I recently watched the three-part pilot episode for the Millennium MOTU cartoon (the creatively-titled “The Beginning”), and it reminded me that on that show, Evil-lyn was badass.

I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure Evil-lyn never destroyed a square mile of forest on the Filmation cartoon.

For her first Masters of the Universe Classics appearance, Mattel and the Four Horsemen chose to duplicate the 1980s figure by making her a repainted Teela with a new head. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m disappointed by this. Mattel and the Horsemen have made a lot of effort to stick to the original cross-sell artwork from the 1980s, sometimes despite the wishes of fans. And yet, when it came to Evil-lyn, well…there’s no other way to put this: Mattel cheaped out.

The vintage artwork below shows Evil-lyn with a different bodysuit than Teela. If you’d asked me before we saw the prototypes whether Evil-lyn would look like her cross-sell artwork rather than being a repaint, I would have said “definitely.” And I would have been wrong.

(images from Masters Unbound)

For the record, I’m perfectly happy with the blue costume and yellow skin. It’s more visually interesting, if less “realistic,” than the pale skin/purple outfit of the cartoons. (more…)

Wun-Dar was offered as an incentive to those who subscribed to the 2010 Club Eternia plan. But who is Wun-Dar, you ask? His origins lie in the mists of time, when Masters of the Universe was still in its infancy. Fans have attempted to piece together his story, but no definitive answer has ever been found.

Here’s what everyone agrees on: sometime in the early 1980s, probably just around the time Masters of the Universe first debuted in toy stores (and two years before the cartoon), a promotion was offered whereby those who entered received a He-Man action figure. The figure came in a baggie, possibly with a small paper insert for other Mattel products. Unlike the normal He-Man figure, it had brown (not blond) hair, black boots, a black belt, and a more brownish loincloth, giving it a decidedly Conan-esque look.

Despite what you may have read, he did not come with any weapons. Over the years, various weapons and armor became associated with the figure, for unclear reasons: the black Zodac armor and gun from the Weapons Pack, the axe and sword from “Man-E-Weapons” (a rare variant of Man-E-Faces that came with multiple weapons). There is no evidence that the “Savage He-Man” came with any weapons at all. (more…)