Skip to main content

Will It Motu or Notu? Schleich Big Knights Castle

Schleich has been around for quite while. They specialize in super detailed animals and fantasy creatures. More recently, they have been adding figurines and now "action figures". These toys are all pretty awesome and are in a 3 3/4 scale, like Star Wars and G.I. Joe. They have been making playsets and dioramas, as well, and a few of them really caught my eye.

Since I have been on a vintage MOTU binge, my mind immediately began trying to figure out just how well these playsets would scale with my toys. I asked sellers on Amazon.com who responded negatively, but it didn't sit well with me. Being a toy collector for as long as I have been, my mind has become pretty adept at this. Many of you, I'm sure, can say the same. I decided to reach out on He-Man.org.

Nobody was negative on it but they weren't really sure either. One member, Barbecue17, had the playset I was thinking about and had covered it on his blog, which you can check out here - http://www.actionfigurebarbecue.com/2015/09/action-figure-review-big-knights-castle.html. I really liked what I saw from his coverage so he offered to sell me his set for $60, much more reasonable than Amazon and Ebay's prices, which were in the $140s.

So let's look at it!

Firstoff, this thing is HUGE.





As a size comparison, here it is next to Castle Grayskull


The drawbridge opening is much wider and around the same height as the Jawbridge.



So no clearance for He-Man on Battlecat but the Battle Ram can glide through with ease.



So far, my instincts have served me well.

Now, on the walls of the castle, there is a lot of standing room. The figures don't have as much coverage as Grayskull's Right tower but significantly more than its Left.




You can even spice it up with other MOTU offerings.




Aside from the drawbridge and wall, the castle comes with a large central tower. It is here, and only here, where scaling is a bit of an issue.


As you can see, the inner rooms of the tower are a no go but the walkway that opens up is wide enough for He-Man and Battlecat to stride across.


So, let's just get straight to play time and really see what this thing looks like.


You could use this as an extension of Castle Grayskull, or as I will probably use it, the Palace of Eternia.








Minas Tirith much? And yes, that is a custom Evil Warriors battle barge type thing that I made using a Sentinel 7 boat from Toys R Us.


Another cool thing is the dungeon which can be displayed separately from the castle.






"We can all call on the Ancient Spirits of Evil down here."


"Lots of room for activities."


Poor one out for the Jabba's Palace Rancor Pit we never got.


Behind the castle walls, I think, holds the most fun.

Besides what fun is it to storm a castle if you never break through?




So, will it Motu or Notu? I think the answer is definitely in the affirmative. It will definitely MOTU. I am super thankful for Barbecue17 offering this to me at such a reasonable price. There are a couple other sets like this that I think I will get my hands on as well.


Good Journey!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

King Arthur and the Knights of Justice - Lord Viper

I recently saw a tweet that stated that the best things of the 90's were really just backwash from the 80's. I'm still not sure if that is true but it does come up here with King Arthur and the Knights of Justice. It didn't last long but I loved it, especially that theme song! Definitely brought back feelings of Boorman's Excalibur. Also, the Round Table and Suit Up moments felt a lot like M.A.S.K. The biggest connection might be Masters of the Universe. A lot of the same voice actors from the New Adventures of He-Man show up in this series. Garry Chalk, who played He-Man in the New Adventures and Man at Arms in the 200X MYP series plays our main henchman and leader of the Warlords, Lord Viper. Also, let's not forget the Black Wing/Stratos similarities: One further connection, is that Mattel also created the toys for the short lived series. The figures were close in scale to both the vintage line and the New Adventures. The Horde Slime Pit was ev...

Gamerztek 8-Bit HD and Gaming Relics custom cases

I'm still a fan of retro video games which probably doesn't surprise anyone since I still collect retro toys. When I play, I normally use the Retron 5 as my console because I love being able to save my progress at any point while using my cartridges. However, Retron 5 doesn't recognize a lot of multicarts and it also can't load game cheats for homebrews or game hacks. To compensate, I had been using Retro Bit's Retro Trio with an upscaler for HDMI. Its a great system and worked well but I decided it was time to upgrade to a console with a better HDMI output. After doing my online research, I decided to go with the 8-Bit HD. These are not the best screenshots as it is just me using my phone but I was blown away by the difference this made. Everything was very crisp. The console itself is very cheap. I bought it on Amazon for $30. It appears that I got the last one but I'm sharing the link for when they restock. Its also available in a lot of other pla...

Toy Biz DC Superheroes Flash v2, Hawkman, Two Face

I started getting back into the DC Superheroes line early last year. Even though the Kenner Super Powers line is superior in a lot of ways, this line has a nostalgic value for me. Recently, I was able to add three more figures to my collection: Hawkman, Two Face, and the second version of the Flash! Version 2 is a HUGE upgrade over Version 1. V2 Flash doesn't rely on a wind up action feature so it actually has arm articulation. Now Flash can actually do some better posing... let alone throw a punch! V2 Flash also comes with a Quicksilver/Silver Surfer-esqe platform. It even moves forward on its own if you pull it backwards.  Toy Biz vs Kenner. The Kenner figure is obviously the better choice. Just one look at his weapon and his head sculpt and that is obvious. However, there is a dumb charm to the Toy Biz figure and I'm happy to have him. I really like this Two Face figure. He has a winding feature for flipping his...

Toy Biz Sentinel

Any X-Men fan will agree on how cool the Sentinels are. They would rank in the top 10 of any X-Men villain list, easily. And if you poll X-Men the Animated Series fans, they will tell you how great the first season was with the premiere episode, Night of the Sentinels and the season finale, The Final Decision. The entire show was sold to us on the danger of these machine menaces. For whatever reason, I was never able to ahold of one of the Sentinel figures as a kid. We were just bombarded with so much coolness growing up that it was hard to get everything out there. Luckily, my adulthood has been filled with second chances. I picked up my first Sentinel this fall from Ebay. It was in wonderful condition and I can't wait to pick up a few more. Just really cool toys. Retractable capture claw snatches Mutants and reels them in. Hitting the head reveals mutants being held captive inside the Sentinel. Poor Morph. The left fist can be launched to smas...

Funko Savage World Thundercats Wave 2

2018 was an exciting time for me because we finally received Thundercats in the same scale as Masters of the Universe! It was a dream come true for myself and, I'm sure, many other children of the 80's. The excitement was unfortunately short lived as the factory that Funko worked with screwed up the plastics used on hip articulation. Many figure arrived with broken or soon to be broken crotches and Funko was dealt a pretty serious black eye. However, they worked hard to fix that issue but that also pushed back Wave 2 of Thundercats over a year. During that time, they went ahead with a mass market retail approach for a DC Comics universe in the Savage World style. While there were some nice toys in this line, especially the Bat Cave, the overall appeal to general audiences didn't seem to be there. A lot of planned Savage World lines seemed to get axed because of the gamble not paying off. Thankfully, Thundercats Wave 2 made the cut and began arriving this past quarter...