Top 10 Vintage Masters of the Universe Action Figures
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 31 июл 2024
- Subscribe Now and watch all our videos featuring vintage and retro toys from the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Our Channel includes vintage toy reviews, restoration tips and featurettes about the hobby of vintage toy collecting.
Like us on Facebook: analogtoys77
Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/Analog_Toys
Email us at: torturedgeniusfilms@gmail.com 
Развлечения
FIRST (though probably not by the time I finish this post!)
Awesome video - MOTU has anyways been "my" toyline. I love it's lore, it's concept... and I'm one of the select band that actually prefers the early, barbarian, non-Prince Adam, pre-Filmation version, and the classic first two waves of figures that went with it, which IMO included the best characters of the whole line. Many people forget/don't realise the toyline predated the Filmation cartoon and wasn't actually based on that series (vice versa, though I used to love rushing excitedly home from school on a Monday afternoon to watch the cartoon series on Children's ITV. Things got a bit too "anything goes" over-gimmicky later on the original line's run, which I feel contributed to the line's eventual end in the late '80s, but the earlier days were spectacular.
I had a fair range of the figures as a boy (and the iconic Castle Grayskull), kept them all prestine, and still have them (Skeletor resides in my rucksack and often makes a cameo in various photos and videos I do!) In the late 1990s/early 2000s I slowly collected a full line of the figures, having all of them except the ultra-rare, late giants and Laser Lights figures. Sadly when times got hard I had to sell this set on, but could never part with my beloved originals.
Off the top of my head, my own Top 10:
10) Buzz-Off - Never had him in my original collection, until collecting the full line years later. I'm including him here because he's actually my father's favourite character and still often makes references to "Bee Man", so for that kinda gets a "honorary mention"
9) Modulok - A member of the Evil Horde (which I never liked as much as Skeletor's Evil Warriors as I feel it watered the concept down slightly) and a little gimmicky - yet awesome. 26-odd seperate parts to create endless monster creations. I spent HOURS playing with this (and amazingly still have never lost a single part!)
8) Dunno who to stick in this slot, as early but key entries Man-At-Arms or Mer Man could both qualify (though Mer Man never looked as good as his box art). Beast Man was good but his arm armour was always clunky. I want to go for Roboto in a way but he's a bit too far from the early barbarian side of things. I'll go with Man-At-Arms.
7) Man-E-Faces - great looking, great fun to play with, and great that he could be either a Heroic or Evil Warrior - prefect when I already had He-Man and Skeletor and couldn't decide if I wanted to use my pocket money a Heroic or Evil figure next!
6) Teela - One of the very few female looking figures. A tough character and a beautiful looking figure.
5) He-Man - The lead hero. In his original, iconic form. I like to think of the original figure as the early barbarian version seen in the earliest mini-comics. None of that old Prince Adam rubbish for me (controversial). Might be iconic but he's outdone by #4....
4) Skeletor - Ultrra-Iconic. Could write a whole essay. And often do elsewhere. But simply iconic. Timeless.
3) Tri-Klops - I love his simple but great concept, fitting with the early hybrid Greek/Roman feels of the early figures. I'm going with his figure and mini-comic version, where he seemed to be some sort of mercenary bounty hunter, not the generic bumbling henchman he appeared as in the Filmation series, making only a few appearances.
2) Trap Jaw - Actually ties as my first place, just so incredibly awesome. ...I'm actually writing this and knew you'd pick him as #1 before I got that far in the video
1) Faker - Because he was so seldom seen, so mysterious... and I loved him. I had him early on and he remained one of my favourites throughout. A robotic blue He-Man.
I gotta disagree that Ram Man is the worst figure of the entire line. He is indeed clunky, and constructed very differently to the typical figure, but I feel has his own charm (in fact, nearly got #8 slot on my own list), and fits in well with the first two waves character-wise. Worst for me is Snout Spout - sums up the gimmicky, "anything goes" take of the later line. BTW, even back then Jitsu was seldom used due to concerns over being a stereotype. He only ever appeared in one episode of the cartoon series (early episode "The Dragon Invasion") where the script used his working title, Chopper.
By the way, love the way you pronounce Roboto - It's meant to be said like "Robot-O", but from now until suppertime I shall say it your way. If it should come up in daily conversation! :)
Love the number of edits and mods I ended up making to that post... I really do need to get my own blog or RUclips channel going sometime soon!! ;)
@Kneon Knight This is true to an extent; He-Man is notable for the first cartoon tie-in to a toyline when restrictions were lifted in the early '80s. However I don't feel they were any more "one big toy commerical" than many of the offerings now, which are rather 'compulsory' for a toyline and often rather bland and a result. Certainly MOTU, and to a great extent 'Thundercats', did have very large fleshed out worlds, and often episodes focusing on guest characters (especially one-off villains) that were never available in toy form. I also gotta say that I was collection the toyline long before there was ever a cartoon series of MOTU; in fact, whilst I have a lot of affection for the Filmation He-Man series, it is a version of the franchise's canon that I don't care for as much, and the original mini-comics with characters had quite a different - and sometimes quite darker - version of the world.
@@pjgathergood6987 Yeah, the early version of He-Man felt inspired by Heavy Metal magazine more than anything, along with the fantasy art of folks like Vallejo. I also don't hold He-Man's corporate origins against it. As Tony showed in his Action Man documentary, just because something is designed to sell doesn't mean that it can't have a great deal of creativity and even love behind it.
@Kneon Knight That's been a favorite and well worn comment of cynics since the debut of MOTU episode 1 and repeated towards all the cartoon series you mentioned and more. Thing is that is ABSOLUTELY what the toy companies had in mind when they were given the go but a strange thing happened. They hired talented writers like J. Michael Straczynski, Michael Reeves, Paul Dini, Bruce Timm, among others and they made some interesting stories, and for someone like myself who earns a living with their imagination, I give credit to all these 80's cartoons that inspired me, all because I tuned in to see what my new toy was up to.
@@TheRealColBosch Although He-Man's exact origins, and who was behind them, have long since been debated. Aside from the age-old 'It was originally meant to be a Conan toyline until Mattel bailed out' rumour (elements are true) there's been the long running debate if Mark Taylor or Roger Sweet was behind 'creating' the line. Roger Sweet devised the line (working title, "Lords of Power", vetoed for being too religious-sounding) into a franchise, but all of the earliest characters were based on Mark Taylor's fantasy art (much of it featuring characters that closely resemble He-Man, Skeletor, etc.) from sketches he had developed for at least 15 years prior.
I've always found, that the Man-at-Arms action figure looked like Ernest Borgnine.
LOL. Now cannot unsee XD
@@banzaibobA7V 🙂
One of my favs will ever be Grizzlor ! I brought this figure with me in kindergarden instead of a teddy... and the teacher didn't allow me to keep it !
alfr83 lol! I took my Grizzlor to show and tell when I was in 2nd grade 😎
He was mine also! Him & Moss man I have them both now Unopened since 80s! Such awesome figures!
Trapjaw definitely deserves the #1 spot! So many great figures that choosing 10 is very difficult! Although Thunder-Punch He-Man would definitely make my top 10!
"Skeletor to King Randor, come in you royal boob." LOLOLOL The art of the insult.
PS I never noticed as a kid how smok'in hot Evil-Lyn was.
Mosquitor was one of my favourites!
Wholeheartedly agree with your choice of Trap Jaw as number one. Cool figure. Still remember every square millimeter of that toy.
Totally agree with your number 1 selection - Trap Jaw was simply AWESOME and THE best figure I owned 👌🏼👌🏼
I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who loved Trap Jaw!!! Him and Tri-Klops were the double whammy! But I honestly think every single figure has been my favorite at one point lol
I had my dad paint a spare he-man to create a custom Faker. I believe to this day the blue paint still hasn't properly dried.
AGREED TRAPJAW #1 FOR PLAY FEATURES. YOU LEFT OUT 1 FEATURE. . . . THE GLOWING RING THAT CAME IN HIS ORIGINAL PACKAGING. That was the brightest glowing,
(glow in the dark) toy, I ever had! As a kid, my room was kind of messy and one night, I turned the lights off and I saw this green light amongst the pile of rubbish in my room. I thought to myself "what the hell is that?" I turned on the light and found it. I thought to myself "I've been looking for this." That is such a good memory for me, that I recently paid $15 for a nice one, on eBay. I also have a photo of myself with blond hair behind Castle Grayskull in front of the Christmas tree on Christmas morning 1982 at age 8 !
Glowing ring? Have to look into that. He'll remember such a thing at all. Starting to clock more He-Man stop. Just got Sideshow premium format He-Man and Skeletor statues.. On top of the whole set of commemorative figures. I picked up a week or two ago. Going ring huh? I'm a total blank on that one
@@miragexl007 I would post an image of it HERE, if I could!
It would be easy to find.
Just Google image
"Trap Jaw original packaging"
Him and Triclops both were packaged with a glowing
Greyskull ring. It had like a face of Castle Grayskull in black on it, and you can open it up. It said "MASTERS" on the inside. Just Google it.
Wow- I totally forgot about that ring until you mentioned it! I remember finding it, later in my teenage years and being like, what the hell did this go to? Even then I forgot it came with a He-Man character.
It actually looks like it came as a bonus accessory with a bunch of different figures at one point. I just saw a Tri- Klops figure on google with the ring included, so it wasn't limited to Trap Jaw.
Was waiting for Trapjaw, I know he'll be on the list, but didn't expect him as number 1. Awesome video.
Wheres man e faces
More like man e feces
Gabriel Bassoli Rodrigues de Souza agree Man-E-Faces over Jitsu
T Gill yes. Man - e- faces definitely deserved a spot on the list
Thanks for another great video Tony. He-Man was my very first fandom - my 3rd birthday party in 1985 was He-Man themed. I went absolutely nuts any time I got anything He-Man related. There are so many fantastic figures in this line - Rio Blast is one I'd have suggested as a top ten contender. He had a lot of unique play features and a very distinct style.
Rio Blast was my favorite. I should record a clip about him for Toy Polloi's Pocket Money series sometime.
Modulok is my top pick, but I also loved Modulok and Webstor. Honorable mentions are Stinkor and Cobra-Khan for little-boy shenanigans value.
Great list and top notch production, as always. Trap Jaw gives me 2000AD vibes!
I remember seeing that poster in 1983. It blew my mind!
Great list and soooo many memories! I also used to love Stinkor.... Beastman.. And Hordak
I loved my He Man figures, they kept me busy on Christmas Day while my mum and dad did the Christmas dinner, beast man was my favourite,
Beast Man was my first MOTU figure and was my favorite. I remember we went somewhere once and I left it outside, and our dog got it and I found the figure in a pile of tiny peaces in the backyard. By that time, Beast Man had become difficult to find in stores with all the newer characters that had been released since then. The one department store in town that we didn't go to for toys often was K-Mart, and we finally tried K-Mart and there were three Beast Man figures available and I finally got my new one.
@@torrjpct9492 amazing personal toy history , with a truly blissful ending surprisingly!! (did u buy one more BM to keep mint on card? ;)
@@user-tt6be2zx3h No, but I wish I did. Wouldn't have thought of it then. It did look better when brand new.
Another video Tony! Love your content! Keeping me rolling👍😁
Spot on as always. Man-at-Arms was always a favorite. I hope you a video on the vehicles/mounts. Also good choice as Ram-Man for worse. My cousin and I were playing shortly after Christmas and and his Ram-Man broke a week or so after he got it.
Learned some things I didn't know! Great video, Tony!
Lovely reference at 3:16! For those who didn't know, the shot is from the fanmade MOTU episode "Return Of Faker" by BustaToons.
I always found Buzz-Off as one of the best. He was also first of my MOTU action figures. Also my mom was supercool at that time to knitt me a buzz-off sweater XD
I agree with almost all of it! Happy to see Trap Jaw #1, and both regular and Battle Armor Skeletor. I always sorta liked RamMan, but I understand your reasoning. Great list.
Nice list. I remember hating Ram man too. He was always rattling with worn out spring legs. Glad a kept a few of my vintage MOTU figures. Just such a great line
Life long fan of MotU and new fan of this channel. Awesome vid. YOU have the power!
RiggsHB thanks mate, welcome aboard!
I'd add Webber! Had a cool grappling hook that retracted! Trap Jaw was hard to find as a kid but everyone wanted one!
Webstor😄
I don't think I had one.
Nicely done sir. I like your picks and the reason you choice them.
I like some of your choices but my list would definitely include:
-Hordak
-Grizzlor
-Moss Man
-Modulok
-Man-E-Faces
Absolutly right about the number one pic. Great video !!
No Thunderpunch He-Man?! That’s the dopest action figure ever! I used to go through so many caps. Wow. Good times 👊🏽💥
thanks to a very generous grandma, i had the majority of the motu figures and vehicles. one thing i always enjoyed was the many characters seemed to have a counterpart/ rival thay worked for the other team, even if the only basis for that was the play gimmick. roboto and trap-jaw, fisto and jitsu, man-e-faces vs triklops, etc.
of course, other factors created rivalries in my motu play, such as mekanek and triklops both having scout/recon roles, man-at-arms and trap-jaw both being inventors, etc...
A fantastic line, one of my childhood favorites. (Wifey collects the current 'Classics' range.) Got Beast Man ($3.29) in my Easter basket before ever seeing any TV ads or promo materials....I was floored; a definite childhood 'WTF moment', heh. The first few years/series are golden.
Recently found your channel. Thanks for the memories, man. Seem like this channel ought to have more subscribers...
Thanks Uncle Lou!
One of my dad's friends worked for a department store and before they were available in stores, gave my dad a Merman, a Beast Man, a He-man and a Skeletor for me. I was instantaneously crazy about MOTU. I remember being amazed at the hyper-masculine characters and their armor and weapons. Those first little comics that came with them, too.
Nice video. Very informative!
Always loved hunting these figures out at all the different stores. I guessed trap jaw as #1. I still remember finding him at the local CVS, it was a big day!
I can't agree more with the #1 pick. Trap-Jaw owned in the early 80's and still does today.
Hello, You are my idol.............you made me remembered those times!!! thanks for that!!!
Thanks Tony - Another top video!
I had the best time with Sy-Clone and MAN-E-Faces though! LOL But I have to give a shout out to Stinkor, Webstor and I cant remember the name of the one that looked like a snake that you could actually put water in and make water mist when you pushed down the head! LOL I loved my childhood!
Kobra Khan
Excellent video. I still have my MOTU figures. Rock On!!
I used to make Trap-Jaw lip sync to songs on the radio. :)
Moss Man! !!!!!! I have Mossman! !!!!!! And he is smell good before 35 years! Rsrsrsrsrs
He is a great Master OF Mattel Universe !!!!!!
Total Like for this vídeo from Brazil! !!!!!!!!!
I'm surprised that Scare Glow didn't make the list.
About a year too late but, yeah I 100% agree! I own two of those loose and complete. Also one carded.
You ever look at someone, and think, "Dang, that guys old." , but then you realize you're the same age?
Great list. Obviously this is all subjective but the most interesting ones to me when I was a kid, and I'm going in ascending order: Man-E-Faces, Tri-clops, Trap Jaw, Scare Glow, Fisto, Kobra Khan, Webstor, Faker, He-man, Skeletor. Had a fondness for Mechaneck and Whiplash, too. I dug the OGs, and I dug the varied gadgetry they all had. Never had a problem with Ram Man. He and Stratos were the first two I obtained. They were gifts for me when I was 4 and had the flu. That shit hit me in my formative years.
Some of my personal favourites were Tri Klops and Trap Jaw. Trap Jaw looking back was such good value for the time with the different weapons and how you could have outfitted with or without the belt or should plate.
Webstor was fun with his grappling hook but mine used to break all of the time. Fisto and Jitsu were fun to.
I don't think there was a child anywhere who didn't have Webstor's grappling hook backpack fail on them! :)
(Fun fact: Early designs for the figure had the grappling hook and rope coming directly from the figure, more in keeping with a spider shooting it's web, but production limitations prevented this, so the mechanism was moved to the backpack instead).
Great video mate! 👍 Trapjaw was my favorite too!
*Good review!!!* 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Thank you so much! 80s toys were awesome! Regards from Germany.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Another great video cheers
Awesome video man
😎👍🏿 great list and great 👍🏿 video
Trap Jaw is #1, but my second favorite is easily Triclops!
My favorite is the original Skeletor!
Couldn’t agree more on trap-jaw! I also liked triclops,man-e-faces,stratos & moss man beastmans fuzzy cousin! Who am I kidding I liked them all even klunky old ram-man👍🏻great video. Takes me back.
Great picks and video I need to do a similar one
Thanks for the upload! Just like so many others He-Man™ is by far the most epic toy line that side by side with the greatest cartoon episode story line show made the combo over the top compared to my other loves of G I Joe, Matchbox, LJN WWF figure line. The love of this series even tho it died at the end of the greatest toy decade ever 1980's my love has endured. I also appreciate you getting right to the point of your list no bs hijinx like most other like minded channels that specialized in our endeared toys but they shortly out themselves as ego driven motivated videos becoming more about the host than the alleged list. Great job BTW. I'm a sucker for Faker and Roboto myself.
Trap Jaw is 100% the best motu figure ever. Great video.
I always enjoyed Trapjaw, too. I would've included Fisto, Webstor, Whiplash, Grizzlor, and Mossman. They were fun. I agree that Skeletor was a finely designed badass!
I wish I had all these figures
Amazing!
Great video
Evil-Lyn is so much wicked, evil and deadly.
I would have added Webstor to this list.
Agreed. Obviously it's all subjective, but no Kobra Khan? No Clawful? Jitsu but not Fisto? What the fuck?
Webstor was the first one I totally messed up due to his tricky rope backpack. What a chaos with the string! :-)
Webster was always my first pick back when I was a kid. On this list I'd sub him in for King Randor. As an adult he's def a cool figure, but as a kid I think the appeal of playing with the hero's dad seemed kind of lame.
Agreed. Relatively simple action feature, but with a lot of play value. I used to just play with Webstor by himself, making him climb things all over the house.
Webstor was one of my favorites as well. Lots of fun to have him climb up and down.
Great list hard to pick your favourite do like skeletor
Love this greetings from Sweden
Good list.
I remember being about 5 years old sat in the back of my mum's car as she was having a driving lesson playing with jitsu.
Seeing that soft head of his now, I just remembered sitting in the backseat and pulling his leg and somehow getting my thumb pinched really hard at his hip. It drew blood but i didn't say anything cause my mum was really concentrating. Hahaha.
Wow. Not thought about that in years, decades.
Man-e-faces is not on list! That was a fantastic MOTU figure in the 80s.
Great list. I have Merman and Kobra Khan in my own top ten with many of those same figures.
9:18 He also appeared in the movie ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’
Love for Jitsu! I don't really see the racial thing as an issue here since the characters in He-Man were often caricatures, and I think just representing a different type of fantasy warrior gives it kudos.
I always wanted Faker - I have no idea why I wanted him so much! Him and Tri-Klops were the ones I wanted the most but never got.
I was getting ready to disagree with whoever you chose to be the top... but Trap Jaw is a good choice.
To be honest, it was a bit of a knee-jerk reaction by Mattel. The character was never 'officially' dropped, just kinda little used and dropped into the background a bit - as were several other characters, not for any 'stereotype' reasons, just they weren't really focussed on. I can vaguely see the concerns but find it hard to find anything really "offensive" about Jitsu.
One of the things I appreciate so much about the 80s is that political correctness was still so far at the horizon.
Just put those toys on the shelves again looks so much cooler than the basic Marvel and Star Wars and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stuff that’s out on the shelves today
In addition to Trap-Jaw, my other favorite was Webstor due to his grappling hook.
Πολυ ωραιο βιντεο Tony! Ευχαριστω!!!
And “Ro-boat-o” is the inspiration for Gear Head!
Strange how your mind works when you're a kid. I knew Faker was basically He-Man made with a different color plastic, but it didn't stop me thinking it was the coolest and most mysterious thing ever! Agree about Ram Man....he was just a wrong 'un.
I loved Buzz Off with his big wings. And Moss Man, Stinkor and Webstor.
Interesting list.
Great picks!! even though my favorite character (merman) didnt make your list!
I HAVE THE POWER great video man
Battle Armor He-Man and Skeletor are beautiful figures, those are for sure the best variant.
Webstor was my favorite, that spider-man action was the BEST!
Agreed trap jaw is the best. Would have slid scareglow somewhere on there!
I have Moss man or whatever his name was. He even smells like grass. He was the limited release they did a few years ago. I sooo wish I would’ve kept the ones I had when I was little. My mom probably gave them to goodwill.
I wish I still had my Slime Pit.
I had number 10,2 and number one 😁 miss them all
i fondly remember the times we played with the figures back then. I always played on the Evil Warriors side, cause then i could play as Trap-Jaw..... from being a young boy to today my favourite Action Figure from the line.
I have to agree with Trap-Jaw. I would have swapped out some of the others on your list for Man-E-Faces, Buzz-Off and Mekanek. Also, I loved Ram-Man. Sure looking back the toy was pants quality, but he was my favourite character and therefore I didn't care at the time.
It was always fun having Trap Jaw fight Roboto
My top 5 vintage Masters of The Universe figures.
1) He-Man = Something about He-Man always has appealed to me,from his design to his barbarian battle axe to his iconic Power Sword and his lessons at the end of the 80's cartoon. I remember my dad giving me his old He-Man which I still have posed in my bedroom today.
2) Man-at-arms = I love Man-at-arms! He is by far my favourite MOTU Character from his Sci-Fi esque armour and his colour scheme along with his personality with him being stoic and serious but having a softer side towards Prince Adam and his daughter Teela.
3) Battle Armor Skeletor = You take Skeletor,slap some battle armour with a cool design and cool action feature on it and bam! He was one of my dad's favorites and he became one of mine all those years later.
5) Beast Man = As a kid I loved the way he looked. My dad also told me he could control monsters and I imagined him using his whip to keep the beasts under control. I liked him as a kid and I like him today.
Who is #4?
@@MrJon76 Oh sh** I didn't realise my mistake!
@@MrJon76 4) Hordak
Trap Jaw is #1. Beast Man shoulda been there as well and Evil Lynn..Clawful and Fisto... Overall the villains much kewler than the heroes
Is That What Empty Means?
Piiiit unbjju
Good list. There were so many great figures to choose from. I would've had Thunder Punch He-Man on there somewhere. Ram-Man was terrible as was Orko.
Skeletor having battle armor makes more since than Heman
Trap Jaw is still a great character in the 2000x line.
He was terrifying design wise
Remember the glow-in-the-dark ring he came with too? It had that little compartment you could open up too. Man, I miss the eighties.
Love the video since I graduated in 85' I didn't play with MOTU as a kid but do collect the OG and 200x series and have to give honorable mention to SCAREGLOW. The original as well as MOTU Classic are highly desired and commanding top $ on EBay.
please a review of the entire collection in 3 or more episodes. Im a huge motu fan.
My heart sank when Mosquitor wasn’t in Trap Jaw’s spot.
I agree 100% with this list!!