2008 MOTU CLASSICS SERIES

2008 saw the launch of a new set of Masters Of The Universe figures. This time, however, the toys are limited-edition models and are only available from Mattel's Matty Collector website. Each month a new character is released, which inevitably means that collecting the figures will be a slow process, although some bonus figures appear from time to time. Mattel plans to continue with the line into 2016, so there are many figures to look forward to.

It is worth noting what Mattel intends to include in the Masters Of The Universe Classics line. For some fans like me, such a title would suggest the plan would be to reissue figures from the original MOTU line only, but that is not the case. It seems the plan is to release everything from the MOTU world and the spin-off lines (Princess Of Power, New Adventures and 2002 MOTU), plus a few 'legendary' characters that never made production first time around.

This means a lot of characters! Remember over seventy characters were released in the original MOTU series alone (see the list), so we could end up with over one hundred figures if the line continues as currently planned. This inclusion of non-original characters started early. By 'non-original' I mean characters that were not part of the original MOTU line or referred to in the early minicomics. The first non-original character appeared in 2008 and was called King Grayskull.

This brings up another important point about the Classics. By bringing characters from different canons together, one ends up creating a new canon. It is actually quite a tall order to create a single story (bearing in mind how much it was tampered with and changed before), and trying to reconcile all the diverse threads that went off in all directions is well-intentioned but ultimately unlikely to be completely satisfactory. Short biographies have been written for each character (you can read them here) but these are largely very unimaginative and vague. 'Real' names have been given for many characters and these are poor.

For long-term fans of the Eternia described in the Series One and Two minicomics (released with the original toys in the 1980s), a wry smile has appeared on our lips. The reason? Well we always knew that the swords and sorcery world of Eternia was the best, and here we are a quarter of a century later being treated to figures based on the original artwork and themes of those stories. There really has been a respectful acknowledgement of those early themes in the line so far. Realistically though, this cannot last, because there are simply too many characters and influences from other lines which will find their way into the Classics.

So how good are the toys? The ones I have seen are generally well-designed and seem to be very true to the original artwork and concepts. The Four Horsemen (who designed the ill-fated 2002 line) have, by and large, redeemed themselves with the Classics. There are some quality control issues which let down the line though, so despite the aesthetic success of the Four Horsemen's work, the factory figures are not as good as they ought to be.

I have written elsewhere about Stratos's wings and He-Man's shoulder reversal. Less noticeable problems that occur frequently concern the softness of joints and poor articulation. Something that is also apparent, particularly on the female figures, is the fact that the figures are not symmetrical. Is this intentional for 'action-posing'? It shouldn't be. Some figures have longer left legs than right. Teela's clothing is definitely off-centre and her back bends towards one side. Quality assurance is missing from this line.

Clearly there are some issues with the Classics figures, but overall my support of the new designs outweighs my disappointments. Skeletor is excellent and seems to have finally resumed his rightful status as the sinister Evil Lord of Destruction after an unfortunate few years of being down-graded to a bungling fool in comics and cartoons. Beast Man is also a great figure, with fantastic dinosaur-talon armour. You can find photographs of most of the figures here.

The figures are selling out very quickly on the Matty Collector website. You can read more about Matty Collector here. The Classics certainly have huge support among fans, and I am glad of that because the original Masters concept deserves a successful relaunch. The overall idea with the line is to release figures based on the original styling, but with ideas from other lines. So you will see a few extra accessories here and there which you might recognise from the 2002 MOTU line, for example, but their styling will have less of the manga-look of that era.

As a fan fiction writer who favours unashamedly the original barbarian concepts of the Masters, I would like to see a gritty swords and sorcery approach. It is unclear at present how strong an influence the Filmation cartoon will play in this line, but I hope it is minimal. Overall I am looking forward to seeing where this new interpretation of the Masters goes. I don't intend to collect every character, because I'm not interested in the spin-offs, but this could be a fun line.

There is some information about the Classics on Matty Collector's Facebook page which reveals a little about future plans and summarises 2009. It doesn't say a lot (they obviously don't want to give too much away), but you might find some points interesting. To read the article, click here.