Cora’s Thoughts on the Masters of the Universe Movie Toys

It’s been four days since we saw the first trailer for the upcoming Masters of the Universe movie (for my thoughts on the trailer, go here) and I’m still working on a massive round-up post of reactions to the trailer, interrupted by the unfortunate necessity of having to work, when Mattel dropped the next bombshell.

Because folks, we’ve got our first look at the Masters of the Universe movie tie-in toys. Which honestly wasn’t something I was expecting quite so soon.

The 2026 Nuremberg Toy Fair, the world’s biggest toy fair, opened today. It was pretty clear that the tie-in toys for the Masters of the Universe live action movie would be displayed there, though personally I didn’t expect that we would get to see them.

Because Nuremberg Toy Fair is strictly an industry event and not open to the public. As a regular person, you can’t get in at all. You need to be a toy industry professional, retail buyer or journalist to even get through the gates. In the past couple of years, they’ve also started admitting some YouTubers and other influencers. I’ve been wanting to go to Nuremberg Toy Fair for more than forty years now. So far, it’s a pipe dream and I have even considered offering my services to their interpreter pool (most major trade fairs have one).

What is more, the big toy companies have walled off their exhibition space at Nuremberg Toy Fair, which is another gate you have to pass. And even if you get in, you can’t take photos and need to sign a non-disclosure agreement that you won’t leak anything.

So in short, I knew that the Masters of the Universe movie toys would be on display at Nuremberg Toy Fair and I also knew that we wouldn’t see any of them, unless some clueless (American) ToyTuber or influencer leaked something. Because the German influencers know better than to do that.

So imagine my surprise, when I opened Instagram and – voilá – there were movie toys.

Apparently, Mattel had a big public presentation at their booth and even got in a celebrity, British German singer/actor/presenter Ross Antony, to host it. If you’ve lived in Germany sometime in the past twenty-five years, you know who Ross Antony is, even if his music and his TV exploits in shows like I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out Of Here isn’t your thing at all.

One thing I didn’t know until last year is that Ross Antony is also a huge Masters of the Universe and Princess of Power fan. He’s got an amazing She-Ra collection and frequents the toy cons – in fact, I think I saw him at Toyplosion, but couldn’t place him him beyond “I’ve seen this guy before” – and Masters of the Universe cons. So in short, he’s exactly the right person for a presentation of the new Masters of the Universe movie toys.

I first saw the news on the Instagram account of the German fansite Planet Eternia, several members of which regularly attend Nuremberg Toy Fair and are let into the hallowed hall of the Mattel booth, because they know to keep their mouths shut.

So here is the reveal and here are some more photos of the two figures revealed so far.

The two figures are Duncan a.k.a. Man-at-Arms as portrayed by Idris Elba and Evil-Lyn as portrayed by Alison Brie. The line is called Masters of the Universe Chronicles and it appears to be basically a rebrand of 7-inch Masterverse toyline, so the movie figures will fit in nicely with your other Masterverse and Classics figures.

ETA: People who’ve been to the presentation have said that the movie figures are a little smaller than the regular Masterverse figures, but I hope they still fit. Honestly, it’s freaking annoying that supposedly 1:12 scale action figures all scale differently.

ETA: Pixel Dan shares his thoughts on the new figures and said that according to Ace of Ramen Toys, who sent him the pictures, the movie figures are smaller than the regular Masterverse figures.

ETA: Planet Eternia now has a news article about the toy reveals up and they also say these are smaller than Masterverse and closer to Marvel Legends or Star Wars Black Series. Which would be annoying, though I have to see them side by side first. Nonetheless, I really wish they would settle on one scale rather than have so many different ones. I also want the Masters of the Universe movie figures to fit in with my other Masters of the Universe figures rather than Marvel Legends or Star Wars figures.

Both Duncan and Lyn look good. Duncan looks a lot like what we saw in the trailer. He’s got his mace and a blaster and his armour looks somewhat battered, as if he’s been through wars – and he has. There’s also something else hanging from his belt, which might be a tool as a reference to the fact that he is an engineer in addition to a soldier.

As for Lyn, we only got a very brief glimpse of her in the trailer, so the action figure reveal is actually our best look at her costume. It’s a black bodysuit with thigh high boots and a blue cape. If you look at some close-up photos, you can see that her outfit looks almost Giger-esque and that she has several rings. She has short white hair under her iconic helmet, which has some beautiful detailing, and she’s got the movie version of her iconic staff with a translucent orb, which looks great. Her skin BTW is pale like in pretty much every cartoon version and not yellow as with the vintage action figure. I’m not quite sure about that face sculpt, though it does look like Alison Brie. However, it’s the kind of face she made a lot in Mad Men – which is my main exposure to her acting work – whenever her pathetic husband Pete came home late from the office again, because he was chasing after Peggy. Or maybe she’s wrinkling her nose, because Panthor just took a dump in the throne room of Snake Mountain – again. Or maybe she just happened to get a whiff of Stinkor’s unmistakable smell.

We also get a glimpse at the back of the package, where we see the cross sell for what I assume is the first wave of figures featuring He-Man (well, there obviously was going to be a He-Man figure), Man-at-Arms and Tri-Klops, whom we haven’t seen at all in the trailer, though we know he’s in the movie. Tri-Klops’ costume seems to be very close to his traditional look, except that he’s wearing pants now, whereas traditionally he only has the leather kilt. He has his iconic visor and a very big rifle. Tri-Klops as a sniper of course makes sense for the man who sees everything. Tri-Klops is also black now, but that doesn’t matter one bit. In some ways, he reminds me a bit of the New Adventures character Vizar.

He-Man looks spot on, the face sculpt – often a problem with He-Man figures – is great and of course he comes with the Power Sword. I can’t tell whether he has the shield or the battle axe as well, though I hope he does. I do hope we’ll get a Prince Adam with the pink shirt from the trailer somewhere down the line as well.

It’s interesting that Skeletor does not appear to be in the first wave and neither is Lyn. Cause come on, you know that they’ll make a Skeletor figure. I also really want a movie Teela, though she may well be in the second wave along with Lyn and Skeletor. Of course, I want more movie figures, but Teela is a must-have.

Ramen Toys also posted some photos of the actual presentation and the figures at their Instagram account. Since Ramen Toys are a toy company, albeit a small one, it makes sense for them to attend Nuremberg Toy Fair and the presentation.

ETA: Toy Habits posts several high resolution photos of the movie figures and credit Ramen Toys.

ETA: Mega Jay Retro also weighs in on the movie figures revealed at Nuremberg Toy Fair.

ETA: Jay Glatfelter of Geek Dad Life also weighs in on the movie figures revealed at Nuremberg Toy Fair, two days after he speculated on what movie toys we might see.

ETA: The German movie channel Das Filmkästchen (The Film Box) also weighs in one the Masters of the Universe toy reveals. So far, he has been quite critical of the trailer, because apparently he’d prefer something that’s a mix of Lord of the Rings and the German Masters of the Universe audio dramas of the 1980s. He also thinks Nicholas Galitzine is too skinny and too young looking as He-Man. That said, he mostly likes the figures, though he isn’t too happy with the more military look of Tri-Klops, since he prefers him as a more mystical and mysterious character. I guess this goes back to the German audio dramas, who used to refer to Tri-Klops as “the uncanny radar man”.

He-Man.org also posted several photos and credited them to the German fanzine Welt der Meister Magazin. Mark and Miri, who run Welt der Meister Magazin, usually attend Nuremberg Toy Fair. There’s also a photo of Mark and Miri with Ross Antony and the new figures.

He-Mania.com and Toy News International also share photos of the figures.

Among other things, He-Man.org also has a photo of the back of the Man-at-Arms packaging. In addition to the cross sell, where we see He-Man and Tri-Klops, there’s also a bio and it’s very interesting. Since Mattel didn’t bother to cover it up, which they have done in the past, where they didn’t want the packaging to reveal something, I’ll just quote it below:

Just as Eternos fell, so too fell the Commander of the King’s Royal Guard. With the return of He-Man, however, Duncan fights to save Eternia from Skeletor. Alongside the Masters of the Universe, the king’s Man-at-Arms will find the redemption he seeks.

In many ways, this confirms what we saw in the trailer. The Evil Forces of Skeletor have conquered Eternos and the Royal Palace, while Queen Marlena sends Adam to Earth for his own safety along with the Power Sword, because if there’s two things on Eternia you don’t want Skeletor to get his hands on, it’s the crown prince and the Sword of Power.

What’s interesting is that Duncan apparently blames himself for Skeletor conquering Eternos. This isn’t out of character for him at all – Duncan does tend to blame himself, when things go catastrophically wrong, whereupon he exiles himself into the Eternian wilderness. We’ve seen this in Masters of the Universe Revelation and also in issue 2 of Masterverse anthology comic mini-series, which features a disgraced and depressed Duncan working as a hardboiled detective with Lyn as his beautiful assistant (and honestly, I would have read a whole comic series just about those two investigating cases on the mean streets of Eternos). Teela also does this, by the way. In the Filmation episode “Teela’s Quest”, she activates Duncan’s new teleporter, sets the coordinates wrong and teleports Duncan to places unknown and promptly decides to resign from her post and exile herself to the wastelands and no one – not Randor, not Marlena and not Adam – can convince her otherwise.

So Duncan feeling guilty and depressed about Skeletor conquering Eternos is in character, though somehow I expected him to lead the resistance against Skeletor, while Adam is stuck on Earth. It also makes me wonder even more what happened to Randor. Is he dead or is he in the dungeon? And if not Duncan, then who is leading the resistance? Teela is too young, obviously, so is Fisto leading the resistance? Ram-Man? Mekaneck? Cringer?

I suspect that the full presentation featuring Ross Antony will eventually pop up online somewhere and we may also see more movie figures, especially since showing off Man-at-Arms and Evil-Lyn rather than He-Man and Skeletor is an unexpected choice.

I’m also pretty sure that the more collector focussed Masters of the Universe Chronicles line won’t be the only movie toyline. There will also be a more kid-focussed toyline, hopefully one that matches Masters of the Universe Origins in scale and style.

ETA: The whole presentation is now online at the Comic Toy Hunter YouTube channel.

There’s a presenter whose name I didn’t catch, the Mattel head of distribution for Germany and the aforementioned Ross Antony. You can tell this is an industry event, because everybody is dressed in business attire rather than geeky t-shirts. There’s a lot of marketing speak in the presentation, basically that Masters of the Universe has been going strong for more than forty years now and never really went away (I guess we’ll just forget the wilderness years of the 1990s), the it’s one of Mattel‘s biggest lines for adult collectors/kidults, that adults collecting/playing with toys is no longer shameful, but celebrated now, that the kidult market is resilient (i.e. adult collectors keep buying toys even when prices rise and times are not so great), but that they also want to bring in new fans via the movie, that we need heroes and values right now in our difficult times and that the movie also has a diverse cast, which will bring in even more new fans. And yes, it’s totally marketing speak, but that’s what I’d expect from a presentation at Nuremberg Toy Fair.

Here’s also a general article from the t-online news site about adults buying toys and the so-called kidult phenomenon and that it’s one of the hottest trend at Nuremberg Toy Fair this year.

Ross Antony, meanwhile, totally geeks out, which is a joy to behold and I actually like him a lot more now than I ever did before. Not that I ever disliked him. Ross Antony is clearly talented and has a good voice, but I have to admit that I never much cared for his music. He started out doing musicals and then joined a casting show band called Bro’Sis (see one of their videos here) and later on mostly sang Schlager (here he is singing “Eine neue Liebe ist wie ein neues Leben”). And if you’re German and my age, Schlager is your parents’ and grandparents’ music (and whenever people my age sang Schlager, I assumed it was under duress and just for the money), while my friends and I mostly viewed the casting show bands of the late 1990s and 2000s as “music for stupid kiddies”. Yes, we were snobs, but then you’re never more snobbish about music than when you’re in your late teens and twenties. Though it’s notable that quite a few of the people who got their start via those casting shows did go on to have lasting careers. So in short, Ross Antony’s music isn’t for me and that’s okay, but he is a fan and we could probably spend hours geeking out about toys and Masters of the Universe.

When the case with the figures is finally unveiled, Evil-Lyn has decided to fall over at exactly the wrong time – a common problem particularly with female action figures – so they have to open the case to set her on her feet again.  I have to admit that I laughed at that bit.