We Had That

Heroic Man-At-Arms (Mega Construx, 2018) Man-At-Arms was one of the very first figures to be released in the Masters of the Universe line back in 1982.  Throughout the MOTU franchise, Man-At-Arms has been a prominent character.  He appeared in about half of the original mini comics that came packaged with the action figures and has appeared in many of the books, comics, and cartoons that have come out of the series.  He's even one of the few characters from the original toy line to appear in the live action Masters of the Universe movie. Man-At-Arms: Ready for Battle! Toys aside, when most people think of the personality of Man-At-Arms, they are probably primarily influenced by the Filmation cartoon from 1983 to 1985.  Man-At-Arms was much less defined in the original few mini comics and the original action figure had a significantly different face (at least to my eyes) than the version in the cartoon.  Filmation developed the character from simply a master of w...

Masters of the Universe "Eternia Minis" (Mattel, 2020) Way back in 2014, Mattel released a series of Masters of the Universe mini figures.  They were sold in 2-packs and each pair came with a different piece of Castle Grayskull so if you bought all 6 packs, you could put together the castle!  I thought they were great, but they didn't sell all that well and ended up on clearance.  Fast forward to 2020, Mattel is trying again and this time, it seems like they're a hit! Original Masters of the Universe Minis 2-Packs from 2014 I'm glad they're back!  Even though those 2-packs offered my favorite figures, it's nice to be able to add more characters to my collection!  Also, although the 2014 figures may be better in the eyes of some collectors, I actually really like the bright colors of the new figures.  Sure, maybe the paint applications on the 2014 figures was a little better than on the new ones and many of the 2014 figures came with 2 accessories rathe...

MegaConstrux Scareglow (2018) The original Masters of the Universe toys first came out in 1982.  Each year, new figures were introduced all the way through 1988.  The character "Scare Glow" was part of the sixth wave of figures which was the last full wave of figures that came out in 1987.  Scare Glow's gimmick, aside from being an awesome skeleton, was that he glowed in the dark.  As a kid, I never knew about him.  Apparently, a lot of people didn't know about him at the time and only discovered him when they returned to the line as adults.  Because Masters of the Universe was winding down by the sixth wave, not as many figures were produced and many of the figures from this wave are more difficult to find.  Scare Glow is one of the most difficult to find and because he is so cool, he's also in demand which means an original, vintage Scare Glow figure is very expensive these days. Scare Glow: The Evil Ghost of Skeletor! When the series was re-launched...

Power-Con Prince Adam (Super7, 2017) The Masters of the Universe Classics line started in 2008 and it's one of my favorite modern action figure lines.  Although there were a few quality issues throughout the line, the figures were overall well made and certainly had much better articulation than the vintage figures.  Just as importantly, the figures look so ridiculously cool!  A friend of mine told me that the Masters of the Universe Classics figures look in reality just like what the vintage figures looked through the filter of his imagination.  We weren't alone in thinking they were cool figures.  The line was very successful! Maybe THIS Prince Adam is good with a sword? In fact, the Classics line was so successful that it included new versions of all of the vintage Masters of the Universe figures as well as the Princess of Power line, many variant figures, and characters from the cartoon and mini-comics that were never released before.  One example that ...

Masters of the Universe vintage Faker (Mattel, 1983) Mattel released the original Masters of the Universe toys in 1982.  Due to their surprisingly huge popularity, Mattel wanted to get more figures on the shelves as quickly as possible.  Although I've read numerous conflicting accounts, from the evidence that I've seen, it looks like the character Faker was the first figure released after the first wave of 8 figures.  He was subsequently included as part of wave 2 and is often listed as a wave 2 figure even though I believe he was actually released between waves 1 and 2.  I'm not sure how long the original Faker was available in stores, but I do know that at some point, he was discontinued.  In 1987, a slightly different version of Faker was re-introduced as part of wave 6, the last full wave of new figures. Masters of the Universe vintage Faker (Mattel, 1983) Faker re-used the molds for He-Man, but cast him in blue with purple boots and fur s...

Masters of the Universe - Ninjor action figure (1987) In the 1980s, the ninja craze was in full swing.  From movies like The Octagon, Enter the Ninja, American Ninja, and Ninja Death Squad to video games like Shinobi, Saboteur, and Ninja Gaiden, to comic books like Daredevil (with characters like Kirigi & Elektra), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Tick (which made fun of the fact that ninjas were everywhere) you couldn't get away from ninjas in the 80s.  Ninjas started silently creeping onto the toy shelves at least as early as 1982 with the Eagle Force character "Savitar," but it was GI Joe's "Storm Shadow" that truly brought the ninja action figure to the masses in 1984.  Remco had Ninja Strike Force, Hasbro had Ninja Warriors, and Soma had Master Ninjas. GI Joe "Storm Shadow" - Masters of the Universe "Ninjor" - Eagle Force "Savitar" The original Masters of the Universe toys first came out in 1982....

Masters of the Universe 2002 Mekaneck The original Masters of the Universe toys first came out in 1982.  Each year, new figures were introduced all the way through 1988.  The character "Mekaneck" was part of the third wave of figures which came out in 1984.  Mekaneck's action feature / gimmick was that his neck could extend.  When the original action figure was twisted at the waist, his neck would extend straight up.  Although the figure came out in the third wave when the line was very popular, he wasn't really one of the main characters for Masters of the Universe back in the 80s.  While characters like Beast Man and Teela were featured on all kinds of merchandise in the 80s including stickers, lunch boxes, drinking cups, paint-by-numbers sets, erasers, etc.; Mekaneck only appeared on one puzzle (off to the side fighting Clawful).  He was only included in three episodes of the original cartoon series and five of the mini comics (and he was just...

Masters of the Universe Classics: Count Marzo Count Marzo is a powerful wizard from the original 1980s Masters of the Universe cartoon who appeared again (with a much cooler look and story line) in the 2002 cartoon. Although the character was in several episodes of both the 80s cartoon and again (as a more prominent villain) in the 2002 reboot, a figure wasn't made for the character in either the vintage line or the 200x line.  However, Mattel's Masters of the Universe Classics line was so successful that they released figures for many characters from the mini comics and the cartoons who had never been made into figures before.  Count Marzo was one of them. Masters of the Universe Classics: Count Marzo This figure was (thankfully) modeled very accurately from the 2002 cartoon version rather than the original series version.  They did an excellent job of making the figure look like his cartoon counterpart. From his two-toned black and gray hair that was alw...