Have you ever looked at something while you were thinking: “Damn…this has to be one of the most beautiful things in the world!”?

This is the feeling I experience every time I take a look at the Eternia™ playset. It is without doubt the best playset known to man. This colossal piece was produced by Mattel,Inc. in 1985. The set simply had it all! It was equipped with dozens of weapons, elevators, grappling hooks, a laser cannon and even a friggin’ monorail system which enabled your MOTU figures to transport themselves directly to the stronghold of their opponents! Forget about the old Filmation cartoon where Skeletor® kept attempting to find a way to enter the Castle Grayskull™! All he and his henchmen had to do was step inside one of the three different vehicles that could be attached to the monorail system.  Grayskull™ ahoy!

In the popular eighties cartoon Eternia™ was portrayed as a royal palace. The actual playset was anything but. The central tower consisted of three different levels. The main entrance was a Lion’s head. Using its jaws & paws the lion was able to devour action figures  (the children were able to make the paws move with the help of a small lever).

This set was (as opposed to the other items from the He-Man®/MOTU series) produced in smaller quantities. The original retail price (in Western Europe) varied somewhere between 150 – 225 EUR.

Eternia™ (Front)

Eternia™ (Back)

Eternia™ (MIB) contents

The sets that were destined to be sold on the European market were produced in Italy. The European edition differs slightly from the American edition. The big cannon/laser blaster that was released with the US editions for example was molded out of red plastic while the European edition came with a grey cannon. For some reason the Italian factory produced a number of playsets with one very remarkable difference namely the eyes of the lion’s head. A very limited amount of sets were released where the lion had blue, human-like eyes instead of the more common orange- coloured cat-like eyes. It is rumoured that the Italian factory didn’t have enough cat-like eyes in stock. The factory employees therefore used several sets of eyes that were destined to be used for the production of a series of dolls (hence the human-like characteristics of the eyes).  However, this does not mean that every European edition was released with blue eyes (the MIB set from my personal collection for example has the head with the cat-like eyes). The “blue eyed” variant is the most popular amongst European collectors which leads to the fact that they are often willing to pay an even higher price for such a specimen.

Eternia™ (Production info)

Eternia ™close-up (Blue-Eyes)

Locating a mint/complete and 100% authentic Eternia™ playset today can be considered as a quest on its own. The extremely fragile parts of the monorail system are known to break during the assembly.

The chains of the snake tower, the stickers from the central tower, the “Ultimate Battleground™” comic (that was released exclusively with the Eternia™ playset and with a limited amount of Mosquitor™ action figures) and the tracks from the monorail system are often replaced by cheap reproductions. And let’s not forget the ultra rare plastic windshield that needs to be attached to the cannon/blaster. This particular item seems to be missing nearly every time an Eternia™ shows up for sale/trade. When a complete set does show up for sale it usually sells for an extremely high amount of money.

Most collectors start by buying an incomplete Eternia™ which they complete by buying the extra pieces they need online (this may take up some time and it WILL be expensive nonetheless). This method, however, is quite risky since it is very hard to verify whether all the parts are original or not.

The only way to make sure your Eternia™ is 100% authentic is by buying a MISB specimen. It will set you back quite some $ but I’m quite sure you won’t regret it.

Eternia™ playset (Blue Eyes)