The Rulers of the Sun line was created by Olmec Toys in 1985 to address a perceived racial imbalance in the toy lines of the time. The story has merit but the resulting action figures were just boring MOTU knock-offs.

Mattel produced ROTS figures under licence and added them to the Origins line. The toys do not fit the MOTU style or concept. Not all the figures are shown here. I consider them to be discrete from the MOTU property.

It was reported that Olmec Toys went bankrupt and its founder fled from creditors. One wonders if Mattel failed to conduct due diligence and instead went for ill-considered corporate virtue-signalling.

The galleries on this page show the ROTS figures released at retail from the Masters of the Universe Origins line. Cross-sell art is included in the galleries if it was made available on card-backs or boxes.

SUN-MAN

THE GREATEST HERO OF THEM ALL

The kindest comment I can make about Sun-Man is that he is an inoffensive figure with a decent head sculpt. He appears to be similar to the Olmec toy. The ‘phoenix wings’ – clipped around the neck – look ridiculous.

PIG-HEAD

WICKED ENEMY OF SUN-MAN

Proving the point that the ROTS toys are not a good fit for MOTU Origins, Pig-Head is nothing more than a comical figure in gaudy colours. The head is too large and the sculpt lacks effort.

DIGITINO

NUMERICAL GENIUS

Another entirely pointless and utterly boring character from the ROTS catalogue. The only feature of note is that the armour – if that’s what the peculiar garment is supposed to be – glows in the dark.

BOLT-MAN

MOLECULAR REGENERATOR

One issue I have with the ROTS figures is that they fail to convey the special powers they are meant to possess. That’s certainly true of Bolt-Man. He’s more sleepy than energetic. The blue lightning bolts don’t impress either.

HYPNO

PSYCHIC HYPNOTIST

It’s hard to know what is going on with this figure. What is the purpose of the silver bird? Maybe they were going for some sort of iconography here, but all I see is a Bolt-Man replica with a fairground toy and a silly hat.