Masters of the Universe

The wife of Roger Sweet, one of the core creators behind He-Man, is crowdfunding to help pay for her husband’s expensive medical bills in the wake of the toy icon’s dementia diagnosis.

The first live-action He-Man in decades features Jared Leto as Skeletor.

Celebrating the work of one of the greatest poster artists in the history of film.

Centineo was announced for the project but has reportedly dropped out.

I've never been a huge Masters of the Universe fan. I mean, not since I was seven or eight years old. I've never bought a figure as an adult; I don't even read the current comics, although I've considered it. But the toys, and the comics they came with, were really important to me as a child, and I'm certainly not above nostalgia. So I was happy to receive the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Minicomic Collection from Dark Horse for my recent birthday.

At New York Comic Con, we got the first look at Super7's take on the Masters of the Universe, which it took up from Mattel last year. Though many of the first wave were characters we'd seen before, the next few waves look to have even more deep cuts from the subscription service previously under Mattel's command. As strong as those Four Horsemen-designed figures look, Super7 had even more interesting products on display, including a rare Jack Kirby character getting his first toy ever.

So here's the thing about He Man and the Masters of the Universe: I don't know anything about it. Fortunately for me, the last few years have seen something of a MOTU renaissance that included a massive hardcover collection of the minicomics that accompanied the toys. I figured that if the underlying mythology was originally codified in those bite-sized chunks, I could probably get a handle on it. The only problem is that these things are both completely bonkers and completely amazing.

Exercise is hard, but if your fitness goals tend to line up with the way that characters in the cartoons of the early '80s looked --- all stout muscles shown off by chest harnesses and loincloths --- then I have a plan for you. Instead of working out, just remove all mirrors from your home and replace them with Sideshow's new high-end statue of He-Man, the Grayskull-powered warrior from Masters of the Universe.

There are a lot of boutique toy companies out there, but Super7 has consistently hit that sweet spot of niche properties and clever interpretations. This year at New York Comic Con, the company's ability to balance those elements was on display in full force with new MUSCLE sets, an updated look at 3.75" Hellboy figures, and the grand debut of the Masters of the Universe Classic Ultimate Editions. It's possible Super7 had the best pound-for-pound showing of exciting new toys at NYCC.

It's not unusual for San Diego Comic-Con to debut a new episode of a fan-favorite cartoon --- in fact, it'd be downright shocking if there wasn't at least one premiere screening over in the Indigo Ballroom all weekend. When the fan-favorite cartoon in question had its last new episode in 1984, however, that's a little more notable. And that's exactly what's happening this year. On Wednesday, Super7 --- the folks behind the eponymous magazine and books about Japnese toys who are also responsible for reintroducing the world to Ultimate M.U.S.C.L.E. figures at last year's Comic-Con --- is debuting a brand-new episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe this Wednesday, almost 32 years after the last one.