At another time, I would have said a cliché like “We all know He-Man“, but looking at the box office data, it’s impossible to have certain doubts, so allow me to correct myself: all of us who are of a certain age know He-Man.
Specifically, the age burdened with bills, kids, and work that no longer goes to the movies. Nevertheless, it is a milestone that the franchise is still alive after 44 years, because it was almost non-existent. The only reason we now have Masters of the Universe is a tremendous mistake that starred none other than Star Wars.
Four decades ago, in a very, very well-known toy store…
When Star Wars meant nothing to anyone, George Lucas believed it could be something huge. So much so that he secured the vast majority of the merchandising rights and went from toy company to toy company, looking for someone to produce the action figures. One by one, they all said no until he met Kenner, which had been open for years but lacked a great product to flood the stores. And they certainly succeeded: between 1978 and 1985, they sold over 300 million units, which today are worth a fortune. However, not everyone was happy with this agreement.
One of the toy companies that decided not to buy the rights from Lucas was none other than Mattel. However, seeing the success of Kenner, they got to work and launched all kinds of toy lines: some were not bought by anyone and others became classics… although none like He-man, who was originally named Torak and borrowed concepts, illustrations, and ideas from Conan, which at that time was an unparalleled success.
However, before deciding on this approach, no one was exactly clear on what this He-man should be: A soldier with a tank head? A space warrior that half-plagiarized Boba Fett? Or perhaps a barbarian with an axe in hand and a very bad temper? Now we see it very clearly, but at that time they were seriously considering releasing a toy with a tank head, yes.
The “Lords of Power,” that is, He-man’s companions, would eventually transform into the “Masters of the Universe,” and the rest is history. Well, more or less, because it took a good while to get them to market.
The culprit was another movie, Conan the Barbarian, which came out in 1982 and whose producers took the opportunity to sue Matteal (with whom they had an agreement, by the way) claiming that He-man infringed copyright. They were not right, it’s true, but… Honestly, a little bit yes. Belit and She-Ra may not be very similar, but the concept is similar.
Mattel won the lawsuit, and it was clear that they did not want to compete with Conan the Barbarian, as demonstrated by the mini-comics that came with each figurine. Now they are a classic that explained the world to any kid, but at the time they were a problem for the head of the company, because he was convinced they would fail. After all, kids can’t read, can they?!
Whatever the case, between the television series, the comics from DC and the television ads, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe became a huge hit. They ended up earning 32 million dollars and selling 3.5 million units exclusively of Castle Grayskull. By this time, Star Wars was already in a hiatus that would last more than a decade, and the reign of He-Man began. In the end, rejecting George Lucas didn’t turn out so badly for them!
