Masters Of The Unvierse Returning To Regular Retail With New Line Of Figures

[JayC]

Mattel this past weekend debuted their new line of Masters of the Universe 5.5" figures during the San Diego Comic Con. The figures while based on the designs of the original toy line will feature new sculpting and articulation. The Four Horsemen are working on this line. The figures will come packaged on a vintage style type of cardback and feature mini-comics as well as traditional types of accessories. The figures shown this past weekend include He-Man, Skeletor, Teela, Man-At-Arms, Evil-Lynn and Beastman.

The folks at Mattel confirmed for us these figures will be sold at regular retail so no more having to worry about subscription services or months in advance pre-orders.They also made indications to me that we might be seeing some new vehicles for the line sometime down the road.

As for the elephant in the room and the question on the minds of many MOTU fans, what does this mean for the larger scale Classics line? Well I am afraid I don't have a definitive answer for you there. Neither Mattel or Super 7 are really saying, but the impression Mattel left with me after talking to them this weekend was that this new line is where they will putting their emphasis on, at least until we get closer to the new movie which last I heard was now going to be opening on March 5, 2021.

As I understand it, the folks at Super 7 still have a license agreement in place to do MOTU stuff, but what kind of product they can do and when is totally dependent on Mattel's say so. While I don't doubt Super 7 still wants to continue doing Classics, I really can't see Mattel being to keen on that idea. I mean think about it, would you want another company doing similar product while your trying to launch a new line, at regular retail no less? I might be wrong but my guess is Classics will be put on hiatus for the foreseeable future.

Check out new images for the new line of figures from Mattel that were shown at SDCC below in our GALLERY and we will be sure to update you on these things as more details come to light.

[FASVB]

The Super 7 stuff looks better to me and have more accessories and are more in scale with what I collect, but they are hard to get. So this is in general, very positive.  I would have to see the final product first.

[80sboy4]

New line is interesting, especially since this will be a retail release. Not gonna lie, am disappointed that the Classics line seems to be on hold, possibly cancelled? Well we'll find out in the near future I'm sure. 

[wundarwarrior]

I loved the original reaction when they showed the SDCC exclusives but I have quickly soured. I am so tired of direct translations for vintage toys. Adding articulation is great but He-Man received minor changes, therefore the others should as well. Like fix MAA head so he doesn't look like a Peanuts character. His head/face looks too big. So update it, not give us something that looks less appealing than the 82 version. And them saying "maybe vehicles" while the WWE Universe toys are getting a ring and have announced several waves... just seems like little faith is being put in the main MOTU line. Just my thoughts. 

[JayC]

39 minutes ago, wundarwarrior said:

I loved the original reaction when they showed the SDCC exclusives but I have quickly soured. I am so tired of direct translations for vintage toys. Adding articulation is great but He-Man received minor changes, therefore the others should as well. Like fix MAA head so he doesn't look like a Peanuts character. His head/face looks too big. So update it, not give us something that looks less appealing than the 82 version. And them saying "maybe vehicles" while the WWE Universe toys are getting a ring and have announced several waves... just seems like little faith is being put in the main MOTU line. Just my thoughts. 

Well as far as vehicles go, they basically weren't willing to commit to anything other than what they had out on display, We will probably see more either later in the year or Toy Fair next year.  The question I had for vehicles which I didn't get a straight answer on is whether they will just re-release the same vehicles they've already done for Classics for this line or make new vehicles from scratch.

[THEAnimeHERO]

MOTU is showing a lot of activity lately. I didn't grow up in the 1980's but this is starting to give me an idea how the He-Man sensation was back then.  More so if the movie is successful. I recall Ghostbusters 2 having that birthday party and wanted He-Man instead of Ray & WInston. I'm definitely intrigued in collecting Origins but like many am curious on the position of Super7 & Classics. I wouldn't be too surprised if the line stops seeing how a majority of materials have been covered. Granted not every fan was able to attain the figures they wanted. I only started collecting MOTUC in 2018 & most of my purchases have been from overpriced or lucky offers at ebay. I heard many stories from the incompetence of Matty Collector & Digital River so I would want for Mattel/Super7 to offer reissues to the whole line or at least the core essential characters In a perfect world I would wish they would re-release Classics with better articulation such as double joints, butterfly joints & effect pieces with resealable packaging. If Hasbro can sell characters like Beast, Thing & Hercules in the $25 dollar range I don't see how Mattel couldn't. 

[JayC]

On 7/23/2019 at 3:17 PM, Neovorticism2 said:

Do you think the vehicles designed for 7-inch figures could work with 5.5-inch figures?

Honestly I dont know. I dont have any of the modern vehicles to know how much bigger they are over the original ones.

[Thinwheat]

The Teela looks amazing, the Skeletor too! The HeMan needs a little more cloth to cover his man bits though. . . I'm seeing a lot more upper thigh and hip area than I want to! haha! 

I'll definitely support this line. I don't know why they didn't think of this sooner. Remaking the old figures in the vintage scale but with updated articulation and sculpts. Cool stuff. I hope they make cartoon versions though, I'm sure they will. 

 

[thepoey]

$14.99 for these makes them a must buy for me. Refreshingly cheap. 

[Sledgehama]

I'm happy for everyone that is into this, but personally I think it's a step backwards from Classics so I won't be investing in it. It just feels like adding more articulation to G1 Transformers or Star Wars figures rather than updating the whole product to the sort of thing we've had with CHUG, the Vintage Collection and the like.

Of course, given that they're selling straight repros of vintage SW these days, what do I know?