Rulers of the Sun 3-Pack Leak & MOTU Origins Assortment Changes
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With a leak of an official announcement from Mattel, we might be getting a Rulers of the Sun 3-Pack. Are changes coming to the MOTU Origins Wave 9 Assortment? We explain 5 possible theories and scenarios as Mattel expands the Origins line!
Summary
According to Axel Gimenez’s Instagram post, he stated that the newly revealed packaged shot of Mantenna, 200x Skeletor, and 200x He-Man would be part of the Wave 9 assortment! According to our trusted Toy Habits source, the Wave 9 assortment was rumored to include Whiplash, King Randor, Mini Comic Trap Jaw, and Digitino. But then we got a twist to all, a LEAK that Mattel might be releasing a Rulers of the Sun 3 Pack!!
Mattel reserves the right to change figure assortments as they see fit so this got us thinking that the Masters of the Origins line could be doing one of a few things! First, this new Rulers of the Sun 3 Pack can be separate and aside from the other figures in Wave 9. Second, they could be replacing some of the figures in the Wave 9 assortment with new figures. Third, they could be expanding the number of figures in a wave due to inclusion of the Rulers of the Sun, 200x, and other Filmation style characters they have cooking up for the future. Fourth, the wave assortment might be as we originally thought and 200X He-Man and 200X Skeletor are simply a running release with the rest of the wave, giving us a total of 6 figures per Wave, which we technically have always had! Finally, Mattel could be dropping the Wave distinction all together moving forward so let’s explore each scenario in more detail.
Mattel has been on a tear lately with their MOTU Origins reveals and with the slew of figures that are coming out, we’ve been seeing signs that there are assortment changes afoot. They are also revealing figures that were not shown at the mid March reveals, which is great that they were holding figures back for that element of surprise. If you’ve been living under a rock for the last month, check out the New Origins Heroes (and one Villain) reveals March 14, 2022 and the New Origins Figures & Vehicle reveals from March 16, 2022. There was also a surprise reveal of a Masters of the Universe Origins Whiplash that surfaced as well. With so many figures and so many waves, let’s dive into the theories!
Theory 1: Rulers of the Sun 3 Pack, Mantenna takes Digitino’s slot.
We received an email from one of our viewers who sent us this image that Mattel may be releasing a special Masters of the Universe Origins Rulers of the Sun Figure 3-Pack. Although the Mattel Image does not specify which figures they are, you will notice it does say ” Masters of the Universe Origins Action Figure 3-Pack 2022 ROS ” ROS being Rulers of the Sun!!! So based on recent reveals, we might assume it could be Space Sumo, Digitino, and Pig Head! This would then take Digitino out of the running of Wave 9, so it can make it Whiplash, King Randor, Mini Comic Trap Jaw and Mantenna. Since the Rulers of the Sun are a special sub-line, many worry that they will take a “slot” out of the coveted 4 charcter slots in a Wave. Well with this special release Rulers of the Sun 3-Pack, these characters would then not take a “slot” out of the 4 characters in the wave, thereby allowing the waves to take shape as we discussed above, thereby making everyone happy!
If you remember from back in the 80’s, the Masters of the Universe produced 3-pack gift sets so the rumored Rulers of the Sun 3-pack will most likely take after the vintage style box sets.
Theory 2: Assortment Update
AS we’ve said before, Mattel can change assortment numbers and figures anytime. If you want to look back at recent history, just remember what happed to the Wave 8 MOTU Origins figures. There were rumors that Mini Comic Trap Jaw would be part of this wave and with the Sun-Man preorders being treated as a single carded release outside of Wave 8, the figure preorders were ultimately removed from sites like Big Bad Toy Store and Entertainment Earth as they sorted out a new assortment for the line.
Theory 3: Assortment Expansion
Way back at Power Con 2021, it was announced that Wun-Dar and Kol-Darr, who was featured in the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Filmation episode entitled Double Trouble, would be produced in the Origins line line in the Spring of 2022. There are also two more mystery figures announced coming in the Fall of 2022 that have yet to be announced or teased officially. This was great news as the line would expand into uncharted territory and open the doors to other Filmation style figures to the line. This would create and endless number of figures for the line and also mirror what the Masters of the Universe Classics line started with introducing figure sculpts and characters from the Filmation series.
In addition to the Fimlation style figures, Mattel introduced (also at Power Con 2021 ) that the Rulers of the Sun line was joining Origins and back then, they only referenced Sun-Man, Pig Head, and Digitino plus my favorite words of all time…”and more…” Flash forward to today and it looks like Mattel will be building out entire Rulers of the Sun line in Origins and also Masterverse but it remains to be seen how far they will go. The original Rulers of the Sun line had 10 figures produced plus some concepts that were left on the table so that would infuse a healthy number of figures to the origins line. We also can’t forget the Butterfly Woman line, which was She-Ra’s ethnically diverse counterpart created by Olmec back in the 1980’s. If we saw this expansion into the Masters of the Universe Origins line, this would add an additional 3 figures to the line, bringing the total to 13.
Finally, with the 200x new sculpts that we saw revealed during Mattel’s week of reveals, we could see the line explode if they created Origins figures based on the MYP series from 2002 as this line was adored by fans. If you are not familiar with this line, In 2002, Mattel launched a new Masters of the Universe toy line most commonly referred to today as the MOTU 200x or MOTU Modern Series. The figure sculpts featured the talented designs by the Four Horsemen who remained faithful to the original Masters of the Universe toy line. The figure design was a modern version of the classic figure that featured sharp angles and sculpts that were unique to each figure.we could see an additional 70+ figures (which include chase variants and repaints…common! We need our Disco Skeletor). If want to know the origins of Disco Skeletor (also referred to as Acid Trip Skeletor), check out the thread on He-Man.org.
Theory 4: He-Man & Skeletor running release
Another idea is that a version of He-Man and Skeletor run concurrently with the waves, so we really have had 6 characters to a Wave! And this theory makes sense because if you look at any of the Card Back cross sell artwork, there has always been a version of He-Man and a version of Skeletor and then 4 MORE characters!
So for example Waves 1-4 had the original Spicoli head He-Man (yes like Spicoli from Fast Times… I said it!) and laughing Skeletor. Then Waves 5-8 have Vintage Style Head He-Man and Vintage Style Head Skeletor. So it could be that Waves 9- 12 maybe will now have the latest version of He-Man and Skeletor, notably the new 200X versions… Let’s demonstrate this graphically below:
Original Origins He-Man
Original Origins Skeletor:
Vintage Style Head Origins He-Man
Vintage Style Head Origins Skeletor
Origins 200X He-Man
Origins 200X Skeletor
Original Origins He-Man
Original Origins Skeletor:
Vintage Style Head Origins He-Man
Vintage Style Head Origins Skeletor
You can clearly see the cross-sell artwork contains 6 figures, with He-Man and Skeletor being a running release, the 5th & 6th, with 4 OTHER characters. So perhaps our 200X versions are the same accompanying He-Man and Skeletor Versions for Wave 9 – say 12? This would then roll up a lot of our theories above leaving Whiplash, King Randor, Mini Comic Trap Jaw and Mantenna as Wave 9 with 200x He-Man and 200X Skeletor being the “running” pair with the Wave. Then allowing for the Rulers of the Sun 3-Pack to then take shape and not take a slot out of the 4 characters in the wave!
Theory 5: Dropping Wave Distinction
Our final theory is that Mattel could simply be dropping the Wave distinction all together moving forward thereby not complicating their decisions on how all of these new characters are categorized and released. Perhaps all of waves after wave 8 are up in the air
It will be interesting to see what Mattel decides to do but theorizing and speculating is half the fun!
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