#164 PRINCESS OF POWER – ANGELLA (1985)

PRINCESS OF POWER: FIRST WAVE

I already made a short introduction to this line in the entry in which I showed Enchanta. Now I will continue talking about the first wave, that is the most common, and the one I know best, since I have a few figures and creatures released in 1985.

As mentioned in that entry, PoP designers probably had “carte blanche” to start this line. Since the MOTU line was so profitable, PoP started directly with 8 figures, 4 creatures, a huge playset and 8 extra outfits. The figures were all different body parts, different hairstyles and different clothes, some accessories were repeated from one figure to the other, but this also happened in MOTU.

This is a list of the released toys within the first wave, except gift sets, promotional packs and those kinds of things, which are terribly difficult to find.

Figures:

• She-Ra – Most powerful woman in the universe!
• Catra – Jealous beauty
• Bow – Special friend who helps She-Ra!
• Frosta – Ice empress of Etheria
• Double Trouble – Glamorous double agent
• Angella – Angelic winged guide
• Glimmer – The guide who lights the way!
• Kowl – The know-it owl!

Creatures:

• Storm – Flies Catra to exciting adventures!
• Arrow – True blue horse flies Bow to victory!
• Swift Wind – Beautiful horse spirit, becomes magical flying unicorn!
• Enchanta – Beautiful swan “flies” She-Ra and her friends on amazing adventures!

Playsets:

• Cristal Castle – Shimmering castle of fantasy and fun for She-Ra and her friends!

Outfits (Fantastic Fashions):

• Deep Blue Secret
• Fit to be Tied
• Flight of Fancy
• Flower Power
• Hold on to your Hat
• Ready in Red
• Rise and Shine
• Veils of Mystery

Going now a little deeper in details, note that like in most action figure’s lines, the characters are divided in two opposing forces: the “good” ones and the “evil” ones. In the Princess of Power line, these two groups are called “the Great Rebellion” and “the Evil Horde” (remember that Etheria is also the native planet of Hordak and the Evil Horde). The singular in this toy line is that the Evil Horde’s only member is Catra, while the rest are “rebels”.

This makes the game a little bit unbalanced from my point of view… but this is for sure something intended: people in charge of PoP in Mattel probably thought that they should make much more good characters than evil ones, since the way girls play is completely different from boys. Take a line like Barbie, there’re no evil characters on it! It’s just Barbie and friends. I guess in this line, they wanted something between Barbie and Masters of the Universe: you can play good vs. evil, or you can just play girls have fun, ride horses and take a bath at Crystal Castle.

At least Catra was given a Horse to ride. From the 4 creatures, one belongs to the evil horde and the other three belong to the rebels, and now guess to whom belongs the Crystal Castle.

The outfits at least could be used with each figure, except Kowl and Bow. Well, you can try to fit them on Bow, but this type of play was not originally intended by Mattel.

  
Something very interesting about this line is that even though there were only a three waves made, totalling around 15 figures, there are many different comic books. Almost every figure had its own story written in a comic book of around 15 pages. I’m not sure if this was the same way in Spain, since my Spanish Angella came with “Adventure of the Blue Diamond” instead of “Journey to Mizar”. Maybe there were less comic books in Spanish than there were in English. Interestingly, Angella doesn’t appear at all in this comic book, where the most notable character seems to be Frosta (apart from She-Ra and Catra). As I could see, most Spanish figures came with either “Adventures of the Blue Diamond” or “The Hidden Symbols Mystery”.

Angella is my only carded figure from the PoP line. I found it in an old shop, and it had been in exposition. It was removed form the card, and then put again on it, and closed with staples. The figure also suffers from a slight sun discoloration, and is missing her comb, but it’s still a great figure! 

As their "brothers" the Masters of the Universe, She-Ra and the rest of figures came with a special feature. In this case, Angella has wings that flap by pressing a button on the back. Here're the instructions to operate the wings.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: ANGELLA
• 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: 14 cm

BONUS: I now reproduce, as a bonus to this entry, the Spanish comic book “Adventure of the Blue Diamond”. Hope you enjoy the story (if you can read it).