We Had That

2003 McDonald's Masters of the Universe Happy Meal Toys The Masters of the Universe toy line first appeared in 1982 and by the end of 1983, with the help of the Filmation animated series, it had become one of the most popular toy lines in history.  However, it's initial popularity was relatively short lived and by 1987, the original line was winding down.  A feature length film came out in 1987, but it didn't do much to breath additional life into the franchise and is generally considered to be...well...not an awesome movie.  The New Adventures of He-Man cartoon and toy line appeared in 1991 and was dead by the end of 1992.  This Sci-Fi reinvention of He-Man didn't make much of a splash and went mostly unnoticed (I never heard about it until many years later). McDonald's Happy Meal He-Man and Skeletor Nearly a decade went by with no official Masters of the Universe product, but that decade coincided with the early days of the internet.  Masters of the...

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...

The 3.75" action figure format became the standard size for boys figures in 1978 when the 3.75" Star Wars figures completely dominated the toy market.  From 1978 to 1982, we saw 3.75" action figures of everything from DC and Marvel comic book characters to The Dukes of Hazzard to Universal Monsters to Love Boat!  By 1982, the last wave of Empire Strikes Back figures were arriving in the stores and Hasbro was relaunching their home run G.I. Joe property from the 60s and early 70s in the new standard format of 3.75" as G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero.  The new G.I. Joe toy relaunch combined with an extremely well written comic book and an action packed afternoon cartoon would find such great success that it would guarantee the 3.75" action figure format continued on for another decade. However, 1982 was also the year that Mattel introduced The Masters of the Universe toy line...only they weren't 3.75" like everything else.  They were 5.5" tall ...