Jukka Issakainen, writer, MYP historian and a longtime fan in the He-Man and She-Ra online community has written an unofficial guide to the 2002 He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon.
If you already have in your collection the unofficial Filmation guide that James Eatock wrote, then here is the 200x companion for you!
The cover art is done by the acclaimed artist Ken Coleman, and the cartoon guide features in its 280+ pages all about the Mike Young Productions’ He-Man info! Detailed synopsis of the 39 episodes (plus one special), 310+ pieces of trivia, 480+ altered/deleted scenes, memorable quotes, reviews and more! If you were ever curious how many times Man-At-Arms ordered Battle positions, or how much did the characters twirl weapons, then this book is for you!
The pre-order window is currently open at least until July 31st, 2021!
The first 50 fans who pre-order the book, will also receive a LIMITED EDITION ART PRINT with their order. Featuring art by Donn Greer, who is responsible for a lot of the promotional and style guide artwork on 2002 He-Man.
So I wanted to briefly write about The Toys of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Way back in 2018 Val Staples and Dan Eardley invited me to contribute to the project, and I was honored and thrilled to be a part of it.
Initially my contribution was to be somewhat limited, basically just taking several of the interviews already published on BattleRamBlog.com, and adding a few new ones based on some contacts that Val gave me. A big thank you to all the great, creative folks who took the time to answer my questions! The full list of people interviewed includes:
Another thing from the blog I thought might be a good inclusion was my Timeline article. Val agreed, and the arcane wizards working behind the scenes were able to create a fantastic layout for it!
Val also suggested that I throw in whatever factoids I could think of for the toy writeups that might help to spice them up. You can see a couple of examples below:
I also ended up writing roughly half of the entries for the Masters of the Universe Classics Section. I don’t often write about that line for the Battle Ram Blog, but despite that I think it’s an elegant and masterful toyline, and it was fun to revisit it for this book. Dan wrote about half of it, but found himself in a time crunch, which is why I came in to finish it.
Finally, I (along with many others!) helped out with some of the copy editing for the book. Having the book in hand, my contributions actually seem less significant. Not because I didn’t put a lot of time into it, but because it’s obvious Dan, Val, Darah, Peter and the rest contributed SO much by comparison! I can’t imagine how much time Dan and Val spent on this project, but I imagine it was many thousands of hours. I’m glad I got to come along for the ride. If you haven’t gotten your copy yet, what are you waiting for?
Buying the exclusive combo pack (which includes a supplemental Character Guide) supports all the contributors to these books: http://toyguide.thepower-con.com. Alternatively, the combo is also available through Big Bad Toy Store.
I want to thank the readers of the Battle Ram Blog for all the time you’ve spent with me exploring He-Man lore. Without your support, I never would have had the chance to contribute to the toy guide. Many of you have been giving helpful comments on the blog and on social media since I started this in 2015, which I always read and always appreciate. So thank you, thank you, thank you!
