Masters of the Universe Archives

If you’re on this site, then I probably don’t need to tell you just how big He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was back in the 80’s. For a couple of years there, you couldn’t get through life without being bombarded with He-Man merchandise. I know I certainly fell victim to the never ending stream of advertisements and tie-ins, and I’m better off for it since He-Man remains one of my favorite toys of all-time. So here today, I’m just taking a look back at some of the old commercials for the toys, and reliving those great times.

So this is supposedly the first commercial aired for the toy line. I have no way of verifying that, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. It features He-Man, Skeletor, and Castle Grayskull. Whether it’s the first commercial or not, it certainly is from very early in the run as there are no other figures mentioned or shown in the ad.

Another video from early in the run, once again featuring He-Man and Skeletor, but also introducing the Attack Trak vehicle this time. I had the Attack Trak, but I sure don’t remember it working quite like it shows in this commercial. I seem to remember mine having a hard time makig it’s way through the carpeting in our house and getting stuck. Maybe it was not so much that the Attack Trak didn’t work as advertised. Maybe it was the fact we still had thick shag carpet in our home at that point.

Ah, Point Dread and the Talon Fighter. What an awesome toy this was. Point Dread was actually designed to fit atop the tower on Castle Grayskull, so when you had both, it extended the playability of both. In the cartoon, Zodiak was kind of synonymous with the Talon Fighter, so that’s how I used it in my play. I remember getting both Point Dread and the Talon Fighter, as well as Zodiak for my sixth birthday. That was an awesome combo right there. However, I don’t recall the storybook and record combo that came with the toy though. Maybe my mind is slipping.

Now this commercial is kind of the cream of the crop, because it pimps so many different aspects from the overall toy line. You get to see not only He-Man and Skeletor, but all their friends on each side of the ongoing battle. It also makes sure to pimp Castle Grayskull, Point Dread and the Talon Fighter, and some other vehicles including the Attack Trak again. You could tell that they knew they had a hit toy on their hands, as the commercial is busting at the seems with numerous toys showing how they were ramping up the line pretty heftily.

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I don’t know about you, but when I was younger, trading cards were a big part of my everyday life. I would spend plenty of my allowance on packs of baseball cards as well as non-sports cards of all kinds. Then I’d smuggle my cards to school and trade them with friends, or sometimes just drool over their collection. There was actually a summer where every single day with my friends was spent trading cards.

There is something very nostalgic to me about opening a pack of cards. I’ve went on a bit of a binge lately and purchased a lot of old wax packs on ebay. Everything from old baseball cards to Dick Tracy movie cards to Young Indiana Jones Chronicles cards. I’ve bought a lot. So with that said, it’s time to start opening these bad boys up and seeing what’s inside in what I like to call Wax Pack Flashback!

Up first is a pack of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cards from 1984. This was an 88 card set, that also featured 21 different stickers, with one being randomly inserted into each pack. The cards are in the animated style of the He-Man cartoon, and actually re-tell the episode titled “Like Father, Like Daughter” in comic strip form. They used scenes from the episode along with word bubbles to tell the story, and the backs of the cards went more in-depth about the story being told on the front of the card.

Just looking at the pack, it scream cool. It’s funny, but I was a super huge mark for all things He-Man back in the day, but at the time, I didn’t even know these cards existed. When I first came across a pack of them, I thought the packs themselves just looked really cool. The packs featured four different characters on them. He-Man, Skeletor, Teela, and Orko. I’ve got one each of the He-Man and Skeletor packs featured prominently in a display case in my living room.

The back of the pack shows the Topps logo quite well, but nothing else of note really. A lot of card packs from this era would feature some kind of candy ad on the back of the wrapper.

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