Recently I got a packet of Power Tour promotional materials that Danielle Gelehrter generously sent to me. I’ve been meaning to scan them and share them with all of you. No time like the present! I did not see the Power Tour as a kid, and I didn’t find out about it until I was an adult. It was basically a traveling Masters of the Universe musical. The show was written by Gary Goddard and Richard Hoag, with music composed by Gary Guttman. According to Matthew Martin, the show toured throughout the US from 1986 to 1987. You can actually watch a video of the performance online, uploaded by cast member Gus Park: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6nyQ7OmzBQ
Danielle sent a folder with the Power Tour/MOTU logo on the front. Inside was a flyer advertising the event, some promo photos, and a press packet. I’ll start with the flyer and the photos. You can click on each photo in the galleries below to enlarge them.
Flyer frontFlyer back
Here are the individual photos:
The press materials provide a bio for Jack and Leslie Wadsworth, who played He-Man and She-Ra, respectively. However the other cast members were not mentioned. According to the Power Tour fan site, the full cast included:
He-Man: Jack Wadsworth
She-Ra: Leslie Wadsworth
Songster: Doug Howard
Man-At-Arms: Zack Hoffman
Sorceress and Adora: Sally Ann Bartunek
Beast Man: Jeff Biggs
Rio Blast: Darrin Clubb
King Randor: Joseph Davis
Orko: Marcie Dinardo
Clamp Champ: Michael Jefferson
Rokkon: Kevin Langston
Evil-Lyn and Queen Marlena: Michelle Nevidomsky
Teela and Jeweled Toy: Stacy Oversier
Ninjor: August “Gus” Park
Hordak and Snout Spout: Khalos Planchart
Skeletor: Eric Van Baars
Captain Morrison: Richard Hoag
Here are the press releases and various written materials included in the folder. Click each image to enlarge:
Years ago someone uploaded a copy of the actual program to Issuu, which I am also including below:
Here are some miscellaneous materials that were sent to Danielle by cast member Gus Park, who played Ninjor:
And finally, courtesy of Elsmasef, here is the actual script for the Power Tour stage play! You can download it as a PDF here.
Many thanks to Danielle and Elsmasef for sharing this material with the rest of the world!
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Written by Adam McCombs with additional commentary by Jukka Issakainen
One of the most persistent areas of contention about the history of Masters of the Universe (particularly in online discussion) is what connection He-Man has, if any, to Conan the Barbarian. In this article I will explore the historical connections and separate fact from speculation or outright fiction.
I got into the Masters of the Universe fandom as an adult in December of 2012. While I frequently read through old articles and discussion threads on places like He-Man.org, I was not there when many of them first came out. Jukka Issakainen, who was involved in the fandom since the 1990s, recalls what the atmosphere was like in the early days:
“The information on He-Man and Conan connection was more… hazy back in the older times if you were a fan stepping online for the first time as early as 2001 or 1999 and looked up any web-pages dedicated to He-Man. Looking back now, we as a fandom have been able to uncover a ton of information and history about the concepts for figures, evolving character designs on cartoon series and more. But back then the information was sparse, and the few websites that were out there had the potential to share faulty information. Certain sites perpetuated the idea that ‘the toy mega manufacturer Mattel reportedly was working on a line of “Conan the Barbarian” action figures. Somewhere along the line, however, somebody in the Marketing department must have decided that an uncivilized pagan sword-wielding barbarian might not be the ideal role model for children, and so the toy line was converted into the “Masters of the Universe” series of toys.’
“The other, similar myths spread online talked about how Mattel made a deal to produce Conan toy line and had gotten as far as making the first couple figures, when the film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger was released May 14th, 1982 in North America and the Mattel people went to see the film, only to be shocked how much blood, violence and sex was in the film. So as a result, they quickly “changed the hair color from brown to blonde and called it Masters of the Universe”. And these types statements can be met even now in 2024 online.”
Jukka Issakainen
Conan the Destroyer, by Frank Frazetta
To really understand why those fan theories are not correct, we first need to understand the relevant timeline. Below is a section from my MOTU Timeline research, based on dates from concept art, Mattel documents, and the CPI vs Mattel court case filings. This research was published in the Dark Horse book, The Toys of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. However, I’ve added more items since the book was published as I’ve continued to document more dates from additional sources. The He-Man related items are in blue, the Conan related items are in red. Update: an additional piece of Conan-related artwork by Mark Taylor has surfaced, which is dated to 1980. This predates Mattel actually negotiating or getting the license for Conan. I’m not sure why Mark was working on it so early, except perhaps someone in Marketing wanted to explore the idea first before going to CPI.
He-Man and Conan Timeline
1971: “The King of Styx” (precursor to Skeletor) concept, by Mark Taylor
1979: First Castle Grayskull sketch, by Mark Taylor
1979: Torak (precursor to He-Man) sketch, by Mark Taylor
08/15/1979: Category Management Teams memo
05/22/1980: Fantasy Make Believe idea disclosure form
06/11/1980: Male Action Figure attributes list
09/08/1980: Figure Attributes list
09/21/1980: Space/Monster/Fantasy Figures budgeted hours form
11/03/1980: Megaton Man project request form
11/??/1980: Work started on “He-Man trio”, Roger Sweet; Barbarian He-Man based on illustration by Mark Taylor (late November)
12/??/1980: He-Man trio presented at Mattel Product Conference (mid-December)
12/30/1980: He-Man Characters & Accessories idea disclosure form
??/??/1980: Early Conan-related design by Mark Taylor, pre-CPI agreement
1981: Bird Man (Stratos) concept, by Mark Taylor
1981: Mer-Man concept, by Mark Taylor
1981: Castle Grayskull concept, by Mark Taylor
1981: Battle Cat concept, by Mark Taylor
1981: Sensor (Zodac) concept, by Mark Taylor
1981: Battle Tester/Combat Trainer concept, by Mark Taylor
1981: Heroic Figure (He-Man) concept, by Mark Taylor (early 1981)
1981: Heroic Figure (He-Man) battles plant monster concept, by Mark Taylor (early 1981)
01/06/1981: He-Man Vehicles and Accessories idea disclosure form (modular vehicles)
01/23/1981: Drawing by Colin Bailey depicting Mark Taylor working on He-Man project
03/30/1981: De-Man (Skeletor) concept, by Mark Taylor
04/01/1981: Man-At-Arms concept, by Mark Taylor
04/02/1981: Tree Man (Beast Man) concept, by Mark Taylor
04/06/1981: He-Man (tan boots) concept, by Mark Taylor
04/07/1981: Battle Ram (tank treads version) concept, by Ted Mayer
04/24/1981: Memorandum urging negotiation for Conan license
04/27/1981: Revised Battle Ram concept art drawings, by Ted Mayer
05/03/1981: He-Man (red/yellow boots) concept, by Mark Taylor
05/05/1981: CPI (Conan Properties International) draft licensing agreement sent
05/20/1981: Skull Castle (Castle Grayskull) Weapons Rack & Weapons by Mark Taylor
05/28/1981: Female Warrior (Teela) concept, by Mark Taylor
05/28/1981: Battle Ram control drawing, by Ted Mayer
06/03/1981: Sorceress concept, by Mark Taylor
06/05/1981: Battle Chariot concept, by Ted Mayer
07/??/1981: He-Man designed by this month, per CPI vs Mattel lawsuit
07/09/1981: Draft Skeletor toy head design document
07/14/1981: Memorandum discussing Mattel’s presentation of He-Man to Toys ‘R’ Us
07/23/1981: Tony Guerrero worked on Conan toys from this date until Sept 11, 1981
07/31/1981: CPI and Mattel entered license agreement to manufacture toys based on Conan movie
09/16/1981: Mer-Man sword design concept, by Mark Taylor
09/30/1981: “Proprietary Line Concepts” document (Megaton Man, Kid Gallant, Robin & The Space Hoods, Monster Fantasy/He-Man)
1982: Gargo/Gargoyle dragon concept, by Mark Taylor
1982: Ram Man concept, by Mark Taylor
1982: Man-E-Faces concept, by Mark Taylor
01/??/1982: Mattel requests termination of Conan license agreement
02/17/1982: Mattel introduces new “Masters of the Universe” toy line at Toy Fair
03/01/1982: Rebate offer date in first mini comic (earliest purchase date)
03/04/1982: Attak Trak control drawing, by Ted Mayer
03/23/1982: Attak Trak concept, by Ted Mayer
04/08/1982: DC Comics: From Eternia With Death! street date. Cover date: July 1982
05/??/1982: Masters of the Universe toyline released this month, per Mattel EVP Joe Morrison
05/13/1982: Earliest known newspaper ad for MOTU
05/13/1982: First Skeletor newspaper ad
05/13/1982: First Man-At-Arms newspaper ad
05/13/1982: First He-Man newspaper ad
05/13/1982: First Beast Man newspaper ad
05/21/1982: Trap Jaw concept, by Colin Bailey
06/03/1982: First Battle Ram newspaper ad
06/03/1982: First Battle Cat newspaper ad
06/03/1982: First Castle Grayskull newspaper ad (“Castle Grey Skull”)
06/03/1982: First Stratos newspaper ad (pictured, not named)
06/03/1982: First Zodac newspaper ad (pictured, not named)
06/09/1982: First Teela newspaper ad
06/18/1982: First Stratos newspaper ad (mentioned by name)
07/05/2022: CPI and Mattel entered into a termination agreement
As you can see from the above timeline, Mattel and Mark Taylor seem to have been developing He-Man before they began work on the Conan toy line. Conan was of course created in the 1930s by Robert E. Howard, first published as a series of stories in the Weird Tales magazine. Conan would not see an official comic adaptation until 1970, in the Marvel Conan the Barbarian series. A decade later, Mattel sought out the Conan license in 1981 based on the fact that Universal Pictures was working on the Conan the Barbarian film, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Given the explicit nature of the film, it was decided to not go through with the toy line after all.
He-Man has his roots in Mark Taylor’s childhood. Inspired by Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars and Tarzan, Mark started drawing a heroic warrior character from the age of 11, which would have been sometime around 1952.
“When I was inside at Mattel… I was so bored because it was so slow. I started… taking some of the stuff I had started when I was 11 years old and just drawing it for fun because they had all the supplies I needed. And so I started going back to drawing this character I had drawn… Torak.”
Mark Taylor, interviewed by Matt Jozwiak, 2006
Mark Taylor’s Torak drawing, 1979. Image shared by Rebecca Salari Taylor. King of Styx, by Mark Taylor, 1971
Later, when Mattel was looking to create a new boys action figure line to compete with Star Wars, Mark’s Torak character was used as a jumping-off point for the creation of He-Man. After it was presented to management by both Mark Taylor and Roger Sweet, Mark was tasked with designing the initial 1982 series of toys.
The Mattel Conan Line
While Mark was busy working on the He-Man line, Marketing decided to reach out to CPI (Conan Properties International) about making a line of Conan toys based on the upcoming movie. If Mattel had gone forward with the Conan license, what would the toys have looked like? Well, they would have looked nothing like the hyper-muscled 5.5″ He-Man figures. Instead, Mattel was planning to reuse their Big Jim figures for the Conan line, but with new heads, outfits and accessories. How do we know that was the plan? That was the finding in the CPI vs Mattel lawsuit. In 1984, CPI unsuccessfully sued Mattel because they believed He-Man to be too similar to their Conan character. From the lawsuit:
“CPI and Mattel consummated their deal on July 31. In the meantime, Mattel’s employees had continued work on a Conan doll. Mattel’s marketing department decided early in June that Mattel should attach the Conan heads to the torsos of Mattel’s “Big Jim,” a doll with less exaggerated muscles, and a body closer to that of the average weightlifter (though not, apparently, to that of Arnold Schwarzenegger, see Affidavit of Mimi Shapiro ¶¶ 7-9 (May 19, 1988)). Memorandum from Joe Morrison to Mark Ellis (June 3, 1981). Guerrero then worked on the Conan doll from July 23, 1981, to September 21.” Conan Properties, Inc. v. Mattel, Inc., 712 F. Supp. 353 | Casetext Search + Citator
Incidentally, He-Man’s body was influenced by Schwarzenegger’s build, but the directive was to sculpt a figure that would “make Arnold Schwarzenegger look like a wimp.” Years later Roger Sweet reiterated that the plan for Conan was to reuse Big Jim as the basic building block of the figures:
“I’ll tell you there’s another factor in relation to Conan. When Mattel got the Conan property they were going to take a Big Jim figure and put Arnold Schwarzenegger’s head on it and dress it in plastic armor reminiscent of Conan, and so that would have been Mattel’s idea of a incredibly strong figure.”
Roger Sweet, Masters of the Universe Chronicles, July 2010
Mattel’s Big Jim was a line of 10 inch dolls similar to the original 1960s G.I. Joe dolls. Scan via Star Toys on Facebook.
Mark Taylor thought the idea to do a Conan line was foolish. He said:
“We didn’t want to get into a lawsuit with Conan, which of course we did anyway because some marketing guy screwed up and went to the Conan people and offered to do their their toy line after we’d already started He-Man. It was a big flap…
“I’d read the Conan, of course, but I was no more influenced by him than I was Mark Twain or Hal Foster or any of the people that have written these kind of adventure stories. Conan was just another one that I read. And I read John Carter of Mars too. I was probably at least influenced by that Burroughs story as I was any other one.”
Mark Taylor, 2006 interview with Matt Jozwiak
Having said that, the same two key figures designing and sculpting the He-Man line (Mark Taylor designing, Tony Guerrero sculpting) also worked on the ill-fated Conan line. My understanding for the last five or six years has been that the drawing by Mark Taylor below, commonly called “Vikor” by fans, was actually Mark’s design for the Mattel Conan line. It has so many hallmarks of Conan, and very few hallmarks of any of the various concept versions of He-Man. As I recall, a Facebook post on this topic by preeminent MOTU historian Emiliano Santalucia years ago is what first made me reconsider who this character was really supposed to be.
“Vikor,” Mark Taylor
The So-Called “Wonder Bread” He-Man
Earlier Jukka alluded to fan theory about “Savage He-Man” or “Special Edition He-Man.” (Side note: this figure is often called by the misnomer “Wonder Bread He-Man,” based on a debunked theory that the figure was a giveaway through a Wonder Bread promotion.) The theory goes that the figure’s brown hair indicated that it was really supposed to be a Conan figure, but it was repainted after Mattel decided to drop Conan. Supposedly Mattel then quickly created the He-Man character, changed the paint colors, and et voilà, He-Man was born. We know from the timeline and the information about the Big Jim reuse that this theory can’t be true.
There’s another reason why this theory isn’t true. The physical characteristics of “Savage He-Man” are more consistent with the late 1982 Taiwan He-Man figures (and to some early Prince Adam figures), and not consistent at all with the very first Taiwan He-Man figures from Spring 1982, which had a few idiosyncratic artifacts. They were idiosyncratic because the factory was still getting up to speed on Mattel’s specifications for their MOTU line. The artifacts of the very first “Test Market” He-Man figures include an irregularly painted boot top using a paint mask, and a very irregularly molded belly button. Savage He-Man has the straight line of paint on his boots from the updated paint dipping process, and a corrected belly button, which are hallmarks of He-Man figures released in late 1982/early 1983. And indeed we know from internal Mattel correspondence and newspaper ads that this figure was promoted in the Spring of 1983 and shipped by Summer 1983.
Savage He-Man aka Special Edition He-ManFirst release Taiwan He-Man with the characteristic boot and belly button artifacts.
A related theory goes that Mattel lost the court case with CPI, and so had to dump their leftover “Conan” figures. That’s obviously not true either. In addition to the facts already discussed, Mattel won the case, and the lawsuit was in 1984 – the Special Edition/Savage He-Man came out in 1983.
Influence from Frazetta, Conan and others
Despite everything written above about the distance between Mattel’s efforts on Conan and their efforts on He-Man, Conan was definitely one influence on the He-Man toy. In fact, some of the early documents related to the creation of the line specifically call out that influence!
The influences for He-Man and the Masters of the Universe are called out by name: Frazetta, Conan, Flash Gordon and Star Wars.Side note:Mark said that Zodac was influenced by Flash Gordon. Image source: The Power and the Honor Foundation.
And indeed, once Mark’s Torak drawing was developed into a new action figure called He-Man, elements frequently painted by Frazetta were brought in, including the horned helmet, which appears in early He-Man concept art and in the first Tony Guerrero He-Man prototype:
He-Man prototype sculpted by Tony Guerrero. Image: The Power and the Honor FoundationHe-Man B-sheet by Mark Taylor, published jointly by Super7 and the Power and the Honor Foundation. Scan courtesy of Axel Giménez.
When I recently addressed the semi-popular fan theory that Masters of the Universe was a kind of revamped Jack Kirby line, I reached out to Ted Mayer (designer of the Battle Ram and Wind Raider who worked on MOTU from the beginning) to ask if anyone had been talking about Kirby when creating He-Man. Ted said that Jack Kirby wasn’t mentioned, but that everyone was talking about Frank Frazetta. Frazetta of course painted Conan and similar adventurers with a dynamic and dramatic style.
“I never heard anyone mention the comic series while we were working on He-Man. The only subject that came up was Frank Frazetta, but that was only in the background, his books were out and every designer was looking at them. All this of course was in the visual design area, I cannot speculate if marketing was looking at this, but I doubt it!”
Ted Mayer
In fact, the Frazetta influenced wasn’t just on He-Man – it was also on the packaging art. Mark Taylor specifically hired Rudy Obrero for his ability to produce Frazetta-style box art:
Then soon after I got a call from Mark Taylor to do some “Frazetti” (his words) type of packaging. It was like, let’s not totally do Frazetta, but sorta like maybe “Frazetti”. That’s how it began. To be clear, I love Mr. Frazetta’s work. If you look at my body of work you will notice that the only time I went “Frazetti” is on the MOTU stuff. And because it was a fitting style for it.
Battle Cat was Rudy Obrero’s first project on Masters of the Universe
So, to sum up:
He-Man did not start out as a Conan line
Mattel started developing He-Man well prior to thinking about doing a Conan line
The Mattel Conan figure, if it had been made, would have been much taller and lankier than He-Man figures
So-called “Wonder Bread He-Man” has no connection to any Conan line
He-Man was definitely influenced by Conan, especially as interpreted by Frazetta
He-Man and Masters of the Universe were also influenced by Star Wars, Flash Gordon, Prince Valiant, John Carter and other properties
There was a deliberate effort make the box art resemble the style of Frank Frazetta
Hopefully this has been helpful! I’ve gotten a lot of comments about this topic whenever I bring it up online and several people have requested I cover it in an in-depth article. Please feel free to ask any questions you have in the comments!
Post script: Jukka has some fun Conan/Frazetta related trivia below:
2002 Masters of the Universe comic Trivia by Jukka Issakainen
When the good folks over at MVCreations were working on the Masters of the Universe comic, Val Staples put in a lot of effort to acquire many talented artists, and “invest the money” to do the variant covers for He-Man [check out the cover collection in this post]. Among them included Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell, Drew Struzan, Frank Quitely, J. Scott Campbell and many others.
One artist that fans would have loved to have seen, was naturally Frank Frazetta. Accordingly Val Staples did reach out and managed to speak with Frank’s son about doing a cover illustration. It was mentioned in the Roast Gooble Dinner-podcast episode #74:
“I talked with Frank’s son about it, and he talked to his dad about it and Frank Frazetta was interested. But the problem was that at that point… his health was not in that great condition. He just, he couldn’t commit because it was just too much of a project, and I almost made it happen.”
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Danielle Gelehrter has long been one of the most prominent contributors to Masters of the Universe to come out of the fan community. A long-time member of the He-Man.org forums (and before that, a member of the Guardians of Grayskull mailing list in the 1990’s), she was also a co-host of the popular Roast Gooble Dinner podcast. She did quite a few interviews with Mattel creators that were published on He-Man.org. From there she contributed (with research, writing, photography, scanning and/or proofreading) to most of the great Masters of the Universe books that have come out in the last decade, including:
The Power and the Honor Foundation Vol. 1 Catalog
The Art of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Minicomic Collection
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe – A Character Guide and World Compendium
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: The Newspaper Comic Strips
The Toys of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
Character Guide and World Compendium Supplement Vol. 1
Danielle contributed to the Battle Ram Blog in the interview we conducted together with Mark DiCamillo. She and Eric Marshall co-wrote the Masters of the Universe Classics toy packaging bios and the digital “Masters Mondays” bios in an official capacity after the departure of Scott Neitlich from Mattel. She also created a horror-themed character called the Crimson Countess who appeared in those bios. In short, you won’t find any fan with more MOTU bonafides than Danielle.
Image courtesy of Danielle Gelehrter
Having said that, Danielle is also a popular horror hostess under the name of Penny Dreadful, and she hosted the television show “Shilling Shockers” from 2006-2016. Currently, she hosts the Terror at Collinwood Dark Shadows podcast. She has been a fan of all things creepy and ghoulish her whole life, and you’ll find her focused mostly on that area of fandom these days.
Why the backstory about Danielle? She was kind enough to send me a box of materials she collected over the course of her research. Much of it came from her work as the lead researcher for the Newspaper Comic Strips book. I was blown away by her generosity and by the fascinating material she sent me, and I will be working over the next months to share that material with you.
To begin with, I’ll be covering three items included in the box from Danielle. They are photos of prototypes/hard copies for Scare Glow, Ninjor and Blast Attak. They are pretty close to final in regards to the looks of the actual toys, but there are some differences, which I will discuss shortly. First, here’s Danielle’s description of the three photos:
Those photos were given to me by Chris Weber and Karen Willson. They were in their files and given to them by Mattel for reference when they were working on the comics strip. They used all three of them in the storyline, ‘Ninjor Strikes by Night’. So those are original ’80’s Mattel reference photos.
For reference, Chris Weber was a writer for the He-Man newspaper comic strip series, and Karen Willson was the editor. A couple of pages from the “Ninjor Strikes by Night” story as they appeared in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: The Newspaper Comic Strips are represented below:
Images courtesy of Jukka Issakainen
All right, so let’s take a look at the reference material that Mattel sent to Weber and Willson!
Update: in searching through a stack of photocopied correspondence between MOTU newspaper strip writer Chris Weber and Mattel, I found a few more references related to these toys. First are three text descriptions of each of the three toys. The descriptions are mostly the same as those found in the 1987 Style Guide, with a couple of differences. Beyond the description of the character, there is also a description of the toy and its features. I’m adding scans of each of them after the prototype photos. Also there was a black and white photocopy of Blast Attak’s concept art included with the documents, which I have scanned and will include in the corresponding section below.
Scare Glow
Scare Glow is quite interesting. You can tell that the figure is really just a standard Skeletor or similar figure that has been painted by hand, and given a new head. Because the white had been painted on, it’s quite brilliantly white, more so than the glow-in-the-dark plastic of the actual figure. You can see the paint starting to peel/crack around the tops of the legs. The paint pattern around the knees is a bit different than the actual figure.
Probably the most obvious difference is his halberd weapon (or “scythe of doom”), which has been painted black. The white paint of the figure’s hand has rubbed off on the weapon, as you can see. In the US his weapon would be cast in bright green, and in Europe it was usually cast in glow-in the dark white. The cape is similar to the production version, except the elastic at the neck is white. The production figure also got the Dragon Blaster Skeletor legs with the enlarged feet, while the prototype has the original Skeletor legs. The figure was designed by David Wolfram. You can read more about the history of Scare Glow here. (I haven’t yet added this prototype image to my original Scare Glow article, but I will do so soon.)
Ninjor is quite a clean prototype or hard copy. I can’t tell if it’s another Skeletor figure painted over, or if it’s actually been cast in black plastic at Mattel. I suspect the latter because of the cleanness of the black on his arms and legs. You can tell that his sword is the Jitsu katana that has been painted silver – it has lost some of the paint at the handle and the original orange is showing through. His bow is a repaint of the accessory that came with the Eternia playset. His only new molded parts are his head and his nunchucks. The big difference between this prototype and the production Ninjor is the emblem on his shirt – it’s much more crude on this prototype, compared to the final toy. He also has the original Skeletor legs with the smaller feet, while the final toy got the larger feet of the Dragon Blaster Skeletor legs. The figure was designed by David Wolfram. Eventually I’ll update my original article with this new prototype image.
Mass-produced Ninjor figure with updated emblem on costume. Eternia playset bow and arrow weapon prototype, made from wood originally!Image via heritage auctions.
Blast-Attak
Blast-Attak here is a hard copy that is very close to the final look for the figure. The only differences here are his much darker green boots and gloves, his red “thermometer” that is painted red all the way up, and the gold connectors inside his body (they were red on the final figure). You can also see that his weapon was cast in white and painted red: some of the red paint is flaking off. This prototype (or a similar copy) was actually shown in the 1987 dealer catalog (below), although you can see that the Scare Glow in the same picture is production, not a prototype:
Prototype Blast-Attak, as shown in Mattel’s 1987 dealer catalog. Image source: Nathalie NHT. Mass produced Blast-Attak figure
The figure was designed by Mark Jones and Richard Lepik. Once again, I’ll be updating this image into my original article about Blast-Attak soon. Also included in the paperwork was a photocopy of Richard Lepik’s concept art for Blast-Attak:
So, that’s all for now. Danielle sent me quite a lot of material related to the newspaper comic strips, but she also sent me some other things as well, and I will document them here on the blog over the next weeks and months. Many thanks again to Danielle for sending these things with me so I can document and share them with fellow fans!
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Recently in the Masters of the Universe Technical Variant group on Facebook, some images of 1986 and 1987 MOTU product lists were posted by MOTUology, Sean McMurtrey and Kris Oneida. Many thanks in advance to them for posting their images, and especially to Kris for providing higher res images for this article.
I remember seeing the 1986 list years ago, but I lost track of the image. Looking at it and the 1987 list now, there is quite a lot of valuable information in both lists, and I’d like to provide my analysis here. I think this information not only gives us a clearer picture of how the Masters of the Universe line was distributed in the US, but also what eventually ended up killing it.
For some background, I’ve already done quite a lot of work in trying to understand the timeline of the production dates and release dates of Masters of the Universe toys, gathering dates from copyright filings, trademark filings, patent filings, concept art dates and the earliest appearances of each toy in newspaper ads. You can find that information in the articles below:
Of the two articles above, the Newspaper Ads Timeline is the most relevant to this discussion. It fits rather closely with the data found in the 1986 MOTU Product List, with a few outliers. The product lists (in a letter dated March 10, 1987) appear to have been sent out by Mattel in response to a customer inquiry about which products were currently available. The customer seems to have been trying to get a hold of a Mattel catalog.
The customer service response from Mattel was that their catalogs were intended for retailers, not consumers, but they did provide the person with lists of all of the current figures. The lists included the four digit SKU number (SKU stands for Stock Keeping Unit – each individual product had a unique number) for each toy, and importantly, the date range for each of them as well.
My assumption is that these dates represent the dates that Mattel was shipping these products out to retailers. For example, for Attak Trak, the list says “83 – 85.” That would mean that Mattel was shipping Attak Traks to US retailers from 1983 to 1985, but did not ship any more units out in 1986. However, some stores might still have had some Attak Traks on shelves in 1986, left over from the previous year.
Images courtesy of Kris Oneida
At the end of the article I have included text transcriptions of these lists that are searchable, for convenience. Immediately below you’ll find my key findings from this information:
The “1986 1/2” Wave of Toys
Some figures are listed as “86 – Current.” These are the figures that we typically think of as belonging to the 1986 wave of figures, such as Rio Blast, Dragstor, and King Hiss. However there are some toys that are designated “86 1/2 – Current.” Meaning these were kind of an additional wave of figures released later in 1986. These are figures that are normally associated with the 1987 wave of figures, and appear in Mattel’s 1987 Dealer Catalog, not the 1986 catalog. When I put together my timeline of earliest advertising dates for figures, I did in fact find that many so-called 1987 figures were in stores by November and December 1986. Here are the newspaper ad dates I found for traditionally “1987” figures that were released ahead of schedule:
11/27/1986: First Beam Blaster & Artilleray newspaper ad 11/27/1986: First Mosquitor newspaper ad 11/27/1986: First Ninjor newspaper ad 11/27/1986: First Scare Glow newspaper ad 11/27/1986: First Snake Face newspaper ad 12/09/1986: First Clamp Champ newspaper ad 12/09/1986: First King Randor newspaper ad 12/09/1986: First Faker (reissue) newspaper ad
1986 Scare Glow figure, intended for the 1987 wave. Image source: Hakes Auctions.
However, the 1986 MOTU Product List actually includes several more “1986 1/2” figures that were released early, including:
• Buzz-Saw Hordak • Blast Attak (called Krak Attak, probably an early name for the figure) • Sorceress • Sssqueeze • Tyrantisaurus Rex
For the above figures, I didn’t find any ads for them until some time in 1987. However, toward the end of the line, MOTU was advertised very sparsely in newspapers because it was dying off – I find it very plausible that these toys were actually in stores by late 1986, and either weren’t advertised in 1986, or were advertised too sparsely to have made it into the Newspapers.com database.
Update: I recently found another Mattel document for Blast Attak which lists him as part of the 1987 wave. It came with two other documents listing Scare Glow and Ninjor as part of the 1986 1/2 wave. Because this one uses the name Blast Attak instead of Krak Attak, it must have come later than the document shared by Kris Oneida. Perhaps Blast Attak was going to come out in the 1986 1/2 wave, but didn’t quite make it and so came out in 1987 instead.
Image courtesy of Danielle Gelehrter
For a look at what Mattel had originally planned to ship in 1986 and 1987, see the catalog images linked in the articles below:
Some Mattel employees have talked about how over-shipping killed the Masters of the Universe line in the 1980s. What they’ve said is that some senior executives took some of the warehouse stock reserved for the European market and shipped it out to US stores in order to improve their own performance metrics. These were existing figures that had already sold through and were no longer in demand in the US. However, shipping these figures out to retailers was counted as a win on paper, and would be reflected in their year-end bonuses.
Stores had the practice of over-ordering, because they would usually get fewer figures than they asked for from Mattel. So if they actually wanted 20 figures, and asked for 20 figures, they might only get 10. So they would instead ask for 30 figures, expecting to get 20. It was understood by both sides that stores actually wanted less product than they were ordering, but the executives opted to ship them the full amount so they could make their performance metrics. This happened not once, but twice. For more on this, check out the Toy Masters podcast, episode 4. Paul Cleveland, a former marketing leader at Mattel, discusses the problem in depth.
On top of that, I would posit that these “1986 1/2” figures that had originally been intended for 1987 may have also been a part of what killed the line. The main 1986 wave already had more unique SKUs than any previous wave in Masters of the Universe history. Adding more “1986 1/2” figures on top of that wave, on top of the older figures Mattel had shipped out from their reserve stock would have absolutely overwhelmed the toy shelves with Masters product. In short, 1986 was a mess, with a huge glut of product that choked the life out of the brand. Although Masters was extremely popular, no brand could have survived such reckless over-shipping. So to sum up, this is what was being shipped to US stores in 1986:
Excess product from the previous year that was originally intended for Europe
A gigantic wave of new figures for 1986
Another smaller wave of new figures originally intended for 1987, rushed out in late 1986
For reference, here is the new SKU count for each annual wave of Masters of the Universe:
1982: 12 new SKUs 1983: 11 new SKUs, 12 if you include Mekaneck rushed out in December 1983 1984: 17 new SKUs 1985: 19 new SKUs 1986: 35 new SKUs 1986 1/2: 12 new SKUs 1987: 12 new SKUs
MOTU Toy Shelves during happier times
Night Stalker
One outlier in this data is Night Stalker. The list says that Night Stalker was shipped from 1984 – 1986. However, I have not found any Night Stalker ads in 1984, when MOTU ads were extremely plentiful. The earliest Night Stalker ad I’ve found dates to June 14, 1985. Moreover, all of the Night Stalker packaging I’ve seen shows off other 1985 toys on the back of the box, such as Moss Man, Stinkor and Land Shark, indicating that Night Stalker really did come out in 1985. One other thing to consider: Night Stalker doesn’t appear in the 1984 Mattel catalog. It appears in the 1985 Mattel catalog, but isn’t marked “New for 85.” If it was somehow released in 1984 I think it would have to have been in very limited quantities, because I’ve found no evidence for its existence in the wild until 1985.
Night Stalker and other toys on shelves, presumably 1985
Mekaneck
Mekaneck is listed having been shipped to stores from 1983 – 1985. Way back when I started this blog, I was skeptical of fan claims that Mekaneck was a 1983 figure. However, a couple of years back I did eventually find two pieces of evidence that he was shipped out in December 1983, which you can read about here. My theory now on Mekaneck is that he was rushed out early for Christmas because the 1983 line had a fairly sparse wave of figures. Getting an extra figure out early was a way of getting some new product out in stores for the holidays. Without Mekaneck, the 1983 wave would have had fewer new SKUs than any other wave, and it was relying heavily on reissues of product from 1982 to keep Masters stocked in stores. Mark Taylor’s departure from Mattel in 1982 (when the 1983 wave was being developed) must have left the company scrambling, and it took them some time to put together a new design team. That also explains why the 1983 wave was front loaded with easy repaints like Faker, Special Offer He-Man (so-called Wonder Bread He-Man, who doesn’t have a SKU), and Evil-Lyn, who required only a new head and wand.
1983 Mekaneck figure, via eBay/Wheeljack’s Lab
Snake Face
Snake Face is an anomaly on this list. He appears in the 1987 list, not the “1986 1/2” wave on the product sheet. However, I did find a newspaper ad for the Snake Face figure dating to November 27, 1986. That means he should have appeared in the 1986 1/2 wave, correct? Maybe. It’s also possible that the newspaper ad was incorrect and the retailer didn’t actually have Snake Face available for sale yet. Either option is a possibility.
Snake Face figure. Image via LCG Auctions.
Missing products, unproduced products
The 1987 list includes Gigantisaur, a toy that Mattel intended to make that ended up being cancelled. It also omits Scubattack for some reason, perhaps just a simple oversight due to human error. The Meteorbs do not show up in the 1986 list, although we know they were released that year.
The Meteorbs
Product Life Cycle
Another key piece of information that I’ve gleaned from the 1986 and 1987 product lists are the product life cycles for each individual toy. Assuming the dates are largely accurate, we now have real data about exactly how long each individual toy was being shipped out to the US market by Mattel.
So which figures were in the market for longest? Let’s find out!
First, a quick note on how I’m calculating years. If a figure was available during 1984 and 1985, I’m calling that two years. Product was being shipped out from Mattel over the course of two different calendar years, even if the total number of days may have been less than two years, technically. I believe that’s how Mattel calculated things too; the 1986 Flying Fists He-Man was called the “Fifth Anniversary Edition He-Man,” even though it had only been four years since He-Man debuted in stores. They were looking at it by how many different calendar years the product had been appearing in stores. Hopefully that makes sense!
5 Calendar Years
The following figures were in the market for the longest, from 1982 to 1986. The only one that surprised me here was Wind Raider. It’s not that it’s not a popular vehicle, but it beat out the Battle Ram, which I think is even more popular with fans today. Maybe it survived longer because it was smaller and less expensive. Or maybe it was just more popular than I think! Update: it looks like He-Man and Skeletor may have been shipped out in limited quantities in 1987 as well, so they may actually have been shipped for a total of 6 calendar years – the totality of the duration of the line in the US. More information on that has been added toward the end of the article.
These toys were on the market during four calendar years. Probably the most surprising thing to me is that of all the 1983 human-shaped figures, Evil-Lyn lasted the longest. I also wouldn’t have expected Stratos and Mer-Man to be on the market quite that long. Mer-Man is one of my favorites, but reportedly he tested poorly during product testing.
Some of the more popular 1984 characters like Prince Adam and Orko likely could have lasted longer if the line hadn’t started to tank in 1986. Surprisingly Trap Jaw shipped only until 1985. I would have thought he would have lasted longer than that.
It appears that Zodac is the least popular toy of the original 1982 wave, which doesn’t surprise me, but a three calendar year run is still pretty respectable, all things considered. Faker is interesting because he is the only figure in this list with a break in production; he was available from Mattel in 1983 – 1984 and then reissued in the “hard head” format in 1986.
1986 Faker figure, intended for the 1987 wave. Image source: LCG Auctions.
2 Calendar Years
This list is full of a lot of 1985 characters. For the most part their product life cycle was probably cut unnaturally short by the over-shipping problem. Still a few things to mention – Point Dread and Talon Fighter only lasted from 1983 to 1984. Clawful, Fisto and Whiplash only lasted from 1984 to 1985, despite my perception that they are all pretty popular characters. The same goes for Battle Armor He-Man and Battle Armor Skeletor. I wonder if those last two were cut short by Mattel to make way for the other He-Man and Skeletor variants that followed. Fans today universally seem to consider the Battle Armor variants to be the two most popular He-Man and Skeletor variants in the vintage line. Interestingly Clamp Champ is the only figure on the 1986 list who also appears in the 1987 list, although he is called by his early working name “Klamp Champ” in the 1986 list.
This list is mostly 1986 and 1987 figures that never got a chance to be reissued for additional years due to the tanking of the line. There is one exception to that, and it’s Spikor. Spikor is the only pre-1986 figure in the entire line that was shipped during only one calendar year. I’ll be honest, Spikor is my least favorite figure of all the figures from 1982 – 1985, so on some level it vindicates my blah feeling toward the figure. Still, he seems to have plenty of fans and I would have expected him to have been shipped for at least two calendar years. As previously mentioned. the 1987 product list includes Gigantisaur, which didn’t end up getting released.
Spikor, who shipped from Mattel only in 1985. Image via LCG Auctions.
Caveats on Accuracy
In writing this analysis I’m assuming that the information on these lists is largely correct. I’m fairly certain that the 1986 list contains at least one error (the dating on Night Stalker), possibly two (the Snake Face appearance in the 1987 wave rather than the “1986 1/2” wave), and it’s always possible that I may find information in the future that will contradict other parts of the lists. If so, I’ll provide an update.
Update: Brian Jones points out that he remembers seeing the original versions of He-Man and Skeletor on the shelves in 1987 when the movie came out, with 1987 MOTU movie stickers on the blisters. It’s possible that Mattel did ship out a small batch of new He-Man and Skeletor figures with the 1987 movie sticker added to the bubble to try to take advantage of the movie and sell some more units. Another possibility is that the stickers were added to existing product after the fact. According to MOTUology, these figures were marked G9 on the back and were the last He-Man and Skeletor figures produced. They are not present on the 1987 product list, but it could have been a decision made after that particular list was made. I’ll provide more updates as I learn more.
Image: MOTUology. Interestingly it is packed with one of the 1984 minicomics.
My take is that these lists are probably largely correct, even if there are a couple of errors, and they are enormously helpful on providing a clearer picture of the actual distribution and eventual demise of the original Masters of the Universe line in the US.
Text Transcriptions of the lists
I’ve transcribed the 1986 and 1987 lists below, so that you can search for any toy by name. Please note that “Current” in the 1986 list just means 1986, and “Current” in the 1987 list means 1987.
1986 MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE LIST
Attak Trak 5470: 83 – 85 Bashasaurus 9039: 85 – Current Battle Armor He-Man 7302: 84 – 85 Battle Armor Skeletor 7301: 84 – 85 Battle Bones 9173: 85 – Current Battle Cat 5048: 82 – Current Battle Ram 3990: 82 – 85 Beam Blaster 3139: 86 ½ – Current Beastman 5043: 82 – Current Blasterhawk 2607: 86 – Current Buzz-Off 4923: 84 – Current Buzz Saw Hordak 1732: 86 ½ – Current Castle Grayskull 3991: 82 – Current Clawful 7017: 84 – 85 Dragon Blaster Skeletor 9017: 85 – Current Dragon Walker: 4902: 84 – 85 Dragstor 2313: 86 – Current Eternia 2855: 86 – Current Evil Lyn 4712: 83 – Current Extendar 2797: 86 – Current Faker 4482: 83 – 84, 86 ½ – Current Fisto 7015: 84 – 85 Flying Fists He-Man 9413: 86 – Current Fright Fighter 1053: 86 – Current Fright Zone 9410: 85 – Current Grizzlor 9171: 85 – Current Hordak 9172: 85 – Current Horde Trooper 2549: 86 – Current Hurricane Hordak 9413: 86 – Current Jet Sled 2084: 86 – Current Jitsu 4924: 84 – 85 King Hiss 2420: 86 – Current King Randor 3068: 86 ½ – Current Klamp Champ [Clamp Champ] 3073: 86 ½ – Current Kobra Khan 7098: 84 – Current Krak Attak [Blast Attak] 1710: 86 ½ – Current Land Shark 7892: 85 – Current Laser Bolt 9602: 86 – Current Leech 9169: 85 – Current Man-At-Arms 5041: 82 – Current Man-E-Faces 5879: 83 – 85 Mantenna 9168: 85 – Current Mantisaur 2085: 86 – Current Mega laser 2083: 86 – Current Mekaneck 4919: 83 – 85 Merman 5046: 82 – 85 Modulok 9174: 85 – Current Monstroid 2418: 86 – Current Mosquitor 1191: 86 ½ – Current Moss Man 9219: 85 – Current Multi-Bot 2312: 86 – Current Night Stalker 4965: 84 – Current Ninjor 3069: 86 ½ – Current Original He-Man 5040: 82 – Current Original Skeletor 5042 82 – Current Orko 7354: 84 – Current Panthor 4714: 83 – Current Point Dread/Talon Fighter 4306: 83 – 84 Prince Adam 7353: 84 – Current Ram Man 5896: 83 – 84 Rattlor 2036: 86 – Current Rio Blast 2792 86 – Current Road Ripper 4903: 84 – 85 Roboto 9041: 85 – Current Rokkon 9863: 86 – Current Roton 4892: 84 – Current Scare Glow 3072: 86 ½ – Current Screech 4713: 83 – 85 Slime 2487: 86 – Current Slime Pit 9989: 86 – Current Snake Mountain: 4949: 84 – Current Snout Spout 2803: 86 – Current Sorceress 1787: 86 ½ – Current Spikor 7986: 85 – 85 Spydor 9055: 85 – Current Squeeze 1417: 86 ½ – Current. Stilt Stalkers 2082: 86 – Current Stinkor 9236: 85 – Current Stonedar 9862: 86 – Current Stratos 5047: 82 – 85 Stridor 4966: 84 – Current Sy-Klone 7997: 85 – Current Teela 5045: 82 – Current Terror Claws Skeletor 9413: 86 – Current Thunder Punch He-Man 9056: 85 – Current Trap Jaw 4302: 83 – 85 Tri-Klops 4301: 83 – 85 Tung Lashor 2331: 86 – Current Two Bad 9040: 85 – Current Tyrantisauros-Rex [Tyrantisaurus Rex] 1273: 86 ½ – Current Weapons Pack 7303: 84 – Current Webstor 4895: 84 – Current Whiplash 4935: 84 – 85 Windraider 5117: 82 – Current Zoar 4014: 83 – Current Zodak 5044: 82 – 84
1987 MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE LIST
Blade Figure 3295: 87 – Current Bionatops 3061: 87 – Current Clamp Champ 3073: 87 – Current Cliff Climber Power Gear 1942: 87 – Current Evil Twistoid Figure 3025: 87 – Current Gigantisaur 1399: 87 – Current Gwildor Figure 3294: 87 – Current Heroic Rotar Figure 3024: 87 – Current Saurod Creature 3670: 87 – Current Snake Face 1967: 87 – Current Tower Tools Power Gear 1947: 87 – Current Turbodactyl 1858: 87 – Current
Update: I have found in my files a scan of what appears to be an early version of the 1987 product list. This was originally posted at he-man.org. My guess is this was typed up in 1986 sometime before the plan to move some of the 1987 line to late 1986, and definitely before the cancellation of many of the products planned for the year. Unlike the other lists, this doesn’t show the date each figure was initially released. It includes quite a lot of 1986 figures that were supposed to get a 1987 re-release, and even some 1982-1985 toys. See the image below:
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