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Playset • Fire House

Fire House Headquarters (called Fire Station Headquarters in European prints) is part of Kenner’s The Real Ghostbusters Toy Line. Based off The Real Ghostbusters animated series Firehouse.

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Transducer Playset

The Transducer Playset came with an Unmen bug figure which was used to transform the evil Unmen figures into the bugman or any other figures for that matter. The turning nob contained liquid that splashed around inside when knob was turned.

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Slime Pit

A torture chamber of sorts, where the victim is bound to a wall by a bony claw. A vat of slime is then dumped from a large dinosaur skull onto the action figure’s head, coating them in the ooze. According to the packaging, and a minicomic entitled “Escape from the Slime Pit”, the slime has the ability to transform the victims into mindless slime zombies, who are totally loyal to Hordak.

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Eternia

The Eternia Playset (aka “The Towers of Eternia”) is the largest Masters of the Universe toy ever to be produced by Mattel. The playset features 3 towers, a monorail track, and vehicles that run on the track around the entire playset.

Because it is so difficult and expensive ot complete, Eternia is commonly referred to as “The Holy Grail” of MOTU collecting. Eternia was originally released at an extremely high price for a toy at the time. This led to few playsets being sold. In addition, there are numerous accessories and other easily lost parts that makes a complete version very hard to put together or find. Many parts, especially the monorail track, are also extremely fragile further decreasing the number of parts available to complete a playset.

The Central Tower is the largest of the three towers. It is approximately 31 inches tall. The central tower has 4 floors – the base or foundation, two mid-levels, and a top level parapet.

The base of the central tower features a moat, drawbridge, and guard lion. The lion’s arms move together to capture approaching figures by means of a small lever on the right side of the base. The jaw of the lion can be closed from inside the tower. Closing the jaw allows the drawbridge to drop down inbetween the lion’s arms and across the moat, thereby letting a figure enter the tower. There are two gold gargoyles that sit in front of the drawbridge. One of the gargoyle spots is actually hollow (as seen in issue #6 of the Star comic book series http://www.he-man.org/publishing/item.php?id=1497)

Interestingly, most of the weapons that came with Castle Grayskull (and then later with weapons pack) are actually sculpted into the bottom of the moat. In addition, the outline of He-Man’s power sword can also be seen! There are also various bones, a series of footprints, and a monster under the drawbridge all sculpted into the moat.

The lower mid-level of the central tower has a computer console mounted on the wall. A command console seat, suspended from the ceiling, allows a figure to sit at the computer.

The upper mid-level has a slot that the top of the command console seat fits through. A gold circular piece of plastic locks the chair in place. The seat can be moved by shifting the circle around. This level is otherwise empty.

The top level of the central tower has space for the red and gray laser blaster cannon. The windshield of this cannon is easily lost. There are 3 gold flag holders that fit the 3 flags.

Each level of the central tower can be reached by an elevator. The elevator can be manually raised and lowered by means of a hand crank at the base of the elevator shaft.

The Grayskull Tower is modeled after Castle Grayskull. Its central feature is a prison and prison gate. To close the prison gate a ball is attached to a chain that runs down to the gate. The chain is placed over a brace on the monorail support and the ball then snaps into place at the end of the support. When a vehicle comes by on the monorail, the ball is knocked free, and the prison gate slams shutting capturing any figure inside the tower.

The Viper Tower is  modeled after Snake Mountain. Its central feature is the viper head, which can periscope up from the main tower section. There are 4 chains that run from the monorail supports to the collar around the viper head.

The Monorail System is made up of 13 pieces of monorail track. Eternia comes with 3 vehicles designed to travel on the monorail track. The Power Module is a small battery-powered engine that can connect to any one of the 3 vehicles and power them around the track.

The 3 vehicles are: the Battle Tram (white), the Sky Cage (purple), and the Jet Pack Fighter (gray). The battle tram has a tinted front window. The back of the battle tram opens to allow a figure to fit in. The sky cage also holds a figure. When the red tab on top of the cage is moved in either direction, the bottom of the cage drops out and the figure in the cage falls out.

The monorail track attaches at 5 blue monorail arms on the Central Tower, 4 brown monorail arms on the Grayskull Tower, and 4 gold monorail arms on the Snake Tower.

A further reminder – handle the monorail track with care! Track parts have been known to break during assembly even when being put together straight out of a recently opened MIB Eternia. Once assembled, do not try to take the monorail track apart! If your track is assembled, it is probably best to leave it that way. If your track isn’t put together, it’s probably best not to try to assemble it.

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Mumm-Ra’s Tomb Fortress

Mumm-Ra’s Tomb Fortress is a toy that was released in series 2 and 3 of the LJN Toyline and is based on the 80’s version ThunderCats series Mumm-Ra’s Tomb located inside the Black Pyramid.

The Tomb Fortress playset featured Large Skull “Transformation Chamber” with Glow-in-the-Dark Eyes and Teeth, Two Mechanical Man/Beast Statue Guardians with Moving Tail, Arms, and Heads and also included a Mummy Mumm-ra action figure. The playset did not require any batteries to operate.

The box design and artwork remained the same throughout the series with the back depicting the same figures and vehicles as the Series 2 Figure cards.

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Cats Lair

Cats Lair is a toy that was released in series 2 and 3 of the LJN Toyline and is based on the 80’s version ThunderCats series fortress Cats Lair.

The Cats Lair playset was the biggest toy produced in the Thundercats LJN Toyline standing almost 20 inches tall. It had numerous features such as:

– Pivoting cat head that fired and received laser light beams
– Laser-activated counter that registered hits and sounded “piercing” alarm
– Secret door to trap invaders in underground cell
– Huge cat paws that lifted to reveal “Ion Beam” cannon and secret battle station
– Battle stations for 5 ThunderCats defenders. Figures not included.

The Cats Lair’s Laser system also interacted with all four of the Laser Sabers . The playset required 8 “AA” Alkaline batteries to operate (not included).

The object of the game was to destroy the opponents “Defense Shields” by hitting the “Target” with the Laser Beams. The Mutant Attack Sled’s Target was located at its front and a direct laser hit to it would cause its Defense Shield to drop down and a loud Buzzer to sound. To rest, the Defense Shield would be flipped up. The cats Lair target was located in its mouth and it would take nine direct hits t o weaken its Defense Shield. At this point an alarm would sound and a tenth direct hit would blow the Entrance Door open.

The box design and artwork remained the same throughout the series with the back depicting the same figures and vehicles as the Series 2 Figure cards.

An interesting thing to note is that the Mutant Attack Sled was depicted as being purple in color with orange shields on the LJN Mini Catalogues as well as the box art even though the actual vehicle’s colors are inverse of those.

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Fright Zone

The main playset of the Horde, this set features more interactive traps than any other playset released in the original Masters of the Universe line. Features include: An Evil tree that would trap unsuspecting Masters with it’s branches, when the hidden lower section is squeezed together. The treewas set-up directly in front of the release switch for the next feature. An interactive cage door, that would open and close to trap He-man and his allies within. A regular looking stone section, that when stepped in, will clamp on the legs of our Heroic saviors, and set them up for the final trap. A Giant snake puppet which feeds through a hole directly behind the stone leg trap. Allowing users to pull their captured characters back through the hole to their doom!

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Snake Mountain

A purple mountain, with its most notable feature being a demon-like face on one side. There is a trap-door inside the gate, which is operated by a switch underneath. The toy also included a removable echo microphone, with the head of a snake near the top. The microphone stored inside the toy, with the head of the snake showing out the right side of the mountain. The demon face also had a lever located on the inside of the castle which allowed the user to operate the mouth of the face. This action combined with a user speaking into the echo microphone gave the appearance that Snake Mountain was talking in a frightening voice.

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Castle Grayskull

Castle Grayskull was made as a playset for both the 1980s and 2002 Masters of the Universe toy lines. The 1980s incarnation was one of the more popular Christmas presents for pre-adolescent boys in the 1980s. The price point was generally within reach of the parents of a child in the target age range for the toy line. The castle was also user-friendly, possessing many settings and functions suitable for the 5″ action figures it was built to complement, as well as being small enough to be put away at the end of a play session.

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