Friday, December 11, 2015

#621 MASTERS UNIVERSE - PRINCE ADAM AND KING RANDOR (1984 and 1987)



The Masters of the Universe adventures are mostly located in Eternia, a planet ruled by King Randor and Queen Marlena. Their son Adam is their only descendant, and he is, of course, He-Man´s alter ego.
The figure of Prince Adam was released in the third wave (1984) while the figure of King Randor was released much later, in 1987 within the 6th wave. Why, I don't know. King Randor appears in many episodes of the Filmation series, but he is not very often into action, so maybe Mattel thought it may not sell very well.

King Randor wears a red top an orange trousers, probably the toy designers took the colours from the TV series. The figure is rare not only because it belongs to the last series in most parts of the world, but also because it came with a blue cloak, that is also quite difficult to find original. Note the golden attachment around the neck of the figure. Other accesories were a spear, an armour (2 parts) and the crown, that was not intended to be removed, but it actually could be removed. Since the head is painted, the figure can be often found with a paint chip in the nose, and this should be controlled when purchased. Golden paint (belt, armour...) is also rather fragile and tend to disappear if the figure was played. Something in sweat or maybe the fat produced by human skin makes this paint disappear. It is not something that happens to MotU only, it is also common to Hasbro's WWF, and probably to other toylines too.




Prince Adam reuses the complete cast of He-Man, and also his Power Sword, everything recoloured to look very different. Unlike He-Man, who is almost naked, Prince Adam wears a white t-shirt with long sleeves, light purple trousers and purple boots and shorts. In top of that a dark red velvet jacket and a black belt. His only accesory was a pink sword. Very interesting is his belt. It is made of a black elastic strip and a yellow button on the front. This yellow button makes the belt to be one of the most difficult accesories in the whole collection. If the belt is present, it is almost always missing the button.



I present in this entry the two figures, but I also compare different Adam figures I own from different CoOs (Countries of Origin).

Left up: Malaysia soft head, Right Up: Malaysia Hard Head, 
Down left: Taiwan, Down right: Spain

Left up: Taiwan , Right Up: Spain, 
Left down: Malaysia soft head, Right Down: Malaysia Hard Head

The version I own since I was a kid is made in Spain, and is the one with the darker hands. One thumb is broken, I wish I can find and glue it again.

The version which I used to take the pictures, and the only one with the yellow button in the belt is Made in Taiwan. The other two are Made in Malaysia, but one is soft head and the other one is hard head.

Jacket comparison Left: Malaysia soft head, Right: Spain
Jacket comparison: Left: Malaysia soft head, Center: Spain, Right: Malaysia hard head

FACTS and FIGURES:
  • Name: PRINCE ADAM (Ref. 7353) AND KING RANDOR (Ref. 3068)
  • Toy Line: Masters of the Universe (Waves 3 and 6)
  • Year: 1984 and 1987
  • Company: Mattel (U.S.A.)
  • Size of the figures: Around 14 cm

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