Why do countless variants work for Batman toys but not He-Man and the Masters of the Universe? 

I think the trick is Batman is like Iron Man, he's known for coming up with a new trick because he's human. Sometimes he needs a nuclear ice cream making backpack. He-Man is super powerful, and most his old variants were "he can punch...harder!". He-Man lives as a fantasy character in a fantasy world, Batman lives as a normal person(essentially) in a world full of super freaks. Edit: I had two minutes left on this video I thought my reasoning was too "ok", I'm happy your summation was similar to mine. Makes me think I have some grasp of why toys are desirable.

Even as a child I hated variants. I only ever wanted figure as shown in their media. There was an episode of Batman: Brave & the Bold where they made fun of the ridiculousness of them.

MOTU maybe the only toy line were the background characters could be more successful with different outfits, love the red Beast Man and red Sy-Klone

Ah, Kenner Batman Syndrome: bazillions of weird repaints and variants of the main hero that are almost never seen in the ancillary media, while the villains and supporting characters are packed one-per-case. Yecch. Let's hope ALL toy companies learn a lesson from this.

I always felt the batcave playset with the changing room was perfect because it had the computer so your Bruce Wayne figure that the playset comes with suits up to hunt a villain and he needs the ice armor to fight Mr freeze he's gotta have some increased visibility and his eyes are periscopes, microscopes and telescopes when he's fighting the Riddler, an reinforced iron spine to fight Bane, cutting blades and air filters to fight Poison Ivy, bullet shields and gas masks to fight the Penguin, the list goes on into scenarios where he crosses franchises and fights the turtles or the rangers in an analytical way where he has to be convinced to help them fight their villains. The Batcave playset is value for the time I spent with it including crossover where the top floor was used as a high risk maneuver to land in a WWE ring.

The color variants also helped with getting multiple gifts for multiple kids and it distinguishes itself from the rest. Which help keep the kids from feeling left out.

I remember as a kid getting Battle Armor He-Man and Skeletor. Since Masters figures we’re a bit more expensive, it was always a hard “no” from my parents when I was hinting about getting another version of them. “You already have that one, here get Mekanek instead.” So that strategy can back fire in two ways ... first the way you described, it the second is parents who don’t want to spend money on multiples of the same character. Batman seems to get a pass, well, because he’s BATMAN!

On the secondary market, Jungle Attack He-Man can be found usually at half or even a third of the price of the standard release. Which goes to show the popularity of the standard figure over the variants.

I loved the 200x figures, big part of my childhood and happy Christmas memories.

It's really good to know there really aren't "all size fits all" solutions for successful toy lines, and why this approach works with Batman, and less so with other characters

So informative and eye opening. Toy companies seriously need to get in touch with your company pronto!

I always wanted Thunder Punch He-Man! And yes, MOTU is all about diversity of characters.

I had no idea there had been so many variants of He-Man. Cool comparison.

I remember even as a child I could never justify to myself buying multiple toys of the same character, especially if they were the same mold. I also remember it was really hard to find "normal" looking versions of characters for a while, especially Batman. so I eventually settled on Night Shadow Batman which looked mostly correct except for his glow in the dark belt, giant jetpack, and laser rifle.

I think you're bang on. He-Man is about the characters, and how they are all a unique master of something. If they made a variant of He-Man in the 80's, it was part of a new wave so kids could get their He-Man if they didnt have one yet, and if they did, he DID SOMETHING different. Flying Fists swung his arms, Thunderpunch used caps, Battle Armor took battle damage. The 200X line just went "He-Man has metal fists now, buy it stupid." And Im standing there like, what good is Fisto then?! The 80's line COULD HAVE given He-Man 60 variants and skipped all his friends. Ram-Armor He-man, Rock Camo He-Man, Knight Armor He-Man..... etc. But instead, they made Ramman, Rokkon / Stonedar, and Extendar; It gave the line life, and built a world. The 200X line really felt like the higher ups thought it was time for a cash grab, and didn't even try to figure out what made He-Man successful in the first place. As an adult collector at the time, every walk down the toy isle, felt like being told to get bent.

To this day I still hate these 'special outfits' of characters. I can see G.I. Joes needing a coat or a swimsuit, but Batman has a rebreather in his belt. That's what the belt is for. I can tolerate Batman's outfits in different colors for different times in his history.

Awesome content as always!! Really appreciate your channel.

I suspect the sales of silly Batman variants is more down to relatives buying them for their nephews, grand children etc rather than kids actually wanting them. Adults with no clue about the toys will see it labelled as Batman and buy it as they know who Batman is. Not so many uncles, grand dads etc from back in the day had a clue what He-man was so were less likely to even try.

I kept wondering who was buying all these multicolored Batman figures back in the day when I was a kid. It had to be aunts & grandparents buying kids these toys for Birthdays & Christmas.

Ice Armor He-Man is honestly my favorite toy variant ever. "Frozen tundra barbarian" is a great option for He-Man that feels like it could totally work as a show episode, which is a rarity for variants.

I liked the way that GIJoe did variants in the 1980s. Multiple versions of Snake Eyes for people who missed out on earlier versions of him. "Tiger Force" repaints to similarly give newcomers a chance to pick up old molds. They were basically the equivalent of reprints of comic book back issues.

I rember having quit a few of those toy only variants. I had some gray and black and some gray and blue batmen.

MOTU has only one owner, Mattel (except Super7 time), but Batman has had multiple licensees (even Mattel) and they stay focused... on Batman

The real issue with the 200x line was the case assortments. For each wave, there would be a hero case and a separate villain case. With three different characters per case. Four of those figures in the cases would be whatever current version of He-man and Skeletor was running, and one each of the other two characters (4+1+1). So it was almost impossible to get side characters, while He-man and Skeletors clogged the pegs.

I liked the kenner/hasbro Batman animated lines because a lot of the time to contrast with the crazy colored batmen, they would often come with show accurate vehicles or accessories/props

As a kid and teen I didn’t want any variation of the character design, so anything other than grey or black batman was no good to me. I did get other versions of He Man, Skeletor and Hordak, I had battle armour He Man only because I swapped something to get him with another kid. I bought Dragon Blaster Skeletor because in my mind the dragon/pet represented another character to add to my collection. Lastly I got Hurricane Hordak, I got this because the arm without the attachments looked like Hordak’s cannon arm from the cartoon.

I love this Scott! You nailed my favorite stuff again with this one! I hate that this sounds self-promotional but it has to do with this very video... there's a channel called "Dez 360" where in a couple days you will be able to see a video I actually filmed today while you were releasing this "Batman variants/He-Man" video... and in the video filmed with my partner, he was speaking about Disco Skeletor from a totally different angle than the one in your vids ... but still related... see, ours is more of a "collector starting out" mentality...while you are coming from a "brand manager" mentality... but I was using your old Disco Skeletor video to "Cliff's Notes" my partner on variants in the context of Disco Skeletor and this Batman/He-Man variants video is a great companion to that... an unexpected, but perfect extension of not just what I'm working on with the Dez 360 channel, but also subjects I just am passionate about as a fan, man! I know you have other genres on your channel, but again, this "MOTU/Business" combo stuff is just really my jam! Thanks!

I had classic and battle armor. I wanted thunder punch so much.

I love weird variants like this, all the variants of characters like Spiderman, Buzz Lightyear, he-man id see in the toy aisles were overwhelming in a good way. When i was 12 i started actually collecting all the Batman and Bane Variants from the Dark Night Rises toyline. That was 9 years ago...

Mattel seems to have an "If it worked for blank, it will work for blank" They had a toyline called Rescue Heroes at the time which had a lot of variants. Now of course, Rescue heroes was a huge hit, especially during the early 2000's, around the he man 2000x line. The only different is that the variants there made sense because Firemen and Mountain rangers usually wear different things depending on situations, also a child could add to the imagination by making their or toys civilians for their regular figures to rescue. Here' it's all he man

Ninja Turtles works something like this too, because they've fought ninjas, mutants, demons, humans, and aliens. You can throw them into any situation and their character types never break: Leo's the leader, Donnie's the Nerd, Raph's the tough one, and Mikey's the comedic one, no matter what situation they're in.

Correct me if I'm wrong (and sorry if you already mentioned this and I have missed it), but I think the He-Man/Skeletor variants in the vintage line worked much better because they were meant to keep the two main character relevant in each wave of new figures. On the contrary, the many 200x variants were thrown all together onto the shelves at the same time, which didn't really make any sense

Loving your videos!

Great video,thanks for the information.Love MOTU and Batman toys.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an interesting example - they started with lots of characters (including allies for the Turtles - they had a kangaroo and everything) but then focused more and more on different outfits for the main quartet, with maybe 3-4 villains (often less) getting the same treatment. After the reboots the entire toyline got smaller, but the pattern held up. Power Rangers are also an interesting hybrid of both - you get the same five roles but a new cast and new zords (robots) and outfits each season, with the main protagonist (red) getting some extra.

I wonder if part of the problem was that the TV show always kept He-Man the same? I mean, if kids see He-Man in different outfits (which IIRC happened when he went up against the snake men), wouldn't that make them more likely to buy variants? Also, talking variants: I seem to remember some (early?) versions of He-Man and/or Skeletor having an air-filled rubber head, and some solid plastic. Am I mis-remembering? Does anyone know how/why that happened?

Yeah. I actually like the He-Man 'variants' way more than funky coloured Batman figures. Oh by the way I bought an Origins figure today for first time. Store only had Trap Jaw and Evil Lyn and since I own three Evil Lyns already (two Mega Construx mini-figures and a knackered original vintage figure) I thought I'd go with Trap Jaw cos never had him before and his MCX mini-figures ain't out yet and yeah it's pretty cool. Vintage styling with modern articulation. Nice. Currently using him as an "enlarged via Skeletor's sorcery" Trap Jaw to fight my MCX He-Man and allies. :P

Battle Armor He-Man makes sense for those versions of He-Man that doesn't have a force-field vest. The Jungle Bow actually makes sense to me, since not all problems can be solved by punching (sometimes you have to reach out and snipe someone). Situational or environmental armor, like the anti-Snake Man armor or the Ice Armor are fine with me, but gear that just lets him hit things differently like Thunder Punch and Flying Fists are kinda unnecessary though.

You're assuming that it DOES work for Batman. That was always a major problem I had with Batman toylines: Here's 10 different dayglo colored Batmen (none of which actually look like Batman) and MAYBE 1 Robin and 1 Joker. Just keep the one, basic Batman in production and give me lots of villains and other heroes/sidekicks. Rotate the same Joker and Robin in and out of production.

Is it a variant if it's a different sculpt? I thought that term was more specifically to refer to re-paints.

I know we had Samurai He-Man and Arctic He-Man actually show up in the 200X show, but as a kid I didn't care for the other variants. I only ever had the basic 200X He-Man and Skeletor because those were what I actually saw in the show. (plus, the Samurai Armor gets destroyed at the end of the episode anyway) But the funny thing is, now that I've grown to become a fan of multiverse fiction and the like, I'm more than happy to accept those crazy variants as "alternate universe" versions of He-Man or whatever.

One simply reason.... BECAUSE HE’S BATMAN!

Batman has TONS of characters, they're just mostly underrepresented in toy lines. MOTU, being a toy line first and foremost, created new characters specifically to make them into action figures, and they mostly shared a few standard body bucks. With Batman figures, it's just a lot easier for them to do another Batman, Robin, or Joker variant, and move it off the shelves, than to do the unique sculpts for the extended cast of characters.

Just my opinion, but I think everything comes down to the underlying property. Batman variants work because (wild color schemes notwithstanding) Batman has a variety of specialized gadgets in virtually every iteration of the property, whereas He-Man usually just has one look and set of equipment. (maybe I was a weird kid though because I always just wanted a basic Batman in regular Batman colors.)

I've said for years that the core of it all is refreshing the cultural relevance of a property. MOTU won't last unless there is a new generation of children who love the brand and play with the toys.

I think that where the toy colors come in handy is if you play with your toys with your friends and you pick different variants, then you don't get your toys mixed up and you can play as different factions. Additionally, you might just like the different paint job better. It could be that one thing looks better to you than the original, so you go with that. I was never really into the idea of variants with toys, partly because I was kind of poor, but also because it just seemed ridiculous to have 15 toys of the same character. The missions series of Batman, for example, just seems stupid to me and did when I was a kid. It would have been extremely impractical for Batman to have 50 different variations of bat-suit or different and highly specific sets of gear for one type of environment that you may not be in more than once. Iron Man makes a little bit more sense in that he constantly improves the tech, and the newer gear may not work in the old chassis. Additionally, in that comic it was common for a situation to happen where there was a different type of challenge to overcome and the suit of armor would be designed to overcome that specific type of situation. Obviously this would be impractical for a real life situation because the actual execution of making a new Iron Man suit would be insanely expensive, but also I would imagine that specialized parts would take a while for development, design, implementation and testing. (Even with a basic platform worked out, you're going to likely need a couple of months per suit - or a relatively large group of R&D people and manufacturing support.)

Wow bro I’m blown away, A few friends told me about your channel, is there anyway we can help?

I remember all to well people complaining at the time about WAY too many He-man and Skeletor’s and the impossibility off finding other characters. Especially when they didn’t release a lot of the characters at the end of line here in the states but did so in other parts of the world!

I like the Skeletor with the Batman suit. It totally works

IMO, the multi-colored Batman figures didn't work. As a kid I thought they were dumb, and wanted more figures of other characters.

I always thought that the toy and the show needed to sync up. If they gave us stories that had heart and got kiddos invested- you could produce a toy going along with it and fans would buy it. Tell a good story and just work a new outfit into it. That is why they can sell us every Avatar character in every outfit or every power ranger in every form (example being selling the same red ranger but one with the green rangers armor). I think the trick is to make fans love the story and then do more than just repaint already existing figures.

As a Royal Wizard from the future with cybernetic implants I approve of this video

Very interesting. I know your focus is on He-Man, but could you do a similar video on the G1 Transformers toyline? I am curious to hear your opinion of the Action Masters as well as other gimmicks they used to keep the line going. Also, I'm a writer, or rather story teller by nature, and where would you suggest I begin if I wanted to try to create my own toyline franchise?

Another thing The Batman has going for him is that he is MUCH older than MOTU. He has deeper lore and source materials for variants can come from this. With 200x, they tried to shove a lot down consumers' throats. Perhaps, outside of the snake armor, they should have stuck to the originals.

The problem with a 200X line was like you said, too many He-Man variants. there's nothing wrong with it but when the show promises so many characters and the toy company only focuses on one. and short packs the only new character or villain that's not going to work even for kids. No point in a mutliverse of Hemen and Batmen beating up one Skeletor And sadly Mattel never learned it's lesson. They repeated the same mistake with the Batman line with multiple Batman and short packing one single villain or Robin. And then of course repeated the same mistake with the DC superheroes line

Boy, do I feel sheepish. Thanks for the education.

Nice video, do you think Mattel is repeating the failures of the 200x line with the new Origins line? They shipped cases of He-man and Skeletor to Walmart, and the first three waves all include He-man and Skeletor. I know my local Walmart is full of just those 2 characters.

In MOTU each character is a "Master " of one ability, or aspect of power . So, it's kinda redundant for them to need any other special equipment.

I feel it could have worked better if there was an in universe reason for Heman to use different abilities. Say if the Sword of Power could become an ax or give Heman power armor or whatever needed in the fight. Also if the Heman variants were much fewer in frequency. I also have a question. As a kid I found I enjoyed figures with 5 to 9 points of articulation much more than ones with a higher number like the ones coming out now(my favorite being the 90's Earthworm Jim figures.) Do you have any insight backing or contradicting this?

I never understood or liked these variants. Give 8 year old me the figure with the iconic, original look. I get the marketing-standpoint, but it's way easier to pretend the normal outfit get's an upgrade, then to pretend the specialised suit is "normal". At least for me, it was. In the case of Batman, I would focus on the bat-family & villains. What use are 15 different batmans (Batmen?) Adult-collector-me agrees with 8-year-old-me, btw. 😁

This is almost exactly why wacky variants on Superman don't help his brand either, I see those and I immediately think "Superman doesn't need an arctic suit, Superman partially lives in the Arctic." There's other versions of Superman, like from different Earths, and times when his powers were weird, but changing his costume drastically for every type of fight, like Man Of Steel figures did, just doesn't make sense for a "One Size Fits All" superhero like Superman. What would be interesting, is instead of Power Up stuff for Superman and He Man, since they're kinda already super powered, is depowered action figures, hurt action figures, incognito action figures. I don't want "Submarine Action Superman" if I already have Superman, which doesn't need to breath under water, I want Atlantean Disguise Superman, the Superman that's trying to infiltrate Ocean Masters Defenses, and is being used to sabotage, or gain intelligence for Aquaman, utilizing his natural abilities to see through walls and hear the quietest noise from long distances. Like, if a character gets a variant, I want it to hold purpose, not just look kinda cool. People didn't want Storm Trooper Luke and Han Solo because its cool and different, people wanted them because there's reason, and story behind it. Anyone that hasn't seen the movies asks "Why are they in these uniforms, have they turned evil? Did they kill Stormtroopers, and use their armor?" and anyone that has seen the movies knows, but remembers that part fondly, and knows taking their armor was necessary. I'm not saying don't make variants, but, like you said, be smart about it. People want to buy millions of Green Lantern action figures, but use who they are, use the variants and different characters that exist, realize their power set, and what makes them strong, and what makes them weak, and really flesh that out, and make new stories with just a figure, making us ask,"Whats going on here?" not "Man, they don't even know their own properties."

Still waiting on the Netflix special !

Is this the reason why Todd Mcfarlane is creating multiple batman figures or batman related figures is there another reason?

Jungle Attack He-Man With Savage Swords. And forest cut up action! Kenner®️*

I can be okay with a variant of a character that has a distinct play style from the original.

Onestly it doesn't work for Batman either.... that's what i felt even when i was a child.

it may work, but i remember hating my white and red batman figures when i was a kid. but there were no other figures available and i wanteda batman figure. not saying i hated my battle armor he man. but the only reason i got him was because the original version was nowhere to be found at this point. yeah, kids buy these stupid variants. doesnt mean they are were happy with them.

I dunno, I'd totally buy a 'Disco Doomsday'. xD

I remember i had the batrope batman

If like you to explain how motu origins is flooding the pegs but motu classics couldn't make it to any store shelf? And also explain how "aliens" are back on the shelves peg warming when kids have no clue about the movie or characters?

So the imaginext dc super friends batman ooze pit isn’t just a coincidence? 😂

200x fell into the same trap as the originals. 1,000 variants of He-man & Skeletor plus something new once ina while.

Truth be told ,all those weird,wacky,wonky color Batmans DIDNT work for the most part.Pegwarmers... until a toddler -sized child see,s that yellow &pink Bats,& coo,s ..Batman....

I know these viarates are targeted to kids but I hate em I want more characters not the same dude the MOTU 2000x line made me sad I was happy to be an adult with a job and a second chance to collect all the HE-MAN figs I wanted em all then they just kept coming out with jungle attack and samurai and battle armor man I dont have money to buy the same guy over and over so I quit collecting them 😞

Cause Batman has multiple films and spin offs across all media outlets and multiple licensing deals handed out...He-man and masters of the universe is no where near what Batman has become.

Because he's batman

What about faker and Prince Adam?.

And now I know! And knowing is half the battle. G.I. JOE!

SkelleBat lol