MOTU Origins: Master list and speculation of each wave

[Smitty.81]

I agree, He-Ro should be main hero, it's in the name. And I hate sidelining interesting characters for the less creative "just take main hero and redesign them a bit" concepts.

I see where you're coming from with that but I like the family lineage idea for MOTU. It fits well with the barbarian side of the techno-barbarian side of MOTU. Now that's not to say He-Ro can't be the main character, I just don't think he should be the wielder of the power sword.

[Hazelton]

WAVE 11 (Late October 2022 (New for 23)

Snake Armour He-Man
Cobra Khan
Rattlor
Bolt (RoS)

I hate to nitpick - I'm surprised this hasn't been corrected yet after all this time, with all the MOTU fans here, but it's spelled Kobra, not Cobra. Thank you for making this awesome list - it was very helpful!

[kentNelson]

I bet they add Eternia Grayskull with a plastic cape. That and the PoG packaging would differentiate it from the Eternia/MC version as much as retail She-Ra and Sun Man were differentiated from the exclusives.

Gorpo is also a contender.

I bet they don't bother with a 200x Grayskull. You can customize him from the Revelation Grayskull if they do a retail version with tweaks. And Mattel has been trying to make KG's steed Bionatops so Battle Lion is out IMHO.

Honestly? I think the new KG fits PoG better than the 200x version for a bunch of reasons. One of which is that 200x KG overshadows He-Ro in his own toyline by looking like He-Man. He suddenly becomes the main character.

One of the sins of Classics IMHO was minimizing He-Ro and killing him off in his own era. Whereas if KG looks less like He-Man, it's easier to position He-Ro as the main character and KG as his badass boss or equal rather than reducing He-Ro to a footnote.

I think if you're going to do PoG, it throws everything off balance for He-Ro not to be the main character. Because then Eldor is the sidekick/mentor of a nobody and Sharella, I think intended to be the Teela/love interest, becomes a random warrior whose most interesting known feature is the cat mask. So you have the three characters the line was supposed to hinge on being reduced to Stratos level B-tier heroes.

Beyond that, I think He-Ro has more viable variants than KG. You can put D'Vann in regular clothes or snake armor but anything else lacks media support.

Whereas He-Ro has a vac metal look, a gold plastic look, a silver armor look from vintage card art, multiple concept looks.

I'm just defensive about He-Ro. To me, he should be the equal of Adam and Adora, I'm cool with KG being his nominal boss or equal/partner but I feel like 200x D'Vann ends up overshadowing him and confusing people about who the ancestor of Adam, Adora, Randor, and Keldor is by instantly making people think he's the He-Man of the era whereas it's easier to see Revelation/Eternia D'Vann as a guy who inspired He-Man but wasn't necessarily a prior He-Man himself.

And the switch from Battle Lion to Bionatops also helps establish that D'Vann isn't necessarily a 1:1 He-Man of the era.

In general, I'm a fan of de-emphasizing the Classics lore (don't need to be honoring Scotty's contributions ahead of Mark Taylor's or JMS') and maybe not letting 200x lore drive things. 200x has more and deeper lore and is a fantastic little show but I'd rather it be used to fill in the gaps of the original lore than as the skeleton on which all other lore is built. I think it hems people in creatively to have lore that's 200x plus other stuff instead of the original lore plus a bit of 200x.

I just don't want MOTU lore to be "the house Scott Neitlich built" when he just wrote a bunch of ad copy for mailaway collector figures that I'd bet 80% of people who owned retail toys never knew existed. Obviously, in cases where he built his stuff on accurate research, a new take is going to have similarities.

I just don't want Classics bios to the main source of reference for people going forward.

I support HeRo too bur, from a bussiness perspective, making a 200X KG is cheap and easy for Mattel and he should be a best seller. Same for Battle Lion, it is an easy remake of Battle Cat mold (Nd if they repaint in pink, they have Clawdeen )

With regard to the line which other Preternian characters would you think could fill a full year of products under PoG banner (3 or 4 waves)?

[Secret]

I see where you're coming from with that but I like the family lineage idea for MOTU. It fits well with the barbarian side of the techno-barbarian side of MOTU. Now that's not to say He-Ro can't be the main character, I just don't think he should be the wielder of the power sword.

He-Ro is the lineage, though. He's the ancestor of Adam, Adora, and Keldor.

King Grayskull has nothing to do with He-Man's lineage. He's the guy who was king when He-Ro was around.

[anytimepally]

He-Ro is the lineage, though. He's the ancestor of Adam, Adora, and Keldor.

King Grayskull has nothing to do with He-Man's lineage. He's the guy who was king when He-Ro was around.

In the Dark Horse Character Guide, He-Ro's son married King Grayskull's daughter. Their grandchild, He-Ra, is described as an ancestor of He-Man and She-Ra, putting both He-Ro and Grayskull clearly in the lineage.

In the 2013 comic and in MOTU:Revelation, the lineage is even more direct, as He-Ro was a son of King Grayskull: https://he-man.fandom.com/wiki/He-Ro_(Revelation) and https://he-man.fandom.com/wiki/He-Ro

[Smitty.81]

He-Ro is the lineage, though. He's the ancestor of Adam, Adora, and Keldor.

King Grayskull has nothing to do with He-Man's lineage. He's the guy who was king when He-Ro was around.

That's not what they said in the cartoon.

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[Bear]

In the Dark Horse Character Guide, He-Ro's son married King Grayskull's daughter. Their grandchild, He-Ra, is described as an ancestor of He-Man and She-Ra, putting both He-Ro and Grayskull clearly in the lineage.

In the 2013 comic and in MOTU:Revelation, the lineage is even more direct, as He-Ro was a son of King Grayskull: https://he-man.fandom.com/wiki/He-Ro_(Revelation) and https://he-man.fandom.com/wiki/He-Ro

Oh the shenanigans you have to go through when you want to make all continuities canon.

[Smitty.81]

In the Dark Horse Character Guide, He-Ro's son married King Grayskull's daughter. Their grandchild, He-Ra, is described as an ancestor of He-Man and She-Ra, putting both He-Ro and Grayskull clearly in the lineage.

In the 2013 comic and in MOTU:Revelation, the lineage is even more direct, as He-Ro was a son of King Grayskull: https://he-man.fandom.com/wiki/He-Ro_(Revelation) and https://he-man.fandom.com/wiki/He-Ro

So he's either King Grayskull's son, son-in-law of BFF?

OR He-Ro married his sister?

- - - Updated - - -

Oh the shenanigans you have to go through when you want to make all continuities canon.

Well said. It really is best to approach each relaunch as a new continuity, keep all the characters in the same roll then tell the story you want to tell and let them grow accordingly.

[Bear]

Do you think that Origins will finally make that move and fully turns into Classics with next Waves including more characters from POP or NA, from cartoons and comics, requiring fresh tooling?

I mean every remaining dude like Blast-Attak or Dragster is pretty much 100 percent new tooling and needs to have their gimmick incorporated. At this point it might be cheaper to do Dekker, Count Marco or Lord Dactys then keep to vintage. Maybe even leave as many of them for Deluxe as possible.

[anytimepally]

So he's either King Grayskull's son, son-in-law of BFF?

OR He-Ro married his sister?

Not that uncommon for royalty...

[Smitty.81]

Do you think that Origins will finally make that move and fully turns into Classics with next Waves including more characters from POP or NA, from cartoons and comics, requiring fresh tooling?

I mean every remaining dude like Blast-Attak or Dragster is pretty much 100 percent new tooling and needs to have their gimmick incorporated. At this point it might be cheaper to do Dekker, Count Marco or Lord Dactys then keep to vintage. Maybe even leave as many of them for Deluxe as possible.

Yeah, Origins has kind of lurched along on none vintage repaints to help free up the budget so they could get the Snakemen in the line. Now it's a question of what to do next. They could, and I believe they should, re-release figures from wave 1-4, with slight alterations, for people that came late to the party and/or people that were not 100% satisficed with the way some figures turned out. Also tapping into movie or NA inspired repaints or retools would be a good idea.

[Sketchy Skeletor]

My guess is more mini comic figures and standard bucks styled as 200X. Those modular pieces were designed for Mattel, not us!

[Bear]

My guess is more mini comic figures and standard bucks styled as 200X. Those modular pieces were designed for Mattel, not us!

Those guys are never leaving but they can't become majority, right? Wave 18: Minicomic Randor, 200X Mekaneck, 200X Beast Man and Sssqueeze. Is that a good idea? Do that many fans like to double dip?

[Sketchy Skeletor]

Those guys are never leaving but they can't become majority, right? Wave 18: Minicomic Randor, 200X Mekaneck, 200X Beast Man and Sssqueeze. Is that a good idea? Do that many fans like to double dip?

Fans will double dip alright, and as I understand it, the originals were harder to come by than necessary. Also, Mekaneck for those who don't want the Ripper, Randor is difficult to find and Beastman was early in Origins and has a great 200X look. I think it's a win with those examples.

[Ultimate Sorceress]

Hi all. Please let me know what needs updating for the master list for Origins. Thanks in advance.

[anytimepally]

Hi all. Please let me know what needs updating for the master list for Origins. Thanks in advance.

For Wave 12, the latest rumor I've heard is that Hypno and Duplico are sharing a slot and that the sets with Duplico are going to Walmart in the U.S.

[Darkkosis]

For Wave 12, the latest rumor I've heard is that Hypno and Duplico are sharing a slot and that the sets with Duplico are going to Walmart in the U.S.

Still I'm not sure if this is the case!
According to my invoice from MC, Duplico is due on May 1st, and this could mean he's technically part of the wave 13, or just a stand alone Walmart exclusive that got out early by a mistake!

[JJJ]

We have two separate case codes for Wave 12, 1 with Hypno (GNN84-998B), 1 with Duplico (GNN84-998E).

[Ultimate Sorceress]

Still I'm not sure if this is the case!
According to my invoice from MC, Duplico is due on May 1st, and this could mean he's technically part of the wave 13, or just a stand alone Walmart exclusive that got out early by a mistake!

I mentioned in another thread that Duplico's artwork at the back of his card have the other Wave 12 characters.

[Smitty.81]

Still I'm not sure if this is the case!
According to my invoice from MC, Duplico is due on May 1st, and this could mean he's technically part of the wave 13, or just a stand alone Walmart exclusive that got out early by a mistake!

His cross-sells are Snake Armor Skeletor, Mini Comic Roboto and Tongue Lasher, so it seems like he's a sub for that wave.

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[TNT1120X]

It's great to see this site up and running again! Does anyone know if a current checklist of vintage vs. Origins releases exists and where it might be found? I had seen a short checklist before back in the early days of Origins (up until around Wave 3), but hadn't seen anything more formal in quite a while.

[ZexisStryfe]

With today's reveals it is nice to see my contacts at Mattel are significantly more accurate than a certain former brand manager's "contacts"!

[Ultimate Sorceress]

With today's reveals it is nice to see my contacts at Mattel are significantly more accurate than a certain former brand manager's "contacts"!

Definitely! Thanks for leaking the info in advance. Will need to get round to updating the checklist. Waiting for the correct spelling of some of the new reveals.

[Smitty.81]

With today's reveals it is nice to see my contacts at Mattel are significantly more accurate than a certain former brand manager's "contacts"!

Any idea what's in wave 15?

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[Ultimate Sorceress]

Master list updated.

Wave 15 prediction

Syklone
Two Bad
Snake Mekanek
Terroar