Tytus: Heroic Giant Warlord (1988)

Posted on March 8, 2024September 8, 2024 by Adam McCombs

Written by Adam McCombs

Name: Tytus
Faction: Preternia/Heroic Warriors
Approximate US release date: None – released in Europe in 1988

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 Beasts, Powers of Grayskull

Gigantisaur: Heroic Dinosaur & Battle Station (1987)

Posted on January 9, 2024November 14, 2024 by Adam McCombs

Written by Adam McCombs

Name: Gigantisaur
Faction: Preternia/Heroic Warriors
Approximate US release date: never released

Gigantisaur, had it been produced, would have been by far the largest non-playset toy in Masters of the Universe, dwarfing even Tytus and Megator. Although it appeared in Mattel’s 1987 dealer catalog, it was never released in stores. There are a small number of unreleased MOTU prototypes that Mattel actually showed in catalogs – Eldor, He-Ro, Gyrattacker, Evil Robot and Gigantisaur. I’ve written about three of those so far, and I decided it was Gigantisaur’s time in the spotlight.

David Wolfram, the final designer for the toy, actually went over some of the history of Gigantisaur during a panel at Power-Con 2012:

Toward the end of the segment he talked about one of the toy’s action features and the fate of the prototype:

“It had a piano string, and when you pressed the button it would shoot up and stand up. It was very cool but by the time we made it to Toy Fair, people weren’t even going to the He-Man gallery anymore, it came so late. Unfortunately I threw away the prototype at some point… it was too big to keep around the office. It ended up being a much better toy and it did make the catalog in ’87.”

In my interview with Wolfram, he was kind enough to go over the design history of the toy with me in detail, and shared images of his concept art to boot!

Battle Ram: I’ve heard that [Gigantisaur] has something of a storied history. Were you the main designer on that? That one showed up in the 1987 Mattel Catalog, but of course was never released. Could you share some of the background on that?

David Wolfram: Yes, I was the designer on the many iterations. When it was first shown to me, there was a beautiful, but totally unrealistic painting by Ed Watts, and a white prototype model that was submitted by a well known outside toy invention company.

*Turbosaurus, by Ed Watts. This would eventually evolve into Gigantisaur. Image source: The Art of He-Man/The Power and the Honor Foundation. July 13, 1984*

DW: My first boards (especially the side view) show the reality of what I had to work with. One of the big visual issues is that the feet had to be huge to extend past the center of gravity. Ed’s (a great guy by the way, who went way too soon, and not in a way I would want to go) drawing hinted at this voluminous interior, when in fact, because of the cockpit, could only hold one figure.

*Turbosaurus revision by David Wolfram. Image courtesy of DW. November 27, 1985*

DW: There was also a figure that was supposed to hide in the tail section, but in the model it looked like the dinosaur was taking a dump! There were lots of meetings when marketing and management were forced to confront the reality of this turkey-like bastardization rather than the seductive drawing. I was given the go ahead to take some of the elements of the old model, and another provision was that it had to swallow a figure.

I did a lot of work with foam and clay to work out a better proportioned creature, and the engineer that I worked with, Ben Guerrero (Tony the sculptor’s brother) came up with the idea of marrying the tail with the part of the body with the rear legs to create a tripod which eliminated the need for gigantic feet to let it stand up. It not only stood up, it shot up, because Ben used a very strong spring. Of course, after all that it went to pre-Toy Fair, where the line was for all intents and purposes dead domestically.

*Turbosaurus revision by David Wolfram. December 16, 1985.*

*Turbosaurus revision by David Wolfram. December 18, 1985.*

*Gigantisaur final concept art, November 5, 1986*. *“I actually got a spray can to create the misty mountains in the background. I used markers and wash for the highlights.”*

In my interview with Martin Arriola, he also gave some background about Gigantisaur:

We did Turbosaurus [later, Gigantisaur] that never got made. Too impractical? Of course. Roger Sweet had a sketch done by Ed Watts. It showed He-Man on this dinosaur. He sold it with all these features at a price that was low. I said, do you know how big this is going to be?

I went to Dave Wolfram, and I said, “We gotta breadboard this stuff.” Sure enough, that dinosaur was probably three feet. I told marketing, if you want this to reflect what Sweet sold you in the B-sheet, this is how big it’s going to be. We hand painted it. One thing that Sweet sold to marketing is that it would swallow a He-Man figure. But you know how splayed out the he-man figures were. It would have been as big as Eternia.

Unfortunately we don’t have any packaging art for Gigantisaur, but there was a fair amount of information about the toy included in that 1987 catalog picture.

The first thing that stands out, other than his enormous size, is that unlike the other three dinosaurs that were released in the line (Tyrantisaurus, Bionatops and Turbodactyl) Gigantisaur apparently has no exposed circuitry or mechanical parts on his exterior, despite the fact that he has a gun that pops out of his chest:

*Pop-out chest gun, with Thunder Punch He-Man*

One of his major features was his ability to swallow a figure. Given the width of the typical muscular MOTU action figure, this feature meant that Gigantisaur had to have a very thick neck:

Once figures were swallowed, they could be retrieved via a door on the side of the figure’s belly:

*Heroic Warriors chilling out in the “belly door*“

Aside from the articulated jaw, it would have had articulated legs as well:

As stated by Wolfram, a lever on the figure when activated would cause the figure to rear up on its hind legs:

As mentioned previously, no packaging artwork for Gigantisaur has ever surfaced, but Joe Manzo created a nice kind of mashup mockup of what the packaging might have looked like, roughly, had it been made.

Gigantisaur appears in Playthings Magazine’s coverage of 1987 Toy Fair. The image below was shared in the Vintage Toys MOTU Facebook group. A small image of Gigantisaur is shown.

The relevant text in the article reads:

The Masters of the Universe collection now includes Preternia, a new dimension to the fantasy world of He-Man that sends him back into time to a prehistoric Eternia, where dinosaurs roam the land and many new magical forces abound. There is He-Ro, the most powerful wizard in the universe, who leads the Powers of Grayskull warriors against the evil dinoreptilian kingdom. Eldor, his mentor and teacher, and Turbodactyl and Bionatops, his mighty dinosaur allies battle against the evil kingdom and the dreaded Tyrantisaurus Rex, which is able to release a wind-up creature from its chest called a “mecha-drone.” Tytus, Gigantisaur and Megator, each standing 16″ tall, are also inhabitants of the new fantasy land of Preternia.

Returning to the Futuristic world of Eternia, the Masters of the Universe collection introduces many new heroic warriors, including King Randor, Sorceress and Klamp Champ. who battle against new enemies like Snake Face, Sssqueeze, Nin-Jor, Scare Glow and Faker, the evil robotic imposter of He-Man. A host of new vehicles, accessories and playsets will also be available.

Gigantisaur doesn’t appear directly in any of the original 1980s MOTU media, other than a design by Errol McCarthy for a T-shirt featuring He-Ro and He-Man. The version of the dinosaur here is the earlier “Turbosaurus,” featuring sharp teeth and a smaller mouth and neck.

There is a similar-looking sauropod dinosaur in The Powers of Grayskull minicomic, but my guess is that it was just created by the artist to fill out the scene, along with the various other bio-mechanical creatures on the splash page:

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Heroic Beasts, Powers of Grayskull

Turbodactyl: Heroic Reptile with “Jet” Wings (1987)

Posted on November 29, 2023September 8, 2024 by Adam McCombs

Written by Adam McCombs

Name: Turbodactyl
Faction: Preternia/Heroic Warriors
Approximate US release date: April 4, 1987

Like most of the 1987 line of MOTU figures, Turbodactyl escaped my notice as a child. He seems to be perhaps the least popular of the three dinosaurs released in the Powers of Grayskull series, but he does have an interesting history.

Design & Development

One piece of concept art sometimes grouped with the Turbodactyl idea is a drawing by Roger Sweet showing Skeletor riding something that looks a bit like a pterodactyl. However, upon closer examination it looks more like Mattel’s late 1970s Rodan toy. While this would have been a neat way to reuse the tool, I’m sure it wouldn’t have worked out given that Mattel was not the owner of the Rodan design.

The first true Turbodactyl concept art comes from Mark Jones, dating to September 4, 1985. In this drawing the beast features a mechanical back and tail, similar to a fighter jet, as well as mechanically-enhanced legs. He-Man is being carried in flight.

The concept was passed to John Hollis, who took another pass at it in this January 17, 1986 illustration. Mark Jones is listed as the originator, while John Hollis is listed as the designer/artist. It’s given the name of “Terror-Dactyl,” and we see Skeletor riding it while it grasps Moss Man in its claws. Other than the purple coloring and the name, the design is pretty close to the actual toy.

*Many thanks to Pixel Dan for allowing me to snap a shot of this art at Power-Con 2023!*

Here is a shot of the hard copy/prototype toy, which appears with a light colored body and dark colored jet engines.

*Many thanks to Pixel Dan for allowing me to snap a shot of this at Power-Con 2023!*

We can see the finalized colors in the cross sell artwork, shown below. We can see it has returned to its original brown color scheme, and is once again aligned with the good guys:

The toy was advertised, along with the other two dinosaurs, in the 1987 Mattel catalog (image via Nathalie NHT):

Figure & Packaging

Turbodactyl’s US packaging featured the Powers of Grayskull logo and design style:

The artwork on the front of the packaging was done by Warren Hile, who also did the box art for Bionatops and Tyrantisaurus Rex:

The back of the packaging features some backstory on the Powers of Grayskull line and about Bionatops. I’ll reproduce all of the text here:

TURBODACTYL

PROFILE: Heroic Reptile with “Jet” Wings

SPECIAL WEAPON: Powerful talons for grabbing Evil Warriors!

ORIGIN: Distant Relative of the Pterodactyl pterosaur from Pre-Historic Earth!

Travel back in time through a secret time portal-and discover the ORIGIN of THE POWERS OF GRAYSKULL! Learn how He-Man became so strong! And explore the magical world of Preternia – home of HE-RO, the Most Powerful WIZARD in the Universe!

Monstrous dinosaurs and fierce giants – both good and evil – struggle violently for control of this strange & hostile land!

The dinosaurs in the time of HE-RO – Tyrantisaurus Rex, Bionatops and Turbodactyl – each posess a fantastic mechanical power!

Can HE-RO master all the good magic of the Ancient Wizards and protect future Eternia from forever falling into the claws of evil?

Look for He-Ro and the Powers of Grayskull coming your way in 1987!

TURBODACTYL has 2 wing-mounted “jets” at its command!

Whoever pilots TURBODACTYL can control his mighty beak by pulling back on its horned head. Few escape its turbo-tooth grip!

Squeeze its legs — and make Turbodactyl grab evil warriors with its claw-like talons!

Turbodactyl has limited articulation, having the ability to open his beak and squeeze his legs together. His wings don’t flap, but they are removable. Images below come from some old eBay auctions, as I don’t own one myself:

The above photos represent the US release (manufactured in Mexico). The European release, made in Italy, had an upturned nose, and his mouth does not close completely:

Like the other two dinosaurs in the line, this figure is relatively rare and expensive on the secondary market.

Turbodactyl appears in the 1987 style guide, with a bare-bones description of the figure, focusing on its abilities and affiliation. The artwork is rather stylized and doesn’t strictly follow the look of the toy.

Here’s the text of the style guide written out:

TURBODACTYL

NAME: Turbodactyl

GROUP AFFILIATION: Heroic Animals. Powers of Grayskull segment.

ROLE: Heroic flying dinosaur

POWER: It can swoop down out of the sky and grab enemies of He-Ro with its claws.

YEAR OF TOY INTRO: 1987

Comic Appearances

Turbodactyl was featured in the background of the cover of The Powers of Grayskull: The Legend Begins. The comic was intended to introduce the new Powers of Grayskull line, and was the first in a three part story. However only part one was released, and the entire MOTU line was cancelled due to flagging sales.

In the story, He-Man and Sorceress travel back in time to Preternia, initially to teach He-Man about Eternia’s past. But when Skeletor follows them back in time and teams up with King Hiss to destroy the Elders, He-Man is allowed to intervene once he is given a disguise. In the story, Turbodactyl (called Pterodactyl) actually belongs to King Hiss, who allows Skeletor to ride it. It’s colored blue like John Hollis’ concept art.

*Images are from the Dark Horse minicomics collection*

In Journey To Preternia, in the 1987 Spring issue of MOTU Magazine, Skeletor and He-Man accidentally travel through a time portal. Upon arriving, He-Man rescues Turbodactyl (who incidentally can talk) from some living quicksand. Later in the story he returns the favor by allowing He-Man to ride him into battle against Skeletor. In the end Turbodactyl flies He-Man and Skeletor to the same time portal that brought them to Preternia, which returns them to Eternia.

Turbodactly appears very briefly in the 1987 UK comic story, A Rip In Time. He is again colored blue, like the John Hollis concept design.

Turbodactlys (plural) appear in the MOTU newspaper comic story called Terror Takes Time. One of the people enslaved by Hordak manages to summon and take command of a few of them, which they use to drive off Horde Troopers. They are colored green in this story. Thanks to Øyvind Meisfjord for pointing this appearance out to me.

Other Appearances

Turbodactyl is featured on the cover of the 1987 Spring issue of He-Man and the Masters of the Magazine in an illustration by Earl Norem. In the illustration he’s ridden by He-Man, facing off against Tyrantisaurus Rex.

He also appears in the 1988 Winter issue of the same magazine, again illustrated by Earl Norem. He has grabbed hold of Mosquitor in this illustration.

Update: Dušan Mitrović also notes that a reworked version of Turbodactyl was slated to appear in the unproduced 1987 Filmation pitch for He-Ro and the Land of Legend.

Turbodactly, being ridden by King Randor, is featured in William George’s Preternia painting:

Turbodactlyappears in some Errol McCarthy artwork done for a line of T-Shirts. This version is again colored blue, like John Hollis’ artwork, although he is heroic in this image.

Turbodactly appeared in ads around the world as well:

Turbodactyl in Action

Øyvind Meisfjord has kindly shared the following videos and action shots of Turbodactly!

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Heroic Beasts, Powers of Grayskull

Bionatops: Heroic Bionic Dinosaur (1987)

Posted on November 24, 2023September 14, 2024 by Adam McCombs

Written by Adam McCombs

Name: Bionatops
Faction: Heroic Warriors
Approximate US release date: April 4, 1987

Bionatops was a figure I don’t recall encountering as a kid. I did see a Tyrantisaurus Rex at a friend’s house, but he was the only Powers of Grayskull dinosaur I saw during childhood. He’s a nice-looking figure, if very limited in articulation, and one that sought to capture the growing popularity of dinosaur toys in the late 1980s.

Design & Development

The concept for a triceratops-like toy in the MOTU line has a relatively long history, beginning with an Ed Watts concept dating to December 8, 1983. The Watts concept looks a bit like a styracosaurus, in that it only has one forward facing horn and a spikey frill. In the image below, it is being ridden by Skeletor and Trap Jaw, and features a metal face plate and mechanical details around its armor:

Watts illustrated another variation on this theme, this time featuring guns attached to two forward-facing horns coming out of the frill. This version features mechanical enhancements to the legs, and is being ridden by Dragon Blaster Skeletor on the horns rather than the back. It dates to September 4, 1985.

Mark Jones illustrated a similar concept dinosaur, this time with guns coming directly out of the two forward facing horns. Skeletor rides a saddle on its back. It also dates to September 4, 1985.

Finally, on January 15, 1986, David Wolfram did a final rendering of the dinosaur concept, called at the time, simply, Triceratops. It is similar in many ways to the 1985 Watts concept, although the gun has been modified and the beast is now allied with the heroic warriors. He-Man is shown riding in front of the frill.

In my interview with Martin Arriola, he had some additional information regarding the sculpting of Bionatops:

On the boys’ side, [engineering] was all done inside, and you had to go through politics. Now everything goes to vendor. You had to get saddled with people who were not so talented. Like Bionatops. This guy, Hal Faulkner had a bitchin sculpt, but the engineer started smoothing out the mold and getting rid of musculature. Smoothing it all out. My manager said he was fixing it, but it looked like a piggy bank. He also worked on middle tower for Eternia. There was only so much you could do.

You can see the finalized design in the cross sell artwork for Bionatops:

The toy was advertised, along with the other two dinosaurs, in the 1987 Mattel catalog (image via Nathalie NHT):

Figure & Packaging

Bionatops’ packaging featured the Powers of Grayskull logo and design style:

The artwork on the front of the packaging was done by Warren Hile, who also did the box art for Turbodactyl and Tyrantisaurus Rex:

The back of the packaging features some backstory on the Powers of Grayskull line and about Bionatops. I’ll reproduce all of the text here:

BIONATOPS

PROFILE: Heroic Bionic Dinosaur

WEAPON: Rotatable weapons mount onto horns!

ORIGIN: Related to the Triceratops dinosaur of pre-historic earth – natural enemy to Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Travel back in time through a secret time portal-and discover the ORIGIN of THE POWERS OF GRAYSKULL! Learn how He-Man became so strong! And explore the magical world of Preternia – home of HE-RO, the Most Powerful WIZARD in the Universe!

Monstrous dinosaurs and fierce giants – both good and evil – struggle violently for control of this strange & hostile land!

The dinosaurs in the time of HE-RO – Tyrantisaurus Rex, Bionatops and Turbodactyl – each posess a fantastic mechanical power.

Can HE-RO master all the good magic of the Ancient Wizards and protect future Eternia from forever falling into the claws of evil?

Look for He-Ro and the Powers of Grayskull coming your way in 1987!

Make jaw open… it chomps down! Rotate weapons on both sides!

Fit Weapons Rack onto horns, then “Lasers” on pegs!

The heroic BIONATOPS, with his massive bony head, carries warriors into battle – armors with a rotating laser weapons arsenal that mounts on its horns!

Like Battle Cat, Panthor, Stridor and Night Stalker before him, Bionatops lacks leg articulation. He is able to open and close his jaw, but otherwise he’s basically a statue. Images below come from some old eBay auctions, as I don’t own one myself:

It’s typical for the toy to have broken horns and missing guns. That combined with the low production numbers in 1987 make it expensive to acquire on the secondary market.

Bionatops appears in the 1987 style guide, with a bit more background on the four-legged dinosaur. He is described as He-Ro’s mount, although He-RO is usually associated with Turbodactyl.

NAME: Bionatops

GROUP AFFILIATION: Heroic Animals, Powers of Grayskull Segment

ROLE: Heroic dinosaur mount of He-Ro

POWER: Carries He-Ro or one of his wizards into battle; chews up defenses with its jaws; uses its horns to knock enemies out of the way.

Comic Appearances

Bionatops was featured on the cover of The Powers of Grayskull: The Legend Begins. The comic was intended to introduce the new Powers of Grayskull line, and was the first in a three part story. However only part one was released, and the entire MOTU line was cancelled due to flagging sales.

In the story, He-Man and Sorceress travel back in time to Preternia, initially to teach He-Man about Eternia’s past. But when Skeletor follows them back in time and teams up with King Hiss to destroy the Elders, He-Man is allowed to intervene. He is given a disguise and the Sorceress conjures up Bionatops for him to ride into battle (images come from the Dark Horse minicomics collection).

In Journey To Preternia, in the 1987 Spring issue of MOTU Magazine, Skeletor and He-Man accidentally travel through a time portal, and end up allying with Tyrantisaurus and Bionatops, respectively.

Bionatops appears very briefly in the 1987 UK comic story, A Rip In Time. There are actually two of them, and they feature guns popping out of their chests:

Other Appearances

Bionatops is featured on the cover of the 1988 Winter issue of He-Man and the Masters of the Magazine in an illustration by Earl Norem:

He appears in another piece of Norem artwork used in an inside page of the Spring 1987 issue of MOTU Magazine.

*Scan of the original Norem artwork, as featured on the Heritage Auctions website.*

He appears also in the background of the cover of the Spring 1987 issue, again illustrated by Earl Norem.

Bionatops is featured front and center in William George’s Preternia painting:

Bionatops appears in some Errol McCarthy artwork done for a line of T-Shirts. This version features the golden guns as depicted in David Wolfram’s concept art:

Bionatops appeared in ads around the world as well:

Bionatops in Action

Øyvind Meisfjord has kindly shared the following video and action shots of Bionatops and He-Man!

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

Ben M.
Eric H.
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The MOTU Living Archive at Orko’s Keep

Also, if you have good scans of vintage MOTU books, comics, magazines and other print material, please consider sharing them with my buddy Ben Massa. Ben is building an archive of vintage MOTU material that he will share with fans, comparable to the old He-Man.org archives, but with higher resolution material. Learn more at this link.

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Category: Powers of Grayskull

Tytus: Heroic Giant Warlord (1988)

Design & Development

Figure & Packaging

Background Information

Artwork & Advertising

Gigantisaur: Heroic Dinosaur & Battle Station (1987)

Turbodactyl: Heroic Reptile with “Jet” Wings (1987)

Design & Development

Figure & Packaging

Comic Appearances

Other Appearances

Turbodactyl in Action

Bionatops: Heroic Bionic Dinosaur (1987)

Design & Development

Figure & Packaging

Comic Appearances

Other Appearances

Bionatops in Action