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Greetings All,

Just a fun thread I wanted to put together because there has been so much buzz about the Mattel Creations Crowdfunded Eternia that is probably going to meet this goal as of this writing, if not very soon.

As a child of the late 70s & 80s. MOTU was my first real connection in terms of toys, which shifted to TF years later. I never was into GI Joe toys, but I appreciated them for what they were, and I thought the animated series was neat.

However, with little dispute, I think most toy collectors would agree that the BIG 3 items to have, if someone were to have any would be:

GI Joe: The U.S. S. Flagg: Released in 1985 for $89.99 USD

Masters of the Universe Eternia Playset Released in 1986 for $89.99 USD

AND

Transformers: Fortress Maximus Released in 1987 for $89.99 USD

Just a couple of things to note, I believe TRU was probably marking things up slightly even way back when, because I remember getting Fortress Maximus as a gift in 1987, and it was $100.00 USD ($99.99 plus tax). So I'm pretty sure all of these retailed for right around $100.

Also, depending on where you lived, some might make a case for Grand Maximus, which was a repaint of Fortress Maximus released only in Japan in 1988, which means far fewer were produced. Also perhaps the GI Joe Defiant Space Shuttle Complex, which was quite huge and expensive as well, but we can have those discussions another time.

Basically just as a fun question... If money was no issue for your parents, but you could only choose ONE of these Three items to own, which would it be, and why do you say so?

For me, like I stated, I owned Fortress Maximus. It was a gift from my Grandparents, because there's no way my parents could have got it for me. I saw Eternia ONCE at a store called Mervyn's Toys (Mervyn's was a store basically like Kohl's, but went about of business about 20 years ago, but they did well at least California form the 1950's through the early 2000's).

However, Even though all my toy collecting and passion is for Transformers today, I still have a strong MOTU nostalgia, even though I dont collect the toys anymore. I had pretty much every MOTU figure, vehicle, accessory and playset from 1982-1985 (had Grayskull, Snake Mountain & The Fright Zone). But in 1986, obviously Transformers had taken over as my primary interest, so I only got probably about half of everything from 1986, and about a quarter of 1987 MOTU offerings, which is sad, because those last 2 years had some of the coolest ideas.

I think though looking back...Even though I had Fort Max, and I tried to keep it in good shape, pieces were broken & lost. However in the early days of eBay, I was able to obtain a new green door cheap and fix him, and get a couple pieces I was missing to restore it to 100% complete. Had I obtained Eternia instead, no doubt many pieces would have been lost and Broken.

Still, I believe that Eternia is super Rare (allegedly only 4000 ever made, when the intent was to make 40,000) *I heard this on Geek Dad Life's Youtube Video last Sunday, I have no idea if this is factual. I have no idea how many Flagg's or Fort Max's were made, or still exist. I know collectors will often Frankenstein parts for all 3 of these items, in hopes of ever making a completed set.

Also, if I had Eternia instead of Fort Max, it likely would have been sold with the rest of my original MOTU collection in 2000. It might have raised the overall value of my collection slightly, but not nearly as much as it would be worth today.

I guess in Hindsight, Fort Max was the one I had, and was probably the one best suited for me. But there's no denying...those other Big Ticket items are really impressive.

Where do kids even put these things? An old friend of mine had the Flagg; it lived in their garage by their dad's work bench because it wouldn't fit through the front door. When we played, it took three of us to carry it to the yard.

Metroplex was a big one too, but a kid could carry it on their own. Seeing the scale difference between Metroplex, Trypticon, Scorpinok, and then jumping to Fort Max, wow was that insane. That was like having a new (plastic) sibling.

I didn't have any of these as a kid. My childhood playsets were Castle Grayskull and the Voltron Castle of Lions which was a rather large playset itself, definitely have regrets of my mom giving that away to my cousins as a kid. I had almost a complete Panache Place collection as a kid, someday I intend to buy it all back.



If I had to choose from those three I would have definitely gone with Fort Max, no question about it since I had Scorponok. Never saw one in stores, though. Never saw the Flag or Eternia in stores either, but I rarely went to TRU as a kid so that's no surprising. I once saw a Flag at a lawn sale while out with my parents around '96 or '97 I would guess. No idea what they were asking for it and it was disassembled so I don't know if it was complete or broken, but there was no way my parents were letting me haul that back home anyway.

Emerje

Bumble Bot wrote:Where do kids even put these things?

Well, while I cant speak to Eternia, or the Flagg, (I never even knew anyone who owned these two. As I said previously, I saw Eternia Once, and never saw the Flagg in a store, although admittedly I wasn't looking for it) I can say I had friends that had a whole lot more toys than me. I remember I had one friend who had the GI Joe Terrordome, that in itself was pretty huge. It's amazing how creative you can get with closet space. Sure its meant for clothes, but any space below, or shelves above is great for storing toys. With Fort Max being just under 2 feet tall in robot mode, it had no problems along with the MOTU Castles folded up at the bottom of my closet as a kid, and I lived in some pretty small places.

Emerje- Good Call with the Castle of Lions. I never knew anyone who had those, let alone any of the Panache Place line. I really wanted the Matchbox die-cast versions (the ones we called the "Real" Voltron Toys ) I had 2 or 3 friends with Lion Voltron, and only one friend that had all 3.

In 1998 when Voltron the 3rd Dimension came out, I got the first release which was basically a replica of the original die-cast Matchbox Voltron III. I also got a Voltron I (Vehicle) Voltron off eBay in the early 2000's. I was hunting for a Gladiator (Voltron II) for a while, but eventually just gave up before selling the others.

o.supreme wrote:Emerje- Good Call with the Castle of Lions. I never knew anyone who had those, let alone any of the Panache Place line. I really wanted the Matchbox die-cast versions (the ones we called the "Real" Voltron Toys ) I had 2 or 3 friends with Lion Voltron, and only one friend that had all 3.

Only thing I didn't have from that line was the red android figure and the evil vehicles. I had all of the lions, all of the figures (minus the android) and the castle. I really love those lions even if they aren't the most accurate thing around. It was big and fun to play with, I always had it fighting Tendril from Inhumanoids when I was a kid.

I the diecast Trendmasters remake with the gold weapons, it's pretty cool. Also have their version with the mini figures and cockpits.

Emerje