The second Masters of the Universe Classics bonus figure, the Goddess, is a product of the line’s two imperatives: to offer a lot of character variety, and to re-use molds as often as possible.

In the early days of MOTU, the origins of Teela and the character who would eventually become the Sorceress were very murky and intertwined. They were always intended to be different characters, as concept art by Mark Taylor shows; but somewhere between the early concepts and the production of the first mini-comics it became unclear who was who. Rather than producing two separate figures, Teela and the Goddess/Sorceress, Mattel produced one figure with aspects and accessories from both characters: the staff and snake armor of the Goddess, and the shield and hair-bun-wearing head of Teela.

Those first mini-comics confused the matter even further. I’m planning to go into this topic in much more detail later, but in her first mini-comics appearance in “He-Man and the Power Sword,” the character was called “the Sorceress”–and she was green. It isn’t until “The Tale of Teela” that she’s referred to as “The Goddess.” Over the years, fans began to view the Goddess as a different character–apart from Teela and the Sorceress–and now Mattel has canonized that idea in MOTUC.

Oh, and then there’s the whole “Her real name is Sharella” thing. That comes from a one-sentence mention in the description of He-Ro from the “Powers of Grayskull” licensing kit, where she’s described as a “tribal chieftess” who helps train He-Ro. But wait…there’s more. The “Sharella” name on the package is actually a sticker, and if you peel it off, you’ll find the name “K’yrulla”! That name seems to be original and doesn’t have any historical significance for MOTU, but it’s amusing that even now, the Goddess’s identity is something of an open question. (more…)