Tuesday, March 20, 2012

#129 PRINCESS OF POWER – ENCHANTA (1985)



INTRODUCTION TO THE PRINCESS OF POWER LINE:


The Princess of Power line is, to say it short, the girl’s equivalent to the Masters of the Universe for boys. Both lines were designed by Mattel, and to unify both universes, She-Ra and He-Man are siblings. They’re more than siblings, they’re twins! She-Ra was stolen from Eternia as a child, and now lives in Etheria. She also has a double personality: Princess Adora turns into She-Ra with the spell: “For the Honor of Grayskull!”. Etheria, by the way, is also the native planet of Hordak and the evil Horde, that’s why in the She-Ra cartoons, the evil Horde appears very often.
The toy line started in 1985, three years later than the MOTU line. In those three years, Mattel had made a lot of money with the figures, so when they decided to launch She-Ra, they created a huge first series: 8 figures, 4 creatures and the Cristal Palace playset, which is as big as the Castle Grayskull.


The lifespan of the series was not as large as probably Mattel would have liked. There were only three waves ever released, being the third one much shorter (and now very hard to find) than the previous ones. This last series was released in 1987, year in which the MOTU series was also cancelled in most parts of the world, so even if the PoP line was selling good (which I doubt), it didn’t make much sense to keep producing it. It’s a shame that the line didn’t start earlier, because much more characters and figures would have been released.


In these two pictures, the saddle is not correctly placed, it should be "closed" at the breast of the swan.

Today I want to focus on the creatures. Since these figures were aimed for girls, no vehicles, like jet planes, tanks or walking dragons were released, and the creatures, that in the MOTU line were Panthers and Eagles, were replaced by horses and swans, which are much more beautiful animals. Note also that none of the figures came with firearms, but only with swords or bows.
The creatures carried no weapons, but were equipped instead with combs and brushes to comb their mane. In this case the creature is a Swan, (that is, a bird!) but it has some mane in the neck too.
The saddle is correctly placed this way
The figure is made of hollow, hard, plastic, very similar to the battle cat. The wings and tail are made of a rubber plastic, and can be inserted in two holes and a slot. A saddle, a bridle and two combs are its accessories. Note that the saddle is actually made of silver-coloured cloth and pink plastic, and decorated with hologram-stickers.
This is a toy I found in an old toy shop. The box is complete but it was already opened, and the toy had been displayed. At the bottom of the swan, there’s a price tag marked 3575 pesetas, which is around 21,45 Eur. That was a lot of money in 1985 or 1986. All instructions, quality control sheet and parts are included. The box front is slightly sun-damaged.
Original Spanish Instructions
Quality Control sheet
Very interesting is that this toy is made in Spain, as you can see in the next pictures. I don’t know if all Enchantas were made in Spain, or if only these for the Spanish market were made in Spain.
FACTS and FIGURES:
  • Name: ENCHANTA
  • Toy Line: She-Ra: Princess of Power (wave 1)
  • Alternate Names: She-Ra y el Reino Mágico (Spain)
  • Year: 1985
  • Company: Mattel (U.S.A.)
  • Size of the figures: 29 cm

8 comments:

  1. A problem for these POP toys is that it was dedicated to girls, however the badboys were the Horde, with hordackn, and distributed in the Masters of the Universe Line.

    It might had caused many troubles to parents who did'nt know if they bought a girl or a boy toy.

    For the production country, I believe that toys for France were producted in France ... At this time, there was not only china ..

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  2. Fantástica adquisición, sin duda; y de una de esas líneas a las que, al menos a mi, me costó llegar, tras conocer el resto de universos paralelos oficiales de los masters; No colecciono, pero sí tengo una figura y posiblemente acaben llegando más; esto que nos enseñas está impecable. Da gusto, tantos años después, poder conseguir estos objetos.

    Enhorabuena!!!!!!

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  3. Thanks for the comments!

    It's really something amazing, that Mattel thought that girls and boys could play MOTU together... it works with Playmobil or Lego, but not with Masters of the Universe...

    Many MOTU parts were made in France, but I don't know if in that factory the also built these cloth parts... maybe the factory in Spain was in charge of the cloth and soft plastic parts for POP and MOTU lines... it's something I'd like to investigate sometime.

    For me it is also one of the lines that remain quite unknown even today... I guess I must watch the TV-series and read a couple of comic-books.

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  4. I'd be a bit careful about the 'French angle'; Palitoy - the predecessor of Kenner had British and French boxes - particularly for the vehicles - in the Star Wars range - but all the items came from HK, likewise with Action Man/GI Joe/Gyper Man(also Palitoy to begin with), there were national-specific pieces of equipment or even vehicles commissioned by the local firm, but all of it marked 'HONG KONG'.

    Having a local toy company is not the same as having a local manufacturer, look at Hornby, all its products Trains (Hornby) Models (Airfix) and Die Casting (Corgi) is coming from China! Maybe the paint (Humbrol) is UK made!!

    Cheers - Hugh

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  5. Very interesting!

    I know the G.I.Joe: ARAH case, in which all figures were made in China but packaged in Valencia (Quart de Poblet) for the Spanish market, but this toy is different... if the wings and the tail are marked "Spain", they should be made in Spain... in 1985 or 1984 (according to the copyright) is still credible that those parts are spanish.

    If they were not marked, I wouldn't say that just based on what is written on the box.

    If you're refering to the label I use to mark my entries, I use the land of the toymaker, Mattel => U.S.A. even if the toy is manufactured somewhere else.

    Thanks!

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  6. Cool post! I'm a die hard fan and collector of POP and MOTU toys, and it was a joy reading this post. I hope you do more.

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  7. Thanks Mykan!

    I have more She-Ra pictures I took for future entries, but it might take a while before I write about those toys. After your comment, I'll try to give them a "push" and post them earlier than expected.

    By the way, do you know something more about where were these toys manufactured? I don't know if you read the comments to the entry... it is a pretty interesting discussion.

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  8. Hi mykan
    I just published a new article about PoP, just in case you want to read it... it took a while, but it is already here.

    http://toysfromthepast.blogspot.com/2012/06/164-princess-of-power-angella-1985.html

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