MOTUClassics.Com:
Snout Spout Review

NoisyDvL5



This review was originally published on November 30th, 2011.
I’ve been really busy this season that I had forgotten about Snout Spout when he arrived yesterday (it didn’t help that Mattycollector took a week to ship him). This figure is one of my favorite childhood toys, but I can’t say that the Classics version is one of my favorites today.

The original Snout Spout was a later figure in the line, debuting in 1986 a couple years after the cartoon had ended. He did appear in Princess of Power a handful of times, so he has some Filmation cred and ends up being a character that could conceivably occupy a spot in both the Vintage Toy & POP rosters. I have no memories of POP as a kid, but I did have the figure and I absolutely loved it. Snout Spout is among my favorite MOTU figures keeping company with guys like Faker, Scareglow, & Sy-Klone.

I don’t know what it was about the vintage toy that I enjoyed so much. The colors? Orange is a favorite. The elephant head? It was so crazy it worked. The fireman aspect? Surely. I still lament the lack of a GI Joe Firefighter sub-line (so obvious, Hasbro), Hot Spot & Inferno were fave Transformers, and I got a lot of play out of Inferno from C.O.P.S. too.

Anyway, it’s probably all of those and I’m sure the water-squirting feature was part of too (Kobra Khan is another vintage favorite). And everything that I loved before is duplicated here… almost exactly… so what’s not to love?

I’m aware that I just spent a good chunk of my Man-E-Faces review talking about how I wasn’t as happy as I could be with the figure because he wasn’t vintage enough (he was pre-vintage, really) and now I’m going to point out, roughly a week later, that I’m not as happy with Snout Spout because he’s seemingly just too vintage. Life’s full of contradictions like that.

Sculptwise, Snout Spout got what the vintage figure called for – new boots and gloves, new undies, the harness & backpack, and that giant elephant noggin. The boots and gloves are new to the figure, but I could see them getting some re-use in the 30th Anniversary line or maybe for another character that could use a little more detailing. The new boots feature the “hidden” ankle peg that debuted with Vikor.

My favorite thing about the harness, I’m not going to lie, is that it covers up the nipples. I’m not against nipples, but I have to wonder, when nearly all of the figures are wearing clothes, why Mattel hasn’t found some development money to make a non-naked torso. The harness itself is pretty much a fully-realized update of the original with some minor details changed. Similarly, the loincloth is a straight update of the original.

The backpack got a little more love than the rest of the ensemble,. It’s a nice update of the original but the dimensions have been refined a bit, the “thrusters” are fully formed instead of being implied like the original toy, and ol’ Snouty picked up a MO2K pressurized tank on the side somewhere along the way. Pretty cool. The pack is removable, but the pegs are small, so take caution when popping it on or off.

Ultimately, though the head is generally what is going to make or break the figure. While I think it could’ve used a little more MO2K love (I loved the updates to the staction’s head), I’m at least happy that this Snout Spout doesn’t look sad. I’m fondest of him looking out from under his brow so far, because he looks pretty pissed (and based off that bio, shouldn’t he be?). The head does feature a lot of little details, but the irony is that almost all of them were present on the original (the exception being the rivets down the trunk).

Articulation is standard for the line since it’s mostly He-Man under there. I love the new enclosed ankles because they’re tighter. The design of Snout Spout’s head allowed for some excellent range on his neck articulation and that has been one of the happier aspects of the figure so far. The trunk itself is made of a bendable rubber, but it’s also painted. Whenever I move it, the paint bunches up a bit and gives me pause. The material feels durable and I’m not too worried about it so far, but I don’t expect to get too much play out of this particular feature lest I start putting cracks in the paint. More worrisome are the ankles, however. They’re internal like Vikor’s, but they’re not sturdy like Vikor’s. It’s not as bad as the He-Man boots, but it’s not good either. Continue to Page 2

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50 thoughts on “MOTUClassics.Com:
Snout Spout Review”

  2. I’m still jonesing for the 200x figure we never got. The one with the removable face plate? I like Snout Spout, but I have to wonder if this guy could get a different figure, maybe the 200x design properly classicified of course as Hose Nose?

    1. The MO2K figure, while movable, would pale in comparison to the Staction, so I don’t miss it too much. I did like the faceplate though!

      Interesting idea on “Hose Nose”!

  3. Poe said the trunk was foam like Stay-Puft, Crawford called it rubber, and you say it’s painted bendy plastic. So, which is it?

    1. I thought I said rubber? It’s just standard bendy material as far as I can tell, painted to match the face. I’ll need to check up on Poe’s review, but it’s not Stay Puft foam – you look at that wrong and it takes damage.

  4. Nice review. I had to pass on this guy for the reasons you stated. Snout Spout is a silly figure and he needs to be fun. I wish he could’ve been amped up in some way.

    Maybe you could crank out a truetorial about the non-vintage influence on the figures and how it changes from figure to figure? Maybe there’s a rhyme or reason?

    1. I think the design influences come down to a personal choice and the aversion to the dreaded hyper-anime detail. Snout Spout can get his air tank and Fisto can have his headband, but remember how Scott had to stress that Fisto wasn’t getting a MO2K head?

      Snout Spout can’t have the technical details and the hooves were probably a bridge too far from vintage, so we got the one thing we could: the airtank.

      (And, yeah, I know that is the counterpoint to my own summary) 😉

  5. Lately it seems your MOTUC reviews have an air of “whiny little girl” to them. Low T maybe. Perhaps a shot of anabolic would pick you up. Or rewatching The Expendables and hitting the strip club to celebrate all things testicular. In the future just ask yourself:
    WWSSaJSD?
    What would Sly Stalone and Jason Statham do?

    Anyways, the pictures are still awesome. The words in between, not so much.

    2. Just wow. Lackluster figures get lackluster reviews, dude. That’s something I wish Mattel ought to take into consideration.

    2. you love snout spout? maybe you’re the one needed the t shot in the buttocks… he has all the burly edge of sy-klone without any of the masculine mystique.

  8. Snouty may not look overtly SAD anymore, but he still looks dopey as hell. 😀

    I guess I’m a little biased because I didn’t own him as a kid. But he was also one that I passed on when I re-bought nearly the entire vintage line in the early days of eBay, so clearly that figure just didn’t appeal to me.

    As far as the 200x comparisons go, the only reason they’re brought up is because it’s the only sculpted example to specifically point to of an awesome Snout Spout. The vintage figure was a fun toy, sure, but not an awesome character design.

    Now, is it possible to make another awesome Snouty without overtly referencing the 200x design? Absolutely!
    And if anyone’s up to the task, it’s the 4H.
    They just have to be allowed to do their thing without the possibility of their work being revised or rejected.

    The line didn’t start out as an “80’s time capsule” line, so I don’t know why Scott suddenly wanted to make it so.

    Also, for those of you with the Power and Honor catalog, you’ll see that early design drawing for Snout Spout that looks leagues cooler than the 80’s figure turned out. And why that version wasn’t provided to the 4H as a reference for some cool non-200x tweaks that could’ve spiced this figure up considerably is beyond me.

    Maybe if the person running the line cared about providing awesome figures to collectors more than about recreating a dead line from the past, we’d see better, more enduring releases from MOTUC.

    Just sayin’, I mean everyone has their favorites, and I’m absolutely not knocking that (bigtime Gwildor fan here, after all!) but Snout Spout will NOT be one of the heralded figures from this line after it’s run its course, say 20 years from now, just as the vintage Snouty was NOT one of the heralded figures by collectors after 20 years. But, there are lots of people who consider the Staction Snouty among the best Stactions, among the best from all of the 200x releases. Sense a pattern there, anyone?

    1. Looking into next year, it looks like we’ve been able to get out of 80’s time capsule mode a bit. But that just makes me sad for the timing of figures like Snout Spout who could’ve used a little more of that attention.

      What I’m most curious about is how the 4H planned to do Snout Spout going in. Was the air tank and a few rivets the only thing they wanted to “classicize” or was there more they wanted to do.

      And vintage Snout Spout was one of the best figures in the line. 🙂 😀

  9. I really perfer the 200x version b/c it looks more like the PREDATOR,HaHa! But still Snout Spout is still a cool character and great edition to the classics. Glad that we were able to get those extra stickers for some of our MOC figures. Excellent review also!!

    1. The stickers crack me up. They’re partially intended to for in-package collectors to properly “faction-ize” their collection, but a true in-package collector would never dare add a sticker! I’m curious how many of the stickers will end up on the packages…

      Still glad to have them though. And thanks!

  10. Pingback: MOTU Classics.Com: Snout Spout Review | Toys Are Cool

  11. I got a sticker sheet in my Snout Spout box too! And so did my buddy who also ordered one with me, so woot for free stickers. 😀

    I like Snout Spout, I just wish he had the water-squirting feature. With him, I think that was his primary gimic & without it he feels like he’s just a dude with a robotic elephant head & a big axe. The bendy trunk adds something to it at least & for some reason I’m not crazy about the jaws-of-life accessory. It’s not a bad accessory, but I could see it fitting with the Tuskador figure that eventually might come out.

    1. Yeah, that’s the same design as the early art I was talking about, I keep forgetting that’s he was in the mini-comic.

      1. That would’ve been cool too.

        I think the element I find myself missing is the spot for the tusks. I would’ve like to seen that classicized.

  13. ” I still lament the lack of a GI Joe Firefighter sub-line”

    You mean you wanted Barbecue to have his own squad?

    1. Yes! As a kid, I really wanted to get a white/red themed group of my favorite Joes in a special firefighting team. I was obsessed with the idea for awhile. Lifeline was in because his colors already matched, but I wanted Barbecue, Sci-Fi, Lady Jaew, Blowtorch, Steel Brigade, and Flint in a matching color scheme. They coulda had water shooting gear and a fire truck type vehicle. It coulda been awesome!

      I learned years later that Hasbro had at least considered it: http://www.yojoe.com/archive/unproduced/prototype6.shtml

      I always wonder what figures they might have thought up to go with that vehicle.

  14. Great review!
    Cant say I care (or ever cared) about snout spout something baout elephants turns me off like right away everytime maybe I was scarred by dumbo as a child who knows

  15. that last pic w/ rammie and the chalice makes me laugh… elephant dudes rock… snout spout specifically, does not… and they’re crafted by the same guys. go figure.

  16. Yeah, I’m getting tired of seeing straight up vintage re-makes. This figure needed Millennium influence in the face, or a second head that didn’t look like a dopey elephant. Also it’s pretty pathetic about the trunk. If they wanted to make a love letter to the 80’s figure, should have made segmented joints in the trunk like that Monsterarts Godzilla figure has in the tail. I wouldn’t have hesitated to by it then.

  17. yeah, before i forget… why exactly doesn’t the backpack have a spot to stow either of the weapons?

  18. Soooo..

    See, my MOTU ignorance is as deep as the ocean. Is Snouty a cyborg, a mutant, yet another victim of Man-At-Arms meddling or does Eternian society dictate that firefighters wear giant elephant heads as part of their job?

    And yeah, I just have no clue what’s going on with the line and design choices. I assume the 4H guys are blanketed with metric tons of NDAs and can’t say “well, we WANTED to do ‘a’ but we got overruled…”

    1. The post below explains it, but yeah, he’s a dude stuck in a suit with a cybernetic elephant head. It’s hard living in the MOTU world.

  19. Snout Spout was a victim of EVIL HORDE Science. It’s very much like what Man-At-Arms churns out, but it’s even MORE unwieldly and needlessly cruel. Like fellow experiment-ee Extendar, Jaxton (SS’s real name) shook off the mind-control that Leech and Grizzlor (and OTHER Horde science project Dragstor) DIDN’T, and escaped Horde captivity. Operating under the pseudonym “Hose Nose”, he palled around with The Great Rebellion for a time, but ultimately migrated to Eternia (fewer pretty girls to laugh at him? one wonders), where he still grapples with self-esteem issues as often as with Skeletor’s crew or The Snake Men.

    2. Indeed, thanks very much!

      But it’s sad, because a part of me kinda wanted Snouty to be ‘just’ a regular firefighter, so if there was a fire at the Royal Palace there would be a whole company of dudes with mechanical elephant heads responding… 🙂

  21. never get hurt in the Masters universe or you are gonna get turnred into some abomination by either MAA or even worse the Horde…of course he shook off leech and grizzlors mind control…I wouldnt trust those two to set the clock on a vcr

  22. Excellent review with fun pics, as is the norm on this site.

    I wish my Snout Spout turned out as well as yours. Paint rubbed off all over the belt, and one of the weakest ankles I’ve ever seen in a figure; he’ll barely stand. Don’t even get me started on Swift Wind and the amazingly fragile wing-bracket . . . .

    Yeah. Segmented trunk. Perfect idea, there.

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