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...

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 ...