Written by Adam McCombs

Recently one of my connections on social media was asking if there was a resource of all of the vintage cardbacks collected somewhere. While most of them are scattered throughout my site, I thought it might be helpful to collect them in one place.

There are lots and lots of cardback variants, both by country and by release order. My objective isn’t to provide every single last variant (and I certainly do not have scans or photos of them all). My objective is to do all the US cardbacks, and any major variants. Major variants would include things like 8-back vs 12 back reissue versions of the earliest cardbacks, or any major updates to the artwork on the scene at the top or the illustrated instructions on the back of the card. I generally won’t provide variants based on different cross sell art featured on the cardback. For example, a 1983 He-Man 12-back would have different cross sell art compared to a 1984 He-Man 12-back. The character selection changed to reflect whatever was new for the year.

Let’s define cardbacks: for my purposes this won’t include the backs of boxes on large items like Castle Grayskull or Battle Ram. You can find those in my previous “Box Art From A-Z” series. This is the back of the individual figures on blister cards, for the most part. I’ll also include the cardbacks of smaller accessories like Jet Sled, since the back of the packaging was in a very similar format to the standard figures. I’ll also include the backs of the Modulok and Multi-Bot packages, for the same reason. I’m also not including gift sets with the regular carded figures – I plan to do a separate article about those later.

I’ll sort the cardbacks in chronological release order to the best of my knowledge. Please note, however, that some figures, like He-Man and Skeletor, were released at the same time.

Photos and scans in this article come from: Hake’s Auctions, Heritage Auctions, LCG Auctions, Star Crusader, Deimos and KMKA.

Moss Man

12-back action scene art: Dave Stevens
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 9219

Stinkor

12-back action scene art: Dave Stevens
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 9236

Roboto

12-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 9041

Two Bad

12-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 9040

There are a couple of notable variants for this cardback. The earliest version, which contained the “round back” version of the figure, had different instructions on the back. The first panel instructs the owner to “fit arm onto body.” They must have been planning to pack the blue arm disconnected from the figure, but decided it would look strange in the bubble if it were missing an arm, so all versions of Two Bad came with both arms attached. The revised packaging, which came with the “flat back” version of the figure, omits the arm panel, and adds another panel at the end showing Two Bad grappling with Man-At-Arms.

Spikor

12-back action scene art: Dave Stevens
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 9236

Dragon Blaster Skeletor

12-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 9017

Dragon Blaster Skeletor, along with Thunder Punch He-Man, is the first figure released on a wider deluxe card. You can see the artwork at top has a wider aspect ratio. The six instructional panels are centered under the artwork at top, and finally 12 smaller pieces of cross sell artwork are squeezed into the bottom of the card. Uniquely, the front of the card also featured a drawing of the figure, done by William George.

Thunder Punch He-Man

12-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 9056

Thunder Punch He-Man, along with Dragon Blaster Skeletor, is the first figure released on a wider deluxe card. You can see the artwork at top has a wider aspect ratio. The six instructional panels are centered under the artwork at top, and finally 12 smaller pieces of cross sell artwork are squeezed into the bottom of the card. Uniquely, the front of the card also featured a drawing of the figure, done by William George.

Hordak

5-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 9172

Hordak and other Evil Horde characters would begin the practice of only showing Evil Horde cross sell art on the back of the card, including figures and playsets.

Grizzlor

5-back action scene art: unknown
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 9171

Leech

5-back action scene art: unknown
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 9169

I’ll just note that the artwork here looks like possibly Dave Stevens, but it hasn’t been confirmed.

Mantenna

5-back action scene art: unknown
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 9168

Sy-Klone

12-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 7997

Modulok

Action scene art: Unknown
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 9174

Modulok was released in a box, technically, but the back of the box resembles a cardback. Most of the artwork focuses on Modulok, his parts, and the different ways he could be assembled. The only cross sell artwork is for Hordak.

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

• Philip O.
• MOTU Origins Cork
• Bryce W.
• Ben M.
• Matthias K.

Cardbacks series: 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988

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