Heroic Warriors

The Mystery of Savage He-Man…Solved?

Guest article by Val Staples

This is an updated article from The Toys of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe from Dark Horse Books.

If there is one figure that has long puzzled He-Man fans, it is Savage He-Man (AKA Wonder Bread He-Man). And for over two decades, fans pondered the history of this toy.

This figure is regarded as one of the gems of any He-Man collection. But the figure had a problem in that is no one knew exactly where it originated. Theories of its genesis range from it being a mail-in figure, to a store give-away, to promotional offers. Many of those who had this figure from a young age often have a different account of how it came to be in their collection.

The whole thing kicked off in the early days of the internet thanks to Alex Bickmore’s Super Toy Archive (toyarchive.com). Part of the collection of one David Schickedan, this figure was depicted with brown hair, brown trunks, black boots, and a black belt. It was also shown wearing black Zodac armor and brandishing a maroon Castle Grayskull mace. It was stated this was part of a mail-in Wonder Bread promotion. Once Lee’s Action Figure News & Toy Review magazine, a popular action figure magazine at the time, printed information about this figure then the legend of Wonder Bread He-Man took off!

An example of a loose Savage He-Man figure

In the early days of the internet, many fans had not even seen the later USA releases of the toy line. And the exact number of gift sets was still unknown. So, this figure being an unknown mail-away seemed plausible. In addition, many fans were unfamiliar with the maroon weapon shown on Super Toy Archive.

In the following couple of years, fans realized the black Zodac armor came from Mattel’s vintage accessory pack. And then a packaged promotional version of Man-E-Faces surfaced (now referred to as “Man-E-Weapons”) that contained five of the Castle Grayskull weapons that were cast in a maroon color, including the mace seen on Super Toy Archive.

“Man-E-Weapons”

When 2000 rolled around, two prominent collectors, Darren Fowler and David Fowler, purchased on eBay the only known packaged sample of this mystery figure. It came with no armor, a maroon sword, and maroon axe, all of which differed from the image on Toy Archive. In addition, it included a Mattel Buy-3-Get-1-Free coupon that was supposed to be how the figure was offered. But it was odd that it came packaged with the very coupon that would have been mailed to claim the figure. The bag it came in was also questionable, as it was not the typical sealed polybag one would expect from a factory (more on this later). As a result, the mystery only deepened.

Soon after in 2001, Mattel started to produce a Commemorative line that re-released some of the vintage Masters of the Universe figures. Working with He-Man.Org, Mattel polled fans about their favorite figures, cartoon episodes, and more. During this polling, Mattel shared with He-Man.Org that they planned to release a Commemorative Wonder Bread He-Man due to the hype and mystique surrounding the figure. But Mattel cancelled plans for the release because they could find no prior deal with Wonder Bread in their archives for a mail-in promotional figure. It turned out the Wonder Bread promotion previously attached to the figure was instead a 1985 / 1986 mail-in for a trading card set which was a far cry from being an action figure.

Realizing the figure never came from Wonder Bread, and all the accessories were now accounted for from other sources, fans were left with an armorless, weaponless figure of unknown origin. In order to disassociate from the Wonder Bread promotion, fans went on to call the figure “Savage He-Man” because of his resemblance to the armorless, weaponless He-Man depicted in the very first minicomic where the story was more “savage” and preceded the Filmation cartoon.

One thing for certain is that the brown-haired figure is legitimate. It was produced with the same materials and methods of vintage He-Man figures that could have only come from a factory. Customizers of that time did not have the ability to replicate a figure to match the 80s releases from Mattel. And as the years have passed, multiple legitimate samples of the figure have surfaced on the aftermarket and in private collections.

In a 2007 / 2008 attempt to cast a net for information, Mattel, ToyFare magazine, and He-Man.Org all teamed up to try and resolve the mystery once and for all. All three put a call out to the public for any information on the figure that may help to discover its roots. Unfortunately, nothing surfaced.

Mattel went on to pay homage to the figure in 2010 with the release of the Masters of the Universe Classics Wun-Dar figure, which played off the original Wonder Bread origin rumors even though those rumors had been debunked by that time.

MOTU Classics Wun-Dar

Trying again in 2019, Val Staples, He-Man historian and owner of Power-Con, spoke to Mark Ellis, the former Director of Marketing for Male Action Toys who oversaw Masters of the Universe, and showed Mark all the current evidence. Mark revealed the original test sample of He-Man from the factory had brown hair. But that test sample would have had an earlier torso sculpt that ended up being corrected for figures released later in 1982. The mysterious brown-haired figure has the corrected torso. With the test sample theory dead, fans were still left wondering how this figure came to be.

But then in 2020, former MOTU brand manager Scott Neitlich discovered a customer letter at Mattel which discussed a mail-away offer. It was a 1983 Buy-3-Get-1-Free offer that appeared to be tied to Meijer Thrifty Acres (now known just as Meijer). The letter had been sent by an unhappy customer. The customer, a mother whose son was a fan of He-Man, wrote to Mattel about receiving an oddly colored He-Man with no armor or accessories. Both her and her son were displeased with this bland “special edition” figure. Mattel noted in a response that the offer did not specify what would be sent nor that it would be a “special edition” item. In regards to the mail-in, Meijer Thrifty Acres had a string of stores in Michigan in 1983 and had just entered the Ohio marketplace. If Mattel coordinated with Thrifty Acres to offer a special mail-in incentive, it seemed quite possible that a test-run that resulted in a brown-haired He-Man may have been used to satisfy the promotional needs of this smaller, regional account. However it turns out the promotion ran in other stories, including Zayre, Kohls, Evans, Wieboldt’s, and Thornbury’s Toys.

A Michigan Meijer ad with the buy 3 get one free promotion. March 28, 1983

Finally, in 2024, the mystery was put to rest. A gentleman named Rick Hale, who had been a MOTU fan as a child, had convinced his mother to move from Michigan to Kentucky so they could live in close proximity. According to Rick, “I wanted her to be closer to us. She’s getting older now, and while she’s always been very independent, I want to be there for her when she needs me. She also has an almost 4-year-old granddaughter and I want them to be able to spend some time together.” And this is what led to a discovery.

“While packing up the garage,” said Rick, “my mom opened the drawer of an old wooden desk. Among other items was an unopened brown mailer. It was from California and the postage indicated it was from July, 1983. When she opened the mailer, she recognized the contents as a He-Man toy.”

Not knowing what she had found, Rick noted, “She doesn’t remember how the mailer ended up in the drawer, or why she never gave it to me.” Ultimately, the mailer was forgotten and eventually lost amid all the things one tends to gather through forty years of living.

Rick’s mother worked long hours through the week, so she always wanted to show her son how much he meant to her. Almost every weekend they would visit the Meijer store in Canton, Michigan where she would purchase her son a new He-Man action figure – a small, but heartfelt symbol of her love. Rick talked to his mother to find out more about where she got this figure. Rick reported, “She was a thrifty shopper, always on the lookout for a deal. So when the Meijer sales paper arrived one week boasting a “Buy 3, Get 1 Free” offer on He-Man figures, it was exactly the sort of thing she’d jump at.”

Still not knowing what this He-Man figure was, Rick asked his friend Benton Edwards if he had an idea what it could be. To Rick’s surprise, Benton knew exactly what Rick possessed. And furthermore, Benton also happened to have spent many a night in Kentucky hanging out with Val Staples. Benton encouraged Rick to speak to Val about his discovery. Soon after, Benton put Rick directly in contact with Val through Robert Sutton, a mutual friend of Val’s and Benton’s.

Val went on to speak with Rick at length, and then with Rick’s mother. Thereafter, Val verified the validity of the mailer and the figure. Sure enough, the find was 100% authentic and legitimate. This was the first known example of Savage He-Man in its original mailer. The figure did come in a taped bag like what the Fowler brothers bought on eBay all the way back in 2000 but without a coupon. Rick’s figure also came with a maroon shield. So it is still unknown if the mail-away Savage He-Man figures came with the shield as well, if they came with random maroon weapons, or if some came with no accessories at all. Beyond that, it was packaged in a simple, brown, paper mailer shipped direct from an address in City of Industry, California. That location used to boast a Mattel Toy Store and currently houses Mattel’s Adjustment Center for replacements and refunds.

Savage He-Man Gallery:

The actual Savage He-Man toy is one of the most coveted vintage Masters of the Universe offerings. Often sold as customs or bootlegs, finding legitimate versions is proving harder as time passes as the ones that have been discovered have often ended up in the collections of fans. So, if you can find one that is real, you will have a special item for your collection!

And now’s your chance to own the only known example of of Savage He-Man in his original mailer. The figure has been examined and graded by AFA. And is now up for proxy bid at Heritage Auctions. Live bidding begins on August 17th, 2025. Don’t miss out on what might be the only example to ever surface of Savage He-Man in his original mailer:

MOTU Classics

MOTU Classics Production Variants

Written by Adam McCombs

Pretty much every action figure line will have some amount of production variants. I’ll define that term this way: a variation in the paint or mold of a figure release, either based on a running change to the same figure at the same factory, or differences due to the same figure being produced at different factories. Because the original Masters of the Universe line was so huge, it was produced in many factories all over the world, leading to many hundreds of production variants that fans are still cataloging to this day.

MOTU Classics had far fewer production variants than the 1980s line. For one thing, the production numbers on the Classics line were far fewer than the vintage line, and for the most part Classics figures seem to have been made at the same factory (as far as I can tell) until Super7 took over towards the end of the line and switched to a different factory.

Still, there were some running changes to a single figure’s paint and/or mold in the Classics line. Some of those changes were publicized as improvements and even used in the marketing of the line, while others were subtle and done pretty quietly.

For the purposes of this article, I’m not going to count the Super7 “Ultimates” re-releases of Skeletor, He-Man, Teela, Faker and Ram Man as production variants. There was a huge time gap between the original release and these Ultimates release, they were made by a different company, with different packaging, different accessories, etc. There are other redecorated re-released that I’m not counting either, such as the Toys “R” Us DCU two packs.

There may be other production variants I am not aware of – these are the ones I have cataloged over the years.

He-Man (Dec. 2008)

He-Man was the first figure sculpted for the MOTU Classics line, before it was actually a line. As the 200x NECA Staction line was petering out, Eric Treadaway of the Four Horsemen decided to try a new approach to He-Man. The concept was to take the bulky, muscular proportions of the vintage MOTU figures and augment them with more sculpted detail, painted detail, and articulation. The legs were lengthened to make them look a bit more realistic, and the size was increased to make them feel as big in the hand of a grownup as the original He-Man felt in the hands of a child.

Prototype

The first image below is the first He-Man prototype, which Mattel quietly put on display at a booth at the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con. Fan reaction was overwhelmingly positive, leading Mattel to greenlight a limited run of figures in this style. The second and third images represent a revised prototype, with a lowered belly button, smoothed over boots, more vivid colors and a few other changes. The final figure would get orange bracers rather than gray. One aspect that stands out is the reddish color around the eyes, which was a feature of the first release MOTU Classics He-Man figure.

Version 1

The Version 1 first release He-Man featured some reddish-brown spray around the eyes, like like the resin prototypes above. Depending on the version you got, this could have been done subtly or sometimes quite dramatically.

The first version had a couple of other idiosyncrasies. Like King Grayskull before him, his shoulders were assembled backwards. I remember back when I first started collecting this line, I had a hard time picking out backwards shoulders, but over the years I’ve gotten pretty good at it. Sadly they were a recurring issue in the MOTU Classics line.

Another idiosyncrasy was in the pelvis – the first release He-Man figure had a wide pelvis piece, giving him a slightly bow-legged appearance. I don’t have a loose version of V1 He-Man to photograph in that way, but I’ll show a close up picture of the difference in the section on Skeletor. The V1 He-Man also had a fairly stiff loincloth.

As I understand it, there were also some early He-Man figures that also had a flesh tone crotch piece, which gave him an unfortunately naked appearance under the loincloth. I don’t have a photo of that, but I heard about it from an old interview with Terry Higuchi, a Mattel designer who worked on the line. I’m not sure if any of these made it into the hands of fans, however.

Version 2

With the Version 2 He-Man, Mattel set about to fix the various issues with Version 1. They discontinued the red airbrushing around the eyes, which many fans didn’t like. They corrected the backwards shoulders, and they also made the pelvis piece narrower. The loincloth was also made more flexible. This version came packaged with a “The Original” burst on the packaging.

I should mention that even though there are only two discrete variants of this figure, there are all kinds of random variations on the figure’s face from. Sometimes the hair piece got glued on too high over the head, showing too much forehead (as in the carded example above). Sometimes the eyebrows were painted on too high as well.

Skeletor (Jan. 2009)

Skeletor had quite a few changes from his first release until he was discontinued. I’ll go over each step in his evolution.

Prototype

On the original resin prototype by the Four Horsemen, there was very little green on the face, just a bit on the lower surfaces of the jaw, teeth and cheekbones, as if it were a green light glowing from beneath his face. There was also a wash in the teeth to bring out the detail, and of course you can see paint deco in the eyes and nose. The prototype was shown in an issue of ToyFare Magazine, and in a Matty Collector ad:

Version 1a

The very first Skeletor figures appeared on the standard MOTU Classics card, with no “The Original” burst. The earliest figures had very unique paint on the face, with some light green airbrushing on the forehead and cheekbones, and a bit of very subtle blackwash on the teeth to bring out the details. It’s a very clean look, but this was quickly changed.

In addition to the face paint, other distinguishing features include the open left hand, and a much wider pelvis piece than was on most figures in the line. As mentioned earlier, this wide pelvis was found on the original He-Man release. It was also on the SDCC King Grayskull exclusive, and on some early versions of Faker as well. Early in 2009 this wide pelvis was modified by Mattel to a narrower design, allowing the legs to be a bit closer together.

Version 1b

The next version is much more common than Version 1a. Really the only difference between this and Version 1a is the face paint, which now has a pale green wash on the forehead and low relief areas of the sculpt. This would be the general way of painting the vast majority of the original Skeletor figures in this line. In my opinion this is the best looking paint job for Skeletor. It brings out the highly detailed sculpt (which is mostly lost in Version 1a) without being too green. You can also see the wash on the teeth that was present in the prototype version.

It’s also possible to find kind of an intermediate version of this figure, with a more airbrushed look like V1a, but with paint coverage more like V1b. This one looks good too:

Version 2a

After the original run of Skeletor figures had sold through, Mattel reissued him again. This time the package had a burst on the front saying “The Original.” The idea was to implement a running change and give Skeletor a closed left hand, which would help him dual wield both his Havoc Staff and his sword. They also wanted to improve the face paint on the figure. However, many figures came out in the burst packaging and still had the open left hand. They did, however, have the updated, narrower pelvis. The greenwash on the face was often slightly more irregular, with a slightly darker green paint used. Some of the paint jobs on these reissues are quite messy, but it’s also possible to find some with clean paint or minimalist green paint as well. There is a ton of variation because this paint application was done by hand at the factory.

Version 2b

This final version of Skeletor is the same as Version 2a, but with a closed left hand. The closed left hand was also used with the “toothless” Skeletor that came with the Mo-Larr set, and in the Toys “R” Us set with Lex Luthor, but I would consider those both to be different releases altogether, rather than production variants.

In any case, the closed hand version of Skeletor often had a slightly messy application of the green on his face paint, but it is possible to find more subtle versions. It can vary a lot from figure to figure. I’ve even located a closed hand version with face paint resembling the original prototype figure (images below). Note the very minimal amount of green paint on the forehead.

One of the first figures I bought as an adult collector, back in 2012 or 2013, was a Version 2b:

V1a, V1b, V2a, V2b heads

Stratos (Feb. 2009)

Below is the resin prototype Stratos figure. Note the forward facing “wings,” red belt, and medium gray color:

Resin Stratos prototype

The actual production figure was made with a darker gray body. Also unfortunately the wings were glued down and facing the back of the arms. This was a factory error, as the wings were supposed to rotate freely. You can see the problem in the Matty Collector ad below, where the forearms are posed at an extreme angle to get the wings facing forward. This was possible to fix with some hot water and determination, however.

An early factory version of Stratos got the color scheme of Beast Man’s belt by mistake. While both characters had blue trunks, Beast Man had a gold belt, while Stratos was supposed to have a red belt. A few gold belt Stratos figures slipped out before the mistake was caught. The gold belt version appears on some cardbacks too (V1 Ram Man and V1 Granamyr, for instance). The picture below seems to show an early sample, since the factory version had the wings glued in place, rotated toward the back of the arms.

Here is a comparison picture of the red and gold belt variants, from the excellent MOTUC Figures site:

For comparison, here is a picture of the standard Stratos figure, with the wing problem fixed by me:

Moss Man (March 2010)

The Four Horsemen played with many different options when it came to Moss Man’s flocking. The picture below shows a subtle, short flocking used on a resin prototype.

The actual figure got longer flocking, with bare areas around the joints. There were two well-known variants of Moss Man. Early versions of the figure had flocked ears on both of the included heads. This was a mistake, and it was quickly fixed. But of course anything that is produced in low numbers becomes more collectible, so the flocked ears version is worth a bit more on the secondary market.

Battle Armor Skeletor (March 2011)

The prototype Battle Armor Skeletor was sculpted by Djordje Djokovic, who also shared the images below. The figure was going to have a cleaner, more vintage toy-like face paint, and also bare feet. Fans requested that the figure get purple feet to represent boots, and Mattel made the change.

Pre-Production Sample

There was a pre-production factory sample of the figure that had some differences compared to the version fans got. It had much messier green paint on the face, reminiscent of some of the previous Skeletor faces. It also had black paint on the battle damage lines on the chest armor. That would be changed to silver paint on the production figure.

Version 1

The production Battle Armor Skeletor figure got a toy-ish interpretation of the paint around the teeth, reminiscent of 1980s Skeletor figures. Early versions had a subtle, airbrushed green around the forehead (sometimes very subtle, as shown in the first image) and the sides of the face.

Version 2

Later versions of the figure had hard lines dividing the yellow face from the green painted areas, indicating the use of a paint mask.

He-Ro (July 2009)

He-Ro’s production variants were very much pre-planned and done for the purpose of marketing. He-Ro came with one of three random gem colors: green, red, or purple. Green was the color he was supposed get in the vintage 1980s line.

Also, the version for Sale at San Diego Comic-Con came with an SDCC logo printed on the chest, under He-Ro’s armor:

Faker (Feb. 2009)

The early versions of Faker had the wide pelvis piece found on the first King Grayskull, He-Man and Skeletor figures. Later versions released on the burst packaging had the narrower pelvis piece.

King Grayskull (July 2008)

King Grayskull prototype

King Grayskull was the first figure released in the line (although He-Man was the first to be sculpted). Released as a con exclusive, he came with a deluxe Castle Grayskull themed box with opening jawbridge and sound effects. The figure itself had the wide pelvis mentioned several times in this article. He also had backwards shoulders. These issues weren’t fixed in the original release. However he was reissued in a new deco and in the standard packaging in 2010, and that version had the fixes. I wouldn’t really call the second version a production variant, given the gap in time and the total revamp to packaging and deco.

However the 2008 King Grayskull did come in a couple of rare variants. Some random boxes came instead with a bronze colored version of the figure, which was meant to represent the statue of the character that appeared in the Mike Young Productions cartoon. There was also a raffle for a very rare transparent blue version of the character, the Spirit of King Grayskull. The “Spirit” version was eventually reissued years later, but with a glow-in-the-dark green deco.

Demo-Man (Dec. 2011)

Demo-Man’s prototype was done in a fairly muted green color. He had a great deal of sculpted and painted detail, and he came with a much loved “Alcala” version of Skeletor’s head as a bonus.

Prototype Demo-Man with bonus prototype “Alcala” Skeletor head

The production figure was done in a much brighter color. However on the old He-Man.org boards it was pointed out that some versions had a bright red tunic, and the others had a dark red tunic.

Photo by T-Man

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History

Big Jim and Masters of the Universe

Written by Adam McCombs

Way back in 2008, there was a Retro Junk article outlining many of the connections between Big Jim and Masters of the Universe. Overall it was very informative, although there are a few errors in it. Understandable, given more limited information available at the time, compared to today! I thought I would do my own overview of the connection between MOTU and Big Jim, with some updated information. The connections between the two properties are many, and range from subtle to blatant!

Battle Cat & Panthor

It’s well known that Battle Cat was made from recycled tooling from previous Mattel toys. The first release of this sculpt was the Big Jim Tiger, an unarticulated but well-painted and sculpted toy that came with the Big Jim on the Tiger Trail set. Both the tiger figure and its packaging were marked 1976.

The first reuse of this mold came with the Tarzan and Jungle Cat set from 1978. The inner back leg of the cat figure is marked 1978, although it looks like the “8” was made in the tooling by simply creating an extra loop on the 6 from the previous 1976 Tiger.

Below is the proof card for the Tarzan and Jungle Cat set. It bears a 1978 copyright date and a printing date of 1977. The artwork is actually by Mark Taylor, who designed most of the first wave of Masters of the Universe toys. The plants in the illustration were based on some of the plants around Mark’s house!

This set appears in Mattel’s 1978 catalog below:

The earliest Battle Cats are marked 1976 on the inner back leg, just like the Big Jim Tiger. In fact, the earliest version of Battle Cat, which had a striped tail, has almost the exact same painted patterns as the Big Jim Tiger, only with a different color palette. Versions after the first short run didn’t have the striped tail and had a simplified color scheme, but were still marked 1976. Other releases of Battle Cat can be found stamped 1978 and 1982. Panthor figures are usually molded in the same black as the Tarzan Jungle Cat. However, Panthor’s teeth were painted only on the front, unlike the Jungle Cat’s teeth. Some Panthors were molded in green like Battle Cat. In both cases they are covered by purple flocking, which usually obscures the date stamp.

There is a popular graphic going around showing the evolution of these cat figures. However, because it was based on the Retro Junk article, it copies a mistake on the date of Tarzan and Jungle Cat. Years ago, NLogan, the author of the article, reached out to me on Twitter to let me know that he had been wrong about his date for the Jungle Cat, which he originally gave as 1971. My 2015 Battle Cat article had also relied on his information, and so had the incorrect date until he reached out to me. The correct date for the Jungle Cat, as previously mentioned, is 1978.

Zoar & Screeech (1983)

Zoar and Screeech, both released in the fall of 1983, were based on the Big Jim Eagle (1974-1975) figures, which came in a few different paint variations. The Masters of the Universe Zoar and Screech figures reused the mold, but were done in much brighter colors. They were also given removable armor and perches to stand on. These birds were scaled realistically to the 10″ Big Jim line, but in the 5″ MOTU line they were giant birds.

Man-E-Faces (1983)

Man-E-Faces typically gets compared to two Big Jim figures. The first is Zorak (1975), who had a face changing ability. While the action features are similar, the designs of the two figures have nothing in common. You might also notice, the Big Jim figure in the ad below has the same face-changing feature. This feature was also used for the Princess of Power Double Trouble figure.

Image source: Plaid Stallions

Man-E-Faces has also been compared to the Big Jim Vektor figure. If anything, the influence would go in the opposite direction, because Man-E-Faces (1983) was released before Vektor (1985). Vektor seems to have been designed by Errol McCarthy, while Man-E-Faces was designed by Mark Taylor. However, I don’t believe Vektor was intentionally copying Man-E-Faces – instead I think they are both drawing from the look of old fashioned deep sea diver equipment (more explicitly in the case of Vektor).

Skeletor (1982)

Skeletor is sometimes compared to the Big Jim Captain Drake figure, released in 1977 or 1978. He also had a face changing feature, like Zorak. However, because one of those faces is a skull in a hood, he gets compared to Skeletor. I think both Skeletor and Captain Drake are both drawing on older mythology, pop culture and archetypes, and I wouldn’t really connect the two to each other.

Trap Jaw

Trap Jaw is often compared to the unreleased Big Jim Iron Jaw figure. The Big Jim design had a very similar face and jaw shape to Trap Jaw, and even would have included various mechanical arm attachments. Iron Jaw was supposed to be a part of the Big Jim Spy Series, which went from 1980 to 1982. However Iron Jaw was never released – perhaps because Mattel wanted to take advantage of the concept in the more lucrative Masters of the Universe line. Trap Jaw was released in 1983.

Further cementing the connection between the two characters is his printer’s proof Man-E-Faces cardback (courtesy of Luis Villagomez), which shows Trap Jaw with the name “Iron Jaw.”

Beast Man

Beast Man famously recycles his whip from a Big Jim character named The Whip (1975). An early promo picture for Beast Man actually shows him with his own unique sculpted whip handle. But, perhaps the small handle was considered a choking hazard, and so he was given the larger Big Jim accessory instead.

The final Beast Man figure was not based on any Big Jim character, but early concept sketches for Beast Man were based on the Big Jim Gorilla, originally released in 1973.

Fisto

Fisto has been compared to Boris from the Big Jim Spy Series (1980-1982). Boris had a spring loaded and telescoping fist feature. Fisto had a giant “metal” fist on a spring-loaded arm. Fisto’s arm would swing forward, but the fist didn’t pop out of the arm. I don’t think there’s really a significant connection between these two figures – lots of toys have had punching features, after all.

On the other hand, the 1975 Big Jim Torpedo Fist figure does seem to have some visual cues in common with Fisto:

Jitsu (1984)

Jitsu has been compared to Dr. Steel (1975-1976) from the Big Jim P.A.C.K. line. I think that’s a fair comparison, considering both had metallic chopping hands and a chopping action feature.

Attak Trak, Point Dread & Talon Fighter (1983)

The Big Jim line had two vehicles that had some things in common with the Attak Trak and Talon Fighter from Masters of the Universe. The Big Jim All-Terrain Vehicle had the same track flipping mechanism as the Attak Trak. That mechanism was actually licensed from a third party invention company, and Mattel opted to design two different vehicles around the mechanism. There was also the Space Spy vehicle, which had roughly the same profile as the Talon Fighter, although without the bird theme. It even had the radar dish on top. However, both the Space Spy and the All-Terrain Vehicle seem to have come out in 1983, the same year as Attak Trak and Talon Fighter. Perhaps they were both derived from the same root concepts at the same time.

Image source: Super Shogun Blog

One other connection exists. Errol McCarthy did the sticker art for the All-Terrain Vehicle. It appears that some of the unused art he did for Big Jim ended up on the the MOTU Point Dread cardboard insert. This information and the images below come courtesy of Alessio Di Marco:

Webstor (1984)

While Webstor himself seems to have been based on an earlier Masters of the Universe design by Mark Taylor, later adapted by Roger Sweet, his grappling hook comes straight out of the Big Jim Pirate Boat (1978). The grappling hook was used by Big Jim’s Alpinist Joe (1981).

Gygor (unreleased)

Gygor was a proposed reuse of the Big Jim Gorilla from the Jungle Adventure set (1973). The idea was to cast the gorilla in yellow and give it a black costume and red cape. Another version of Gygor was drawn in red with silver armor and guns.

Mark Taylor’s “Big Jim He-Man”

This piece was recently put up for auction among a number of concept art illustrations by Mark Taylor. It was called “Big Jim He-Man Variation” on the front, and “He-Man & Horse Int.” on the back. This was apparently an exploration of doing He-Man in the Big Jim scale. This idea never went anywhere, but it’s a striking design. The only visual cues for the traditional He-Man design are the shape of the shield and the colors on the warrior’s costume.

“Good Female” Big Jim concept

Errol McCarthy worked on some Big Jim concepts as the line was winding down. One of them was a female character who had a jet pack, a feathered flight cape, and a pet mechanical falcon. She seems like a cross between the Sorceress and Stratos, both of whom predate McCarthy’s concept here. The similarities are probably coincidental, but I thought it would be worth mentioning.

Changing Outfits

Finally, the other Big Jim theme that was a minor part of MOTU was the concept of characters changing outfits. The early “Fighting Foe-Men” mini comic treatment by Don Glut emphasized the changing of outfits in order to obtain different powers. Below are some examples from the text:

BEAST-MAN — Another native of Eternia’s jungles whose tribe — or pack — has seemingly always been at war with their natural enemies, the human tribe of He-Man. Beast-Man has formidable strength, but it is his ferocity that makes him a natural leader. He has the agility of a gorilla. But when he dons his various costumes, he takes on the powers of other animals — the speed of a gazelle, the charging force of a rhino, etc. Beast-Man, though he despises He-Man’s tribe, yearns to take one or more of its females as a bride. He is totally evil and corrupt. His only redeeming quality is the “love” he bears for his own race, though it is actually more like instinct than any real emotion. His voice is gutteral, almost a growl.

WING-MAN (alternative name: Air-Man) — One of the last of a race of mountain-dwelling beings who have mastered the air. Wing-Man is a denizen of mountain peaks hidden high above Eternia’s clouds. He utilizes a flying craft equipped with various weapons resembling characters of flying creatures — a deafening bird’s cry siren, a hornet’s sting, etc. But he can fly without use of the craft, thanks to a set of foldable wings — including a set of bird’s wings, bat’s wings, insect’s wing, etc. He has a good sense of humor and is a natural practical joker, which makes him bearly [sic] tolerable to such brooding characters as He-Man.

He-Man — A native of Eternia, raised by his jungle-dwelling tribe. He is a mass of muscle, with incredible physical strength and a short-fuse-temper. His prowess got him awarded, by the tribe’s elders, a series of fantastic weapons and costumes which they had found in the ruins of a fortress once occupied by Eternia’s pre-war scientists. The costumes augment his strength, each one giving him a single new power — a forcefield, the increased strength of a Hercules, etc. He-Man loves his people, but he craves excitement and adventure, and so has set off on his own. He does not always fight fair and often resorts to underhanded methods to get the job done.

Big Jim came with an assortment of Action Sets that would transform Big Jim figures into different athletes and adventurers. Of course Barbie also came with many different outfits, as did G.I. Joe.

The “change outfits to change powers” idea didn’t go very far in Masters of the Universe. It’s mentioned in some of the first few comics written by Don Glut, but the idea doesn’t really appear again after that to my knowledge. There were eventually a few spare outfits available for the figures, in the form of the 1984 Weapons Pak and the 1986 Jet Sled and Stilt Stalkers sets. The outfits themselves didn’t give the wearers any special powers, however.

Hopefully this has been helpful in making clearer some of the many connections between Big Jim and He-Man! Because of that connection, I’ve gained a greater appreciation for the Big Jim line, even if I missed out on it as a kid.

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