Masters of the Universe

I’m a big fan of movies – fantasy and sci-fi in particular (as you might guess), but also thrillers, horror, action/adventure, and more. I’ve even got a soft spot for documentaries. Into that last category falls something I saw recently: Power of Grayskull, which covered the history of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

For those who don’t know, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was a toyline created in the 1980s by Mattel, the maker of iconic toys like Hot Wheels cars, as well as Barbie, the world’s best-selling doll. Despite having some notable successes, Mattel made one of the most notorious business blunders of all time when they weren’t able to capitalize on an offer from George Lucas to create action figures for his new movie Star Wars.

According to the documentary, Mattel said they wouldn’t be able to make the necessary changes to production to get the toys created in time. Apparently, it took a long time to create action figures for things like a movie tie-in, so if a film was released in March, the related toy line might not be available until months later, meaning that Mattel would be stuck with a bunch of inventory it couldn’t move. Thus, in this instance, Mattel said the time constraints were too great and passed on the offer. (FYI: I’ve seen elsewhere online that Mattel balked at Lucas’ $750K demand for the licensing rights, and that was what soured the deal.)

Lucas then offered the rights to Kenner, the company behind toys such as the Spirograph and Easy-Bake Oven (the latter of which I’ll never forget after I was burned by one that my sister got for Christmas). Kenner had the same production/time constraints as Mattel, but they weren’t letting the opportunity get away. So, instead of actually selling action figures, what they sold was an “Early Bird Certificate Package” – a coupon that could later be redeemed for four Star Wars action figures.

I thought that was absolutely brilliant. I mean, the folks at Kenner were in the same boat as those at Mattel. They didn’t really have a fix, but they came up with a novel solution by thinking completely outside the box. Now, you may ask: Did it work for them? Let’s just say that in 1980 the market for male action figures was $200 million – and two-thirds of that was Star Wars. (And in related news, Mattel – which had net income of $28 million 1978 – only had $7.9 million in profit by 1981.)

Anyway, angry at missing out on the Star Wars bonanza, Mattel’s president ordered his staff to develop a new male action figure. Ultimately they came up with this He-Man character, who was immediately controversial because of his all-too-macho name, among other things.  In fact, some guys working on the project apparently asked at one point, “This ‘He-Man’ name – that’s just a working title, right?  I mean, there’s no way that’s actually going to be this guy’s name…”

There were also other challenges, such as the scale of the Castle Grayskull playset. Apparently an exec at Mattel looked at it during development and was like, “That’s twenty dollars at retail. Twenty dollars! Nobody’s going to pay that.” (FYI: I’ve poked around online, and it looks like the original Castle Grayskull was actually priced from the mid- to the upper-twenties.)

Likewise, there were issues with another Masters of the Universe character: Battle Cat. Apparently the He-Man team at Mattel wanted another character/accessory, but ran out of money. However, they knew they could avoid any additional expense by using something that was already in existence. At the time, Mattel also produced the Big Jim toyline, which included male action figures in a variety of scenarios (e.g., sports, hunting, etc.). It seems that one of the Big Jim toy packs included a tiger, and a Marketing VP at Mattel, Paul Cleveland, decided to include it in the Masters of the Universe collection – primarily because it wouldn’t require much retooling, and therefore would cost practically nothing. The problem was that the Big Jim dolls were about 10 inches in height, and the tiger was made in accordance with that scale. Next to He-Man (who was only about 5 1/2 inches tall), it looked humongous.  When his staff told him this and insisted that the tiger wouldn’t suit their purposes, Paul Cleveland didn’t listen. Unfazed, he told his people, “We’re going to have the tiger. I don’t care if you paint it green with orange stripes, we’re going to have the tiger.”

To show him how absurd his request was, they did exactly that. They called Mr. Cleveland in when the work was done, and – to show him how ridiculous it would look – they had painted the tiger green with orange stripes. Paul Cleveland took one look at it and said, “Wow! That looks great.”  His team was aghast, but still tried to dissuade him by again pointing out that it wasn’t to scale. “It’s as big as a horse,” they said.  Paul Cleveland’s response was simply, “Then put a saddle on it.”  Ergo, He-Man got his “steed,” Battle Cat.(Paul Cleveland tells it a bit differently – and more colorfully – in the clip below that he does in the documentary.)

 

 

Anyway, there’s lots more in the film, but when you hear about everything that was going on, your first thought is that this He-Man thing shouldn’t have worked at all. There’s no way it should have succeeded. And yet, it went on to become a billion-dollar empire – even eclipsing Barbie in sales at one point. (Even the $20 Grayskull playset sold millions of units.)  But like lots of things in pop culture, the immense popularity of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe eventually faded. However, they aren’t completely forgotten, and Netflix even has a new series based on the toyline.

With respect to the documentary, I actually had several takeaways. First and foremost – like Kenner’s Star Wars coupon strategem – sometimes you have to think outside the box. Conventional wisdom and tactics aren’t always the answer.  Next, don’t be afraid to buck tradition.  Whether in naming a character (e.g., “He-Man”) or creating something ridiculously absurd (like a giant green-and-orange tiger), feel free to push the boundaries. Finally, don’t let the possibility of failure discourage you. Sometimes just pressing through to the end is a win.  In short, there are some things in the film that I could – and like to think that I do – incorporate into my writing, among other thngs.

Speaking of writing, I have a quick update on the audio version of Conjuration. My narrator is working on it, and the anticipated completion date is August 20th. After that I get to review it, and if all goes well I’m hoping the audiobook will be available by the first week in September. With respect to Warden 4, I’m trying to finish it up.