Could the Powers of Grayskull Dinos be coming to MOTU Origins?
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Could some posts by Axel Gimenez and Roy Juarez be hints that the Powers of Grayskull Dinos might be coming to the MOTU Origins Line? Let’s explore! Hot off the heals of the incredible reveal of He-Ro yesterday, it looks like the Powers of Grayskull are finally coming to the MOTU Origins line! We explored the possibilities and future of the Powers of Grayskull in our He-Ro Art Teases & Future Powers of Grayskull Characters article, but today, a post from Axel Gimenez peeked our interest! He posted a stunning image of the Camo Khan card art that prominently featured the Powers of Grayskull dinosaurs on it! With all this talk about the 2 iconic characters that would be released this year as Club Grayskull exclusives, what about the rest of the Powers of Grayskull? Taking a look at Axel’s post, he mentioned that “@manuel_eduardo_caritas for being the “cosmic key” ✨🔑 that allowed us to open the portal to Preternia from the first time 💪🏾😉” and @manuel_eduardo_caritas responded back with “The long awaited toyline is finally here ✨🦖🦕✨” Roy used emojis of Dinosaurs in his response, could this be a hint that the Powers of Grayskull Dinos are finally coming to the MOTU Origins Line? Let’s explore the possibilities!
With the release of He-Ro, Axel Gimenez reminds us of the Camo Khan art that is filled with the Powers of Grayskull! According to Axel Gimez on Instagram:
Let’s go back in time… ✨The Powers of Grayskull✨. An age as interesting as the present Eternia. Or perhaps more, for all the potential it still has to explore and discover.
We showed Preternia for the first time in Origins, in the art with the story of Camo Khan. And we continue to get glimpses of that wonderful time in subsequent art with the Snake Men. Now we have definitively opened the portal with the first figure of that line. He-Ro!
By the way, thanks @manuel_eduardo_caritas for being the “cosmic key” ✨🔑 that allowed us to open the portal to Preternia from the first time 💪🏾😉
And then this is what Roy Juarez responded with! Could we see Dinos coming to the line too????
Tyrantisaurus Rex
There are several robotic dinosaurs illustrated on Camo Khan’s card back art, but Tyrantisaurus Rex takes center stage on the card art! King Hiss can be seen riding ontop the ginormous dinosaur leading the charge of a legion of Snake Men!
If you’ve been following any of our previous card art tease articles, Mattel has been known to tease us of upcoming releases thru their card art and then actually producing the characters into the Origins line. Well, the fact that these bionic Dinos are so prominently illustrated on this card art gives us hope to some amazing things to come!
Below we can see what the original vintage packaging looked like for Tyrantisaurus Rex. As you can see, altought the packaging keeps the MOTU logo, they dropped they Master of the Universe red rock burst themed packaging and went with a new style for the Powers of Grayskull.
According to: Battle Ram Blog:
The earliest design artwork for a MOTU T-Rex comes from Alan Tyler. His take on the concept is quite different from what followed. The design below doesn’t have any external cybernetic parts. Aside from the pop out opening in the back, it looks like a fairly realistic tyrannosaurus. The “drone” is actually an organic creature instead of a mechanical one.
A hatch on the back of the figure opens up to allow an action figure to sit. A hatch on the stomach stores the “Dyna-Drone” (a wind-up spinning toy), which can be launched from the figure’s belly. There is a removable blue gun that attaches to the dinosaur’s right shoulder, and the mouth is articulated.
Tyrantisaurus Rex: Most Terrifying Dinosaur in the land of Preternia (1987) – Battle Ram (battleramblog.com)
Source: Tyrantisaurus Rex 1987 Battle Ram Blog
Source: Tyrantisaurus Rex 1987 Battle Ram Blog
Here we can see what the cross sell art work looked like for Tyrantisaurus-Rex. It demonstrated his action feature springing into action! On the left we can see what the actual production image looked like.
Source: Tyrantisaurus Rex 1987 Battle Ram Blog
Bionatops
Bionatops can be spotted on both the front and rear of the Camo Khan card art with King Grayskull riding ontop of him, leading the heroic warriors. He is depicted in his classic look of a green Triceratops dinosaur. Again, this the second of three bionic dinosaurs illustrated on the card art.
Bionatops was originally released in 1987 by Mattel as part of the Powers of Grayskull subline. A horned dinosaur from the land of Preterina, Bionatops was associated with the Heroic Warriors. He sported cannons on his head for the Heroic Warriors to use to help battle the Evil Warriors. A complete vintage Bionatops can cost a pretty penney, so if Mattel releases these are part of the Origins line, it would give collectors who always wanted one another chance to own him!
Below is pictured the vintage Bionatops package both front and back. You can see the Powers of Grayskull vintage packaging and beautiful illustration of He-Man riding atop Bionatop on the back of the package.
Also pictured below is a concept sketch for Bionatops and then what the actual 1987 production version of the creature looks like.
Turbodactyl
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!
Often seen illustrated flying high over the towers of Preternia, Turbodactyl is the last of the bionic dinosaurs illustrated on the Camo Khan artwork. Turbodactyl, the flying dino was also originally released in 1987 by Mattel under the Powers of Grayskull subline.
It’s hard to make out who is illustrated on the back of Turbodactyl, but again, this would be an exciting character to add to the Origins line.
You can see images below of his vintage packaging and the actual production figure. He had jetpacks built in under his wings as part of his Bionic features. Turbodactyl too was packaged under the Powers of Grayskull subline and the packaging looked spectacular! It’s hard to tell who is illustrated on the package riding him, but again it could have been another exciting unproduced character.
Camo Khan Card Art
With absolutely stunning artwork by Axel Gimenez, the front of the Camo Khan card back features all sorts of exciting MOTU characters. We can see a host of Powers of Grayskull characters. We have Megator, King Hiss riding the Tyrantisaurus Rex. We can also see Tung Lashor, Rattlor, Squeeze and Snake Face, who were already released in the Origins line!King Grayskull is riding Bionatops, and of course we got King Grayskull with Eternia. Moss Man, Rattlor and King Hiss have both be produced. Then we see teases of and Sharella, as we covered in Wun-Dar Card Art Teases New MOTU Origins Characters. Also pictured is Eldor, Turbodactyl and Tytus as well! Also illustrated is Castle Grayskull and the Eternia playset, which of course we have as well. There were so many characters here that we have either predicted thru previous card art teases or haven gotten actual production figures and playsets of, so what is left to come out but the dinos and a few Powers of Grayskull characters!
On the back of the card back, we get a mini comic story. Unfortunately, the resolution isn’t great, so it’s hard to make out the text. but we can definitely see the amazing illustrations! Again, more stunning artwork by Axel Gimenez, the back of the Camo Khan card back features more exciting MOTU characters. We can see Lazer Light Skeletor in the along with Snake Mountain in the background. We see the host of Powers of Grayskull characters from the front card art as well. Here we see King Hiss illustrated again sitting on a throne with a host of other henchmen. Also Camo Khan is shown coming thru a magical portal with Terroar and Lord Gr’asp, approaching Laser Power He-Man and Moss-Man.
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