I wouldn’t call myself a lifelong fan of Masters of the Universe. I have been a fan during certain periods of my life but I am not a hardcore fan by any means, which I think is evident by the way I have dropped in and out of the MOTU fandom. I think I have become much more of a fan in the last few years since the introduction of the Master of the Universe Classics toy line, which is where the second part of my story eventually gets to….
During my formative years I became a huge fan of G.I. Joe. I was completely obsessed with the property from the moment I saw my first commercial for the A Real American Hero toy line. I collected the toy line, including the vehicles and I read the comics (my first introduction to Comic Books). When the 25th Anniversary line started I was quick to jump on it and it was the beginning for a few firsts for me in toy collecting. I started to read the Toyfare magazine, I joined an online forum toy community and I began buying new toys online from places such as Big Bad Toy Store.
It was in an issue of Toyfare where I saw a picture of the new Masters of the Universe Classics. Within the pages of Toyfare there was a picture of the new He-Man and a picture of the new Skeletor. At the outset, I thought Skeletor looked great but there was something a little bit off about He-Man. I just didn’t feel he looked as good as Skeletor. This was enough to keep me away so I paid very little attention to the line and continue with collecting G.I. Joe.
While looking around on various toy news sites on the internet, every now and then I would notice a new reveal of the Masters of the Universe Classics figures. I particularly recall seeing the reveal of He-Ro, which just happened to be on April 1st, and I originally thought it was an April Fool’s Day joke. The fact that it was not a joke was enough to pique my interest in the line but not enough for me to actually commit to it. I have never been a fan of SDCC exclusives because of their limited availability so I didn’t look into it any further, until a short time later when I would find that Mattel would also sell their convention exclusives on their online Matty Collector store.
I was on the fringe of the MOTUC world but there was the issue of availability of the figures. I was reading around on the ‘net how quick they were to sell out. I just couldn’t commit to a line that I had to jump through hoops to collect with its online only sales and quick sell outs. And there was also the issue of not wanting to start collecting when the figure of the flagship character was not appealing to me. There had all ready been a handful of figures released so even if I wanted to collect them I would have to track down the earlier releases. Plus, I was stubborn and also coming up with pointless excuses as to why I wasn’t collecting the line.
When Hasbro started to move away from the 25th Anniversary figures of G.I. Joe and onto the Rise of Cobra movie line it became the catalyst for my decision to begin collecting the MOTUC toy line. I had witnessed Mattel reveal figures of He-Ro, Hordak and Webstor in the first year of the line which said to me they were serious about doing the toy line. I was unhappy with the look and the new direction of G. I. Joe but I was impressed by what I was seeing with the MOTUC line.
And so began my journey. My first MOTUC figure was Faker who I bought from a fellow G.I. Joe collector and I quickly joined the he-man.org online forum. On that forum I was able to source a Mer-Man and Zodac, who had just been released (and subsequently sold out) a few days before my decision to start collecting MOTUC.
Faker was the first figure to arrive to my door but I didn’t open it straight away because it was a convention exclusive and somewhere my OCD kicked in and wouldn’t allow me to open it. So the first figure I opened was Mer-Man once it arrived. That was all it took. I was so impressed with the figure that it stayed on my bedside table for weeks. The colours, the sculpt, the articulation and the accessories all had me engrossed. I could not believe how good these figures were. I did eventually open Faker, but only after I had bought a second one.
Not long after my initial purchases, I had my first experience on Matty Collector wherein I bought Hordak. That required me to be online at the release time which was very early in the morning here, around 2-3am. It was a crazy, intense experience but very rewarding once I had made the purchase and received my order confirmation email. This was during the days of the 1 hour sell outs so who knows what may have happened if I hadn’t been successful. I may have given up the line then and there.
Luckily, I continued to be successful with my subsequent purchases on Matty Collector, and as the time has gone on, I have become a regular subscriber, guaranteeing I never miss out on any figures, I have become both a loose and Mint on Card collector and I have both collections displayed proudly in my home. I have gone through some ups and downs with this line, sometimes not enjoying it as much as I have at other times, but then I bounce right back and it is fun and enjoyable all over again. I enjoy sharing the excitement with my fellow collectors on the new figure reveals and spending time just gazing at the collection I have amassed. Even with the ups and downs with this line, it is proving to be one of the greatest toy lines of all time and I am enjoying it just as much, if not more, than any other toy line I have been a fan of.
If you have managed to read this far then I share your pain. I had to write it, plus re-read it multiple times to fix mistakes, some of which are probably still there. But thank you for taking the time to read this and joining me on my journey from the beginning to where we are now. Feel free to leave a comment and let me know how you started your journey on this wild ride……
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