Heroic Vehicles

Wind Raider: Assault Lander (1982)

The Wind Raider, released with the initial wave of MOTU figures in 1982, was a perplexing vehicle. It looked a lot like a boat that had been given short wings. It even had an anchor, which my friends and I used as a rescue line (but which was intended, according to Rudy Obrero, as a kind of “hook and destroy” weapon). Indeed, it was originally designed to double as a watercraft, but it was never portrayed that way in any published media, so as kids we had to come up with our own theories about why it seemed to have a nautical theme.

Design & Development

Back in the day, my first MOTU vehicle was the Battle Ram. I was aware of the Wind Raider because I had seen it for sale at the local toy store, and it was featured in the cross sell art on the back of my Battle Ram box:

The cross sell art, interestingly, is based on one of the prototype Wind Raiders. The prototype, designed by the great Ted Mayer (who also designed the Battle Ram, Attak Trak, Eternia, Slime Pit, Talon Fighter, and others), had smaller engines and steep, sloped structures leading up to the area where the wings connected to the body. But the dragon face figurehead (used as a crank to reel in the anchor) was actually quite different in the earliest known prototype. It resembles a miniature viking ship:

Source: Ted Mayer

A closer to complete prototype (sculpted by Jim Openshaw, labels by Rebecca Salari Taylor) looks identical to the cross sell art:

Image source: Grayskull Museum
Artwork from the Castle Grayskull instruction booklet, featuring a tracing of the prototype Wind Raider and Mer-Man

And finally, here is the tooling pattern, which looks exactly like the final toy, at least in shape:

Source: Ted Mayer
Source: He-Man.org/Ted Mayer

And the final prototype, with its slightly modified wings, large engines, and sleek profile figurehead:

Source: ted-mayer.com

There is also this early concept drawing, which comes via the Grayskull Museum website. It lacks any hood decoration, and looks quite sleek. I wouldn’t be surprised if the concept was inspired by the Lockheed P-38 Lightning:

Image source: Grayskull Museum

As I mentioned earlier, the Wind Raider was actually intended to work as both a boat and an aircraft. Although the final vehicle design is by Ted Mayer, Mark Taylor did some initial work on the design and created drawings that described some of the vehicle’s features. For instance, when on the water, the wings would rotate up and act as “photo sails”. The anchor is described as a “power ram/grapnel.” The dragon design bears strong resemblance to a Viking ship’s figurehead.

Image courtesy of Ted Mayer. Artwork by Mark Taylor.
Wings as “photo sails” in ship mode
Grapnel action feature
Flight mode
Colorized version. I chose colors for He-Man based on one of the early Mark Taylor B-sheet designs.

Packaging Art

I remember seeing the Wind Raider for sale at the local toy store (The White Elephant in Spokane Valley) shortly after I got my Battle Ram. I distinctly remember it in two different flavors – in an individual package, and as a gift set with a He-Man action figure. Neither set showed the actual Wind Raider, but rather some artwork by the amazing Rudy Obrero. His art always seemed to eclipse the actual product being sold, which meant of course that it was doing its job:

Original Wind Raider artwork by Rudy Obrero. He-Man is attacking Castle Grayskull because the artist assumed it was an evil fortress. Image source: Grayskull Museum
He-Man and Wind Raider giftset artwork

The Wind Raider giftset illustration was patterned more or less after Mark Taylor’s packaging layout. It was Mark Taylor who hired Rudy Obrero to do the final artwork:

Mark Taylor’s layout for the Wind Raider packaging design, courtesy of Ted Mayer

As was the case with the Battle Cat box art, the color for the Wind Raider gift set art appears to have been shifted and brightened on the mass-produced box. Either that, or the original oil paintings have become darker with age.

Interestingly, the first release of the He-Man/Wind Raider gift set described He-Man as the “strongest man in the universe“. The reissue called him the “most powerful man in the universe” (hat tip: Tokyonever, curator at the Grayskull Museum website).

Incidentally, if you want that original gift set now, you’re going to have to either hock your wedding ring or sell a kidney. Personally I’ve been wanting to collect all of the Rudy Obrero boxes, and thankfully Tokyonever has contracted with a manufacturer and created replicas of the Wind Raider gift set box at a price that won’t result in medical problems down the road.  Don’t get any ideas about selling it as a vintage piece for a massive profit though. Tokyonever used the darker colors of the original oil painting, so there is no confusing the vintage item with the reproduction.

Here are some photos of my vintage Wind Raider box and my reproduction He-Man and Wind Raider box:

Now, if you look closely at the upward facing section of the gift set box, you’ll see three warriors:

Warrior in red

Image source: Tokyonever

The warrior in the middle is often referred to as “The Warrior in Red” among fans and he’s considered something of a mystery. Personally, I think it’s just Zodac, slightly off model. Sure, he’s got red boots instead of gray (notice Beast Man also has red boots), and he’s showing a bit too much belly, but I really think that’s Zodac. Although originally conceived by designer Mark Taylor as a heroic warrior, Zodac was marketed as an evil warrior. So it makes sense that he would be portrayed here among the bad guys. It looks like he got beaned by that anchor, too. Ouch.

Update: apparently I was totally wrong! Tokyonever recently got in contact with Rudy Obrero, who had this to say:

“That guy is just made up to fill the crowd. I only had He-Man, Skeletor, Man-At-Arms, Teela and Beast Man to work with at the time. Hope this helps. Rudy”

Finished Toy

After having seen the sleeker version on the box art, the first time I saw the toy in person, I was just a little disappointed. I actually quite like it today, but as a kid I thought the wings were too stubby. I think had the intent of the design (a hybrid water/aircraft) been explained to me, the size of the wings wouldn’t have bothered me. The overall vehicle was still very striking, though, and the anchor feature was a lot of fun. It was intended to be sold at a lower price point than the Battle Ram, and so was about 25% smaller in size.

Even back then, the wings were fragile and would break off unless you were a very careful, conscientious child. I did not have my own Wind Raider, but a friend who did broke his within the first few weeks.

A safer option might have been the inflatable version. The wings would definitely not have snapped off, although I suppose there is the danger of it popping:

Wind Raider in Action

Øyvind Meisfjord has shared the following photos and video of the Wind Raider in action:

Miscellaneous Artwork

Artist Errol McCarthy produced some artwork depicting He-Man flying a slightly undersized Wind Raider. To my knowledge this artwork was never put to use:

Image source: He-Man.org

The Wind Raider also frequently appeared in Golden Books, DC Comics and coloring books:

Animation

In the Filmation He-Man series, Wind Raider was almost ubiquitous. The animators enlarged it so it could fit multiple characters, and it was a handy way to transport the protagonists to whatever disturbance they were investigating:

It was also great if you needed to push the moon out of the way:

Minicomics

One of my favorite depictions of the Wind Raider is in the Alcala-drawn mini comic, Battle in the Clouds. The Wind Raider seems to belong to Man-At-Arms and the Battle Ram seems to belong to He-Man. When the Battle Ram is stolen by Mer-Man, Man-at-Arms takes He-Man for a ride up a mountain, and makes a point to show off the Wind Raider’s superior thrust capabilities. Even on post-apocalyptic Eternia, masculinity has everything to do with the amount of horsepower in your ride.

15 thoughts on “Wind Raider: Assault Lander (1982)

      1. Hi! You said that “He-Man is attacking Castle Grayskull because the artist assumed it was an evil fortress”. But is He man really attacking Castle Grayskull? I see how someone in the background shoots the castle with fireballs. Sorry if i wrong or if I misunderstood you)

        1. Hi Alexander, according to the artist, yes, he’s attacking Grayskull. I’m basing some of this information from an interview with Rudy Obrero on the Roast Gooble Dinner podcast. However, also keep in mind that Grayskull was originally supposed to be up for grabs to whoever could capture it, so it could belong to either He-Man or Skeletor, depending.

    1. Great resource here!

      I was watching an old Christmas horror short film called Visions of Sugar-Plums last night at the Alamo Drafthouse and a kid was playing with a red Wind Raider. I’m not an expert on vintage variants but I couldn’t find anything online about it, so I thought I’d post and ask if you know what this is. You can find the video on YouTube, timestamp 4:36-4:52.

      1. Wow, great eye! I’m not aware that Mattel ever put out a red Wind Raider. I’m wondering if they (the filmmakers) recolored it to disguise its origins? Sometimes companies object if you use their brand in a movie without consulting them, or the studio objects to using them without getting paid by the manufacturer.

        1. I had that thought too. And it was a really objectionable short film. And the boy had He-Man killing Barbie – I’m sure Mattel would object to that too. I posted on He-man.org too because I’m just really curious. Maybe someone will know something. Thanks for the reply.

          I was excited when I saw it on the big screen last night. It’s not everyday you see vintage He-Man toys in a movie.

  1. Yeah, the wings were fragile indeed and I can’t figure how they overlooked a structural weakness like that: they should have called it the Wingless Raider XD

    However It is still a great vehicle and now that I know about the “boat mode” is even greater and explain the “anchor”. So the skull is a dragon… I always believed that it was an horse πŸ˜€ πŸ˜€ πŸ˜€

  2. I never had the Wind Raider in my childhood collection (in fact, I had very few vehicles/creatures looking back), but the actual toy actually seems a bit flimsy to me, and when I did get one years later, the wings to me too looked too short and puny – they should have been far bigger to make it look more impressive. And the design of then simply cried “hey child, come and snap me off!”.
    But the Wind Raider in terms of a vehicle and a concept I did like in the various MOTU literature.

    It’s boat-like look (I thought I was the only one who noticed this as a child) is indeed intriguing. However I also felt that it had the appearance of what could be a vehicle that could be ‘sailed’ across the land, powered by the wind. The pivotal tail fin and wings lead some credence to this notion. So say, if the pilot was stuck out in the middle of nowhere and they were low on fuel, they could ‘sail it’ home across the land. The wheels on the bottom allow this to be acted out play-wise, too.

    The colour scheme is good and I always felt that, even though it had various other pilots, it was Man-At-Arms’ vehicle by default, emphasised by their matching green-and-orange colour schemes. I always felt that Man-At-Arms had even constructed the Wind Raider himself (feasible, considering the things he was shown to have invented in the Filmation series, including the Road Ripper); and the UK Ladybird book ‘A Trap for He-Man’ also might vaguely suggest this, with some help from his little goblin engineers unique to the Ladybird books.
    It’s interesting to see just how much in illustrative and merchandise shots, Mer Man is shown to be the pilot, long after it had generally been established as a Heroic vehicle. (Although, as we know, the whole ‘Heroic/Evil’ designations was often very blurry, until the third wave).

    1. I also think it makes sense as Man-At-Arms’ vehicle, given the color scheme and also the story from Battle In the Clouds. In actuality though I usually have MAA driving the Battle Ram, because his colors are a nice contrast to the slate blue. Mark Taylor once said that he thought of the Wind Raider as belonging to Stratos.

  3. Not sure if this forum is still active but I have two complete windraider vehicles that have both slightly different anchors. Can anyone tell me if there’s was two styles sold back in the 80s
    Many thanks

    1. I wasn’t aware there were different versions, other than slightly different colors depending on country of origin. Do you happen to have a picture to illustrate the difference?

  4. Amazing site..i collect Masters from a Life and i Hope to find for my collection a perfect new of case Wind Raider a day ..

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