The original “Star Wars” was famously turned down by Universal, United Artists, and Disney before 20th Century Fox hit pay dirt with a tale from a galaxy far, far away. But they weren’t the only companies to miss out on a cash bonanza of Death Star proportions.
When George Lucas started pitching the merchandising rights for the movie, the management at Mattel (the toy giants then best known as the home of Barbie and Hot Wheels cars) decided to pass on the opportunity to make action figures. A small Cincinnati company called Kenner’s subsequent gamble on Lucas paid off big time, leaving Mattel hunting for a fantastical behemoth of its own.
Toys based on “Battlestar Galactica”, “Flash Gordon” (the late ’70s cartoon version), and “Clash of the Titans” (the 1981 fantasy movie) had all failed to set the world alight, so Mattel opted for a different approach. What if, instead of piggybacking an existing intellectual property, the manufacturer created one of its own?
In the less enlightened early ’80s, anything involving action, space, or vehicles was generally labelled as a toy for boys. And, after extensive market research, Mattel execs deduced that this target audience liked the idea of oversized male heroes flaunting their power over other people. Something in the (quite literal) mold of Frank Frazetta’s classic Conan the Barbarian artwork seemed to fit the bill.
Various people at Mattel were involved in — and have since claimed credit for — He-Man’s genesis. He was clearly a departure from Kenner’s “Star Wars” range, the most successful action figures of the era. As well as being nearly two inches taller, He-Man had a blond bob (what the hell did he ask for at the barbers?) and a musclebound physique that would make even the most hardcore of bodybuilders feel inadequate. He was immortalized in a perpetual full-body muscle flex, and bore the grimace of a guy who really, really wants to pick a fight. He also loved to flash a bit of flesh — check out that bold combo of chest-plate and weird fluffy trunks.
These basic characteristics were replicated throughout the “Masters of the Universe” range (almost branded as “Lords of Power”, until then-Mattel president Glenn Hastings decided that sounded a little too religious). Bone-faced bad guy Skeletor also had the physique of a guy who could bench press a horse. Even He-Man’s mild-mannered weakling alter-ego, Prince Adam, looked like he wanted to rip someone’s head off.
Launched in early 1982, the original MOTU line-up saw He-Man and Skeletor joined by heroes Teela (at this point, the only female character), Man-at-Arms and Stratos; the morally ambiguous Zodac; and a couple of Skeletor’s henchmen, Beast Man and Mer-Man.
He-Man was also given a giant tiger to ride, though that was as much a happy accident as a radical creative decision. Basically, MOTU’s brain trust ran out of development money while thinking up a vehicle for their hero, so they instead repurposed a tiger from Mattel’s Big Jim range. Because Big Jim was scaled a few inches bigger than He-Man, Battle Cat looked intimidatingly large alongside “Masters of the Universe” figures.
But with few obvious traits shared between them — aside from those pneumatic physiques — “Masters of the Universe” remained a tricky sell. Unlike “Star Wars” or most other popular toy lines, these characters had been created before there was a mythology tying them together, a fact that wasn’t lost on toy retailers.
To counter their concerns, some quick thinking from Mattel’s creative team led to mini-comics being packaged with every toy. Although these stories (many of them written by Donald F Glut, author of the successful novelization of “The Empire Strikes Back”) provided some backstory for the characters, they did not describe the He-Man ’80s kids would soon come to know and love. Instead, they were darker, high-fantasy tales of a wandering, Conan-esque barbarian, whose Power Sword had the ability to unlock the secrets of Castle Grayskull — if it was combined with Skeletor’s equivalent weapon. (Mattel had intended for the two swords to form a “key” that could open the “jawbridge” of the highly desirable Grayskull playset.)
Soon after the first toys launched, Mattel hired writer Michael Halperin to create a “bible” of franchise lore. The company also teamed up with DC Comics to launch a mini-series (written by Paul Kupperberg) that debuted several key elements of Eternian mythology, most notably the fact that He-Man was the alter-ego of playboy prince Adam. One plot point that hasn’t survived into subsequent iterations saw He-Man teaming up with Superman — arguably his closest rival for the title of “most powerful man in the universe” — in a crossover that’s long since been jettisoned from regular canon.
It was on TV, however, that He-Man and his fellow Masters of the Universe would truly live up to the franchise’s hubristic sobriquet.
When President Ronald Reagan entered the White House in 1981, he appointed one of his Republican allies to run the Federal Communications Commission. Mark S Fowler quickly loosened regulations that had previously restricted kids’ programming based on toys, and “Masters of the Universe” was in the right place at the right time to capitalize. The toy giant commissioned an initial run of 65 episodes from Lou Scheimer’s Filmation, an animation company whose resumé included “Star Trek: The Animated Series” and various DC adaptations.
The tone of “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” (which debuted in September 1983) was rather goofier than that of the early mini-comics, with the violence toned down considerably. Each episode concluded with a cheesy moral, as the producers tried to convince parents there was more to the show than simply peddling plastic playthings to their enthralled offspring.
He-Man was now a jolly, quip-ready hero, whose best friends were scaredy-cat Cringer (a green-and-yellow tiger who transformed into Battle Cat), and an annoying, hovering magician called Orko. Skeletor, meanwhile, was joyously evil, the sort of scenery-chewing villain who’s crying out for a moustache to twirl. That thing about the two Power Swords was conveniently forgotten.
Mattel execs initially believed they’d struggle to break even on the project, but the partnership proved extremely lucrative for both parties, with the hit cartoon becoming the ultimate commercial for the rapidly expanding toy line. It set the blueprint for every other toy manufacturer of the ’80s, as the likes of “Transformers“, “ThunderCats” and “M.A.S.K.” (not to mention “My Little Pony”, “Care Bears” and “Teddy Ruxpin”) were all accompanied by animated tie-ins.
Crucially, however, “Masters of the Universe” beat everyone else to the punch, cementing its place as the most desirable toy range on the planet before anyone else could respond. He-Man and co would earn hundreds of millions of dollars for Mattel, as 130 episodes of He-Man-vs-Skeletor action were repeated again and again — and again and again — in syndication across the US.
But kids are fickle creatures, and eventually got bored of those Eternian squabbles. By the time the live-action “Masters of the Universe” movie debuted in theaters in August 1987, toy sales were a tiny fraction of where they’d been just a couple of years earlier. Retailers started aggressively discounting their stock as the range — so recently top of every kid’s Christmas list — became yesterday’s news.
Even so, “Masters of the Universe” has stuck around in the public consciousness far more than most of its animated rivals. There have been numerous animated attempts to reboot the franchise, from the unrecognizable “New Adventures of He-Man” — a ponytail? Full-length pants? No Eternia? — to “Masters of the Universe: Revelation”/”Revolution”, Kevin Smith’s dark, mythology-expanding follow-up to the original series. Various iterations of the action figures remain popular.
That stickability probably owes as much to the franchise’s unconventional toy-first origins as its unprecedented ability to flog merchandise. Indeed, if a writers’ room had sat down to create “Masters of the Universe” from scratch, they’d never have come up with the wild assortment of oddities on the Eternian roll call, many of whom exist because someone at Mattel HQ thought they’d make a cool toy.
If the upcoming “Masters of the Universe” movie embraces that weirdness — as well as the franchise’s unique, slightly bonkers mix of sci-fi and magic — then maybe it’ll reignite something in the Gen Xers and millennials who fell in love with the toys all those years ago. It’s not a franchise to be taken seriously, but that’s arguably the secret of its four-decade (and counting) legacy.
‘Masters of the Universe’ is in theaters from June 5, 2026. You can watch the original “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” cartoon on Amazon Prime Video.