Secrets of TrapJaw! - Behind the scenes of the MOTUC line from Mattel - how He-Man toys are made

[@stephenturner757]

I'm super jealous you had the pleasure of working with MOTU. I was born in 1976, so those toys were right up my alley in the eighties. Thanks for your work in allowing a new generation of kids to experience toys that we had the privilege of enjoying in the eighties. I'm sure you'll agree that we had the best toys back then. Can't imagine what it's like for a child these days to grow up in this crazy world!

[@spectorcreative1872]

I feel very honored and grateful for the experience I have had

[@chrisalan457]

Trap-Jaw is one of the best figures in this great line. He had so much to offer, a big fan of his look here. A great job done here on this figure.

[@spectorcreative1872]

Really proud how this one came out. The jaw detail in particular. But that is all 4HM!

[@user-do2ev2hr7h]

@@spectorcreative1872 The jaw detail is so awesome!

[@JohnLoeffler78]

I remember being about 7 (around 84-85) and a huge He-Man fan. My mom took me to the store to get 2 He-Man action figures. Obviously my choices were He-Man & Skelotor. The store and popularity of the brand had other plans. Not one of either of them on the store pegs. So I went home (reluctantly) with my new Trap-Jaw & Stratos. I'm 43 now and every since then Trap-Jaw has been my favorite character. Great video! #Longlivetrapjaw

[@spectorcreative1872]

He is one of the best. A new video on his origin is coming soon too

[@WiiMan25]

I got interested in MOTU Classics in 2020 all thanks to you and your videos. MOTUC Trapjaw has become something of a toy collecting holy grail for me, mainly because of the things in this video (whether from learning it FROM this video or learning it from actually reading the minicomics and all that).

[@spectorcreative1872]

Well that is awesome! Feel free to share these videos with friends on social media. It does help the channel a ton.

[@Dented_Battle_Armor]

Hands down my favorite Evil Warrior! Couldn't find him as a kid for a long long time. Then I saw one sitting behind some other figures on the shelf! Grabbed him faster than Skeletor would grab the key to Castle Grayskull. Was so happy!!

[@spectorcreative1872]

Yeah he comes up on many top top lists. and the 4HM did a bang up job!

[@nathanilsaenz8178]

I remember when I was little and my friend had a bunch of trap jaw figures in his toy box that probably got passed down by his dad. I remember coming to his house and not knowing who he was, this was long after filmation, so we had no idea he was from a show lol I remember thinking he was a a NFL football player who got into a car accident and got cybernetic parts lol. It wasn’t till The 2000x show came out and I learned who he was, and I loved The 2000x show as a kid.

[@spectorcreative1872]

Okay that is an awesome origin. Lets go with that next time!

[@aaroncalimeri3270]

Dude this is amazing! Great imagination 🙂

[@brushstroke3733]

Trapjaw reminds me of Jaws from James Bond ("The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Moonraker".) He's a great design, fun classic character. Thanks for the back story.

[@spectorcreative1872]

Well Jaws from Bond was the inspiration for Big Jim's Iron Jaw figure who was the inspiration for Trap Jaw! So you are right on the money

[@devastated_studios]

This is why I bought two of every figure, vehicle, and beast in this line. Originally to have one in and one out of the package but with Trap Jaw it was for the extra character.

[@spectorcreative1872]

And thanks for supporting the line!

[@phantom1592]

It's funny what we forget as kids. The string was shown in the tv commercial... AND it was in the mini-comic. Even if you missed the commercial, i'm sure you read the comic, and the first appearance of him is sliding down and escape rope. Gotta love that subconscious though :P

[@spectorcreative1872]

Everything is a subconscious thought huh? ;-)

[@jaye1866]

"Beats off his jaw" .. lol -- great video!

[@spectorcreative1872]

Thanks sir!

[@MrMark-hm9lk]

I had the OG Trap Jaw in the 80s. He was awesome. I even did the string slide thing.

[@spectorcreative1872]

I loved the strong thing!

[@BiggestDawgEver]

Hey Scott, great video,as always. Whether right or wrong, I think the complaints about the frequent reuse of Trap Jaw's legs is rooted in the fact that they are very specific and largely unique. Its not really fair to compare that to the Human legs, the fur boots, armored greaves, or monster feet. Those are pretty standard fare in a swords & sorcery setting and way less character specific. In the vintage line I am pretty sure only Man-E-Faces and Roboto shared the Trap Jaw legs. In Classics however, in addition to the vintage three, those complete legs also ended up on Optikk, Karatti, Sky High, and Twistoid. The thighs ended up alone on Snake Man-At-Arms while the boots were worn by The Mighty Spector, Rokkon, Stonedar, and Flogg(with different feet). Additionally, just the knees turned up on Horde Prime. This means there were full or partial uses occurring three times in 2010, once in 2011, twice in 2012, four times in 2013, once in 2014, and once more in 2015. That is a total of thirteen times. Compare that to another set of relatively unique legs from Whiplash/Buzz-Off/Clawful that had the same vintage frequency? They had only one partial non-vintage repurpose as Slush Head's thighs. Certainly you can see why we thought you were going to the Trap Jaw leg well a little too often. That said, most of us understand that tooling costs and development budgets dictated the limitations of the parts available. In hindsight though, it would have been nice if there had been another set of sci-fi legs for you to choose from a little earlier on, so that whenever a new adventures character or original creation appeared in the line we would not have to decry: "Darn, not the Trap Jaw legs again... "

[@spectorcreative1872]

I do get that. The details are a bit specific, but on the flip side having precent with Roboto and Man-E-Faces in the vintage line their is some reuse expectancy.

[@Beedo_Sookcool]

Trap Jaw usually ends up being the best figure in any MOTU line, and this was the absolute best version of Trap Jaw. Love it! I ended up getting two of this guy, as well -- one to display as Kronis, one as Trap Jaw. Shame MOTUC ended when it did; I would've loved to see a couple more Weapons Paks with more Trap Jaw weapons from the various media.

[@spectorcreative1872]

Yeah you can't go wrong with Trap Jaw. He was by far my favorite 200X fig

[@chrisl.9942]

Trap Jaw is 100% my fave character and is in my top 10 of MOTUC figures! Thanks for doing these videos! Keep on keepin' on!

[@spectorcreative1872]

Yeah he came out so well and was loaded with stuff

[@benflay6038]

Love him but the main lacky is beastman always there. .you did a stunning job love it great figure now bios there were some in .uk comics growing up

[@spectorcreative1872]

I tried to use UK comics info whenever I could

[@benflay6038]

@@spectorcreative1872yeah good stuff thought you would of read it it's wowed sometimes good guys living in viper tower

[@sunnyshine2215]

Yeah i agree, I think Beastman and even Evil-Lyn are a little ahead of Trappy, but he’s definitely one of the most popular evil warriors.

[@RetroActionUK]

Those attachments you recoloured in black should be a concept that is carried through to the Origins line. That would be great to see.

[@spectorcreative1872]

If only!

[@robdrabkowski2708]

I'm so glad that you added the elbow joint on his cybernetic arm! The Filmation arm (and the one on the vintage toy) always looked slightly disproportionate in length.

[@spectorcreative1872]

Yup that was the whole point! Giving these figures the articulation they needed!

[@kiltedcripple]

I played mine as two completely separate characters. Kronis was as he in the IoE story, Trap Jaw remained the fugitive from the mini comic who got a taste of the Power of Grayskull and became addicted to it. Even as a kid, I played him more akin to Riddick than to Johns, as I read that comic, I took it he was a hardened criminal not a bounty hunter. Classics gave me snug offers I bought two and forever distinct shall they remain.

[@spectorcreative1872]

Hey that is awesome! The stories we make up are always just as good!

[@n_explosion8199]

I think the leg-issue is because trap-jaw has very specific and recognisable legs. The human male legs are usually the color of the skin or they could double as (very) tight pants. Every humanoid character has similar legs, but not al cyborg- robot- spaceman shops at the same store, you know. Tj is quite iconic and apparently so are his legs.

[@spectorcreative1872]

Yes, apparently they are! I think you hit this on the head.

[@michaelpeintinger]

There was a German audio play that gave him a backstory in the 80s/ early 90s.

[@spectorcreative1872]

I haven't had access to all of them but will one day!

[@michaelpeintinger]

@@spectorcreative1872 if you find a way to understand the German audio there might be a link where you can get them

[@stephenhornyak1186]

Absolutely amazing figure. Home run.

[@spectorcreative1872]

I agree!

[@raziel4435]

I have probably 95% of the MOTUC line and I’ve counted 14 figures that use at least 1 part of Trapjaw’s legs and 9 that use a part from his arms. The problem for me was that Trapjaw’s legs were quite unique looking and very recognisable, so towards the end I got sick of seeing them on new figures. It also felt like if a figure needed some unique sci-fi looking legs they just ended up with Trapjaw parts. The worst example is Darius, who has NA He-man’s shins and Trapjaw’s feet and the combination is atrocious.

[@spectorcreative1872]

Yeah this became an issue that really divided the fan base

[@grrrraffe]

Ah yes. Fond '80s memories of getting TrapJaw and my best friend getting Triclops for Christmas. We'd replay scenes from the minicomics on sleepovers.... always felt bad for Ramman's encounter with Triclops. :) Anyway, was fun hearing there was a new version of TJ's origin in this video. Time to hunt down the book!

[@spectorcreative1872]

It is a cool story and gives new light on his origins.

[@carn9507]

That's what the loop on the helmet is for? A zip line? :O I never knew that. And as I said elsewhere I got the Origins figure today and it has the same lil loop thingy. Nice. :) See this is why I chose him over Evil Lyn in the shop earlier. Evil Lyn is great an all but Trap Jaw has a ton more play features (the moving jaw and the weapon arm pieces obviously). Whether in vintage, classics, origins or upcoming Mega Construx, Trap Jaw just makes for a fun toy :)

[@spectorcreative1872]

Yup. It's a zip line holder.

[@andrewgrant2990]

Another great video sir! I really loved that Icons of Evil comic line. I wish there would have been more of them & of course that I could have them all! (Same thing with these awesome mini-comics!)

[@spectorcreative1872]

Those were great comics!

[@wayneepoo]

I was one of those people not too happy with the overuse of Trap Jaw's legs. Mostly for Optikk and Karatti, who had similar, but still very different legs on the vintage figures. Plus with Twistoid, they just don't quite fit with the rest of the figure in my opinion. I like them on Sky High, though. And just the boots work ok on figures like Spector, but I would have preferred unique boots for Rokkon and Stonedar. None of this looks terrible, though, and they all still look cool as-is!

[@Beedo_Sookcool]

I can't remember if it was Emiliano or Axel, but one of those gents did a concept of Twistoid with Multi-Bot's tank-track legs. Looked pretty nifty. I might try to customise that someday.

[@wayneepoo]

@@Beedo_Sookcool yes, I recall that too! The Multi-Bot legs looks much better with Twistoid

[@spectorcreative1872]

Yeah this kinda went 50/50 with the fan base

[@culeroconnor1686]

The classics one is so cool and so expensive now I want him but I am.not paying 150 200 dls for it 💔 I hope there is a re issue of the core characters some day so I can complete my collection

[@mikechason466]

I have one for 100 shipped

[@spectorcreative1872]

Maybe the Origins figure will be a good replacement?

[@user-do2ev2hr7h]

I think the "human legs" got the benefit of the doubt because they have always been the generic MOTU legs, so even though it's re-used tooling, it's not as obvious to many fans who have accepted that as the default look of a MOTU figure since the 80's.

[@spectorcreative1872]

I can see that. Still, many of the figs that used his legs I feel worked.

[@trapjaw7253]

After Skelator, Trap Jaw is my favorite.

[@spectorcreative1872]

You are not alone in that!

[@jerodoverfield9635]

Trap Jaws is a interesting character that's cool explained how he became that way cyborg, he has like a darker blue skin Skeletor all size blue skin except for a bit lighter with a bead of the same race a people on Eternia? Not really sure, because Skeletor before having his face burned off with acid he also had pointy ears like an elf back and now I wonder if trapjaw remove his helmet if he would have pointy ears

[@spectorcreative1872]

You know I’ve never thought about that! Interesting

[@phantom1592]

What I find funny is that as a kid I never even noticed all the repainting and reuse. Roboto, Man-e-faces, Trap Jaw... I never even noticed they were the same legs over and over again. Same with Mer-man and Stinkor heads... and Beast Man and Moss man (though i imagine the flock hid some of that for me). As an adult i can understand the annoyance of buying the same figure over and over again, but as a collector, I really WANTED Man-at-arms, mekanek and the rest to reuse He-man's body... because it was always THEIR body too :)

[@spectorcreative1872]

I know right! I never knew Moss Man had Beast Man's head until I was an adult!

[@AintNobodyAtAll]

True story...my dog ate my Classics Trap Jaw. He fell off a shelf and I guess he looked like a tasty treat. Luckily for me, the parts that were chewed up were easily transplatable from other figures, except for his head and right arm. This just gave me an excuse to get another one so I could display both Kronis and Trap Jaw, but by this point Trap Jaw had become very expensive on the secondary market.

[@spectorcreative1872]

Yeah that happens. Pets right? My Cat has chewed up my Sandtrooper Dewback rod and Beta Ray Bill's hammer handle as well as several Wolverine claws. Arggg.

[@Beedo_Sookcool]

And this, other than allergies, is why I don't have pets. 😉

[@falleneldor]

Of course the basic bare legs are going to be reused infinitely, but that's because there are more human then non human. If 10 figures used Man-at-arms armor it would make Duncan less special. This is why people grew tired of the reuse of trap jaw legs. As you so well state in your video, Trappy IS special! Had those legs been used more sparingly it would feel more special. Man-E and roboto share them cause they are techno-spacy. Didn't sky high and twistoid come long after hydron? I think it also goes to that as the line grew both in the 80s as well 00s, characters got more techno-spacy and less primal barbarism. It be like if out of a hundred pants wearing people wearing the same pants is all. Nobody complains "there is too much furry shorts in the line" get what I'm trying to say? 😀 It could have been blast attack or horde trooper if they came sooner and get overused.

[@spectorcreative1872]

Yeah, if we had gotten to the Horde Trooper earlier there might have been lot more use of his legs. But he was a fully tool'd figure and had to wait.

[@plasticyank351]

I've complained about "too much furry shorts" LOL...

[@aesopfrogox4310]

I have a memory of seeing Trap Jaw with the Kronis head on the “ cross sell “. Is that where that head originated? I can’t figure out how I saw it before this version was released.

[@spectorcreative1872]

Yup

[@aesopfrogox4310]

Grooooooooooooovy.

[@ScareglowSkull]

Two Trap Jaws was always the way to go of course. Btw in your opinion, should Kronis be displayed with or without the skull belt?

[@spectorcreative1872]

I'd say with

[@stevebragg4256]

Wasn't Big Jim line inspired by a James Bond villain, that eventually became Trap Jaw in MOTU?

[@spectorcreative1872]

The character you are thinking of is Jaws. And yes, it is likely that villain influenced Iron Jaw, but I can't prove it or anything.

[@xtimmyxcorex]

Is it just me or is the audio really low and hard to hear on this video?

[@spectorcreative1872]

Let me know! Always trying to work on that

[@disposablebasterd]

there are a lot of characters with names that start with K, a lot.

[@spectorcreative1872]

K is the king of comedy.

[@mothman4676]

Do you think anything special will be done for the MOTU 40th anniversary?

[@sunnydutta6568]

In my childhood,I am very curious to know about trap jaw,why he lost his hand???thaks for ur video

[@spectorcreative1872]

Glad to inform!

[@CaptainStarlight]

I was one of those that bought two of him, haha. Just out of curiosity, how were sales affected by including the Kronis parts? Did you see a big uptick because some of us ordered a second figure? I mean, I guess popularity alone helped, so he must have done really well either way.

[@spectorcreative1872]

Well we expected this figure to sell better because, Trap Jaw. But he was a best seller overall, Kronis parts or not!

[@CaptainStarlight]

@@spectorcreative1872 I'm sure he was! Hey, just a thought: Would you ever be able to do a video on what the best-sellers were? Like a Top Ten kinda deal?

[@rayvenkman2087]

Was there any concept art of a live action Trapjaw for a MOTU II, was the idea of a Classics Steeljaw ever on the cards and did you also include the other arm for future reuses?

[@spectorcreative1872]

Not that I am aware of, but it doesn't mean it won't show up someday

[@darkwoods1954]

Human legs don't look specific. They're just bare legs. Trapjaws legs are very recognisable and and a unique design so when they were reused over and over it stood out more and made the characters seem less unique from each other and a bit more like cheap copies.

[@spectorcreative1872]

Its a fine line. Are furry boots also unique to anyone in particular. MOTU has always been about shared parts. Plus, a good chunk of the MOTUC figs that used Trap Jaw boots or legs also used them in the vintage line (i.e. Roboto, Man-E-Faces &c...)

[@darkwoods1954]

I'd say furry boots are more generic than Trapjaws legs are. A bit of re-use with them is fine but in the end it seemed like they were used for anyone with slightly armored or robotic legs which seemed a bit of a cop out.

[@ehenyor]

The 200x origin comic was written by the guy who created The Walking Dead, right?

[@spectorcreative1872]

Yups

[@Dusarrion]

Ironic that Trap Jaw has been so scarce on retail shelves.

[@superjoe7]

I remember buying multiples just to have kronis and trap jaw side by side

[@spectorcreative1872]

Worth it!

[@superjoe7]

Spector Creative don’t get me started on how many man-at-arms and palace guards I also got to try and make a Rube Goldberg “filmation” version before club filmation

[@dedelebon]

❤️

[@spectorcreative1872]

you too

[@RetroActionUK]

8:12: What an invention! (And confession!) I wonder why the commercial from Mattel Inc showed it? Did you work there already… and you did invent it on the Classics one right? No.

[@spectorcreative1872]

Wish I could take credit

[@snooks5607]

your volume levels are all over the place. the video editing software it should show the signal levels, or at least have a normalization feature.

[@spectorcreative1872]

Yeah my early videos were not the best. I have thought about re-recording some of the earlier ones, but it will erased the views thus far. What do you think?

[@cruizerdave]

Didn’t you guys sculpt him so you could see the gory remains of his mouth under the jaw? He was outstanding n the original line, but even more so in Classics!

[@spectorcreative1872]

Yup. The 4HM sure did it that way!

[@cruizerdave]

Spector Creative Demented genius!

[@Cliffsrepaircorner]

Okay I know the video is old but here's a question for you what would happen if traptron needed braces?

[@spectorcreative1872]

Mo-Larr!

[@Cliffsrepaircorner]

@@spectorcreative1872 lol yeah but picture that I'm your head. That would be a funny one

[@Shockwave-robb]

Are not gonna talk about how he has blood in his mouth with the trap jaw head

[@spectorcreative1872]

No, no I"m not. ;-P

[@ryanlemay6296]

I am very much someone ho got two so I could have a seperate Kronis figure :)

[@spectorcreative1872]

And thanks for being a customer and supporting the line!

[@ryanlemay6296]

@@spectorcreative1872 Oh from day one! Thank you for always giving us such awesome figures and putting up with all the haters. A lot of us appreciated you!

[@MrMark-hm9lk]

I got my son the 200x trap jaw and tried the string thing and it broke the eyelet

[@spectorcreative1872]

Oh no! I'm actually not sure if the 200X version was meant for this. The original in the 80's and the Classics is.

[@larryzeffert1043]

I disagree. I love Trap-Jaw’s legs!

[@spectorcreative1872]

Me too. I never understood the issue.