The Masters of the Universe/She-Ra Thread!

[Vegita-San]

Originally Posted by AT-Man

Those are made in the Filmation style.

I give up

Four Horsemen design = motuc line. 2012-. Original Series toys as released in 1983 means just that. I can't tell if those toys are the former, or the latter based on the new packaging 'as seen on tv' they have that resembles the original toyline.

[Candy Kappa]

Super7 is doing vintage 5.5" styled figures with a more Filmation accurate sculpt instead of toyline accurate sculpt.

[Vegita-San]

ok, so those are totally new sculpts, not rehashes from 1983. that's what i wanted to know.

[Candy Kappa]

Correct. It's a continuation of the two-packs where you got 5.5" He-Man vs. Skeletor and She-Ra vs. Hordak, but single carded with vintage style cardbacks.

https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Produ...nDetails/76048

[MikeandRaph87]

Leo656, I decided to rent He-Man and The Masters of The Universe (1987) from Netflix thanks to you.All I know is Skeletor's 2002 origin and He-Man is a guy named Prince Adam. Anything else I should know before watching this said to be cult-classic?

[Candy Kappa]

You can watch the 1987 movie with no prior knowledge of the property.

[ProactiveMan]

Goddammit! I really want those movie toys...

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

Leo656, I decided to rent He-Man and The Masters of The Universe (1987) from Netflix thanks to you.All I know is Skeletor's 2002 origin and He-Man is a guy named Prince Adam. Anything else I should know before watching this said to be cult-classic?

Yeah, the movie actually has very little to do with the familiar He-Man lore. Practically nothing; for example, "Prince Adam" isn't even a concept in this movie. It was developed completely separately from the cartoons, so a lot of things people expect from something with the "He-Man" label simply aren't there. Which is a little disappointing, but it actually was put into development before the cartoon existed - despite coming out after it was over - so there were always going to be huge differences. The original comics that came with the toys in 1982 had their own unique lore as well, which was mostly abandoned when the cartoons came out. So there's a few parallel He-Man mythologies out there. The movie is completely its own, but it borrows a lot of the most familiar bits and pieces, enough to be at least recognizable.

Nobody's costume is correct, though, which is weird. But if you can ignore that, you're halfway there. It differs greatly from the cartoons but it explains itself pretty well. If you're not overly familiar or in love with the cartoons, you may actually enjoy it more. Most people really couldn't get around how different it was from the cartoon.

Since they're pretty different and unique mythologies, all anyone would really NEED to know before watching the movie is:

- Whoever controls Castle Grayskull, controls the Universe.
- The Sorceress of Grayskull chose He-Man to defend Grayskull and all of Eternia from the evil forces of the dark wizard Skeletor.
- He-Man's Power Sword channels some of Grayskull's power - which is Infinite - into himself, which is why he's such a badass.
- Skeletor's origins are vague - he's had several, all conflicting - but ultimately, he's evil, he's Frank Langella, and he's a WAY better movie villain than Darth Vader. At the least, he's the most QUOTABLE movie villain ever. "I am NOT in a giving vein this day...!" Even people who HATE this movie, still love Skeletor.
- Skeletor wants to take Grayskull's power for himself, so he can conquer the universe and become a God. He-Man, obviously, is not thrilled with this idea.
- The bald guy from "Back to the Future" actually appeared in at least ONE other movie.
- Courtney Cox was really hot when she weighed more than 98 pounds.
- He-Man's catchphrase is, "I Have The Power!" In the cartoons, he says it constantly. In the movie, he says it exactly once, and when it finally happens, it's totally perfect.
- Stay through the credits. You didn't know it, but every single movie since like 1999 has been ripping this one off. But none of them do it as well.

It gets a lot of sh*t, but I love it. Like, it shamelessly rips off Star Wars, but it does it really, really well. It's a better "Star Wars" movie than like half of the Star Wars movies have been. And it's earnest as hell. Unlike a lot of "toy movies", it doesn't feel like it has to make fun of the material; it's got that veneer of 80s cheese, but it takes itself TOTALLY seriously, and the film is better for it. I genuinely rank it as one of the best sci-fi/fantasy films of the 1980s.

It's amazing it turned out as well as it did, because they actually ran completely out of money before it was finished, and had to shoot most of the final fight scene literally in the dark. But it actually creates a nice atmosphere, as its creatively shot and it's easy to get caught up in what's happening to the point where you stop noticing that anything's amiss.

I'm interested in hearing your thoughts. I love this movie unironically.

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Yeah, the movie actually has very little to do with the familiar He-Man lore. Practically nothing; for example, "Prince Adam" isn't even a concept in this movie. It was developed completely separately from the cartoons, so a lot of things people expect from something with the "He-Man" label simply aren't there. Which is a little disappointing, but it actually was put into development before the cartoon existed - despite coming out after it was over - so there were always going to be huge differences. The original comics that came with the toys in 1982 had their own unique lore as well, which was mostly abandoned when the cartoons came out. So there's a few parallel He-Man mythologies out there. The movie is completely its own, but it borrows a lot of the most familiar bits and pieces, enough to be at least recognizable.

Nobody's costume is correct, though, which is weird. But if you can ignore that, you're halfway there. It differs greatly from the cartoons but it explains itself pretty well. If you're not overly familiar or in love with the cartoons, you may actually enjoy it more. Most people really couldn't get around how different it was from the cartoon.

Since they're pretty different and unique mythologies, all anyone would really NEED to know before watching the movie is:

- Whoever controls Castle Grayskull, controls the Universe.
- The Sorceress of Grayskull chose He-Man to defend Grayskull and all of Eternia from the evil forces of the dark wizard Skeletor.
- He-Man's Power Sword channels some of Grayskull's power - which is Infinite - into himself, which is why he's such a badass.
- Skeletor's origins are vague - he's had several, all conflicting - but ultimately, he's evil, he's Frank Langella, and he's a WAY better movie villain than Darth Vader. At the least, he's the most QUOTABLE movie villain ever. "I am NOT in a giving vein this day...!" Even people who HATE this movie, still love Skeletor.
- Skeletor wants to take Grayskull's power for himself, so he can conquer the universe and become a God. He-Man, obviously, is not thrilled with this idea.
- The bald guy from "Back to the Future" actually appeared in at least ONE other movie.
- Courtney Cox was really hot when she weighed more than 98 pounds.
- He-Man's catchphrase is, "I Have The Power!" In the cartoons, he says it constantly. In the movie, he says it exactly once, and when it finally happens, it's totally perfect.
- Stay through the credits. You didn't know it, but every single movie since like 1999 has been ripping this one off. But none of them do it as well.

It gets a lot of sh*t, but I love it. Like, it shamelessly rips off Star Wars, but it does it really, really well. It's a better "Star Wars" movie than like half of the Star Wars movies have been. And it's earnest as hell. Unlike a lot of "toy movies", it doesn't feel like it has to make fun of the material; it's got that veneer of 80s cheese, but it takes itself TOTALLY seriously, and the film is better for it. I genuinely rank it as one of the best sci-fi/fantasy films of the 1980s.

It's amazing it turned out as well as it did, because they actually ran completely out of money before it was finished, and had to shoot most of the final fight scene literally in the dark. But it actually creates a nice atmosphere, as its creatively shot and it's easy to get caught up in what's happening to the point where you stop noticing that anything's amiss.

I'm interested in hearing your thoughts. I love this movie unironically.

My head is spinning right now. Between you and a work colleague claiming its a movie that can be watched on loop yet stuck in the 80s' unable to adapt like everything after it Transformers, TMNT,Power Rangers, and Pok'emon. If I do not go into work because of weather tomorrow I will watch it then, but if I do then I will watch it on Saturday.

[Candy Kappa]

Disappointed we did not see anything Netflix She-Ra related from Mattel.

But the Power-Con exclusives MOTUC Slamurai and two Snake Troopers 3-pack and Horde Zombie He-Man looks pretty neat.

[Candy Kappa]

The preorder for the 87 movie figures is up, but yikes the po promo cis are vastly different then what we saw on display at Toy Fair, almost looks like different figures type of paint job...

Edit. Super7 claims it's the lighting, ait...

[Leo656]

Going through my boxes of stuff that's been in storage for over ten years, taking inventory and whatnot, and I came across a couple boxes of my 2003 He-Man collection. I know I must have at least one more box somewhere, because I had almost all the variants and stuff like the "Samurai" figures but I can't locate them at the moment. But I managed to find most of the main figures from the first two waves - He-Man, Skeletor, Teela, Man-At-Arms, Battle Cat, Panthor, etc. - along with the electronic Castle Grayskull!

Since I hadn't looked at them in so long, I forgot how much I really liked these figures. The only real negative is that they came out just before lots of articulation points became a standard, so they're a bit dated with the lack of knee and elbow joints, but it kinda fits given that the whole line was like a simple "update" of the original line, which didn't have a ton of articulation, either. But I really love the sculpts and the level of detail in the outfits. I know not everyone liked the "anime"-style head sculpt for He-Man, but it doesn't really bother me and the other figures' features are a bit more "natural". Skeletor's face is great. Some of the poses are a bit weird, but again, like the limited articulation that kind of thing was pretty standard at that point in time.

I have most of the vehicles, too; everything still works great. I only ever really had them on display, so everything has very little wear, if any. Castle Grayskull is of course the biggest deal; to my surprise, the voice stuff still works great. I used to have the original Grayskull and Snake Mountain, but I think my Dad sold them or one of his friends stole them, because I can't find them anywhere. The original castle definitely had more cool action features, like the Throne trapdoor and the elevator, but it also had a ton of tiny parts to break or lose. This one was the First Series version of the 2003 Castle, with the chip-activation action features. I haven't tried them out but I remember they worked fine last time I bothered with them. It kind of lacks in features compared to the original, but it's a nice size, with tons of room to display figures on, so that and the fact that it talks kind of makes up for whatever it lacks in other areas.

I love everything He-Man, and I really dug this line and was sad that it didn't last longer. They didn't get too deep into the character list, and that was disappointing. I know MOTU Classics and Club Grayskull more than made up for that, but I never got to collect those and they're pretty damn expensive now. I'll definitely pick up some of those one day, but in the meantime, I already have about 3/4s of the 2003 line, and one of these days I should get around to finally finishing it.

I just got a new bookshelf so tomorrow I might put some of these on display. Sadly, I got no room for Castle Grayskull, so that'll have to stay in the box for now.

[Candy Kappa]

The 200x toyline came and went so fast where I live that I found one store having figures, and I only got to buy 1 Skeletor to my then youngest brother. It was the ice variant of Skeletor with flame armor.

[Leo656]

At first it was pretty easy to find in NJ, but by Season 2 of the show interest had dropped quite a bit and a lot of the "Vs. The Snake Men"-branded toys were very hard to find.

For Wave One, all the Toys R Us and K-Mart stores had almost an entire aisle dedicated to the He-Man toys, just like the good old days. But then Mattel started short-packing new characters and only shipping tons of He-Man and Skeletor variants, and that killed the line dead. For example, I only have Evil-Lyn because my wife worked at Toys R Us at the time, and only found Ram-Man because my comic book guy grabbed one for me. Scalpers were picking out the one-per-case new characters that everyone actually wanted and immediately selling them on eBay for $30-50, leaving nothing left on shelves but the infinite He-Man and Skeletor variants. When those didn't sell, the cartoon and toy line were unceremoniously scrapped.

In defense of Mattel, they supposedly did tons of market research among children and that research told them that kids love buying a ton of different variants of the main one or two characters. The most successful 90s toyline was probably the Batman Animated Series line, which would reinforce that theory with its "Tons of Batman and Nobody Else" approach, which made Kenner tons of money. But I think Mattel seriously disregarded the then-just beginning Adult Collector market, and failed to realize that 1. People over age 8 buy toys, and 2. They want to actually have a figure of every character, not just a handful. In hindsight, it's obvious why the line failed despite a great start, but at the time Mattel was simply following the market trends. They didn't realize that lines like this may be marketed to kids, but are REALLY for adults looking for a nostalgia fix. That is the standard now, but in 2002 there was still a little bit of "I'm buying them for my niece and nephew" justification going on. By the time they realized that more adults were buying the toys instead of kids, it was too late to course correct.

Real shame. I'm poking around on eBay and thankfully a good number of the ones I'm missing are pretty reasonable, even in the package, so that's good to know.

[Hamato Yoshi]

Some of the Batman TAS variants I kinda dig

Love the movie , seen it like 50 times.....I liked the new characters and Gwildor was just as cool as Orko imo

[Leo656]

I put the figures I managed to dig out on display, and took some pictures. Please excuse the crappy lighting from my phone's camera, I don't know where the good camera is and I took these at like 4 in the morning when I was way too tired to give a sh*t.






I cheated a bit; Hordak isn't from the Mattel 200X line, it's one of the mini-statues that NECA put out with the Four Horsemen after the toyline was cancelled.

I really love the sculpts, and the colors, and the action features... almost everything, really. But holy hell, I had completely forgotten what a BITCH these figures are trying to get them to stand up! Seriously; Prince Adam, Teela, and Man-At-Arms can NOT be posed to stand under their own power and have to be leaned on something else. I remember now that I had to pose like half the figures in the line that way when I had them set up at my old place. Real bummer, but they're set for now. Guess I'll pick up some peg stands one of these days. Anybody recommend any specific ones? I know NECA does some and I see a few others, but I don't know if one type is really much better than another.

Aside from that, I really love these figures. They're definitely "toys first" (since they sincerely don't want to stand up and be display pieces), but they look great on display as you can see. Just about all the "updated" characters are generally a big improvement over the originals (except for aforementioned balance issues). Battle Cat and Panthor are particularly good (although I like the faces and armor on the originals better), with their weaponized armor and the jaw that opens when you move the one front leg. Good stuff. This whole line was about making small improvements to the original stuff whenever they could, and for the most part I think they did a good job.

When I have a lot more room, I plan to put Grayskull out, and place the 1983 and 2003 versions of some of the characters beside each other. But this'll do for now.

[Hamato Yoshi]

Nice collection

[Leo656]

Thanks!

I recently found a box with about 99% of the toys I had from the original line, cataloged them and gave them all a thorough scrubbing. Almost none are near-mint, sadly, and a lot of the legs are either loose or flat-out broken.

The real heartbreaker is The Sorceress, who's in pretty decent shape BUT her legs are pretty loose. Turns out that she's one of the most rare and expensive figures in the line, with even loose figures going for over $100. I wish I knew that, but then again, that stuff has been in a box since like 1996. It's probably a small miracle it's all in half as good of shape as it is.

My life's dream is to one day own the full original line in at least acceptable condition. Same for the 2002 series. I'd kill to have all the MattyCollector and Club Grayskull stuff as well, but I don't know if I can afford it in this lifetime.

[ProactiveMan]

I have the Sorceress and her legs are still good, but her wings don't retract anymore... that is to say they don't stay retracted, they always spring back out.

I was really into the 200X stuff when it was coming out. They were a bit of a pain to find at the time, but I have a small collection of them. There's something about the weird, squared off anatomy that is very appealing.

[Leo656]

There was a mini-"convention" at my local mall today and one vendor was selling a random variety of toys and stuff. He only had one MOTU-related piece, the MOTU Classics "Serpentine King Hiss". It only cost me $20 since I bought something for my wife, as well. The package is a little dinged up but I don't care about that.

SO, I finally have ONE MOTU Classics figure! You have no idea how much it kills me not to have been able to collect these, or the Club Grayskull stuff. They're really amazing.