After all the headaches (see here and here), Masters of the Universe Classics Moss Man has finally arrived–assuming you had a subscription or were able to order him in the first three minutes of sale on MattyCollector. Everyone else will have to wait until 2011 or hit eBay.

I never owned Moss Man as a kid, and since he was rarely featured in the cartoon I didn’t even know much about him. To me he was no more than a green, furry Beast Man. To six-year-old Poe, flocking–which seemed suspiciously like fabric, and therefore associated with dolls–was little more than a way for a figure to look beat-up and scruffy really fast. One trip through the Slime Pit and Moss Man was ruined forever.

And so, I was skeptical about Mattel’s decision to do a flocked Moss Man for the Classics line. Obviously I would have preferred a new sculpt, akin to the Horsemen’s plans for the 200X figure, but due to the cost-saving nature of MOTUC, the only options were flocked or a straight Beast Man repaint, which would have been even worse. Given that choice, flocked was the right way to go. (more…)

I don’t have the best history with Battle Cat.

When I was six years old, my cousin (who was also my childhood best friend) received a Battle Cat for his birthday. I didn’t have one yet, and being a selfish little brat, apparently, I sulked through the whole party about it. My parents learned their lesson, and the following Christmas my cousin and I both opened Battle Rams courtesy of our respective aunts and uncles.

To be fair, I had no problems getting the 200X Battle Cat, though I don’t recall whether I bought him at a store or online.

But we all know what happened last month.

I loved the original Battle Cat toy. I think even then, part of me knew it didn’t quite fit with the rest of He-Man–that it was a re-use of some other toy, and its immobile body was odd compared to the human figures. On the other hand, the colors were eye-catching–the stuff of psychedelic 1960s sword-and-planet fantasy–and the mask gave the figure a ferocious look.

I didn’t like the 200X Battle Cat* very much, mostly because of the armor. The new mask lacked the distinctive bird-of-prey look of the vintage version, the little paw-covers fell off all the time, and the mounted guns were ludicrous. I think even the hardest-dying of diehard 200X fans have to admit MOTUC Battle Cat has it all over his 200X counterpart. (more…)

While everyone knew Trap Jaw and Battle Cat were going to be same-day (and as it turned out, same-hour) sell-outs, the vanishing of the Grayskull stands was something of a surprise. Of course, they are much better stands than the boring translucent blue ovals for DCUC and JLU that have been sitting on Mattycollector.com for more than a year.

While Mattel has already confirmed that Trap Jaw and Battle Cat will go back into production (and perhaps already have), on the question of a second run of stands Mattel’s rep ToyGuru wrote, “We don’t have confirmed plans right now, but with the quick sell out we will look into it.” I imagine Mattel may have been even more surprised than the fans by the sell-out, given the poor performance of the DCUC/JLU stands. If I had to guess, though, I imagine the stands will be back by the end of the year. (more…)

Trap Jaw is easily one of the most popular and iconic Masters of the Universe characters. In a line where the star was a fairly plain-looking (if incredibly muscular) barbarian hero, Trap Jaw stood out as a multicolored monstrosity, wielding a robotic arm with three, count em, three different attachments—a gun, a hook, and a clamp—and even having an articulated jaw. The swiveling action of the attachments and the jaw gave the 1980s Trap Jaw two additional points of articulation beyond the MOTU standard.

Like many aspects of MOTU, Trap Jaw may have borrowed from Mattel’s 1970s “Big Jim” line. But rather than being a straight repaint of a Big Jim toy (a la Battle Cat or Zoar), Trap Jaw quite possibly owed his inspiration to the Big Jim figure Iron Jaw (who may never have gotten past the prototype stage). Both characters, however, may have been partly inspired by the James Bond villain “Jaws” from The Spy Who Loved Me. Of course, aside from Roger Sweet writing in his book that Jaws was an inspiration for Trap Jaw, most of this is speculation…but there’s no question Iron Jaw and Trap Jaw look an awful lot alike. (more…)