Mattel’s Masters of the Universe Battle Ram action vehicle was designed for the good guys. The original Battle Ram was marketed in the early 1980s and was given immense powers. It has the distinction of being the first vehicle in the Masters Of The Universe ( MOTU ) lineup. It was equipped with more than just a battering ram, though. Many children of the day found this as their favorite MOTU toy. Collectors still look for it today.
The Mattel company gave the Battle Ram enough power to do miraculous things. This little blue machine could even take down huge mountains with its robust design. The design was similar to a small tank with the pointed front doing the hard work. A MOTU action figure could sit behind the ram and have at it. This was he man’s personal machine, which was a gift to him from “the goddess”, the guardian of Castle Grayskull. Like he man, this mobile battering ram can be transformed a bit. The front of the Battle Ram comes off and can be used as a “sky sled”. Mattel gave the Ram its own missile launcher, which fires red plastic missiles. These missiles have skeleton faces on them. In the Filmation series, both evil and good action heroes used Battering Rams. Evil characters used green rams for their efforts.
The size of the Battle Ram was around 11-1/2 inches long by 6-1/2 inches high. It came packaged with three missiles and user instructions. The package came with he man riding the machine and for some reason the color of the Battle Ram on the package is green. The Ram is actually blue.
This action vehicle had large black wheels for movement. They were more like rollers than wheels. The back of the toy was the place to load up a missile and a red lever under the missile was engaged to let the missile fly. The power of the spring that launched the missile was dismal. A missile would fly a little bit farther than the front of the Battle Ram after launch. A small blaster was included in the front of the nose of the Ram. It did not function, it was there for decoration. The decals consisted of machine parts, fake intakes and hawk decals. The back of the Battle Ram had a decal of a face that looked like a MOTU action figure. The front of the ram came off to become a “sky sled” where the heroes would stand and fly with the machine.
There were no different versions of the original MOTU Battle Ram action vehicles. There were later versions called “Battle Ram Chariots”, but they looked nothing like the originals. Skeletor had his Battle Ram, which some call a “demolition vehicle”. It had two plastic rams, shaped like the animals that roam the mountains, on the front.
The cards for the Mattel Battle Ram contained the regular artist’s design on the front with He Man riding the machine. On the back were the “heroic warriors” and the “evil warriors”. They were also done as an artist’s depiction. Battle Cat was there along with the Castle Grayskull play set and other vehicles used in the MOTU series. This could be called a “12 back” card since twelve humanoid action figures were present on the back of the card. Reader Heath has pointed out that there were “8 Back” versions of the box as well. Thanks Heath!
This was a very popular toy with the children and collectors would be wise to include at least one in their lot of MOTU figures. The rarity of these can make them go up to around $700 dollars for a MOC Battle Ram with an AFA rating of 80. Loose they are about $30 -$100.
As with my comment for the wind raider, the battle ram was released on an 8 back box as well (1981 version). Again, I can send photos of mine if it would be helpful. Please correct.
It’s weird that you say it had a weak spring. Mine could fire the missiles several feet. For Christmas ’82 or ’83, I got Grayskull, Battle Ram, and Man-at-Arms.
I recently (2020) bought an original, used Battle Ram. The seller thought the sky sled was glued in place, had only one missile, and couldn’t get the missile to lock.
Turns out, the sky sled was just difficult to remove initially, and the spring had become too sprung to allow the missile to lock. I pressed the missile in, gave it a few turns, and it locked into place. I pressed the lever, and the missile shot across the room. It still is working.