Bashin Beetle vehicle from the Masters of the Universe 200x Modern Series. The Bashin’ Beetle was created by Man-At-Arms as a fast-moving assault vehicle with grabbing pincers in front and a giant club to be used with a pendulum bash attack. The transport was used for the first time in battle by Man-At-Arms to help defeat a group of giant Sand Worms that had ambushed Teela and the Masters of the Universe in the Sands of Time. The Bashin’ Beetle was later used to defend the Royal Palace of Eternos against a horde of Shadow Beasts, scaring the creatures with its headlights and making use of its powerful spiked club to pound one of them into the ground.

Bashin Beetle as it appeared in the Masters of the Universe 200x Modern Series Cartoon

The vehicle was eventually stolen by Two Bad and Whiplash during a prison break and was later destroyed while battling the Masters outside of Castle Grayskull. The evil giant Chazdar crushed the Bashin’ Beetle with his huge mace, exerting enough force to send the Bashin’ Beetle’s club flying into the air, nearly colliding with a Battle Hawk.

Toy 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.

Animated Series

Accompanying the toy line was a new animated series that featured only 39 episodes in total from August 2002 to January 2004. This version of He-Man featured a young Prince Adam that was physically smaller in stature, height, and appearance and was part of a group called the protectors known as “The Masters.” Man-at-Arms headed up this team and consisted of He-Man/Adam, Battle Cat, Teela, Orko, Stratos, Ram-Man, Mekaneck, and Man-E-Faces. In later episodes, traditional with most animated series that have toy lines, later characters were added, which included Buzz-Off, Roboto, and Sy-Klone. King Randor, now a general, was pronounced ruler of Eternia by the Elders of the Hall of Wisdom, which have gone into hiding inside the depths of Castle Grayskull.

You see the transformation fans have been waiting for when Skeletor, now confirmed as Keldor, heads up the charge with his evil forces. Evil-Lynn, Beast-Man, Mer-Man, Trap-Jaw (now a cybernetically repaired henchman, formerly known as Kronis), Tri-Klops (now an inventor/scientist, somewhat akin to an evil Man-At-Arms), Claw-ful (now a very large and extremely dim-witted thug), and Whiplash (now also of larger size and of the subterranean Caligar race) are the main evil forces in the series until Skeletor is sidelined in favor of the leader of the Snake Men, King Hiss. The reptilians consist of Kobra-Kahn, General Rattlor, Tung-Lashor, Snake-Face, and Sssqueeze, with He-Man and many of the characters now bearing a new “Snake-Armor” look. Hordak and the Evil Horde were to be the main antagonists for the third season if the show had continued, but it was not renewed, unfortunately.