I appear to be completely out of touch with the average Masters of the Universe fan. In my research for these reviews, I found I much preferred the girl-oriented She-Ra: Princess of Power cartoon to the earlier He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, in part due to my bizarre preference for “plot” and “characters” instead of “glorified toy advertisements” (the introduction of Trap Jaw has him literally discussing the toy’s accessories, for dog’s sake).

Recently I’ve taken to watching the Millennium/Mike Young Productions He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, a cartoon I’ve found to be surprisingly strong in terms of making the largely nonsensical MOTU mythos coherent and interesting. The characters tend to have a little more development and the ongoing story arcs are actually followed up, making this one of the best iterations of MOTU. Naturally, that’s the version fans seem to dislike the most, because, I don’t know, they’re allergic to quality?

Where the Evil-Lyn of the Filmation cartoon is just another of Skeletor’s henchpersons who (rightfully) hates him (with fleeting episodes of character development), the Millennium series offers her a proper background that is expanded throughout the series. Her father, The Faceless One, appears in an early episode that develops her character from a black-and-white notion of “evil” to a more mature shades-of-grey perspective. We see her willing to defect against her now-monstrous ex-lover Skeletor. It’s refreshing to have a powerful female presence in the male-oriented show, especially while her “good” counterpart, the Sorceress, does nothing while hanging out in Castle Greyskull. This new Battleground Evil-Lyn, or BAGEL as she has become affectionately known (by me), is mostly a repaint of the previous MOTUC blue and yellow Evil-Lyn in the Millennium cartoon’s colors. I wasn’t initially excited by  the idea of another Evil-Lyn figure, but some great design choices have rendered this more than just a repaint. Read on! (more…)

I love accessories. In my Toy Room I have more than three chests of drawers full of well-organised, catalogued, ziplock-bagged accessories from my decades of collecting. There’s something appealing about owning a miniature armory of tiny weapons, or scaled-down shopping trolleys and cupboards that wrestlers can hurl at the Simpsons, or little fake body parts that can be strewn around a gruesome horror display. (more…)

What many childhood fans of Masters of the Universe remember about Kobra Khan is that when his vintage figure was produced in 1984, he was just another one of Skeletor’s Evil Warriors (specifically the “Evil Master of Snakes”). Legend has it that when the Snake Men were introduced two years later, Kobra Khan was re-released in Snake Men packaging with a new tag of “Evil Snake Men Henchmen”; however, I have not been able to track down a photo of Khan in Snake Men packaging, so I’m a bit skeptical it exists.

The various media depictions of Khan often address the Evil Warrior/Snake Men question. The Snake Men hadn’t been introduced by the time the 1980s cartoon ended, so Khan was merely one of Skeletor’s lackeys, albeit a fairly intelligent one; but Khan worked as a spy for Skeletor among the Snake Men in the vintage minicomics (“King of the Snake Men”). In the Millennium cartoon, he was a descendant of the Snake Men who joined up with Skeletor so he could delve into Snake Mountain and free his ancestors from the Void (“Snake Pit”).  It’s notable that in both cartoon depictions, Khan had a cobra hood not present on his toy version. However, the Four Horsemen added it to his Millennium figure. (more…)

The first thing I need to discuss about Demo-Man is his name. “Demo-Man” was not attached to the sketch this figure is based on; the sketch was nameless. Rather, “Demo-Man” was the working title for Skeletor for much of the early development of the Masters of the Universe line in the 1980s. The “Demo” was meant to invoke the word “demon.” I’ve long suspected the name might originally have been “De-Man,” a demonic counterpart to “He-Man,” but somewhere down the line someone decided to make it more obvious by adding the “mo.”

The sketch this figure is based on was drawn by Mark Taylor very early in the development of MOTU; its heroic counterpart has already been immortalized as Vikor. Like Vikor, Demo-Man is the MOTUC equivalent of a Star Wars Concept Collection figure. Also like Vikor, Demo-Man has been shoehorned into the Motuthos. I’ve discussed this at length here and here (including Mecha-Shiva’s amazing art showing Hordak merging Demo-Man and Keldor into Skeletor), so I won’t rehash the debate again. (more…)

“The guys in Masters of the Universe don’t have superpowers…they have deformities. “

I’m unable to think about Fisto without immediately recalling that quote from a twelve-year-old old X-Entertainment review of the Filmation episode “Fisto’s Forest.” As Matt writes, “The show’s a lesson in overcoming adversity more than anything else. If these guys can get over the fact that there’s something wrong with all of them, so can you.”

Between his giant hand and his made-to-order double entendre name, Poing Super Combat Fisto has the odd distinction of simultaneously being one of the most risible and awesome MOTU characters. Yes, his name and gimmick are ridiculous, but visually he’s a bearded armored badass who would fit in perfectly in most any other medieval fantasy world (well, except for the hand).

The hand of Fisto’s vintage figure wasn’t that big; you could argue it was just a big metal gauntlet. The Millennium version,* in keeping with the exaggerated anime-inspired aesthetic of that line, had a gigantic gauntlet and featured some interesting cybernetic detailing.

And now we have the Classics version, which hearkens back to the vintage figure but does have a few Millennium touches. (more…)