#393 PRINCESS OF POWER – STORM (Ref. 9722) (1985)

This is my third and last boxed PoP toy. I found it together with the other two (already presented in this blog, check the Princess of Power label).

This winged horse is Storm and it belongs to Catra, as you can see at the front side of the box. Although the box is a bit sun discoloured, you can observe the nice illustration on the front, as well as all the information depicted on the back: a catalogue of wave 1 (depicting all figures, creatures and the Crystal Falls), a picture of the actual toy plus an extra frame to highlight the mane of the horse.

Something curious is that the box still has its price on it: 1975 pesetas (11,70 Eur). Today it might sound ridiculous, because any modern quality toy on that size costs at least 3 times more, but at the time, it was a lot of money.

Note also that the box is the Spanish version, where Princess of Power was renamed “She-Ra y El Reino Mágico”, or “She-Ra and the Magic Kingdom”. As I found this toy, the box was already opened. The toy had been out of the box in the shop, maybe in the shop window, or somewhere inside the shop. The price sticker was also applied in the horse.

Storm, that is the name of the horse, is made of white shiny plastic and has a black mane and tail. Apart from this, the box includes the saddle (to which two plastic wings can be attached) a comb and a brush.

Something curious about the saddle, is that it is different from the one depicted on the box. In the actual toy, the strap that attaches the saddle to the horse is part of the wings, and not part of the saddle. The picture on the back of the box was probably a prototype. Maybe because of the weight of the wings, the prototype saddle would fall down at either one side or the other. By the way… I think I have taken the pictures of the horse with changed wings, the left one should be on the right and the right on the left… sorry.

In my case, the wings are made in Taiwan, the saddle in France, while the horse is not marked. On the box, however, it is stated that the toy is “Made and printed in Spain”.

Also included in the box are the instructions, with some indications about how can you style your Storm with some artistic hairstyles.

And the classic quality control sheet from Mattel Spain:

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: STORM (Ref. 9722)
• 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: 24 cm long

#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).

 

 

 

 

 

#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