Recommended music: Lynyrd Skynyrd – Free Bird
Happy Monday, MOTU fans! I hope you had a great weekend. For this #MastersMonday post from the archives, we’re looking at another creature from 1983 in the vintage Mattel Masters of the Universe toyline: it’s Screeech!
This ‘Barbarian Bird’ is a purple-and-blue repaint of Zoar, except this time, on the side of the Evil Warriors. This figure is at least the third time Mattel has used the mold, as Zoar was also a repaint of an eagle from the Big Jim toyline. Screech came armored in its “bomb pack”, could flap its wings by use of a lever on its leg, and could sit on the included perch.
The Screech figure was available in window-box packaging by itself, then later in 2-pack gift sets with Skeletor, Battle Armor Skeletor, and Trap Jaw.
The bird is briefly seen in the Filmation He-Man and the Masters of the Universe animated series, and just a few different Golden Books, where he is typically drawn small enough to perch on Skeletor’s arm before flying out to do the bidding of the evil lord of destruction. The vintage toy, being 100% parts reuse, meant that he dwarfed the basic 5.5″ figure and couldn’t reasonably attach to his master’s wrist. This scale was corrected with a smaller version of the character in the Masters of the Universe Classics line more than 25 years later.
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