Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1546606
In 1982, Mattel unleashed the Masters of the Universe toy line, a sci-fi fantasy world built to compete in a marketplace suddenly transformed by Star Wars. Filmation's animated series, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, followed in 1983, and together they became a phenomenon. By the mid-1980s, He-Man had temporarily dethroned Barbie as Mattel's top-selling toy line. The origin story has its own bit of Hollywood irony, Mattel had turned down the chance to produce Star Wars action figures in 1976, watching Kenner rewrite pop culture merchandising overnight before building their own answer to it. Four decades later, that answer has come full circle, giving Eternia the kind of physical, big-screen presence its earliest fans always pictured in their heads. There are certain moments in my experience as a Production Designer when the drawings, models, photographs and conversations that have occupied your life for months suddenly become real. You walk onto a set and for a fleeting moment, you forget the entire process, the world has taken over. That feeling was particularly potent on Masters of the Universe. S t o n e , S t e e l , S o r c e r y , a n d t h e C h a l l e n g e o f B r i n g i n g E t e r n i a t o L i f e : M A S T E R S O F T H E U N I V E R S E B Y G U Y H E N D R I X D YA S , P R O D U C T I O N D E S I G N E R A