There are a lot of different ways to collect Masters of the Universe figures. You can collect by wave (first, second, third, etc), by line (original, New Adventures, 200x, Classics, etc.) or by character. You can also collect by country of manufacture, which starts to get into some pretty esoteric territory. Some collectors have very impressive shelves filled with dozens of the same figure, each from a different country of origin, and each with slight differences in appearance.
One of the most interesting of such variants is the made in France Man-At-Arms, shown below:
Made in France
Notice the extra cuff on the armor at the wrist.
The most interesting thing about the France variant is the little cuff at the end of the figure’s armor at the wrist. That detail was included in the Man-At-Arms prototype (below), but it was cut from the production figure. Somehow it made it into the France version.
Prototype Man-At-Arms. Image source: James Eatock
There are other differences compared to the made in Taiwan versions (which were the types most commonly sold in the US). The plastic on the France version is cast in much more vivid colors. The feel of the plastic itself is quite different compared to the Taiwan release, and is somewhat waxy to the touch. The paint on the France belt also tends to be uneven, and the boots and loincloth are a much darker color as well.
Left: first release Taiwan version. Right: Made in France version.Left: first release Taiwan version. Right: Made in France version.
There is another French variant from later on in the run. It’s a version with enlarged boots (like Thunder Punch He-Man‘s). However, the boots are separately molded pieces, and are cast in a very rubbery material:
Image via He-Man.org
The “rubber boots” France figures also include Battle Armor He-Man, Tri-Klops, Jitsu, Fisto, and possibly others. Also notably (thanks to Dani Ramón Abril for the information), some Spanish releases of Man-At-Arms use the early French mold, down to the “France” stamp on the back.
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Name: Snake Face Faction: Snake Men Approximate US release date: November 27, 1986
Snake Face, true to his tagline, is indeed the most gruesome-looking of the Snake Men faction, and one of the creepiest figures in the vintage Masters of the Universe lineup. Although he was grouped by Mattel with the 1987 wave of figures, he was released a little early, in late November, 1986.
Design & Development
An early concept for Snake Face appears in the Power and Honor Foundation Catalog (below). The artist isn’t mentioned (from the style I think it could perhaps be by Alan Tyler), but it seems to be a first crack at a concept involving a character with snakes popping out of his face and chest. This concept would have reused the arms and legs from Skeletor. Other than the action feature, it bears little resemblance to the final Snake Face concept.
The character was revisited (with the working name Medusa Man), and David Wolfram took the reigns at designing a character around the action feature. His design, shown below, is very close to the final look of the figure, other than some of the colors used on his costume.
Image courtesy of David Wolfram
In David’s design, the figure was to have no shared parts, other than the staff (borrowed from King Hiss) and his pelvis piece. Even the latter was given a unique sculpt on the final figure.
The cross sell art for Snake Face appears to be based on the final toy design:
Cross sell artwork
We can see a hand-painted final prototype for the figure in Mattel’s 1987 dealer catalog:
Image source: Nathalie NHT
Production Toy
The final toy is a gruesome-looking creature with a purple, black and green costume. He features a fair amount of green overspray on his arms and head, which is something not normally seen on figures in the MOTU line. His action feature is similar to Mantennna‘s eyes – a lever on the back can be raised, causing the snakes to pop out of his face, shoulders and chest.
Snake Face is covered in warty and scaly gray skin, and his arms are wrapped in snakes. His legs are rather short, probably to compensate for his tall torso and to keep his overall height similar to other figures in the line.
Packaging
Snake Face’s card features the Snake Men special logo on the front as well as character artwork by Bruce Timm (thanks to Jukka Issakainen for the tip). Errol McCarthy provides the illustrations for the action scene and instructions on the back.
Image source: Final Frontier ToysImage via He-Man.org
Style Guide
Snake Face was given the following characterization in the 1987 Style Guide:
Group Affiliation: Snake Men, Evil Warriors Role: Evil beast with a head full of shocking snakes Power: When his snakes strike out, enemies are turned to stone. Character Profile: Another of the Snake Men trapped under Snake Mountain an eon ago, Snake Face was called forth by King Hiss to do battle with He-Man. Snake Face was a right-hand man to King Hiss in the days of Grayskull. Snake Face can turn any enemy to stone by lashing his snakes out at him. He-Ro and He-Man are the only warriors powerful enough to reverse the horrible spell, and then only when aided by the Magic Staff or Power Sword. Weapons: Serpent Staff and Medusa Shield.
Image via He-Man.org
As Snake Face came quite late in the line, his bio includes a mention of He-Ro and the cancelled Powers of Grayskull storyline.
Minicomics
Snake Face was packed with Revenge of the Snake Men, written by Phil White and illustrated by Chris Carlson. In the story, Snake Face and Sssqueeze (called by his concept name “Tanglor”) are brought form the nameless dimension by King Hiss to kidnap Queen Marlena. Snake Face uses his powers to turn anyone who gets in his way to stone:
Snake Face also appears in Energy Zoids, where he turns his power against Rotar:
Other Comic Appearances
Snake Face makes a number of appearances in other comics, including the following:
Issue 35, 1987, UK MOTU Magazine:
Image via He-Man.org
Issue 41, 1987, UK MOTU Magazine:
Image via He-Man.org
Issue 8, 1987, Star Comics Masters of the Universe:
Image via He-Man.org
Fall 1987, US MOTU Magazine:
Image via He-Man.org
Poster Art
Snake Face appears in a couple of posters by Earl Norem, done for the US MOTU Magazine:
He also appears in William George’s Preternia poster:
Image courtesy of Jukka Issakainen
Snake Face is featured in posters by Esteban Maroto and others as well:
Image via He-Man.org
Masters of the Universe had its fare share of nightmarish and gruesome action figures, but Snake Face has to be one of the creepiest.
Swedish ad featuring Snake Face, courtesy of Petteri Höglund
Snake Face in Action
Øyvind Meisfjord has kindly contributed the following images and video of Snake Face in action:
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Name: Bashasaurus Faction: Heroic Warriors Approximate US release date: March 31, 1985
I’m sure I saw Bashasaurus at some point growing up, if only in a minicomic or in cross sell art, but it never really stuck with me. In retrospect, though, it’s a pretty great concept. A dinosaur vehicle whose primary weapon is a giant boulder attached to a stick? Yes, please.
Design & Development
The early working name for Bashasaurus was Ball Buster, a name which famously caused Filmation President Lou Scheimer to reject outright the idea of ever including it in the animated He-Man series. As evident in the concept below, the early incarnation of the vehicle (illustration by Ed Watts, Sept 19, 1983) would have had the ball mechanism come down from the center of the vehicle. This early concept is intended for the Evil Warriors, and bears little resemblance to the final toy:
Image source: The Power and the Honor Foundation/Dark Horse
According to the patent (Filed January 4, 1985), Bashasaurus was invented by Granville Crow, Larry Renger and Roger Sweet. The drawings from the patent application (below) show the finalized dinosaur design and modified bashing mechanism. According to The Power and the Honor Foundation, the mechanism was moved to the side to prevent pinch injury during play.
Several years back a Mattel employee sold off a number of molds and prototypes, among them one for the Bashasaurus (thanks to Manic Man in the comments for the reminder):
Production Toy
The production toy was produced in a bright red color with orange and blue highlights. The faceplate features a triceratops-like design, and the theme continues in the back with a spiked tail that looks a bit like a stegosaurus. The bashing boulder is activated via an orange push button, the the ball itself telescopes further out by means of centrifugal force.
The cross sell art for the vehicle is closely based on the production toy:
Ad sheet illustration, which seems to be an uncolored version of the cross sell artwork.
The vehicle includes a tab on the side, which can be used to hold He-Man’s sword and shield, as explained in the instructions that came with the vehicle:
1985 Mattel Dealer Catalog. Image source: Orange SlimeFrench advertisement, Bashasaurus vs Land Shark. Image source: Antieternia Facebook Page
Packaging
The main packaging artwork, as well as the cross sell artwork was done by William George:
Interestingly, the Venezuelan version of the toy features product photography on the front rather than William George’s box art. The photo that appears in Mattel’s 1985 dealer catalog is used here (images come from MOTU Argentina Blog) :
Bashasaurus also appears in a 1985 poster that showcased all of the above, in addition to the Evil Horde and characters from previous years:
Image courtesy of Jukka Issakainen
Bashasaurus was also illustrated by Errol McCarthy for licensed MOTU-themed clothing:
Image source: He-Man.org
Minicomics
Bashasaurus appears in a number of the minicomics that came packed with the figures, including the following:
The Battle of Roboto
Hordak: The Ruthless Leader’s Revenge!
The Treachery of Modulok!
Other Stories
The Bashasaurus appeared in several other stories over the years, including the following:
Spring 1986 Masters of the Universe Magazine (US)
Image source: He-Man.org
1985 Golden Book: The River of Ruin
Image source: He-Man.org
Issue 20, 1986 Masters of the Universe Magazine (UK)
Image source: He-Man.org
Bashasaurus in Action
Øyvind Meisfjord has kindly contributed the following image and video of Bashasaurus in action:
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I’ve written previously about the first release of Castle Grayskull, and how it differs from later versions. I’ve recently been able to acquire a rather unique piece, a 100% complete and quite pristine first release Castle Grayskull. I’ve been looking for one like this for years, especially after my friend and fellow first-release enthusiast John Oswald acquired one similar to this a couple of years ago.
So there are a few things about this example that differentiate it from even other early 1982 Castle Grayskulls (I’ve owned several early examples, but none quite like this). I’ll go over that, but first some wide shots:
The most obvious difference between this and any other Castle Grayskull is the paint on the front of the Castle. As we learned in the MOTU documentary, The Power of Grayskull, factories initially were looking to use some kind of paint mask for Castle Grayskull, but they were instructed by Mattel to do the painting free-hand (presumably to save time and therefore money). As a result, the paint applications seem to be rather haphazard, especially in later editions of the castle. The earliest versions of Castle Grayskull therefore tend to have the best paint. The two best examples I’ve seen are my recent acquisition and one owned by John Oswald:
Image source: John Oswald. This one has a very even and careful paint pattern on the front.
I have owned a number of other castles (below) that are also nice early versions. You can see they all have pretty decent paint work around the face, with some good definition to the eyes and nose, but not quite like the two examples from above:
The vast majority of Castle Grayskulls, however, have much less care taken regarding the paint, particularly on the black overspray, which is usually applied without any precision at all:
A particularly bad exampleA bad day at the factory
The other thing that sets my first release castle apart from other early examples is the color of the green removable pieces. The jawbridge, turret floors, trap door activator, and trap door floor are all a very pale shade of green, unlike any other example I’ve seen before:
Typical jawbridge on left, first release jawbridge on rightFirst release turret floor far left, early turret floors (middle three), and revised later turret floor with added slots for cannon (far right)Pale green trap door and activator
Some variation in color is pretty normal on these parts (and I think early examples do tend to be somewhat lighter in color), but the very light green on this first release stands out from any other example I’ve seen. The color is about the same as the base plastic of the castle itself.
Interestingly, John’s castle has a half-and-half jawbridge – the inside is pale green, like my example, while the outside is the more common darker green. This indicates it may have been put together just as the color for the jawbridge was being revised to the common darker version.
Image source: John Oswald
In this example in Mattel’s 1982 Wish List mini catalog, you can see a castle similar to John’s example, but with a jawbridge that is pale green all the way through:
You can also see what look like very pale turret floors on this example in the 1982 Sears Christmas catalog:
In this poster, we see a castle with a half and half jawbridge, like John’s, although the paint isn’t as nice as his example:
Most early Castle Grayskulls seem to have a stamp under the entrance that generally looks like 1xx2C2, with a lower number in the first three digits corresponding to an earlier castle. For example, John’s first release example is stamped 1162C2. Other early (but not quite as early) castles I’ve owned have numbers like 1242C2, 1322C2, 1332C2, etc. Interestingly all of the numbers I’ve seen are unique, at least under the entrance.
The code for my first release castle is 3021C2 – a higher number on the left three digits, but a lower one on the right three digits. I’m not entirely sure what that means. Perhaps the right three digits are general batch code (1C2 = batch 1, 2C2 = batch 2, and so forth), and the left three digits are a more individualized number given to Castles produced on a certain day or week. I can only guess here.
Everything else about my first release castle is pretty typical of any first year Castle Grayskull, including all of the other codes stamped in various places around the castle.
If you’re looking to find a first year Castle Grayskull, there are some easy things to spot that are typical. The smaller of the two turret floors should have no slots for the cannon, and the cannon top should fit loosely into the cannon base, as opposed to within round slots, as shown in the images below.
First year castles would have come with a smooth small turret floor. The one on the right comes from a later release. Early versionLater revisionFirst version of the instructions. Note that the laser canon isn’t associated with the turret floor.Revised version of the instructions. With the new turret floor, the laser cannon is now intended specifically to be placed in that spot.
All early castles also seem to have some green overspray on the teeth, while later ones often (but not always) have unpainted teeth. The best early castles will have some definition around the eyes and nose, rather than the whole area being painted black. These are general characteristics, but there will be some exceptions. All early castles should have USA stamps throughout. Of course because most of these are sold loose, any castle you find could have a mix of parts from different playsets, so you could find an early castle with later accessories or vice versa.
As I mentioned in a previous article, early versions of the castle came in a box that featured only the 1982 figures on the back. The artwork here was traced directly from a photo used in Mattel’s 1982 Dealer Catalog and also shows up in the first version of the Castle Grayskull instructions:
Starting in 1983, the back of the box was altered to feature cross sell art from both the 1982 and 1983 figures:
A very typical example of a second-release, USA-made Castle Grayskull is shown below. The distinguishing factors are again evident in the design of the back of the box, the face paint pattern on the front of the castle, the small turret floor, the laser cannon, and the instructions. This is very much like the Castle Grayskull I had as a kid, and as much as I loved it, I was always dissatisfied with the paint job on the front, which didn’t quite live up to the look of the castle in the box art.
And that’s about it for this discussion on the first release Castle Grayskull. I’ve been fascinated for some time with the earliest release MOTU toys of 1982. You can read more about this topic in the following articles:
I’ll close out with some additional photos of this very interesting early example:
Special thanks to John Oswald, who is always a great resource for thoughts and ideas about this topic, and who alerted me about this castle before I was even online for the day!
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