Name: Megalaser Faction: Heroic Warriors Approximate US release date: July 18, 1986
Megalaser was one of the three inexpensive accessories released for Masters of the Universe in 1986, along with Jet Sled and Stilt Stalkers. At the retail price of $2.99, any of them could have been acquired by a forward-thinking child who saved up their nickels, dimes and quarters.
Design & Development
Megalaser was designed by Ted Mayer on July 10, 1984, as part of a series of accessory designs he created for the line. In the image below, it almost looks like an entire complex array of computers wrapped around He-Man, with a red eye piece and single-barreled laser canon.
Image source: The Power and the Honor Foundation
From this concept design, an early prototype was constructed. In the two image scans below sent to me by Ted Mayer, we can see a bulked up cannon design, with twin barrels and a red wind up knob at top. The accessory is mostly white at this stage.
A closer to final prototype appears in Mattel’s 1986 dealer catalog below. This appears to be the finalized sculpt, but it is hand painted in a very bright silver color:
Image source: Nathalie NHT
The above prototype was used as a visual basis for the cross sell art:
The patent for the Megalaser was filed on September 27, 1985, with Roger Sweet listed as the inventor. The feature of the toy was that when its mechanism was wound up, the barrels of the cannon would alternatingly move forward and backward, as if they were firing.
Figure & Packaging
The final toy had a bit of a darker gray plastic on the gun, but otherwise closely resembled the catalog model. It had blue barrels, a red harness/targeting display, and a black rubber belt to secure it onto a figure.
Image courtesy of Øyvind Meisfjord
The US Packaging included artwork on the back by Errol McCarthy, featuring Man-At-Arms fighting against Stinkor, Beast Man, and Skeletor in his Battle Armor. Confusingly, its tag line was “Heroic wind-up beam blaster.” Mattel released a vehicle set called Beam Blaster & Artilleray only a few months after Megalaser.
This came from an auction of leftover stock reserved for Mattel employees
The European packaging was more exciting than the US version, as it featured additional artwork on the front by Bruce Timm:
Image via eBayImage recovered from packaging by Jukka Issakainen
Comic and Other Appearances
Megalaser appears in Mattel’s 1987 Style Guide, with an illustration by Errol McCarthy. From the description:
Name: Megalaser Group Affiliation: Heroic Warriors Role: Heroic beam lasers Power: Equips Heroic Warriors for laser battle Year of Toy Intro: 1986
Errol McCarthy’s original line art
Megalaser appeared in Rio Blast’s comic, The Fastest Draw in the Universe. In the story, Prince Adam, then He-Man, is seen carrying around a backpack for several pages. When a herd of cattle starts stampeding, he takes Megalaser from his backpack and joins Rio Blast in redirecting the animals by firing at the ground near their feet.
Megalaser also appears in the UK Comics, issue 32, in The Power of the Mantisaur. In the story, Man-At-Arms invents the Megalaser to counter Hordak’s inventions, in particular Mantisaur.
The Style Guide art by Errol McCarthy was reprinted as a poster for the UK Comics:
It also appeared in William George’s 1986 Eternia Poster (image courtesy of Jukka Issakainen):
Megalaser appears in this Italian ad, strapped to Teela. It’s apparent it really doesn’t fit on her frame:
Image source: Poochi and Other Friends
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Written by Adam McCombs with additional commentary by Jukka Issakainen
One of the most persistent areas of contention about the history of Masters of the Universe (particularly in online discussion) is what connection He-Man has, if any, to Conan the Barbarian. In this article I will explore the historical connections and separate fact from speculation or outright fiction.
I got into the Masters of the Universe fandom as an adult in December of 2012. While I frequently read through old articles and discussion threads on places like He-Man.org, I was not there when many of them first came out. Jukka Issakainen, who was involved in the fandom since the 1990s, recalls what the atmosphere was like in the early days:
“The information on He-Man and Conan connection was more… hazy back in the older times if you were a fan stepping online for the first time as early as 2001 or 1999 and looked up any web-pages dedicated to He-Man. Looking back now, we as a fandom have been able to uncover a ton of information and history about the concepts for figures, evolving character designs on cartoon series and more. But back then the information was sparse, and the few websites that were out there had the potential to share faulty information. Certain sites perpetuated the idea that ‘the toy mega manufacturer Mattel reportedly was working on a line of “Conan the Barbarian” action figures. Somewhere along the line, however, somebody in the Marketing department must have decided that an uncivilized pagan sword-wielding barbarian might not be the ideal role model for children, and so the toy line was converted into the “Masters of the Universe” series of toys.’
“The other, similar myths spread online talked about how Mattel made a deal to produce Conan toy line and had gotten as far as making the first couple figures, when the film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger was released May 14th, 1982 in North America and the Mattel people went to see the film, only to be shocked how much blood, violence and sex was in the film. So as a result, they quickly “changed the hair color from brown to blonde and called it Masters of the Universe”. And these types statements can be met even now in 2024 online.”
Jukka Issakainen
Conan the Destroyer, by Frank Frazetta
To really understand why those fan theories are not correct, we first need to understand the relevant timeline. Below is a section from my MOTU Timeline research, based on dates from concept art, Mattel documents, and the CPI vs Mattel court case filings. This research was published in the Dark Horse book, The Toys of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. However, I’ve added more items since the book was published as I’ve continued to document more dates from additional sources. The He-Man related items are in blue, the Conan related items are in red:
He-Man and Conan Timeline
1971: “The King of Styx” (precursor to Skeletor) concept, by Mark Taylor
1979: First Castle Grayskull sketch, by Mark Taylor
1979: Torak (precursor to He-Man) sketch, by Mark Taylor
08/15/1979: Category Management Teams memo
05/22/1980: Fantasy Make Believe idea disclosure form
06/11/1980: Male Action Figure attributes list
09/08/1980: Figure Attributes list
09/21/1980: Space/Monster/Fantasy Figures budgeted hours form
11/03/1980: Megaton Man project request form
11/??/1980: Work started on “He-Man trio”, Roger Sweet; Barbarian He-Man based on illustration by Mark Taylor (late November)
12/??/1980: He-Man trio presented at Mattel Product Conference (mid-December)
12/30/1980: He-Man Characters & Accessories idea disclosure form
1981: Bird Man (Stratos) concept, by Mark Taylor
1981: Mer-Man concept, by Mark Taylor
1981: Castle Grayskull concept, by Mark Taylor
1981: Battle Cat concept, by Mark Taylor
1981: Sensor (Zodac) concept, by Mark Taylor
1981: Battle Tester/Combat Trainer concept, by Mark Taylor
1981: Heroic Figure (He-Man) concept, by Mark Taylor (early 1981)
1981: Heroic Figure (He-Man) battles plant monster concept, by Mark Taylor (early 1981)
01/06/1981: He-Man Vehicles and Accessories idea disclosure form (modular vehicles)
01/23/1981: Drawing by Colin Bailey depicting Mark Taylor working on He-Man project
03/30/1981: De-Man (Skeletor) concept, by Mark Taylor
04/01/1981: Man-At-Arms concept, by Mark Taylor
04/02/1981: Tree Man (Beast Man) concept, by Mark Taylor
04/06/1981: He-Man (tan boots) concept, by Mark Taylor
04/07/1981: Battle Ram (tank treads version) concept, by Ted Mayer
04/24/1981: Memorandum urging negotiation for Conan license
04/27/1981: Revised Battle Ram concept art drawings, by Ted Mayer
05/03/1981: He-Man (red/yellow boots) concept, by Mark Taylor
05/05/1981: CPI (Conan Properties International) draft licensing agreement sent
05/20/1981: Skull Castle (Castle Grayskull) Weapons Rack & Weapons by Mark Taylor
05/28/1981: Female Warrior (Teela) concept, by Mark Taylor
05/28/1981: Battle Ram control drawing, by Ted Mayer
06/03/1981: Sorceress concept, by Mark Taylor
06/05/1981: Battle Chariot concept, by Ted Mayer
07/??/1981: He-Man designed by this month, per CPI vs Mattel lawsuit
07/09/1981: Draft Skeletor toy head design document
07/14/1981: Memorandum discussing Mattel’s presentation of He-Man to Toys ‘R’ Us
07/23/1981: Tony Guerrero worked on Conan toys from this date until Sept 11, 1981
07/31/1981: CPI and Mattel entered license agreement to manufacture toys based on Conan movie
09/16/1981: Mer-Man sword design concept, by Mark Taylor
09/30/1981: “Proprietary Line Concepts” document (Megaton Man, Kid Gallant, Robin & The Space Hoods, Monster Fantasy/He-Man)
1982: Gargo/Gargoyle dragon concept, by Mark Taylor
1982: Ram Man concept, by Mark Taylor
1982: Man-E-Faces concept, by Mark Taylor
01/??/1982: Mattel requests termination of Conan license agreement
02/17/1982: Mattel introduces new “Masters of the Universe” toy line at Toy Fair
03/01/1982: Rebate offer date in first mini comic (earliest purchase date)
03/04/1982: Attak Trak control drawing, by Ted Mayer
03/23/1982: Attak Trak concept, by Ted Mayer
04/08/1982: DC Comics: From Eternia With Death! street date. Cover date: July 1982
05/??/1982: Masters of the Universe toyline released this month, per Mattel EVP Joe Morrison
05/13/1982: Earliest known newspaper ad for MOTU
05/13/1982: First Skeletor newspaper ad
05/13/1982: First Man-At-Arms newspaper ad
05/13/1982: First He-Man newspaper ad
05/13/1982: First Beast Man newspaper ad
05/21/1982: Trap Jaw concept, by Colin Bailey
06/03/1982: First Battle Ram newspaper ad
06/03/1982: First Battle Cat newspaper ad
06/03/1982: First Castle Grayskull newspaper ad (“Castle Grey Skull”)
06/03/1982: First Stratos newspaper ad (pictured, not named)
06/03/1982: First Zodac newspaper ad (pictured, not named)
06/09/1982: First Teela newspaper ad
06/18/1982: First Stratos newspaper ad (mentioned by name)
07/05/2022: CPI and Mattel entered into a termination agreement
As you can see from the above timeline, Mattel was already deep into developing He-Man before anyone in the boy’s toy department suggested doing a Conan toy line. Conan was of course created in the 1930s by Robert E. Howard, first published as a series of stories in the Weird Tales magazine. Conan would not see an official comic adaptation until 1970, in the Marvel Conan the Barbarian series. A decade later, Mattel sought out the Conan license in 1981 based on the fact that Universal Pictures was working on the Conan the Barbarian film, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Given the explicit nature of the film, it was decided to not go through with the toy line after all.
He-Man has his roots in Mark Taylor’s childhood. Inspired by Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars and Tarzan, Mark started drawing a heroic warrior character from the age of 11, which would have been sometime around 1952.
“When I was inside at Mattel… I was so bored because it was so slow. I started… taking some of the stuff I had started when I was 11 years old and just drawing it for fun because they had all the supplies I needed. And so I started going back to drawing this character I had drawn… Torak.”
Mark Taylor, interviewed by Matt Jozwiak, 2006
Mark Taylor’s Torak drawing, 1979. Image shared by Rebecca Salari Taylor. King of Styx, by Mark Taylor, 1971
Later, when Mattel was looking to create a new boys action figure line to compete with Star Wars, Mark’s Torak character was used as a jumping-off point for the creation of He-Man. After it was presented to management by both Mark Taylor and Roger Sweet for approval, Mark was tasked with designing the initial 1982 series of toys.
The Mattel Conan Line
While Mark was busy working on the He-Man line, Marketing decided to reach out to CPI (Conan Properties International) about making a line of Conan toys based on the upcoming movie. If Mattel had gone forward with the Conan license, what would the toys have looked like? Well, they would have looked nothing like the hyper-muscled 5.5″ He-Man figures. Instead, Mattel was planning to reuse their Big Jim figures for the Conan line, but with new heads, outfits and accessories. How do we know that was the plan? That was the finding in the CPI vs Mattel lawsuit. In 1984, CPI unsuccessfully sued Mattel because they believed He-Man to be too similar to their Conan character. From the lawsuit:
“CPI and Mattel consummated their deal on July 31. In the meantime, Mattel’s employees had continued work on a Conan doll. Mattel’s marketing department decided early in June that Mattel should attach the Conan heads to the torsos of Mattel’s “Big Jim,” a doll with less exaggerated muscles, and a body closer to that of the average weightlifter (though not, apparently, to that of Arnold Schwarzenegger, see Affidavit of Mimi Shapiro ¶¶ 7-9 (May 19, 1988)). Memorandum from Joe Morrison to Mark Ellis (June 3, 1981). Guerrero then worked on the Conan doll from July 23, 1981, to September 21.” Conan Properties, Inc. v. Mattel, Inc., 712 F. Supp. 353 | Casetext Search + Citator
Incidentally, He-Man’s body was influenced by Schwarzenegger’s build, but the directive was to sculpt a figure that would “make Arnold Schwarzenegger look like a wimp.” Years later Roger Sweet reiterated that the plan for Conan was to reuse Big Jim as the basic building block of the figures:
“I’ll tell you there’s another factor in relation to Conan. When Mattel got the Conan property they were going to take a Big Jim figure and put Arnold Schwarzenegger’s head on it and dress it in plastic armor reminiscent of Conan, and so that would have been Mattel’s idea of a incredibly strong figure.”
Roger Sweet, Masters of the Universe Chronicles, July 2010
Mattel’s Big Jim was a line of 10 inch dolls similar to the original 1960s G.I. Joe dolls. Scan via Star Toys on Facebook.
Mark Taylor thought the idea to do a Conan line was foolish. He said:
“We didn’t want to get into a lawsuit with Conan, which of course we did anyway because some marketing guy screwed up and went to the Conan people and offered to do their their toy line after we’d already started He-Man. It was a big flap…
“I’d read the Conan, of course, but I was no more influenced by him than I was Mark Twain or Hal Foster or any of the people that have written these kind of adventure stories. Conan was just another one that I read. And I read John Carter of Mars too. I was probably at least influenced by that Burroughs story as I was any other one.”
Mark Taylor, 2006 interview with Matt Jozwiak
Having said that, the same two key figures designing and sculpting the He-Man line (Mark Taylor designing, Tony Guerrero sculpting) also worked on the ill-fated Conan line. My understanding for the last five or six years has been that the drawing by Mark Taylor below, commonly called “Vikor” by fans, was actually Mark’s design for the Mattel Conan line. It has so many hallmarks of Conan, and very few hallmarks of any of the various concept versions of He-Man. As I recall, a Facebook post on this topic by preeminent MOTU historian Emiliano Santalucia years ago is what first made me reconsider who this character was really supposed to be.
“Vikor,” Mark Taylor
The So-Called “Wonder Bread” He-Man
Earlier Jukka alluded to fan theory about “Savage He-Man” or “Special Edition He-Man.” (Side note: this figure is often called by the misnomer “Wonder Bread He-Man,” based on a debunked theory that the figure was a giveaway through a Wonder Bread promotion.) The theory goes that the figure’s brown hair indicated that it was really supposed to be a Conan figure, but it was repainted after Mattel decided to drop Conan. Supposedly Mattel then quickly created the He-Man character, changed the paint colors, and et voilà, He-Man was born. We know from the timeline and the information about the Big Jim reuse that this theory can’t be true.
There’s another reason why this theory isn’t true. The physical characteristics of “Savage He-Man” are more consistent with the late 1982 Taiwan He-Man figures (and to some early Prince Adam figures), and not consistent at all with the very first Taiwan He-Man figures from Spring 1982, which had a few idiosyncratic artifacts. They were idiosyncratic because the factory was still getting up to speed on Mattel’s specifications for their MOTU line. The artifacts of the very first “Test Market” He-Man figures include an irregularly painted boot top using a paint mask, and a very irregularly molded belly button. Savage He-Man has the straight line of paint on his boots from the updated paint dipping process, and a corrected belly button, which are hallmarks of He-Man figures released in late 1982/early 1983. And indeed we know from internal Mattel correspondence and newspaper ads that this figure was promoted in the Spring of 1983 and shipped by Summer 1983.
Savage He-Man aka Special Edition He-ManFirst release Taiwan He-Man with the characteristic boot and belly button artifacts.
A related theory goes that Mattel lost the court case with CPI, and so had to dump their leftover “Conan” figures. That’s obviously not true either. In addition to the facts already discussed, Mattel won the case, and the lawsuit was in 1984 – the Special Edition/Savage He-Man came out in 1983.
Influence from Frazetta, Conan and others
Despite everything written above about the distance between Mattel’s efforts on Conan and their efforts on He-Man, Conan was definitely one influence on the He-Man toy. In fact, some of the early documents related to the creation of the line specifically call out that influence!
The influences for He-Man and the Masters of the Universe are called out by name: Frazetta, Conan, Flash Gordon and Star Wars.Side note:Mark said that Zodac was influenced by Flash Gordon. Image source: The Power and the Honor Foundation.
And indeed, once Mark’s Torak drawing was developed into a new action figure called He-Man, elements frequently painted by Frazetta were brought in, including the horned helmet, which appears in early He-Man concept art and in the first Tony Guerrero He-Man prototype:
He-Man prototype sculpted by Tony Guerrero. Image: The Power and the Honor FoundationHe-Man B-sheet by Mark Taylor, published jointly by Super7 and the Power and the Honor Foundation. Scan courtesy of Axel Giménez.
When I recently addressed the semi-popular fan theory that Masters of the Universe was a kind of revamped Jack Kirby line, I reached out to Ted Mayer (designer of the Battle Ram and Wind Raider who worked on MOTU from the beginning) to ask if anyone had been talking about Kirby when creating He-Man. Ted said that Jack Kirby wasn’t mentioned, but that everyone was talking about Frank Frazetta. Frazetta of course painted Conan and similar adventurers with a dynamic and dramatic style.
“I never heard anyone mention the comic series while we were working on He-Man. The only subject that came up was Frank Frazetta, but that was only in the background, his books were out and every designer was looking at them. All this of course was in the visual design area, I cannot speculate if marketing was looking at this, but I doubt it!”
Ted Mayer
In fact, the Frazetta influenced wasn’t just on He-Man – it was also on the packaging art. Mark Taylor specifically hired Rudy Obrero for his ability to produce Frazetta-style box art:
Then soon after I got a call from Mark Taylor to do some “Frazetti” (his words) type of packaging. It was like, let’s not totally do Frazetta, but sorta like maybe “Frazetti”. That’s how it began. To be clear, I love Mr. Frazetta’s work. If you look at my body of work you will notice that the only time I went “Frazetti” is on the MOTU stuff. And because it was a fitting style for it.
Battle Cat was Rudy Obrero’s first project on Masters of the Universe
So, to sum up:
He-Man did not start out as a Conan line
Mattel started developing He-Man well prior to thinking about doing a Conan line
The Mattel Conan figure, if it had been made, would have been much taller and lankier than He-Man figures
So-called “Wonder Bread He-Man” has no connection to any Conan line
He-Man was definitely influenced by Conan, especially as interpreted by Frazetta
He-Man and Masters of the Universe were also influenced by Star Wars, Flash Gordon, Prince Valiant, John Carter and other properties
There was a deliberate effort make the box art resemble the style of Frank Frazetta
Hopefully this has been helpful! I’ve gotten a lot of comments about this topic whenever I bring it up online and several people have requested I cover it in an in-depth article. Please feel free to ask any questions you have in the comments!
Post script: Jukka has some fun Conan/Frazetta related trivia below:
2002 Masters of the Universe comic Trivia by Jukka Issakainen
When the good folks over at MVCreations were working on the Masters of the Universe comic, Val Staples put in a lot of effort to acquire many talented artists, and “invest the money” to do the variant covers for He-Man [check out the cover collection in this post]. Among them included Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell, Drew Struzan, Frank Quitely, J. Scott Campbell and many others.
One artist that fans would have loved to have seen, was naturally Frank Frazetta. Accordingly Val Staples did reach out and managed to speak with Frank’s son about doing a cover illustration. It was mentioned in the Roast Gooble Dinner-podcast episode #74:
“I talked with Frank’s son about it, and he talked to his dad about it and Frank Frazetta was interested. But the problem was that at that point… his health was not in that great condition. He just, he couldn’t commit because it was just too much of a project, and I almost made it happen.”
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I mentioned recently that Danielle Gelehrter had sent me a box of her materials related to her research for various Masters of the Universe book projects, in particular her work on her 2017 book, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: The Newspaper Comic Strips. Today I’d like to share with you three “lost” weeks of those strips that didn’t make it into the book. Many thanks to Danielle for sharing these for the blog!
The Last Survivors
The last story covered in the book was The Last Survivors. It represented a transition from traditional MOTU into the New Adventures series of stories, and featured a lot of panels with familiar MOTU characters and costumes.
Unfortunately several stories in the book were missing comic pages. Any missing strips were represented in the book with a placeholder summary description. I gratefully received several missing comic pages from Danielle that were not included in The Last Survivors in her book. I’ll first post the placeholder text description from the book, and then immediately after I’ll post the corresponding lost comics that weren’t included in the book.
The Last Survivors Story: Chris Weber Art & Original Lettering: Gerald Forton Colors: Connie Shurr Editor: Karen Willson
Missing Section 1
Missing Section 2
A little context here: Flipshot and Hydron came from the future to get He-Man using their Timesphere. Skeletor sneaked on board. With its destruction they were both stuck on Primus.
Missing Section 3
Missing section 4
This Sunday strip described below is still missing:
Missing Section 5
Missing Section 6
Additional Missing Content
Weeks 237 and 238 are unfortunately still missing. If you happen to have those strips (or any other missing strips from other stories in the book) and wouldn’t mind sharing a scan for this site, please comment below!
I have quite a bit more material related to the MOTU newspaper strips, including scripts, outlines, correspondence and other material. It will take me some time to go through and figure out how to present. Looking at it all, it will probably be spread out over a year at least, interspersed among other planned articles for the blog.
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Slushhead, or Kalamarr as he was known overseas, is one of the most well-known of the Evil Mutant figures in the 1989 He-Man line. In fact he is the only figure from that line (aside from He-Man or Skeletor) to be remade twice in two separate modern lines (MOTU Classics and Masterverse).
Design & Development
Slushhead was designed by David Wolfram, with the original working name of Kalamari. Although I know of no surviving concept art for the figure, the Spanish Mattel corporate office appears to have preserved what looks like drawings of many New Adventures characters that were derived from original concept art. The image below was shared by Dani Ramón Abril on Facebook several years back. It does look similar to the actual figure, but there are some differences. The chest armor has more prominent tech details on it that actually kind of resemble what his backpack would eventually look like. The claws at the end of the mechanical tentacles are smaller than on the final toy, and he carries a trident gun that resembles the weapon that actually came with Hydron (or “Scuba Steve” as I always think of him in my head).
Image via Dani Ramón Abril/Yo Tengo El Poder
A similar concept version of the character appears in full color on some merchandise (journals and folders) that were released in Europe. From the artwork below, it appears that his armor was originally going to be copper colored. Metallic copper was one of David Wolfram’s favorite colors for his character designs.
By the time we see a hard copy/prototype figure, Slushhead has the final design and color scheme all in place, with the exception of his clear helmet. This version has a more rounded top, while the production figure had a more pointed helmet.
Image via Grayskull Museum
And here is the cross sell art for the character, from Mattel’s 2009 SDCC art book:
Cross sell art, based on the hard copy prototype
Figure & Packaging
Slushhead, as far as I know, only appeared as Slushhead in packaging when sold in a two pack with He-Man. On the front of the packaging he actually had the label “Evil Mutant,” because the packaging would be reused for a two pack with He-Man and Skeletor and He-Man and Flogg. On the back of the packaging, he was called out as Slushhead:
Slushhead was sold on a single figure card, but as far as I’m aware in that format he only appears under the name Kalamarr, on a multilingual card.
The first release of the figure actually came with a silver butt. That sounds funny, but some of the mechanical detail on his posterior were painted silver. As was in the case of many MOTU figures like Mer-Man and Tung Lashor, that extra paint was cut to save costs. The version below also has the more rounded helmet. It does seem to be a factory sample rather than a hard copy.
Image source: Battle Armor DadImage source: Battle Armor Dad
You can read more about the silver butt variant at the excellent He-Man-NA site.
Slushhead had green skin covered with suction cups and webbed fingers and toes. As mentioned before, his head was covered by a clear helmet that was filled with liquid. I’ve heard before that the liquid used was mineral oil, although I can’t confirm that. In any case, it has held up very well over the years, with no breakdown on the face paint and no yellowing of the clear plastic.
He had a removable backpack with two plug-in mechanical tentacles, which are fragile and tended to break over the years. His weapon is called a “trident laser-axe” on the packaging, although it’s not actually a trident. Perhaps the name was a callback to the weapon he had in his concept art. In any case, he had a spring-loaded chopping feature on his right arm, which allowed him to attack his enemies with the weapon. It worked as a gun when held at one end, and as an axe when held at the other end. The two-in-one weapon was a pretty common theme throughout the New Adventures line.
Bio
A bio for Slushhead was written for the Jetlag He-Man series Bible. In it we learn that he came from the Quagmi Swamp (probably a take on the word quagmire), and wears a helmet filled with swamp water. He’s described as clumsy on land because he is more at home in an aquatic environment.
The bio on the back of his packaging was somewhat similar, although in the packaging he’s described as a moron:
“Evil mutant moron and goon squad member from the Quagmi Swamp on alien planet Denabria! Has suckers on his arms and water on his brain!”
Comic and Cartoon Appearances
As one of the principle characters in the New Adventures of He-Man series, Slushhead made frequent appearances in comics and in the cartoon. I’ll provide an example from each of the major series.
The New Adventures of He-Man (Jetlag)
In The Bride of Slushead, we get a look at Felca, Slushhead’s fiance. After Sagitar saves Felca from being harmed in an accident, Slushhead invites the heroes to his wedding. Skeletor uses the temporary truce to plan an ambush on the heroes. It’s a pretty silly episode. In other episodes he serves as a Mutant Mothership copilot, serving under Flogg.
Slushhead and FelcaOriginal pencil art from Jetlag. Image found by Dušan Mitrović.
Minicomics
There were only four minicomics made for the 1989 He-Man line. Slushead appears as either a background character or bumbling henchman in them. He shows up in Battle For the Crystal, Skeletor’s Journey (as a comic relief character), and in The Revenge of Skeletor. Images are courtesy of Jukka Issakainen.
From Battle For the CrystalFrom Skeletor’s JourneyFrom The Revenge of Skeletor
1990 UK Annual
The 1990 UK MOTU Annual featured a story called The Drumskalan from the Denebrian Swamp. In the story, Skeletor has a terrified Slushhead (called Kalamarr in the story) lead him to a monster called the Drumskalan so it can be made to attack He-Man.
Images courtesy of Danielle Gelehrter
The same annual features another short bio for Slushhead:
German Bastei Comics
Issue 2 of the German Bastei series features Slushhead as well (images courtesy of Ben Massa):
Ehapa Verlag
Slushhead appeared in many issues of German Ehapa Verlag comic. Here’s an example from issue 6:
Image courtesy of Ben Massa
He-Man Magazine
The German He-Man Magazine used toys instead of illustrations to tell stories, which was kind of charming:
Image via He-Man.org
Magic Boy
Slushead appears in issue 15 of the 1989 Magic Boy series. This is actually the same story as the German Bastei example, only in Italian!
Image courtesy of Danielle Gelehrter
UK He-Man Adventure
We get some Slushhead appearances, in both story and pinup form in issues 19 and 20 of the UK He-Man Adventure Magazine. Issue 20 is the same story I featured in my German Ehapa Verlag example, but in English:
CGI Promo
Slushhead appeared in a computer animated promo for the line. Here is a screenshot courtesy of Skysled:
You can watch the whole promo here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DElT_4hNAAP/
And finally, Slushhead appears in the background of this illustration published in a newspaper promoting an appearance by He-Man characters at Knott’s Berry Farm:
Image source: TallstarThe original artwork from auction
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