So what does Cora think of the new Masters of the Universe toys revealed at the 2026 San Diego Comic Con? – plus Marvel Musings and Battlestar Galactica

San Diego Comic Con happened last weekend, which means that this was the weekend where we get a look at what will entertain us in the year to come, namely sneak peaks at new movies, TV shows and toys. And among many other things, this includes new Masters of the Universe toys

So do you want to know what I think of the new Masters of the Universe toys revealed at San Diego Comic Con – illustrated with photos of my toys from my own collection which were not revealed at San Diego Comic Con, at least not this year? If yes, then you’re in luck. And if no – well, then I’m sorry, but you’ll just have to skip this post.

Here’s a nice round-up of all the newly revealed toys at Planet Eternia. There’s also a video by Pixel Dan of the Mattel booth on preview night (i.e. Wednesday) as well as a video walk-through of the Mattel booth with closer looks at the various figures here.

Finally, here is a video of the Mattel Masters of the Universe design panel, where even more upcoming toys were revealed and several members of the Mattel design team talked about the plans for 2027. I’ve heard some folks complain that the Mattel panel felt badly prepared and to be honest, it was something of a mess. There was no information when and where many of the toys shown off would be available, which is actually crucial, since you’d assume Mattel wants us to buy them. At one point, the moderator even got two characters mixed up, which honestly shouldn’t happen. I guess the lesson here is that people who are great at designing toys aren’t necessarily good at presenting them to a live audience (and a lot of people find speaking in public difficult) and that Mattel needs to put someone on that panel who is good at presenting and selling the figures to a live audience.

In fact, at the German Masters of the Universe podcast Das He-Manische Quartett, one person said that the messy 2026 San Diego Comic Con panel made them wish for the days of the Classics toyline, when then-brand manager Scott Neitlich used to do these presentations at San Diego Comic Con. Considering what a controversial figure Neitlich is in Masters of the Universe fandom, people wanting him back is really something. And just in case you’re wondering what Scott Neitlich is up to these days, he’s gloating that the movie underperformed, complains about the meagre Masters of the Universe toy selection at his local Target and is predicting the imminent end of all Masters of the Universe toylines… again. It’s really sad, considering that he actually did good work with the Classics line.

There are currently several different lines of Masters of the Universe toys available, so let’s go through them one by one, starting with…

Masters of the Universe Core

The Core line was introduced earlier this year as an inexpensive line of movie figures and vehicles aimed mainly at kids. I was initially going to skip the Core line altogether, but then I caved in and thought, “Okay, I’ll only get He-Man and Teela.” And then I bought Skeletor and two Skel- Knights, so He-Man and Teela have someone to fight. And then I got Beast-Man, cause he looked really good, and Roboto, so the family would be complete. And if I had them, I might as well get Mekaneck, too. And now I’ve got pretty much all of them, cause they’re cheap – 12.99 EUR for a standard figure and 17.99 for a deluxe figure – and actually very nice figures. I have a Roton and Battle Cat, too, though I waited until the price dropped for those.

At San Diego Comic Con, the Core figures were set up in a nice diorama with the Battle for Eternia playset (one half is a movie Castle Grayskull, the other half is Snake Mountain) from the Core line. It looked very nice and quite similar to how I plan to eventually display my Core figures (and yes, I’ll get the playset, once the price drops). However, it was notable that there were no new Core figures on display. We did see a Core Ram-Man and Tri-Klops, both of whom aren’t yet available, in the display, but those have been announced a while back and we have seen pictures of them.

At the Mattel Masters of the Universe toy panel, we did get another reveal for the Core toyline, namely a four-pack including Adam and Teela in their outfits from the final scene of the movie as well as Roboto with the transparant chest as she looked at the end of the movie as well as Man-at-Arms. So in short, we have the core family together. Adam and Teela in their final looks have been much requested by fans, including me. Also note that this is the only movie Prince Adam figure in any toyline except for a single Funko Pop. However, there already is a Roboto figure in the Core line, though she looks more how Roboto was depicted during the bulk of the movie, whereas the Roboto figure in the four-pack looks like she did in the final scene of the film, after Duncan rebuilds her with the transparent chest and red and blue legs. The Man-at-Arms, meanwhile, seems to be the same figure we already got twice in the Core line, once as a single-carded figure and once in another four-pack with He-Man, Skeletor and Goat-Man. His armour is supposedly a bit shinier, but otherwise it’s the same figure. Now Man-at-Arms is one of my favourite characters, but I don’t need two nigh identical figures of him, even if one has shinier armour than the other. They really could have included a different character here (maybe Dian or Fisto, neither of whom have figures in the Core line so far) or at least a different version, e.g. Duncan in his down and out look.

That’s it for the Core line, though I do hope that Mattel will make more figures in this line, since they’re inexpensive and a lot of fun. At the very least, they should complete the movie cast in this line.

Which brings me to…

Masters of the Universe Origins

The Origins line kicked off the Masters of the Universe revival of the 2020s and is still very much the bread and butter of Masters of the Universe. The original appeal of Origins was similar to that of the Core line, because the figures were initially very inexpensive, 15.99 EUR for a regular figure. Plus, the figures were deliberately modelled after those of the 1980s, i.e. in the 5.5 inch scale with the overly muscled bodies and the squat pose. They basically looked like the figures you had as a kid, though they have better articulation and a modular body system, which allows for easy customization.

That said, the Origins line hasn’t been getting a whole lot of love in recent years and many collectors feel that Mattel is stretching out Origins, by increasingly mixing in repaints and new characters with the characters from the vintage 1980s toyline that many collectors wanted.

In 2023 with several characters from the vintage Masters of the Universe line still go, Mattel announced that they would sell the remaining vintage characters only via Mattel Creations and that the retail Origins line would pivot towards a Filmation inspired line called the Cartoon Collection. They released a fair amount of Filmation inspired designs, including even a couple of She-Ra characters, in 2024 and 2025, before pivoting again, this time to the characters in their looks from the 200X cartoon. The 200X Origins figures were nice representations of the way the characters looked in the 2002 cartoon – unlike the actual 200X figures – but the prices continued to climb upwards, while the figures were notably cheaper with fewer accessories and no more mini-comics.

In parallel with the various cartoon lines, we also got weird crossover lines like Turtles of Grayskull, Masters of the Universe x Thundercats and Masters of the Universe x Transformers. Regarding those crossovers, there were some figures from the relaunched Masters of the WWE wrestling crossover on display at the Mattel booth at San Diego Comic Con. I have also seen those figures for sale at Smyths Toys here in Germany, though I have zero interest in them. I’m not a huge wrestling fan and have never felt the slightest desire to own any wrestlers in action figure form.

On Mattel Creations, Mattel also released characters from the Powers of Grayskull line that was planned in the 1980s, but never released. We also got a trickle of newly designed characters, mostly the brainchildren of amazing artist Axel Gimenez. There’s also the Sketchbook Collection, which is based on vintage concept art. I like the Powers of Grayskull figures, the Sketchbook figures and the Axel Gimenez designs, but a lot of collectors are vintage purists and only want the characters they had as a kid.

In 2026, Mattel also started releasing movie figures in the Origins style and scale, which does make a lot sense, since many people who have an existing Origins collection will want to integrate the movie figures into that collection. However, the prices for the Movie Origins figures have gone up even further to 25.99 EUR for a basic figure and 29.99 EUR for a deluxe figure. That’s a ten Euro price increase in five years.

In short, there were a lot of Origins or Origins scale figures released, but Mattel took their sweet time getting to the last few figures of the vintage toyline that many collectors wanted. There are now seven figures remaining from the vintage line that still haven’t been remade plus the two giant figures Tytus and Megator. The fact that they kept relaunching Origins first as a Filmation and then as a 200X line and released the main characters over and over again, but never actually completed any of these lines, so you were always missing key characters, didn’t help either. And yes, I understand that He-Man and Skeletor sell better than Rotar and Twistoid (and I can live without Rotar and Twistoid), but I do want some other characters, too.

So I guess everybody expected that the retail Origins line would pivot again, but towards what? Some people were expecting a pivot towards the New Adventures of He-Man, which would have been great. but was never going to happen, because New Adventures is probably the least popular part of the Masters of the Universe franchise. A lot of the New Adventures designs are actually very cool, particularly those of the villains, and I do think a New Adventures reboot could work, because there is a lot of potential there. But yeah, it’s not going to happen, at least not in a retail line. Maybe at Mattel Creations.

I guess many of us expected more Movie Origins, because it is an easy way to release the main characters again with updated designs. But while there were Movie Origins figures on display at San Diego Comic Con, none of them were actually new. They were all characters we’d seen before. They did show off an Origins Movie Teela and Skeletor at the Mattel panel, but again we already knew these were coming, though I don’t think we’ve seen them before.

However, I think nobody expected what the Origins line is really pivoting to, namely they’re just doing vintage style Origins again. Yes, they’re basically starting Origins all over again. I suspect the reason is that they want to appeal to lapsed fans who came back to Masters of the Universe via the movie and who want figures that look like the ones they had as kids. And the nostalgia factor has always been the main appeal of Origins. There’s only one problem. There are also a lot of collectors who already have all of these figures.

When I first saw a photo of that display case with the Origins figures, I thought they had just put regular Origins figures that came out a couple of years ago in that case for reasons unknown. But no, that’s a brand-new Origins relaunch line, which will do all of the main characters yet again, looking very much like the figures you already have. Yes, there are some slight differences, e.g. Faker has magenta armour now like he wears on the vintage cross-sell image, Zodac’s loincloth is very pale grey now, Stratos is a lot more pale as well, Beast-Man has a nicer paintjob, He-Man now has the H-logo rather than the iron cross on his harness, because Mattel has been trying to make the H-logo happen for more than forty years now (the H-logo can be trademarked, while the iron cross can’t be, since it’s a public domain symbol. Plus, the German army has first dibs on it, since it’s their symbol), Battle Armour He-Man has a wider drum in his chest and Beast-Man has a different whip. There also are some new versions of familiar characters such as a Faker Teela, i.e. an easy repaint, and a Battle Armour Man-at-Arms, which is such an obvious concept I’m surprised that they didn’t already do it years ago.

At the Mattel panel, they said that the idea was to relaunch Origins with figures based more closely on the vintage cardback and cross-sell art, which often did not match how the actual figures looked, i.e. Faker’s armour was magenta rather than orange, Mer-Man had a completely different head and Man-e-Faces body/suit (it has never been confirmed whether that’s his skin or a suit) looked paler and salmon rather than orange. Come to think of it, I wonder if the colour differences on the cardback art are simply due to fading, since a lot of characters look paler, and print issues. But while many fans have long wanted those vintage cardback versions of the figures, we already got a cardback Mer-Man and a paler Man-e-Faces in Origins for those who want them.

But regardless of what Mattel says, mostly the new Origins are the same figures I already bought years ago, only with new packaging and slight tweaks. But since I’m not an in-box collector, there really is no reason to get most of those figures. And Mattel of course knows this, so they came up with a gimmick to make you buy them. Namely, they included a build-a-figure part. Build-a-figure is a concept that (I think) Hasbro came up with for Marvel Legends, though many other companies have copied the idea. Basically, every figure in a wave includes an extra body part, which can be put together to create an additional, often oversized figure. It’s an easy way to persuade you to buy the entire wave to get the builder figure.

There were two Origins build-a-figures shown off at San Diego Comic Con. The first is a Shadow Beast, a type of Eternian monster that was introduced in the Filmation cartoon and has since appeared in many iterations of Masters of the Universe. They’re aggressive and not very intelligent and often used as muscle by Beast-Man, Count Marzo or Scare-Glow, depending on the version of the story. Shadow Beasts are cool monsters and actually make a good builder figure, since they are larger than the normal characters. Though Shadow Beasts traditionally travel in packs and making them a builder figure makes it difficult to build an army of Shadow Beasts without buying multiple figures. What is more, Mattel already released a great Shadow Beast in the Classics line. And considering the price of a new Origins figure, the Origins build-a-figure Shadow Beast will probably cost as much, if not more, than the Classics version, which is a lot bigger and more detailed.  You can see my Classics Shadow Beast below. And come to think of it, I kind of want a second one. I should probably keep an eye out, if one pops up for a decent price.

The second Origins build-a-figure is even more interesting, because it’s the grren Masks of Power demon. So who are the Masks of Power demons? Masks of Power was a vintage Masters of the Universe mini-comic from 1983 with art by Alfredo Alcala. You can see a dramatised reading of the story here.

Masks of Power has always been one of the most popular mini-comics, because it is a good story and the art is gorgeous. Plus, the demons are a genuine threat that force the Heroic and Evil Warriors to work together to defeat them. The comic was particularly popular in Germany, because not all of the vintage mini-comics were translated into German. The first four mini-comics were only released in very limited quantities and the entire second wave of mini-comics was never released here at all. However, the third wave of mini-comics, including Masks of Power, was released in Germany, so lots of German fans are familiar with them.

As a result, German fans are also very vocal about requesting characters from that third wave of mini-comics as action figures. The fact that Geldor, a villain from the third wave mini-comic The Secret Liquid of Life, received not only one, but two action figures over the years is largely due to the fact that a German fan really liked the character and rallied the troops, so to say.

The two Masks of Power demons are also much requested action figures and once again, it seems that German fans are particularly vocal in requesting them. I think they were supposed to come out in the Classics line at some point, but then plans changed and they were never released. So on the one hand, it’s great that at least one of those highly demanded demons is finally coming out in Origins (and the second one is probably going to come out eventually as well), but it sucks that fans have to buy several figures they probably already have to get it.

I didn’t have the Masks of Power mini-comic as a kid and I was never one of those fans who desperately wanted the two demons as action figures. Of course, I would have bought them, if Mattel chose to make them, but there are several other characters I’d rather have. And frankly, I don’t find the Masks of Power demon builder figure particularly good. At least not good enough to buy a bunch of figures I don’t really need just to get him.

If you look at the original Alfredo Alcala artwork, the demons don’t wear loinclothes or bracers. The green demon has spikes down his back. The demons are also the same size as He-Man and Fisto, they’re not oversized. As for why the build-a-demon has He-Man’s Power Sword, that’s actually the Sword of the Ancients, the mythical artefact the demons are seeking for in the comic. Alfredo Alcala deliberately modelled the Sword of the Ancients after the Power Sword, so kids could play the story of the comic with their action figures. Never mind that two of the main characters, the demons, never had any figures in the vintage or any other toyline.

And indeed, the German fan podcast Das He-Manische Quartett, who have been lobbying for the Masks of Power demons to be released for years, are not at all happy about the build-a-figures in general and the choice of the Shadow Beast, i.e. an army builder, and the much demanded Masks of Power demon in particular.

German fan and customiser Masterölli is also not at all happy with the Origins relaunch and particularly including a Shadow Beast and a Masks of Power demon as a build-a-figure either. Coincidentally, he also says that the Classics Shadow Beast is so good that the Origins version can’t really compare. Furthermore, he says that there really is no need for an Origins relaunch, because pretty much every figure is easy to get these days, even those that were initially rare, because lots of people are selling off their collections, so the secondary market is flooded. Which is true, of course, except that a) Mattel isn’t making any money of the secondary market and b) someone who came back to collecting via the movie may not even be aware of the secondary market, but will be aware of figures sold at retail.

At the Mattel panel, they also showed off two more figures from the vintage line finally coming to Origins, namely Two-Bad, who’s probably the last heavy hitter left. Mattel did release Two-Bad as he appeared in the Filmation cartoon in the Cartoon Collection, but they never did a regular Two-Bad. I have honestly no idea why it took them so long to get to Two-Bad, since he’s a very popular character. Quite possibly it’s because he’s expensive to make, since there’s almost no parts reuse possible. That said, if they could make a Filmation Two-Bad, who was a great figure and even could be divided into Tuvar and Baddrah, the two characters who were magically combined to make Two-Bad (even though the Tuvar/Baddrah story wasn’t even from the Filmation cartoon, but only showed up in 200X), they could have made a regular Two-Bad as well.

The other vintage character announced was Laser Light Skeletor, one of the rarest and most obscure of vintage Masters of the Universe figures, since he only had a very limited release in Europe, mainly Italy, Spain and France. The figure had a light-up gimmick where his hand, Havoc Staff and eyes would light up. I have seen original Laser Light Skeletors at toy conventions here in Europe, but he is very expensive and the Origins figure is the only way most people will ever be able to own one. Besides, Mattel already released his heroic counterpart Laser Power He-Man, so this was really a no brainer

With Two-Bad and Laser Light Skeletor announced that means that there are only five regular figures remaining from the vintage line, namely Rotar and Twistoid, two weird spinning top characters that hardly anybody likes, as well as the three action figures based on characters from the 1987 movie, namely Blade, Saurod and Gwildor. I’m actually surprised that Mattel hasn’t announced the movie figures, since next year will be the fortieth anniversary of the 1987 movie, i.e. the perfect time to release the movie figures. What is more, in the interview with Pixel Dan, Mattel designer Damon Nee said, when asked about the movie figures, that Mattel promised to complete the vintage line except for the movie figures, which is not what they said three years ago. So is there some kind of rights issue with the movie figures? It’s possible, but unlikely considering that Mattel has released several figures based on the 1987 movie in the Masterverse line in recent years. They also made the three movie characters that had figures in the vintage line in Classics, so I don’t understand why the movie figures are suddenly a problem. What is more, the 1987 movie is currently experiencing something of a renaissance in the wake of the new movie.

There are two more figures remaining from the vintage toyline, namely the two giants Tytus and Megator. Pixel Dan actually asked about them and was given a vague answer, so I suspect we won’t be getting them in Origins. Which is fair, because they would clearly be pretty expensive to make. Besides, we did get them in the Classics line.

Regarding the Filmation and 200X Cartoon Collection figures, Pixel Dan also asked about those and once again only got very vague answers, which seems to be Mattel‘s modus operandi these days. So while we may still get more Filmation and 200X Cartoon Collection figures, I wouldn’t bet on it. Which sucks, because once again, we are left with an incomplete line.

There was one more Origins announcement made during the Mattel panel, namely that an updated version of the Snake Mountain playset for the Origins line would be reissued. The first version of Snake Mountain came out in 2024 and has since sold out, because it was produced in much smaller quantities than the Origins Castle Grayskull, so reissuing it makes sense. As for the updates, the new Snake Mountain will include the lavafall with a space for an LED light, since the lavafall is a popular 3D printed accessory for Snake Mountain. Though they didn’t even show off the new and improved Snake Mountain, just a pencil sketch of the box art, which is certainly a choice. As with the reissued Castle Grayskull last year, it does feel as if they’re trying to get us to buy the same playset again to get some accessories we should have gotten in the first place.

That’s it for the Origins line, so let’s go on to…

Masters of the Universe Chronicles, Part 1: Movie Figures

Masters of the Universe Chronicles is the new highly articulated collector toyline from Mattel that debuted along with the movie, replacing the previous collector line Masterverse. Initially a lot of collectors including myself were sceptical about the Chronicles line, because the figures are smaller than Masterverse and don’t really fit in very well with your existing collection. However, many of us have since been won over by the quality and detail of these figures. And yes, Pixel Dan actually asked about Masterverse and was given – quel surprise – a non-committal answer.

Chronicles started off as a pure movie line, though there have also been two non-movie figures, Scare-Glow and King Grayskull, released so far. Apparently, going foreward, the Chronicles line will consist of a mix of movie and non-movie figures, so let’s delve right in, starting with the movie figures.

The Chronicles display at the Mattel booth at San Diego Comic Con showed off two brand-new movie figures in addition to those that have already been released or announced, namely Mekaneck and Goat-Man. Goat-Man looks suitably impressive and is wielding the double-bladed axe he used in the movie. According to Pixel Dan‘s interview with Mattel designer Damon Nee, Goat-Man will also be larger than your average Chronicles figure, because Goat-Man is also a bigger character in the movie, mostly because actor Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson is a very big guy. I’ve seen a behind the scenes photo where Björnsson in his full Goat-Man get-up is standing next to Alison Brie in her Evil-Lyn costume (the actors became friends on set) and Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson is almost twice as tall as Alison Brie.

It’s wild that we have now had two Goat-Man action figures appear in the space of a year (He already came out in the Core line and has been announced for Chronicles), since Goat-Man is about as obscure a Masters of the Universe character as you’ll find. He only appeared in a single Little Golden Book back in the 1980s and also had a cameo appearance, voiced by Kevin Smith, in Masters of the Universe Revelation. Until this year, Goat-Man only ever had a single action figure in the Masters of the Universe Classics toyline, based on his Little Golden Book appearance. You can see that Goat-Man below:

I do like the Classics Goat-Man, which is why I bought him after all, but the movie Goat-Man looks a lot more savage and positively demonic. The Little Golden Book Goat-Man looks like a regular person with a horned helmet/mask, whereas the movie Goat-Man is clearly some kind of alien creature.

I’ve heard that selling devil or devil-like looking toys and action figures is an issue in the US. This even includes characters like Marvel’s Mephisto, which is why it took ages for Hasbro to get around to making him in the Marvel Legends line. This is weird to me, because toy versions of the devil have never been even remotely problematic here in Europe. In fact, the devil is a character in the traditional Kasperle puppet theater and every line of Kasperle handpuppets ever includes a devil puppet. The line of classic horror monster PVC figurines from Comic Spain also had a devil figure – I own it – and I also remember my classmate Madeleine winning a rubbery devil head that could extend its tongue at a fairground. The tongue looked more like a penis and generated a lot of giggles among a bunch of teen girls.

I suspect that reason devil toys are difficult to sell in the US is due to the influence of Christian fundamentalism. Though there have been devilish toys made by US manufacturers as well. For example, the Mythic Legions toyline from Four Horsemen Studios has great demon figures, some of which look very devilish indeed. But I guess large companies like Mattel or Hasbro are more reluctant to piss off Christian busybodies who see Satanism everywhere, including Dungeons and Dragons, Harry Potter and even Masters of the Universe.  So I’m glad that Mattel made Goat-Man in both the Chronicles and Core toyline. especially since Goat-Man is not actually the Devil – he just happens to be an alien creature that looks a lot like the Christian Devil.

The other brand-new Chronicles movie figure shown off at San Diego Comic Con is none other than Mekaneck, everybody’s favourite Heroic Human Periscope. Mekaneck’s gimmick is that he can extend his neck to ridiculous proportions. The vintage figure had an action feature where his neck would extend, when you turned his waist. The 200X version of the character recreated that action feature, but every subsequent iteration of Mekaneck had neck extension pieces you could attach to the figure to mimic the vintage action feature. Personally, I prefer this, because if you want to display the vintage and 200X Mekaneck with his neck extended, you have to twist him into an unnatural position.

In his limited but memorable appearances in the Filmation cartoon, Mekaneck’s extending neck was stiff and not overly long like that of the vintage toy. However, in the 200X cartoon Mekaneck could not only extend his neck to ridiculous lengths, but he could also bend and twist his neck. However, the action figures continued to have a stiff neck, until the Masterverse Mekaneck, whose neck is articulated due to multiple neck extension pieces plugged together. You can see the Masterverse Mekaneck in action here.

In the movie Mekaneck is played by James Wilkinson. His powers work similar to how they are depicted in the 200X cartoon, i.e. he can extend his neck to enormous proportions and fully articulate it. In the movie, we see him use his neck to knock down the Evil Forces of Skeletor. At one point, he even wraps his neck around a Skel-Knight.

The Chronicles action figure not only looks like the Mekaneck does in the movie, he also has a neck extension that’s not only impressively long, but also bendable via a wire inserted into the neck. It’s a great update, though those wired figures have a tendency to break, so you should probably pick a pose you like and leave him like that. Once again, the neck is an extension piece that can be plugged in and the figure also comes with a regular sized neck, should you prefer to display him that way.

There were also two sort of, but not really new Chronicles movie shown off at the Mattel booth, namely the Chronicles Evil-Lyn action figure, which was one of the very first Chronicles figures show back at Nuremberg Toy Fair in January, but which for reasons unknown still hasn’t come out and supposedly won’t be out until November. which is frankly crazy, because she is a main character in the movie and should have a figure available by now.

The other sort of new Chronicles figure on display at San Diego Comic Con was Fisto. Now we already have a Movie Fisto in the Chronicles line, who came out in a two-pack with Ram-Man and he is a good figure, though IMO his hair colour and headsculpt are somewhat off and don’t really resemble actor Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, which is odd because most of the movie figures have very good headsculpts that do look like the actors. However, the Chronicles Ram-Man action figure was also released as a single-carded/boxed figure (and indeed, he is already available), so it was to be expected that Fisto would be released as a single-carded/boxed figure as well. And the Movie Fisto action figure shown off at San Diego Comic Con was not the figure from the two-pack, but the single release. The difference between the two is that while the two-pack had an interchangeable open hand and fist for Fisto’s signature iron fist, the single-carded Fisto will have articulated fingers in his iron fist. Not all five fingers are articulated, but the thumb is articulated, while the fore and middle finger and the ring and pinkie finger repsectively can be articulated together. Note that this makes it impossible for Fisto to give someone the middle finger – something I have seen done with the actual prop gauntlet in a behind the scenes photo – though he can still fist bad guys to his heart’s content. Of course, an action figure with articulated fingers is cool – and so far I have only seen this on some Spider-Man figures – but it’s not cool enough for me to buy yet another Fisto figure, when I already have a nigh identical one.

I understand why Mattel is releasing single-carded versions of Fisto and Ram-Man, of course, but honestly they should have released characters like Teela and Evil-Lyn, who aren’t yet available in the Chronicles line, first and held Fisto and Ram-Man back for a later release. Especially since the two-pack is still readily available for anybody who wants it.

And talking of figures re-released with minor changes, Mattel is also re-releasing the Chronicles Movie Skeletor figure, though this time they corrected an issue with missing teeth at the back of his mouth and in addition to the Havoc Staff, they also added the goblet from which Skeletor drinks in the scene where he abuses Beast-Man and Evil-Lyn. Not that the goblet isn’t cool, but it’s not cool enough to buy a nigh identical version of a figure I already have. Especially since the Chronicles figures aren’t cheap. Besides, the goblet was already shown off, when the Chronicles Skeletor was first presented to the public either at Nuremberg or New York Toy Fair, so why on Earth wasn’t it included with the first run of Skeletor figures, when it was always supposed to come with the figure?

Talking of Skeletor, Mattel also announced two Movie Skeletor variants, both from the dream sequence near the end of the movie, where Skeletor’s invades Adam’s subconscious to torment him. In that dream sequence, Skeletor shows up in Adam’s earthly surroundings – the gym where he trains and meets Dolph Lundgren, the restaurant where Adam had a disastrous date at the beginning of the movie and the office where Adam works – still sporting his skull face, but dressed in snazzy Earth clothes. This scene was an immediate hit for the sheer surrealism of Skeletor popping up in everyday earthly surroundings and people started clamouring for Skeletor’s Earth outfits in action figure form.

And Mattel obliged and offered Gym Bro Skeletor as their 2026 San Diego Comic Con exclusive. He was also sold via Mattel Creations and sold out very quickly, though I was lucky and managed to snag one. He’s currently on his way to me and I will review him, most likely at File 770.

The other Skeletor variant from the dream sequence that was revealed shortly before San Diego Comic Con is Skeletor in his elegant purple suit from the restaurant scene dubbed “Dream Date Skeletor”. He comes with a Havoc Staff inspired walking stick and a small purple cat that could be an earthly version of Panthor. Dream Date Skeletor was actually shown off in a display case at one of the red carpet premieres of the Masters of the Universe movie before it was even officially out, which is one hell of a way for Mattel to spoil their own movie. I have to admit that when I first saw photos of Dream Date Skeletor on display at the premiere, I assumed it was a custom.

The “Dream Date” name has a long history with Mattel by the way and first showed up as the name for a set of Barbie, Ken and P.J. (Barbie’s platinum pig-tailed hippie friend from the late 1960s turned gorgeous brunette by the early 1980s) dolls all the way back in 1982 at the height of the so-called Superstar era. Mattel tends to reuse names in order to maintain the trademark, so they don’t have to re-register it (or risk losing it) and I guess this is what happened here. Though I now imagine Skeletor knocking out Ken and going on a dream date with both Barbie and P.J.

There is no word yet when and where Dream Date Skeletor will be sold, though I suspect it will be via Mattel Creations. I also suspect that the third dream variant of Skeletor, Human Resources Skeletor, will also eventually be made, especially since that’s the version people seem to want the most. I hope they will release him with Adam in the pink shirt he wears for most of the movie, especially since we don’t have any Prince Adam figure at all in Chronicles so far.

At the Mattel panel, some more Movie Chronicles action figures were revealed. The first of these reveals was the Sorceress of Grayskull as portrayed by Morena Baccarin in the movie. For starters, I’m thrilled that Mattel is making a movie Sorceress at all, because most Masters of the Universe toylines take some time getting to her, probably because she doesn’t have a lot of parts that can be reused and her wings are not easy to engineer. Plus, there is the stupid prejudice that female figures don’t sell. Even better, the figure looks gorgeous. They nailed Morena Baccarin’s look in the movie. Her skirt and cape are fabric, which is honestly the best way to handle her movie costume. She also comes with wings – since she does have wings in the scene where Adam first transforms – and even her Zoar form. I don’t think this is the rubbery vintage style Zoar which Mattel released with the Origins line, which I never liked very much, because the wings drooped almost immediately out of the package. It might be the Classics Zoar, which was more realistically sized (the original Zoar was intended for the Big Jim line and therefore too big for the smaller Masters of the Universe figures) and doesn’t have drooping wings or an entirely new sculpt. At any rate, this is a great figure and I will absolutely be buying her.

At the Mattel panel, they also showed some renders of a Chronicles Movie Beast-Man, who will certainly be a great figure. Coincidentally, that means that Beast-Man will be available in all three movie toylines. They also announced a Movie Spikor in Chronicles, though no pictures yet.

So we’re getting a nice range of movie characters in Chronicles. On the heroic side, we have He-Man, Teela, Man-at-Arms, Battle Cat, Fisto, Ram-Man, Mekaneck, the Sorceress and Orko, which means that Roboto, Prince Adam, Moss-Man, Dian, King Randor and Queen Marlena are still missing. I’m pretty sure we will eventually get Roboto, Adam and Moss-Man, though I do hope we’ll get Dian as well as the King and Queen, too.

On the evil side, we have Skeletor (plus his Gym Bro and Dream Date variants), Evil-Lyn, Trap-Jaw, Beast-Man, Tri-Klops, Spikor and Goat-Man, which means that Karg, the Skel-Knights and Pig Boy are still missing. Coincidentally, Karg hasn’t yet come out or been announced in any of the movie lines, which is interesting, since he does get quite a bit of screentime in the film. This makes me wonder again if there are any rights issues with the 1987 movie characters, especially since Karg looks pretty much like he did in 1987, only with less big hair. I hope we’ll eventually get Pig Boy, too, especially since he never had a figure in any line,but he is probably the longest shot of the Evil Warriors.

Masters of the Universe Chronicles, Part 2: Non-Movie Figures

As I mentioned above, there have already been two no-movie figures in the Chronicles line, namely King Grayskull and Scare-Glow.

At the Mattel panel, they announced that starting in 2027, each Chronicles wave would consist of one movie and two non-movie figures, which seems sensible. They also said that Chronicles will encompass all eras of Masters of the Universe. This was also the mission of the previous collector lines, Masterverse and Classics, though only Classics actually fulfilled it, while Masterverse started a lot of sublines  – Revelation/Revolution, New Eternia, Vintage Collection, Princess of Power, New Adventures, He-Man ’21, Rulers of the Sun – but most fizzled out after a handful of figures, until only the Vintage Collection (looks like the figures you had as a kid) and New Eternia (updated designs) remained.

The non-movie Chronicles seem to continue where the Masterverse New Eternia subline left off, namely with updated looks for familiar characters. At the Mattel booth, they showed off a more armoured up version of Teela that looks gorgeous. They also showed off a new He-Man variant, for of course they did. He, too, is more armoured up and sports blue-ish chest armour with a translucent H-logo, loin/thigh armour, armour on one arm and even a helmet with wings and a translucent face plate. The helmet is interchangeable with an unhelmeted head which actually has a good face sculpt. Considering that pretty much every He-Man face sculpt in the Masterverse line had issues, this is really amazing.  This He-Man variant is dubbed Flight Armour He-Man and the idea is that this is the armour He-Man is wearing when he is flying the Sky Sled. It does make sense, too, for even though He-Man is the most powerful man in the universe and nigh invulnerable, it can’t be very pleasant for him to get bugs in his face or splattering against his chest. And just so Flight Armour He-Man has something to fly, they also revealed a new Chronicles sized Sky Sled, which is a mix of Mark Taylor’s original design from 1982 and the movie Sky Sled.  Considering that the Masterverse line never had any vehicles at all, this is certainly interesting. I guess the fact that the Chronicles figures are slightly smaller means that vehicles are more viable. Besides, Hasbro’s GI Joe Classified line, which is about the same size, has lots of vehicles and even diorama sets.

They also showed off a Chronicles Panthor at the Mattel booth. Considering they already have a great movie Battle Cat in the Chronicles line, releasing Panthor as well is a no-brainer, since they’re mostly the same sculpt. And the Chronicles Panthor looks amazing. He is wearing the horned helmet that first showed up in the Classics line and his saddle is padded with fur.  I know some people don’t like Panthor wearing a helmet, but I prefer him that way. And in fact, I didn’t even remember that the vintage Panthor did not have a helmet. I never had one and when I saw him with other kids, I just assumed he’s lost his helmet. Though considering that the regular Chronicles Skeletor has a plastic cape, I wonder if he can even ride on Panthor. You’d figure action figures being able to ride their intended mounts would be a low bar to clear, but it’s remarkable how many action figures Mattel has released over the years that could not ride their respective mounts. Of course, Gym Bro or Dream Date Skeletor could always ride Panthor, though that would be weird. Or maybe Mattel will release yet another Skeletor variant, since we have so few of them.

Finally, Mattel showed off the Chronicles versions of two characters that did not appear in the movie, namely the aquatic Evil Warriors Mer-Man and Clawful. Both have extremely detailed sculpts and mostly new parts, which shows that Mattel is investing in this line. Mer-Man looks more fishy than he usually does and also quite grumpy. He has a slightly hunched posture, a back-fin and translucent membranes between his fingers and toes. He’s wearing a loin-cloth, but no chest armour and he’s armed with a sword. I initially was a bit sceptical about him, but the more I see him, the more I like him.  The crab-like Evil Warrior Clawful has his signature giant claw as well as his carapace. Once again, he is wearing thigh armour and a loin cloth, decorated with some beads, and he’s got a leather strap to holster his club. He doesn’t have chest armour, but then Clawful traditionally doesn’t wear chest armour. The head is more crab-like than Clawful usually looks and he has some vicious looking teeth as well as bushy black eyebrows. The eyebrows look a bit off, but then they are taken straight from the vintage figure which had bushy eyebrows, even though it makes no sense for a crab person to have eyebrows.

At the Mattel design panel, they showed off some beautiful Simon Eckert box art for the Chronicles Flight Armour He-Man and Clawful as well as preliminary renders of a Chronicles non-movie Man-at-Arms and Buzz-Off. The non-movie Man-at-Arms is white again, which will comfort the usual racists, and looks more grizzled. He’s also sporting a full beard along with his signature mustache. The closest comparison is the older, grizzled Duncan we saw in Masters of the Universe Revelation and Revolution. Buzz-Off looks more insectoid than he usually does. The closest comparison is probably the Buzz-Off from the 200X cartoon.

In general, I liked pretty much all of the non-movie Chronicles designs revealed, some more than others. Which is why I was surprised to see quite a few negative sentiments particularly from German fans. The most common complaints were “These don’t look like Masters of the Universe and depart too far from the vintage looks.” Which is baffling, because if you want the vintage looks in the 6/7 inch scale, then Masterverse and Classics has you covered. We don’t need yet another reiteration of the vintage figures with slightly more detail. But then, I have never understood the whole “Only the vintage line counts” sentiment either. Yes, the vintage Masters of the Universe toyline was great and without it, we wouldn’t be here. But those figures also came out more forty years ago and it’s good to update the designs, because time has moved on. And yes, it’s also great to include new characters who never had a figure in the vintage line. Besides, the more detailed Classics, Masterverse and Chronicles figures look like the vintage figures look in my memory, but never really looked in reality.

The most baffling comment about the non-movie Chronicles figures I heard was, “These don’t look like Masters of the Universe, but more like Mythic Legions.” To which my response is, “And that’s a bad thing?!” Because honestly, the Mythic and Cosmic Legions figures from Four Horsemen Studios are amazing and the degree of detail is much greater than even the Classics line. I have a lot of Mythic Legions in my collection, they sometimes interact with my Masters of the Universe figures, particularly when I want them to fight Legions of the Undead, because Mythic Legions has a ridiculous amount of Skeleton Warriors.  I’d happily mix Mythic Legions with Chronicles figures. In fact, I just bought a Cosmic Legions accessory set for my Chronicles movie figures to outfit the Eternian rebellion’s underground headquarters. And since an upcoming Mythic Legions wave includes several aquatic creatures such as fish and crab people, they would fit in perfectly with Mer-Man and Clawful. In fact, I might buy the one fish warrior who’s already available and on whom I passed the last time I ordered something from the Four Horseman Store after all and use him as Mer-Man’s lieutenant.

Mondo, Hot Toys and Statues

Mattel is not the only company producing Masters of the Universe figures. There also are several Masters of the Universe offerings in the high-end collectible market.

Hot Toys, a Hong Kong based manufacturer of high-end collectible action figures, showed off He-Man and Skeletor in their movie looks. They’re very detailed, but also look a bit uncanny valley to me, particularly the He-Man. Besides, as is frequently the case, these high-end figures look more like statues than action figures.

However, the biggest producer of high-end, hyper-detailed Masters of the Universe figures is Mondo, a subsidiary of Funko of all things.  Mondo has been offering Masters of the Universe figures in 1:6 scale (i.e. about 30 centimeters) for years now and they also recently started offering figures based on the 200X cartoon and toyline in 1:12 scale, i.e. the same 6/7 inch scale as the Chronicles, Classics and Masterverse line. You can see a video of their booth here, a walk-through and interview with the designers here and a video of their panel here.

In the 1:6 scale line, Mondo showed off the Snake People King Hiss and Kobra Khan and during their panel, they also announced Stratos, the Sorceress and a deluxe Skeletor in 1:6 scale. Mondo also had a San Diego Comic Con exclusive in the 1:6 scale, a flocked Panthor that sold out very quickly.  My feelings about the Mondo 1:6 scale figures are that they are very nice to look at – and I have seen some of them in person – but that I have no desire to buy them. They’re just too big, too expensive, especially with shipping and import duties, and the character selection is not wide enough. Mondo are branching out a bit into the wider Masters of the Universe cast by now, but for years, they basically made He-Man, Skeletor and Scare-Glow over and over again.

Last year, Mondo surprised everybody by announcing that they would launch a line of 1:12 scale figures based on the designs from the Masters of the Universe 200X cartoon. These figures might actually have been of interest to me, since they were at roughly the same scale as the Classics and Masterverse figures and since Mattel for reasons best known to themselves refused to make 200X style action figures in the 6/7 inch scale for years.

Thankfully for my wallet, when Mondo actually showed off the first figures in the 200X line, I didn’t really love them. Particularly the He-Man looked off – too bulky and the face sculpt was too grim. The Mondo figures also look very stiff, more like statues than action figures. The fact that those figures are expensive and that shipping is really expensive as well, plus you can’t combine shipping for more than one figure, made it easy to pass on them. I did like the 200X Teela and Orko figures Mondo offered some time ago and might have caved in, except that they sold out very quickly.

At San Diego Comic-Con, Mondo showed off a 200X style Mer-Man as well as two He-Man and Skeletor variants, Ice Armour He-Man and Fire Armour Skeletor. The 200X line was infamous for its many weird variants – Ice Armour He-Man was actually one of the less weird ones (and yes, I have an original Ice Armour He-Man). But while the Mondo Ice Armour He-Man and Fire Armour Skeletor look good as does the Mer-Man, it once again shows that the character selection will probably not be as broad as I’d like. At their panel, Mondo also showed some concept sketches for a 200X Trap-Jaw. Finally, they also offered a 1:12 Keldor figure as a San Diego Comic Con exclusive. I do like that Keldor, but not enough to buy him.

Finally, there were also some Masters of the Universe statues shown off at San Diego Comic Con, namely a stunning She-Ra statue and a not-so-stunning 200X style He-Man statue. As with the Mondo figures, I like many of these statues – and again, I have seen them in person – but I have no desire to buy one.

Which brings me to…

The Surprise Return of Masters of the Universe Revelation/Revolution

The filmic renaissance of Masters of the Universe was kicked off by the animated series Masters of the Universe Revelation back in 2021. Coincidentally, Masters of the Universe Revelation also reignited my dormant love for Masters of the Universe, since it was the more adult quasi-continuation of the Filmation cartoon that I didn’t know I needed.

The second series Masters of the Universe Revolution followed in 2024 and finished with a post-credits scene featuring Despara a.k.a. evil buzz-cut Force Captain Adora. The team behind Revelation/Revolution has repeatedly said that they had plans for three series, so everybody expected that the third series, telling the story of Adora/Despara, would be announced a few months later.  But then the Barbie movie came out and made a billion dollars and suddenly, the basically dead live action Masters of the Universe movie was revived and also actually made and it seemed that Revelation/Revolution were forgotten as Mattel focussed fully on the movie.

Don’t get me wrong I’m glad that we got the movie and that it was actually good, but what I really wanted was for the story begun in Revelation/Revolution to be completed and for more than two years, it seemed as if the only way we would ever get the third series would be maybe in comic form.

Sadly, the Masters of the Universe movie did not perform as well as hoped for at the box office, because cheap horror movies on the one hand and the bloody Odyssey on the other sucked all the oxygen out of the room. However, once the movie hit streaming, it has done very well indeed and sits at No. 1 of the Amazon Prime charts worldwide and even pulled the 1987 movie into the global top ten after 39 years.

Masters of the Universe Revelation/Revolution did not stream on Amazon Prime but on Netflix, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it received a boost of  renewed interest as well in the wake of the live action movie.  And knowing Netflix, I’m certain they noticed.

At San Diego Comic Con, Revelation/Revolution showrunner Kevin Smith did a king of “Ask me anything” panel. And in the course of that panel, a young fan asked if Smith would do more He-Man and if we would see She-Ra, too.  Kevin Smith replied, “The short answer is yes” and that there were plans to finish the trilogy and tell She-Ra’s story, but that he couldn’t say more at this point.

Note that part of the problem with the third series of Revelation/Revolution likely were the notoriously complicated She-Ra rights. Basically, He-Man and She-Ra were treated as two separate properties by Mattel back in the 1980s. And since She-Ra was developed together with Filmation, the rights were shared between Mattel and Filmation. Filmation was sold to L’Oreal in the late 1980s and shut down (and fuck L’Oreal) and the rights to the Filmation library bounced around from owner to owner until they ended up with Universal. Who, when Mattel tried to buy the She-Ra rights back from them, apparently said, “Nope, sorry.” That’s the reason why making Filmation only characters in toy form or using them in a film or series is difficult and why the Eternian twins of power haven’t been seen together on screen in forty years. Despara, who is Adora, but not the Filmation Adora, is something of a workaround that Mattel can use, since they have the full rights for Despara.

Now She-Ra – actually She-Ra, not Despara – appeared in the post-credits scene of the movie to much applause and cheers. That means that Mattel and Amazon made some kind of deal with Universal, probably by throwing money at the problem. And a by-product might be that Revelation/Revolution can use She-Ra and her supporting cast, too.

At any rate, this is great news. It also demonstrates why even if a certain incarnation of a favourite franchise may not be your cup of tea (even though I did like the movie a lot), you should still support it, because it increases the chances of getting more, including versions of the story that you do like.

I also really hope that other fans take this to heart, including fans of the 2018 She-Ra and the Princesses of Power series, who are passionate, but often only like that particular incarnation and are downright hostile to any other version. Cause if series 3 of Revelation/Revolution or a potential live action She-Ra movie or series is successful that might well mean that She-Ra and the Princesses of Power may get a continuation – which apparently was planned, but not greenlit – too.

Other Cool Toys

Of course, there was a lot more shown at San Diego Comic Con then just Masters of the Universe.

Marvel returned to Hall H with several casting announcements, including the announcement that even more characters will be in Avengers: Doomsday – a movie that already includes everybody and their sister. I kind of wish I would be more excited about this than I am. I’m also surprised how completely I’m over the X-Men – and I used to love the X-Men comics during their 1980s and early 1990s heyday and read them for years even after they started to decline notably. But now with X-Men ’97 back on TV and the X-Men finally entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I find that I no longer care. It’s weird how your love for a property can just die. I’m also bummed that that they cancelled Wonder Man, one of the best Marvel TV shows in years which also gained two Emmy nominations, soon thereafter and cancelled the proposed Blade movie starring Mahershala Ali, which has been in development hell for years, as well. And yes, if you’d told me thirty years ago that I’d be more upset about the cancellation of a Wonder Man TV show than the fact that we will likely be getting more X-Men movies and that they may actually get it right this time around, I’d have called you crazy.

The notoriously reclusive Rick Moranis came out of retirement and onto the Hall H stage to standing ovations during the Spaceballs 2 panel. This is another film I’m kind of torn about. Now I love the original Spaceballs and have seen it umpteen times. However, I’m not sure if I want to revisit Spaceballs forty years later, even though I no longer have to deal with a mother who doesn’t understand parody and found the movie stupid and talked all over the German TV premiere, because my shitty cousin decided to pick that day to announce her second pregnancy and I got attacked for caring more about the movie than about shitty Jeanette’s pregnancy, and a friend who didn’t want to watch the movie, even though I watched all sorts of terrible crap with her. I’m pretty sure I will watch Spaceballs 2 eventually, but not necessarily at the theater.

One thing that did excite me were the reveals by Factory Entertainment, a company that normally specialises in full-size prop replicas. If you ever wanted a Power Sword or Havoc Staff that looks like the real thing, Factory Entertainment has you covered.

However Factory Entertainment are also moving into action figures and vehicles, more precisely 3.75 inch (i.e. vintage Star Wars scale) figures of various late 1970s and 1980s TV heroes, as seen in this interview/booth walk-through video by Pixel Dan. They showed off Michael Knight from Knight Rider, Thomas Magnum from Magnum PI, Crockett and Tubbs from Miami Vice, The Bionic Man and The Bionic Woman and Stringfellow Hawk and Dominic Santini from Airwolf plus a full scale Airwolf helicopter with other iconic vehicles possibly to follow. And they all look just like they’re supposed to look. If you’re a 1980s kid like me, these toys will have you going “Wow”.

Even better, they also have Battlestar Galactica vehicles and action figures, both in the style of the 1978 original and the early 2000s reboot, and they look amazing. Wave 1 of their 3.75 inch figures consists of Apollo, Starbuck, Boomer as well as a silver and a gold Cylon, while wave 2 will have Commander Adama, Athena, Baltar and Lucifer. They also showed off other potential figures, including Colonel Tigh, who was my Mom’s favourite. Plus, they also have a Colonial Viper and a Cylon Raider. That’s a very nice selection of characters, more than we ever had in any Battlestar Galactica line, and gives me hope that we might eventually get characters like Cassiopeia, Selina, Sheba, Boxey, Jolly, Bojay, Commander Cain, Count Iblis, the Imperious Leader or maybe even poor doomed Zack.

These figures are likely not cheap, because it’s a small company and I will have to import them, but damn, they’re tempting, because I absolutely loved the original Battlestar Galactica. Back in the day, I wanted nothing more than to actually watch the Star Wars movies. However, we did not have a VCR (and wouldn’t have one, until I bought one with my birthday money in the early 1990s, because my parents considered VCRs a waste of money), the movies were out of theaters and I had been too young to see the first two, when they actually were in theaters. And in an article clipped from a TV magazine, some public TV bigwig said that they would never ever show movies like Star Wars or Indiana Jones on TV, because they were too violent and too expensive. Of course, Star Wars did air on German TV within two years of that article, but of course I had no way of knowing that at the time. As far as I was concerned, the chances of ever seeing the movies I most wanted to see in the foreseeable future were nil.

However, what we did have was the original Battlestar Galactica. Those were the versions that had been edited into movies, not the actual TV series, which I did not see until much later. The movies aired once a week, always in late night graveyard slots, when I wasn’t actually supposed to be up and watching them, so I hoped and prayed for my parents to finally go to bed and then got up and watched them in secret. Then, when Dad was away, I introduced to Battlestar Galactica and she liked it, too, and thought Colonel Tigh was hot (well, he was), whereas I harboured a crush on Apollo. Even at the time, I knew Battlestar Galactica wasn’t Star Wars and I also realised that the naming patterns made no sense, but it was the next best thing that I could actually watch.

Besides – and I think a lot of people forget this – particularly the pilot of the original Battlestar Galactica was groundbreaking for its time. There is Rick Springfield as Zack – hot, handsome, a pop star, famous. Everything leads you to believe that he will be the star of the show. And then he’s killed off maybe ten minutes into the movie and another ten minutes later, most of humanity is killed off as well. Shocking doesn’t begin to describe it, cause TV shows simply did not do this in the 1970s and 1980s.

In fact, I was so shocked and stunned and literally glued to the screen that I bled through my pad and pyjama (I had my period at the time) onto the floor and didn’t notice until the movie ended. Of course, I frantically tried to remove the blood stain, but you can still see the faint outline on the floor, if you look closely.

There’s other things about Battlestar Galactica that were revolutionary for the time as well. Boxey is not Apollo’s biological kid – we see Boxey’s biological father get killed early on during the Cylon attack, well before Selina and Boxey even meet Apollo. And yet not just Apollo, but everybody else treats Boxey like they would Apollo’s biological kid. Coincidentally, Apollo would have been a most worthy recipient of the Jonathan and Martha Kent Fictional Parent of the Year Award, had it existed back then. Cassiopeia is introduced as a prostitute – twenty-five years before Firefly – though they later chicken out and turn her into a nurse. Athena initially has a crush of sorts on Starbuck, but when Starbuck starts a relationship with Cassiopeia, Athena is implied to have a relationship with Boomer, though once again they chicken out. The original Battlestar Galactica had many flaws, but it was also revolutionary for its day. Plus, take a look at the sheer star power of that cast. It’s as if every actor from the golden age of Hollywood who was still alive and active showed up in Battlestar Galactica at least once.

When the new Battlestar Galactica started in the early 2000s, I hated every single thing about it. Remember all those people who complained that the George Lucas raped their childhood with the Star Wars prequels? Well, Ron D. Moore raped mine with the new Battlestar Galactica or “Battlestar Craptastica”, as I used to call it. Even worse, while pretty much everybody agreed that the Star Wars prequels were not even remotely as good as the originals, the new Battlestar Galactica was heaped with praise and was deemed the “best TV show ever” (TM) – right between The Sopranos and The Wire being “the best TV show ever” (TM) – while the original was dismissed at disco era crap. The fact that the new Battlestar Galactica leant so very hard into the whole early 2000s “war on terror” and “you must make hard choices, even if people get killed” stuff didn’t help either, since I fucking hated all that early 2000s “war on terror” stuff and didn’t want any of it in my entertainment. And in fact, I remember the early 2000s as the most miserable TV era I ever lived through. The US just stopped making good shows overnight and started bombarding us with war on terror propaganda to the point that I stopped watching US shows altogether and instead turned towards British and even German shows, since German TV was having a high point at the time.

BTW, when the new Battlestar Galactica finally made its way to German TV, I watched the premiere with my Mom, who loved the original. And when it was said early on that Adama and Apollo were estranged, Mom said, “What nonsense! The real Commander Adama would never let that happen.” After half an hour, Mom asked if we could switch that shit off now. I said, “No, I need to watch it to see how awful it really is.” After forty-five minutes, Mom went to bed. After the pilot, I think lasted two more episodes before I was satisfied that it’s crap and I didn’t need to watch anymore to make sure of it. I sort of watched a third episode, but I fell asleep early on and don’t remember a thing.

Coincidentally, back at the time I said that the whole “war on terror” stuff and the debates about who is the legitimate leader (shades of the US taking weeks to figure out who won the 2000 presidential election) in the new Battlestar Galactica would look more dated than the original show in ten years time. At the time, no one believed me, but it’s true. In fact, the new Battlestar Galactica faded a lot quicker from the public consciousness than even I expected. The new Battlestar Galactica is as much as product of its time as the original show. And yes, the original show was also influenced by the politics of its day – all that stuff about how disarmament is a bad thing and peace is not possible – but by the time I watched it, the politics had retreated so far into history that I didn’t really notice. Never mind that the Cylons genuinely were a genocidal threat. The Soviet Union was not.

Of course, now twenty years have passed since the Battlestar Galactica reboot, I’m not longer as salty about it as I once was. I will never like the reboot or ever watch it, but I don’t hold any grudges against anybody involved, since all of the actors have done good work elsewhere and Ron D. Moore went on to make a very good Outlander adaptation.

That said, my fondness for the original Battlestar Galactica has never faded, unlike my love for the X-Men, so having at least a few figures of my favourite characters would be great. I don’t really need a Viper or a Cylon Raider, but I’d love to get Apollo, Starbuck, Boomer, Adama and Athena. And Colonel Tigh for Mom.

Anyway, that’s it for the 2026 San Diego Comic Con.