Moss Man MOTU Origins Collector Edition Box Art Reveal Teases Power of Grayskull Line
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The new Moss Man MOTU Origins Collector Edition Box Art Reveal Teases a ton of exciting new Power of Grayskull characters and creatures!
Roy Juarez is batting a thousand this week and has just a hit a grand slam with his box art reveal for the Moss Man Masters of the Universe Collector’s Edition figure! This is one of the most widely anticipated releases for the Origins line, so we are excited to see the package design, the art, and the figure and creature teases! Speaking of teases, there are a few Masters of the Universe Classics teases in this art plus teases pointing to a wide Powers of Grayskull line. Could we see the Powers of Grayskull line coming in 2024 with the release of the Eternia playset? We sure hope so! The packaging for Moss Man looks incredible as Mattel is really cranking it up with this special edition release. This is said to be a Walmart exclusive, Roy Juarez states in his Instagram post that this will be “in Walmarts”, which makes us a little concerned. Will this be available only in store? Walmart’s distribution is not the best and not all stores receive the same product. Or will our pine smelling friend be available on-line? Little to nothing is known at the moment about how Moss Man will be available to purchase. But we did find a MOTU Origins Deluxe Figure listed on Walmart’s website and are hoping this is his listing, but that is yet to be confirmed.
Package Design
In Roy’s words, “It’s packaging time! Here’s a special preview of the Collectors Edition “flocked” Moss Man packaging exclusively in Walmart. This Heroic Spy & Master of Camouflage has moss-like fur, and smells like pine!”
The usual suspects for Origins:
Art Direction & Graphic Design @manuel_eduardo_caritas
Artwork @axel.gimenez@fetch.franciscoetchart
Toy Design @katanarama333
Story @joshuaskywriter
Copywriter @yesreallyrob
Moss Man’s packaging is absolutely stunning, with a beautiful scene within a lush forest complete with waterfalls and in the background yes, it is Eternia! So this scene is taking place in none other than in Preternia! We are just over the moon about how beautifully gorgeous this packaging is! We have been waiting Moss Man for so long and they really did this gentle pine smelling friend of the forest justice with this incredible packaging! Let’s dive in and take a close look at Moss Man’s packaging!
Moss Man looks just incredible inside the packaging! His pack out is beautifully laid out! You can see his brown curved spiked mace and club on one side, and his yellow armor on the other. The curved spiked mace of course is a reuse of Pig Head’s weapon. And the club has been used for several characters like Clawful and Kamo Khan most recently. The yellow armor is an homage to the vintage weapons pack, that came with a set of yellow Beast Man armor, and people used to put this on their Moss Man figures. I think it’s wonderful how Mattel honored that fan made tradition through this figure releases!
Art and Illustrations
Moss Man comes in a gorgeous collector’s edition box, similar to that of Eternian Palace Guard window box. This is just stunningly beautiful art work covering every square inch of the packaging featuring our pine smelly furry friend, and a ton of figure and creature teases which we can’t wait to get into! The artistic team of @manuel_eduardo_caritas, @axel.gimenez and @fetch.franciscoetchart did a spectacular job with this artwork! Gonna have to pick up several of these to keep in the collection! There is a whole forest scene going on with prehistoric creatures, all sorts of trees and vines, and a ton of new character sprinkled throughout.
Front and Side Box Art
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!!
Rear Box Art
The rear of the package is a stunning full color illustration of the entire rear of the package with Moss Man poking out of a ferny bush, fully armored up, mace in hand! He is looking over two new foes. There is a beautiful reddish orange Eternian sunset sky in the background. Standing in the distance are Nepthu in Snake Form, and an unnamed Red Snake character that Axel Gimenez has come up with.
Powers of Grayskull Teases
This Moss Man package is full of Powers of Grayskull art work teases. Coming fresh off the heals of the Camo Khan Card Back, which teased a whole host of characters from the Powers of Grayskull, we now get more on Moss Man’s package! This would make sense in the time line for the MOTU lore because the Rise of the Snake Men in happening now in 2023, but where did the snake men originate from, none other than Preternia! And where is Preternia the central location of ? Well you guessed it folks, the Powers of Grayskull subline! And so we come full circle! The Powers of Grayskull line that only had a few characters produced back in 1988, was never fully developed by Mattel because the line’s popularity was dying out by then. It included fantastic new characters, giants and the world of Preternia filled with robotic dinosaurs! It would be a dream come true if Mattel were to build out the Powers of Grayskull line! You can read more about the previous figure teases and the Powers of Grayskull in this epic MOTU-origins-camo-khan-card-art-teases article!
According to Wiki Grayskull:
The Powers of Grayskull was a spinoff from the Masters of the Universe brand. Beginning in 1987, it was intended to show the prehistory of Eternia. However, the line was aborted early, and very few products were ever released.
The Powers of Grayskull | Wiki Grayskull | Fandom
Gigantisaur
Gigantisaur was an unreleased creature from the cancelled Powers of Grayskull line from 1988 that was modeled after a Brontosaurus. This creature is huge and you can see the canon door and how it can fit a MOTU figure in it.
Turbodactyl
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.
Sky Tree
So not only do we get figure and character teases on this packaging, but we also get something that could be considered a small playset or diorama piece teased with Sky Tree! How cool would it be to get Sky Tree for you Moss Man to be displayed next too?! That would be incredible!
According to Skytree | Wiki Grayskull | Fandom
Skytree is the oldest tree on Eternia and the only living thing on the planet older than Granamyr. In exchange for telling He-Man and Teela how to reverse a spell that had turned Man-At-Arms to crystal, the jealous dragon sent them to the Forgotten Forest to chop down Skytree so he could watch it burn in his fire pit. They made their way past Skytree’s protector Tullamore and explained the situation to it. Skytree recalled that an old Man-At-Arms had saved the Forgotten Forest from the Witches of Fire, and agreed to repay its debt by sacrificing itself to save the current Man-At-Arms. He-Man and Teela, however, decided to spare Skytree, and received both its thanks and apologies for doing so.
Skytree | Wiki Grayskull | Fandom
MOTU Classics Teases
With a number of unproduced figures from the MOTU Classics still out there based on Axel Gimenez’s concepts, we are getting teases from some deep cut figures in the line!
High Priest Pythonus (aka Nepthu)
Nepthu first appeared as an articulated action figure in August 2013 as part of Mattel’s Masters of the Universe Classics toyline. He is also referred to as High Priest Pythonus on many MOTU forums. His Classics Bio makes him the first known member of the Snake Men Faction who is not part of the Snake Men species. This concept builds off of the Nepthu character from MOTU Classics who pledged his life to King Hiss during the 2nd Ultimate Battle Ground
Red Shadow
The following concepts are held over from Axel Gimenez’s work on the MOTU Classics line so you will see Red Shadow referecned and other concepts, as Axel explains below:
According to Axel, “One of my first projects for Mattel in 2013 was to design five figures for the Masters of the Universe Classics line. From those, Fang-Or, The Great Black Wizard, and Red Shadow are my favorites. Fang-Or was made by Super 7 when they took over the line at the time. The other two never made it to production, and that’s why a few years ago, I decided to ask @zoooorito to make a custom of Red Shadow, which would be the first he ever made for me. He decided to make two versions. A regular version, that is the one I chose, and a flocked version, which is the one Leo made for him. To complete the trio of my favorites from those early designs, Leo will be working on The Great Black Wizard.”
Red Snake Creature
There is one more red snake creature that is prominently featured on the back of the card back art work for Moss Man. We searched high and low to confirm who he is, but came up empty handed. So we went right to the source to ask the artist himself! Roy Juarez did respond back to our inquiry, and says that this is an unnamed new character! They are working on giving him a name, but nothing official yet. He looks like a combination of Camo Khan’s flared snake head and body, woth an actual snake like tail on his lower half. In any case, this is an amazing new character!
Moss Man Reveal
Moss Man is our biggest contender for this mystery MOTU Origins Deluxe Listing! He was revealed at the Mattel 40th Anniversary Press and Influencer last October, so we know he is definitely a confirmed figure coming to the line! It’s been 5 months since his reveal, so the timing might make sense. And out of the three figures we are considering, Moss-Man is the only one said to be a Walmart exclusive, so this one gets the best chance!
MOTU Origins fans have been asking for Moss Man for the longest time, and now our requests have been answered but with a slight twist. We are finally getting a freakin’ FLOCKED MOSS MAN in the MOTU Origins line and we personally cannot be more excited!! After all this time, I have been waiting for Moss Man to join the Origins line, and in the Fall of 2023. When this was announced at the presser event, it was announced that he will be a wait for it….. Walmart exclusive! The Lord of the Forests pine smelling friend will only be available through Walmart. So, this could very well be the unnamed listing!
Moss Man will be a deluxe figure give that he will be fully flocked, come with an alternate LOP Style Beast Man head. Mossy’s head looks to be based on the Beast Man head, but he is much more friendlier looking with a big smile on his face looking very Filmation like! They nailed it with this head sculpt! He will also include his vintage style club, yellow Beast Man armor as an homage to those that used to put this weapons pack armor on their Mossy’s, and also a brown Pig Head club as well.
To see more reveals from the Press and Influencer even, read more here:
Masters of the Universe 40th Anniversary Press & Influencer Day Reveals
Moss Man is one of He-man’s closest allies, the ever so gentle friend of the forest, Mossman! As his name reveals, he is a man made of moss, who can camouflage himself into foliage and other green vegetation, as well as control all plant life. The figure is essentially a green repaint of Beast Man, flocked with “moss” with the fangs painted over and a pine scent added to the body. He has a mace that is a recast of a weapon from the original Castle Grayskull.
We first saw Moss Man on Stinkor’s card back where he looked like he was emerging from the bushes to take on the evil warrior with the power of stink! You an see him with a fierce look on his face, armed with his mace and ready for battle!
If you weren’t paying attention, you might have missed the arm coming out of the ground from the side of the Eternian Palace Guard box with the classic mace busting through the ground. We then saw Moss Man on the Flying Fists He-Man card art, ironically holding a torch, and as well all know, it was fire that did him in the Masters of the Universe Revelation Netflix series, but I am sure this battle turned out great for him!
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