Pros and Cons of the Vintage 1980s Masters of the Universe line !!!

The Pros and Cons series looks back at an old popular toy line from the nineteen eighties , the original Masters of the Universe toy line . A Pros and Cons Review was also done for the current Masters of the Universe Classics line, and in case you missed that review here's the link to it - http://actionfigureimagerytoyreviews.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-pros-and-cons-of-masters-of.html . Now on to the old 1980s vintage Masters of the Universe toy line.

                              The Pros and Cons of the original MOTU  
                       Masters of the Universe 
                                 (  The   Positives  )  

( 1 )   EVERY  FIGURE  CAME  WITH  A  MINI-COMIC  -  Plus the  mini - comics were awesome. The comics themselves were among the features that made the toys popular . I remember as a kid wanting a second figure of Teela even though I already had her in my collection . The reason being was that this time around Teela came with a new mini-comic, so I wanted that same figure just for that comic, and not for the figure .

( 2 )  THERE  WERE  SOME  NICE  PLAY-SETS  IN  THE  LINE -   The play sets are Castle Grayskull , Snake Mountain ,  Point Dread , The Slime Pit  , The Fright Zone and The Eternia Towers Play-set, which allows the connection of Grayskull and Snake Mountain to attach to it to create a super size play set .

( 3 ) PLENTY  OF  COOL  VEHICLES  WITH  NICE  FEATURES  SUCH   AS  BEING   BATTERY  OPERATED, ALSO  SOME  COOL  ANIMAL  CHARACTERS    -     Among the battery operated vehicles are Attak Trak , Spydor , Dragon-Walker , and  Beam-Blaster and Artillery . Some of the ones with nice action features are the Wind Raider with its rescuing rope and the Battle-Ram with missile launching action . As for the beasts, the creators of these characters really let their imagination run wild with a green tiger with yellow stripes and a purple panther , thus turning into Battle-Cat and Panthor . Also don't forget about Zoar and Screech , along with Strydor and Night Stalker . As for Battle Bones, many may debate rather he should be considered a vehicle or animal ? I say he belongs in the animal category because he once was an actual living dinosaur with flesh, brought back to life with magic .

( 4 ) THEY  STAND  BETTER  THAN  A  LOT  OF  TODAY'S  FIGURES  -   Another great thing about the vintage MOTU is that they can stand very well without falling . The " bent knees " on every figure not only are great for battle and fight poses , the " bent knees " on the figures also help maintain balance .

( 5 ) LOTS  OF  FIGURES  COME  WITH  COOL  UNIQUE  WEAPONS  -  One thing I like about the vintage MOTU is that there are all sorts of weapons characters / figures come with . It's not just all swords and guns . Plus the weapons are unique . Beast-Man's bullwhip, Webstor's grappling hook, Clamp-Champ's clamp , etc. I could go on and on , are among my favorite weapons in the line .

( 6 )  THE  CARD-BACKS  HAVE  NICE  ART  ON  THEM  ALONG  WITH  THE  PACKAGING  FOR  THE  VEHICLES, PLAY SETS AND  ANIMAL  FIGURES -
The first few card backs of the original eight figures just displayed drawn images of those figures . Later on characters would be displayed in action plus you would get mini instructions on how to make their action features work . Also there is plenty of great artwork with the characters in action with everything from Castle Grayskull to the vehicles and beast characters .

( 7 )  THE  ACTION  FEATURES  IS  WHAT  REALLY  MADE  THE  FIGURES  FUN  -  The original eight figures just had the " twist waist for power punch " feature . Then later in the line Mattel took things a step further by giving individual action features to characters rather than have everyone do the same thing . Sy-Klone spins, Kobra Khan and Snout Spout squirt water, etc .

( 8 ) THE  VINTAGE  MOTU  ALSO  HELPED  SPIN-OFF  OTHER  GREAT  MOTU-RELATED  MERCHANDISE  AND  PRODUCTS  -
If not for the original MOTU figures, there would be no cartoons, no She-Ra , and not even MOTU Classics . A lot of fans that were born after the release of the line may think that the Filmation cartoon came before the toys, however we all know that the toys came before all of the toons including She-Ra and the New Adventures of He-Man. Also other great MOTU -related products such as comics, magazines , etc . would not exist if not for the original vintage line .

( 9 ) SUPER 7  ARE  MAKING  VINTAGE  STYLED  FIGURES  TODAY  JUST  IN  CASE  YOU  MAY  WANT  TO  ADD  ON  TO  YOUR  ORIGINAL  VINTAGE  MOTU  COLLECTION -  Have you always wanted those non produced He-Ro and Eldor figures from that Powers of Grayskull line ? Thanks to Super 7 they can now be yours along with other vintage styled figures . I think this is very cool that Super 7 is doing this. So not only are they just focusing on adding to the MOTU Classics , but they also want to keep fans of the vintage toys happy too . You can visit the Super 7 store at this link  - https://super7.com/ .

( 10 )  TODAY  THERE  ARE  OTHER  FRANCHISES  AND  TOY  LINES  MAKING  FIGURES  IN  THE  SAME  DESIGN  AND  STYLE  AS  THE  VINTAGE  MOTU  -   For example , the Mortal Kombat and Thunder-Cat figures that are  designed in the same fashion as the vintage MOTU . So if you want to have a vintage MOTU crossover with some Mortal Kombat figures on your display shelves, now you can . Plus other toy lines have also produced vintage MOTU style figures in the 1980s , such as the Sun-Man series by Olmec Toys .

Now for the negatives , the Cons .

       The  Cons  of  the vintage  Masters of the Universe  line 
                           (  The  Negatives ) 

( 1 )  SOME  OF  THE  RARE  FIGURES  FROM  THE  VINTAGE  LINE  ARE  SUPER  EXPENSIVE  TODAY  -   You may have to save two or three full time paychecks from your job in order to purchase vintage versions of Megator , Tytus , the Eternia Playset and Wonder Bread He-Man . For those not familiar with the mysterious Wonder-Bread He-Man figure, rumors has it that this brown haired He-Man figure was involved in a prize give-away by none other than who else, the Wonder Bread company . A complete  Eternia Playset at the time of this writing , while still inside the box may now cost you above the thousand dollar mark .

( 2 )  THE  FIGURES  WERE  NOT  MADE  FOR  ROUGH  PLAY -   This situation is not a problem now as an adult but it was as a kid . This was my only gripe about the vintage line not related to the pricing of the rare figures . A lot of my old He-Man figures lost their legs when I was a child playing with them. The rubber bands that hold the legs together just were not strong enough in a lot of figures . Especially in the older figures . As the line aged the newer figures did not have the same type of problem, despite using the same rubber bands to hold the legs together . However now as an adult I'm not bothered by the rubber bands being used to hold the legs together.

Well that's it for now folks. I hope you all enjoyed the article . Below the vintage He-Man figure and The Meteorbs .