool. Since He-Man figures didn't make any sound effects on their own this was pretty much the only way to have battle sounds. Slapping the wolf head with your palm produced a good laser sound effect of "Zap-pow" and rubbing the wolf on your sleeve or carpet produced a lot of static suitable for He-Man transformation. If you wanted sound effects while you played you needed Snake mountain even if you didn't use any of its other features. Honestly this was the coolest toy I ever owned and used it even outside of He-Man because it pretty versatile. Sound effects were good for She-Ra, Voltron, Go-bots, Star Wars, Ghostbusters or whatever. Do you remember what life was like in the early 80s. It was pretty boring: No cell phones, no internet, no computers, no Nintendo games. A keyboard synthesizer board cost $1000 dollars. Snake mountain was pretty much as cool as it got for early 80s toys.
I had Snake Mountain, Castle Greyskull and Fright Zone as a kid. It was my favourite of the 3, but that may have been because it was skeletor’s home. I used to chain up Beastman, being that he screwed up a lot of the plans. Lol.
Dude, your freakin' awesome...I always wanted SM as a kid but never got one...same as CG...now I have them both and appreciate them so much...I was born in the early 80's so i caught the last few waves of motu...still one of my favorite toy lines ever...
Sir. You are my new favorite reviewer. I don't think you are hating at all. I like the honest review you give these toys. Nostalgia often paints things much greater in our minds. I had Castle Grayskull and I agree, it was Must Have play set of the '80's. Side note, I barely made it past your PSA's! They were hilarious. I never liked the dopey Filmation cartoon. You nailed them! Keep up the amazing work.
Just found your channel and your Masters of the Universe vids are my favorites! Also wanted to point out your excellent voice work, especially with Skeletor. Good review.
I had this playset as a kid. Ahhh the memories of the muffled mic. :-) Nice to see He-Man and Duncan pause their tour to still give life lessons lol.Thanks for putting a bigger smile on my face with that intro. I hope you do another tour with the slime tower. I forget what it was called but it was another owned favorite.
The Fright Zone also didn't have anything on the inside, but was very fun to playwith on the outside of set with grabbing trees, a rock that trapped your food, a dungeon with bars, and the best part, I giant Dragon puppet to grab figures. The Fright Zone was small but fun to play with.
After watching a lot of your videos I see that, like the case for Ewok village, play sets and toys get re-purposed. Do you feel that this may have been the case for Snake Mountain? Like it was for something else that got canceled and then they needed a snake mountain and thought...."wait a sec". It looks like it should go with a movie like Dark Crystal or something like that.
In the Power and Honor book from a few years ago, it had photos of the original playset. It began life as a Raiders of the Lost Ark proof-of-concept demo when Mattel was courting Lucasfilm for the license. The big cave housed a boulder that flew out. It was built on a 3 3/4 inch scale, so that's why none of the MOTU figures fit on it correctly. In the end, Kenner got the license and Mattel was left with a playset design that had some potential, but ultimately should have stayed in the archives. Of course, MOTU was the hottest property in the world at the time and they needed a villain playset to compliment Grayskull immediately, so they dusted off the ROTLA prototype and essentially just painted it purple.
i used to use the wolf microphone to say "by the power of greyskull". and then he-man would rush across that bridge and kill skeletor. i was only about 4 or 5 years old but i loved this set.
I hate when people think when you love something you should ignore it's negatives. Like for example I love Elder Scrolls V Skyrim, BUT that game lacks so much content and has so many flaws (NPC's that continuously introduces themselves everytime you walk by them!) Nothing is perfect so discuss the positives and flaws as much as you like.
Thank u!!! U finally put to word life time of indescribable exasperation over how much this set didn't look like it fit it's name or even fit in with the toy line.
Thanks for showing me what the microphone sounds like, I still don't know what the interior looks like though, those were the two biggest mysteries for me back then
your voice-acting is SO awesome! haha! I had Snake Mountain when I was a little kid... and even as a seven-year-old, the faults you identified were really bothersome to me also... I recall finding the sculpted decorative surfaces of the exterior to be pleasing, but I never ever used the interior - so it's appropriate that you didn't really show it in your terrific review, because I never went back there anyway! Also worth mentioning, the net was too small to consistently catch falling figures -
I don't take your videos as "hating" on anything. I appreciate the insights as opposed to obligatory rundowns of articulation, e.g. swivel this, swivel that, ball jointed this and that. You produce really good content which I look forward to. These vintage toys even when flawed still have a charm for me. They were really just triggers for your imagination..not exact replicas. Some of the star wars playsets were interesting in that they were composites of different realities in one.
I agree with nearly everything you are saying about this playset, however I still love looking at it. I just picked up a loose one that I'm trying to restore.
LOL. A nice homage to the Filmation toon. Also, I get what you mean about being accused of being a hater when you're anything but.. MotU was and is my favorite toy line and I've been torn apart in different fan forums and boards for pointing out the obvious short comings of the line and property.
I had this toy as a kid, and I remember being REALLY excited to get it and then immediately REALLY disappointed after seeing how little it really had to it. Cool sculpt though, and I could annoy my mom with the wolf microphone thing.
cont: and I did occasionally attempt to use the voice-augmenting wolf head, but it was never for He-Man related activities - I actually used it quite a bit to make prank phone calls back in the 80s or while doing Pee-wee Herman impressions... but again, your reviews are always delightfully earnest and highly informative - you're clearly very fond of the material, and that optimism is infectious! excellent vibes on this fine Saturday morning! now time for cereal
a good point. Especially since Grayskull got a throne. Maybe that's the real reason Skeletor wanted to take over it. He just wants a home with a chair XD
speaking of slime, I had the "Fright Zone" as a kid - I was SO excited about the slime, I brought it outside to show my friends - and within ten minutes of opening the Fright Zone playset for the first time, I accidentally dropped the slime in the dirt - and watched it roll down a dusty embankment next to my house, as my heart dropped into my stomach... like a diabolical plot concocted by Hordak himself, the arid beige foothills of Northern California viciously claimed my pristine slime! forever
The themed intro images you've made for the past 2/3 videos is awesome, I'm sure it's time consuming. Looking forward to seeing a voltron themed image, Princes and Keith I'd assume?
That's strange. I had a lot of He Man's figures and playset and always dreamed of having Snake Mountain. It appear it's not that good. But I think as a child I would have find it awesome.
Did you guys see that new Snake mountain set? Very cool,but they want like $600-700 for it. To quote Jem,that's outrageous. Truly,truly,truly outrageous.
I like your views. I heard you mention that the playset does not even bear the look of what it looked like in the animated series. You have to realize that back in our time in the 80's when we were kids; the creative design of toys was not nearly advanced as it is today. So back in our day; all of these toys were cool.
I owned this once. Snake Mountain was designed from its likeness in the comic book. I agree that Mattel could've done more with the interior design, like add Skeletor's throne room and add a prisoner cell. I wished they would've adapted the likeness from the tv show, which would've been much cooler and more marketable in my opinion.
I always firgured that with "Snake Mountain", they just told the model sculpter "Put on anything that looks evil, and we'll call it a day." I did like the swiveling snake, but having it in the same spot as the trap door seemed like overkill. I've always felt that the Horde's "Fright Zone" and "Slime Pit" were the top of the toyline sets. Then again, I loved "slime", and every toy series used it at the time. Aliens, Ghostbusters, TMNT, Toxic Crusaders. I think even G.I.Joe had a slime toy.lol
I've got the original and 200x version of Grayskull, Been thinking about getting the Super7 version. But Snake Mountain I've never had or played with it. I'm looking at maybe getting one and thought to check your channel for a review. Knew you'd break down what to watch and look for when buying one. Looking at scales of the bridge, steps, and cave. Seems this would be a good playset for 3 3/4 sized figures.
Would have loved a 3.75 inch gi joe style he man line. Could you imagine the play sets they could have built for that? Still waiting on a Conan the barbarian 3.75 fig.
The Snake is name Serpos and the Wolfbat heads represent Horakoth. Both Serpos and Horakoth along with Zoar the falcon are like the holy trinity on Eternia
Even as a kid I thought this set was lame. It doesn't look anything like Snake Mountain from the He Man cartoon. I always like the "life lessons" at the end of the Ha Man cartoons, similar to the "Now You Know..." segments in GI Joe or the "One To Grow On" series on Saturday Mornings. Thanks for including them in the review!
I always thought snake mountain belong to another toy set like D&D. But I have one that almost complete and been using it as pics for another GI Joe vrs Cobra base which works for those figures. I’m missing the chains and probably get 3D printed. Or real chains links. Plus missing ladder and battery cover. In all. Rest is good. That I see so far. In all. Your review was really fair. Personally. I thought you held your real thoughts back.
i loved the life lessons woven throughout the tour,castle greyskull was definatlly the better set also you doing the voices reminded of me trying to do the same thing as a kid when i played with my he man and gi joes i used to try to mimic the voices from the cartoons.
I don't know if this has been brought up before since I'm coming late. The Snake Mountain playset was not originally intended for the Masters of the Universe line. It was suppose to go to Big Jim but the toyline got cancelled and they retro fitted playset.
I think snake mountain looks awesome, I get what you are saying about it’s feature especially inside but just look how cool it looks and for the time the biggest feature was it’s microphone voice changer, it was supposed to be all about the front part not really the inside anyways. I agree with somethings your saying but not all. It’s definitely an iconic part of the motu line right there with grayskull. I agree to it looked nothing like the cartoon one but the cartoon one was plain and simple and this definitely has a lot more and I’m glad they changed it for the toy. Most things on motu line was different then the cartoon anyways.
I know history says otherwise, but I’m certain this was based on the Conan movie. There was the secret cave entrance, the giant snake, and it really seems like it was based on the Conan Movie and then they changed it to Masters of the Universe. I know it originally had more of a jungle look and motif,, but basically the same physical design.
I remember, as things were developing after the cartoon series started, thinking about how Mattel might make a Snake Mountain playset. Replicating what we see in the cartoon would up the ante on GI Joe’s USS FLAGG. I thought then that they might go the same route as Kenner did with the Death Star playset with a Snake head modeled after the cartoon Snakep, but they took me completely off-guard with this design with e one small green rotating snake the one thing remotely close to the cartoon. Nber actually played with one, but I did think the same and the microphone were nice touches. I needed you, as one who has practical experience with the set, to point out the big issues.
I got this playset for Christmas 1984, and had to take it back to the store. The playset didn't come with it's trapdoor. Worst Christmas ever. The next year I received the Fright Zone. This playset had a lot more traps than Snake Mountain. Long live the Horde!
Well I heard for Mattle that this playset was originally for another toy line that didn't make it, so instead of trashing it they just painted it purple and called it snake mountain... learning that I feel so cheated. although I always was never happy with this being snake mountain as a kid because I wanted the one from the cartoon. it still holds memories
