Snake Trooper action figure with the light green head from the Masters of the Universe Classics line.

Bio

A host of Snake Men soldiers followed Lord Gr’Asp when the Unnamed One sent him to forge an alliance with Horde Prime that would enable the evil Trollan to escape from the Nameless Dimension. Though loyal, these soldiers could never have imagined their ghastly fate. To ratify their treaty, Horde Prime augmented Gr’Asp’s troops with Horde World science. Surgically enhanced with bionics and transformed into self-repairing cyborgs, the hapless soldiers were also lobotomized and connected to the central computer-brain of the Horde Troopers. Outfitted in armor bearing the Evil Horde crest, the brigade came to symbolize a new unholy alliance. They accompanied Gr’Asp to Eternia, which was reeling from an invasion by the forces of Hordak. Despite animosity between the Horde and the Snake Men, Gr’Asp met with King Hsss and convinced him to join Hordak for an assured Eternian victory. Mistrustful of the cyborg soldiers, which he referred to as Gr’Asp’s “unblinking abominations,” Hsss nonetheless saw value in these powerful minions and agreed that a temporary alliance with his old enemy could prove beneficial. After the Second Ultimate Battleground, the Snake Troopers followed Gr’Asp when he escaped to join Lady Slither on Trolla. There, Fang-Or repaired the troopers’ cybernetics, but failed to notice the Horde chip implanted in their brains. When Slither’s forces returned to Eternia, the Snake Troopers were paired with the Diabolical Snakes, now overseen by Reptilax, forming a deadly team of soldiers and assassins. To Lord Gr’Asp’s chagrin, the Snake Troopers later obeyed Hordak’s “reawakened” spirit, which used its new robotic armor to manually control the Snake Troopers’ Evil Horde mind-chips.

The Masters of the Universe Classics line, launched in 2008, is a new line of action figures based on the classic characters from all aspects of the Masters of the Universe franchise. Available solely from Mattel’s website and aimed purely at collectors, the line also includes biographical descriptions of the characters designed to tie the diverging aspects of the mythos together.

Based on the look of the original 1980s MOTU toys, this new toy line was aimed primarily at the adult toy collector market, often available only through subscriptions (from MattyCollector). Sculpted by the Four Horsemen, these toys were updated versions of previous figures as well as characters that never before had an action figure made of them; such as Filmation’s Queen Marlena, Fang-Man, Lizard-Man, Count Marzo, Granamyr, and many others. The toy line featured many redesigned and updated action figures from the original action-figure line from the 1980s, but it also included characters from She-Ra: Princess of Power (Adora, Madame Razz, Scorpia, Shadow Weaver, and others), The New Adventures of He-Man (Mara, Crita, and more), and the Mike Young Productions series from 2002 (Faceless One, Chief Carnivus, King Chooblah, Ceratus, and others). As the line progressed, characters from all versions of MOTU lore were included, from such things such as prototypes and concept art (He-Ro, Eldor, Demo-Man, Gygor, Vykor, and others), box art from vehicles and model kits (Sky High and the Fighting Foe Men), mini comics (the Goddess, Geldor, and Procrustus), and other books, comics, and media (Despara, Strobo, Goat-Man, and more). There were also newly created figures, exclusive to the Classics toy line, such as Draego-Man, Cy-Chop, Castle Grayskullman, and others. In February 2010, the figures of He-Man and Skeletor were available as Toys “R” Us exclusives packed in two-packs with Superman and Lex Luthor, respectively, from Mattel’s DC Universe Classics action figure line; with this dual line expanded to include two-packs featuring Aquaman/Mer-Man, Hawkman/Stratos, Bizarro/Faker, Supergirl/She-Ra, and Green Lantern/Zodac.

Masters of the Universe Classics surpassed the original 1980s toy line in terms of length, running continuously for seven years with more than 150 different figures produced since its launch in August 2008. Along with the Classics series, MOTU Minis and Giants figures were also released in 2014 and 2015. In 2016, Mattel ended production on the MOTU Classics and MattyCollector.com’s Club Grayskull series, with the production company Super7 now taking over the Masters of the Universe license.