The crowdfunding campaign for “the most absurdly large Masters of the Universe play set ever made” is at the halfway mark, and now Super7 is calling in the power of retro marketing to bring it on home. The massive Masters of the Universe Snake Mountain Playset now has an appropriately ’80s-style infomercial, showcasing the many features of Skeletor’s Eternian lair. Fans have until May 31 to preorder the set, at which time Super7 will determine whether or not the interest justifies production of the set, which stands 36-inches tall with a span of 48-inches wide.
The hefty $600 price tag (plus $150 flat U.S. shipping) has raised a few eyebrows in the collecting community, but the true size of the play set may not be clear until its seen side-by-side with the companion piece — He-Man’s Castle Grayskull, released by Mattel under the Matty Collector line in 2013 with a $300 price tag. Super7’s Snake Mountain is nearly double that size.
Since it was initially announced, select retail partners, including Entertainment Earth, have also begun offering the set. Should production not move forward, orders will be cancelled and refunded.
From an industry standpoint, the crowdfunding needed to get Snake Mountain into production is similar to what Hasbro faced with its HasLab initiative last year. 5,000 orders were needed at $500 each to send Jabba’s Sail Barge — the largest Star Wars vehicle ever created — into production. The campaign hit a lull mid-month, but gained steam in its final days, blowing past the minimum order quantity needed.
