How racially diverse is He-Man? Have you ever wondered? I have, and in the wake of studying just how diverse, or not it can be, I've shaken up some of the Masters of the Universe fans as I have been working on a push to racially diversify the upcoming Masters of the Universe Origins toy line. Wait, before anyone gets worked up just yet, I'm not wanting to change the race of He-Man himself, though that could be very cool. Some fans of the MOTU Nation Facebook page have suggested this idea in a negative way in their comments. I don't see anything wrong with it, but their are some that are angered. What I'm wanting to do, is to add humanoid characters that are heroes of color. On the group page I had some people who shouted insanity due to the fact that we did have Clamp Champ, a Black hero in the original toy line. Yeah, we did...one and he came at the 6th wave towards the end of the line. Almost like an racial equality grab at the very end of a franchise. And with some of the backlash over my petition to diversify the new Masters of the Universe Origins toy line, it made me think. What are the numbers for people of color represented in any of the He-Man toy lines. Let's take a look.
Above is a chart for the Vintage 1980's run of Masters of the Universe toys. I broke down the line based on how many original characters were made into action figure form. I did not include and giants, but if I did, it would be one green mutant giant that is a bad guy and one hero giant that is white skinned. That Seemed kind of unfair to the information collected. From the data, the only racial representation of people of color (based on Earthlings, you laugh, but mutants apparently spell out diversity of race for some members of the MOTU Nation group on Facebook) is one hero and two villains. The hero, Clamp Champ, is a Black man. The two villains are of Asian decent and both have a stereotypical idea about what is thought of the Asian cultures in white media, especially in Reagan era television. These two characters are a Karate fighter (Jitsu) and a Ninja (Ninjor)...go figure, or in this case, action figure. The only other character that was a question was Evil-Lyn because she is human like with yellow skin. But, seeing her in the cartoon basically places her in the pale white skinned category...so white. Let's take a look at the He-Man or New Adventures of He-Man that started in 1989. Will it be more racially diverse?
Above is the chart for the New Adventures of He-Man. Looking at the data, you would think that this is truly more progressive, but in truth we still only got one Black guy (Vizor) and one Asian man (Nocturna). Nocturna is a bit of a stereotype with him being a Kung Fu style master. The progression seams to be that this time no negative representation of people of color as villains was in place. But to be fair, neither were whites. There was a smart move in this line to make the bad guys all mutants and monsters. I'm sorry, if you are a monster, alien or mutant creature. The line ultimately ended due to fans not liking it from its redesign. In 2002, Mattel relaunched the Masters of the Universe toy line. It was updated in its sculpt and look. It is a small toy line and there were several fan favorite action figures that we never got made as actual action figures. Instead, we got those favorites as a small action figure sized statue. That's right, a non-moving plastic statue for collectors! In a modern telling of the series, let's take a look at how racially diverse is this toy line.
This run has one person of color...one. It's a small line, but it seems that the lack of representation hasn't changed. Mattel never got to finish it's run as planned, but I see no push for racial diversity in the roster. No new characters. It truly is the same ole' stuff. And the line didn't run that long. It had an amazing cartoon, and powerful Black man in a previous white role that now has created a whole new powerful character, Zodak! But, all in all, a big fail on racial diversity. Now, Mattel decided to bring Masters of the Universe back in 2008. This line was called Masters of the Universe Classics and it was massive! It is the biggest roster of characters to date for the He-Man property. I started really getting back into collecting MOTU again because of the launch of this toy line. This time, we would see characters from mini-comics, cartoons, and newly imagined people. Let's take a look at the data.
Keep this is mind. Out of 149 unique characters, there was a 27.5% chance of it being a white hero. There was a 3.4% chance of a hero being a person of color. And when I say person of color, I am including all races except white. There were 4 Black heroes, and 1 Asian Hero who's face was covered in a white ninja outfit. I guess white signifies purity and being a hero even though he is in a ninja outfit and ninja's were assassins... Ok, I've gotten a little off topic. Think the numbers through a minute. Out of 149 characters made, 5 are heroes that are a person of color. That's it. And from looking at the data, there were 41 white heroes made. In a line so diverse as I have been told, I'm astonished. Mattel created characters, and yet, we are still dealing with this issue. And it has taken me researching this to really understand the gross lack of racial equality in the MOTU toy universe. You know I have, cause you can see it too! You're welcome by the way.
At this point, you might be asking yourself, how in the world did this guy start this? I was watching a video that Ed's Retro Geek Out was showing. It was a video on knock off Masters of the Universe toys. In that video, He talks about Olmec toy's, "Sun-Man and the Rulers of the Sun" toy line. Then, my best bud, Jeff sends me a link to a video also about the line. I saw a strong He-Man like Black man that used intelligence and empathy to battle ignorance and greed. This was Sun-Man! I had to know more. I learned about Yla's story in the Washington Post. "Yla Eason (pronounced Y-la) received inspiration from her 3-year-old son to create a line of black toys for boys and girls. It was her son’s declaration that he could not be a superhero because He-Man was white that prompted Ms. Eason to make a change in the toy market and in her son's mindset.", says Debbie Behan Garrett in her 2010 artical on Sun-Man. I felt motivated and ready to help make a change. Knowing that Mattel was relaunching, yet again, the Masters of the Universe line, now called Masters of the Universe Origins, I felt that now was the time to act! I created a petition and I have been spreading the word. Now the good message doesn't come without backlash or blind ignorance from those who think it is stupid to add heroes of color into the upcoming toy line. I have been mocked and made fun of on the group page, but I will take it to diversify a beloved toy line so that no child of color in America will think that they can't have the power, just as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. If you would take a moment and open the link to my petition:
Read it over at the very least. Start thinking it through. Sign it, and share it. And when you share it, use the #DiversifyMOTUOrigins so we can find it all over the internet. The numbers in the graphs above are sadfor racial diversity and it's time for all of us to change it.
Jeff and I are having an 8th anniversary of our show, Talking Toys with Taylor and Jeff! It has been a great ride. Celebrate the occasion by going through our backlog of shows on MarvinDogMedia!
In the past, I have been passing up the Call of Duty (COD) Mega Construx building block sets. Recently, I took a gamble with my extra expenses to buy a twelve dollar set from Dollar General here in my town of Denton, TX. I liked it so much, I felt the need to make a video!
Things that I liked about this set were the fact that the box is super modular. What I mean is that the box can be taken apart, and put together is various ways. It makes for some cool environments. let me show you.
The weapons are also able to be broken apart and changed up. This is such a simple, and yet cool playset that has a greatplayability! I give it a 4 out of 5 stars! If you are interested in purchasing this set, I have a link for it here: Amazon Mega Construx Call of Duty Solo Mercenary Outpost
Jeff and I are having an 8th anniversary of our show, Talking Toys with Taylor and Jeff! It has been a great ride. Celebrate the occasion by going through our backlog of shows on MarvinDogMedia!
I have been invited to be a part of a great new show that has just started back in May. It is "The Limited Edition Art Show" that is held at "The Lost Toys" toy shop in Dallas, Texas! It had a great show start using Star Wars as a jumping point in May. Now it's back and this show carries the theme of Masters of the Universe! Once, ArtBot138 asked me if I wanted to be in the show, I didn't hesitate to respond back with the happiest yes that I could muster without breaking my phone in excitement! If you are familiar with me, you already know my love for Masters of the Universe! There is an awesome artist line up and from what I have seen on "The Limited Edition Art Show"'s instagram page, there will be some awesome pieces up for grabs! The show will be at the Lost Toys toyshop near I-35 and Mockingbird at 1451 Empire Central, Suite 700, 5:30-9:00pm, Friday July 14th 2017. Don't miss out on the MOTU greatness! Here are some progress pics of my Monster High Customs that will be at the show.
By now you should know that I am on a podcast called, "Talking Toys with Taylor and Jeff" on Marvindogmedia! We have just had our 5 year anniversary for the show and we will continue on for many more. Listen and enjoy our catalog of shows where we talk over many different toy lines from the past! If you want to jump into the discussion visit our facebook page. If you'd like to be a backer, visit our patreon page to help out!
It has been a while since I have posted an action figure review. I felt that it was time to start sharing again. I have acquired many toys from the last time I have posted an Action Figure Friday, so I decided to choose a recent purchase. Today, I bring you Flogg from the Masters of the Universe Classics toyline by Mattel. Lets dive right in to talking about this New Adventures of He-Man (HE-MAN) adaptation. Flogg or Brakk is the commanding officer of the evil space mutants. I have been waiting for this guy to come to the MOTU Classics run for a while now. I am waiting to get my Space Mutants off the shelf to put all of these bad guys together. Other than one bad thing in my opinion, he is a solid action figure all around. He has the full range of standard MOTU Classics movement. He has: ball jointed neck, waste crunch and turn, ball hinged shoulders and thighs, rocker ankles, swivel shin, hinged knee and wrists, and a swivel bicep. Instead of having the standard hinged elbow, Flogg here reuses the arms of the Horde Troopers and has a nice ball hinged elbow. Now I personally think that this is a bit much for this toy, but what do I know?! Flogg has some incredible sculpt work. It is truly fantastic. When I compared this new edition to the vintage toy, I was happy to see the basics of the vintage toy, but with a lot more updating.
Now, the vintage Flogg had a removable cowl and helmet. I would have been fine with not having the removable cowl on this Classics toy seeing that is a part of his chest armor, but I would have liked to have had the helmet removable just like the original. I thought that was probably a cheap move from Mattel. Flogg sports the all-time most reused boots from the Classics toy line. This time, we get Horde Prime's feet with them. There has been a lot of dislike for these legs seeing that they are reused quite a bit. To be honest, they don't bother me much on this character. the boots suit him. Now one thing that I was very happy to see was the soft good rope for the laser whip weapon, very much like the vintage toy. In this case, our Classics Flogg doesn't need a weapon that will work well with an action feature, seeing that the Classics toys are void of action features. Flogg also came with the Filmation style Sword of Power. I'm indifferent about this accessory. I don't really need the sword, so I have it on the wall of Grayskull.
Now the armor is a bit bulky. The bulkiness makes it difficult for Flogg to put his arms down close to his body. Having this happening with so many of the Classics characters in these last two years, the bulky body is something I can definitely overlook. All in all, this version of Flogg is a great action figure. If you are a New Adventures fan, this toy is an absolute must! Flogg went on sale at mattycollector.com on the 15th of July. You can find him on Amazon.com here: Masters of the Universe Classics FLOGG Space Mutants Action Figure.
Just to let you know all know, I am taking commissions. If you would like to commission me for original artwork, head over to the commissions tab in store to see how.
If you have not heard about the Podcast called, "Talking Toys with Taylor and Jeff", then it's time I let you know! Jeff and I are on the show where we talk about toys! (Go figure, I mean Go action figure!) Seems simple enough. We pick out a toy line to discuss in each show. We share our childhood memories, our favorite five, and talk about the one toy in the line that got away. Jeff talks about how he cherished his toys and I talk about how they ended up in the garden! The other show is The pilot episode, where Jeff and Cory break down the Pilot Episode in TV series. The shows are great! If you are interested in what we got, go to Marvindogmedia.com and give us a listen. You can subscribe to the shows on itunes and get up to date info on upcoming shows on facebook:
Back in May, I ordered this action figure, Karatti. He is pretty much standard in what we see with the other Masters of the Universe Classics toys in the line. I am a big fan of the New Adventures of He-Man run of toys, so I really like this guy. Looking at the vintage toy and seeing how the re-use of parts were used to make this version of Karatti, I am happy with what we got. But I will have to say that I feel that there were a couple of parts that we could have changed. I know a lot of MOTUC fans were upset by the re-use of the same techno legs that, well, everyone with some techno looking suit in this toy line has. Honestly, I think we could have used some different feet. The feet on Icarius or the standard armored boot foot would have worked and could have broken up some of the look of this leg. The other thing is this, his left hand does not grip his sword very well. One of the reasons is the fact that the left hand is sculpted open a bit. I think that hand could have been replaced with an unarmored evil villain hand. That would have been better to grip his sword. Seeing that his hands are uncovered in the vintage toy, I think this would have been ok. But, at this point, there is not a lot that we can do to change this except to customize the toy myself and I definitely do not want to destroy my toy. Despite some of the changes I felt could have been made to Karatti, the sculpt that the Four Horsemen did for the newly tooled parts is absolutely fantastic. They did a great job of capturing the look of the space armor. I really like all of the sculpted pipes and scratches on the armor. The head is beautifully detailed and is the selling piece of this toy. The face mask sculpt into the face is great!. The Horsemen captured the evil scowl well. I am very excited to have another space mutant from the New Adventures of He-Man run in the Masters of the Universe Classics toy line. Now, if we could only get a Brakk and Lizor.
I've been invited to be one of the many talented artist to have work featured in a one night vinyl toy show called, "Vinyl Thoughts 4: Free for All" in Dallas on September 12th 2013. If you plan to be in the area, stop by and check out all of the cool custom vinyl toys.
I had a blast being on the DELol show on Sunday July 21st. I totally lost to Jeff in the "Throw down in the toy isle" toy quiz competition. Folks, Jeff knows his toys! This last competition should be an absolute testament to that. So, a whole hearted thank you goes out to Del Pullen and Taffeta Darling for having Jeff and I on the show.
Just to let you know all know, I am taking commissions. If you would like to commission me for original artwork, head over to the commissions tab in store to see how.
If you have not heard about the Podcast called, "Talking Toys with Taylor and Jeff", then it's time I let you know! Jeff and I are on the show where we talk about toys! (Go figure, I mean Go action figure!) Seems simple enough. We pick out a toy line to discuss in each show. We share our childhood memories, our favorite five, and talk about the one toy in the line that got away. Jeff talks about how he cherished his toys and I talk about how they ended up in the garden! The other two shows are The pilot episode, where Jeff and Josh Taylor break down the Pilot Episode in TV series, and The Loosely Based Podcast where Brynna and Jeff compare the book to the movie adaptation! The shows are great! If you are interested in what we got, go to Marvindogmedia.com and give us a listen. You can subscribe to the shows on itunes and get up to date info on upcoming shows on facebook:
When I first saw the 4 Horsemen's sculpt of the New Adventures He-Man, I knew that this version of He-Man had to be in my collection! I know that the He-Man toy line from 89' (also known as the New Adventures of He-Man) is not a big love with many Masters of the Universe toy collectors. That line is unlike anything else in the MOTU canon. Due to the economy, I missed getting anything in this line when I was a kid. I found a He-Man vs Skeletor 2 pack, but we lacked the money to get it at that time. After that, I never could find them. I now have a small collection of characters now from that line, but not enough to really boast about it. So, every time Mattel promises a New Adventures character in the Masters of the Universe Classics line, I jump to the chance to get it. So far, I have all of the Classics New Adventures characters that have been broken into two factions, the Galactic Protectors and the Space Mutants. This He-Man would be the second toy added to the Galactic Protectors. This Classics version of He-Man is way cool! He comes with a nice selection of accessories that allow you to change his uniform up a bit as with the vintage toy. I like the look of both the standard and the armored outfits so much, I'm having a hard time deciding what uniform setup I want to display him with on my Classics shelf. He also comes with his energy shield and power sword that is casted in the frosted green plastic just like the vintage toy. There is a decent amount of re-used parts which is perfect for him, but he also features some new tooling and a brand new articulation feature that we have not yet seen in this toyline; the ball swivel wrists. These wrist do make it easier for He-Man to hold his sword aloft. I would hope to see this articulation become a regular in this line. I think there are many characters that would benefit from having that style wrist. If you missed out of this version of He-Man, you can keep checking back for a re-release on mattycollector.com. Otherwise, you would have to get him on amazon or ebay. Mattel just announced another New Adventures character that will be added to this next years roster. That character is Hydron. As long as I can help it, I will be getting one to add to my roster of Galactic Protectors. Then I'll have to set up He-Man, Icarius, and Hydron posed in a way that mimics the New Adventures of He-Man DVD cover. I am such a nerd.
I've been invited to be one of the many talented artist to have work featured in a one night vinyl toy show called, "Vinyl Thoughts 4: Free for All" in Dallas on September 12th 2013. If you plan to be in the area, stop by and check out all of the cool custom vinyl toys.
I had a blast being on the DELol show on Sunday July 21st. I totally lost to Jeff in the "Throw down in the toy isle" toy quiz competition. Folks, Jeff knows his toys! This last competition should be an absolute testament to that. So, a whole hearted thank you goes out to Del Pullen and Taffeta Darling for having Jeff and I on the show.
Just to let you know all know, I am taking commissions. If you would like to commission me for original artwork, head over to the commissions tab in store to see how.
If you have not heard about the Podcast called, "Talking Toys with Taylor and Jeff", then it's time I let you know! Jeff and I are on the show where we talk about toys! (Go figure, I mean Go action figure!) Seems simple enough. We pick out a toy line to discuss in each show. We share our childhood memories, our favorite five, and talk about the one toy in the line that got away. Jeff talks about how he cherished his toys and I talk about how they ended up in the garden! The other two shows are The pilot episode, where Jeff and Josh Taylor break down the Pilot Episode in TV series, and The Loosely Based Podcast where Brynna and Jeff compare the book to the movie adaptation! The shows are great! If you are interested in what we got, go to Marvindogmedia.com and give us a listen. You can subscribe to the shows on itunes and get up to date info on upcoming shows on facebook:
For a while, I'll be posting some older art from my archives. I really should get that work on the site and it will help for postings as I finish up a big comic project for Gradient Comics.
Today's Sketch card is Captain Cold. Captain Cold made his first appearance in May of 1957. He is a DC villain and namely one of the Flash's. I had never heard of Captain Cold until Mattel made an action figure of him in the DC Classics collection. He was part of a big build-a-figure toy wave and when I saw him, I couldn't resist getting him in my collection. This sketch card is based on that action figure.
I'm scheduled to be on the DELol show on Sunday July 21st to have a good old fashioned "Throw down in the toy isle" toy quiz compatition between Jeff and I. You need to tune in to the DELol show that Sunday. It will be fun!
Just to let you know all know, I am taking commissions. If you would like to commission me for original artwork, head over to the commissions tab in store to see how.
If you have not heard about the Podcast called, "Talking Toys with Taylor and Jeff", then it's time I let you know! Jeff and I are on the show where we talk about toys! (Go figure, I mean Go action figure!) Seems simple enough. We pick out a toy line to discuss in each show. We share our childhood memories, our favorite five, and talk about the one toy in the line that got away. Jeff talks about how he cherished his toys and I talk about how they ended up in the garden! The other two shows are The pilot episode, where Jeff and Josh Taylor break down the Pilot Episode in TV series, and The Loosely Based Podcast where Brynna and Jeff compare the book to the movie adaptation! The shows are great! If you are interested in what we got, go to Marvindogmedia.com and give us a listen. You can subscribe to the shows on itunes and get up to date info on upcoming shows on facebook:
Ever since I saw this guy in the toy news, I have been waiting for him to show up on my doorstep. He is a very cool action figure, but does not come without a few complaints. Snake Face was Mattycollector's April collector's club action figure. He is a nice addition to King Hsss's army of snake men. Much like his vintage action figure, this version of Snake Face comes with both his staff and shield. The staff is the basic re-use staff that we have seen with King Hsss and Rattlor in the Classics toy line. Snake Face's staff is a nice shade of green that matches his helmet and has great green metal detailing on the bottom scales of the snake. His shield on the other hand is lacking a little. The shield is a bright green plastic that is sculpted very nicely. Paint-wise, it has one application of gold in the center. This is not really a problem at all, but I would have just liked to see some paint that would bring out the sculpt a little more. As for the body, he has all of the basic MOTU male buck movement. We get some really nice newly tooled parts; the arms, armor, hands, loin cloth and head. One of the things that I absolutely love about the new parts is the sculpted snakes on the forearms. That sculpting is fantastic and the "elbow snakes" really accentuate the creepiness of this guy. Another of the other new pieces that I love is the snake popping face. Creepy... It's just plain creepy. This is definitely one of those toys that I will bring around my mom. She is terrified of snakes and this does a great job of giving a great scary snake vibe. (Love you, Mom.)
The original Snake Face action figure had a pop out snake action figure. What Mattel has done to give that snake feature was to add a head with the snakes coming out of the face and detachable panels that pull out of the armor in order to stick two belly snakes on his armor. In some ways, I'm not a big fan of the belly snakes. When you take off the armor panels, it leaves a small slit open at the top of the armor that shows his skin tone underneath. I really feel that the small slits detract from the over all design. I would have liked to see the panels stay and maybe just have the snakes fit via taking a small peg away at the bottom instead of a whole panel. What can you do? I do not display him with the belly snakes. There... done.
With all of the display options that you can get, it leaves Snake Face with a lot of parts. In the beginning, Mattel wasn't sure that they would pack in all of Snake Face's weapons due to the fact that there were so many parts. I'm glad that you did, Mattel. Let's hope that you can do the same with the upcoming Castle Grayskull, but I digress, that's another toy. Snake Face is a nice update of the original toy and does not borrow at all from the 200X design at all. I am a BIG fan of the 200X NECA Staction design, and I was hoping for some of those elements to translate over to this toy, but we can't always get what we want. So, was Snake face worth the price... Yep. He's that cool.
I purchased a table for the Dallas Comic Con in May. I look forward to seeing all of the familiar faces and hopefully some new people stopping by to chat with us.
Just to let you know all know, I am taking commissions. If you would like to commission me for original artwork, head over to the commissions tab in store to see how.
If you have not heard about the Podcast called, "Talking Toys with Taylor and Jeff", then it's time I let you know! Jeff and I are on the show where we talk about toys! (Go figure, I mean Go action figure!) Seems simple enough. We pick out a toy line to discuss in each show. We share our childhood memories, our favorite five, and talk about the one toy in the line that got away. Jeff talks about how he cherished his toys and I talk about how they ended up in the garden! The other two shows are The pilot episode, where Jeff and Josh Taylor break down the Pilot Episode in TV series, and The Loosely Based Podcast where Brynna and Jeff compare the book to the movie adaptation! The shows are great! If you are interested in what we got, go to Marvindogmedia.com and give us a listen. You can subscribe to the shows on itunes and get up to date info on upcoming shows on facebook:
If you like what we have, be sure to tell your friends! We need your word of mouth to help us keep making shows! And, be sure to give Jeff a hug. He's feeling a bit grumpy.
