Disapointments with the Origins line

[MossMan710179]

I'll start this off on a positive, and say that I am happy we are getting MOTU at retail again (however this line is becoming challenging when collecting MOC due to the cardstock being flimsy and 95% of the cards being punched). Also, the price point is reasonable-fair and does not break the bank. I'd like to see retailers take a chance on buying more than once case of secondary characters, since there is only one of each in a case, and 4 He-Man/Skeletors each in their respected cases. I do feel She-Ra should have been sold in a case of 4 rather than an assortment right away.

Now, to my nitpicks with this series, and I'm not trying to be a *****y fan boy who complains about everything, I just have high standards for finished products (how many of you gamers are 100% satisficed with the initial release of Cyberpunk 2077?), and with a toy line aimed at both children and adults, I'm only really seeing Origins aimed at MOC collectors based on the packaging aesthetics. The figures look nice in the package, but I've come across loose joints and with Roboto, a loose torso. If these are aimed at children, I don't see them lasting a long life (the toys, not the children).

The packaging: The cardstock is not durable enough. Just about every card I have encountered (including the ones in the large Walmart display) have all shown signs of bent or crushed bottom corners. If this was a line for collectors, protective cases like the ones we saw for the Star Wars Vintage Collection early on would have been nice to see.

He-Man His ax lacks any real detail and resemblance to the original, it looks very generic.
Skeletor The incomplete hood and lack of a sheath for his sword (even though He-Man has one)
Man-At-Arms I think MAA would have benefitted by having a second moustacheless head (that's what I prefer, but understand why people prefer the moustache. Maybe a deluxe MAA with 200x parts (since the Masters of the WWE Universe Rock figure came with the 200x mace)
She-Ra I can't quite put my finger on it, but something is a little off about her. And as I said before, I think she should have been her own case and not in a wave.
Battle Armor Skeletor I'm not alone on this one from what I have seen on here... those two heads are ugly!!! The added shield looks generic as well and looks like it belongs in a knock-off series.
Battle Armor He-Man The included effect for his sword is an eyesore.
Also with the Battle Armor figures, the smaller chests compared to the originals is scaled down and is disappointing, especially with the added plastic around the drum.
Roboto He's missing his heart! All other Roboto figures (minus the Filmation Classics) have his heart.
Zodac His chest logo is too small and thin.

I also think we can all agree that the Power Sword with Prince Adam, the handle is too big. I have not been able to get that sucker to stay in, so it just lays off to the side. The complete sword is nice, but the wide handle needs to be scaled down. OH! the glitter effect on Castle Grayskull... bleh!

That's all for now since I have not taken Mer-Man out of the package.

Again, these are just my complaints, but overall I am happy for a new affordable line of toys to collect.

Mods/Admins: When will there be an Origins section on the forums, since MOTU Classics is done with, and this is it's own series? Also, the search feature is not working.

Peace!...

[Krueger]

I have to be honest, although you yourself admit you're coming at it from the angle of a toy collector, a lot of your nitpicks are things the vast majority of buyers would never pick up on, or even, dare I say it, care about. So to say your points could make or break the line in the long run is a little hyperbolic, IMO. This is a problem mindset you find in a lot of fanbases, not just round there. We all believe (I've also been guilty of it in the past) that everyone thinks like us. Also, we constantly over-analyse things. Among casual collectors on social media, particularly Twitter, you will be hard pressed to find any major negative complaints about the Origins line. Most reactions have been overwhelmingly positive.

[Durendal]

I have to be honest, although you yourself admit you're coming at it from the angle of a toy collector, a lot of your nitpicks are things the vast majority of buyers would never pick up on, or even, dare I say it, care about. So to say your points could make or break the line in the long run is a little hyperbolic, IMO. This is a problem mindset you find in a lot of fanbases, not just round there. We all believe (I've also been guilty of it in the past) that everyone thinks like us. Also, we constantly over-analyse things. Among casual collectors on social media, particularly Twitter, you will be hard pressed to find any major negative complaints about the Origins line. Most reactions have been overwhelmingly positive.

Agreed - this isn't Classics where collectors are justified at expecting very high standards. As retail line aimed at kids with a far lower price point, you have to accept that there are going to be aspects about Origins that simply won't be on that level.

[MossMan710179]

Well, consider me someone who does not accept mediocrity and is happy with it because it's better than nothing. I'm a consumer and money talks. When I buy or pass on something, I have the right to complain about it, especially if its **** poor quality. Example, the Super7 products sucked. And the negative feedback I provided is still feedback, and can be used for improvements if given to the right people. Your complaints, praises, disappointments, etc. are probably different than mine and others, and you could also point out things that others don't see.

I'm not someone who gets excited when a new Star Wars film comes out because it's "Star Wars" and therefore it must be good...

[Durendal]

The packaging: The cardstock is not durable enough. Just about every card I have encountered (including the ones in the large Walmart display) have all shown signs of bent or crushed bottom corners. If this was a line for collectors, protective cases like the ones we saw for the Star Wars Vintage Collection early on would have been nice to see.

He-Man His ax lacks any real detail and resemblance to the original, it looks very generic.
Skeletor The incomplete hood and lack of a sheath for his sword (even though He-Man has one)
Man-At-Arms I think MAA would have benefitted by having a second moustacheless head (that's what I prefer, but understand why people prefer the moustache. Maybe a deluxe MAA with 200x parts (since the Masters of the WWE Universe Rock figure came with the 200x mace)
She-Ra I can't quite put my finger on it, but something is a little off about her. And as I said before, I think she should have been her own case and not in a wave.
Battle Armor Skeletor I'm not alone on this one from what I have seen on here... those two heads are ugly!!! The added shield looks generic as well and looks like it belongs in a knock-off series.
Battle Armor He-Man The included effect for his sword is an eyesore.
Also with the Battle Armor figures, the smaller chests compared to the originals is scaled down and is disappointing, especially with the added plastic around the drum.
Roboto He's missing his heart! All other Roboto figures (minus the Filmation Classics) have his heart.
Zodac His chest logo is too small and thin.

I also think we can all agree that the Power Sword with Prince Adam, the handle is too big. I have not been able to get that sucker to stay in, so it just lays off to the side. The complete sword is nice, but the wide handle needs to be scaled down. OH! the glitter effect on Castle Grayskull... bleh!

That's all for now since I have not taken Mer-Man out of the package.

Again, these are just my complaints, but overall I am happy for a new affordable line of toys to collect.

Mods/Admins: When will there be an Origins section on the forums, since MOTU Classics is done with, and this is it's own series? Also, the search feature is not working.

Peace!...

The Packaging: The card is fine. Again, this line is not aimed at collectors who are afraid to even breathe near their MOC toys and probably handle them with silicone tongs or white silk gloves. It's for kids. Nobody gave a **** about the cards in the 80's during our beloved vintage era. The packages were meant to be ruthlessly torn open and immediately discarded to get to the toys within. More meticulous kids like myself took scissors and cut off the artwork on the top on the back of the card to keep, but I doubt there were that many who did that. Mattel is not going to invest in sturdier cards when they know what the end result will be given the demographic these are aimed at. Most kids don't care about preservation or being gentle with their stuff - they just want to play.

He-Man: Yes, the axe does look bland - there's no reason they couldn't have added the details of the vintage design.

Skeletor: Also agreed, there's no reason he couldn't have been given a sword sheath if He-Man was given one. Strange oversight.

Man-At-Arms: Aside from the vintage figure and the pre-Filmation mini-comics, for the last 38 years or so he's always been depicted with a moustache, so it made sense for them to go with that, and I'm not convinced a deluxe version would be justified just to include a clean shaven head. Besides, we'll get that head when the LOP version of him gets released on a single card.

She-Ra: She's fine. Face sculpt could have been better (more Filmationesque to be specific), but that could be said for all the figures so far.

Battle Armour Skeletor: Fully agree with you here - those head sculpts are just awful, and that has nothing to do with this being a budget line. I think it's really stupid to give a skull face different emotional expressions. I absolutely hate that. That's one thing that vintage never did.

Battle Armour He-Man: Yes, the width of the drum with all the ugly, unsculpted plastic around it is very disappointing when compared to the vintage versions (same with Skeletor), but unfortunately was a necessary compromise due to the shoulder articulation. Should they have had arms that only move up and down to make the wider drums possible? Tough question.

Roboto: By missing his "heart" I'm assuming you mean the red cog in the middle? I haven't noticed but yes that would be an odd thing to miss on their part.

Zodac: That's one of the first things I noticed about him too, how his white chest logo looks far smaller than the vintage. No excuses there - that's just a lazy design fail that has nothing to do with cost.

[darkmoon766]

Obviously these should not be scrutinized as much as Classics. (Even though Classics figures were not priced much higher when they came out.) The Obvious changes done due to safety and engineering like the Battle Armor chest design are understandable.

But the sculpt and design of ICONIC things like Skeletor's and He-Man's heads (The new She-ra design is puzzling as well) are INEXCUSABLE. There are SO many sculptors and designers at Mattel. No one there took a look at these designs before they were OK'd and said, "Hey Bill, I think those Skeletor Heads could be better. Here is some reference Material."

Really, those heads are just not aesthetically pleasing at all. Unless they were TRYING to make them look goofy and Stupid so as not to scare children, they failed miserably.

Pointing this out, that things are VERY bad, is a good thing. Especially when there ARE many things that have been done well. The new Tri-Klops head looks great. Most of the Sculpts have been from above average to adequate. Botching Skeletor Heads is a poor decision when collector's who give a crap about aesthetic quality are going to drive the initial interest, followed by non collectors into nostalgia, then ultimately to the goal of the interest of children.

When I think about MOTU the first things I think about are when I was young and how good the designs for He-man and Skeletor's vintage Heads (and the Bodies as well) were. Imagine if you were a child now and you were given Origin's Battle Armor Skeletor or He-Man as your first figure. THAT would be your view of the line and its main characters. I've seen more pleasing sculpts on Ben 10 figures.


Besides the Heads, the biggest disappointment I have had so far are the wide spade like knees on the females. This could have been done better in many ways. In fact, From the photos of the Sorceress that comes with Castle Grayskull, it looks like they may have been improved. If that is the case, I would venture to say that many of us who complained about how ugly the knees were played a role in their being improved. As long as criticism isn't toxic it should be considered constructive.

For instance, Prince Adam's sword Handle being too large. What is the harm in mentioning that it doesn't function as intended? None.

[heavy-eternium]

It's a very collector perspective.

I'll just say ,it's a toy that looks like a toy ,a toy to play with.

[felgekarp]

I had no expectations for this line at all, but so far the only thing I don’t like with the figures I’ve got is the angle at which the arms connect to the torso. I won’t be picking up every figure though.

[VaultsofGrayskull]

Absolutely right about the card stock - it is rubbish.

I have encountered a defective figure (Trap Jaw) but thankfully only one so far.

I like the figures though. More than I thought I would. Yes, some of the colours are too bright and some of the sculpting (particularly weapons) is plain, but I think they're pretty good.

I also think that the Jet Sled is better than the Classics one. Battle Cat is arguably better too because of the head and neck articulation, although the lack of ankle articulation is odd.

I think this line has potential. I'm still unsure what happened last year though - it started with a whimper and faded away. Is Mattel going to sort out international distribution properly this year? I hope so. These toys should be permanently available on Amazon.

[Whiplash7]

Besides, we'll get that head when the LOP version of him gets released on a single card

Is that actually happening??? Please tell me this is true!

I would have preferred he have a clean-shaven head, but you can hide it with his armor. MAA is one of the better looking figures imo.

He-Man and Skeletor's head are terrible.
Adam can't hold his sword and it is laughable.
The big cats don't have articulated ankles, which renders the rest of the articulation pointless. THAT is the big flaw for me.

[RockinHard]

Is that actually happening??? Please tell me this is true!

I would have preferred he have a clean-shaven head, but you can hide it with his armor. MAA is one of the better looking figures imo.

He-Man and Skeletor's head are terrible.
Adam can't hold his sword and it is laughable.
The big cats don't have articulated ankles, which renders the rest of the articulation pointless. THAT is the big flaw for me.

And the Battle-Armor figures are horribly designed. The vintage figures look much better.
And the knees on the females look like they have prosthetic limbs.

[Mark M]

My only nit pick is with all the male figures and that I wish the hip joints had a better range of motion moving forward. Aside from that I really like all the figures.

And the hand guards on He-Man and Skeletor's swords, not needed at all.

[PwrdOff]

Agreed - this isn't Classics where collectors are justified at expecting very high standards. As retail line aimed at kids with a far lower price point, you have to accept that there are going to be aspects about Origins that simply won't be on that level.

If Origins was only ever meant to be a kids' line though, then Mattel wouldn't have felt the need to freeze Classics to avoid cannibalizing sales, and the retro styling and callbacks to the vintage line are not going to be things that most kids have any idea about. Mattel was clearly trying to have it both ways here, they wanted Origins to be cheap enough for any random parent to just pick up on a lark, while also retaining enough appeal for hardcore fans to generate hype on the interwebs. And if that's what they want they also have to accept the usual level of scrutiny and nitpicking from the collector market and not just be able to use "but it's a kids' toy" as an excuse for cutting corners. Classics was by no means a perfect line, but you would think that the next big MOTU launch would be an improvement in terms of quality and features, not taking huge steps backwards, especially because $15 is not that cheap for what you're getting, not when there's the likes of Black Series and Marvel Legends available for $20.

[RockinHard]

Nothing but collectors are buying these for themselves and for their kids in hopes of getting their kids to love them like they do.

[Whiplash7]

And the Battle-Armor figures are horribly designed. The vintage figures look much better.
And the knees on the females look like they have prosthetic limbs.

I have to have the BA armor figs in hand before I can decide. The female knees are not great but there are worse things. I only have evil-lyn so far. Her positives outweigh her negatives.

[Man-Man]

And the Battle-Armor figures are horribly designed. The vintage figures look much better.

LOL. They’re literally the same design as vintage except the drums are smaller.

I get hating on Origins for certain aesthetic choices, but some of y’all still sound bitter that Mattel put the kibosh on Classics.

[RockinHard]

LOL. They’re literally the same design as vintage except the drums are smaller.

I get hating on Origins for certain aesthetic choices, but some of y’all still sound bitter that Mattel put the kibosh on Classics.

Smaller to the point that they look absurd in comparison to the vintage figure.
Also, they don't work as well as the vintage figure - one has to push hard on them to get to turn (at least that's the case in mine and several others' experience).
Also, the "metal" is dull and flat in its paint job in comparison to the vintage.
Also, many people don't like the new head sculpts.

Nothing was said about Classics in this case. One could easily state using your own rhetoric that you seem bitter about Origins not being as liked as Classics.

[Despondor]

While I'm not too disappointed with the heads of the Battle Armor figures (it really helps that the vintage-style heads are included), I do think they should warn on the packaging that the arms on these figures are not meant to be removed. (I guess that's the trade off for Battle Armor drums that function while still allowing the expected shoulder articulation.) After failing to remove one of the arms, I took a close look at the inside of the shoulder joint of my Battle Armor He-Man, and it looks like the shoulder joint is a tight dumbbell-type connection and not modular.

The drum on the figure was so hard to turn that I thought the mechanism was broken at first. I nearly broke my left thumb struggling to turn the drum to the no-damage position. I understand that Mattel may be trying to make sure that the spring inside will last a long time by making it strong and stiff, but I think they should have simply recreated the exact engineering used for the vintage Battle Armor figures. I've come across a few vintage Battle Armor figures, and while many sometimes skipped past the middle (one-slash) setting, most still functioned correctly. I noticed that the little indentation in the packaging was pushing the drum back in the package before I opened it, so maybe that affected the mechanism. Hopefully, most of the other Battle Armor figures are not that difficult to work with. After I moved the drum to the no-damage position, I was afraid to accidentally activate it while switching the heads on the figure. (That vintage-style head is such an improvement over not only the head that comes on the Battle Armor figure, but also the head that comes on the basic He-Man Origins figure.)

[Lich Leech]

He-Man's axe is based on the original concept/Alcala minicomic design. Which made sense for the SDCC exclusive, but it's a bit out of place on other versions.

[TheDeviot]

I actually agree with the OP on the cardback. For a couple of reasons.

First, the 200x line had sturdier (not perfect) cards for the mass market. I'm not saying you never got crushed
corners or bends or creases (there were) but the thickness made for easier displays when pinning them to your wall.

Second, while I do wholeheartedly agree that kids/teens/loose collectors aren't really going to give a crap, a better package
would help retailers small and large deter pilferage. I know as customers none of us need to be concerned with that. But
if you do own a small business, making things a little bit harder to open would equally make it harder for riff raff to open figures in the
aisles and stuffing them in a pocket or two. Plus if your small biz is a hobbyist shop (Collectibles/Retro game store that does side stuff)
you want a presentation factor because your clients will be the type to find that one card that isn't messed up.

All of that said, it doesn't really matter *that* much considering that would also make the toys cost another $2-$5 and that would make
these things cost more than the competing stuff from Hasbro and Playmates. So I do get it. You have to cut corners somewhere, and thinner
paperboard is better than making the toys less durable.

As for the rest of it, I disagree. None of us cared in the 80's about a lack of detail. When I was 4 going on 5 and saw He-Man's OG figure
on TV for the first time my thought was "WOAH! He's full of muscles, and rides a tiger, and you can make him punch bad guys in the face!"
He-Man really was the first figure that felt badass. Star Wars guys were tiny. GI Joes broke easily. But these things were awesome. I'm glad
they went back to what works with this line. Sometimes less is more, and I hope it continues to sell, and kids like it, and they always keep it
around in some capacity the way Hasbro did with Gi Joe and Transformers.

[Mr.Oz]

only thing the origins line has done for me is reignite my love for the Classics line and appreciate them even more.

my sister got me heman origins for christmas, opened and it and spent most of the time giggling about how silly it felt/looked...sure its slightly charming but man, just made me want to dig up the classics and love them more.

thankfully wont be doing origins, gonna save every $ that would have gone to that line for the missing holes in classics and hopefully the return of classics!

[chuc98]

I get that Mattel is saying this is a line aimed at kids but let's face it…they want us to buy it for ourselves too. And, I'd wager the majority of their sales so far has been adults buying these up for their own collection. So it wouldn't hurt for Mattel to put a little effort into what MossMan has outlined. An extra hit of paint here or there to add SOMETHING. A slightly heavier cardboard stock for the card…they've already made money off of these before they even hit the store just from the WWE figures.

[Lich Leech]

To me the big weak spot is the female figures' knees. If that can be fixed up, that would be the biggest improvement to the line. Would love more variants as well - minicomic, cardback, cartoon, etc.

[Night Stalker]

The Packaging: The card is fine. Again, this line is not aimed at collectors who are afraid to even breathe near their MOC toys and probably handle them with silicone tongs or white silk gloves. It's for kids. Nobody gave a **** about the cards in the 80's during our beloved vintage era. The packages were meant to be ruthlessly torn open and immediately discarded to get to the toys within. More meticulous kids like myself took scissors and cut off the artwork on the top on the back of the card to keep, but I doubt there were that many who did that. Mattel is not going to invest in sturdier cards when they know what the end result will be given the demographic these are aimed at. Most kids don't care about preservation or being gentle with their stuff - they just want to play.

I was the weird kid that saved his entire cardback. My dad would carefully pry the plastic clamshell off with a heatgun and exacto knife. I had a binder with transparent slide-in sleeves for pages, kind of like a trading card page? Not sure what they were called in America. Anyway I would drop the cardback in the sleeve on one side and the mini comic on the other. Any promotional fold ins like posters and checklists went between the cardback and comic. I wish I knew what happened to the binder.

[suckator]

The bracer on the heroic warrior left arm should be different than the one on the right.