Novel mononuclear oxovanadium(IV) and manganese(III) complexes [VO(L 1 ) 2 ·H 2 O] (1); [VO(L 2 ) 2 ·H 2 O] (2); [VO(L 3 ) 2 ·H 2 O] (3); [Mn(L 1 ) 2 ]ClO 4 ·H 2 O (4); [Mn(L 2 ) 2 ] ClO 4 ·H 2 O (5); [Mn(L 3 ) 2 ]ClO 4 ·H 2 O (6) were prepared by condensation of 1 mol of VOSO 4 ·5H 2 O or Mn(OAc) 3 · 2H 2 O with 2 mol of ligand HL 1 , HL 2 or HL 3 (where HL 1-5-methyl-2-p-tolyl-2,4-dihydro-pyrazol-3-one; HL 3 = 4-{4-[(2-hydroxy-ethyl-amino)-methyl]-3-methyl-5-oxo-4,5-dihydropyrazol-1-yl} benzene sulfonic acid). The resulting complexes were characterized by elemental analyses, molar conductance, magnetic and decomposition temperature measurements, electron spin resonance, FAB mass, IR and electronic spectral studies. From TGA, DTA and DSC, the thermal behaviour and degradation kinetic were studied. Electronic spectra and magnetic susceptibility measurements indicate distorted octahedral stereochemistry of oxovanadium(IV) complexes and regular octahedral stereochemistry of manganese(III) complexes. Hamiltonian and bonding parameters found from ESR spectra indicate the metal ligand bonding is partial covalent. The X-ray single