We’ve barely had time to recover from Tuesday’s presentation of the first two Masters of the Universe movie toys at Nuremberg Toy Fair that Mattel dropped the next bombshell. Because the full first wave of Masters of the Universe Chronicles movie figures was revealed today.
This time around, the reveal wasn’t at Nuremberg Toy Fair, though I’m pretty sure the toys are all on display there in the walled off area that normal people cannot penetrate, but comes via Gerrard Hall at the US magazine Entertainment Weekly.
For a better look at the actual figures, Toy Habits has you covered.
Planet Eternia also reports on the newly revealed movie action figures.
Mega Jay Retro also shares his thoughts on the new figures and I suspect the other ToyTubers and fan sites will weigh in as well.
ETA: Pixel Dan shares his thoughts on the new Masters of the Universe Chronicles movie figures. Pixel Dan is a huge fan and has been reviewing Masters of the Universe toys since the Classics era, but you get a bunch of negative ninnies in the comments.
ETA: Justin Carter at io9 also shares photos of the newly revealed Masters of the Universe Chronicles figures. There’s nothing here we haven’t seen or read before, though it’s a good sign that io9 is showing off these toys at all, since they normally only report about new LEGO sets and Star Wars toys (and KPop Demon Hunters, for which a lot of toys were also revealed in Nuremberg).
In the comments, two people are complaining about the supposedly too high prices, which makes me wonder if they honestly have no clue what action figures cost these days (which is possible, if they don’t normally buy toys) or if they would say the same about LEGO sets, which can be hugely expensive, or modern Star Wars figures, which I find overpriced compared to what they offer.
So what do I think about this first wave of Masters of the Universe movie figures? Well, I’m glad you asked (or not), cause here are my thoughts.
The first wave of Masters of the Universe Chronicles figures consists of a solid seven figures plus one mount – note that a normal Masterverse or Origins or Cartoon Collection wave consists of three figures, four at most. Of course, it’s also possible that we’re looking at more than one wave here.
The Heroic Warriors are represented by He-Man, Teela, Man-at-Arms and Battle Cat. The Evil Warriors are represented by Skeletor, Evil-Lyn, Trap-Jaw and Tri-Klops. We already saw Man-at-Arms and Evil-Lyn in person plus He-Man and Tri-Klops on the cross sell yesterday. Trap-Jaw, Skeletor, Teela and Battle Cat are new.
It’s a solid assortment of characters and you can play out some mighty battles with those. Though it is notable that all seven characters (excluding Battle Cat for obvious reasons) are human or at least humanoid, which means that at least some parts (hands, feet, arms, etc…) can be reused, though these toys seem to have a lot of new tooling, which means a big investment. Non-human characters like Roboto, Beast-Man or Spikor, all of whom require a lot of new parts, are not included in this first wave. Whether we will also get deluxe figures (often two-packs or oversized characters such as Beast-Man or Roboto), vehicles and a Castle Grayskull playset remains to be seen.
So let’s take a look at the individual figures:
He-Man
A miracle has happened and Mattel has finally given us a good He-Man headsculpt. Considering that every single He-Man headsculpt in the Masterverse line so far has had issues, culiminating in the infamous Thunder Punch Uschi (so named, because the head looks more like German actress Uschi Glas than He-Man). And instead of quickly retiring that headsculpt, Mattel even doubled down and gave us Flying Fists Uschi.
This He-Man figure, however, looks good. He has a determined expression on his face without looking constipated, and he looks like Nicholas Galitzine did in the trailer.
We also get a better look at the costume, which hearkens back to previous He-Man costumes, most notably the 200X He-Man costume, but also remains its own thing. Instead of the traditional furry loincloth, He-Man is wearing a leather kilt now, probably because it’s easier to move around in without accidentally flashing your opponent or a theatre full of people. The harness has thicker straps – again, because they have stay on the actor while moving around and fighting – and the straps are leather rather than the more common metal – again likely for practical reasons.
I’m also very glad that they stuck with the classic revealing costume for He-Man rather than armouring and covering up the body, which the second season of the 200X cartoon as well as Masters of the Universe Revolution and the CGI He-Man cartoon did. Because apparently, surveys done during the 200X era revealed that kids, who were the target audience after all, didn’t understand why He-Man was running around in his underwear, since they hadn’t grown up with the Frank Frazetta sword and sorcery aesthetic like the generation that made Masters of the Universe a billion dollar brand. Not that I don’t like more covered up He-Man looks like Snake Armour He-Man, the CGI He-Man or the final He-Man look from Masters of the Universe Revolution (and hey, Mattel, we still haven’t gotten that He-Man as a figure), but I’m still glad they went with the classic look first. And in spite of what some dudes – and it’s inevitably dudes – say, Nicholas Galitzine does fill out that harness and leather kilt nicely.
The figure comes with the Power Sword and if you look at the box, you can see that he also comes with interchangeable hands. He can also hold up his sword in the famous “By the Power of Grayskull” pose, which – shockingly – quite a few He-Man figures can’t do. He apparently doesn’t have a shield or battle axe. Of course, it’s possible that he doesn’t use them in the movie, but pretty much every He-Man figure ever made came with shield and battle axe in addition to the Power Sword. Cost savings measures?
ETA: He-Man.org has more photos of the figures, including a shot where you can see that He-Man can holster his sword on his back, which is always a plus.
ETA: Roy Juarez. packaging designer/art director at Mattel, has also posted the packing for He-Man, Man-at-Arms and Tri-Klops an Instagram. No word on who did the actual packaging art yet. Here is a better look at Toy Habits, where you can also read the bio on the back of the box, courtesy of copywriter Melissa Karlin. It says:
After uncovering the Power Sword, Prince Adam transforms into He-Man, the Most Powerful Man in the Universe! The Champion of Grayskull returns to Eternia to free his people from the evil clutches of Skeletor.
This doesn’t actually tell us anything we didn’t already know from the trailer or even the early synopses. Besides, it’s kind of obvious that Adam would try to free Eternia from Skeletor after being reunited with the Power Sword rather than head down to the pub for a drink.
Battle Cat
I can’t tell if this is a reuse of the Masterverse Battle Cat/Panthor body or a new sculpt, but he is fully articulated and looks great. Note that the original 1982 Battle Cat had no articulation at all. He-Man can also sit on him well, which is something else that’s not always the case with Battle Cat figures.
The Masterverse Battle Cat and Panthor are notoriously difficult for the figures to sit on (which suggests that this might be a new sculpt) and the first Masters of the Universe Classics She-Ra figure infamously couldn’t sit on Swift Wind.
We also get our first look at Battle Cat’s mask – we only saw him without his mask in the trailer – and it looks very much like you’d expect Battle Cat’s mask to look. Under the mask, we don’t get a fluffy Cringer, but a ferocious tiger head. It looks great, though, the jaw seems to be articulated and he seems to have these glassy eyes that we saw on figures like the Masterverse New Eternia Mer-Man or the Masterverse Mosquitor.
All in all, a really great looking Battle Cat
Man-at-Arms
We already saw this figure yesterday at Nuremberg Toy Fair and this higher resolution look pretty much confirms what we saw yesterday.
He looks good, his armour has a lot of detail and is symmetrical, which Duncan’s armour traditionally isn’t. The armoured parts appear to be tarnished gold, whereas they looked more silver in the trailer. It’s notable that the green bodysuit underneath has padding at the abdomen, which makes sense, cause that’s a body part you’d want to protect. He has a utility belt, but no loincloth or kilt – which is a change from most other versions of the character. He also doesn’t wear gloves and there is no fur edging on the armour.
With regard to weapons, he has his iconic mace and a blaster. I still can’t make out what that yellow tool hanging on the left side of his belt is. Someone has called it a Sonic Screwdriver and if anybody who’s not a Time Lord has one, it would be Duncan.
ETA: Here is an Instagram reel of Sir Idris Elba unpacking his plastic counterpart. He’s clearly enjoying the experience, though I don’t think this is his first time seeing himself as an action figure, since he surely had a Marvel Legend figure when he played Heimdall in the Thor moviess
Teela
Teela is wearing the white and gold bodysuit we’ve seen her wear in the trailer and in the location footage of Adam and Teela on Earth that we saw last year. It’s a mix between her mercenary outfit from Masters of the Universe Revelation and her traditional costume.
And yes, it was pretty clear that Teela wasn’t going to wear the white and gold bathing suit of the original figure and Filmation cartoon or the brass bikini she wore in some of the early comics or the mini-skirted outfit from the 200X cartoon. Nothing to do with “Woke Hollywood hates beautiful women” and everything to do with actors need to be able to move and Teela has lots of running and fighting scenes. Extremely skimpy costumes are impractical for action scenes, because you need places for padding to protect actors and stunt performers from injury and you also don’t want bouncing breasts and flashing nipples. Besides, this costume looks great and it’s very recognisably Teela.
What’s interesting is that the photo shows the Teela figure with her hair in a bun and sporting her traditional tiara, whereas we saw her with open hair in the trailer. If you look closely at the photo of a thrilled Camila Mendes holding her plastic counterpart, you can see that Teela actually comes with two heads – hair down and hair up. I can’t say much about the face sculpt, since we only see it at an angle.
The close-up of the figure shows her wielding a long rifle, which is uncommon for Teela, though we’re sure she knows how to use one. She also has a blaster holstered on her hip and if you look at the boxed figure, you can see that she also has a sword. The sword is a traditional weapon for Teela. It’s interesting that she doesn’t have a shield, even though pretty much every version of the figure ever made had one. Nor does she have her snake staff. She doesn’t have the snake armour either, but then Teela almost never wears it in any cartoons or comics anyway and the snake armour is actually an artefact from the very early days of the vintage toyline, when the Teela action figure was supposed to represent two different characters – Teela and the Goddess.
Definitely a good looking Teela. And yes, Teela is still billed as “Heroic Warrior Goddess” on her packaging.
ETA: Here’s an Instagram reel of actress Camila Mendes unboxing her plastic counterpart.
Skeletor
Whatever you think of Jared Leto – and personally I would vastly prefer someone else in the role, perhaps Lee Pace, since he can play demented villains very well, is a genuine geek and would make a great Keldor as well – this is a great looking Skeletor figure.
It’s notable that he does not wear his traditional chest harness, but instead opts for a kind of collar piece to which his cape is attached, showing off his muscular blue chest. And yes, I wonder how they got that thing to stay put during fight scenes. The cape probably also was an issue during fight scenes, because capes tend to cause problems in real life.
Unlike most toy versions, this Skeletor wears regular boots and does not have the claw feet. But then actors with claw feet are kind of hard to find.
The collar piece, belt and loincloth, cloak and hood, boots and braces are all purple and have a lot of detailing. The hood, cape and loincloth have some kind of weave pattern and the cape appears to be plastic rather than fabric like Evil-Lyn’s.
The blue body has a lot of shading. The skull face looks great with a very menacing grin and red eyes, though it’s (human) bone coloured rather than the more traditional yellowish green. Which is interesting, because Trap-Jaw, whom we see later, does have a green face. Since both Skeletor/Keldor and Trap-Jaw/Kronis are Gar, I always assumed that their faces are green, because Gar have green bones.
That said, Skeletor’s skullface was (human) bone coloured in the 200X cartoon, which seems to have been a big influence on the movie costume, and also in Masters of the Universe Revelation/Revolution.
With regard to weapons, Skeletor of course has his Havoc Staff and a great looking Havoc Staff this is. It looks more organic than other versions of this iconic weapon – like something some ancient Eternian shaman cobbled together from the skull of a dead ram and a piece of wood. The eyes appear to glow – probably some kind of rhinestone.
What’s interesting is that this Skeletor only appears to have his Havoc Staff and no other accessories. There is no sword – and I for one would have loved to see a movie version of the dual 200X sword – nor is there an axe or a shield, all of which Skeletor has used on occasion. Again, it’s quite possible that he doesn’t use a sword or an axe in the movie, but I can’t help but wonder whether not giving him any additional weapons were more cost-saving measures. A magic blast effect would have been nice as well – especially since we do see him using magic blasts in the trailer. Ah well, I guess Mythic Legions magic effects will work for him as well.
ETA: Here is another Instagram reel of the Mattel toy designer and the movie costume designer discussing the Skeletor figure. You can see the back of Skeletor’s cape, which has even more detailing. It doesn’t seem to be fabric, so how did they make it poseable? I hope it’s not thin, rubbery plastic, since that tends to tear. The costume designer also explains that he moved away from Skeletor’s traditional bone motif to more of a snake motif.
Coincidentally, I can’t help but noticing that they did not film Jared Leto presented with his figure, quite possibly because they try to downplay his involvement as much as possible, plus no one wants to see what Leto would do to an action figure.
Evil-Lyn
We already saw her revealed yesterday at Nuremberg Toy Fair, but this is actually a much better look at the figure and her colouring.
We can now see that her armour and head dress are black and dark blue and have an almost Giger-esque organic look with lots of detailing. She also has thigh high boots and appears to be wearing black and blue camouflage leggings or tights. She also wears a bracelet and several rings. Nowadays, purple is the colour most associated with Lyn, though the original toy wore Teela’s outfit in blue, and Lyn wore dark blue in Masters of the Universe Revelation/Revolution as well.
Under her headpiece, Lyn has short white hair as is traditional for the character. The facial expression still looks a little bland, though she does look like Alison Brie. The photo of a smiling Alison Brie holding the figure is hilarious BTW, because she looks so deceptively harmless – more like Pete’s annoying wife from Mad Men than the most intelligent and potentially dangerous of all Evil Warriors.
For accessories, Evil-Lyn has her staff and it looks great. There is a lot of detailing on the shaft and the orb appears to be translucent and possibly glittery. No indication if it glows in the dark like Lyn’s staff often does. She doesn’t seem to have any other accessories, but then Lyn usually doesn’t. The 200X and Classics figures has a dagger, but that’s not traditional for her. That said, a magic blast effect would be nice, but a Mythic Legions magic effect should work nicely and indeed my Masterverse Lyn has already borrowed one.
ETA: Here’s an Instagram reel of Alison Brie unboxing her plastic counterpart. The cape appears to be in two parts and we also get a glimpse of the packaging and the Evil Warrior packaging is mirrored and in purple, whereas the Heroic Warriors get black and red.
Michael Breitmeir of Planet Eternia has a better look at the packaging on Instagram.
Tri-Klops
We got a glimpse of Tri-Klops on the cross sell of Man-at-Arms’ box at Nuremberg yesterday, but we now get a much better look at the figure.
He has a determined or grumpy expression, which is actually pretty common for Tri-Klops and he wears his iconic visor. We can see the red eye and it appears to be translucent. We seen any of his other eyes yet, though traditionally the other two are blue and green. Though everybody prefers the red eye anyway.
Tri-Klops wears his traditional green shoulder armour with the piping and his belt and Roman Legionaire style loincloth. His legs are traditionally bare, but now he is wearing camouflage pants with lots of detailing, black boots and what looks like a chainmail shirt under his chest and shoulder armour. I initially thought his arms were bare, because they are the same colour as his skin and thought, “Visible metal pins on a modern action figure – honestly? And why are the joints so prominent?” However, if you look closely, you can see that his arms are armoured well and that he possibly has cybernetic parts there – like the Revelation Tri-Klops did.
His gloves have more chainmail detail and he wears an ammunition belt, which makes sense because this Tri-Klops comes with a very big sniper rifle. Now it absolutely makes sense for Tri-Klops to be a sniper because of his cybernetically enhanced vision – and note that he is blind without the visor. However, traditionally Tri-Klops was a swordsman and came with a sword.
The lack of swords with characters who traditionally wield swords is certainly interesting, but I wonder if the reason for this simply is that a lot of the actors don’t actually know how to use a sword. James Purefoy, who plays King Randor, knows how to use a sword and I’m pretty sure Idris Elba does as well, though I don’t recall ever seeing him wield one in a film. Also note that both are British actors, where swordfighting is a common part of actor training. I’m pretty sure the two Scandinavian actors who play Fisto and Goat-Man also know how to use a sword, since we’ve seen them wield swords elsewhere. However, swordfighting is a not a standard part of actor training in the US, so does Jared Leto know how to use a sword? Does Kojo Attah know? And yes, of course they could have trained the actors in swordfighting and Nicholas Galitzine did get swordfighting training, since we’ve seen clips of it, and Camila Mendes likely did as well, since we see her wielding a sword in the trailer. For Skeletor, you could also have used a stunt double. But training several actors in swordfighting costs money and time.
Besides, Tri-Klops characterisation has been all over the place in different incarnations of Masters of the Universe. He’s often depicted as a mercenary who ends up with Skeletor for purely monetary reasons and as a master swordsman. The 200X cartoon also made him Skeletor’s tech guy – a position normally held by Trap-Jaw and/or Spikor. He remained a tech guy in Revelation/Revolution and also became the High Priest of the Motherboard cult. In the CGI cartoon, meanwhile, Tri-Klops was not a person at all, but a floating visor which attached itself to various, usually unwitting victims. And now he’s a sniper. Why not?
All in all, this is a great-looking, more military Tri-Klops.
ETA: Roy Juarez. packaging designer/art director at Mattel, has also posted the packing for He-Man, Man-at-Arms and Tri-Klops an Instagram. No word on who did the actual packaging art yet. Here is a better look at Toy Habits, where you can also read the bio on the back of the box, courtesy of copywriter Melissa Karlin. It says:
The brawny brute with three cybernetic eyes serves as the right hand man of Skeletor. Together with Evil Lyn, Tri Klops puts his plan into motion to recover the Sword of Power for his evil master.
This is an interesting bio. For starters, while there are several Evil Warriors for whom “brawny brute” is a most fitting description, Tri-Klops is not one of them. He’s almost always physically leaner and a brains over brawns guy.
It’s also interesting that Tri-Klops is now Skeletor’s right-hand man, since that’s a position traditionally held by Evil-Lyn, who is the smartest person in Snake Mountain by far, or Beast-Man, whenever Skeletor prefers a right-hand man who does not want to stab him in the back at the first opportunity. Tri-Klops and Evil-Lyn working together has a long tradition going back to the Filmation cartoon and it makes sense that they would come up with the plan to get the Power Sword for Skeletor. Though in the Earth scenes in the trailer, we’ve only seen Beast-Man so far, trashing police cars and terrifying civilians.
Tri-Klops’ tagline is still “Evil and sees everything” BTW.
Trap-Jaw
We got a small glimpse of Trap-Jaw in the trailer, but this is our first proper look at Trap-Jaw in the movie and he looks great and utterly terrifying, as he should.
This incarnation of Trap-Jaw has his traditional blue skin, green face and magenta helmet and jaw attachment. The helmet has spikes, but not the zipline loop. The facial expression is suitably fierce.
Trap-Jaw’s legs and feet are fully armoured. His loincloth is textured and his belt buckle does have some kind of crest, though it’s not his traditional skull and crossbones. His cybernetic arm is strapped to his chest with rough leather-looking straps and he also has armour on his “good” shoulder. The metal parts are sprinkled over and over with black dots, as if they are corroding. Altogether, this Trap-Jaw has a very cobbled together Frankenstein look, which leans into the body horror aspects of his character.
We see two arm attachments, the hook, which is traditional for the character, as well as a nasty looking blade. Since we don’t see a box, there’s no word if he has other arm attachments such as a blaster or the claw that the vintage figure had or maybe the crossbow or even the fly swatter that he had in the Filmation cartoon. But based on these photos, I will probably display him with the blade anyway.
As with many Masters of the Universe characters, Trap-Jaw’s origin is all over the place. What’s constant is that he suffered devastating injuries at some point in the past – usually at the hands of his boss Skeletor, though the Trap-Jaw from the CGI show had his jaw shattered by a point blank hit from Duncan’s mace – and note that Duncan is a skinny sixteen-year-old kid in the CGI show. The most devastating Trap-Jaw origin happens in the German audio dramas where Trap-Jaw is originally a good guy and a brilliant engineer named Jaw (audio drama writer H.G. Francis didn’t always get the punny names of the characters) who is run over by Skeletor with a tank, while he’s trying to protect a kid. Skeletor then takes the half-dead Trap-Jaw and turns him into the lumbering and completely loyal monster we all know and love. Coincidentally, audio drama Beast-Man was once a brilliant scientist before Skeletor kidnapped, transformed and brainwashed him and reduced his intelligence to the rather dimwitted Beast-Man we all know and love. Audio drama Skeletor clearly learned a thing or two from his mentor Hordak.
ETA: Ram-Man
Reuters posted an article about the movie toys, complete with some photos taken inside the “forbidden zone” at the Mattel booth at Nuremberg Toy Fair. And if you look very closely, you can catch a glimpse of a Ram-Man figure at the edge of one of the photos.
Not long thereafter, better photos emerged of the movie Ram-Man, most likely someone taking some cell phone snaps in Nuremberg. They first showed up on the Instagram account of the Brazilian fansite/YouTube channel canaldosrosmineiros, who seem to have some kind of inside connection, since they’re often the first to break Masters of the Universe news.
However, canaldosrosmineiros are giving us a photo of an upcoming Masters of the Universe/Thundercats figure, so that crossover line is apparently continuing.
I can’t find the Ram-Man pictures on their Instagram account anymore, but here you can get a good look at the movie Ram-Man figure at He-Man.org and Toy Habits, who also have more photos from the Masters of the Universe movie display at Nuremberg Toy Fair. I guess someone smuggled a phone in and took photos in the forbidden zone.
Since we only saw him as a silhouette in the trailer, this is also our first good look at Jon Xue Zhang as Ram-Man in the movie. He looks remarkably like the vintage toy – probably more than anybody else – with his dark red tunic, brown belt with silver buckle, ramming helmet and heavy shoulder armour. He even has the dark green striped pants on the vintage figure, which is a little funny, because the reason for those odd pants was that they disguised the sping-loaded action feature that allowed him to ram enemies and doors. However, the Chronicles figures don’t have action features or at least Ram-Man doesn’t, especially since you can see his knee joints.
Ram-Man is carrying a double-bladed axe, which is his traditional weapon. No blasters or rifles for him.
I suspect Ram-Man is coming in a later wave, since he doesn’t look like an oversized deluxe figure, which he sometimes is, because Ram-Man is big guy. I’ve heard from people who’ve been there that Mattel often shows off multiple waves of figures at Nuremberg, which won’t reach shelves until summer or even fall.
Overall Thoughts
These first eight movie figures look good and they also look recognisably like the characters they’re supposed to represent. Compare this to the 1987 movie, where a lot of characters were pretty much unrecognisable until someone said their names, or also the CGI cartoon, where the changes were very a deliberate design choice.
One drawback is that they seem to have gone light on the accessories. Most characters only have one weapon, only Teela has an interchangeable head (and we know that Duncan doesn’t always wear his helmet from the trailer) and no one has any magic effects at all. I do suspect that these are cost savings measures, especially since according to the Entertainment Weekly article, the regular figures will sell for 24.99 USD and Battle Cat for 39.99 USD, which is more than full-price Origins, but less than full-price Masterverse or at least what I pay for a full-price Masterverse figure.
The size still isn’t clear either, though both Planet Eternia and Ramen Toys who were at the presentation in Nuremberg have confirmed that they are smaller than regular Masterverse figures. Though I still hope they fit in with Masterverse and Classics figures. And based on the various photos of the actors and designer holding the figures, the size does seem closer to Masterverse than Marvel Legends, unless all of these folks have tiny hands for some reason. I guess it’s wait and see.
The first movie figures will supposedly be released in April, just in time for my birthday.
What Else Would I Like To See
So what other characters can we expect in future waves – if there are any – and which ones would I like to see.
I suspect Fisto, Beast-Man and Roboto will show up in future waves, though Beast-Man and Roboto might be deluxe figures due to their size. We may also see Ram-Man (and he’s since been revealed), Spikor, Goat-Man and Mekaneck somewhere down the line, though these characters require new parts and more tooling. Moss-Man has been cast and again we may see him as a figure, though he probably won’t be flocked. I also really hope we get a movie Sorceress. If Orko is in the movie, I hope we get him as well. Ditto for Panthor, especially since they already have the cat body.
We know Randor and Marlena have been cast and I would love to get them as figures, but Mattel seems reluctant to make these characters, since it always takes very long for Randor to come out in any line and Marlena only ever had two action figures in 44 years. Another thing I’d love to see are Skeletor’s soldiers we see in the trailer. And while you’re at it, give us some Royal Guards – also seen in the trailer – as well. Army building is fun and you can always sell multiples of these generic soldiers, though Mattel doesn’t seem to understand this.
If the line does well, we might also get alternate versions of characters. We’ve already seen Duncan in three different outfits in the trailer – Royal Guard armour, Man-at-Arms armour and civilian look with a trenchcoat. If this Skeletor is Keldor, that would be another possibility for a figure. More Teela versions are always welcome, if she changes her clothes. I also hope we get a Prince Adam in the pink shirt, especially since it would be so easy to do, since they already have the head.
With regard to vehicles, I’m not sure if the Chronicles line will have any, simply because vehicles would have to be big and expensive and they never sell all that well. There are persistent rumours about a more kid-focussed toyline – which frankly would make sense – and that’s probably where they will do vehicles.
One thing I would love to see is a movie Castle Grayskull, though again that’s more likely for a potential kids’ line, simply because of the size and the costs. Though a Chronicles Castle Grayskull would be a great Mattel Creations crowdfunding project. Snake Mountain would be great as well, but I don’t really see it happening, especially since we’ve had far fewer Snake Mountains than Castle Grayskulls over the years.
We will see more reveals eventually, though I do hope Mattel gives us a little breather first.
ETA 01-30-2026: Colt Crane of He-Man.org reached out to Mattel to ask about the future of the Masterverse line and received the answer that while there are still Masterverse figures planned for 2026 (which may refer to the latest wave with Keldor, Dragstor and Adora/Despara, which is currently at retail), they will transition to Masters of the Universe Chronicles as the new collector line with some Masterverse Vintage Collection figures still coming out into 2027.
This news sucks and lots of collectors were understandably angry. I guess we all expected that the main focus on 2026 would be on movie toys and that’s fine. But after a rough start with some not-so-great early Masterverse figures (and they’re not as bad as many people say), Masterverse has been going strong, particularly with the updated and more innovative designs of the New Eternia/New Etheria subline, which gave us some amazing figures. It would be a shame if this were to end, especially since New Eternia/New Etheria still have so many characters left to cover. We’re missing all Snake Men except Kobra Khan, several Horde members and pretty much the entire Great Rebellion and even several Heroic and Evil Warriors never got a New Eternia version. Not to mention that we are still missing several of the character redesigns from Masters of the Universe Revolution, including the final forms of He-Man, Teela and Skeletor. Finally, there are also all of the Masterverse sublines that were abandoned after a handful of figures such as New Adventures, Princess of Power, Rulers of the Sun, the 1987 movie line or the CGI cartoon subline.
Of all the Masterverse sublines, I personally find the Vintage Collection possibly the least interesting, because it’s basically just the same core characters we’ve seen over and over in very traditional designs. The Vintage Collection Skeletor did well, because we didn’t really have a good classic Skeletor in Masterverse up to that point and Vintage Collection Zodac and Stratos filled a need, because the New Eternia versions came out years ago and have become hard to find. But some of the other Vintage Collection figures (Man-at-Arms, Teela) were pretty redundant, since they weren’t that different from their New Eternia counterparts. And yes, I know there are vintage purists out there, but they are well served by Origins, Classics and the actual vintage toyline. And pretty much everybody prefers New Eternia/New Etheria to the Vintage Collection.
If Masters of the Universe Chronicles is just a rebrand of Masterverse and the figures are more or less the same scale, that’s okay. But if they’re notably smaller and don’t fit in well with Masterverse or Classics, that sucks.
ETA: The 5.5 Inch Kids Line
ETA 01-30-2026: YouTuber Derek’s Vintage Toys sheds some light on a potential kid-focussed 5.5 inch (i.e. Origins scale) movie toyline. Meanwhile, Smyths Toys Germany has a roleplay Power Sword available for preorder, which looks like the one Derek’s Vintage Toys shows in his video. I haven’t ordered it, though it might find its way into my hands, when I see it at a store and like the way it looks.
ETA 01-31-2026: A Spanish collector going by quinirg on Instagram, has shared the first in-packaging photos of the 5.5 inch Masters of the Universe movie kids line. Apparently, he found them on the shelf at a Spanish toystore, which apparently got a shipment in early and ignored the street date (it happens – that’s how I learned whom Sookie Stackhouse ended up with two weeks before the book was supposed to come out), and bought them, You can see the photos at a better size here at ToyHabits.
Articulation and scale-wise, these figures seem to be similar to the Origins line, which means they should fit in well. The first wave consists of He-Man, Teela and Beast-Man.
He-Man looks good, very similar to the Chronicles version, but somewhat simplified. He comes with his Power Sword, but I can make out no other acccessories. So maybe the shield and battle axe are gone for good.
Teela is wearing the white (and they used the pearlescent white here as for Extendar) and gold bodysuit and wears her hair down. She comes with a golden sword and silver blaster. In her case, the face sculpt seems somewhat off. The face sculpt of the Chronicles Teela did look off at certain angles as well, so I wonder if it’s a scanning issue.
Beast-Man looks like Beast-Man and suitably savage. He wears a loincloth, has the familiar spikes on his arm pads and collar piece and he wears the amulet which is the source of his powers. His body is furry and tan, the collar and head are in the traditional orange (which is interesting, since he looked more brown in the trailer) and he has the traditional white face paint. As a weapon, he has his traditional whip.
Overall, these are nice figures with quite a bit more detail than the regular retail 5.5 inch figures usually get. They will fit in nicely with your Origins and Cartoon Collection figures.
We also see the back of the packaging, which seems to be a photo/render of the figures standing in front of a painted Castle Grayskull. There are power stats, which is nice, but no bio or tagline, since this is international packaging with the safety information in umpteen languages. No mini-comics either, it seems.
One thing that worries me a bit about these new movie toylines is the lack of artwork. There are photos, digital renders and character protraits on the boxes seem to be digitally altered movie stills rather than actual artwork. Gorgeous packaging artwork has been an integral part of Masters of the Universe from the beginning – and I almost bit someone’s head off on social media, when they referred to Rudy Obrero’s iconic Castle Grayskull box art as “TEMU Frazetta” – and I would hate to lose it to cost savings measures. Not to mention that artists like Axel Gimenez, Simon Eckert, Francisco Etchart, Eamon O’Donahue and others, who have done the packaging art for the Masterverse and Origins lines, have contributed a lot to Masters of the Universe. They’re all lovely people, too.
ETA 02-03-2026: The German Masters of the Universe podcast Das He-Manische Quartett (The He-Manian Quartet, which is a reference to the very highbrow German literary TV program Das Literarische Quartett) broadcast a special edition about the various reveals at Nuremberg Toy Fair. Note that the three people on screen (two regulars and a guest – the third regular was sick) have all been at Nuremberg Toy Fair and inside the Forbidden Zone. They of course can’t talk about anything that hasn’t been officially announced, but since they actually saw the new toys, they could say a bit more.
The kids’ toyline, supposedly called First Ones, are smaller in scale than Origins and Cartoon Collection figures and also a lot cheaper. Supposedly, at least three wave with three figures each of those are planned, i.e. nine figures. Some of them have action features.
As for the Masters of the Universe Chronicles figures, the three guys of Das He-Manische Quartett said that they look great in person, better than in the photos, and the articulation is great.
Unfortunately, the figures are smaller than the existing Masterverse figures and more in scale with Marvel Legends, GI Joe Classified and Star Black Series, supposedly they fit with those lines. Not that I’d mind if toy companies could finally agree on what 1:12 scale means – since the differences between 1:12 scale figures can be huge – but I want my Masters of the Universe movie figures to fit in with the other Masters of the Universe figures I already own and not with other toylines from a completely different company that I don’t collect. Mattel has also gotten the DC licence, so some people think that they want their new DC figures to be in scale with Marvel Legends. Never mind that McFarlane’s DC Universe are not in scale with pretty much anything else. This honestly seems like a case of “We want to bring in new collectors with our new live action film, so screw the people who collected our stuff all along.”
As for the existing toylines, the Cartoon Collection will continue in 2026 (which to be honest is what I expected, because we have seen 200X figures shown off at San Diego Comic Con last year that still haven’t come out). They were a bit more vague about Masterverse, but said that it’s not cancelled outright, as was initially reported but than retracted, but might move to Mattel Creations or specialty retailers.
Supposedly, the reason is that Masterverse doesn’t sell at retail. Which is possible – Mattel has the numbers, not me – but it doesn’t match my experience at all, at least not now. The first couple of Masterverse way back in 2021/2022 really didn’t sell all that well, because those figures remained of shelves for a long time and I got several of them for pretty steep discounts. That said, even from those early waves, there were figures that were hard to find. However, in recent times, Masterverse figures sell out more quickly, if they ever reach physical shelves at all. Yes, the Smyths Toys website shows some Masterverse figures on offer for ridiculously low prices, but if you look them up, you’ll see that only one or two shops in all of Germany still have these figures in stock and you can’t order them online. This isn’t a new phenomenon either. In 2023, I ordered a Masterverse Catra for 15 Euros as a click and collect product at the Smyths Toys store in Rostock and then asked an acquaintance who went to Rostock on business to pick her up for me.
Finally, the He-Manisches Quartett guys also said that there was a lot shown in the Forbidden Zone at Nuremberg Toy Fair that we still haven’t seen.
ETA: 02-04-2026: Geek Dad Life also weighs in on the alleged end of Masterverse. Host Jay Glatfelter is discussing with four other toy collectors and they’re mostly indifferent to the possible end of Masterverse.
Note that Geek Dad Life is a general toy collector channel and not a Masters of the Universe specific channel. And they claim that smaller lines like G.I. Joe Classified, Marvel Legends and Star Wars Black Series are selling better than Masterverse, so that might be why Mattel goes to a smaller scale more in line with those series. I don’t know anybody who collects G.I. Joe Classified and they’re pretty much impossible to find here in Germany, because no one here cares about G.I. Joe (ditto for much of Europe, since even the tagline “A Real American Hero” told us that this franchise was not for us). Star Wars Black Series and Marvel Legends can be found in store like Smyths Toys or Müller, but only in very limited quantities. The only Marvel Legends figures I’ve ever seen in Germany outside toy cons and collectibles shops are movie figures and Spider-Man. You can’t even search for Marvel Legends at Smyths Toys, you have to look for Avengers or Spider-Man.
The stupidest thing BTW was that someone said that their wife wouldn’t let them collect any toyline above 6 inch. So apparently one person’s marital issues (and I always hate when toy collector channels and sites assume that the wives are not collectors themselves) are supposed to determined Mattel policy.
As I said above, if Masterverse is really ending and the new Chronicles are not compatible with Masterverse and Classics, it really feels like Mattel is screwing over their existing fans and collectors in favour of new people the movie might bring in.
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