Axel Gimenez Teases MOTU Origins Powers of Grayskull

In a series of posts over the past few days, Axel Gimenez has been pondering or teasing us with his thoughts on Powers of Grayskull characters that have been found on some recent MOTU Origins packaging art. Could he be hinting at something? Could the Powers of Grayskull finally be coming to the MOTU Origins line in 2025? So let’s take a look at the Axel Gimenez Teases of MOTU Origins Powers of Grayskull characters!

Powers of Grayskull Teases

The first card back art that Axel Gimenez teased us with was for Lord-G’rasp. Here we have Powers of Grayskull charcaters including Strobo, Plasmar, Megator and Turbodactyl.

According to Axel Gimenez:

Really eager to see all these guys in Origins… (Besides we need to complete the 88s with Strobo and Plasmar)

Scene taken from the Masters of the Universe Origins – Lord G’rasp cardback with line art by me and colors by @daviddelacal

#mastersoftheuniverse
#thepowersofgrayskull
#preternia#88#mastersoftheuniverseorigins#art#axelgimenez

The second card back art that Axel Gimenez teased us with was for Terror. According to Axel Gimenez:

I would love to have a new marble Castle Grayskull playset, inspired in the version we saw in episode #9 of season 2 of the 2002 animated series – “The Power of Grayskull”.

Scene taken from the Masters of the Universe Origins – Terroar cardback with line art by me and colors by @dc_alonso_colorist

#mastersoftheuniverse#thepowersofgrayskull#preternia#castlegrayskull#playset#88#mikeyoungseries

The next package art Axel Gimenez teased us with was for the MOTU Origins Eternia Playset. According to Axel Gimenez:

“my tastes tend to gravitate toward the aesthetics of the earlier MOTU figures. But there is something about Laser-Light Skeletor in all his creepy, funky techno-glory that really draws me in.”

Adam McCombs’ words in the article he wrote about Laser-Light Skeletor on his @battleramblog perfectly describe my feelings about not only this version of Skeletor, but also Laser Power He-Man.

I relate them somehow to The Powers of Grayskull and Preternia. Maybe because of the time they were made and mainly because of their design. Especially Skeletor and all that technology around his body, very characteristic of the creatures of that age. Because of everything Mattel was planning for Masters of the Universe in those years, I think He-Man and Skeletor could have changed that way in some of their travels back to the past, which began in the minicomic “The Powers of Grayskull – The Legend Begins” which would have been the starting point to exploit that era, but in the end, could not be at that time.

Anyway, after the original versions, the Lasers are my favorite versions of them.

Scene taken from the Masters of the Universe Origins – Eternia box, with line art by me and colors by @fetch.franciscoetchart

#mastersoftheuniverse
#heman
#skeletor#laserpowerheman#laserlightskeletor#thepowersofgrayskull#preternia#eternia#art#axelgimenez

Plasmar Tease

In 2017, the character was given the name Lord Gr’Asp and released as part of a three-pack with Terroar and Plasmar. Lord Gr’Asp was part of a 2017 PowerCon exclusive3 pack that included Terroar, Plasmar & Lord Gr’Asp. Plasmar can be seen battling Lord Gr’asp on the new Lord Gr’asp card back, giving us a huge tease for the figure! Blending an homage to the original concept sketches for Lord Gr’asp’s card art with an updated trio of teases in the in the background! Here we can see Plasmar featured in the foreground, and Megator along with Strobo on Turbodactyl in the background.

In 2017, the character was given the name Lord Gr’Asp and released as part of a three-pack with Terroar and Plasmar.Lord Gr’Asp was part of a 2017 PowerCon exclusive3 pack that included Terroar, Plasmar & Lord Gr’Asp.

Lord Gr’asps bio reads: One of the Unnamed One’s elite generals, Lord Gr’Asp used his vile cunning to orchestrate his master’s escape from the Nameless Dimension. He first made an alliance with Horde Prime and persuaded him to destroy the Kaydex Crystal, damaging the barrier that kept the Unnamed One trapped. With a legion of Horde-armored Snake Troopers at his command, Gr’Asp then convinced Hordak and King Hssss to join forces on Eternia. Gr’Asp and his warriors escaped defeat during the Second Ultimate Battleground, but later joined forces with Lady Slither to reconquer Eternia after the Unnamed One’s demise. While Gr’Asp is a master of strategy, he prefers to lurk in the shadows and snatch unsuspecting victims in his Captor Claw rather than engage in a fair fight. While he claims to admire the stealth and skill of enemies like Slamurai and Zodak, he also viciously exploits the naïveté of younger opponents like Strobo and Prince Dare. Lord Gr’Asp hopes to resurrect both the Horde Empire and the Snake Men, but only to help him steal the knowledge of Grayskull for himself.

Lord Gr’asp also had some unreleased card back art from the unreleased Powers of Grayskull line. Here again it looks like he is battling Plasmar.

Strobo Tease

Strobo, teased on the Snake Trooper card back, is the light powered cosmic enforcer came out in the Masters of the Universe Classics line. He reused parts from Zodac and Sy-Klone and had a mirrored sticker in the middle of his chest. According to the Wiki Grayskull,

“Strobo is a character who appears in a single Masters of the Universe comic story, but he was seemingly planned for the toyline, as his appearance reuses Zodac’s head with a white helmet and Sy-Klone’s body in fleshtone and red details, plus a blue cape. Strobo’s power is that, when light reaches the reflector on his chest, he spins and sends light in all directions. Strobo’s only appearance was in the story “The Dark Power of Skeletor” from the Masters of the Universe Magazine. In it, Skeletor sends Blast-Attak, Ninjor and Sssqueeze after an spherical container that is buried underground. He-Man, Battle Cat, Rio Blast and Strobo try to stop them, but the villains escape. The container has a fragment of dark star that passed by Eternia, and gives Skeletor the power to spread an evil shadow over the land and control over all territory under the shadow. This allows Skeletor to take over Castle Grayskull, but the Heroic Warriors use a secret entrance to reach the throneroom, and He-Man sends a ray of light from his Power Sword to Strobo’s reflector, whose powers send the light to the meteor and destroy it.”

Wiki Grayskull – Strobo

Strobos bio reads: Chosen as Zodac’s replacement in the Cosmic Enforcers, Strobo was tasked by the Overlords of Trolla to investigate his predecessor’s assassination on Eternia. Finding Jitsu ruling Snake Mountain and evil spreading across the land, Strobo carried out his Masters’ assignment by forcefully maintaining neutrality in He-man’s absence. He turned the tide of several battles, fighting both with and sometimes against, the remaining Masters of the Universe. Stobo wears armor enhancements originally created by the scientists of Anwat Gar. His chest plate can project force fields and energy blasts to stun or even disintegrate those who oppose his will. Strobo uses the forces of light to battle his enemies.

Strobo also had some unreleased card back art from the unreleased Powers of Grayskull line. Here again it looks like he is battling against 2 Snake Troopers just like on the MOTU Origins Snake Trooper card back art! I wonder where they got the idea? LOL!

Turbodactyl Tease

Turbodactyl is illustrated on both the card backs for Lord Gr’asp and Terroar. On Terroar’s card back, he has Sharella riding on him. And on Lord Gr’asp’s card back he is flying past Megator! It’s hard to make out who is riding him there, but it looks like it could be Strobo!

Megator

Megator, was the second of the two giants last produced for the Vintage Masters of the Universe Line, and is prominently featured on Lord Gr’asp’s card back art and on the art work for the Mattel Creations exclusive Camo Khan.

Megator, was the second of the two giants last produced for the Vintage Masters of the Universe Line, and is prominently featured on the front of the card back art spinning his giant spiked mace! Tytus and Megator are both illustrated here, so could Mattel be planning to release their two Powers of Grayskull giants? Only time will tell, but it is so exciting to see them here.

Megator, evil Giant Destroyer was one of the last vintage Masters of the Universe characters to be released in 1988. One of two giants, Megator and Titus, the two rarest of the MOTU vintage figures, was released only in Europe, primarily in Italy. Originally designed to be part of the spin off “Powers of Grayskull” line, Megator and Titus were still released with the Masters of the Universe logos on their packaging. Megator, the green giant evil warrior stands 15″ tall and came with real rooted hair. He included a spring-loaded right leg for a kicking action feature, and he came with a spiked ball and chain.

Sharella Tease

As seen on the Terror Cardback art, Terroar sends a soundwave to Sharella as she sets an arrow in her bow. Terroa’s card back art features him battling against Sharella riding Turbodactyl, with a very different Castle Grayskull in the background. It could be that this is taking place in pre-Eternia and the Castle was much newer and less battle worn back in those days. These teases of Sharella and Turbodactyl will be covered below.

We previously just saw Sharella spotted on the top of central tower on the Eternia Playset box. She can be seen with her bow and arrow pointed at poor Grizzlor who is climbing the ladder up the Central Tower.

Sharella, is a fairly new character and appeared for the first time on the Wun-Dar comic and card back art. She is now shown on the Camo Khan Front Card art poised with a bow and arrow, ready to attack and standing next to King Grayskull riding Bionatops. Sharella is actually the Goddess. According to MOTU Lore and as written on the character bio for MOTU Classics, the Goddess’s real name is Sharella. But who really is Sharella and where did she come from?

According to the MOTU Classics Goddess Bio:

After the death of King Grayskull, the Power of the Universe was transferred from the Sword of He to the Council of Elders who hid it deep within his castle. Knowing the full sword was the key to channeling the power, they split it in two to prevent it from falling into the hands of evil. For five centuries they waited for a worthy heir to be born. During this time their spirit guide, the creature known as “The Goddess” of Etheria, trained secret heroic guardian to keep the two halves of the sword separated. Many of these brave warriors took the name “He-Man” in honor of the sword they protected giving birth to many different legends of the protector of Eternia.

According WikiGrayskull:

The Masters of the Universe Classics toy line has combined elements from all previous continuities, and as such has restored the Goddess to a position of importance in Eternian history. According to the biographies printed on the toys, the Goddess is Sharella, a spirit guide who consulted the Council of Elders between the death of King Grayskull and the lifetime of Prince Adam some 500 years later. During this time the Goddess trained “secret heroic guardians” such as Vikor, Wun-Dar, and Oo-Larr to protect the two halves of Grayskull’s “Sword of He” until a worthy heir emerged. The Classics storyline has yet to present any information about her activities during the present day, or her relationship (if any) with the Sorceress, Teela, and Prince Adam.

Goddess | Wiki Grayskull | Fandom

Sharella was originally conceived to part a heroic character in the mostly unproduced Powers of Grayskull line of 1987. She was seen on the box art for the Megator package running in the background. She was thought to have come with a Sword, bow, and quiver with arrows. Unfortunately for all of us, she was never produced as a figure in the 1987 Powers of Grayskull line.

Unfortunately, Sharella has never been an officially produced action figure, but if the Origins line makes a figure of her, they are going way deep into MOTU lore, and that is super exciting! Here we can see a custom by Hunter Knight. Created by using a Battleground Teela figure with a sculpted top and also re-sculpted lower arms. Her quiver was donated from a Young Justice Artemis action figure with new sculpted details and her bow is a cast from a Legolas figure with additional details, HKC did a magnificent job! So, this give you a little bit of an idea of what Sharella might look like in action figure form! So you could imagine Mattel using a Teela Origins buck as a basis for this figure.

Starring on the Wun-Dar comic card back art and in the packed in mini comic “Lost Legend”. In the mini comic, Wun-Dar also refers to Sharella as “The Goddess”. Sharella seems to be a pivitol character in the story. On the Comic Cardback art, we can see Sharella whelding a bow and arrow coming to Wun-Dar’s rescue, as he battles a storm of evil glowing skeleton warriors.

Eternia Box Art Teases

The last packaging art in the series of teases by Axel Gimenez has been for the MOTU Origins Eternia Box. Featured in his post was Laser Power He-Man and Laser Light Skeletor. This Eternia box are is beautifully stunning, and there are so many easter eggs in this artwork, we don’t know where to begin, but we will cover them all right here and right now! So without further ado, let’s dive into this amazing Eternia MOTU Origins Mattel Creations Official Box Art Reveal! With these new hi-res images, we can now more clearly see the teases for each of the characters, and some we haven’t been able to clearly make out until now. So we have went ahead and replaced all the enlarged teased images with the high res ones, so let’s dive into these newly visible figure teases!

Laser Power He-Man

Laser Power He-Man was a corner stone into the gate way of the Powers of Grayskull! Prominently featured on the Eternia package artwork, you can see Laser Power He-Man battling with Laser Light Skeletor! But this isn’t the first time we saw him teased! He was previously teased on the Camo Khan Card art as we will discuss below.

As with Laser Light Skeletor, the figure’s light up feature is activated by raising his right arm. A wire is snaked from the sword, under the armor on the right arm (which seems to exist only to hide the wire) and into the backpack. The light in the sword is powered by an AA battery that fits in the backpack.

The Italy release (shown below) has the newly sculpted head, which some have speculated is supposed to resemble Dolph Lundgren, who played He-Man in the 1987 Masters of the Universe Movie. Alternatively, it could resemble some actor who might have starred in the (never produced) interactive He-Man TV show. That’s purely speculative – they might not have had any actors in mind for the series. Looking at this and the early prototype closely, however, I think the most likely interpretation is that it’s just supposed to look like the original He-Man’s face sculpt, but with a more neutral expression and updated hair. Like Laser-Light Skeletor, all of Laser Power He-Man’s tooled parts are unique to the figure

Laser Power He-Man: Heroic Master of Light Energy (1988) – Battle Ram (battleramblog.com)

Laser Power He-Man was one of the two remaining deluxe release figures of the vintage Masters of the Universe line in 1988. He had a light up power sword feature powered by his backpack. The light up feature was activated by putting the Power Sword in his hand. By the time this figure was released, the line’s popularity had died out in the United States, so it was released in Italy and Spain. Today, Laser Light He-Man and Laser Light Skeletor are of the highest valued figures of the entire MOTU vintage line and fetch triple digits!

Laser Power He-Man can with two variants of his head. The first was the original vintage head design, but was later changed to resemble Dolph Lundren who was then starring in the Masters of the Universe Motion Picture.

Laser Light Skeletor

And with Laser Power He-Man, of course comes with nemesis, Laser Light Skeletor, also part of the Powers of Grayskull! Also prominently featured on the Eternia package artwork, you can see Laser Light Skeletor battling against Laser Power He-Man! But he too was previously teased on the Camo Khan Card art as well!

Laser Light Skeletor

Laser Light Skeletor is featured very prominently on the back of Camo Khan’s card back art! He can be seen multiple times illustrated throughout the comic. He is seen shooting out his laser beam, sitting on his throne and commanding his evil henchmen Camo Khan to attack! One of the rarest of the original vintage action figures, Laser Light Skeletor is a sought after a very expensive vintage figure to acquire. If Mattel were to release him in the Origins line, I think fans would be totally over the moon with excitement!

Laser Light Skeletor was one of the two remaining deluxe release figures of the vintage Masters of the Universe line in 1988. He had light up eyes and a light up hand. The light up feature was activated by lifting his right arm, and his havoc staff was semitranslucent, so it was supposed to lit up while he held it in his right hand. By the time this figure was released, the line’s popularity had died out in the United States, so it was released in Europe. Today, Laser Light He-Man and Laser Light Skeletor are of the highest valued figures of the entire MOTU vintage line and fetch triple digits!

According to the Battle Ram Blog:

Laser-Light Skeletor, released in Italy and Spain a year after the end of the Masters of the Universe toyline in the US, was a figure most North American fans were not aware of until they discovered it online years later. That was certainly true for me. Because the figure was produced in limited numbers overseas, it’s one of the most expensive vintage He-Man toys to acquire today. (Update: I’m also informed that there was some distribution of Laser Light Skeletor in Switzerland. Thanks to Olmo for the information.)

Laser-Light Skeletor: Evil Master of Light Energy (1988) – Battle Ram (battleramblog.com)

Previous Teases

Moss Man Package Dino Teases

The front of the box features a stunning prehistoric forest scene with several figure and creature teases. The art wraps around the top flap, front and sides of the packaging. Here we can see the entire panel of images. On the side panel there is a figure tease of Gigantisaur, an unreleased creature from the cancelled 1988 Powers of Grayskull line. You can see Thunder Punch He-Man coming out of the dinosaur’s belly. We will discuss him further below. We also get another tease on the center panel which occurs on the top flap of the package. Flying toward that large Sequoia is none other than Turbodactyl, who was also originally released in 1987 also under the Powers of Grayskull subline! Also that is no ordinary Seqouia tree, if you look closely there is a face on that tree, and it is Sky Tree! Sky tree is a character from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and is the oldest tree on Eternia! In the left panel below, we can see Moss Man front and center, but who is the blue creature standing behind him? That is of course is Red Shadow, yes which I know he is blue, but that is his name. We discuss Red Shadow further below as well. Of course off in the distance is Eternia as this scene is taking place in no other than Preternia!!