Few recent action figure lines have divided fans so strongly–and bitterly–as Mattel’s new Masters of the Universe Classics. The first two figures, He-Man and Beast Man, go on sale today at 12 p.m. EST on Mattycollector.com, barring any major website problems.
First, some background: in the early 1980s, Masters of the Universe (MOTU) was one of the most popular action figure lines of the time. It essentially ruled the period between the Star Wars craze and the rise of Transformers and G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero in the mid-eighties, and many kids (myself included) started with MOTU and later moved to one of those properties. Now we’re all grown up and have become nostalgic action figure collectors, and the toy companies have catered to us with a slew of reissues and revamps of toys from our childhood.
Mattel first tried to capitalize on MOTU nostalgia in 2002. After hiring former McFarlane toy designers the Four Horsemen to do the sculpting, Mattel created an updated line aimed at both kids and collectors, supported by a new cartoon and a comic book. The Horsemen took the original MOTU designs and amped them up, emphasizing the original features from the characters while minimizing their more goofy traits and making the anatomy a bit more realistic. This was arguably the first MOTU controversy, as some diehard fans of the original line were disappointed by the new designs, while more casual fans and collectors who had never owned a He-Man figure were impressed.
The 2002 line proved to be relatively popular with collectors (see my reviews for a glimpse of how obsessed I was), but failed to catch on with kids. Moreover, it was plagued by poor distribution and ill-considered case assortments that were light on the secondary characters and heavy on the boring repaints (Smash Blade He-Man figures are now used to build low-cost housing in New Mexico).
The kids weren’t interested, the collectors became frustrated and angry, and the line ended after about a year, though the Horsemen kept it alive with their NECA-produced “Stactions”–non-articulated statues in the same scale and style as the figures.
Fast-forward to 2008. Encouraged by fan response to a Horsemen-sculpted He-Man figure they sneaked into a convention display, Mattel announces Masters of the Universe Classics (MOTUC). This time around, the sculpts were much more faithful to the 1980s designs while offering even more articulation than the 2002 figures. Not surprisingly, this has once again divided fans and collectors alike.
Rob Bricken, writer and editor for Topless Robot and a former editor for ToyFare magazine, is among those disappointed by the new direction. “It absolutely breaks my heart that Mattel is making articulated versions of the old MOTU line when their recent MOTU line was so, so much better, and had so much more potential,” Bricken wrote to me in an email. “The updated characters in the 2002 [line] were uniformly awesome, plus the line was cut short so many characters never got made, or only got made as hard-to-find, totally-non-articulated statuettes. And the figures that did get made were hampered by the necessities of a mass [market] toy line–Beast-Man and Ram-Man were supposed to tower over their contemporaries–and I know the Four Horsemen had more detailed paint jobs in mind, because I saw their prototypes back in my ToyFare days (also, Zodac was originally an alien, which was awesome but too freaky for Mattel). That’s the line that would truly benefit from this new collector-centric [focus].”
On the other side of the issue are collectors like Paul Rudolph of Toy Bender. “Personally, I like the direction the line is going right now,” Rudolph wrote in an email. “I’m all about nostalgia. For example, I only cared about G.I. Joe again when they started making them look like (and packaging them like) the figures I had when I was a kid. The example that applies directly to He-Man is that before the 200x line came out, Mattel was doing re-issue figures. While I didn’t buy a lot of them, I picked up a few of my favorite figures and I was looking forward to more, but that all stopped with the 200x line came out–of which I purchased zero figures.”
Rudolph continued: “The reason I didn’t pick up a single 200x He-Man figure was due to the fact that the characters were too exaggerated for my tastes. The sculpts were awesome, but I didn’t like the anime-like flair they had. I preferred the repackaging of old figures over this “new” line back then. If this makes me lame, so be it. For me, collecting is tied much more to the past than having a cool new toy.”
Diehard fans of the original line, such as “Havoc” from the He-Man.org forums, are even more vocal in their support of the new direction. “As far as [I’m] concerned, ‘What controversy?’ I hated the 200X figures soon as I saw them, it took me a long time, and explanations from the Four Horsemen that they’d been dictated to by Mattel, for me to warm up to them. This new line [is] exactly what I was hoping for and expecting to see in 2002. My only dislike is the price tag, and the ‘Internet only’ nonsense. It should have been fully backed and in stores as assortments. I’m absolutely certain these new figures would have a much wider appeal than 200X if they made the effort to make them available to casual buyers.”
Other collectors, such as online community mainstay Scott Metzger, take a more pragmatic view of the why Mattel chose this direction for MOTUC. “From what we know, there was a small cadre of folks at Mattel who, along with the Horsemen, pitched the idea of a new Masters line to the powers that be. There’s good reason to think it was an uphill battle. There is no media support. The idea was to target the line to collectors, with no real way of falling back on mom and the kids with Technicolor repaints. Add the fact that the delivery of the line through a collector’s website has had mixed results for other companies (recall Hasbro’s floundering Direct-To-Consumer G.I. Joe line a few years ago), and I don’t think the term “easy sell” would have applied. Given this, they didn’t have much of a choice: base the new [action figure line] on a twenty-year-old line that was wildly successful or try to push a more recent line that was, kindly put, not. Much as many fans, including myself, loved the 2002 line, it was a retail failure (for reasons that have been explored ad nauseum, so I won’t go into that here). Had they pushed for a continuation of that line, I doubt the higher ups would have been very receptive. Taking them back to the glory days of the 80’s, when He-Man ruled the aisles, was far more likely to convince the decision makers to take a chance.”
Metzger concluded, “As a fan of the original line, I’m excited about these figures and can’t wait to get them. As a fan of the 2002 line, I regret we never quite got to finish it, with a number of characters that never had the chance to be updated. I also understand that some fans are only interested in the more recent line, with no interest in the 80’s figures. But, in the end, the choice Mattel made with the MOTUC line is really the only one they could have if they wanted to get the line made.”
However, collectors’ criticisms of the line go beyond style; the high prices are also an issue for many. As Bricken noted, “I have no problem paying $20 for a good He-Man figure, but to re-do the old classic versions-even going to far as to re-use the same legs and arms and loincloths like the original toys did-is just insane to me. This is like pimping out an ’82 Chevy, whose transmission is busted. Yes, it’ll look better, but the car still won’t run. Meanwhile, there’s a perfectly functioning 2002 Camry with runs great, and could seriously benefit from a new paint job and rims. For $20 per figure, I should be receiving the exquisitely sculpted 2002 figures, but with better paint and better articulation. That’s more than fair.”
Rudolph, though he likes the designs, is also bothered by the price. “Twenty bucks for a figure is too much money. I’ll probably break down and buy Skeletor and a She-Ra if they make her, but that’s about it.”
Of course, the real question is how well the figures will sell. “Now, I’m going to buy all of these figures-partially because I’m obsessed with He-Man, and partially because I don’t want the line to fail,” wrote Bricken. “If it keeps going on, that’s more time for Mattel to make a few new 2002-era figures, or switch over the line entirely. But I know what I want from Mattel, and it’s not this.”
b-man
actually megagear it is fairly simple for you aswell dont like it dont buy it wait it for the ones you want im sure you not buying a figure wont make or break the line. ill gladly chip out 20 for what i want as im sure you will chip out 20 for you want. and i didnt say i didnt like them, they just were not he-man to me.im sure they will get to the 2002 line when they can but as we all know those will need more specific casts for each individual character for them to attempt that they need to make money off the re-used parts original characters, so im pretty sure by supporting the classics youll be making sure what you want comes around eventually. with that much re-use i cant see how mattel cant profit outside of a new head and some new hands here and there they dont really need much more for anynew characters outside of armour.
MegaGearX
Easy for you to say, B-man. You supported 200X even though you didn't like them. The answer is obvious to you. But at $20+ shipping? People are going to be more picky at double the price this time.
Mark
Yes MegaGearX, and there is a few POP, NA and 200x characters I would like in the line but I just think the main classic figure are more important to be made first, then the other characters. Remember that it is one a month, maybe with good sales this will increase, but there is a lot more important characters to be made first. With them including NA figures they will have the same look and fit in with the rest of the figures in the series as the original NA figures did not fit in well with the original era MOTU figures.
b-man
first off enough with the bickering i mean we should all be happy he-man is back and support the line in any way we can. all this negativity isnt gonna help the cause. first off there is only one he-man and that he-man was from the 80s, we can agree everything else was just an extension of the original concept. And thats why most of us fans never took to the other versions of he-man because it wasnt him, kinda like the blue and red energy superman thing they had going on it just wasnt him. the 2002 was again a reimagining of the he-man from the 80s kinda like the a modern twist the way marvel did the ultimates. i agfree the 2002 to figures were cool for what they were a re-imagining of the original even though it didnt sit right with me i still bought up whatever i could just to see it do well. the myp animation series on the on the other hand was just awesome outside of the over teched out vehicles and wepons it was done really well. i always wondered with all that tech in the myp cartoon here you had a hero with a sword kinda stupid. anyways who knows if we will see he-man again in our lifetime lets just enjoy the fact that we have our hero back and that we again can live out our childhood i mean we cant get any younger but getting to experience a bit of our youth is a wonderful thing.
MegaGearX
But Mark, Mattel has said the line WILL also incorporate POP and NA also from the beginning. We won't get them until 2010, though. That's Masters of the Universe CLASSICS for you. Classics meaning ALL of the eras, not just the original figures of the vintage line.
George
I like how I wasn't even born in the 80's and I like MOTU better than 200X. They just seem in the same scale as DCUC. (not completely sure since haven't gotten mine yet)But the vintage look, fits. And like Mark said its "classics" not He-Man who visits Japan and loose 50 lbs. All I know is that the four horsemen are still the best in the business. And as long as they get their work that great people will still buy whatever they throw at us.
Mark
I liked the majority of the designs and the cartoon from 2002 but I guess we all have to remeber that it is Master of the Universe Classics…there for it is obvious it will based n the classic figures, not POP not NA not 200X….I love the original characters but would love batter articulated versions of the 2002 series…I would actually love a full new toyline but….as I said it is in the name…all of us bitching this and that does not change the fact. We are expecting to much wanting POP, NA and 200x, it is Master of the Universe Classics and thats that.
MegaGearX
Your vintage fan tunnel vision makes you keep missing stuff. Remember waaaaaay back in the second sentence where I praised MOTUC He-Man, Beast Man and Mer-Man for actually being better updates than Skeletor and Faker were?
Who is out of control? I made an organized petition on He-Man.org. This thread was pretty peaceful until a vintage fanboi like YOU arrived with all of your "200X failed/200X wasn't MOTU/200X caused polio" rhetoric. There were even differing opinions and no beef. Until you. You very first sentence is an insult. What did you think was going to happen? That we were going to take your BS? Relax…the vintage MOTUC isn't going anywhere.
Your problem is that you can't handle the opinion that people actually liked 200X. You and your dozens of like minded friends you mentioned earlier despised it for not being MOTU enough or ignored it, so you come in trying to stir up trouble. If anything, it's the "Off the hook vintage fans" who whine and complain the second any lesser MOTU era is mentioned, as if it will somehow tarnish MOTUC. There wouldn't BE any controversy if the vintage fans would just accept that there are other eras and welcome the other MOTU era fans with open arms.
Newt
Must have been cause all I see are your huge petitions that you've posted on every toy forum on the planet and in some threads posted over and over again:
"GET 200X UNIQUE SCULPTED FIGURES INTO MOTUC"
Or perhaps it was how you complained that King Grayskull didn't count as a 200X character in MOTUC because he wasn't good enough for your standards.
But look, doesn't take much research to see what side of the fence you stand on. Anyone can visit any of these forums and see your posts. It's all 200X fanboy nonsense.
Poe was smart, he wrote a column about how out of control the 200X fanbabies are and he knew they'd show up. They did, they immediately started downing MOTUC (You said it was "slavish" to the 80's line in this thread here) and I decided to take you 200X fans to task about how critical you've been of the line. To which, I've been called everything in the book but not had a single levelheaded response to.
And as far as my "popularity", I only see three people in this thread who disagree with me and they've all come out and proclaimed 200X as the greatest thing ever, which you guessed it, makes them fanboys.
For what it's worth, I'll let you get the last word, feel free to cite Wikipedia or whatever else you deem as fact. I'm not going to give Poe the satisfaction of getting to write another He-Man controversy article just so we can argue. (I'm on to you Mr. Poe!)
I'll continue to enjoy MOTUC, not because I'm a huge fan of the 80's MOTU, but because I think the figures are awesome. You can continue to like/dislike or whatever it is you do about MOTUC and keep making those petitions to get the perfect version of 200X characters you want.
Peace.
MegaGearX
See, you're wrong again. No one here has a problem with me. You, on the other hand are quite popular so far.
And you also got wrong what I want. I want there to be differences from the vintage versions of MOTUC to justify some 200X versions of MOTUC. If I'm so infamous for saying the same things, how come you missed that huge fact?!
Newt
MegaGear you have no credibility to begin with. Everyone here knows you from the other forums you post on, because you post the same things in EVERY forum about how MOTUC needs to be more like 200X.
I'm not a vintage MOTU fanboy and I don't have an opinion on 200X one way or the other. That's what you fail to see because you're too busy spewing nonsense.
Take for example when I've said REPEATEDLY that 200X had bad distribution, but yet you keep going on as if I said it was the sculpts that killed the line. I did however say that the figures failed to capture many vintage He-Man fans attention. And He-Man.org has hundreds of people who agree with that.
Yes, I did find stacks of 200X at KB for dirt cheap and it included MOST, but not all of the characters and they were not selling.
Does that make them bad figures? No. Legendary Comic Book Heroes is one of the greatest lines to come out in years, but they're peg warming at $4 a pop around here. Why? Because nobody wants them.
200X faced a lot of the same problems.
Poe
@MGX: I'm not here to play arbiter. People are free to be as argumentative as they want, and you can judge for yourself how credible their arguments are. I've got my own opinions, obviously, but I'm not going to inject them into the debate like they're the final word or something.
However, I will bring down the banhammer if I see too much name-calling or swearing. (Not that you're doing that, MGX, I just want to make sure that's clear to everyone.)
MegaGearX
@Poe: Newt hates ME because I like 200X better than the vintage line. Does he lose all credibility here?
@Rapol: I've been down with He-Man since 1982. 200X made sensible and great changes to an already great line. I'm sorry that MOTUC has nothing to offer you yet. I'm sure all the fans of MOTU want to contribute to keeping He-Man alive.
@Newt: If I'm such a 200x fanboy, you should come to the .org and do some research on what else I have defended. You'd find out that you're wrong again.
MegaGearX
Newt, I don't think Mattel would want false information on the MOTU Wikipaedia page. You aren't listening to any facts that you know are true. You're the fanboy here. A vintage MOTU fanboy who thinks 200X raped his childhood. Which explains most of the crap you've been spewing. If you don't trust Wikipaedia, then go to He-Man.org and do some research or speak to someone who actually collected 200X tell you how hard it was to find characters in stores.
If most of the fandom couldn't find any figures, that should tell you something. If most of the fandom is telling you about case ratios and eBay scalpers that you don't really know nothing about, then you should listen. Your ignorance about all things 200X is really laughable. All you're going to do is invite even more people to correct you.
Rapol
Lol yeah no prob Poe =D
Poe
Just a reminder…let's try to keep the tone civil, folks. I'm all for spirited discussion, but please be sure to respect your interlocutor(s). We're all friends here.
Mark
Sometimes you have to take a step back to correct your mistakes….as great as 02 was it failed for a couple of reasons….instead of trying to push a new series they have gone back to what started it all. These updates are perfect. I have read in an interview that the 4H are not against doing 02 figures in the Classics line eventually. If only Transformers could be done kike this.
Mark
Mattel's distribution of Bravestarr in the 80's was bad. In Northern ireland they never released the actual Bravestarr figure. They releases all the other toys, which I got, but no Bravestarr, so I had to search about for years (no access to internet at the time) untill '99 before I got one…in fact I got two.
Rapol
Uh…I was a young kid, and 02 He-Man sure as hell captured my attention.
Newt the line DID fail. EVERYONE HAS BEEN SAYING IT. I love the 02 line, but I know it FAILED. Why? Mostly because distribution sucked ass and the marketing sucked ass. Since you brought other Mattel lines into this let's look at their recent downfalls (not counting retro lines) such as their Batman line and such. THEY FAILED. And you know why? Because as usual, Mattel's distribution sucked ass and the marketing sucked ass, but just because it failed, doesn't mean no one liked them right? Of course not, everyone wanted a whole slew characters, but because of Mattel's stupidity, we only got 1 villain per line while variants ate up the shelves. Of course kid don't want that crap, hence the reason why the 02 MOTU line FAILED.
Did He-Man 02 have to be nostalgic? NO. You know why? Because it was trying to appeal to modern viewers as well. Yet it did manage to bring in a nostalgic campy feel while trying to create a more serious storyline. Anime-inspired jibberish? Okay now that's just total BS. What's wrong with anime? There's no problem with anime pal, anime is cool if you're watching the right shows. It's just your little 'soft spot' for He-Man that's trying to 'reject' this 'new' image that's meant to appeal to a NEW GENERATION while at the same time, trying to revive an old line (2 birds with 1 stone dude). To tell you the truth, a lot of my friends (between 8-12 yrs. old) didn't mind the 02 line, they thought the designs looked great. So there you go, IT DID APPEAL TO A BUNCH OF KIDS (like it did to me). Also, what was so great about the 02 line was that the cartoon tried to create a straight storyline, a continuing plot with characters full of background straight from the 80s version and much more (take King Grayskull for example). Too bad it got cancelled. Why? Because the toy line failed. Why? Because Mattel screwed the fans over with multiple variants that clogged the shelves while at the same time, hindering the 4Horsemen's full potential from being great artists.
I never knew what the hell He-Man was until I was properly introuced to it by the 02 line. I loved 02 (the revamp design for Hordak and King Hiss were the best, I totally loved it). This line looks great for the 80s fans, not the 02 fans (unless of course they want to buy some), and as much as I'm disappointed, at least I'm glad that there was an 02 line anyway. Plus, there's no point arguing about this anyway anymore. Look at this line, compare to the 02 line. 02 line was for a new generation of kids (and those who wanted an UPDATED VERSION of MOTU) while the new line is for old 80s fans who buy these for the sake of 80s nostalgia, as evidenced by the whole 'online-only' gig. So why not just leave it at that?