Strobo (1988 – Unreleased)

Posted on April 28, 2024 by Adam

Article by Jukka Issakainen and Adam McCombs

Although never advertised in catalogs, in the late 1980s Mattel had plans to release a wave of figures that would feature 100% reused tooling, the vein of previous characters like Stinkor, Moss Man and Faker. Presumably these figures would have been released in 1988 along with Laser-Light Skeletor and Laser Power He-Man. Six figures made it far enough in the design process for Mattel to commission packaging artwork for them, although of the six, only Strobo had an appearance in vintage media.

Cardback illustration

Strobo appears in two separate pieces of cardback artwork by Errol McCarthy. One was created for Strobo’s packaging, and the other for a Snake Trooper army builder character.

*Snake Trooper card art. Image via He-Man.org*

The illustration below shows which parts Strobo would have been built from:

Interestingly, Strobo’s arms look like Sy-Klone’s arms except for the fins on the outer arms. It’s not clear if this figure would have omitted those fins as depicted in the artwork, or if Errol was displaying a bit of creative license in his illustration.

US Magazine – Masters of the Universe

Strobo appeared in the Fall 1988 issue of Masters of the Universe Magazine, in a story called The Dark Power of Skeletor. The story is really the continuation of a story arc that started with the Spring 1988 issue story, To Save a World. In that comic, a rogue dark star comes close to Eternia in a rare event. Skeletor tries to harness its power, but in the process almost destroys all of Eternia. Only by He-Man and Skeletor working together is Eternia saved from utter destruction.

*From To Save a World. Image source: He-Man.org*

In The Dark Power of Skeletor, we learn that a meteor from the dark star had landed on Eternia, and Skeletor used its power to cast a shadow over the land. Anything in the shadow, including Castle Grayskull, was under Skeletor’s control. We find him and his evil warriors occupying the throne room of Castle Grayskull, which is illustrated in the Filmation style. Sorceress in her Zoar form is locked in a bird cage. In order to break the shadow magic, He-Man shines light from his sword onto Strobo’s chest. Strobo spins, bathing the room in light and causing the piece of the dark star to explode into dust.

*Image scan by he-man.org member RED. Cleaned by Jukka Issakainen.*

*Image scan by he-man.org member RED. Cleaned by Jukka Issakainen.* *Strobo demonstrating his spinning action feature, which he was to share with Sy-Klone.*

Full story below:

Note that despite Strobo’s Zodac helmet, there is no mention of his being a Cosmic Enforcer or there having been any connection between himself and Zodac.

So if Strobo was not originally intended to be a Cosmic Enforcer, what lead him to that road?

In the original Filmation He-Man and the Masters of the Universe show, Zodac appears three times. He is portrayed as the Cosmic Enforcer that watches over the Universe. He is not good or evil in the cartoon; we seen an example of that when he gives Skeletor the knowledge of how to obtain the Starseed (“The Search”) which serves as a test for He-Man. But his presence is requested at times when the balance is tipped (“The Quest for He-man”) so fans see him help out the good guys. In the episode “The Golden Disks of Knowledge,” it is revealed that Zodac is the last member of the Council of Wise.

[High-Definition Filmation screencaptures by Jukka Issakainen]

Zodac was also part of the group decision, that sent Zanthor into the Phantom Dimension as punishment for his crimes. Zanthor in his greed had given the Golden Discs to Skeletor. Having had a change of heart, Zanthor wants to atone for his crimes, so he pleads to help retrieve them back as penance. Zodac is called for this occasion and he decides to set Zanthor free from the Phantom Dimension, but only as a ghostly figure. With help from He-Man, they manage to get the Discs back from Snake Mountain.

After they have retrieved the Golden Disks of Knowledge, Zodac says that he will need some help, and turns Zanthor from his ghostly form into a Cosmic Enforcer.

We now see Zanthor sporting the same red armor, dark gray boots, white gloves and red helmet that Zodac wears. From this episode the precedence is set that if you join the Cosmic Enforcers, that armor and red helmet are part of the uniform. They embark on their journey together, each turning into a white ball of energy as they bid farewell to He-Man and the other heroes.

It doesn’t seem that Mattel made the connection with Zodac’s helmet and the Cosmic Enforcers when they were creating Strobo. Indeed, Strobo seems to have more in common with Sy-Klone than Zodac. The canon of Masters of the Universe was never tightly controlled, and it was rebooted several times, even in the 1980s. The people who developed Strobo may not have even known about “The Golden Discs of Knowledge.” And of course in some 80s media Zodac had been retconned as an Evil Warrior. Strobo’s name and main gimmick with a reflecting light in the magazine story demonstrates that the approach was more leaning to the Sy-Klone direction, and not as a member of the Cosmic Enforcers.

Masters of the Universe Classics toyline

Strobo was released in the Masters of the Universe Classics Toyline as a traveling convention figure, periodically made available online and at conventions throughout 2013. Because the source material at the time was only the MOTU Magazine story and not the Errol McCarthy art (which hadn’t been revealed yet), Strobo was not released with a repainted Sy-Klone shield. Instead he came with a piece of the dark star, complete with stand, and an extra unhelmeted head intended for Zodak, the 200x Cosmic Enforcer. He was supposed to come with a Four Horsemen-created strobelight gun as well, but it was cut for cost. Later it would be released in a weapons pack.

*MOTU Classics Strobo* *prototype with planned accessories. Note that the middle line down his helmet is painted silver, not red.*

In the bio that came with Strobo, he was re-written as the Cosmic Enforcer who replaced Zodac after his death (there were a lot of deaths in the MOTU Classics bios). The bio says he was “forcefully maintaining neutrality in He-Man’s absence” which sounds like a contradiction in terms. Bits and pieces of the bios have been used in more recent story canons, and the aspect of Strobo being a Cosmic Enforcer is one element that carried forward. The “real name” was invented for the Classics line, and has not been used in any media after it.

*Strobo carback and bio. Image via eBay*

Since Strobo was a Traveling Convention Exclusive figure by Mattel, German fans found a cool way to advertise him on the back cover to the Grayskull Convention 2013 exclusive minicomic “Under Grayskull’s Flag” (art by Daniele “Danbrenus” Spezzani).

Classics Mini-Comics

Below is the original pencil layout page spread for MOTU Classics mini-comic issue #8 by Axel Giménez, where Strobo is included close to King He-Man and Orko in the battle scene.

Final artwork altered and omitted some characters. Artwork by Jordi Tarragona and color by Carrie Strachan.

The coloring on Strobo’s helmet appears to be based on the Classics prototype version, where the middle line across the helmet is not colored red.

DC Comics

A brief appearance for Strobo occurs in the He-Man and the Masters of the Multiverse comic mini-series from DC Comics issue #3. This is the first time that after the Classics toyline associated Strobo as part of the Cosmic Enforcers, that it is acknowledged in another media outside of it. Art by Dan Fraga & color by Matt Yackey.

As the Anti-Eternia He-Man is on his quest, he is stopped at the Interrealm by Zodac, Zanthor, Strobo, Apokrifa, Zodak and the Mighty Spector. Though in the next page it appears that Anti-Eternia He-Man prevailed against the Cosmic Enforcers of the Multiverse and continues on his rampage.

Masters of the Universe Revolution

In the Netflix animated series Masters of the Universe Revolution, we catch a glimpse of Zodac speaking to Evil-Lyn in episode 05. And next to Zodac (on his right side) is Zanthor and on the other side is Strobo. Neither Zanthor nor Strobo have any dialogue in this ending teaser.

In a close up shot of Strobo, it appears that his right hand is not wearing the red glove. But that might just be a small coloring error.

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Customs, Evil Warriors

Barbarossa Laser-Light Skeletor Kit

Posted on April 22, 2024April 24, 2024 by Adam

More than a year ago I purchased the Barbarossa Custom Creations Laser-Light Skeletor Kit. Life got in the way and I didn’t actually start working on it until a few months back. Now that I’ve finished it, I thought I’d post my thoughts.

First thing’s first, Toy Polloi has created a fantastic step-by-step video detailing how to paint, glue and wire this figure together. I found his video invaluable for each step of the process:

Barbarossa has made some tweaks to the kit since I purchased mine, changing the leg joints to the rubber band type and making the staff two-piece. Still, the basic principles haven’t really changed. Here is my set all laid out. Following the advice of Toy Polloi, I also bought a button cell battery holder to make life easier, which I think is included in the current kit. Your kit will probably have some mold “flash” that will need to be trimmed with an exacto knife.

The first step is to get it painted up, starting with painting the trunks black. The belt is left unpainted. I use the inexpensive acrylic paints found at craft and hobby stores, which seem to work just fine. In this case, because the black paint I used was flat, I went over it with a glossy acrylic clear coat later to simulate black molded plastic. Note: avoid enamel paints, they tend to be tacky and don’t dry well.

Next up I worked on the metallic costume parts integrated into the character’s flesh. I found that starting with a flat black base coat on these elements made life easier. Not only did it help metallic copper acrylic paint adhere better to the figure, it also made it look nicer. This requires time and patience – the lines are fairly delicate here, and you want to try to be precise. It required many passes to get it all filled out nicely, with time in between each coat for drying.

For the face, I started with a greenish base, then added yellow elements, and finally black for the eye sockets, nose, mouth and teeth. I also added a glossy clear coat over top after everything was dry. If you like you can also paint the inside of the head pieces, which will prevent light from the LED from glowing through the otherwise unpainted plastic. I didn’t do that on mine, but it’s an option.

The first section to glue together is the crotch piece and legs. It’s fairly simple – the legs go into the back of the crotch piece (the “butt”), and then the front piece is glued in place to keep everything together. I used Gorilla super glue for this task. The head can also be glued together at this time. Be sure to include the transparent red “eyes” piece, which will transmit the light from the LED out to the eye sockets. The last thing that can be glued before wiring the light feature is the the left hand to the left arm. You may need to file/trim the flat edges of the left arm pieces to ensure a nice even fit before gluing. Ensure even coverage for a strong connection.

Before any more gluing, you will need to first wire up the light-up feature. I recommend following the Toy Polloi video, but I’ll note that you’ll need a soldering iron, some solder, and some small craft wire cutters at minimum. I’ve done soldering before, but if you haven’t, you might practice adhering two pieces of scrap wire together with solder until you feel confident. Based on Toy Polloi’s video, I put together the following wiring diagram:

*Red lines = positive wire. Blue lines = ground wir*e.

After wiring it up, I did a quick test to make sure everything was lighting up correctly:

My particular kit had some fairly long wire. Initially, I had left the wire too long, and it couldn’t be crammed in to the body. I had to go back and unsolder some of the wires running to the switch and battery holder, clip them shorter, and resolder them. You’ll want to protect bare soldered ends with heat shrink tubing or electrical tape to keep the circuit from shorting out.

Once the wiring is in good shape, it’s time to assemble the figure. The two halves of the chest come together like a clamshell, as do the two halves of the right arm. You have to make sure that the pelvis, right arm and head are in place before gluing together. The left arm can be put on after everything is set and dried. Again I recommend following Toi Polloi’s video closely. If you do what he does, you’ll probably get it right! The black battery pack is really just there to hold the switch in this version of the figure, and it fits into the back with no gluing necessary (and you’ll need to be able to take it out from time to time to change batteries). The button cell battery holder will end up in the figure’s belly, sitting there loosely.

Here it is, assembled, without cape:

Here it is with a cape I made using Toy Polloi’s cape pattern, and the light-up feature activated:

And here it is in the dark! The lights are very red in person, but they look almost white on video for some reason.

I hope you enjoyed this brief look at the Barbarossa Custom Creations Laser-Light Skeletor kit. It does require some time and patience to assemble, but it’s also the most economical way to get yourself a very nice looking Laser-Light Skeletor repro!

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Heroic Vehicles

Laser Bolt: Heroic Road Rocket (1986)

Posted on April 9, 2024April 18, 2024 by Adam

Laser Bolt is one the the smaller, less expensive vehicles released in the Masters of the Universe line, similar to Road Ripper. Stylistically it has more in common with the 1985 and earlier waves of toys, with its traditional Masters creature face design and rugged-looking body and wheels, in the vehicle style established early on by Ted Mayer and Ed Watts.

Design & Development

Laser Bolt as a concept was invented by Roger Sweet. The patent document explains its basic features – it’s essentially a three-wheeled vehicle with the front wheel on a strut that can pivot so that the vehicle can be operated either upright or low to the ground. The front face piece also pivots so it can face forward regardless of the attitude of the vehicle. The vehicle was spring-loaded, allowing it to pop into the upright position.

The visual design for the vehicle comes from Ed Watts. In the images below from the Power and the Honor Foundation Catalog, we can see that the early working name for Laser Bolt was actually “Dart.” The concept looks quite close to the final figure design, although of course it lacks the face design on the front. Watts illustrated the vehicle in both horizontal and vertical modes.

In terms of timeline for the development and release of Laser Bolt, here are the dates that I’ve been able to document:

07/13/1984: Dart (Laser Bolt) concept, by Ed Watts
05/30/1985: Laser Bolt first use in commerce
06/14/1985: Laser Bolt trademarked
09/13/1985: Laser Bolt patent filed
11/25/1985: Laser Bolt copyright registered
01/11/1986: First Laser Bolt Newspaper ad

The final design of the vehicle is represented in its cross sell artwork:

Toy & Packaging

The packaging artwork for Laser Bolt was done by William George, and features his usual indelible style, including one of his little creatures that he so-often inserted into his artwork:

The back of the packaging explained how the vehicle’s action figure worked:

*Upright is called “battle position” while horizontal mode is called “chase position.”*

The toy itself was primarily red, with a yellow front strut. It featured four user-applied decals (the eye decals were installed at the factory) and two removable guns (images via eBay):

Comic Appearances

Laser Bolt appears briefly in The Terror Claws Strike, and is shown in both “chase” and “battle” positions. It’s based on the original Ed Watts concept, as you can see by its lack of face on the front wedge-shaped section:

*Image: Dark Horse Minicomic Collection*

Laser Bolt appears in the UK Comics magazine, in The Eyes of the Serpent (Issue 30), where it is driven by Rio Blast:

It appears in an ad for the Masters of the Universe Club in the following issue as well:

Laser Bolt appears in issue 2 of the Star Comics series story, Falling Stars:

It also appears in the German Ehapa Verlag series, in issue 1, released in 1987:

Update: Laser Bolt also appears briefly in the newspaper comic strip story, The Day of the Comet. Thanks to Dušan Mitrović for the tip.

*Image source: Darkhorse MOTU Newspaper Comic Strips collection*

Animation

Laser Bolt makes a brief appearance near the beginning of the Filmation He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special. Despite the fact that Laser Bolt is supposed to be a land vehicle, He-Man flies it up to intercept the evil warriors in the Collector:

Art Appearances

Laser Bolt makes two appearances in the Spring 1986 issue of MOTU Magazine, in an introductory page, and in a poster by the great Earl Norem (magazine images courtesy of Ben Massa/Orko’s Keep):

The original version of Norem’s artwork appeared in a auction at Heritage Auctions:

Laser Bolt also appears within William George’s Eternia poster, driven by Roboto:

Errol McCarthy illustrated the vehicle as well, and it appears in both a T-shirt design as well in Mattel’s Style Guide (images via He-Man.org):

Here is the text description from the Style Guide:

Name: Laser Bolt
Group Affiliation: Heroic Warriors
Role: Heroic road rocket.
Power: Speed cycle takes on Evil Warriors in two positions: It rides low to the ground for racing, and springs up into defensive battle position. Mounted laser guns blast barriers out of the way.
Year of Toy Intro: 1986

Other Advertising

Laser Bolt appears in Mattel’s 1986 dealer catalog:

The earliest newspaper ad I found for it is in The Post Star on Saturday, January 11, 1986:

Here it is in the Mattel France 1987 catalog, where it is called the Motosonic:

And here it is in another Mattel France catalog:

Laser Bolt in Action

My friend Øyvind Meisfjord has kindly shared the following image and video of Laser Bolt in action!

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200x, Artwork, Comics

2002 Masters of the Universe Comic Cover Gallery – MVCreations

Posted on April 5, 2024April 8, 2024 by Jukka Issakainen

I really like Masters of the Universe comics. Heck its no secret I’d love to one day write and/or draw art for an official publication in the future. And since its now been 20 years that the reboot comic series ended, I wanted to take a moment to appreciate the cover artworks on that series.

The 2002 comics for Masters of the Universe were produced by MVCreations. While the animated series by Mike Young Productions was aimed at a younger demographic, the comics had the opportunity to appeal to the older fans who grew up with He-Man in the 80s.

From 2002 to 2004, the Masters of the Universe comic series was published through Image Comics (15 issues), CrossGen Entertainment (8 issues) and MVCreations (6 issues).

Since the beginning, there were many variant covers for the comic issues. But some fans reported how they couldn’t keep up with them, so the president at MVCreations, Val Staples listened to the feedback and decided to not feature them during the Volume 2 ongoing comics and the mini-series “Icons of Evil”. Accordingly it “cut the sales by almost half, and made the comic extremely hard to produce later on.” ^[1] They added them back when Volume 3 started, as limited releases and special exclusives, which “helped a little.” There were also ideas for other special gimmick covers they wanted to do, but never got the chance – such as a lenticular cover depicting Adam transforming into He-Man, or a felt texture cover with Moss Man.

The cover artwork especially was really terrific, with a multitude of talent from regular to variants, so I’d like to highlight them in this article. Full disclosure, it was also a way for me to dig through old hard-drives (from 2004) and folders on my computer, so that I can share the logoless cover versions, many of which can’t be found online in 2024 anymore. They are displayed next to the final covers. When researching other sites, I found some to have omitted variant covers or credited wrong artists. So I’ve tried my best to include as many of the unique cover artworks in this gallery (meaning a special museum edition won’t be here, since it used art on its cover from the existing 5-page preview comic), and the artist & colorist credit.

Below you can find links to different sections:

⚬ Vol. 01 covers
⚬ Vol. 02 covers
⚬ Vol. 03 covers
⚬ Rise of the Snake Men
⚬ Icons of Evil
⚬ Specials
⚬ Trades
⚬ Unpublished/Unused covers

Hope you enjoy the images and if you found some errors or missing unique art by MVCreations, please let me know! Some of the scans are my own, and I’d like to give a special shout out to grahamcrackers, milehighcomics, comicvine, mycomicshop, cilman and RED.

VOLUME 1

Issue 1 – Cover A (wraparound)

Art by: Emiliano Santalucia
Color by: Val Staples

Issue 1 – Cover B (wraparound)

Art by: J. Scott Campbell
Color by: Val Staples

Issue 1 – Cover C (wraparound)

Art by: Earl Norem

Issue 1 – Graham Crackers exclusive cover (wraparound)

Art by: Emiliano Santalucia
Color by: Nathan “Baena” Baertsch

Issue 1 – Reprint (front)

Art by: Emiliano Santalucia
Color by: Val Staples

Issue 2 – Cover A (front)

Art by: Emiliano Santalucia
Color by: Val Staples

Issue 2 – Cover A (back)

Art by: Kevin Sharpe
Color by: Val Staples

Issue 2 – Cover B (wraparound)

Art by: Francis Manapul
Color by: Val Staples

Issue 3 – Cover A (front)

Art by: Emiliano Santalucia
Color by: Val Staples

Issue 3 – Cover A (back)

Art by: Matt Tyree
Color by: Val Staples

Issue 3 – Cover B (wraparound)

Art by: Brett Booth
Color by: Val Staples

Issue 4 – Cover A (front)

Art by: Emiliano Santalucia
Color by: Val Staples

Issue 4 – Cover A (back)

Art by: Tone Rodriguez
Color by: Val Staples

Issue 4 – Cover B (wraparound)

Art by: Keron Grant
Color by: Val Staples

VOLUME 2

Issue 1 – Cover A
Regular (wraparound)

Art by: Emiliano Santalucia
Color by: Val Staples

Issue 1 – Cover B (wraparound)

Art by: Drew Struzan

Issue 1 – Cover C
Graham Crackers exclusive (wraparound)

Art by: Cully Hamner
Color by: Val Staples

Issue 2 – Cover A (front)

Art by: Emiliano Santalucia
Color by: Val Staples

Issue 2 – Cover A (back)

Art by: Nathan “Baena” Baertsch

Issue 2 – Cover B (wraparound)

Art by: JJ Kirby
Color by: Joel Benjamin

Issue 3 – Cover A (front)

Art by: Emiliano Santalucia
Color by: Val Staples

Issue 3 – Cover A (back)

Art by: Jonboy Meyers
Color by: Tony Washington

Issue 3 – Cover B (wraparound)

Art by: Tommy Lee Edwards

Issue 4 – Cover A (front)

Art by: Emiliano Santalucia
Color by: Val Staples

Issue 4 – Cover A (back)

Art by: Leanne Shaw Hannah
Color by: Tony Washington

Issue 4 – Cover B (wraparound)

Art by: Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell

Issue 5 – Cover A (front)

Art by: Emiliano Santalucia
Color by: Val Staples

Issue 5 – Cover A (back)

Art by: Matt Roberts
Color by: Tony Washington

Issue 6 Cover (front)

Art by: Emiliano Santalucia
Color by: Val Staples

Issue 6 Cover (back)

Art by: Jonboy Meyers
Color by: Val Staples

VOLUME 3

Issue 1 – Regular Cover

Art by: Emiliano Santalucia
Color by: Jeremy Roberts

Issue 1 – Incentive Cover (wraparound)

Art by: Frank Quitely
Color by: Val Staples

Issue 1 – He-Man.org Exclusive Cover

Art by: Nathan “Baena” Baertsch

Issue 1 – Convention Gatefold Cover

This cover depicts all of the 5 covers that were planned for Masters of the Universe Encyclopedia. [Click HERE to download a high-resolution scan by Jukka Issakainen]