TOY NEWS FOR 9/17/2013 - MATTEL - MATTY COLLECTOR - MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE CLASSICS - 2014 SUBSCRIPTION REVEALS FROM POWER-CON

I'm a huge fan of this line, but only of the original characters. I do like a lot of the Filmation figures, and have picked up a few, but, for me, there's just too much "filler" to the line for me to do the Subscription each year.

I did it for the first few years, but it was such a pain in the ass to sell off all the figures I didn't want-- which became more and more plentiful each year as Mattel tired to extend the life of the line with more "filler" characters. (A ploy that has now backfired.)

So, now I buy them on the secondary market and pick and choose what I want.

I know that there are plenty of hard-core MOTU and He-Man fans who like all the iterations of the license, but I really only like the figures that were a part of the original action figure line. Even as a kid, as much as I watched it, I thought the cartoon was silly and stupid, whereas the figures were kind of gritty and badass.

Coming in April will be the very first figure from the live-action MOTU film-- Blade.

Blade was also a figure in the original toy line as well. But, just like the original line, don't expect to ever see a movie version of He-Man or Skeletor.

Here he is from the original line as well as the live-action film.

Then in May will be Scorpia from the Princess of Power animated series. She never had her own figure in the original POP line.

Here's a shot of Scorpia from the Princess of Power cartoon series.

Also coming in May is King Greyskull's steed-- Battle Lion.

I think that this is an awesome idea! Of course, neither King Greyskull or Battle Lion appeared in the original line or cartoon series, but this is one of those "filler" characters (yes, I know he was the first from the Classics line) that I think works perfectly with the rest of the original characters from the line.

The Four Horsemen always do awesome looking animal figures. Just look at the head sculpt on this thing!

The only problem I can see here is that King Greyskull doesn't really fit too well on him. KG has the longer style loincloth, and it seems to be getting in the way of a proper fit atop Battle Lion. But hopefully with some maneuvering you can get him to look okay, otherwise he might be displayed standing next to Battle Lion rather than riding him.

And finally, we get our very first look at the final box/packaging for the Castle Grayskull!!!

This massive playset is set for a November release and, if you didn't pre-order it for the original $250 price, some will be available on the Matty Collector site for $300