For me, the 1980s He-Man toys from Mattel were just toys, and not my favorite ones either. They had weird squishy heads and their exaggerated physiques made me more than a little uncomfortable. I wasn’t all that into them, but I did like the goofy cartoon. My cousins were big collectors and we usually played the same things, so … He-Man.
It made a change from Star Wars, which I loved but also dreaded when we were together because it usually meant that I had to play Han-Solo — since I was the non-blond. And coming from Mattel, makers of Barbie, their scale just reminded me more of dolls than action figures. But we really shouldn’t go there.
At least they came with comic books, of a sort. For those who missed them the first time around, or those who just miss their old collections, Dark Horse Comics is republishing all of the old minicomics from the ’80s and ’90s He-Man toys.
Due for release Oct. 21 in comic book shops and Nov. 3 in bookstores, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Minicomics Collection will be an oversized $30 hardcover of more than 1,200 pages encompassing 68 stories in their original production order.
Some heroic comic industry names you might recognize from the collection’s credits include writers Tim Seeley, Steven Grant, Phil White, Gary Cohn, Michael Halperin and Scott Neitlich, and artists Bruce Timm, Mark Texeira, Larry Houston, Jim Mitchell and colorist Charles Simpson.
Dark Horse and Mattel also collaborated recently to publish The Art of He-man and the Masters of the Universe, which was released in bookstores April 28. (There’s even an insanely priced collectible edition.)
