Many thanks to Richard Sánchez Guirao and Fernando Seage Tomé from La Cueva del Terror and Mundo Masters Magazine for sharing this scan from the 1988 Mattel Spain catalog with the readers of Battle Ram: A He-Man Blog. As always, their partnership is greatly appreciated. Be sure to check out their excellent podcast, website and magazine at the links above!
MOTU products for overseas markets were often delayed from their initial US releases, which is why you see 1986/1987 and earlier toys in this 1988 catalog.
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Battle Ram could you re-edit some of the pics in this and the previous 2 catalog articles? Just the pages were the image is spread across 2 pages. Some of those pictures would be better if we could see all the players in 1 image. Example the pages with FF He-Man vs TC Skeletor vs HH Hordak.
Thank You in Advance
These international catalogs are fascinating from several perspectives. For me, the biggest kick was seeing what had a different name in overseas markets. Thank you!
The Spanish name for the Slime Pit is the “Sinister Mass?” Or at least that’s what Google Translate tells me.
Please do a post about Thunder Punch He-man (NA).
Things I’ve noticed (beyond a number of the photos being mirrored, which wasn’t uncommon in the era):
* – In the promo shot of Saurod which I believe we’ve also seen elsewhere, his gun seems to be a different colour. The production figure also typically had black overshadowing on his body, too.
* – As also seen elsewhere, this promo shot of Gwildor has minutely extra paint detailing on the apparatus on his body.
* – The cord on Beast Man’s whip is for some reason a totally different colour. Unless this is a variant that I’ve never seen, this comes across odd unless it is from a much earlier promo shot. (Or alternatively, if the cord was lost during the photo shoot and a “make do” was used – we’ve certainly seen other promo shoots where bits are missing or incomplete).
* – Maybe or maybe not unrelated to this actual shot (hard to see clearly due to lighting), but I’ve always suspected early promo’s of Spydor did not have the clear red perspex panel underneath it. (By the way, other than Castle Grayskull, Spydor was the only large-sized item I had as a boy in the line, and would love to see a blog on it)
* – Man-at-Arms is holding the Megalaser with his armour on… if I recall (as I often used to pose him with him holding it), this was night-on-impossible to do well if he was wearing his torso armour).
* – Dragon Walker doesn’t have the sticker detail in it’s mouth (and eyes?), with the red lighting making it almost look as if they’re hollow. (Also, I think Bashasarus is also missing sticker details).
* – On the Fright Zone shot, it is the (excuse the very awkward term) black skinned version of Grizzlor; elsewhere, on the Slime Pit shot, it is the more regular version, again suggesting these photos were taken from many different sources. On the Fright Zone shot, it is the version of Leech with his arm band painted black but the Horde emblem not painted red. Hordak is holding the wrong Horde crossbow on the Fright Zone shot. (Additionally on the Slime Pit shot, it possibly is a darker version of Leech, or may just be down the lighting. Either way, he looks pretty cool down in that crevice!)
* – (Minute note: On the Castle Grayskull page, as well as Adam and He-Man appearing in the same scene, in the (reversed) interior shot we see Blue Wings Stratos). On the Snake Mountain page, with the clawed feet version of Clawful, the Evil Warriors appeared to have turned against Kobra Khan, despite him technically being one of their ranks. If they had used any other Snake Man figure in his place, this would have not been an issue.
Yes, in reference to the slime.