Tag: toys

POP Bow and custom Arrow

Recommended music: Eddie Rabbitt ~ I Love a Rainy Night (Live)

Happy #MastersMonday, He-Fans and She-Ravers! Since we’ve covered most releases through 1984 in the vintage Mattel Masters of the Universe toy line, let’s switch it up to Princess of Power. Tonight, we’re talking about Bow!

While the Filmation She-Ra: Princess of Power animated series was a direct spin-off of the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series, it never appealed to me in my youth the way the original series had. Though the She-Ra series was written with a young female audience in mind, I think there were several other factors for my passing on the show during childhood: I didn’t realize just how well the stories connected, incorporating He-Man and his backstory into many episodes. I didn’t know how much Hordak and other villains from the Masters of the Universe toy line were a major part of the series. The design of the POP toy line, with its soft-goods dolls, was not as appealing to me as the MOTU line. Finally, I’m not sure when it aired, and I know the syndication schedule was not as easy to find the show on TV as the earlier He-Man series.

In the She-Ra animated series, Bow was the only prominent male member of the Rebellion, and he shows up early in the first episode to bring the familiar Prince Adam to meet up with this new cast of main characters. For the toy line, Bow was the ONLY MALE character to get a figure in the entire line, which I guess is only fair, as the Masters of the Universe line only had three female figures out of around 70 figures in that line.

The vintage figure came with a cape, chest armor, a gold bow, a gold headband, and a mini-comic “The Hidden Symbols Mystery.” While my loose figure is missing all of that, he does retain the action feature of a button on his back that makes the red heart on his chest “beat” when pressed. One thing the figure was missing: his signature mustache from the Filmation series.

Thankfully, as an adult collector, the Masters of the Universe Classics version of the character did feature his mustache (see yesterday’s post for a picture of this head). Also, Bow’s horse “Arrow” was cast in solid blue plastic for the vintage toy line, so I had to make him a custom steed in colors more akin to the Filmation animated color scheme.

#MastersOfTheUniverse
#PrincessOfPower
#ToyPhotography

Snake Mountain

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 seen on 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 did have to leave in more than usual because I forgot to photograph the three characters and the bridge as seen 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 a larger custom project, but ultimately passed on reincarnations of the playset from the Masters of the Universe Classics line and the Masters of the Universe Origins line, as they just didn’t live up to this original version.

#MastersOfTheUniverse
#ToyPhotography