Written by Adam McCombs
Recently in the Masters of the Universe Technical Variant group on Facebook, some images of 1986 and 1987 MOTU product lists were posted by MOTUology, Sean McMurtrey and Kris Oneida. Many thanks in advance to them for posting their images, and especially to Kris for providing higher res images for this article.
I remember seeing the 1986 list years ago, but I lost track of the image. Looking at it and the 1987 list now, there is quite a lot of valuable information in both lists, and I’d like to provide my analysis here. I think this information not only gives us a clearer picture of how the Masters of the Universe line was distributed in the US, but also what eventually ended up killing it.
For some background, I’ve already done quite a lot of work in trying to understand the timeline of the production dates and release dates of Masters of the Universe toys, gathering dates from copyright filings, trademark filings, patent filings, concept art dates and the earliest appearances of each toy in newspaper ads. You can find that information in the articles below:
⦿ Full Timeline
⦿ Newspaper Ads Timeline
Of the two articles above, the Newspaper Ads Timeline is the most relevant to this discussion. It fits rather closely with the data found in the 1986 MOTU Product List, with a few outliers. The product lists (in a letter dated March 10, 1987) appear to have been sent out by Mattel in response to a customer inquiry about which products were currently available. The customer seems to have been trying to get a hold of a Mattel catalog.
The customer service response from Mattel was that their catalogs were intended for retailers, not consumers, but they did provide the person with lists of all of the current figures. The lists included the four digit SKU number (SKU stands for Stock Keeping Unit – each individual product had a unique number) for each toy, and importantly, the date range for each of them as well.
My assumption is that these dates represent the dates that Mattel was shipping these products out to retailers. For example, for Attak Trak, the list says “83 – 85.” That would mean that Mattel was shipping Attak Traks to US retailers from 1983 to 1985, but did not ship any more units out in 1986. However, some stores might still have had some Attak Traks on shelves in 1986, left over from the previous year.
At the end of the article I have included text transcriptions of these lists that are searchable, for convenience. Immediately below you’ll find my key findings from this information:
The “1986 1/2” Wave of Toys
Some figures are listed as “86 – Current.” These are the figures that we typically think of as belonging to the 1986 wave of figures, such as Rio Blast, Dragstor, and King Hiss. However there are some toys that are designated “86 1/2 – Current.” Meaning these were kind of an additional wave of figures released later in 1986. These are figures that are normally associated with the 1987 wave of figures, and appear in Mattel’s 1987 Dealer Catalog, not the 1986 catalog. When I put together my timeline of earliest advertising dates for figures, I did in fact find that many so-called 1987 figures were in stores by November and December 1986. Here are the newspaper ad dates I found for traditionally “1987” figures that were released ahead of schedule:
11/27/1986: First Beam Blaster & Artilleray newspaper ad
11/27/1986: First Mosquitor newspaper ad
11/27/1986: First Ninjor newspaper ad
11/27/1986: First Scare Glow newspaper ad
11/27/1986: First Snake Face newspaper ad
12/09/1986: First Clamp Champ newspaper ad
12/09/1986: First King Randor newspaper ad
12/09/1986: First Faker (reissue) newspaper ad
However, the 1986 MOTU Product List actually includes several more “1986 1/2” figures that were released early, including:
• Buzz-Saw Hordak
• Blast Attak (called Krak Attak, probably an early name for the figure)
• Sorceress
• Sssqueeze
• Tyrantisaurus Rex
For the above figures, I didn’t find any ads for them until some time in 1987. However, toward the end of the line, MOTU was advertised very sparsely in newspapers because it was dying off – I find it very plausible that these toys were actually in stores by late 1986, and either weren’t advertised in 1986, or were advertised too sparsely to have made it into the Newspapers.com database.
Update: I recently found another Mattel document for Blast Attak which lists him as part of the 1987 wave. It came with two other documents listing Scare Glow and Ninjor as part of the 1986 1/2 wave. Because this one uses the name Blast Attak instead of Krak Attak, it must have come later than the document shared by Kris Oneida. Perhaps Blast Attak was going to come out in the 1986 1/2 wave, but didn’t quite make it and so came out in 1987 instead.
For a look at what Mattel had originally planned to ship in 1986 and 1987, see the catalog images linked in the articles below:
The End of the Line
Some Mattel employees have talked about how over-shipping killed the Masters of the Universe line in the 1980s. What they’ve said is that some senior executives took some of the warehouse stock reserved for the European market and shipped it out to US stores in order to improve their own performance metrics. These were existing figures that had already sold through and were no longer in demand in the US. However, shipping these figures out to retailers was counted as a win on paper, and would be reflected in their year-end bonuses.
Stores had the practice of over-ordering, because they would usually get fewer figures than they asked for from Mattel. So if they actually wanted 20 figures, and asked for 20 figures, they might only get 10. So they would instead ask for 30 figures, expecting to get 20. It was understood by both sides that stores actually wanted less product than they were ordering, but the executives opted to ship them the full amount so they could make their performance metrics. This happened not once, but twice. For more on this, check out the Toy Masters podcast, episode 4. Paul Cleveland, a former marketing leader at Mattel, discusses the problem in depth.
On top of that, I would posit that these “1986 1/2” figures that had originally been intended for 1987 may have also been a part of what killed the line. The main 1986 wave already had more unique SKUs than any previous wave in Masters of the Universe history. Adding more “1986 1/2” figures on top of that wave, on top of the older figures Mattel had shipped out from their reserve stock would have absolutely overwhelmed the toy shelves with Masters product. In short, 1986 was a mess, with a huge glut of product that choked the life out of the brand. Although Masters was extremely popular, no brand could have survived such reckless over-shipping. So to sum up, this is what was being shipped to US stores in 1986:
- Excess product from the previous year that was originally intended for Europe
- A gigantic wave of new figures for 1986
- Another smaller wave of new figures originally intended for 1987, rushed out in late 1986
For reference, here is the new SKU count for each annual wave of Masters of the Universe:
1982: 12 new SKUs
1983: 11 new SKUs, 12 if you include Mekaneck rushed out in December 1983
1984: 17 new SKUs
1985: 19 new SKUs
1986: 35 new SKUs
1986 1/2: 12 new SKUs
1987: 12 new SKUs
Night Stalker
One outlier in this data is Night Stalker. The list says that Night Stalker was shipped from 1984 – 1986. However, I have not found any Night Stalker ads in 1984, when MOTU ads were extremely plentiful. The earliest Night Stalker ad I’ve found dates to June 14, 1985. Moreover, all of the Night Stalker packaging I’ve seen shows off other 1985 toys on the back of the box, such as Moss Man, Stinkor and Land Shark, indicating that Night Stalker really did come out in 1985. I think the date on this list is a mistake, and the dates for Night Stalker should be 1985 – 1986. But as always if new data comes out I will update the blog.
Mekaneck
Mekaneck is listed having been shipped to stores from 1983 – 1985. Way back when I started this blog, I was skeptical of fan claims that Mekaneck was a 1983 figure. However, a couple of years back I did eventually find two pieces of evidence that he was shipped out in December 1983, which you can read about here. My theory now on Mekaneck is that he was rushed out early for Christmas because the 1983 line had a fairly sparse wave of figures. Getting an extra figure out early was a way of getting some new product out in stores for the holidays. Without Mekaneck, the 1983 wave would have had fewer new SKUs than any other wave, and it was relying heavily on reissues of product from 1982 to keep Masters stocked in stores. Mark Taylor’s departure from Mattel in 1982 (when the 1983 wave was being developed) must have left the company scrambling, and it took them some time to put together a new design team. That also explains why the 1983 wave was front loaded with easy repaints like Faker, Special Offer He-Man (so-called Wonder Bread He-Man, who doesn’t have a SKU), and Evil-Lyn, who required only a new head and wand.
Snake Face
Snake Face is an anomaly on this list. He appears in the 1987 list, not the “1986 1/2” wave on the product sheet. However, I did find a newspaper ad for the Snake Face figure dating to November 27, 1986. That means he should have appeared in the 1986 1/2 wave, correct? Maybe. It’s also possible that the newspaper ad was incorrect and the retailer didn’t actually have Snake Face available for sale yet. Either option is a possibility.
Missing products, unproduced products
The 1987 list includes Gigantisaur, a toy that Mattel intended to make that ended up being cancelled. It also omits Scubattack for some reason, perhaps just a simple oversight due to human error. The Meteorbs do not show up in the 1986 list, although we know they were released that year.
Product Life Cycle
Another key piece of information that I’ve gleaned from the 1986 and 1987 product lists are the product life cycles for each individual toy. Assuming the dates are largely accurate, we now have real data about exactly how long each individual toy was being shipped out to the US market by Mattel.
So which figures were in the market for longest? Let’s find out!
First, a quick note on how I’m calculating years. If a figure was available during 1984 and 1985, I’m calling that two years. Product was being shipped out from Mattel over the course of two different calendar years, even if the total number of days may have been less than two years, technically. I believe that’s how Mattel calculated things too; the 1986 Flying Fists He-Man was called the “Fifth Anniversary Edition He-Man,” even though it had only been four years since He-Man debuted in stores. They were looking at it by how many different calendar years the product had been appearing in stores. Hopefully that makes sense!
5 Calendar Years
The following figures were in the market for the longest, from 1982 to 1986. The only one that surprised me here was Wind Raider. It’s not that it’s not a popular vehicle, but it beat out the Battle Ram, which I think is even more popular with fans today. Maybe it survived longer because it was smaller and less expensive. Or maybe it was just more popular than I think! Update: it looks like He-Man and Skeletor may have been shipped out in limited quantities in 1987 as well, so they may actually have been shipped for a total of 6 calendar years – the totality of the duration of the line in the US. More information on that has been added toward the end of the article.
• Battle Cat
• Beast Man
• Castle Grayskull
• Man-At-Arms
• He-Man
• Skeletor
• Teela
• Wind Raider
4 Calendar Years
These toys were on the market during four calendar years. Probably the most surprising thing to me is that of all the 1983 human-shaped figures, Evil-Lyn lasted the longest. I also wouldn’t have expected Stratos and Mer-Man to be on the market quite that long. Mer-Man is one of my favorites, but reportedly he tested poorly during product testing.
• Battle Ram
• Evil-Lyn
• Mer-Man
• Panthor
• Stratos
• Zoar
3 Calendar Years
Some of the more popular 1984 characters like Prince Adam and Orko likely could have lasted longer if the line hadn’t started to tank in 1986. Surprisingly Trap Jaw shipped only until 1985. I would have thought he would have lasted longer than that.
It appears that Zodac is the least popular toy of the original 1982 wave, which doesn’t surprise me, but a three calendar year run is still pretty respectable, all things considered. Faker is interesting because he is the only figure in this list with a break in production; he was available from Mattel in 1983 – 1984 and then reissued in the “hard head” format in 1986.
• Attak Trak
• Buzz-Off
• Faker
• Kobra Khan
• Man-E-Faces
• Mekaneck
• Orko
• Prince Adam
• Roton
• Screeech
• Snake Mountain
• Stridor
• Trap Jaw
• Tri-Klops
• Weapons Pak
• Webstor
• Zodac
2 Calendar Years
This list is full of a lot of 1985 characters. For the most part their product life cycle was probably cut unnaturally short by the over-shipping problem. Still a few things to mention – Point Dread and Talon Fighter only lasted from 1983 to 1984. Clawful, Fisto and Whiplash only lasted from 1984 to 1985, despite my perception that they are all pretty popular characters. The same goes for Battle Armor He-Man and Battle Armor Skeletor. I wonder if those last two were cut short by Mattel to make way for the other He-Man and Skeletor variants that followed. Fans today universally seem to consider the Battle Armor variants to be the two most popular He-Man and Skeletor variants in the vintage line. Interestingly Clamp Champ is the only figure on the 1986 list who also appears in the 1987 list, although he is called by his early working name “Klamp Champ” in the 1986 list.
• Battle Armor He-Man
• Battle Armor Skeletor
• Bashasaurus
• Battle Bones
• Clawful
• Dragon Blaster Skeletor
• Dragon Walker
• Fisto
• Fright Zone
• Grizzlor
• Hordak
• Jitsu
• Klamp Champ (Clamp Champ)
• Land Shark
• Leech
• Mantenna
• Modulok
• Moss Man
• Night Stalker
• Point Dread & Talon Fighter
• Ram Man
• Road Ripper
• Roboto
• Spydor
• Stinkor
• Sy-Klone
• Thunder Punch He-Man
• Two-Bad
• Whiplash
1 Calendar Year
This list is mostly 1986 and 1987 figures that never got a chance to be reissued for additional years due to the tanking of the line. There is one exception to that, and it’s Spikor. Spikor is the only pre-1986 figure in the entire line that was shipped during only one calendar year. I’ll be honest, Spikor is my least favorite figure of all the figures from 1982 – 1985, so on some level it vindicates my blah feeling toward the figure. Still, he seems to have plenty of fans and I would have expected him to have been shipped for at least two calendar years. As previously mentioned. the 1987 product list includes Gigantisaur, which didn’t end up getting released.
• Beam Blaster
• Bionatops
• Blade
• Blast Attak (listed as “Krak Attak”)
• Blasterhawk
• Buzz-Saw Hordak
• Cliff Climber
• Dragstor
• Eternia
• Extendar
• Flying Fists He-Man
• Fright Fighter
• Gigantisaur
• Gwildor
• Horde Trooper
• Hurricane Hordak
• Jet Sled
• King Hiss
• King Randor
• Laser Bolt
• Mantisaur
• Megalaser
• Monstroid
• Mosquitor
• Multi-Bot
• Ninjor
• Rattlor
• Rio Blast
• Rokkon
• Rotar
• Saurod
• Scare Glow
• Slime
• Slime Pit
• Snake Face
• Snout Spout
• Sorceress
• Spikor
• Sssqueeeze
• Stilt Stalkers
• Stonedar
• Terror Claws Skeletor
• Tower Tools
• Tung Lashor
• Turbodactyl
• Twistoid
• Tyrantisaurus Rex
Caveats on Accuracy
In writing this analysis I’m assuming that the information on these lists is largely correct. I’m fairly certain that the 1986 list contains at least one error (the dating on Night Stalker), possibly two (the Snake Face appearance in the 1987 wave rather than the “1986 1/2” wave), and it’s always possible that I may find information in the future that will contradict other parts of the lists. If so, I’ll provide an update.
Update: Brian Jones points out that he remembers seeing the original versions of He-Man and Skeletor on the shelves in 1987 when the movie came out, with 1987 MOTU movie stickers on the blisters. It’s possible that Mattel did ship out a small batch of new He-Man and Skeletor figures with the 1987 movie sticker added to the bubble to try to take advantage of the movie and sell some more units. Another possibility is that the stickers were added to existing product after the fact. According to MOTUology, these figures were marked G9 on the back and were the last He-Man and Skeletor figures produced. They are not present on the 1987 product list, but it could have been a decision made after that particular list was made. I’ll provide more updates as I learn more.
My take is that these lists are probably largely correct, even if there are a couple of errors, and they are enormously helpful on providing a clearer picture of the actual distribution and eventual demise of the original Masters of the Universe line in the US.
Text Transcriptions of the lists
I’ve transcribed the 1986 and 1987 lists below, so that you can search for any toy by name. Please note that “Current” in the 1986 list just means 1986, and “Current” in the 1987 list means 1987.
1986 MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE LIST
Attak Trak 5470: 83 – 85
Bashasaurus 9039: 85 – Current
Battle Armor He-Man 7302: 84 – 85
Battle Armor Skeletor 7301: 84 – 85
Battle Bones 9173: 85 – Current
Battle Cat 5048: 82 – Current
Battle Ram 3990: 82 – 85
Beam Blaster 3139: 86 ½ – Current
Beastman 5043: 82 – Current
Blasterhawk 2607: 86 – Current
Buzz-Off 4923: 84 – Current
Buzz Saw Hordak 1732: 86 ½ – Current
Castle Grayskull 3991: 82 – Current
Clawful 7017: 84 – 85
Dragon Blaster Skeletor 9017: 85 – Current
Dragon Walker: 4902: 84 – 85
Dragstor 2313: 86 – Current
Eternia 2855: 86 – Current
Evil Lyn 4712: 83 – Current
Extendar 2797: 86 – Current
Faker 4482: 83 – 84, 86 ½ – Current
Fisto 7015: 84 – 85
Flying Fists He-Man 9413: 86 – Current
Fright Fighter 1053: 86 – Current
Fright Zone 9410: 85 – Current
Grizzlor 9171: 85 – Current
Hordak 9172: 85 – Current
Horde Trooper 2549: 86 – Current
Hurricane Hordak 9413: 86 – Current
Jet Sled 2084: 86 – Current
Jitsu 4924: 84 – 85
King Hiss 2420: 86 – Current
King Randor 3068: 86 ½ – Current
Klamp Champ [Clamp Champ] 3073: 86 ½ – Current
Kobra Khan 7098: 84 – Current
Krak Attak [Blast Attak] 1710: 86 ½ – Current
Land Shark 7892: 85 – Current
Laser Bolt 9602: 86 – Current
Leech 9169: 85 – Current
Man-At-Arms 5041: 82 – Current
Man-E-Faces 5879: 83 – 85
Mantenna 9168: 85 – Current
Mantisaur 2085: 86 – Current
Mega laser 2083: 86 – Current
Mekaneck 4919: 83 – 85
Merman 5046: 82 – 85
Modulok 9174: 85 – Current
Monstroid 2418: 86 – Current
Mosquitor 1191: 86 ½ – Current
Moss Man 9219: 85 – Current
Multi-Bot 2312: 86 – Current
Night Stalker 4965: 84 – Current
Ninjor 3069: 86 ½ – Current
Original He-Man 5040: 82 – Current
Original Skeletor 5042 82 – Current
Orko 7354: 84 – Current
Panthor 4714: 83 – Current
Point Dread/Talon Fighter 4306: 83 – 84
Prince Adam 7353: 84 – Current
Ram Man 5896: 83 – 84
Rattlor 2036: 86 – Current
Rio Blast 2792 86 – Current
Road Ripper 4903: 84 – 85
Roboto 9041: 85 – Current
Rokkon 9863: 86 – Current
Roton 4892: 84 – Current
Scare Glow 3072: 86 ½ – Current
Screech 4713: 83 – 85
Slime 2487: 86 – Current
Slime Pit 9989: 86 – Current
Snake Mountain: 4949: 84 – Current
Snout Spout 2803: 86 – Current
Sorceress 1787: 86 ½ – Current
Spikor 7986: 85 – 85
Spydor 9055: 85 – Current
Squeeze 1417: 86 ½ – Current.
Stilt Stalkers 2082: 86 – Current
Stinkor 9236: 85 – Current
Stonedar 9862: 86 – Current
Stratos 5047: 82 – 85
Stridor 4966: 84 – Current
Sy-Klone 7997: 85 – Current
Teela 5045: 82 – Current
Terror Claws Skeletor 9413: 86 – Current
Thunder Punch He-Man 9056: 85 – Current
Trap Jaw 4302: 83 – 85
Tri-Klops 4301: 83 – 85
Tung Lashor 2331: 86 – Current
Two Bad 9040: 85 – Current
Tyrantisauros-Rex [Tyrantisaurus Rex] 1273: 86 ½ – Current
Weapons Pack 7303: 84 – Current
Webstor 4895: 84 – Current
Whiplash 4935: 84 – 85
Windraider 5117: 82 – Current
Zoar 4014: 83 – Current
Zodak 5044: 82 – 84
1987 MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE LIST
Blade Figure 3295: 87 – Current
Bionatops 3061: 87 – Current
Clamp Champ 3073: 87 – Current
Cliff Climber Power Gear 1942: 87 – Current
Evil Twistoid Figure 3025: 87 – Current
Gigantisaur 1399: 87 – Current
Gwildor Figure 3294: 87 – Current
Heroic Rotar Figure 3024: 87 – Current
Saurod Creature 3670: 87 – Current
Snake Face 1967: 87 – Current
Tower Tools Power Gear 1947: 87 – Current
Turbodactyl 1858: 87 – Current
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