Thursday, October 31, 2019

[YouTube] Masters of the Universe: The Evil Horde's Slime Pit


The Evil Horde was first introduced in the Masters of the Universe (MotU) toy line in 1985 but the antagonists never actually opposed He-Man in the original MotU animated show. Instead they ultimately became She-Ra's primary foe. While I didn't follow the She-Ra show closely, I had (and still have) the first set of Horde action figures as well as some of their accessories. Their leader is Hordak who was joined by Leech, Mantenna, Grizzlor, and robot soldiers called Horde Troopers. A couple non-traditional action figures include Modulok and Multi-Bot (this one released a bit later in 1986) that both consist of various body parts that can be put together in a variety of ways. I do own some of the Snake Men that are considered part of the Horde at times but I'm going to stick with the core group here. That being said, it's the Slime Pit accessory that's the real focus of this post.


Mattel's Slime Pit is a fairly basic toy: it's a gray L-shaped plastic base with a skull on top and a claw at the bottom to hold a figure in place. Users are meant to fill the skull with slime and pour it onto an action figure they place in the claw's grip. In the cartoon universe, the Horde's slime transforms people into monsters that obey Hordak's commands. It may not be a toy with a lot of features but it's certainly a memorable one; what kid doesn't love slime? Canisters of MotU slime were sold individually so even if you didn't have any interest in the cartoon/toys you could buy the slime to play with outside of the pit. I've still got a slime container but my only original slime is dried up. I'm not too sure if I could add water to turn it back into slime and don't want to try so I attempted to make new slime to demo the pit in the video.


Many toys get recolored and/or redesigned to be used in later toy lines and the Slime Pit is no exception. In 2002 Mattel based the Harry Potter Slime Chamber Playset on the Slime Pit. Mattel wasn't done sliming He-Man either as it created a new pit in 2003 for what was then the latest Masters of the Universe toy line. Called the Mutant Slime Pit, this one doesn't actually look similar to the original at all. Instead of dumping slime on an action figure, characters are dropped into a pit of slime. From what I can gather the slime looked different for those two play sets and the Harry Potter toy's slime was glow-in-the-dark. Mattel actually began selling slime in 1976 though it wasn't the first company to do so. If you're interested in toy slime check out this video from Toysplosion: Slime - The History of a Classic Toy.


In the individual character photos below I didn't include the lame weapons (that you can see in the group photo) most of the Horde figures come with. They're plastic crossbows that sort of mimic firing and the figures look better without them. Some of the Horde do have unique features, such as Leech being able to suction to objects, Mantenna's eyes can bulge out by using a switch on his back, and Grizzlor is, well, furry. I'm posting this on Halloween and Skeletor has the perfect face for the holiday so I chose to slime him. Hordak and Skeletor are both bad guys that sometimes work together though they wouldn't be called allies so it's not too much of stretch that Hordak would like to be in control of Skeletor (not to mention the slime canister has the bad guy Beast Man being slimed). At the very bottom of this post is the Escape From the Slime Pit! comic book that was included with the Slime Pit.

More Slime Pit



Slimed


The Evil Horde

Hordak
Horde Trooper
Grizzlor














Hordak and Mantisaur
Mantisaur (has a broken leg so he is standing funny)














Mantenna
Mantenna (eyes out)
Leech














Modulok
Multi-Bot










More Slime Canister



Escape From the Slime Pit! Comic Book





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