Rant Review: Masters of the Universe: Eternian Battlefield 108 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Golden, Art by R. A. Allen, 1983)

I haven't had much time to devote to puzzling these past few weeks, but I had to get in one of my vintage MOTU puzzles today for MOTU movie day! I'll be seeing the movie in a couple of hours, and this is just the thing to help me get in the proper mood. (Even more than I already am, that is!) Like Surprise Attack, the art is by R.A. Allen, whose art was prolific in early MOTU merchandise. This battle scene features some of the wave two figures in Ram Man and Tri-Klops, yet is rooted in the early MOTU lore. Signs of this are He-Man swinging his battle axe while Skeletor wields the Power Sword, and Battle Cat depicted without his signature helmet. These were things that quickly faded away once the Filmation cartoon became the dominant version of MOTU in pop culture. At that point, the "Power Sword split into two halves" concept was tossed into the bin, and Battle Cat without his helmet was just Cringer. As a little kid who enjoyed the cartoon but did not see it as the "real" MOTU, I always played with and displayed my Battle Cat without his helmet because I thought the angry tiger face underneath it was too cool to cover up! 

Zoar and the rarely-seen Screeech battle it out in the sky. Like Battle Cat, Zoar was a recolored version of an animal toy from Mattel's Big Jim toyline, and like Panthor, Screeech was a recolor of a recolor. Screeech rarely appeared in any MOTU media, and is overlooked whenever the MOTU characters appear. He's also the only character in this puzzle who doesn't appear in the movie. Poor Screeech still gets no respect! There was a storybook in the '80s that depicted Screeech as an alternate form for Evil-Lyn, as Zoar was for the Sorceress in the Filmation cartoon. Perhaps if that concept had caught on, the evil battle bird might not have been perpetually overlooked. 

The pieces are the same thin cardboard as the other vintage MOTU puzzles I've acquired recently, and have a large size that is presumably easy to handle with small hands. (I have big meaty clumsy man hands, so I'm unable to confirm that.) I always like it when the price sticker is still on the box; this time around, it's from Eckerd. With that, I'm off to get ready for the movie! Pretty much everyone I know has made it clear that they're waiting for my review, so I'll have that done either this evening or sometime tomorrow!