We all know Mattel intends to make the “original eight” characters for their new Masters of the Universe Classics line: He-Man, Skeletor, Beast-Man, Man-At-Arms, Teela, Mer-Man, Stratos, and Zodac. With He-Man going on sale in October, that gets us through May 2009, assuming we don’t get any non-original-eight figures before that. There are some other characters who are gimmes too–like Trap-Jaw and Evil-Lyn.

But after that, the field is wide open. According to Mattel and the Four Horsemen, they can make any character from any incarnation of MOTU (including the New Adventures of He-Man).

Here are my top five most wanted MOTUC figures.

5.) Optikk – This is the only character from The New Adventures of He-Man that you’re going to see on this list. I’m pretty sure he was also the only figure I owned from that line…anyway, he’s awesome. Who doesn’t love a guy in a bronze spacesuit with one gigantic eyeball for a head? The eye could be move via a dial on the back of the toy, though I would certainly hope the Horsemen would give us a ball-and-socket joint in a potential MOTUC figure. He had a cool gun, too, and thanks to his relatively normal proportions (compared to the original He-Man figures), I often used him as a villain in other toy lines, like Ninja Turtles.

While New Adventures remains the black sheep of the MOTU family, I think it deserves at least one representative, and Optikk is the best of the line.

4.) Spikor – A bit of a dark horse candidate here, Spikor was another figure I was always very fond of, yet doesn’t seem to get a whole lot of love from fans. I think the Horsemen would have a blast sculpting him, though, particularly since he was never made in the 2002 or the “Staction” series. With his spikes and his extending trident arm, he’d make for an excellent action figure.

3.) Faker – Oh come on, you know we’re going to get a Faker. And you know you want him. I have no idea why this evil blue He-Man was so appealing as a kid, but I loved him, and I can’t wait for the inevitable exclusive (probably a convention exclusive, I’d imagine). Incidentally, Faker gets a lot of flack for how he could never pass for He-Man, but I as a kid I thought of him more as a Bizarro He-Man than an evil identical twin.

I hope Faker comes with a little bit of sculpted mechanical hardware on his chest–or at least a sticker. Even better would be an alternate head with Terminator-style battle damage, with the robot face showing beneath torn skin.

2.) Leech – Again, this guy got a Staction, but what I want is a hulking action figure. Leech was my favorite bad guy figure after Skeletor when I was a kid. Ostensibly, his gimmick was that he sucked blood, although he really had were suction cups for his mouth and hands. Still, he looked pretty scary–his mouth resembles that of a lamprey, one of the most horrifying creatures in existence.

1.) Scare-Glow – I never owned Scare-Glow as a kid. Hardly anyone did, since he was released in 1987, long after He-Man’s heyday. (The writers of Ghostbusters II revealed themselves to be sadly out of touch when they wrote that He-Man joke into the 1989 movie–had they never heard of the Ninja Turtles?) But the fact that he was released in the twilight of He-Man’s popularity doesn’t mean he’s not badass.

Though it was once a point of debate, I’m convinced Scare-Glow’s original packaging description as the “Evil Ghost of Skeletor” only meant he was a ghost who worked for Skeletor, not the disembodied spirit of Skeletor himself. But it was the latter interpretation I’ve always found fascinating; I imagine He-Man destroying Skeletor’s body in an epic battle, but Skeletor returning as this Grim Reaper-like being with a new name–perhaps to haunt He-Man, or torment Hordak.

There are two ways Mattel could do a MOTUC Scareglow. One would be to do what the original was–a glow-in-the-dark repaint of Skeletor with a new head, weapon, and cape. But here’s my suggestion. Mattel and the Horsemen should take the Skeletor sculpt and rotocast it in clear plastic, making it hollow. Then, inside the body, they add a glow-in-the-dark skeleton. It would require enough work and tooling that it would probably have to be an SDCC exclusive, but c’mon, how cool would that be?