Nonmovie Figures Coming to MOTU Chronicles and Core Lines?
Something very interesting is starting to take shape, and the more I step back and look at everything we have seen over the last 24 hours, the more it feels like the curtain is being pulled back just a bit. Up until today, every piece of packaging we had seen for both the MOTU Chronicles and MOTU Core lines leaned heavily into the movie presentation, complete with the red Masters of the Universe logo tied directly to the upcoming film. That is why the first look at MOTU Chronicles Scareglow and the surprise discovery of the MOTU Core gold Skeletor variant at Walmart immediately stood out. It wasn’t until @discoveringpandora made the connection that that both figures from the Chrocles line and the Core line utilize the black and gold Masters of the Universe logo instead of the red movie logo, and that detail feels far from accidental. When you connect the dots, it strongly suggests that nonmovie figures will carry the black and gold branding while the actual movie characters remain aligned with the red logo packaging. We can now put two and two together and all but confirm that both movie and non movie characters are going to coexist within the Chronicles and Core lines.
Masterverse Running Its Course?
It also raises a bigger strategic question about where all of this is headed. We already know that Wundar, Evil Lyn, and Beast Man are still due up for the Masterverse Vintage Collection, so there is clearly some runway left for that sub line. However, at Toy Fair we were told directly by a Mattel rep that Masterverse is going on pause, and that statement has been sitting in the back of my mind ever since. If you line that up with the emergence of the Chronicles scale and figure bucks, it starts to feel like more than coincidence. Once the remaining Vintage Collection figures roll out, could the Masterverse scale gradually fade and ultimately morph into the Chronicles style of figure as the new collector standard? Chronicles appears to be positioned in a way that can handle both movie and nonmovie characters under a unified look, and with the gold variant Acala Skeletor surfacing in Core packaging at Walmart, we are already seeing signs that nonmovie characters may populate that line as well. Taken together, it feels like we could be watching a transition unfold in real time, with Masterverse winding down and Chronicles stepping in as the next evolution of the brand’s collector focused scale.
MOTU MOVIE SPOILER ALERT
MOTU Movie spoiler received ahead, so if you want to stay completely in the dark about the film, do not read on.
The million dollar question on everyone’s minds after seeing the MOTU Chronicles Scareglow figure: Does he appear in the Masters of the Universe Movie? Adding even more weight to this theory that we could see more nonmovie figures come to the Chronicles and Core lines, we can confirm through a trusted source who screened the Masters of the Universe movie that Scareglow does not appear in the film, sorry for the spoiler, which further supports the idea that he represents the nonmovie side of the brand strategy. If that is the case, then what we are witnessing right now is the quiet rollout of a dual lane approach where Mattel supports the film while still celebrating the wider universe of characters that longtime fans like us grew up with.
If you want to check out the nonmovie figures that were posted, check them out here:
