The Wildest Designs From The Art of The Masters Of The Universe

“By the Power of Grayskull…!”

If you grew up in the 1980’s, you know it was difficult to avoid He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. With toys, a movie, an animated series, and a plethora of merchandise with his face on it, He-Man represented the 80’s for millions of kids. Now, Dark Horse has put together interviews, concept art, published promotional art, thumbnails, and pretty much anything MOTU art-related in the aptly-titled The Art of He-Man and The Masters of the Universe. 

Going through the book, there are literally hundreds of photos of some of the most bizarre concepts for either characters, vehicles, or environments. Some didn’t make it past concept because either the action figure wouldn’t have worked design-wise, or it was possibly just too crazy (though in a world where Stinkor is a legitimate thing, I find that hard to believe). It was difficult to narrow down some of our favorites, but I think you’ll find they are some of the weirdest characters thought up for this world, as well as concepts that didn’t stick for whatever reason. 

Let’s dive in first with Ralph McQuarrie’s design for Skeletor for the live-action Masters of the Universe movie. 

When talking about the particular designs he wanted, Masters of the Universe director Gary Goddard spoke in length about the visual aesthetic he wanted and originally courted legendary film artist Ralph McQuarrie, but he was occupied with Ron Howard’s Cocoon. “I told him if anything changed to let me know, and he called one day and said that Cocoon was on temporary hold, and did my offer still stand?” As luck would have it, McQuarrie ended up working on the film for about three weeks before Cocoon started back up and produced some very different concepts for what would inspire the film. 

The Skeletor above caught my attention because it stripped Skeletor of his purple skin and made him actually human, well…more human anyways. The mask/helmet reminded me of General Kael from Willow and the demonic eyes are a nice touch. This is wild because it takes away everything that we think of when we think of Skeletor and it just becomes guy in a skull mask. The gaze is haunting, but I find it interesting that McQuarrie would ground the character like this. 

Next up is Optikk. Yeah, this guy. 

This was the original concept for Optikk, who was introduced in The New Adventures of He-Man, where the sword and fantasy aspects were replaced with a more sci-fi feel. The idea behind Optikk was that he was an alien, obviously, and that he was used as reconnaissance for Skeletor’s Evil Mutants and somehow still spoke despite not having a mouth. This is definitely one of the crazier designs, even if one for the second MOTU-based series. They gave him a slight upgrade later on in the series that added a headpiece that cradled his eye and gave him an even more massive silhouette. 

Then there are these guys. 

While not official characters in canon, it’s hard to ignore the imagination from young fans. Yes, these are Fearless Photog, Brainwave, and Eye Beam. All Heroic Warrior finalists in the Masters of the Universe Create A Character Contest, and yes, all of them created by 11 year-olds. Fearless Photog, who had the power to “focus” on his enemies and drain their powers, actually won the contest, but sadly never went into a toy production in the original toyline. That was remedied in 2011 when Mattel revealed that Fearless Photog would finally receive a figure as part of the 30th Anniversary line-up. Better late than never right? 

And then there’s this. Oy. 

When Mattel tried to revitalize He-Man in the late 80’s, several ideas were thrown around, including He-Man joining the US military. Not exactly how that would have worked and the idea itself seems sort of sacrilegious in some aspects. This was more GI Joe than the sword and sorcery world of Eternia and just by looks alone this is crazy, but I will give props for trying to make a suitable acronym of his name. That headpiece just seems impractical and he looks more like Captain Power now that I think about it. Running into battle with all that technology might have been cumbersome, too.

And finally, there’s Inflator. This was a concept from an unproduced toy and you can tell by the design alone why it never went into production. The chest area would be a thinner plastic that could expand when blown into from the back. I’m trying to figure out a few things just by looking at this, mainly how the chest would have expanded that large and if it bursting would have been a hazard. Also this guy’s backstory. How does one discover you have super wind breath ability when you attach an ornate billows to your back? That episode should have been interesting for sure.

So readers, with any of you being Masters of the Universe fans, have you gotten this massive treasure trove of retro goodness? Did you ever have a favorite design growing up or one you recently discovered? Tell us all about it in the comments.