Written by Adam McCombs

One of the best things about getting new He-Man toys as a kid was the box art. The toys were of course amazing and fun, but personally I spent almost as much time staring at the boxes as playing with the toys. I remember being pretty heartbroken when my mother made me throw away my Castle Grayskull and Battle Ram boxes. She saw them as clutter, but for me they were almost stories in and of themselves. You could see whole adventures unfolding in a single painted scene.

Unfortunately, good photographs or scans of the original art are not available for every piece. If you happen to have a nicer images than I do (higher resolution, better composition, etc), please do feel free to share, and I’ll make an update! For pictures of the packaging itself, a neutral (white or black) background is preferred. High resolution scans of the artwork, where it appears without logos, would be ideal. Bottom line – if you have better images than I do, please share them!

One final note: I’m defining box art as the front-facing painted artwork that appeared on boxed Masters of the Universe toys. The illustrations on blister card packaging, then, are outside the scope of this series.

Part Six: 1987

Name: Beam-Blaster & Artilleray
Year: 1987
Artist: William George
Description: In a shadowy desert scene, He-Man uses the Beam-Blaster to “blast” Hordak from his position on the Artilleray vehicle.

Name: Bionatops
Year: 1987
Artist: Warren Hile
Description: He-Man charges into battle atop the mighty Bionatops.

Name: Cliff Climber Power Gear
Year: 1987
Artist: William George
Description: Man-At-Arms scales a rocky cliff face with the Roto-Drill attachment at the ready; He-Man uses the Cliff Climber’s chest crawler feature to zoom down the mountain as Skeletor loses his footing. An enormous moon illuminates a range of pointed rock formations in the background.

Name: Gyrattacker (unproduced)
Year: 1987
Artist: William George
Description: Rotar launches the attack module (piloted by He-Man) at Twistoid. He-Man zooms off into the crater-filled desert landscape.

Name: Scubattack Power Gear
Year: 1987
Artist: William George
Description: Skeletor explores the murky depths of an Eternian ocean using the Scubattack. In a separate scene, Faker and Clamp Champ, both equipped with Scubattacks, engage in underwater combat as a vicious-looking eel looks on.

Name: Tower Tools Power Gear
Year: 1987
Artist: William George
Description: He-Man scales castle walls using Power Tools, as Prince Adam and Clamp Champ battle Ninjor far below. Sy-Klone and Terror Claws Skeletor battle on upper levels of the castle using Tower Tools circular saw attachments.

Name: Turbodactyl
Year: 1987
Artist: Warren Hile
Description: Turbodactyl, guided be He-Ro (unproduced), catches King Hiss in his claws. Several other Turbodactyls soar above a rocky cliff face.

Name: Tyrantisaurus Rex
Year: 1987
Artist: Warren Hile
Description: King Hiss launches a Dyna-Drone from the mighty Tyrantisaurus Rex.

More in this series:

• Part One: 1982 | Part Two: 1983 | Part Three: 1984 | Part Four: 1985
• Part Five: 1986 | Part Six: 1987 | Part Seven: 1988

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