Masters of the Universe 1987 the end of line.

[toyhunter1970]

these were after my time but have great respect for the line

[PNGwynne]

I collected MOTU while in junior high, high school, and college ('82-'83 was 9th grade for me). I was never much interested in the cartoon save for Oppenheimer's Skeletor. My appreciation of the line's mythos was from the mini-comics.

[hedrap]

It's a common misconception that either She-Ra or Filmation caused the sales decline. The cartoons were the driving force of the brand. The sales decline was brought on by Mattel flooding the market with second tier characters when retailers were begging for more He-Man, Skeletor, Beastman, Teela, etc. The characters that were featured heavily on the cartoon sold the best. Another issue was ridiculously over shipping vehicles like Bashasaurus.

Yeah, I don't believe She-Ra hurt MOTU in concept. What I said is pretty much what you stated: Around 85 they started producing crappy characters like Stinkor, Moss Man, etc...They're liked now for nostaglia, but at the time they were obvious cheapo retoolings. King Hiss and the Snake Men were garbage and nowhere near as interesting as Skeletor in design. If I had to point to you one marketing idea that did the most damage, it was the selling of Hordak and the Horde as a bigger than Skeletor. That push bombed.

[PNGwynne]

As a MOTU fan, I don't agree with your assessment of most of those characters at all, I liked many of them a lot. Reuse of tooling was common from the beginning.

[Werewolf]

As a MOTU fan, I don't agree with your assessment of most of those characters at all, I liked many of them a lot. Reuse of tooling was common from the beginning.

I adore Stinkor. The black, orange and red always screamed Halloween to me. The colors really pop.



We touched a bit on this in the peg warmer thread. It wasn't that kids even disliked figures like Buzz-off. Kids did like them. Mattel just way over shipped them and under shipped the original versions of He-Man and Skeletor.

[enyawd72]

Yeah, I don't believe She-Ra hurt MOTU in concept. What I said is pretty much what you stated: Around 85 they started producing crappy characters like Stinkor, Moss Man, etc...They're liked now for nostaglia, but at the time they were obvious cheapo retoolings. King Hiss and the Snake Men were garbage and nowhere near as interesting as Skeletor in design. If I had to point to you one marketing idea that did the most damage, it was the selling of Hordak and the Horde as a bigger than Skeletor. That push bombed.

Gotta disagree with you here...I don't really think there are any crappy characters. Stinkor and Moss Man are fan favorites, and the snake men were brilliant. Rattlor, Tung Lashor, King Hssss are all incredible figures. The line just got more and more imaginative as it went on, and parts reuse actually declined as more unique characters were introduced. As a kid, I even wanted Stonedar and Rokkon so badly I could taste it! I thought they were amazing looking.

[Earth 2 Chris]

^Stonedar and Rokkon were some of the last figures I bought. They were kind of neat, concept wise, but very floppy, due to the "transforming" feature. The fact that they came out at roughly the same time as GoBots Rock Lords kind of hurt them with me a bit.

Chris

[hedrap]

Gotta disagree with you here..

Sure, I'm not saying nobody liked them, from a creative standpoint they were really trying to go big. But the mass appeal of the new characters wasn't there. It's like GI Joe. Some people like Serpentor, but he was an utter bust when compared to Destro and Zartan. That misstep took a lot of wind of RAH.

[hedrap]

We touched a bit on this in the peg warmer thread. It wasn't that kids even disliked figures like Buzz-off. Kids did like them. Mattel just way over shipped them and under shipped the original versions of He-Man and Skeletor.

Where does this come from? Does someone have the original itemized sales records, because that's the only way it could be proven.

[Werewolf]

Where does this come from? Does someone have the original itemized sales records, because that's the only way it could be proven.

Past Mattel employees. There was a miscommunication with retail partners and they over shipped some assortments and under shipped figures like original He-Man and original Skeletor. I believe Toy Guru even has a youtube video touching on this.

[hedrap]

Past Mattel employees. There was a miscommunication with retail partners and they over shipped some assortments and under shipped figures like original He-Man and original Skeletor. I believe Toy Guru even has a youtube video touching on this.

OK. That's what I assumed it would be. I'm not directing any of this at you, wolfie. It just doesn't add up. Kenner/Mattel drowned the market in Batman variants for whichever line because Batman sells. Hasbro repeatedly added a new Snake-Eyes version, Or Optimus Prime, or Spidey...it's a common practice. But here, the claim is nobody wanted Thunder Punch/Battle Armor/Flying Fists yet everyone liked the new characters...so sales dropped off a cliff.

I think it has to be: nobody liked the He-Man/Skeletor gimmick variants and since they were the backbone of the line, sales plummeted, but the cartoons were providing enough of a return/advertising to justify keeping the line alive. I do believe sales would've been better if Mattel was more aligned with Filmation's characters, but that goes back to the core problem of who created this/who owned that.

[Werewolf]

But here, the claim is nobody wanted Thunder Punch/Battle Armor/Flying Fists yet everyone liked the new characters...so sales dropped off a cliff.

As we all know the 80s were a different toy culture from lets make Batman in every possible color. Super Powers got one figure of Batman and Superman. That would never happen now.

The He-Man and Skeletor variants were not poor sellers. Battle Armor He-man and Battle Armor Skeletor sold especially well. But if a kid could only have one He-Man and one Skeletor they are always going to go for the original versions first. The deluxe Thunder Punch and Dragon Blaster Skeletor figures also cost more. From what I understand 85 was a very strong Year for MOTU. Things started to sour in 86 when they absolutely flooded the market with new figures and vehicles. Kids could not find He-Man, Skeletor, Beastman, Trapjaw, Battle Cat etc. and became frustrated. It's not that they didn't like the new characters. They did, they were just WAY over shipped.

I do think the line was cancelled too soon and Mattel could have righted the ship. They must have thought so as well because not long after they rebooted the brand with the NA line.

Just as personal opinion I do feel there was a bit of disconnect between some of the designers and engineers at Mattel and what kids liked about the line. Kids loved the characters and the action features were an added bonus but not the main selling feature. The designers felt the action features were the main selling point and were always looking for the next gimmick to build a figure around.

[enyawd72]

As we all know the 80s were a different toy culture from lets make Batman in every possible color. Super Powers got one figure of Batman and Superman. That would never happen now.

The He-Man and Skeletor variants were not poor sellers. Battle Armor He-man and Battle Armor Skeletor sold especially well. But if a kid could only have one He-Man and one Skeletor they are always going to go for the original versions first. The deluxe Thunder Punch and Dragon Blaster Skeletor figures also cost more. From what I understand 85 was a very strong Year for MOTU. Things started to sour in 86 when they absolutely flooded the market with new figures and vehicles. Kids could not find He-Man, Skeletor, Beastman, Trapjaw, Battle Cat etc. and became frustrated. It's not that they didn't like the new characters. They did, they were just WAY over shipped.

I do think the line was cancelled too soon and Mattel could have righted the ship. They must have thought so as well because not long after they rebooted the brand with the NA line.

Just as personal opinion I do feel there was a bit of disconnect between some of the designers and engineers at Mattel and what kids liked about the line. Kids loved the characters and the action features were an added bonus but not the main selling feature. The designers felt the action features were the main selling point and were always looking for the next gimmick to build a figure around.

This is 100% accurate. Mattel even stated that's the reason they did just the opposite with the 2002 line. Lots of He-Man and Skeletor variants but hard to find the new characters. They over-corrected and unfortunately the end result was the same.

[Werewolf]

Ah, yeah, the infamous Smash Blade fiasco. In retrospect they are not even horrible looking variants. There were far, far worse in the 2002 line.



They were just so insanely over shipped. Once they shipped I saw nothing else on the pegs until the lines demise. The 2002 line was honestly not the hit Mattel wanted or expected but I do think it would have gone on a little bit longer without the Smash Blade incident. That killed MOTU at retail.

[justzeg18]

This post inspired me to look up a full MOTU release gallery (as I never realized that the figures posted above were the last wave) and I realized that along the years I've owned and sold every figure released for the original line.
I never had them all at once mind you, but it's still an odd feeling to know that the entire line has filtered through me.