The Little Differences: "BEASTOS" Custom Masters of the Universe Classics Action Figure

Vincent: It's the little differences. I mean, they got the same $#!t over there that we got here, but it's just – it's just there, it's a little different.

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Having a child is fun. Yeah, it's also a ton of work, but one of my favorite perks is reliving aspects of my youth through a fresh new set of eyes. I've been collecting Masters of the Universe Classics since about 2009, so for the past three years my young son has watched the display case in the living room slowly fill up with characters. He is captivated by their appearances and relishes the times we take them out of the case and play with them.

One day while we were playing, I told him that the old Masters of the Universe figures came with a mini-comic that told their story. He flipped-out with excitement, eager to learn the stories behind their appearances.

Luckily, all the old mini-comics are available to read for free on He-Man.org. Being a Pre-Filmation fan, I decided to start him with the comic that started it all for me, He-Man and the Power Sword. This story told the tale of the barbarian named He-Man who left his jungle home to fight evil. As we read, he poured over the illustrations examining each detail with the scrutiny of a scholar. And when we reached page 8, he noticed something that I vaguely remembered noticing myself as a child...

There is a third member of Skeletor's gang that appears only on this page that has the head and wings of Stratos and the toy colors of Beast Man. Having read much about the history of these original mini-comics and how early-on the affiliations of many of the characters including Stratos were not 100% determined, I explained to my son that this was a mistake. Since this was the first comic, they hadn't figured out all the characters yet.

However, my son saw it differently. He felt this character MUST be real because he was in the original Masters of the Universe comic book. He asked me what his name was and I told him that it didn't say. So I told him that we could come up with a name for him and since the character looked like a combination of Stratos and Beast Man we could call him "Beastos." (Besides, "Stratman" just made him sound like a guitar player.)

Time passed, but when I started a Pre-Filmation shelf with kit-bashed versions of MOTUC figures as they appeared in the original four mini-comics, my son asked, "Where's Beastos?" The answer to his question is below...

"Beastos" utilizes the body of MOTUC Beast Man and the head and arm wings from the TRU exclusive DC/Masters Stratos. (We took some creative license adding the jet-pack.) I used the hot water/pop method to swap the parts. And the only paint I used was orange on the beard and eyelids.

With the addition of Beastos, my Pre-Filmation shelf is almost complete; He-Man (double gauntlets and white boot tops), Teela (blonde), Skeletor (Alcala style head), Green Goddess, and Mer-man (blue). The addition of EvilMike's Alcala Style Power Sword halves is a cherry on top.

Some day, when Mattel releases an all red beast man, Stratos with toes, and Man-At-Arms with brown trunks and boots, my shelf will be complete. (I WAS going to get him until they changed Snake Man-At-Arms to make him look more 200X style...curses!)

I hope you dig Beastos as much as my son does. If you like him, I encourage you to make him for yourself. And once again I hope you see that "The Little Differences" can make a big difference in your collection. Until next time, I remain The Insidious One.

I neglected to include the origin my son and I came up with for him...

"An Avian male fell in love with a female of Beast man's race. When Beastos was born, neither culture accepted him and so he joined Skeletor's Evil Warriors."