MOTU Origins Cartoon Collection Spring 2025 Lineup

We had predicted that most of the figures in the MOTU Origins Cartoon Collection SDCC 2024 MOTU booth display would be coming to the line so it was great to see them on display. The figures we knew included She-Ra, Hordak, Mantenna, Man-E-Faces, Ram Man but Catra was indeed a surprise but she was on our Princess of Power Cartoon Collection wishlist so we are so excited to see her in the line. Vultak was also in the Mattel Creations display as he is an exclusive but will be part of the Cartoon Collection. At the Masters of the Universe panel, they revealed that they are celebrating the 40th anniversary of She-Ra and the Princess of Power and they had to be a little coy with the labeling of the figures as to to spoil the surprise. The Spring months are March, April, and May so 2025 will be turning out to be an epic year for the cartoon collection.

Ram Man

The Cartoon Collection version of Ram Man has a more serious look on his facial sculpt than what I remember from the Filmation series but that is a welcomed change. Although he appears in many of episodes with a bewildered look on his face, that would have gotten old after while.

His eyebrows are painted and sculpted very thick and he has very wide, gaping eyes. His armor is light silver and his nose is quite wide as he appeared in the Filmation cartoon.

According to Ram Man | Wiki Grayskull | Fandom

Although Ram Man had been depicted as large and aggressive in his mini-comic appearance, the 1980s cartoon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe by Filmation depicts him as a small, dwarfish figure, which is closer in appearance to his action figure with it’s legs retracted. In order to make the character more child-friendly for the sake of the show’s intended audience, Ram Man’s aggressiveness is toned down for the series. He is portrayed generally as a comical character, slow and dim-witted with an almost childlike mentality, but also strong-hearted and easily likeable. He often appears alongside Stratos in early episodes, and later episodes flesh out his character more, particularly the season 2 episode Not So Blind, which shows a degree of humanity in his mostly slapstick personality. In this episode he admits to being slow on the uptake but not necessarily “Dumb”. Another notable moment for Ram Man is the episode House of Shokoti Part I, in which he gives a memorable moral at the end of the episode, telling kids not to hit things with their head like he does in case they hurt themselves. Also in this episode, Ram Man irritates Shokoti by constantly mispronouncing her name, calling her “Shipoopi” among other things. This Ram Man also often has other cartoonish features such as his legs actually uncoiling like springs on occasion and making “boing” sounds when he used his abilities.

Ram Man | Wiki Grayskull | Fandom

Ram Man was also teased on the Cartoon Collection Man-At-Arms card art! Getting up close and personal with the card art, Roy and team did an amazing job illustrating this whole scene and the best part is that Ram Man was teased on the card art!

Ram Man as he appeared in the Filmation Cartoon Series.

Man-E-Faces

Man-E-Faces looks like he has an oversized bucked on his head and he also looks unfinished as he is in the prototype phase in the booth. It looks like you might be able to twist the helmet at the top to change his faces as they only showed off his monster face across all of the days at SDCC 2024. In the Filmation cartoon, he has another pink hose that connects to his helmet, which appears to be missing. They nailed the skin tone and it looks like they did not complete his wrist armor on his left side.

According to Man-E-Faces | Wiki Grayskull | Fandom:

In He-Man and the Masters of the Universe by Filmation, the portrayal of Man-E-Faces is somewhat changed. Rather than being cursed with a split personality, he is an actor who uses his alternate faces primarily for the purpose of playing roles on stage. He is also able to change to numerous other faces alongside his robot and monster faces. This change to his character is probably made in order to make his character less dark and therefore more suitable for the younger audience the show was aimed at.

He is given an origin episode early in the series, in the episode The Mystery of Man-E-Faces. This episode reveals that he was originally a villain who terrorized others with his faces, but not so much out of evil desires as personal insecurity and basic survival needs. He was an outcast feared by virtually everyone for his ability to change his face, which in turn made him “cold and cruel” and so he began to abuse others out of resentment for mistreating him and to compensate for his personal crisis. He was captured by Skeletor, who intended to recruit him as a henchman, but as he was not really evil he had no desire to join Skeletor and was forced into fighting He-Man against his will when his monster face was controlled by Beast Man’s power. He-Man believed that Man-E-Faces was not a villain, and the Sorceress agreed, so with urging from He-Man, the Sorceress used her magic to help Man-E-Faces overcome Skeletor’s influence. Grateful for their help, he returned the favor by helping to thwart Skeletor’s attack on Castle Grayskull and, after telling them his story, feeling he had at last found the friendship and kindness he needed, he joined the Royal court as an actor.

The cartoon’s version of the character seems to use his faces more for the purpose of acting rather than anything significant to battles. He is only used in one subsequent episode, The Shadow of Skeletor, in which he uses his acting abilities to impersonate Beast Man, going undercover in a “Beast Man” disguise to spy on the Evil Warriors. Although initially conceived as one of the main characters of the franchise, his appearances are sparse in all media given that he proved a difficult character to integrate into story-lines no matter what purposes his faces were used for.

The original script for the 1980s episode Into the Abyss was to feature a third appearance in the show by Man-E-Faces, rehearsing for a play in an scene in which Ram Man is made to read out the part of Man-E-Faces’ love interest. But this scene was cut from the script to avoid ruining the atmosphere of a generally dark episode.

Man-E-Faces | Wiki Grayskull | Fandom

Mantenna

They did an amazing job translating Mantenna into a Cartoon Collection figure with their use of the 4 legged waist piece. They captured his face sculpt and his large eyes quite well, which gives him some different looks at various angles. He has a black collar piece around his neck and he is painted in a two toned blue color just like he appeared in the Filmation series. Mantenna does appear to have a set of slimmed down cartoon legs that feature an insane set of muscles.

Mantenna is a nervous stuttering imbecile and is mainly used for comic relief, with a running gag that Hordak frequently sends him down a trap door in front of his throne for any number of reasons. When the Horde appear in the She-Ra: Princess of Power series, Mantenna retains his “spy sight” from the minicomics, and can fire energy beams of different varieties from his eyes, such as stun beams, gravity distortion beams, and freeze rays.

Catra

Catra is a welcomed addition to the Cartoon Collection line! She features her classic red mask red evil Horde dress with a purple plastic cape.

Another welcomed addition was Catra’s cat form along side her.

Catra is a power hungry member of the Evil Horde and is one of Hordak’s minions. Although initially specked out to be She Ra’s main nemesis, the Filmation crew decided to go in a different direction. It’s a mystery where her loyalties lay as in one episode she joins Skeltor to annihilate Hordak to become the Queen of the Magicats. She doesn’t really get along well with others as she often has her own wishes to overthrow Hordak and she does not play nicely with her other female characters in the cartoon, namely Scorpia.

Catra also was able to change into her cat form in the Fimation series.

Vultak

As part of the Mattel Creations part of the booth and labeled incorrectly as an Origins figure, Vultak looks like he’ll be a Mattel Creations Cartoon Collection exclusive. Since the MOTU team revealed the 40th Anniversary Sh-Ra and Hordak figures at their panel, having Vultak spoil the 40th Anniversary reveal of the Princess of Power line would not have been a great thing but given that the Cartoon Collection is also called the MOTU Origins Cartoon Collection, they were right, as Obi-Wan Kenobi says, “from a certain point view.” He was was also not part of the original Masters of the Universe Origins line and he appeared in two Princess of Power episodes. Given that the Cartoon Collection is celebrating the 40th Anniversary of She-Ra and the Princess of Power, it makes sense that Vultak will be a Cartoon Collection figure. He also has another tell tale sign with his Zootron robot as a pack-in that comes from the Zoo Story episode.

Vultak is an Evil Horde member, in charge of collecting specimens for Hordak’s Zoo. He is a vulture-like humanoid with a pointy beak-like nose, talons for feet, and wings on his back, wearing black Horde armor. He serves as Hordak’s zookeeper and has a small army of Zootron robots that carry out tasks for Vultak. Vultak has not only the ability to fly, but also has the skill to transform into a vampiric black shadow. While he can dish out punishment to his zoo subjects, he can’t take it himself, and tries to run away as a coward at any chance of trouble.

He feature red beadle eyes and pointy ears with large wings and a fur collar and cuffs. Here is a close up of the Zootron robot that features a gray paint app with orange, triangular eyes and an orange button on the top of robot.

Hordak

This version of Hordak is outstanding! As the Cartoon Collection is known for toning down the details, they really poured a lot of sculpting into the ruthless leader of the evil Horde! He features a cartoon accurate face sculpt and they even remembered to paint his eyes and his teeth red! What is also great about this version is that you can finally swap out just his head sculpt as his head is on a ball joint that is not attached to his collar.

Hordak was the ruthless leader of the Evil Horde and appeared in 72 episodes of the She-Ra, Princess of Power FIlmation cartoon series. He appeared with blue skin and did not resemble his vintage action figure, which had grey skin.

She-Ra

It was amazing to see She-Ra revealed in Cartoon Collection form as she looks quite stunning! She features her iconic tiara, her red cape, and her classic white outfit with gold designs and the blue jewel in the center of her stomach. He face sculpt is captured perfectly has she has a stern and determined look on her face, as if the freedom of Etheria all depends on her!

She-Ra is a fictional character who originated from the animated television series titled “She-Ra: Princess of Power,” which was produced by Filmation and aired from 1985 to 1986. The character was created as a counterpart and sister to He-Man, who originated from the companion series “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.” Both shows were based on Mattel’s toy line.