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| Masters of the Universe Minis, Mattel, 2014 |
Ever since the Masters of the Universe toys from Mattel appeared on the shelves in 1982, He-Man and company have been some of the most popular toys ever! Although almost a decade passed in the 1990s with no new Masters of the Universe product, Mattel came back with commemorative figures in 2000. That's when the company realized the potential for more Masters of the Universe products and the "Modern" or "200x" line of toys and cartoon arrived. Although that line only lasted a few years, it was enough to get the ball rolling and the Masters of the Universe Classics line was born! The Classics line was so successful that a variety of other Masters of the Universe lines followed.
One of my favorite lines was the Masters of the Universe Minis from 2014. There were 6 figures and a mini Castle Grayskull playset released over the course of 2014. One 2-Pack came out every other month for the entire year and each 2-pack contained a different piece to Castle Grayskull, so you had to buy all six 2-packs to get the pieces to put together the castle.
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| Minis Castle Grayskull |
The 2014 line included some of the figures that you would expect like Beast Man and Man-at-Arms. However, the inclusion of characters like Moss Man and Clawful combined with the fact that some of the more popular characters like Trap Jaw, Man-E-Faces, Hordak, Tri-Klops, Ram Man, Evil-Lyn, and Teela were NOT included in the line made it feel like Mattel was spreading out the "Must-Have" characters over several waves to avoid having fans lose interest by the 3rd or 4th wave. The following 2-packs were included in the 2014 releases: Battle Armor He-Man and Mer-Man, Moss Man and Battle Armor Skeletor, Stratos and Scareglow, Man-at-Arms and Faker, Zodak and Beast Man, and King He-Man and Clawful.
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| He-Man and Mer-Man Minis 2-pack Moss Man and Skeletor Minis 2-pack |
A second wave was planned for 2015 that would have included six more 2-packs for a total of 12 new figures plus a Snake Mountain playset, but the only 2-pack that was released was She-Ra and a Horde Trooper. Mattel had already shown prototypes of the figures from the 2nd 2-pack that would have come out in 2015 (Mek-A-Neck and Jitsu) at 2014 New York ComicCon and promoted the fact that the 2015 line would be a subscription based line with a minimum number of orders placed before the figures and Snake Mountain playset could go into production. Unfortunately, the advance orders only reached 25% of Mattel's goal and only the first 2-pack of She-Ra and the Horde Trooper were ever made available for sale.
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| Stratos and Scareglow Minis 2-pack Man-at-Arms and Faker Minis 2-pack |
Eventually, almost all of the prototypes were revealed. I've only seen the concept art for the last 2-pack, but I've seen photos of the other 10 figures. The complete 2015 line would have included: She-Ra (the first female character, even before Teela!) and Horde Trooper, Mek-A-Neck and Jitsu, He-Ro and Webstor, Trap Jaw and Ram Man, Buzz-Off and Stinkor, and finally Orko and Hordak (which is the 2-pack that I've only seen as production art).. I've also seen photos of the Snake Mountain playset and it looked pretty cool. It's unfortunate that the 2015 figures weren't able to meet the pre-orders needed to go into production. Several of the figures were amazing! The fact that Teela, Man-E-Faces, Tri-Klops, and Evil-Lyn were still not even planned for the 2015 releases really makes me think that Mattel thought this line would make it a lot farther than it did.
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| Zodac and Beast Man Minis 2-pack King He-Man and Clawful 2-Pack |
Still, I'm very glad that all 12 of the 2014 figures made it into stores. The original retail price on these was around $20, but many of them ended up on clearance at Game Stop for about $10 per 2-pack, so I was able to pick up several of them at quite a good price. Even those that I didn't get at Game Stop weren't too expensive. I picked up several online. I think the most expensive set that I picked up was $22 for Stratos and Scareglow on Amazon, but I was able to use a gift card to get that set. With that said, I still don't have the She-Ra / Horde Trooper 2-pack yet. I haven't seen that one at a price that fits my budget, but hopefully one day I'll be able to add that one to my collection as well!
Do you have any of the 2014 Masters of the Universe Minis? Do you have the She-Ra / Horde Trooper 2-Pack? What do you think of this line of figures? Tell me below in the comments!
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