#118 of 365 Millennium The General

The good thing about the Snakemen is that unlike the Horde, 3 of the figures did make it into the main line (and thus, are not stactions). Today's figure is The General, or Rattlor as he's better known as.

I have no idea why Rattlor wasn't marketed as Rattlor, but instead had The General (or El General in Spanish) as his title. Perhaps there was a trademark issue with the name Rattlor, or perhaps Mattel just wanted to ensure that they had the rights to use The General in future. I'm sure someone will probably tell me why.

Well, being a Snakemen, he's on a green card and I hate to be a broken record on this, but I think Rattlor would have looked much better on the red card than the green one. The pose on the cardback isn't that bad, and it does show off Rattlor's features nicely. The same pose is also used on the "see back" card on the side, which thanks to the cropping, seems rather weird.

Rattlor comes with a blue staff and a green missile and a rattle tail that's attached to the backside in much the same way Whiplash's tail is attached. The tail is not bendable and has a fixed structure. It does rattle rather nicely when shaken. The blue staff and green missile seems very out of place for Rattlor - it would have been much better if it was red somehow.

The figure itself is done rather faithfully to the cartoon version, with the snakeskin loincloth and the snake head on his chest. What's nice here are the paint details on his arms and legs, especially the metallic blue bits. Rattlor fits in nicely with NECA's Sssqueeze and Snake Face.

When placed next to the vintage figure (there's no Classic version yet!), this upgraded Rattlor seems to be significantly different. Although the details on the hands and legs and belt are still the same, the Millennium version has the breast snake head plate and the nicer snake skin loincloth and the shoulder pads/armour. The staff has morphed from red to metallic blue, which does not seem to be an improvement, despite the firing missile. Both retains the headbutt/strike action, and yes, both has the yellow neck.

I went into this review thinking that the millennium figure will be too anorexic as usual, because the vintage figure was so buff (to accomodate the action feature), but I was wrong. The millennium figure, if anything, looks even more buff than the vintage figure and is more proportionate as well, which makes it look more pleasant. I think Rattlor is my favourite figure so far this week, and that's saying a lot, considering how I loathe the Snakemen in the cartoon.