Recommended music: Colter Wall – Snake Mountain Blues
Happy Monday, MOTU fans! Slithering by on this #MastersMonday, we’ve covered every vehicle from 1984 in the vintage Mattel Masters of the Universe toy line, so tonight, we’re moving on to Snake Mountain!
Snake Mountain was a favorite playset of mine as a kid. The “Evil stronghold of Skeletor” likely held just as many battles in my childhood playroom, or possibly more than my Castle Grayskull playset. I think the exterior depiction of Skeletor’s lair in the Filmation He-Man and the Masters of the Universe animated series was not nearly as exciting as the exterior of this playset, with little monsters carved into the stone.
This week, I continued using William George’s amazing packaging art as the base for my picture. I had to leave more of the original art than usual because I forgot to photograph the three characters and the bridge as shown on the box. 😜 I didn’t actually ever have the box as a kid, but I can remember my mother picking this complete playset up at a second-hand store, though I was still amazed by all the play features.
From the big movable snake, to the trap door with a net, to the shackle prison, to the incredible demon artwork inside, I was in love. My favorite feature was probably the included wolf’s head microphone, which would give you an echoing voice that, as a kid, you also imagined was booming and terrifying to your heroic warriors stepping onto Skeletor’s turf.
As an adult collector, I’ve modified a few of these playsets into larger custom projects, but ultimately passed on the Masters of the Universe Classics and Origins reissues, as they just didn’t live up to the original.
#MastersOfTheUniverse
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