Cardbacks

MOTU Cardbacks: 1984

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, Deimos and KMKA.

Mekaneck

12-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 4919

Note: Technically Mekaneck was considered a third wave figure by Mattel, but he was released a bit early, in December 1983. Because he kind of exists in both the 1983 and 1984 sets, I’m including two different cardbacks for him, and I also included him in the 1983 article. The early one includes only second wave figures in the cross sell art. The later revision includes third-wave characters like Buzz-Off and Whiplash, and also omits the “proof of purchase” cutout.

Battle Armor He-Man

12-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 7302

Battle Armor Skeletor

12-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 7304

Prince Adam

12-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 7353

Orko

12-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 7354

Buzz-Off

12-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 4923

Buzz-Off’s cross sell art was revised after the first release of the figure. In the first version, Buz-Off lacks his axe. The second version is mirror flipped, adds the missing axe, and updates the feet to be more on-model to the toy.

Whiplash

12-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 4935

Fisto

12-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 7015

Webstor

12-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 4895

Weapons Pak

12-back action scene art: none
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 7303

The 1984 Weapons Pak, consisting of repainted versions of existing MOTU armor and accessories, was released on a unique 12-back card, featuring only cross sell artwork, and no action scene at the top.

Kobra Khan

12-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 7098

Clawful

12-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 7016

Jitsu

12-back action scene art: Errol McCarthy
Cross sell artwork: William George
SKU Number: 4924

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

  • Philip O.
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  • Bryce W.
  • Ben M.
  • Matthias K.

Cardbacks series1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988

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Artwork

Masters of the Universe Cross Sell Art: 1984

Written by Adam McCombs

The artwork for this set comes from Axel Giménez and my own photos and scans. The worst quality images in this set are for Battle Armor He-Man and Battle Armor Skeletor – more’s the pity.

Update: Battle Armor He-Man has been updated with nicer artwork (minus the sword) courtesy of Axel!

Masters of the Universe Cross Sell Art:

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Resource

Parts Reuse in MOTU, Part Three: 1984

Written by Adam McCombs

Masters of the Universe, for all its diversity and creativity, was quite an economical toyline, creatively (and sometimes uncreatively) using and reusing the same molds over and over again throughout its run. Sometimes this was done fairly invisibly, and other times it was as plain as the nose on Faker’s face.

In this series I’ll be cataloging the reuse of existing molds, in context of what is known and what is likely about which figures were created in what order. For example, He-Man’s prototype was almost certainly finished before Man-At-Arms, so Man-At-Arms reused He-Man’s legs, rather than vice versa. I’ll also include parts that were reused from other toylines.

Sometimes existing parts were modified for use in new toys. For example, Beast Man’s chest seems to have been based on He-Man’s chest sculpt, albeit with a great deal of hair added to it. This didn’t save money on tooling, but it did save some time and effort for the sculptor. I’ll point this out whenever I see it. Whenever a modified part is used again, however, I’ll refer to it as belonging to the toy that used it first (for example, Stratos and Zodac reuse Beast Man’s chest).

I won’t comment on “invisible” parts, such as neck pegs or waist springs that are normally not seen.

First, the toys from 1984 that had (at the time) all new parts:

Orko

Stridor

Road Ripper

Dragon Walker

Roton

These toys from 1984 reused some existing parts:

Battle Armor He-Man

Prince Adam

Mekaneck

Buzz-Off

Fisto

Battle Armor Skeletor

Whiplash

Clawful

Webstor

Kobra Khan

Jitsu

Snake Mountain

Weapons Pak

Parts Reuse series:

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Evil Warriors

Kobra Khan: Evil master of snakes (1984)

KK Graphic

Written by Adam McCombs

Name: Kobra Khan
Faction: Evil Warriors/Snake Men
Approximate US release date: October 24, 1984

I remember getting Kobra Khan quite vividly. It was our last summer in our Eastern Washington house, before our big move across the mountains to a rainier, more temperate part of the Pacific Northwest. Although Kobra Khan was released in 1984, I didn’t get him until 1986. I remember gravely weighing my options at the store. I could get two toys, and I was determined that they be Snake Men. I  was looking at getting Kobra Khan, or the newly released King Hiss or Rattlor. I don’t remember seeing Tung Lashor at the time. After studying all three toys and their packaging intently, I concluded that King Hiss was a cool idea, but his hidden snake body wasn’t all that great looking, so I went with the other two figures instead.

Snake Men

I spent the last hot summer in the old house running around with Kobra Khan. After he had sprayed his paralyzing mist on all of my heroic warriors, he turned his venom on most of our house plants, and of course on me as well. The figure put out a highly dispersed sort of mist, and it was a great way to stay cool. I played with him so much that I remember getting a sore finger from pushing down on his head.

Kobra Khan seems to have originated with a Roger Sweet concept for a warrior wearing a snake costume, like a male version of Teela. Actually, the concept  recalls the G.I. Joe villain Serpentor on some ways, too, although that wasn’t released until 1986. In any case, as is noted in The Power and the Honor Foundation Catalog, Roger Sweet’s drawing seems to have a hole in the snake’s mouth, suggesting the water squirting feature was already planned out at this stage:

Roger Sweet KK
Image source: The Power and the Honor Foundation Catalog. Like Buzz-Off, this character started out as a costumed human being.

The final toy was, of course, quite different from Sweet’s original concept. While both toy and concept were to reuse Skeletor’s arms and legs, the final toy had a unique sculpted and scaley chest and crotch piece. Due to the action feature, he didn’t have the usual twist waist action feature. Kobra Khan was given a snake head rather than the concept human head and snake cowl. Probably due to the fact that the character’s head had to press downward in order to activate the spray feature, he lacked the characteristic cobra hood. For his accessory, he was given an orange-red version of Zodac’s gun. The name Kobra Khan was trademarked on January 27, 1984.

Kobra Khan cross sell Axel
Image source: Axel Giménez

Kobra Khan was sold on the standard single card, as well as in a JCPenny two-pack with Whiplash. Errol McCarthy painted the scene on the back of his card, which features the villain trying to attack He-Man and Man-At-Arms with his hypnotizing mist:

Note that in this illustration, Kobra Khan’s center column of chest scales is painted brown. Image source: KMKA
Image source: The Art of He-Man

Errol McCarthy also illustrated the figure in a variety of contexts for use in licensed merchandise:

One of the above illustrations was also used in the 1987 Style Guide. Note that the character is given the cobra hood that the figure lacked – no doubt an influence from the Filmation cartoon (more on that later). Interestingly, he puts a Snake Men symbol on Kobra Khan’s chest, which is part and parcel to the retconning of Kobra Khan as part of the Snake Men. That faction wasn’t introduced until 1986:

Interestingly, there was a version of Kobra Khan that did have the snake symbol on his chest– a variant made by Argentinian manufacturer Top Tops, called Kobra Khan Camuflado. Known as Camo Khan to many fans today, the figure had a green and black camouflage style paint job, gold boots and belt, and strangely, Buzz-Off’s clawed arms. He was given Clawful’s green mace as a weapon:

Image via He-Man.org
Image via He-Man.org
Image via He-Man.org

A note about Kobra Khan appears in the 1989 UK MOTU Annual, in a fact file of the snake men. It reads:

Note: The Snake Men are often aided in their endeavors by Kobra Khan. He is not one of the original members of hte Snake Army, but it is thought that he is the desendant of a Snake Man who miraculously escaped banishment by the Elders. Khan is one of Skeletor’s evil allies, and although he is quite willing to help King Hiss, his true loyalties lie with the living skeleton.

Image source: He-Man.org

Kobra Khan first appears briefly in the background of the 1984 minicomic, Double-Edged Sword, and again in the background of Hordak, The Ruthless Leader’s Revenge (1985). He plays a much more central role in the 1986 minicomic, Rock People to the Rescue, where he teams up with Webstor against Rokkon and Stonedar.

In the 1986 comic, King of the Snake Men, Skeletor instructs Kobra Khan to join with King Hiss as a spy. But in Fastest Draw in the Universe (also 1986) Kobra Khan is again a henchman of Skeletor.

Kobra Khan appears prominently in the Golden Books story, Meteor Monsters, and plays a background role in Maze of Doom.

He also makes several appearances in poster artwork by both William George and Earl Norem:

Illustration by Earl Norem. Note that Kobra Khan has his hood in this image.

He only appears once on box art – in the 1985 Battle Bones illustration by William George:

Kobra Khan didn’t appear frequently in the Filmation He-Man cartoon, but his appearances were memorable. The character was portrayed as clever and credibly threatening, able to knock out most opponents with his sleeping mist. His most memorable appearance is probably in “Disappearing Dragons”, where he teams up with Webstor and they square off against Buzz-Off and Mekaneck.

In the series, Kobra Khan is typically illustrated with his mouth closed. When he wishes to use his knockout gas on someone, his cobra hood extends and the gas seems to come from the hood rather than his mouth.

In “The Good Shall Survive” Khan displays the odd ability to elongate his arms (a trait later shared by Sssqueeze).

The final He-Man episode, “The Cold Zone”, features Khan as the primary villain, and we learn more about the Reptons (the race of snake men on Eternia). Because of that episode, I generally like to display Kobra Khan in the Land Shark.

Kobra Khan was, oddly, colored brown in his appearance in issue four of the Star series of MOTU comics (thanks to an anonymous commenter below for pointing that out):

Image source: He-Man.org

Kobra Khan is typical of third wave characters in that he was never ubiquitous in Masters of the Universe storytelling, but he was used occasionally as a henchman or villain of the week. The principle characters of the mythos seem to be grouped around the figures released in 1982 and 1983 as a general rule, with few exceptions.

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