Written by Adam McCombs

Recently one of my connections on social media was asking if there was a resource of all of the vintage cardbacks collected somewhere. While most of them are scattered throughout my site, I thought it might be helpful to collect them in one place.

There are lots and lots of cardback variants, both by country and by release order. My objective isn’t to provide every single last variant (and I certainly do not have scans or photos of them all). My objective is to do all the US cardbacks, and any major variants. Major variants would include things like 8-back vs 12 back reissue versions of the earliest cardbacks, or any major updates to the artwork on the scene at the top or the illustrated instructions on the back of the card. I generally won’t provide variants based on different cross sell art featured on the cardback. For example, a 1983 He-Man 12-back would have different cross sell art compared to a 1984 He-Man 12-back. The character selection changed to reflect whatever was new for the year.

Let’s define cardbacks: for my purposes this won’t include the backs of boxes on large items like Castle Grayskull or Battle Ram. You can find those in my previous “Box Art From A-Z” series. This is the back of the individual figures on blister cards, for the most part. I’ll also include the cardbacks of smaller accessories like Jet Sled, since the back of the packaging was in a very similar format to the standard figures. I’ll also include the backs of the Modulok and Multi-Bot packages, for the same reason. I’m not including gift sets with the regular carded figures – I plan to do a separate article about those later.

I’ll sort the cardbacks in chronological release order to the best of my knowledge. Please note, however, that some figures, like He-Man and Skeletor, were released at the same time. From 1986 to 1987, many figures featured artwork on the front of their cards, so I’ll include shots of the front as well.

Photos and scans in this article come from: Hake’s Auctions, Heritage Auctions, LCG Auctions, Star Crusader, eBay, Deimos and KMKA.

One other quick note: Mosquitor, Ninjor, Scare Glow, Snake Face, Clamp Champ and King Randor were all released late in 1986, but I’m including them here as they are generally grouped with the 1987 wave.

Mosquitor

5-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 1191

As with the other Evil Horde members, Mosquitor’s cardback features only Evil Horde faction toys in the cross sell artwork.

The front of the card featured artwork by Bruce Timm:

Ninjor

12-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 3069

Ninjor continues the trend of placing Snake Men cross sell art in a green scaly background box.

The front of the card features artwork by Bruce Timm:

Scare Glow

12-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 3072

The front of the card featured artwork by Bruce Timm:

Snake Face

9-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 1967

The front of the card features artwork by Bruce Timm:

Clamp Champ

12-back action scene art: unknown
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 3073

The front of the card featured artwork by Bruce Timm:

King Randor

12-back action scene art: unknown
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 3068

The front of the card featured artwork by Bruce Timm:

Blast Attak

8-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 1710

Blast Attak featured only 8 cross sell art characters on the back of his card. Artwork on the front of the card is by Bruce Timm:

Sorceress

8-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 1787

Sorceress featured only 8 cross sell art characters on the back of her card. Artwork on the front of the card is by Bruce Timm:

Sssqueeze

12-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 1417

Artwork on the front of the card is by Bruce Timm:

Buzz-Saw Hordak

8-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 1732

Artwork on the front of the card is by Bruce Timm:

Blade

11-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 3295

Blade and other movie figures had a “To Be Featured In The He-Man Movie!” box for movie-based cross sell art on the back. Artwork on the front is by Bruce Timm: I hope to eventually get a better quality image for this cardback.

Gwildor

10-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 3294

Apologies for the low-quality image. I hope to find a better one. Artwork on the front is by Bruce Timm:

Saurod

11-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 3670

Artwork on the front is by Bruce Timm:

Rotar

11-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 3024

Rotar was released on a deluxe-style card, and features Bruce Timm artwork on the front.

Twistoid

11-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 3024

Twistoid was released on a deluxe-style card, and features Bruce Timm artwork on the front.

Update: I thought it might be a good idea to include also Eldor and He-Ro, who were planned for 1987, but not released. We do have replicas of their cardbacks in the form of the 2019 Super7 recreations, and we also have the original card art for Eldor.

Eldor

4-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 1759

The Eldor cardback featured only cross sell art for Powers of Grayskull toys. The front of the card was a total redesign for the Powers of Grayskull subline.

He-Ro

4-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: Unknown

The He-Ro cardback featured only cross sell art for Powers of Grayskull toys. The front of the card was a total redesign for the Powers of Grayskull subline.

Thank you to the following individuals who are current Patreon supporters!

• Philip O.
• MOTU Origins Cork
• Bryce W.
• Ben M.
• Matthias K.

Cardbacks series: 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988

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