Thirty-five years ago, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley declared April 28 "Masters of the Universe Day."
Though public schools don’t observe it today, there’s still a large corner of the Internet that solemnly celebrates MOTU Day. To mark it ourselves, we’ve shared some prime pieces of trivia about the franchise’s ’80s heyday. And even better: We’ve organized it by three of the franchise’s arms: toys, the cartoon, and the live-action film.
THE TOYS
1. Battle Cat’s body was actually reused from a mold in the 1976 Big Jim on the Tiger Trail line from Mattel. It accompanied 10- and 12-inch figures, so it didn’t seem so big back then.
2. Bashasaurus, the “heroic combat vehicle,” was originally called “Ball Buster” and was intended for the baddies of the line.
3. The inspiration was Skeletor was appropriately creepy. Artist and designer Mark Taylor, as a boy, saw a real-life corpse on display at a Pike Amusement Park funhouse in Long Beach. That corpse belonged to outlaw Elmer McCurdy, who had died in a shootout in 1911. Google it for unpleasant dreams for the next month.
4. Remember the "Demon Dog" props in Mystery Science Theater 3000? Those were just repainted Battle Bones carrying cases (which designers originally wanted to call “Dem Bones”). The carrying case itself was actually pretty neat and beats any of the Funny Buses you might see around town.
THE CARTOON
1. Orko, the sorcerer and comic relief, was created specifically for the show and wasn't part of the original toyline. His original name was Gorpo, but the name was changed so that an O can appear on his chest, thus making it easier to flip and reuse animation cels to save money.
2. Prince Adam was actually supposed to be a teenager. But again, to save money, he was animated with the same design as our titular hero.
3. Prince Adam, like Orko, was developed just for the show and later became a toy. Other than Prince Adam and Orko; other examples are King Randor and The Sorceress.
4. For the most part, though, characters were being developed in both the toyline and the series at the same time. The designs Mattel handed to Filmation would often be preliminary though, so the two final results could vary greatly. One thing the show added was this guy’s ’stache:
THE FILM
1. Skeletor's henchman are robots only because Mattel mandated that He-Man wasn't allowed to murder anyone onscreen.
2. The role of Pigboy, the character who hands the staff to Skeletor upon his return to Earth, was portrayed by Richard Szponder. Szponder won a Mattel contest to have a role in the film, yet wasn't listed in the credits. Here’s a snap from this set, via Reddit:
3. Dolph Lundgren's Swedish accent and shaky handle on the English language made his original delivery difficult to understand. His contract mandated that he could try three times to redub his lines in post-production, though. In the end, that’s his voice you’re hearing.
4. Comic book legend Jack "The King" Kirby was reportedly a major influence for director Gary Goddard. In particular, you can see notes of New Gods, Thor, and Fantastic Four's cosmic storylines at play.
* Sourced from Dark Horse Books' wonderful, hefty tome The Toys of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe; IMDB; and other catacombs found across the web.