Into the Heart of the Ruhrgebiet: Cora’s Adventures at the 2024 Toyplosion in Castrop-Rauxel, Part 2: The Con (original) (raw)

Last Sunday, I attended the 2024 Toyplosion vintage toy con in Castrop-Rauxel. For the roadtrip to get there and some views of the city, see part 1 and for the trip home and some more views of the city, see part 3.

But first of all, I’ve got another link to share, because I’m also contributing to the Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow Blog of the 2025 Worldcon in Seattle, Washington now. This time, I talk about Cele Goldsmith Lalli, the young female editor who turned around the fortunes of Amazing and Fantastic between 1958 and 1965.

ETA: It’s just been announced that the next Toyplosion will take place in Castrop-Rauxel on August 23, 2025, i.e. the weekend after the Seattle Worldcon, which isn’t exactly ideal for me. But then I’m probably the only potential attendant with this particular issue.

Queues and Classic Cars:

But back to the subject at hand: The Toyplosion con was held in the Europahalle, a multi-purpose events center of the type found in most bigger German cities. The Europahalle is part of an ensemble of 1970s Brutalist buildings, which also includes the North Rhine Westfalia State Theatre, the townhall of Castrop-Rauxel (relocated here from the old townhall in the city center in the 1970s because of reasons) and a museum imaginatively called Forum Castrop-Rauxel. The entire Europaplatz complex was designed by architects Arne Jacobsen and Otto Weitling and completed in 1975. It’s certainly one of the more interesting Brutalist buildings and also a listed landmark.

Castrop-Rauxel’s Brutalist townhall, designed by Arne Jacobsen and Otto Weitling and completed in 1975.

I parked my car and headed for the con and was immediately greeted by a long line of people waiting to get in. And even though I had pre-purchased my ticket, I still had to wait. Luckily, the line moved pretty fast.

A look down Europaplatz in Castrop-Rauxel with the line of people waiting to get into Toyplosion

The queue has almost reached the entrance to Europahalle.

While we were waiting in line, there also were a couple of things to see outside the con proper, namely a replica of K.I.T.T., the talking car from the original 1980s Knight Rider (which was a huge hit in Germany), complete with Cylon style moving light bar. K.I.T.T. also played snippets of dialogue from the show as well as pop songs by David Hasselhoff. _K.I.T.T._‘s German voice BTW was veteran actor Gottfried Kramer, who also voiced Mer-Man in the German _Masters of the Univers_e audio plays. David Hasselhoff was dubbed by Andreas von der Meden, who voiced Trap-Jaw in the German Masters of the Universe audio dramas and was also the German voice of Kermit the Frog. Yes, really.

K.I.T.T. has been parked outside Europahalle and is impatiently waiting for Michael Knight to return. Apparently, Michael Knight and K.I.T.T. have also moved to Coesfeld, based on K.I.T.T.’s license plate.

Also on display was a DeLorean, though this one hadn’t been altered to look exactly like the one from Back to the Future. But since DeLoreans were never sold in Germany, most people here associate them only with the movie. In fact, I had no idea that DeLorean was a real car brand until years later – I assumed it was some kind of custom prop for the film with a fictional brandname.

Marty McFly and Doc Brown have traveled into the distant future of 2024 to visit Toyplosion and get sticker shock at the prices commanded by toys they could have bought at any store back in 1985.

Front view of the DeLorean parked outside Europahalle. Unlike K.I.T.T., the DeLorean does not have an official licence plate.

Displaying two iconic film/TV cars of the 1980s outside Toyplosion makes sense, because the vast majority of attendants were the grown-up children of the 1980s and 1990s who would have grown up with Back to the Future and Knight Rider. Though the two cars also delighted actual children such as the approximately nine and seven-year-old kids of the guy who was in line behind me.

This is as good a time as any to talk about the demographics of the Toyplosion attendants. The gender distribution was about sixty percent male to forty percent female, which matches _Mattel_‘s research from the 1980s that forty percent of Masters of the Universe toys were sold to girls. I suspect the percentages were similar for Star Wars, Transformers, G.I. Joe, etc… In short, none of the big 1980s franchises were ever only for men, the women were always there from the start. One thing that made me happy is that there were also a lot of kids. And yes, the kids accompanied their collector parents, but they were also clearly excited about a giant hall full of toys. So yes, kids these days still enjoy physical toys, if they are exposed to them.

Apart from the kids, the attendants ranged from their mid thirties to mid fifties, which again matches the products on offer, which mostly dated from the 1970s to 1990s with a few post-2000 brands like the Lord of the Rings movie figures or the Mythic and Cosmic Legions figures (which appeal to the same demographic) thrown in. There were cosplayers, too, including a whole troop of Ghostbusters. Apparently, they belonged to a fan club.

Both vendors and attendants were from all over Germany plus neighbouring countries. There was a significant number of Dutch people as both vendors and attendants, but then the Dutch border isn’t that far from the Ruhrgebiet. I also saw at least one Belgian vendor, but then the Flanders isn’t that far from the Ruhrgebiet either. There also was at least one British vendor.

What I saw at Toyplosion… and some reminiscences of toys past:

Once I’d made it to the entrance, had my ticket scanned and was given an armband, I found myself on a gallery, overlooking a large hall full of tables and stalls loaded with vintage toys. The Europahalle was apparently originally intended as a sports venue, though it mostly hosts concerts and fairs these days, and the gallery would have been where spectators were seated.

A view from the gallery across the floor of Toyplosion. Note the stage at the back, flanked by two life-size replicas of Flying Fists He-Man and Terror Claws Skeletor. This was where you could purchase the show exclusives and also where rare items were auctioned off.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good photo of the life-size Flying Fists He-Man and Terror Claws Skeletor figures, because the stage area was always busy, whenever I walked past, but here’s a great photo on Instagram.

Another look from the gallery across the floor of Toyplosion. Note the Masters of the Universe statues by (I think) Iron Studios in the front.

Another view from the gallery across the floor of Toyplosion. Note the mint-in-box Cabbaga Patch Kids on the left and the G.I. Joe and StarCom vehicles in the center.

Another view from the gallery across the floor of Toyplosion. In front, you can see people queueing up for con exclusives. In the back, you can see the stall of Welt der Meister Magazin, a German Masters of the Universe fanzine.

For more impressions of the 2024 Toyplosion, there are a lot – and I mean a whole lot – of videos on YouTube, so here’s a selection by ToyTenner, Meine Masters Mancave, Ed’s Retro Geek Out, bumo TV (part 2), Lau Skypainter, Retro Stardust, Goreminister, Die Trödelmama, Grooty’s Sloppy Lab, Floversum, Sammelzimmer, Lutastic, Star Wars Sammler, Loco’s Welt Gaming, VTS Experience, SpaceFiguren who also have an interview with Axel Gimenez, Pogobär 1985, Runder Tisch Marxloh e.V. (a charity from Duisburg to which some of the proceeds from the tombola and auction were donated), Marlons Flimmerkess, We Are Ghostbusters Germany, Der Bürgermeister, Master Ölli & PokingJoe78, #Piratenbox (part 2 and part 3), Comics Cult Cinema, Bardobrick, Der Film Angler, Foot Soldier, It Waits TV, Bodylove666, Martin Carter Production, Spielzeug-Jäger, Häuptling Bunte Murmel (part 2 and part 3), Mint in Mind, The Collectors Bay.

There also are a lot of haul videos: #Piratenbox, Retro Krempel, bumo TV, Comic Toy Hunter, VTS Experience, Der Sitti, Stanleys Filmzimmer, Kennt Ihr noch… (part 2), Retro Rauner, Vater und Sohn im Sammlerrausch, It Waits TV, MotU Chris, Tales from the Fright Zone, He-Fan’s Vlog.

There were tables all around the gallery, so I first went around the gallery before descending onto the main floor. After maybe two tables I was alo so enthralled by all the toys on offer that I completely forgot to take photos. So the only photo I have of the actual toys on offer is this one of My Little Pony figures of all things.

Vintage My Little Pony figures on display at Toyplosion.

The same stall also had several vintage Strawberry Shortcake dolls as well as other girl-aimed toylines of the 1980s on display. I chatted a bit with the owner and reminisced about how my Grandma bought me the entire first wave of Strawberry Shortcake dolls in January 1982, when my parents were on a cruise (my Dad had co-designed the ship, so it was work for him and he apparently spent most of his time running around and fixing problems, while my Mom was terribly seasick) and I was sent to stay with my grandparents. Grandma took me shopping in the city center and after spending an inordinate amount of time trying on clothes, she took me to what was then the best toyshop in town, where they had just gotten Strawberry Shortcake dolls in stock. And because I couldn’t decide in which one I wanted, Grandma – bless her – bought me the entire first wave. I don’t even want to think about how much that would have cost her – US toys were expensive in the 1980s because of the high exchange rate. What makes this even more remarkable is that my Aunt and to a lesser degree my Mom always referred to Grandma as “stingy” (she was their stepmother – my biological grandmother died young and I never met her), yet my supposedly “stingy” Grandma spent what must have been a lot of money just to buy me Strawberry Shortcake dolls. Grandma had actually worked as a dollmaker for a while in the difficult years after WWII, so she had an affinity for toys and always got me nice ones. Grandma and Grandpa even gave me handmade doll beds – Grandpa, who was a carpenter by trade, built them and Grandma sewed the pillows and blankets. I’m not sure if I ever told Grandma how much those Strawberry Shortcake dolls meant to me (she died in 1996 and has dementia for the last five years or so), though I suspect the fact that I promptly turned her kitchen floor into Strawberry Land and appropriated Grandpa’s footstool as a house for the dolls told them how much I loved their gift. I still have the dolls BTW – packed away in a box – and they still smell.

In general, a stroll across the floor of Toyplosion was a trip down memory lane. All the toys you remember from your childhood were there, including some brands so obscure that you occasionally wondered whether you dreamt that one time you spotted that toy in a store while on holiday or whether it was real. The big names dominated, of course. There were a lot of Star Wars toys, anything from vintage Kenner figures via the over-muscled Power of the Force figures from the 1990s to modern Hasbro Vintage Collection and Black Series figures. I even spotted a couple of brand-new Acolyte figures. There also were enough Boba Fetts to repopulate Mandalore, from the vintage mail-away figure to modern versions.

Masters of the Universe was not far behind and again you could find every iteration of the brand from vintage figures and vehicles, both loose and on card, via New Adventures (and I saw a lot of those figures, more than I recall ever seeing back when theys were in stores), 200X (which I only saw in stores once or twice), Classics, _Super 7_‘s Neo Vintage and Reaction lines (and again I saw a lot more of those than I ever saw in one place before) to the current Origins, Masterverse and CGI lines.

I also spotted several vintage Castle Grayskulls and Snake Mountains and even an almost complete vintage Eternia, which is a rare sight indeed, because only very few Eternias were made back in the day. I also saw two or three new Eternias in box. No vintage Fright Zone, no Slime Pit nor any Crystal Castle or Crystal Falls, all of which would have been tempting. Regarding vintage vehicles, I saw a Bashasaurus, a Spydor, several Jet Sleds, a set of Stilt Stalkers as well as Stridor and Nightstalker.

He-Man’s twin sister She-Ra was also well represented with offerings ranging from somewhat bedraggled looking loose vintage figures (vintage Princess of Power figures tend to look more bedraggled than vintage He-Man figures, because the hair tends to get tangled and the fabric clothes tend to get lost or damaged quite easily) to mint-on-card figures. The star was a mint vintage gift set including She-Ra, Sweet Bee and Perfuma, which looked utterly perfect as if someone had popped into a time machine (well, the DeLorean was parked outside) and travelled back to 1985 and bought it at a shop. I also saw not one but two mint-in-box Clawdeens, the bright pink lion that’s Catra’s pet/ride. I firmly resisted asking for a price (and since they were mint-in-box, they would have been very expensive anyway), because a) I’m not an in-box collector and b) Clawdeen won’t fit in scale with my Masterverse Catra and there is no Origins Catra. Though a loose Clawdeen would have been very tempting.

She-Ra 1980s rival (though both lines were in development around the same time, so it was something in the air rather than one copying the other) Golden Girl and the Guardians of the Gemstones also had a remarkably strong presence at Toyplosion, especially for a line that’s somewhat obscure these days. There were plenty of dolls and fashions still in box. I even spotted Shadow, the horse of the villainous Dragon Queen, complete with chariot, though it wasn’t in great condition, otherwise I probably would have caved in and bought it.

It’s interesting that by the mid 1980s, girls suddenly got a lot more exciting options than just Barbie and similar fashion dolls like Sindy and Petra, traditional baby/child type dolls and pastel-coloured cartoon characters, which had dominated girl-aimed toylines before. But then in 1985, you suddenly got not one but two toylines of awesome female warrior princesses, Golden Girl and She-Ra, as well as the amazing rockstar adventures of Jem and the Holograms and their rival The Misfits (whose songs are better). It’s as if someone suddenly realised that girls wanted more than just play house and dress-up. Of course, girls had been playing with Star Wars and Masters of the Universe and G.I. Joe all along. And even if you had only traditional dolls and plush toys, you could still use them to play Star Wars or have them go on an adventure to fight pirates (ask me how I know), because imagination and improvisation are limitless. You could also make barbarian warrior princess or jungle queen outfits for Barbie – again ask me how I know. But in 1985, it was as if someone flipped a switch and we suddenly got all of these awesome adventure toylines aimed at girls. Even Barbie suddenly became a rockstar to counter Jem as well as an astronaut in the world’s most glamourous spacesuit. And then, barely two years later, all of these awesome adventure toylines just vanished and we were stuck with just Barbie once again, who also stopped being an astronaut or rockstar and got back to being mainly a fashion model. Traditional feminity restored.

Regarding Golden Girl and the Guardians of the Gemstones, it’s fascinating how many people, mainly but not exclusively women, remember playing with these dolls and loving them back in the day. The quality wasn’t always the greatest – the gorgeous Golden Girl castle playset is notoriously brittle – but my childhood Vultura doll is in better condition than my childhood She-Ra dolls and I was always a careful kid. Apparently, Golden Girl was more popular in Europe than in the US, but the question is still why this toyline faded so quickly and lasted only a year, even though lots people remember enjoying it. The usual explanation is that it didn’t have a cartoon or other tie-in media, but then here in Europe we never got the cartoons and the toys at the same time. Instead, by the time the cartoons showed up, the toys were long gone from the shelves. In fact, when the US sitcom Golden Girls came to German TV, I was super-excited, because I naturally expected it to be a tie-in show to the Golden Girl toyline and was then very confused to get some boring stuff about old women in Florida that surely no one would want to watch. And yes, I know I’m probably unfair towards the Golden Girls sitcom, but I never forgave it for not being what I hoped it would be.

In fact, if there was one 1980s toyline I could resurrect, it would be Golden Girl and the Guardians of the Gemstones, because there was so much potential there. In fact, I would love to see a Masters of the Universe Classics or Masterverse style revival of Golden Girl or even what Mattel did with the far more obscure Sun-Man line in Origins, but that’s unlikely to happen, because Golden Girl was produced by Galoob, who were bought up by Hasbro, since Hasbro gobbled up other toy companies like there was no tomorrow. So Hasbro has the rights now, but they don’t do anything with most of the properties they have. See Jem, M.A.S.K. or any of the other umpteen properties they gained via gobbling up other companies. Apparently, someone is producing updated Strawberry Shortcake (which Hasbro gained via gobbling up Kenner) dolls again and just a few days ago, it was announced that Hasbro has licenced M.A.S.K., Jem and a few others to a company called The Loyal Subjects. But could we maybe get new Golden Girl and the Guardians of the Gemstones action figures (not rooted hair please, since it always gets messy and the rubber bands eventually degrade, even in box), cause that would be awesome.

In general, it was as if something changed in the late 1980s, when all the awesome cartoons and toylines we’d had only a few years before just abruptly vanished and were replaced by “edgy” anthropomorphic animal stuff like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Biker Mice From Mars or Samurai Pizza Cats or Street Sharks that just never really did it for me. Of course, the fact that I was aging out of target demographic and that my Dad stopped working in Rotterdam (and as an adult I understand why he stopped working there, but as a teen it felt like a massive betrayal, like suddenly being cast out of the promised land back into gray, leaden, claustrophobic Germany), cutting me off from exposure to new cartoons via Sky Channel on cable TV, didn’t help either, but it still felt like an extremely abrupt shift.

Talking of the late 1980s trend for hip anthropomorphic animals, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were well represented at Toyplosion and I also spotted some Biker Mice From Mars (if Dad were still around, I would have gotten him one as a gift) and Street Shark figures. And of course, there were plenty of Transformers as well as G.I. Joe toys, though G.I. Joe was never as popular in Europe as in the US, probably because the tagline “A Real American Hero” clearly told all European and all non-American kids in general that there was no room for them in these stories except as villains (and it’s probably telling that the three vintage G.I. Joe figures I own are all villains).

Bravestar was also pretty well represented. I never cared for the cartoon and the toyline back in the day, because while I loved science fiction, I really disliked westerns and the combination of both was an instant nope. I guess I should revisit the cartoon sometime, especially since I’d softened towards the space western subgenre by the time Galaxy Rangers and Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs came around. I also saw a whole stall with M.A.S.K. vehicles and figures as well as a scattering at other stalls and had to firmly remind myself that even though I used to like the cartoon a lot back in the day, I don’t collect M.A.S.K.. I found some Thundercats figures, both vintage – including a vintage Thundertank – as well as the new ones by Super 7 and even some gorgeous vintage Silverhawks. There were also a lot of wrestling action figures. That’s not something I was ever into – I occasionally watched wrestling on TV, but never felt the need to have toys of the protagonists – but wrestling figures are perennially popular.

You could find ToyBiz Marvel figures and Hasbro Marvel Legends, though not quite as many as you’d expect, but then Marvel figures have never been all that easy to find in Germany. Smyths Toys Germany doesn’t even have Marvel Legends as a category, just Spider-Man or Avengers. And most of what they have are those weird large low articulation figures. I saw some of the 1990s Batman figures, which were basically Batman in any colour of the rainbow with the occasional other character thrown in. I also spotted a couple of Gargoyles figures from the 1990s, several of which I still have at home. There were quite a few of the McFarlane collectible figures of the 1990s – Spawn and the like, but also their Beatles Yellow Submarine line, where I recall asking a comic book shop owner back in the day, if anybody actually bought those.

There were vintage Lego and Playmobil sets and figures on offer, including some 1970s Lego castle and knight sets, but again fewer then you’d think, considering how huge Lego and Playmobil are in Europe. But then it seems as if Lego and Playmobil appeal to different demographics. When I was a kid, Lego and Playmobil were educational quality toys for good kids, whereas Masters of the Universe, Transformers, Star Wars, G.I. Joe, etc… were “evil American plastic trash”. Never mind that Lego and Playmobil were also made from plastic. I actually like(d) Playmobil and have a fair amount, though I never cared for Lego, no matter how many times well-meaning relatives tried to give it to me. But to me they still have this good German kid vibe and I wasn’t a good German kid.

You could find Barbies, Cabbage Patch Kids, My Little Ponies, Rainbow Brite, Strawberry Shortcake and other toylines originally aimed at girls and you also found plenty of men as well as women selling and buying them, but they were underrepresented. I also didn’t see a lot of regular dolls, plushies and accessories. No Zapf, no Käthe Kruse, no Steiff. Again, those appeal to different demographics. No model trains either and very few model cars, though one stall offered vintage plastic soldiers and collectible plastic figures that used to be included with packages of margarine.

And of course there were Funko Pops, because there always are. The popularity of these things still baffles me, because most people claim they don’t like them, yet someone is clearly buying these things or there wouldn’t be so many of them.

Then there were the weird and wonderful toylines whose existence you’d either completely forgotten about or you though no one except you remembered such as the 1980s He-Man knock-off line Galaxy Warriors or the Starcom space toyline. There was a stall which had a lot of Filmation Ghostbusters action figures. The Filmation Ghostbusters, not to be confused with the Real Ghostbusters, were one of these obscure cartoons of the 1980s that is largely forgotten today. It was the result of a copyright loophole – Filmation actually had the right to the name “Ghostbusters” and Columbia not only had to pay them a licensing fee for the 1984 movie, but Filmation also launched its own Ghostbusters cartoon, which came out a bit before The Real Ghostbusters. I liked both shows and wish they could have crossed over, but it always annoyed me that the Filmation Ghostbusters cartoon are largely forgotten today. But the Filmation Ghostbusters had two female regulars – time-traveller Futura and reporter Jessica – whereas The Real Ghostbusters only had Janine. The Filmation Ghostbusters also had a gorilla as a regular member and their main antagonist was called Prime Evil. In short, the show was really cool and it’s a pity that it is forever overshadowed by The Real Ghostbusters. And I had to stop myself from buying the three main characters Jake, Eddie and Tracy (that’s the gorilla). If they’d had Futura and Jessica, I don’t think I could have reissted. As for the toys, I only ever saw the Filmation Ghostbusters action figures once, while on holiday in Italy.

This is a very common experience for German toy collectors BTW. We all have a story about that utterly awesome toy that we only saw once in a weird department store or messy toy store somewhere in Italy, while on holiday. And of course we never bought it because our parents did not consider toy shops a suitable place to spend your holidays. Quite often, that amazing toy that got away is the clearest memory you have from that holiday, eclipsing beaches and museums and cathedrals and ice cream and pizza. And it’s almost always Italy, because for some reason, Italy always got all the awesome toys no other place got. I think the US toy industry used Italy as a dumping ground for unwanted products, but we wanted them, too. Even today, Italy still has an awesome selection of toys BTW. I found some great deals for Masters of the Universe figures on eBay Italy.

The oldest toys I saw on display were Major Matt Mason astronaut action figures from the mid 1960s, a toyline I knew existed, but have never actually before. Apparently, there was a revival planned in the 2010s, but it never happened, probably because the good Major’s adventures are a little too tame for the post-Star Wars era.

I saw nothing pre-1960s. There were no antique china or celluloid dolls, vintage toy trains, tin soldiers or other standbys of antique shops and fairs. No modern collectible dolls, i.e. Käthe Kruse or Madame Alexander (though those were never sold in Germany) or the sort of thing offered by companies like Franklin Mint, either beyond some collectors Barbies. But then, the market for these things pretty much dried up, as the people who collected them gradually died off. I guess the people who collected china and celluloid dolls (whose popularity always baffled me, because they were ugly and hyper-flammable) and vintage trains and the like were the people who remembered playing with such toys or craving them as kids. And yes, china dolls stem from the early 20th century, but they were still around as hand-me-downs well into the 1940s and 1950s. My Mom remembers being given a vintage china doll she named Toni sometime in the late 1940s. Sadly, Toni did not survive. Meanwhile, Madame Alexander dolls or Käthe Kruse dolls or other dolls aimed at adult collectors that sold for high prices in the 1980s and 1990s mainly appealed to the people who either had such dolls as kids or wanted them and now had the money to purchase an updated edition (though I liked the Madame Alexander dolls a lot as a teen, because they were gorgeous and very different from anything available in Germany). In short, they were basically the Masters of the Universe Classics and Origins for the WWII and baby boomer generation, because toy collecting is driven by nostalgia. And yes, Madame Alexander and Käthe Kruse are still around and still produce dolls and Madame Alexander even has a line of explicitly kid-aimed dolls, but they’re no longer what they were. And I guess no one in the 1980s would ever have expected that a mint-in-box She-Ra gift set that maybe cost fifteen dollars at retail would sell for a hundred times that forty years on, while a Madame Alexander doll that cost seventy to eighty dollar at the time would be sold be sold on eBay for twenty-five or thirty dollars.

Though there weren’t just vintage toys on offer, but also toy-adjacent things. I saw some cool custom Masters of the Universe figures by German customisers Poking Joe and Master Oelli, including characters from the German audio dramas that Mattel will probably never make such as Goras, He-Man’s annoying cousin (and yes, the play specifies that he’s He-Man’s cousin, not Adam’s cousin) or the gnome Ofta or an Anti-Eternia Teela (be careful with that one, cause she’s a cannibal in the Masters of the Multiverse comic mini-series). They had also customised a Castle Grayskull into Castle Hellskull, the alternate universe version of the famous that originated in the famous Anti-Eternia audio play and has now become an established part of the lore.

Retrofabrik, who reprinted the 1980s German Masters of the Universe comics in beautiful hardcover editions and also produced new Masters of the Universe audio dramas, were present. I already have all the comics, but I purchased the first two new audio dramas on CD. In general, if you’re into vintage audio dramas on cassette tape (which were huge, when I was a kid in the 1980s), there were plenty on offer at Toyplosion. Not just Masters of the Universe, but also The Three Investigators (a series so popular that the now adult voice actors still do live tours), Knight Rider (starring the voice actors who dubbed the TV show) and all sorts of other stuff. In fact, audio dramas were so ubiquitous during my childhood that it never occurred to me that they were a very specifically (West) German phenomenon that didn’t exist elsewhere. Whenever I see those vintage audio cassettes nowadays, I always wonder if they still work (because of rights issues, few of them have been reissued), provided you still have a functioning tape deck somewhere, or if the people who collect them just display them. One of the exclusive products you could buy at Toyplosion was a reproduction of a vintage store display for audio cassettes, so it may well be the latter.

Also present were Welt der Meister Magazin, a German Masters of the Universe fanzine. Well, actually they’re at least a semipro, since it’s a pretty glossy and professional looking production, though the classification doesn’t really matter, since I doubt they’ll get a Hugo nomination anytime soon. They have been around for about ten years now and have interviewed pretty much everybody who ever worked on Masters of the Universe and is still alive and willing to be interviewed. They also published a guide to the audio plays, a special edition about the 1987 movie, a guide to the advertising magazines with their beautiful toy photography and they’re gearing up to publish an encyclopedia. Welt der Meister Magazine is one of those fan projects I always think I should support, especially since I’m pretty sure that there’s information in these issues that you can’t find elsewhere, but I’m never sure where to start.

A real highlight was getting to meet artist Simon Eckert, who does a lot of packaging artwork for the Masterverse line. Check out his amazing art on Instagram and Art Station. Simon was selling prints of his artwork as well as a Masters of the Universe cardgame he designed. His stall wasn’t busy, so I stopped to buys two prints (of the King Keldor and Sorceress Teela box art, since he didn’t yet have a print of the amazing Snake Sorceress Teela art) and told him how much I enjoyed his artwork. We started chatting and geeked out about spotting amazing toys on holiday in Italy, Masters of the Universe and She-Ra (Simon’s partner is a huge She-Ra fan) and Golden Girl, since Simon has also done some amazing Golden Girl fan art. He’s also done some amazing Princess of Power and Masters of the Universe fan art. He’s also the one who designed Castle Hellskull, since the Castle first appeared in an audio drama and there was no illustration. Simon is eligible for the Best Pro Artist Hugo BTW, hint hint.

My Toyplosion Haul… and Fun With Action Figures, Part 1:

But now I’ve told you about all the awesome things I saw at Toyplosion, you’re surely wondering what I got. So here’s a photo of my haul. Apologies for the busy background, but I had to take the photo on the floor to get everything in shot.

Toyplosion haul: Clockwise from top left: Masters of the Universe Classics Snake Men Soldiers, Peek-a-Blue, Double Trouble, Castle Grayskullman, Saurod, Masters of the Universe 200X Mer-Man, Two-Bad, Prince Adam, Keldor, Beast-Man, Retrofabrik audio dramas, tie-in audio drama for the CGI show (free promo) and in the middle Sorceress Teela and King Keldor prints by Simon Eckert.

I also picked up the Toyplosion exclusive Masters of the Universe Origins Flying Fists He-Man and Terror Claws Skeletor two-pack with gorgeous artwork for a friend. Here’s a quick picture I took on the dining room table after I got home. Sadly you can’t see the packaging all that well, because of the reflections from the dining room lights. Toy Habits has a better photo.

The Toyplosion exclusive Flying Fists He-Man and Terror Claws Skeletor Two-Pack.

The Toyplosion exclusive Slime Pit mug was unfortunately sold out or I would have picked one up, since I really like the design. Apparently, you could also get limited edition versions vehicles and weapons based on early concept art, but I didn’t see these at all, though I definitely walked past the stall where they were offered, so I guess they were sold out.

I found a stall selling loose but complete Masters of the Universe Classics figures for good prices and walked away with three of them. The first is Castle Grayskullman, a character who was created by fan and filmmaker Daniel Benedict (see and interview with him here) for the 30th Anniversary of Masters of the Universe for a “Create a Character” contest. He’s billed as the living embodiment of Castle Grayskull and can be summoned forth by a spell, when the Castle and Eternia are in dire need of help. The recent Masterverse anthology comic mini-series by Tim Seeley and various artists offered another spin on this character and gave a universe where Prince Adam transforms not into He-Man, but into Castle Grayskullman. In that form, he’s extremely powerful, but the transformation also consumes part of his soul. But whatever his story, he looks great and I’m sure I’ll have a lot of fun with this guy.

Masters of the Universe Classics Castle Grayskullman

Castle Grayskullman in his natural habitat.

My second loose Classics figure purchase was Double Trouble (though the Classics version was called “Double Mischief” for trademark reasons). Double Trouble was a character in the vintage Princess of Power toyline. Billed as a “glamourous double agent”, she was basically the Man-e-Faces of Princess of Power line, because her face could be turned under the helmet to reveal a good and an evil face, whereby the evil face just had arched eyebrows and heavier eye make-up, which was omitted from the Classics figure. Double Trouble never appeared in the 1980s She-Ra cartoon, though the 2018 She-Ra and the Princesses of Power cartoon did something really interesting with the character, turning them into a gender-fluid shapeshifter who played all sides. Double Trouble is one of the characters where I really prefer the 2018 redesign, but it’s unlikely that version – or indeed any other version of Double Trouble – will ever be made and now I at least have her for my Great Rebellion shelf.

Double Trouble shows her good face and looks very much like a flower fairy from a vintage children’s book.

Double Trouble shows her villainous side. There really isn’t much difference in the faces – the vintage version at least had heavy eye make-up – though the reversible crossbow is cool.

And since we’re on the subject of the Masters of the Universe Classics versions of Princess of Power characters, I also found an in box Peekablue figure for a good price, which means that I have almost the entire Great Rebellion in 7-inch scale now. Unfortunately, Peekablue was very underused in both the original She-Ra cartoon and the 2018 series, though she’s always been one of the most beautiful Princess of Power figures and also has really interesting powers, since the eyes on her peacock feathers allow her to see things happening far away, making her the perfect spy. Honestly, it’s a pity that no media ever did anything interesting with her.The third loose Masters of the Universe Classics figure I got was Saurod, who was a character created for the 1987 live action Masters of the Universe movie. Played by Pons Marr, he was one of Skeletor’s Evil Warriors in the movie, though he was killed off by Skeletor half-way through the movie after the Evil Warriors failed to capture He-Man and the Cosmic Key. Saurod also was one of only three characters from the 1987 movie who actually got toys in the vintage line along with Blade and Gwildor. I always liked Saurod, because his design looks amazing and he makes a great addition to my movie figures.

Saurod poses with the Masterverse Movie Evil-Lyn and Skeletor. The “Great Eye” is portrayed by a chromium plated circular with some drink cups that my Dad got as a present from a business partner years ago.

I also had some fun, creating my own take on some scenes from the movie:

In the throne room of Castle Grayskull, now occupied by Skeletor:

Saurod reports to Skeletor and Evil-Lyn

“Have no fear, Lord Skeletor. Now we have pinpointed the location of the fugitives, we shall soon recapture He-Man and the Cosmic Key. I have selected your finest mercenaries for the task, Saurod and… – Saurod, where are the others?”

“Ahem, Beast-Man is still brushing his fur and his teeth, Blade is polishing his swords and Karg is styling his hair. They’ll be here in a micron, I promise. Please, don’t kill me, my Lord.”

“Sigh. Incompetents, I’m surrounded by imbeciles and incompetents.”

***

Later:

Four movie figures with bonus Masterverse Revolution Gwildor.

Dum-dum-dum-dammm!

“Surrender, evil one, for I have returned to liberate the Sorceress, Castle Grayskull and all of Eternia from your reign of terror.”

“He-Man! For how long have I waited for this. All those years of battle and strife. But tonight, it finally ends. So let this be our final battle…”

“Sigh. Here we go again.”

CLASH! CLANG!

“Tell me, He-Man, tell me about the loneliness of Good. Is it like the loneliness of Evil…”

“You talk too much, Skeletor.”

“Come on, Saurod. Time to go.”

“But what about Lord Skeletor, Mistress?”

“Sigh, Saurod, if you’re planning on surviving this gig, you should know that once Skeletor starts going on about the loneliness of good and evil and ‘Let this be our final battle’, it’s time to get the hell out of here, because he’s about to get his arse kicked be He-Man… again. And now let’s go.”

***

Even later, on the lava fields outside Snake Mountain:

Saurod meets Snake Face, Kobra Khan with his pet companion Pixel and Snake Man-at-Arms. The lava fields outside Snake Mountain are portrayed by my dining room table.

“Hi, guys! Can I join your gang?”

“No.”

“But what about reptile solidarity and all that jazz?”

“Get lossst, Sssaurod. Run back to Sssskeletor. You’re not a real Sssnake Man.”

“Oh really, Khan. I may not be a real Snake Man, but neither are you. You’re just a descendant and oh yes, I remember that you used to work for Skeletor, before you double-crossed him…”

“I ssserve only Hissss, true King of Eternia.”

“And what about Duncan there? Not only is he a transformed human, but he also used to be a Heroic Warrior and general of the Eternian Forces. So why can he join and I can’t?”

“Becausssse he’sss ussseful and can build weaponsss and vehiclessss for the glory of Hisss. You’re just dead weight and even Sssskeletor doesn’t want you.”

***

And while we’re on the subject of the Snake People, since Masterverse doesn’t seem to be interested in making them (probably because Origins has made a lot of Snake People, including ones that were never made before), I’ve been gradually buying up the Classics versions of these characters. You can see Kobra Khan, Snake Face and Man-at-Arms transformed into a Snake Man (which happened in an episode of the 2002 cartoon) above. I also have their leader King Hiss.

At Toyplosion, I spotted the Masters of the Universe Classics Snake Men Two-Pack, an army builder pack with two generic Snake Soldiers for King Hiss’s army. This two-pack is normally quite pricy and the price at Toyplosion was really good. There was only one problem. The vendor couldn’t accept cards and while I had stocked up on cash prior to heading to Toyplosion, I didn’t have enough cash left for the two-pack, which meant finding an ATM. The vendor offered to hold the pack, until I got pack, so I headed back into downtown Castrop-Rauxel to find an ATM.

The Quest for an ATM:

In Germany, you can’t just withdraw money at any old ATM – at least not without paying a fee. You need an ATM from your bank or one that’s part of the same bank network. So I checked Google whether my bank had a branch in Castrop-Rauxel. Alas, they didn’t – my bank closed several branches for cost reason in the past few years. Also note that it was Sunday, so shops – you can withdraw cash at several grocery and drugstore chains free of charge – were closed.

Next, I checked whether there was a Shell gas station anywhere in the area, because I can also withdraw money at Shell gas stations (which I do quite a lot, because the nearest Shell station is closer than the nearest bank branch). Now there were Shell stations in the Castrop-Rauxel, but they were on the edge of town – in a city I don’t know at all. Plus, I couldn’t be certain if the Shell stations were open on Sundays, since not all of them are.

The third option is finding a branch of the Postbank, another bank in the same ATM network. Since Postbank is tied to the German post office, they usually have more branches than some other banks, though post offices are also shutting down in favour of post stations inside grocery stores and other shops. However, Castrop-Rauxel is big enough to still have a central post office with a Postbank branch, so that’s where I went to get more cash. And since I was in the city center already, I also had lunch at a nice Italian restaurant. On the way back to my car, I also met a nice lady and her dog and had a chat with her.

While heading for the Postbank, the Ruhrgebiet of my mind also intersected with the real thing, when I spotted a mineshaft elevator tower – probably the iconic sight of the Ruhrgebiet – somewhere in the distance. I was determined to take a closer look at the tower, but first I wanted to get back to the con and pick up my Snake Men two-pack. So here they are:

Masters of the Universe Origins also did a multi-pack of generic snake warriors (which I don’t own, because it’s expensive and IMO not really worth the money), but those were three rather dull kit-bashed repaints plus the Origins Snake Armour He-Man most of us already had in slightly different colours. This set, meanwhile, is a lot cooler and the two Snake Warrior actually look like distinct characters rather than just repaints.

My Toyplosion Haul… and More Fun With Action Figures, Part 2:

By now, it was about 3 PM and the con was gradually starting to wind down. However, my haul wasn’t complete yet, because when I wandered the floor one more time, I passed a stall that had intrigued me earlier that day, because it had a lot of figures from the so-called 200X toyline, i.e. the Masters of the Universe toyline that tied in with the 2002 cartoon.

I like the 2002 cartoon and many of the character redesigns. The cartoon also had a massive influence on Masters of the Universe lore and several now widely accepted parts of the lore – Adam looks significantly different from He-Man, Skeletor is Keldor, Trap-Jaw is Kronis, the origins of Two-Bad and Stinkor, Anwat Gar, King Grayskull, Fisto is Duncan’s brother, much of the Snake Men storyline – have their origins here. But both cartoon and toyline underperformed and Mattel tends to treat the 200X era as something of a red-headed stepchild and doesn’t really delve into all the interesting redesigns from that era.

I remember seeing some of the 200X figures in a store back in the day and thought, “Cool, they’re making He-Man toys again.” But I never bought any of the figures, neither then nor later. However, when I saw a bunch of 200X figures on offer at Toyplosion, I thought, “These don’t really fit in with any of the other lines, but they actually look really cool.” So I bought two figures, Keldor and Prince Adam. They were both loose and not complete – Keldor has his iconic dual sword and acid vial, but is missing an interchangeable head, while Adam has his Power Sword, but is apparently missing a mace (And why on Eternia does Adam have a mace anyway? What does he need a mace for, when he has the Power Sword?) – but in good condition. And since I like both the characters and their 200X look, which also influenced later incarnations (Keldor had never been shown at all pre-2002, just mentioned, and the 200X cartoon was the first time Adam looked like the teenager he was supposed to be), I bought them. This was before my excursion to find an ATM BTW.

And now, on my final round across the con floor, I passed that stall again and found myself digging through a bargain bin of loose 200X figures and went home with Mer-Man, Beast-Man and Two-Bad. They’re missing their weapons and Beast-Man’s action figure doesn’t work anymore, but they were cheap and look good. Honestly, the skulpting and detail on the 200X figures is amazing, considering they were not collector figures, but regular toys sold at retail. The vendor also had both the 200X Battle Cat and Panthor in that bin and in retrospect I wish that I would have bought them, because the price was unbeatable, considering what these normally go for. So I guess I collect 200X figures as well now.

Since I had the 200X figures, I also had some fun with them. And yes, I know that Adam never meets Keldor in the cartoon, though there is a scene where Adam faces down Skeletor and his Evil Warriors outside Castle Grayskull all alone. And yes, Skeletor really cannot remember the name of his own nephew in the cartoon. So just consider this an alternate universe:

Outside the jawbridge of Castle Grayskull:

This Mer-Man is a repaint known as hung-over Mer-Man because of his blood-shot eyes. I also didn’t realise until know that the two halves of Two-Bad are reversed. Tuvar, the guy on the left, is normally blue, since he’s a Gar, and Baddrah, the guy on the right with the scales, is purple. No idea if this is a factory mistake or a weird variant. Adam’s pants are also very tight, which probably leads to embarassing situations for the poor kid.

“Stop, Uncle! If you want to get into Castle Grayskull, you’ll have to go through me first.”

“Oh, it’s that oh so fierce warrior Prince Alan…”

“My name is Adam. Why can never remember that?”

“So you think you’re going to stop me? You and what army?”

“The Masters will be here… ahem… any minute now.”

“Your Masters are currently guests in my dungeon. Including your sweetheart Teela.”

“She’s not my… And let her go or I swear I will…”

“You will do nothing. And now be a good boy and get out of our way.”

“No, Uncle Keldor. I don’t want to fight you, but I will, if I must.”

“Oh, so that sword isn’t just decoration. You actually know what to do with it. Not that you have any chance against me at all. Or did my brother never tell you that I used to be the best swordsman in Eternos.”

SWISH! CLASH! CLANG!

“Go, boss! Show the little bitty prince who’s the master here.”

“Crap. Uncle Keldor really is as good as everybody says. I can’t keep this up much longer. At least not as Adam.”

“Sorry, Uncle Keldor, but I got to run and find He-Man.”

“Yes, nephew, run. Run like the coward you are.”

“Coward, coward, coward…”

“Don’t just chant, idiots! Go after him!”

“But… uhm… why, boss?”

“Because he’s a valuable hostage, you blistering boobs. Randor will do anything to get his golden boy back. And now get him!”

***

I’ll have to end here, because I don’t have a 200X He-Man, though I suspect one will eventually find his way in my collection.

And that’s it for today. Since this post is already very long, I’ll cover the trip home and my excursion to see a mineshaft elevator tower in part 3.