The He-Man/Conan connection

[Apositive]

I've heard and read some accounts that the first Masters of the Universe toys were actually repainted prototypes of merchandise designed for the "Conan the Barbarian" film(1982). I read somewhere that Mattel backed off from releasing kids toys for an R-rated, violent film but kept their nifty prototypes and marketed them around the MOTU concept. But when I told my friend, I couldn't provide the articles or find them online and he doesn't believe me. I cited all the evidence anyway the way a conspiracy theorist does:



MOTU first appeared in Summer of 82. He-man is a muscle dude. Thulsa Doom was originally a skull-faced character. Teela/Valeria are warrior women.

He still wasn't buying it but I did read about this in some toy publication(it may have been Toy Fare or Lee's, I can't recall).....has anyone hear ever heard about this?

[tinkerbeee]

I am pretty sure that I have read before that the mysterious Wonder Bread He-man figure had the dark hair because he was supposed to be Conan. They had a bunch of the figures around and needed something to do with them so whala....giveaway/promo.

[Figuremod73]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_of_the_Universe

My interest in the Conan movie is what got me into Masters of the Universe in the beginning. I cant remember which was released first though: the film or the toyline. Im thinking the toyline was released in Fall of '81

[Figuremod73]

It has been rumored that Conan the Barbarian was a source of inspiration for the He-Man character. According to this rumor, Mattel had a licensing agreement to make the Conan action figures associated with the 1982 film of the same name starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Apparently, such idea had to be modified in order to avoid objections from parents concerning that a toyline for kids was promoting a film with nudity and violence. In addition, brown-haired prototype versions of the He-Man action figure with a strong resemblance to the Conan character created by Robert E. Howard were produced and given away as promotion through an unknown mail-in order by mistake.[10]

This rumor has been refuted by Roger Sweet claiming that he conceptualized and developed the He-Man/Masters of the Universe franchise in late 1980, two years prior to the release of the Universal Pictures film. The toyline existed prior to the movie, starting production in 1981 and marketed in 1982. At that time, Mattel did not have a license with Universal to make toys for the film, which resulted in Conan Properties suing Mattel over copyright infringement with He-Man's similarities to Conan.[10][TIP][/TIP]

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

So; EVERYBODY turned down Star Wars toys? Weird.

Don C.

[Werewolf]

It's just fan rumors and speculation. MOTU had been in development long before the Conan movie. MOTU is just as much of mix of Dungeons and Dragons with a bit of SW thrown in as it is Conan. Dungeons and Dragons was huge at the time. MOTU was influenced by the fantasy genre which included the Conan novels and comics. But He-Man was never intended to actually be Conan or based on the Conan movie.

[Figuremod73]

Im glad it wasnt a complete rip from Conan. I like the scifi/fantasy mix. It had just been popularized by Star Wars, that by '82 I had just became aware of thru picture books (I was 8 or so and was just discovering all this neat stuff, including Warlord) MOTU came out at just the right time for me. I was all into it.

[Werewolf]

Here's the infamous Wonder Bread/Mail Order He-Man which started a lot of the Conan rumors and speculation. Not a fake or custom. It's the real deal from my personal MOTU collection. No one really knows what accessories (or if any) the figure came with and, to the best of my knowledge, Mattel has no official record of the figure. Mine's only wearing the weapon's pack vest to match the MOTUC Wundarr figure.

[Figuremod73]

I've researched this figure a little and find it interesting that there doesnt seem to be any examples of advertisements for the mail-away.

On at least one site the case is made that this is definately the earliest or close to the earliest version of the sculpt. All the details are much more defined.

It definately wasnt a fake, but no one seems to really know much of its origin.

[CrimsonGhost]

I've never seen that before, he looks pretty cool! It would be easy to make a custom one. I was big into He-Man back in the day.

Here's the infamous Wonder Bread/Mail Order He-Man which started a lot of the Conan rumors and speculation. Not a fake or custom. It's the real deal from my personal MOTU collection. No one really knows what accessories (or if any) the figure came with and, to the best of my knowledge, Mattel has no official record of the figure. Mine's only wearing the weapon's pack vest to match the MOTUC Wundarr figure.

[Bruce Banner]

Hard to believe this year is the 30th anniversary of MOTU!

Loved the figures... one of the reasons I got so into them was because I was already such a fan of Conan type stuff and sword & sorcery.

The depiction of He-Man in the original mini-comics which came packed with the figures was my favourite... where he was just a roving barbarian warrior type of character wandering Eternia.
Never really liked the Prince Adam secret identity which DC and Filmation introduced.

The new MOTU comic from DC isn't bad. In this version, Adam is just a simple woodsman who has prophetic dreams of being He-Man.