Tytus: Heroic Giant Warlord (1988)

Posted on March 8, 2024March 18, 2024 by Adam

Tytus was originally intended for the 1987 line of figures, within the “Powers of Grayskull” subline. However, due to the collapse in US sales for Masters of the Universe that year, it was scrapped for US release and only sold in limited quantities in Europe the following year.

Design & Development

Tytus was designed by Alan Tyler, the artist who also designed He-Ro and Eldor. An early version of his design featured white eyes and a very revealing costume, even by MOTU standards. We see two weapons options in the illustrations below: one with a strange, short club and the other with a clawed capturing weapon. His costume is silver, blue and yellow. The key elements of his metal headband, metal boots, long blond hair and grabbing weapon are in place.

*Images: The Power and The Honor Foundation*

Another take by Tyler gives him more human-looking eyes, and a slightly more substantial costume. This one features red rather than yellow gems.

*Image* *source: The Power and The Honor Foundation*

A heavily cropped final version of the concept was featured in Dark Horse’s 2015 book, The Art of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. He is given a “G” emblem on his chest, representing Grayskull. At the time the name of the protagonist of the Powers of Grayskull series was Grayskull, later changed to He-Ro.

In a piece of concept art to illustrate the idea of Preternia, we do see a heroic-looking giant figure, although this version lacks any chest harness and has brown hair:

Tytus’s final weapon was completed redesigned by Mattel artist David Wolfram. He described the process to me below:

Regarding the Tytus weapon: A lot of the time, the preliminary design group would “hand wave” their way through presentations, leaving the more practical aspect of how something would work to the final design group. This was a classic example. At the product conference to get the approval to go ahead on the project, Larry Renger was demonstrating the feature for Tytus. He had something that resembled a claw, and said it would trap a figure. Of course, in its configuration he had to literally wrap the fingers around it while saying that in the final toy it would work differently. After it was dumped on me, it was pretty apparent that no claw-like accessory would work, due to the difference in configuration of the many figures, and also that anytime you tried to wrap something around a figure, it would just knock it over. For the most part, the one consistency was in the head area, which also coincided with the arc of the downward swing from the giant. I started thinking about ways of trapping things, and the “lobster trap” seemed like the best way to go, and it ended up working out pretty well.
David Wolfram interview with Adam McCombs for The Toys of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

*Revised Tytus weapon designed by David Wolfram. Photo: He-Man.org*

Below is image of an early factory sample of Tytus, which I believe was displayed at a Power-Con convention panel a number of years ago. You can see that the hair on this version is not quite right, and flairs outward in multicolored streaks. But you can also see the updated costume with more substantial harness with Grayskull insignia, furry trunks, and gold, silver and gray color scheme.

*“Tytus would like to speak with your manager about the poor quality pumpkin spice latte he received.” Image shared by Mantisaur82*

Figure & Packaging

The toy was featured in Mattel’s 1987 Catalog, as it had originally been planned for a release that year. Alas, with the cancellation of the toyline, it would only see limited release in Europe, and was delayed to 1988. You can see in the catalog photos the “Body Snatcher” weapon. The catalog text says he has had a spring-action arm feature, but I believe it was actually just a “swing-action arm.” There was a gear connecting the right arm to the head that would make Tytus’ head turn as the arm swung down.

You can see a fairly nice example of Tytus in the images below, sourced from He-Man.org. The figure, like Megator, featured rooted hair and was about 17 inches tall, towering over standard Masters of the Universe figures.

Most Tytus figures were manufactured in Italy. However a very few were manufactured in Mexico. The latter have a Mexico stamp on the back of the belt, while Italian Tytuses don’t have a country name on the figure. A test-shot Mexican Tytus figure was featured in Tomart’s Action Figure digest, below:

You can seen the Mexico (left) vs Italy belts in the images below, originally posted by Matias Lonati:

You can see the details of the “Body Snatcher” weapon in the images below from John Baracani. The capture area featured a rubbery piece with four protrusions that would help to hold onto a standard figure’s head:

You can see a disassembled version of the figure below in a photo by customizer Jon English (MasterEnglish Customs). Note the gear mechanisms connecting the head and right arm.

Tytus was packaged in a large window box with an illustration on the front by William George:

*William George box art. Image via* *He-Man.org/Masters Unbound*. *Originally scanned with window digitally removed by Emiliano Santalucia.*

The back of the box gave a very little bit of information on Tytus while describing his action features. I’m not sure who did the art here:

*Image via* *He-Man.org/Masters Unbound*

There was apparently a Mexico Tytus in US Packaging that surfaced about 14 years ago. You can read about that here.

Background Information

Tytus and Megator were alluded to in some of the development documents for the Preternia/Powers of Grayskull concept. I’ll quote a few passages below:

He-Man was standing on a plain of tall grass. In the distance, he could see great creatures-dinosaurs!–lumbering across the land. On a nearby ridge, a band of giants peacefully prepared a meal. He-Man was in awe. “It is Eternia! It’s filled with all the things the legends had told me! Dinosaurs–and giant men–and… He-Man suddenly leaped back. “SNAKES!”

….

As the battle continued, giants raced down from their lairs in the mountains to join the fray–on both sides. Sorceress pointed to the strongest of them. “He is the leader of the giants who defend Grayskull. His people perform mighty feats that cannot be accomplished by magic. And over there– Sorceress pointed to gigantic robotic beasts that were stalking into the village. “There is King Hiss’s legion of evil giants.”

You can read the documents in their entirety here.

Artwork & Advertising

Errol McCarthy illustrated Tytus in one surviving drawing, below. It may have been done originally for the 1987 Style Guide, but Tytus doesn’t actually appear there, most likely due to his having been dropped from the roster that year.

There were only a couple of print ads for Tytus published in Europe:

Unfortunately, to my knowledge Tytus never appeared in any comic stories or poster artwork. It’s a shame!

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Heroic Warriors

Flying Fists He-Man: Heroic Leader with the Arm-Swinging Action! (1986)

Posted on September 13, 2023December 21, 2023 by Adam

I think I only encountered Flying Fists He-Man once as a kid. I don’t remember being all that impressed – I thought the transition between his neck and his head looked very strange, and the head itself looked off to me. Certainly the action feature was far less interesting to me than his immediate predecessor’s, Thunder Punch He-Man.

*Image source: Nathalie NHT*. *From the 1986 Mattel dealer catalog. This appears to be a hand-painted hard copy/prototype*

Design & Development

In terms of visual design, we get our basic look for Flying Fists He-Man from Ted Mayer. The illustration dates to December 8, 1983, and may be the genesis for both the Battle Armor and Flying Fists He-Man variants, in terms of their appearance.

The action feature itself seems to originate with Roger Sweet, who illustrates it in a concept using the standard He-Man look, and a swinging ball weapon (the page below comes from the Power and the Honor Foundation Catalog):

Update: You can see an early mockup for the figure on the side of the Eternia playset packaging, made using a regular He-Man figure – note the unpainted bracers from the original He-Man. In fact the armor almost looks like it was cropped into the photo somehow. Thanks to Nate for pointing this image out.

In the cross sell art below, we can see the finalized look for the figure, including gold and silver metallic armor, mace and shield. The mace and shield elements would spin as the figure was made to swing its arms back and forth, something that happened automatically was the waist was twisted.

One interesting note on his design – the lower edge of his chest armor features a mirror image of the standard male belt design. This was also something that showed up in an early incarnation of Tri-Klops, as captured in the cross sell artwork:

Figure & Packaging

The first First Flying Fists He-Man newspaper ad appears on February 12, 1986, and he was probably available in stores shortly before then. The packaging of the figure announces him as the “5th Anniversary” He-Man figure, which isn’t quite true. He-Man was originally released in 1982. Maybe their reasoning was that it was the “fifth year” of the line.

Flying Fists He-Man was released on an extra-large, deluxe card. As with the previous year’s Thunder Punch He-Man, the instructional panels are right below the artwork, and then the 12 characters in cross sell art are squeezed in at the bottom. The artwork at the front of the card is by William George, and the scene on the back is by Errol McCarthy:

Subsequent releases of the figure featured a color change to the font on “Flying Fists” on the front:

The figure featured modified arms that were similar to the original He-Man, but subtly different. He also featured greatly enlarged feet for greater stability. He had a lot of vac metal on his costume and accessories, which in toy language is the universal signifier of a “deluxe” figure. He also featured a removable clip on his back that functioned both as a way to store his weapon, and as a handle to help kids get a better grip when using his twisting waist/arm swinging feature. He also had a hard, solid head, which in my opinion reduces the quality of his face compared to the original hollow polyvinyl head. The images below come from eBay, as I don’t have one of these on hand to photograph.

One notable international variant is the Leo India version, as shown by spiritofsnakemountain on Instagram:

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Flying Fists He-Man was also released in a gift set with Terror Claws Skeletor (images via LCG Auctions):

Advertising

Below are a selection of Flying Fist He-Man ad appearances:

*French catalog featuring Flying Fists He-Man*

Flying Fists He-Man was featured the trade ad below, which was originally unearthed at the excellent MOTUC Figures site.

He also appears in the Mattel rebate ad below, which was originally posted on the Battle Grip site:

Artwork

Flying Fists He-Man is featured in a few posters by the following artists:

There was also an unreleased piece by William George that features Flying Fists He-Man and Terror Claws Skeletor fighting over the cosmic key, which was shared some years ago by Roger Mahafy:

Minicomics

The primary minicomic for this variant is The Flying Fists of Power. Interestingly it features Roger Sweet’s rather minimalist concept for the figure, which just looked like a standard He-Man with a spinning mace weapon (updated to three ball ends) and an updated shield. In the story the Sorceress awards He-Man with an additional gift of “energy and spirit.” When He-Man summons the Flying Fists, he will get have additional punching abilities and his spinning mace and shield will appear in his hands. (All minicomic images come from the Dark Horse minicomic book.) (Update: Matthew Martin and Øyvind Meisford note that Flying Fists He-Man also appears in King of the Snake Men and Enter: Buzz-Saw Hordak.)

In The Terror Claws Strike he get a rather amusing visual depiction of He-Man’s flying fists power. In this comic the ability isn’t necessarily tied to the weapons. It’s really unclear how this is a new ability for He-Man, because he did similar things in the Filmation cartoon all the time. It doesn’t make a lot of sense narratively, although it does get the action feature across.

Flying Fists He-Man, still in his concept look, also appears in the unpublished Return From Terror Island Comic:

Flying Fists He-Man in Action

Øyvind Meisfjord has shared the following image, and video of Flying Fists He-Man in action. Enjoy!

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Heroic Warriors

Rotar: Heroic Master of Hyper-Spin (1987)

Posted on April 29, 2023April 29, 2023 by Adam

Like many figures from the 1987 wave of figures, I never once encountered Rotar either in a toy store or at a friend’s house. He was a gimmick-heavy figure that was produced in low numbers at the tail end of the line, and so is one of the more expensive figures to find used today.

Design & Development

Unfortunately I don’t have much information about the design history of Rotar. I can share some dates from public filings involving Rotar, as well as the date of the earliest ad I’ve been able to find for the figure:

• 06/23/1986: Rotar/Twistoid patent filed
• 09/30/1986: Rotar first use in commerce filing
• 10/06/1986: Rotar trademarked
• 11/11/1987: First Rotar newspaper ad

The only seeming evolution in design I can detect in the extant artwork is a variant in the chest details in the Bruce Timm illustration that appeared on the front of the packaging. The “V” shaped area around the chin guard is silver rather than flesh-colored, and the rectangular silver area on his belly has a simpler design that what was featured in the actual toy. Also he is missing the crest on his helmet that appeared on the toy. I believe this is probably indicative of an earlier concept design. Some of these features also appear in his minicomic, which I will cover later.

Image courtesy of Jukka Issakainen

Figure & Packaging

Rotar came with a few different accessories. He had a combined axe/ball-and-chain weapon to help him knock down enemies. He had a pedestal that he could stand on while spinning, and he had sword/gear gadget called a “Roto-Pod.” After revving up Rotar’s spinning action (done manually by dragging the top point across the floor), Rotar could be placed on any of the gears on the Roto-Pod, which would cause all of them to spin. Any of the gears could be separated from the sword-shaped base and revved up and launched manually via Rotar’s spinning mechanism.

*Image Source: Transformerland*. *Note this example has lost the tip of his spinner.*

The patent filing for Rotar went into some detail about how the mechanism worked, and included a few images. The mechanism was invented by Michael Crosby.

Rotar was packed on an oversized, deluxe card. The front features an illustration by Bruce Timm, while the back is illustrated by Errol McCarthy.

Rotar and Twistoid were both packed with this instruction booklet (images via He-Man.org):

There seems to have been a different set of instructions, with different illustrations and layout, in the Spanish release. (Image source: Mundo Masters).

*Image source: Mundo Masters. Cleaned up by Jukka Issakainen*

Backstory & Comics

Rotar appeared in the 1987 style guide, where he was given a backstory. My version was almost unreadable, but thankfully Jukka Issakainen was able to provide me with a legible version:

ROLE: Heroic Energy Droid.

POWER: Ability to store up immense amounts of energy, then burst out in a super spinning action, plowing over warriors and taking on evil Energy Droids.

CHARACTER PROFILE: Rotar was created by Man-At-Arms as a high-energy advance scout to be used when the Heroic Warriors needed to clear a path in dangerous terrain. Rotar, who is half-human, also proved to a be a very talented warrior. (When Skeletor saw the droid’s prowess, he stole the plans from Man-At-Arms and built his own Energy Droid – See Evil Warriors section.)

*Original Errol McCarthy illustration. Source: The Power and the Honor Foundation*

Rotar came packaged with a minicomic entitled “Energy Zoids!” As in the style guide entry, he was”created” by Man-At-Arms. But the comic adds the detail that he was a wounded solder who was healed inside Man-At-Arms’ gyro machine. Rotar has the simpler chest design seen in the Bruce Timm art, but his other details follow the design of the final toy.

He also appears in issue 8 (1988) of the Italian Magic Boy magazine, in a story called “RadioSabbotagio.” It’s a bit of a bizarre opening. Rotar, Roboto and Extendar are in an earth-like park in an earth-like city. They are trying to impress three earth-like women. Just as they are starting to win the women over, they suddenly start attacking them. It turns out that Skeletor used some kind of radio transmitter to gain control of them, causing them to attack their would-be dates, and then He-Man.

Artwork & Advertisements

Rotar appears in William George’s 1987 Preternia poster:

He appeared in a handful of ads, the majority of which seem to have been published in Europe:

*From a 1989 Marvel Star Comics story released in Spain*

Rotar in Actions

Thanks to Øyvind Meisfjord for providing the image and video below showcasing Rotar and Twistoid in action!

Heroic Warriors, History

Heroic Mer-Man, Evil Stratos?

Posted on August 2, 2021April 2, 2024 by Adam

I’ve mentioned this briefly before in the blog, but I thought this topic deserved its own post. It’s well known that early on in the development of the Masters of the Universe line, allegiances of certain characters were in flux. One of the most dramatic examples of that is Zodac, who is at times presented as heroic, neutral and evil in official Masters packaging, comics and cartoons. I go over that in depth in my post about Zodac. The history of Stratos and Mer-Man is actually similar, but the details are a bit murkier.

The very earliest surviving characterizations of Mer-Man peg him as a Heroic Warrior. In an early draft by Don Glut for what would eventually become the first minicomics (using the title “Fighting Foe Men” as the name of the line), Mer-Man is listed among the Heroic Warriors and is given this backstory:

MER-MAN (alternative name: Sea-Man) — The last survivor of an extraterrestrial race of water-dwellers. When his water-world was drawn into its sun by the force of gravity and evaporated, Mer-Man — a scaly humanoid with fishlike gills and fins — escaped to Eternia and took residence in its seas. There this intelligent being took command of the sea’s creatures. He can exist on land, where his strength, accustomed to the pressures of the sea’s depths, is increased — but extreme heat can dehydrate him, weakening and eventually killing him.
Don Glut

The same story also groups Stratos (who was called Wing Man at the time) with the Heroic Warriors:

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.
Don Glut

An early internal Mattel document, as seen in The Power of Grayskull documentary, explicitly affiliates Mer-Man with He-Man, but is non-committal about Stratos.

In a series of early promotional slides intended to generate buzz about the new line (called “Lords of Power” at the time), Mer-Man is grouped with the Heroic Warriors. Skeletor and Beast Man seem to be the only Evil Warriors here.

Even in Mattel’s 1982 dealer catalog, the only figures explicitly called out as evil are Skeletor and Beast Man. Stratos, Mer-Man and Zodac at this point seem to be in a category apart from either the Heroic or Evil Warriors. Perhaps the idea was to leave it ambiguous and let kids decide how to use them.

At around the same time, Mattel put out a kit for manufacturers of licensed products, intending to direct them how to use the Masters of the Universe brand in their products. In here we see Stratos as a villain. Mer-Man is given no specific allegiance.

The minicomics that came with the first figures always characterize Mer-Man as evil. From that point on Mer-Man is solidly in the Evil Warriors camp. However in Stratos’ first appearance in the comics, he is shown with the Evil Warriors. Thereafter he is always grouped with the heroes.

In a 1982 JCPenney catalog, Stratos and Beast Man are listed together as a set, described as “Winged sky baron, and his savage henchman.” JCPenney sold many unique figure two-packs, although I’ve never seen any other evidence of this particular set, or the Man-At-Arms/Zodac set either. You can browse these gift sets here.

In the first Mattel Masters of the Universe France catalog, we see a description of Beast Man that indicates he is a “companion” of Stratos.

Stratos himself is described as half-man, half ape, and very strong:

Mer-Man, meanwhile, is described as the companion of He-Man:

Finally, we see in 1983 and beyond an attempt to further solidify the two factions in Masters of the Universe. To that end, Mer-Man is given the title “Evil ocean warlord” rather than his original “Ocean warlord,” and Stratos is called “Heroic winged warrior rather than his original “Winged warrior”: