Issue #71 of ToyFare revealed many fascinating aspects about the reboot 2002 incarnation of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe in an article by Keith Allison. From Zodac’s skin color change to Skeletor’s belt design, Teela’s cobra armor, and more!
The page spread illustration is by Ed Benes with colors by Hi-Fi Color. Curiously the artist chose to illustrate Beast Man seemingly without his fur pelt and blue necklace. The creature that Beast Man rides also seems to be a new creature invented by Benes. Stratos exhibits some color choices making it appear as if he has red gloves and a back canister.
Mr. Benes would years later illustrate some covers for DC Comics on “Masters of the Universe” and “DC Universe VS Masters of the Universe” in 2013.
While the article was published in a July 2003 issue, it’s hard to determine when the artwork may have been commissioned. He-Man is sporting for example his signature templar cross on the armor, which was present in the early figure releases by Mattel in 2002 before they updated for the H-symbol (that fans dubbed at the time as the “asterisk” symbol). He-Man’s hair is also modeled after his 80s classic style.
One thing to note is that the figure marked as “Old He-Man” in the article looks to be the 2000 Commemorative version of He-Man (the face sculpt had a squished appearance). ToyFare would reuse the same photo, only mirror-flipped in issue number 134 too.
The article reveals that for the 2002 reboot, Mattel had plans at first to make Stratos black. But opted to change Zodac (now Zodak) instead. The Mattel concept art can be seen in this video “7 Things You Didn’t Know About Zodak”.
Fun fact: the blond boy in the flannel shirt is MC Bat Commander from the Aquabats! He is playing with a prototype Battle Ram (which would have been sculpted from wood) and a prototype Man-At-Arms.
The 1982 licensing kit was, to my understand put together prior to the release of the line in stores and first given out at New York Toy Fair on February 17, 1982. The kit includes artwork by Errol McCarthy, and product photographs featuring prototype toys in various stages of development. Its purpose was to serve as a guide to manufacturers of licensed MOTU-themed merchandise on the world of He-Man and on the correct use of Mattel’s trademarks. This document was scanned by Michael Jay, and a copy of Michael’s scan was sent over to me by Ben Massa (check out his fascinating Facebook page, Orko’s Keep) Thanks to both Michael and Ben for their willingness to share!
Front cover.I’ve always thought it was interesting that Skeletor is shown here with light purple skin, rather than blue skin. The inside cover features a collage of different MOTU prototypes, with child actors playing with them. The scene at the top left recreates a panel from the first minicomic, “He-Man and the Power Sword.” The Castle Grayskull is a very finely painted version that shows up in many commercials and catalogs. The vehicles are wooden prototypes, and the Teela prototype is an early unarticulated model that would see many revisions prior to release. This page emphasizes a few themes, like how He-Man toys were market tested and were very popular with boys. They mentioned the aggressive marketing campaign Mattel was going to use to promote the line, which included TV and comic book promotions. All of this is to say that MOTU was a valuable brand and that licensees should jump on board the He-Man train. The bulk of content in the licensing kit is there to provide reusable images and product names in the correct font that could go on licensed products and packaging, and to provide a very basic outline of the world of Eternia. The focus early on was very much on the idea that both halves of the Power Sword were needed to access Castle Grayskull, and that would form the basis for many early stories. Whoever gained access to Grayskull would be “King.” We get very basic, generic depictions of our main hero and villain on this page. There is no indication that He-Man has super-human strength. He’s really just a very strong man at this point.This is one of the more interesting pages of the kit for several reasons. Here we get a depiction of Stratos as evil, which is hinted at in the first minicomic. Zodac is portrayed as bounty hunter character, which is unique to this document. In actual media aimed at consumers, he is never called a bounty hunter. Teela is treated as a prize for either He-Man or Skeletor, a common cliche in older adventure tales. There actually was a 1982 coloring book with a plot based in exactly that idea. Mer-Man is called a battle-hardened warrior, but is not specified as good or evil, which is pretty common in some of the earlier Mattel material about him.Here we have Man-At-Arms and Beast Manpitted against each other as opposites and potentially rivals, which exactly fits how Mark Taylor has described the two characters in the past. This page emphasizes physical combat – the heroes and villains seem equally matched, and it’s anyone’s guess who will ultimately prevail. The emphasis of this line is not so much on telling explicit stories, but in setting up a world and characters that lend themselves to the child creating his or her own stories. This pages emphasizes the logo and brings in the full Battle Ram. The Wind Raider is the only 1982 product not illustrated in these pages. This page sets up guidelines for correct usage of Mattel’s trademarks and logos. Back page, of the licensing kit, which is a continuation of the scene on the front cover, with drama filling every inch of the page.
I do have scans of some of the later licensing kits and style guides, which I will post later. They aren’t as nice as this scan, so thanks again to Michael and Ben for sharing!
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At the most recent Power-Con I got the chance to check out the Formo Toys Legends of Dragonore table, and even watch the table with my son while the Formo crew were busy with their panel. I got to play with the wave 1.0 figures on the table and absolutely fell in love with them. Below you can find some images of some of the wave 1.5 and 2.0 prototype figures they had on display:
I picked up a Barbaro figure while I was there, and I thought I’d share some photos and a few thoughts. The figures are inspired by the 5.5″ Masters of the Universe line, but they maintain their own unique style. The packaging is familiar in shape but otherwise doesn’t borrow heavily from any vintage toyline. The front slightly recalls the Powers of Grayskull packaging that would have been used for He-Ro and Eldor in the vintage line, but the back is really its own thing, with a parchment and stone theme. Featured is an illustration of Barbaro, complete with a bio and cross sell photos of all of the figures in the first wave.
The figure comes with a few accessories – a removable horned crown, a battle axe, removable armor and the right arm of the Divine Armor. Each of the six figures in the first line has a piece of it – you can collect all six to complete the Divine Armor, which works as the McGuffin of the story. In MOTU parlance, the Divine Armor is like the two halves of the power sword.
In every Universe exists an ancient Secret Well. These Wells are portals between worlds and dimensions. Passageways used by heroes, monsters, and adventurers to explore new realms across the galaxies. Through Castle Dragonore™, the fearless Barbaro has left both his tribe and world to enter the Well, leading a group of Heroic Champions in a quest to retrieve the ancient Divine Armors of Power™ scattered across the dimensions. During their adventures, the Heroic Champions will encounter the dark magic apprentice Oskuro™ and his Evil Masters, who possess the power to transform the heroes into terrible monsters! Who will attain the Divine Armors of Power™ first?
Part of the fun of the line is that you can mix and match parts between figures. There are the usual five points of articulation on this figure, plus extra swivel joints at the boots and right gauntlet (the left one seems to be glued into place). The figure is also backwards compatible so you can mix in parts with the vintage Modulok or Multi-Bot figures, if you wish.
Barbaro with his portion of the Divine ArmorBarbaro with Modulok armComplete Divine Armor. Image via Formo Toys. Barbaro with my custom prototype-style Castle Grayskull
To me this feels like a lost MOTU figure that never was. It has a high amount of detail, like you would see in the old Tony Guerrero sculpts. In many ways I prefer this style to the MOTU Origins figures – I find I prefer the higher level of detail, and I don’t miss the extra articulation, personally. I find these to be quite charming and I look forward to collecting the series!
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Recently one of my connections on social media was asking if there was a resource of all of the vintage cardbacks collected somewhere. While most of them are scattered throughout my site, I thought it might be helpful to collect them in one place.
There are lots and lots of cardback variants, both by country and by release order. My objective isn’t to provide every single last variant (and I certainly do not have scans or photos of them all). My objective is to do all the US cardbacks, and any major variants. Major variants would include things like 8-back vs 12 back reissue versions of the earliest cardbacks, or any major updates to the artwork on the scene at the top or the illustrated instructions on the back of the card. I generally won’t provide variants based on different cross sell art featured on the cardback. For example, a 1983 He-Man 12-back would have different cross sell art compared to a 1984 He-Man 12-back. The character selection changed to reflect whatever was new for the year.
Let’s define cardbacks: for my purposes this won’t include the backs of boxes on large items like Castle Grayskull or Battle Ram. You can find those in my previous “Box Art From A-Z” series. This is the back of the individual figures on blister cards, for the most part. I’ll also include the cardbacks of smaller accessories like Jet Sled, since the back of the packaging was in a very similar format to the standard figures. I’ll also include the backs of the Modulok and Multi-Bot packages, for the same reason. I’m not including gift sets with the regular carded figures – I plan to do a separate article about those later.
I’ll sort the cardbacks in chronological release order to the best of my knowledge. Please note, however, that some figures, like He-Man and Skeletor, were released at the same time. From 1986 to 1987, many figures featured artwork on the front of their cards, so I’ll include shots of the front as well.
Photos and scans in this article come from: He-Man.org
1988 only had two carded figures, released in Europe only (the giants were released in boxes rather than on cards). However, I will include the card art for the “lost wave” of figures that had been planned for 1988, but were not released.
Laser Power He-Man was released on a deluxe-style card, and features artwork on the front and back. I don’t have confirmation on who the artists were, unfortunately. The only cross sell artwork on the back is for Laser-Light Skeletor.
Laser-Light Skeletor was released on a deluxe-style card, and features artwork on the front and back. The artwork on front appears to be by Bruce Timm, however I don’t know who did the scene on the back. The only cross sell artwork on the back is for Laser Power He-Man..
Laser-Light Skeletor artwork from the front of the card (by Bruce Timm). Like the cross sell artwork, this features a havoc staff that is close to the original 1982 design, minus the ball end and the disks near the top. Image source: Jukka Issakainen (scanned and cleaned up)
You can see in all of these unreleased 1988 line figures, all of the figures are kitbashed from existing pieces. Strobo is a mix of parts from Sy-Klone and Zodac, with an added cape. Strobo is the only figure in this “lost wave” to appear in vintage media, in a comic in the fall 1988 issue of Masters of the Universe Magazine.
You can see in all of these unreleased 1988 line figures, all of the figures are kitbashed from existing pieces. Snake Trooper is a mix of parts from Horde Trooper, Rattlor, Blast Attak and King Hiss.
You can see in all of these unreleased 1988 line figures, all of the figures are kitbashed from existing pieces. Terroar is a mix of parts from Whiplash, Rattlor, Mosquitor and Trap Jaw. Note that the figure’s name is a modern creation. It’s unknown what his original name would have been.
You can see in all of these unreleased 1988 line figures, all of the figures are kitbashed from existing pieces. Plasmar is a mix of parts from Fisto, He-Ro, Sssqueeze, Rio Blast and Grizzlor, with an added cape. Note that the figure’s name is a modern creation. It’s unknown what his original name would have been.
You can see in all of these unreleased 1988 line figures, all of the figures are kitbashed from existing pieces. Plasmar is a mix of parts from Clawful, He-Man/Skeletor, Sssqueeze, and King Hiss, with an added Scare Glow cape. Note that the figure’s name is a modern creation. It’s unknown what his original name would have been.
You can see in all of these unreleased 1988 line figures, all of the figures are kitbashed from existing pieces. Slamurai is a white-colored repaint of Ninjor, the Storm Shadow to Ninjor’s Snake Eyes, so to speak. Note that the figure’s name is a modern creation. It’s unknown what his original name would have been.
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