1985 Masters of the Universe Bashasaurus Toy Commercial

According to Roger Sweet’s book, Mastering the Universe*, the classic Bashasaurus toy was nothing but a series of headaches that resulted in — as he calls it — “a disaster.” Sweet devotes half a dozen paragraphs to the toy, but a few choice quotes include:

“The concept was well received when I presented it in product conference, under the somewhat suggestive name “Ball Buster.” I loved it!”

and

“The original model had a pivoting arm attached to the front and center of the vehicle. At the back end of the arm was a large wrecking ball. Someone in Engineering saw a potential for small fingers to get pinched, so the ball was moved to one side. At the same time, the ball arm ended up being way too short to be effective. Worse yet, the final styling was ugly and club-like.”

Sweet discusses more on how his concept was changed as different departments — he singles out Engineering and Visual design, as well as Marketing — as the sources of the troubles. But regardless of whether or not the toy was a “disaster,” this commercial is pure eighties fun as Optimus Prime once again lends his voice to selling us Masters of the Universe toys.

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