MOTU Origins Snake Lair Packaging Images & Art Teases
By the Power of Grayskull! Huge thanks to @planeteternia for sharing these images, which originally surfaced via a Reddit user who got their hands on the Masters of the Universe Origins Snake Lair in its original packaging. And wow, the box art by Axel Gimenez is absolutely stunning. We’ve been waiting to see how Mattel would present this iconic playset in the Origins line, and the packaging does not disappoint. But here’s where things get really exciting, because the artwork on the box appears to tease some incredible things coming down the pipeline under the Powers of Grayskull branding. We’re seeing what look like hints at the Preternia Dinosaurs, Battle Bones, Eldor and even the Giants Tytus and Megator! If you’ve been following the Origins line closely, you know that the Powers of Grayskull sub-line has been quietly building into something special, and these art teases suggest Mattel has big plans to keep expanding into that prehistoric corner of the MOTU mythology. The idea of getting Origins-scale versions of those massive Giants and the classic dinosaur creatures is almost too exciting to think about. While nothing has been officially confirmed yet, these kinds of packaging teases from Mattel have a strong track record of hinting at what’s actually in development. Could we be looking at a full Powers of Grayskull wave with dinos, Battle Bones, and Giants? Only time will tell, but I love how Mattel keeps planting these seeds for the community to discover. So let’s take a look at the MOTU Origins Snake Lair packaging images and all those amazing art teases!
Where to Buy
The Snake Lair Playset is no longer available for purchase since it was a crowdfund project, but you can try to find one on the aftermarket HERE!
Packaging Art
The Snake Lair box art is absolutely packed with Preternia-era chaos, and Axel Gimenez did incredible work here. The central structure is a massive stone temple overrun with coiling serpents, their scaled bodies wrapping around crumbling towers and archways, with a giant snake skull forming the main entrance, its jaws wide open and fangs fully exposed.
You can see how the landscape is teeming with Preternia-era creatures and characters, from the winged Turbodactyl soaring through the sky to the hulking Tyrantisaurus Rex and the tri-horned Bionatops lumbering near the temple ruins. Down in the foreground, serpentine dragons and lizard creatures fill the swampy terrain, while the towering silhouettes of Giants Tytus and Megator loom among the rocky cliffs alongside what appears to be Battle Bones, King Grayskull, and a Preternian Battle Cat, all woven into this sprawling Powers of Grayskull panorama.
Here’s a closer look at the Chimera panel, which dominates one side of the Snake Lair box with Lady Slither mounted atop her two-headed serpentine steed, both snake heads lunging forward with their fangs bared and glowing red eyes, their green and black scaled bodies layered with deep red armor plating. I like how the composition pulls in additional creatures around them, including what looks like a pink-scaled dragon and more serpentine beasts writhing through the rubble, all framed by that smoky, war-torn Preternia landscape that ties perfectly into the rest of the panoramic artwork.
The Chimera panel highlights the massive serpentine tail coiling through a toxic green swamp, its body ending in a second head with rows of jagged fangs and glowing red eyes that feels almost more menacing than the primary head above. Off to the lower right, a terrified Eldor recoils on the rocks, and I like how the eerie green glow radiating from the water ties the whole scene together with a venomous, Preternia-swamp atmosphere.
Box Art Teases
Tyrantisaurus Rex
Tyrantisaurus Rex has been featured now multiple times on many different packaging art. But now he is front and center on the front of the new Snake Lair Playset battling against Bionotops!
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 has been featured now multiple times on many different packaging art. Here we can see him on the front of the new Snake Lair Playset battling against Tyrantisaurus Rex!
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 has been featured now multiple times on packaging art. We can see him flying prominently on the front of the new Snake Lair Playset with He-Ro riding on his back!
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.
The Giants
Mattel is no stranger to figures/ dolls of this size, they have teases the Giants Tytus and Megtor for sometime now. If they make these, will they have their classic rooted hair? Mattel is no stranger to rooted hair as they are the experts with their Barbie line! Also in the vintage She-Ra figures, so if we do ever get these giants, will they have rooted hair? Would you like to see the giants in the MOTU Origins line? Below we can see the blury but obvious image of both Tytus and Megator from the Snake Lair box art!
Tytus
Tytus, one of the last produced characters of the Vintage Masters of the Universe Line, and one of two giants, is prominently featured on the front of the card back art whelding his giant hammer! Both Giants, Tytus and Megator are both illustrated on the Snake Lair box art! We first saw him teased on Camo Khan’s card back art, so could Mattel be planning to release their two Powers of Grayskull giants? Can’t wait to find out!
According to Wiki Grayskull:
Tytus is a giant aligned with the forces of good. He is a contemporary of King Grayskull and He-Ro from the Preternian era, when the Ancients were threatened by the Snake Men. The character was developed for Mattel‘s “The Powers of Grayskull toy line, a spinoff of the declining Masters of the Universe franchise that would explore the heroes and villains of prehistoric Eternia. However, plans for the line were scrapped, and Tytus was only made available in Europe as one of the last figures under the Masters of the Universe brand. As a result, he appears in little (if any) of the 1980s fiction, and is among the most obscure characters in the franchise.
Tytus | Wiki Grayskull | Fandom
The vintage Tytus action figure can be see below, and was only released in Italy and Spain. The original box art for the Tytus shows him battling against King Hiss along with He-Ro. It also describes his role in the world of Preternia. How cool would it be to get a Tytus in the Origins line with rooted hair!
We already know we are getting King Hiss, who was revealed at SDCC, so are we also going to get one of my personal favorites, He-Ro? I would to see an Origins version of the unproduced He-Ro figure with Vac Metal chest armor!
Megator
Could Magator be one of the 2 “Iconic” characters coming later this year? Imagine the possibilities! Megator, was the second of the two giants last produced for the Vintage Masters of the Universe Line. Megator was illustrated on both the card backs for Lord Gr’asp and Camo Khan’s card art. On Terroar’s card back, he is standing next to Turbodactyl with Strobo riding on him. It’s hard to make out who is riding him there, but it looks like it could be! You can see Megator prominently featured on the front of the Camo Khan 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.
Eldor
Eldor has got to be coming to the line sooner than later as we have had He-Ro for a long time now! You can see Eldor teased on the Chimera box art! Could this be a hint of what is to come?
Eldor is prominently featured not on the He-Ra package art, but on the cover of the included mini-comic! We can see him illustrated below with his book of spells! And he is featured throughout the mini comic story as well. We have seen Eldor teases several times, which we will recap below, but again is this a hint that Eldor is one of the two “Iconic” characters coming to the Powers of Grayskull in MOTU Origins this year?
Several months back, Axel Gimenez posted a photo on his Instagram page of the Super7 vintage Masters of the Universe Eldor figure that is on card and unopened. He simply put “✨Working…✨” in his post and the last time he did this, he featured an image of the Super7 vintage Masters of the Universe He-Ro, which can only mean one thing. Based on a recent post made by Mattel, they spilled the beans and made it publicly known that the MOTU Origins Eternia box art featured a ton of easter eggs as the Origins line is known for those teases turning into figures. Eldor was conspicuously missing from the teases on the Eternia box art so we are taking this a very good sign that (1) Eldor is coming to the Masters of the Universe and (2) that the Powers of Grayskull are headed to the Masters of the Universe Origins line. Well (2) has been proven, so now we need to get Eldor in the Origins line!
Eldor is a fun one, as he was one of the unproduced prototype characters of the “Powers of Grayskull” spin off line that never came to fruition in the 1980’s Masters of the Universe Line. He can be seen in the card art standing next to Moss Man and Tytus. Now that Mattel has launched the Powers of Grayskull line under, could we perhaps see him following the release of He-Ro? That would be amazing! The entire scene on the back of Vypor’s card it is spectacular! We see Eldor kneeling in front of Vypor with the new Snake Men Cham-Or surrounding them with Lady Slither looking on
Here we can see Eldor illustrated on the back of the Mattel Creations exclusive Camo Khan card art!
Prototype images of Eldor and He-Ro had been around for many years, but we never got these figures as kids. But in 2019, thanks to bay area based Super7, we finally got Eldor & He-Ro figures as part of the Masters of the Universe Vintage Style 5.5″ collection. Eldor known as the Heroic Guardian of the Book of Living spells, looks just like his prototype images! The giant tri-fold book works like a magic trick and changes images by alternating the way the book is opened. You can read all about Eldor’s creation and back story on the Eldor: (1987/2019) battleramblog.com.
Source: Eldor battleramblog.com
Source: Eldor battleramblog.com
Eldor Trademark Renewal
Eldor is a fun one, as he was one of the unproduced prototype characters of the “Powers of Grayskull” spin off line that never came to fruition in the 1980’s Masters of the Universe Line. Prototype images of Eldor and He-Ro had been around for many years, but we never got these figures as kids. But in 2019, thanks to bay area based Super7, we finally got Eldor & He-Ro figures as part of the Masters of the Universe Vintage Style 5.5″ collection. Eldor known as the Heroic Guardian of the Book of Living spells, looks just like his prototype images! The giant tri-fold book works like a magic trick and changes images by alternating the way the book is opened.
Other teases
We have several other unknown characters shown on the packaging art such as a Preternian Battlecat with King Grayskull and some other unknown characters.
Here we can see some of the other dragon or dino like teases
Here we can see a three headed dragon type creature with a goddess character riding on it’s back!
Here you can see a tease of what looks like the remains for Battle Bones!
Complete Your MOTU Collection
Be sure to check out our Masters of the Universe shop pages where we’ve curated figures from MOTU Origins, Masterverse, Classics, Vintage and more so you can find the figures you need easier!
