This HeMan comes from an universe where Gobots are the premium alien disguised robots, Jodorowski's Dune was released in the 70s, erasing Star Wars from existence and the remake of "E.T. the videogame" was the best selling game on the Super Atari Entertainment Station.
Alejandro Martin Did you know. A universe where M.A.S.K and Go-bots are more popular than their hasbro counter parts are more popular exists and is canonin TF universe?
In addition to Mattel denying any involvement with this figure, I can confirm that the makers of Wonder Bread (then Continental baking) also have no knowledge of a promotion for an action figure. I had a dialogue with a representative from Interstate Bakeries back in 2007 via email in which we discussed records of such a promotion. I got tired of seeing all the speculatory comments and theories on the forums by so-called experts so I decided to do my own research. (Some people commenting in the forum discussion actually thought Wonder Bread was the company name so it was hard to take their claims seriously). Although the company had changed hands and records may have been lost, they could NOT confirm such a promotion. Wonder Bread DID have a trading card promotion which everyone knows about but you can forget about the figure being a WB promo. Despite this information, people will still swear it's a WB figure which is ridiculous. That said, one of your commentors below suggested that this figure may have been given out at a convention perhaps as swag to employees which is a theory I can actually get behind. I'm very close to "a large toy company employee" (you can do the math) and there are constantly products floating around the offices and within the employee circles that never see the light of day. It's very possible that this figure was either an error from the factory that was given away to employees rather than destroyed, a figure intentionally produced and then held back for fear of being sued by the Conan people, or simply as a promo collector's item given to employees. Either way, despite the rarity of the figure, a WB promo would have had an ad campaign to back the promotion. After all, the point of a promotion is to sell more product which means there would be flyers, posters, magazine ads, and WB packaging to sell such a promotion. None of that can be produced for this figure which should seal the deal. In the 80's, mail in figures were common and you can find a TON of promotional documentation for figures like Cobra Commander, Duke, Sgt Slaughter, Fridge Perry, Mumm-Ra, Emporer, Boba-Fett, even Robo-Cop. A quick google search will produce documents as evidence for those promotions but nothing for He-Man? Mattel would have done a much better job at releasing promotional material to get this toy out there. I don't know where the toy came from but I can tell you where it did NOT come from.
@@SecretGalaxyTV I am with you 100% I believe the mystery of the figure is why its so appealing to me. If we ever truly figured out the origin its going to be a sad day.
i don't know where those He-Man toys were produced at that time, but if it was in China, maybe the molds were used afterwards to produce counterfeits, and they changed the colors just to keep it off the radar..
Let's also not forget that when He-Man first came out, he was not "Prince Adam". He-Man was a barbarian that left his tribe to wander and adventure. He was met by a sorceress (not the actual "Sorceress" as we know her now) who gave him a sword and bade him to protect castle Greyskull from Skeletor, who had the other have of the sword He-Man had. I bring this up because I never see that original story talked about in videos about He-Man.
Yep, this is the story that the fine folks at Filmation want everyone to forget about ;) The mysterious woman he met was The Goddess, and she was basically an early variation of The Sorceress, thought in the new cannon they are now officially separate characters. I think the basic story told in the original four mini comics is now Wun-dar’s story.
Truly hilarious! Amazing story, great jokes too. Very cool that they gave the new character his own bread loath as an accessory. I certainly strongly enjoy all your Oddities series!
My theory of Wonderbread He-man is that he was a version of He-man that Mattel made for Wonderbread for a promotion, but Mattel made a last minute decision to cancel the figure after a small number of copies were sent out by Wonderbread. I think that Mattel cancelled this version of He-man was because he looked too much like Conan and they deny this figures existence as they didn't want to be sued by CPI for making a Figure that looked similar to Conan.
I wouldn't be surprised if this is true as something like this, a figure that was put into production but canceled after a few copies got out to the public, happened in 2010 with Mattel's WWE Elite Series 1 Jeff Hardy action figure.
The WWE Elite Series 1 Jeff Hardy incident is why I have such a theory about Wonderbread He-man, as both Wonderbread He-man and Jeff Hardy were produced by Mattel.
Mattel made a undisclosed number of these "wonder bread" versions. They were part of the original connan line but since the lawsuit they could not be "sold" so they were given away. My source can not confirm they actually went to wonder bread though. But this figure was produced before he-man was he-man.
I believe I had the figure. Unfortunately, I was only like 12-13 years old. So my memory is questionable. I think I remember getting my parents to help me mail away for it because I did not know how to address a letter, put a stamp, go to the post office, etc. It took a long time to arrive, which was often the case with mailaway figures. He was in a clear plastic baggy. By the time it arrived, I didn't have much interest in the line anymore and was not playing with my He-man figures any more. He went into the box with the others. All my MOTU stuff was eventually given away or sold by my Mom. Not sure which. I thought it was strange that they would make a He-man with brown hair, but then again Faker had orange hair so it wasn't that much of an oddity for the line. I don't recall anything about any Wonderbread promotion. Think I remember sending in proofs of purchases from other figures.
The small booklets that came with the early edition action figures, especially those drawn by Alfredo Alcala, were quite arguably inspired by 70's Conan imagery by Frank Frazetta or Boris Vallejo. I especially recommend those, or the ones drawn by Mark Texeira. Those early books were beautifully illustrated, showing a quality and artistic ambition by Mattel that didn't seem to last beyond those individuals.
Right there with you... Freshman year in College I was in Kay-Bee Toys (RIP) They had an 'Optimus Prime' semi with a Missile Hauler Flatbed (think the Army Scene in Superman 1, minus the tarp) and a Stealth Bomber Starscream (Named so I knew they were official) but I Passed as a 'purist' because Prime was supposed to be a 'Cab Over' and Starscream a White/Blue Fighter Jet
I had this he man when I was a kid. I actually got it from Walmart. As I lived in a small town with limited means. I sold all of my masters stuff to my dad's friend so he could give them to his grandkids. $20.
I remember passing on Scareglow multiple times at the store because I thought there was no point of having another Skeletor knock off when I already had the original Skeletor. Now I see Scareglow going for 5,6,7, 800 bucks on ebay! 🤦🏻♂️
I was all about SilverHawks. That vacuum seal chrome effect was so cool. I loved the green guy, no idea what his name was. Bluegrass was dope too- i always wanted a guitar that turned into a gun lol.
The mystery was recently solved. He was part of the mattel buy3 get1 free promotion. He was the free mail in figure but it is believed he did not come with the armor, the black armor came in the weapons pack
i remember there being a lot of imitation figures that all had the same body molds. i got 1 from Showbiz pizza using tickets. it could be one of those types and not a true he-man licensed figure
I got a few theories. 1) I bet it was a prototype/early production model that somebody got their hands on. They probably did a small run to test out the production facilities. 2) It might've been a concept character that was never meant to be produced. Much like how Zodac was originally labeled as one of the bad guys, this guy was probably meant to be the good guy version of Zodac. They may have made a few to pitch the product and/or to test the production facilities, but never picked it up. 3. Custom, but from the factory. Maybe meant as a promotion. Otherwise, I got nothin.
Somebody may have mentioned this already, but there’s a pretty cool episode of Toy Hunter in which he comes across one of these and goes to his resident expert to get it valued. Pretty cool.
I remember getting a he-man knock off similar to this when I was a kid. It was clearly made from the same mould as Herman but it had black hair (I think) and had weapons that didn’t fit in his hand properly. It was in just a clear plastic bag. Not boxed. Years later I came across a test your skill game called stacker where one of the prizes was a he-man knock off which seemed to have been made from the same mould . I didn’t win it (but I won a knock off wolverine figure weeks later) I think this wonderbread He-man is probably something like that.
Spector Creative channel has solved the mystery! They found a letter in the Mattel archives confirming it's existence! It had nothing to do with Wonder Bread, but the figure was produced and mailed out! Dan and Greg, I'd LOVE to see a follow up video!!!
"How many inhabitants from that other world survived" If I may insert a quote from Lost. Rose-" My husbands not dead." Jack-"Everyone in the tail section of that plane is dead." Rose-" They're probably thinking the same thing about us"
Back in the 90's a friend of mine gave his Wonder Bread He-man figure. He said he had sent away for it when he was a kid and held on to it all that time. He knew I loved MoTU, which is why he gave it to me. I still have it.
It's a legitimate Mattel figure from the era, that's already proven. AFA grades them. A painted custom is pretty identifiable, whereas the legitimate examples of this figure were painted during the era - it's factory Mattel, in other words. So the legitimacy of the figure has already been proven. Where exactly it came from is the mystery. I know for a fact that my friend had one - because he still does. He kept it along with all of his other figures in the same box since he was a boy. He remembers getting it through a Buy 3, get 1 free deal.
"HI I'M STAN CARSON WITH SOY GALAXY" "THIS SOY SAUCE HAS 14 POINTS OF FLAVORTICULATION" "I REMEMBER THE GLORIOUS DAY OF CHRISTMAS MORNING TO FIND SEVERAL GALLONS OF SOY MILK UNDER THE TREE WHICH NO DOUBT WAS A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR TO WHAT WE DO ON SOY GALAXY" in all seriousness these toy oddities episodes are great and the addition of the retro music was great and added a creepiness feel to a episode about a alleged Wonder Bread tie in He Man figure, id love to hear it in future episodes
Funkadelic Railroad That's so freaking awesome opening intro you have there bro. Soy Galaxy could very well be a legitimate alternate timeline channel on an alternate galactic youtube platform! 😂
There's a good possibility that it was an early prototype or prototype batch, that was later accidentally dumped into the public. Some manufacturers, especially then, would insist on a number of an item being made to help offset cost because making such a figure as a one off was seriously expensive. With the split between CPI and Mattel, Mattel may have reworked the figure slightly to try to avoid the legal issues that came about later.
i saw something where they said it was a early mistake at the factory where maybe a 1000 or so were made and were giving away at toy conventions as a sample....back then only industry people went to those and Mattel would give them out as swag (bc)
If the promotional material was released, they wouldn't be able to hide it. It would be on cereal packets, etc, and would be in people's hands. So there would be pictures online and packets on eBay, but where is the evidence? Maybe it got no further than the pre-production promotion material?
That's interesting. Less a case of 'the promotions that time forgot' and more 'the promotions that people can't forget'. I can picture Optimus with some nice Pepsi stickers...
Sorry guys, but there would most definitely be a digital/paper/video footprint somewhere. There would have to be at least 500-1000 made or repackaged from warehouses in china just to justify an order to the states, and there most definitely isn't more than a couple of them floating around and even then I've found nothing of close examination for factory issued numbers or confirmation of factory spray used to change colors on the figure and not done in a fans home. There is nothing out there. Fake
Foucault Effect The figure is not fake, it is indeed 100% real *however* it had absolutely nothing to do with wonderbread at all. The full explanation for the origin of the figure is detailed here with actual proof: twitter.com/timlybarger/status/951546136216645632
One of my childhood friends had a stepbrother that lived overseas for a couple years (army brat). He had some HeMan figures from over there that had slightly different colorations to ours. Perhaps Chinese manufacturers did a bootleg run using MOTU molds and had them painted somewhere else and sold as bootlegs on the Asian market.
Mandela effect: the results of humans' selective memories and cognitive dismissal of any event considered by the observer to be unlikely to result in shared sexy times in the future.
I’m a Star Wars figure collector. I can tell you with absolute certainty that paint on vintage figures is not usually consistent. To relate to Star Wars, the 1978 luke skywalker action figure usually had yellow hair, but occasionally popped up with brown. I know they aren’t fake, because Kenner released official pictures of the figures more than once, and there are very occasionally brown hair luke figures pictured.
It absolutely was real. I never got one but my memory is solid. There was a coupon in a loaf of wonderbread. You had to send 4 or more Wonderbread UPC labels and a money order for $1.99. I walked to my grandma's house to cut a 2nd UPC label from her bread,got yelled at for it haha. My mom got me the money order and my 2 UPC labels.. The coupon and money order set with the 2 UPC labels in a coupon drawer for years because I lost interest in He-man and didn't collect more UPC s. My mother remembers it there till this day...
While watching the new He-Man, I caught the Wonder Bread He-Man Easter egg and yelled out loud, "I caught that reference!" Thanks to your riveting, relentless and sometimes reckless reporting!
I'm pretty sure I had the original Wonder Bread He-Man. But I can't recall where it came from specifically. Just one of many He-Man figures I got as a birthday gift from someone to add to my hoard... which sadly suffered the fate of many classic collectibles and was thrown away by my parents when I wasn't there to stop them. *cries*
I have always heard that Mattel and Wonder Bread claim to have no known documentation that mentions any kind of mail-away premium offer for this figure. I hear stories the Wonder Bread He-Man was a mail-away offer. I read a comment below about them being found in an A&P grocery store. As far as I can remember, I don't ever remember seeing one in my childhood. I never saw another kid bring it to school, sold at a yard sale, flea markets, or anywhere else.
As the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" explains it: There is a theory which states that if anyone should figure out what the Universe is for, and what it is actually doing here, it will immediately vanish and be replaced by something even more bizarrely inexplicable. There is another theory which says this has already happened several times.
He was part of a weapons pack. he came on a blister pack with a crap load of random weapons. I think it was unlicensed though, some of the weapons looked like the molds where slightly different. I remember some of the weapons did not fit as well in hand, and the power swords did not match up with the real swords perfectly. the colors where also unlike any other color in the figure line. Also the plastic was softer.
this was in fact from a buy 3 get 1 free promotion from back in 1983 where you bought 3 action figures in the store and mailed off the 3 proofs of purchase with the selected type of figures you wanted, you get one back. From what I hear the exact figure you got was slightly random though from the line of toys you checked on the mail in rebate card for the free figure. Some lucky people got this brown haired He-man which was in fact a Conan The Barbarian prototype that was the basis of the design of the later He-Man line. It's unknown exactly how many of these special proto-type He-man/Conan action figures were shipped out but by some estimates and checking by just how rarely they come up for sale or even seen, probably very few and they do fetch top dollar to vintage He-Man collectors as this would in fact be one of the very first He-Man prototypes ever made (some made as early as 1981).
Mattel was very close too making a He-Man or "Masters" series based in space, but instead "Re-Branded" to a different scale all together. If these had come along 1988 or 1989, this could be a very plausible answer as Mattel would often just re-color to re-market past or existing figures and play sets (as would GI Joe, and even Star Wars). They may have started a batch, aborted, then sent out what they had in some sort of promotion or perhaps a promotion out side of the US. Another possibility would be a highly marketed Bootleg. You could often find boot legs of VOLTRON in Swap Meets in California, that were pretty decent. I can remember being in Michigan one summer in 1985, (my grandma lived in a suburb of Detroit, not to far from Canada). There was a HUGE discount Drug store near her house, much of their stock was just in huge open boxes on pallets (Warehouse style). To my and my cousin surprise They had almost identical ( only minus the Auto-bots logo ) Dino-Bots. They had the whole series for $7 a piece, they also had very good bootlegs of the tapes that went in to Shockwave for $2 a set of Two. The writing on the box was both in French and English, we surmised these were brought down from Canada. It's very possible these He-Mans were just a very good bootleg. That's how Kids remember owning them. Did anyone run a check on Kilpatriks bread, Hostess bread or Langdorf bread? These were all popular white breads in the 1980's. Perhaps it was a different brand. Both Transformers and GI JOE would also have mail away variants of charactors and vehicles as well.
Wonder Bread He-Man Cards are completely real...Wonderbread He-Man is not. The simplest explanation is most often the correct one. i.e. neither Mattel or Wonder-Bread has enough evidence to back up the claims. This is coming from a kid who grew up in the 80's & was a total He-Man junkie (wearing my MOTU footie pajamas on X-Mas)and my family shopping at a Hostess Wonderbread store less than a mile from out house. The story is bullshit. I never once saw any advertisements for this figure in the store, I only saw the ads for the cards. Wonderbread He-Man does exist, but only as a custom and only as a classics reissue that's it.
I had that chest armor at the least! I used to hit a lot of garage sales as a youngling and had many assorted figure accessories. Its gone to goodwill since then and now
My theory is that it was a prize giveaway by nes quik in 1984/85. They had a MOTU promo during that time where you could get a game piece and enter to win. I think those who entered and didnt win the larger prizes got won this as a smaller prize for playing.
I remember Wonder Bread He-Man there were several promotions like this going on at the time. Kool-Aid had a promotion where you could mail in points get Gobots, GI Joe had a promotion where you can get the super soldier with his shield and silver armor, Hasbro in Transformers also had a special where you can mail in Transformers points and get Thundercracker.
I remember you could get a number of early Transformers through an offer like that after they stopped selling first wave figures in stores. It wasn't all of them, just certain ones, including Optimus Prime.
I surely remember a clear plastic package containing several weapons (swords, clubs, axes, halberds, laser guns, shields) and armours, one of which was undeniably this black breastplate with the white symbol on it. I'm also quite sure I remember what I thought was a knock-off He-Man with a different colour scheme, though I'm not sure what colours it sported.
I had the Weapons Pak (I believe that's how they spelled it). It had this suit of armor in in and the He-Man sword and axe I bright blue, plus all the Castle Grayskull weapons including a sword like Teela typically had in the show, but I wasn't going to break the figure so that she could hold it.
The bottom two blisters were this armor on the left and a repaint of Beast Man's armor, yellow with a black medallion on the right, which I think the TV series used for a one-off villain inspired by Kraven.
you'd think so but as familiar with the toyline as we are to the people running things it was mostly another piece of paperwork to sign off on and file away. The bigger a company is the less number of people there are that know everything thats going on. I wonder how many of their records from that period were stored on computer. Clearly it wasn't a widely distributed item or a lengthy contract (if it happened) . The figure obviously exists and Mattel had good reason to avoid issues with the Conan people.
I remember seeing the black chest plate in a pack of multiple accessories and it wasn't appealing because it had no action figure, I also remember kids in school talking about a heman you could order through bread but the brand and the facts about this were very vague since we were all 5 or 6 year old kids that had limited access to information. I also remember how all kinds of products like cereal, or cookies had mail in promotions to get toys like hotwheels, transformers and MOTU but i never really ordered anything. So perhaps it came from a different product but not wonderbread?
If I remember correctly, the production details ("made in" stamp, type of head) for Savage He-Man match the earliest run of figures. A couple years ago over on the He-Man.org forum I was checking out the Savage He-Man thread again and it occurred to me that Faker (a blue skinned evil robot copy of He-Man) came out with the second wave of MOTU figures, and that a possible origin for the Savage He-Man figure was that he was the original intended design for Faker. Faker is supposed to be easily confused for being He-Man and no one is going to be fooled by a blue skinned, orange haired copy, but a copy that physically looked like He-Man with brown hair has real mix-up potential for a story. If that how Savage He-Man came about, maybe a Mattel exec. took a look at the figure from an initial production run and decided that the figure didn't look evil enough and ordered a change to blue-skinned, orange haired figure we have today as Faker. And Mattel would eventually use the giveaway promotion to rid themselves of whatever amount of Savage He-Man figures they produced, since the figure was taking up warehouse space and they weren't going to move it at stores.
"robot duplicate He-Man" both Good & Evil was used a few times on the show... But I don't recall him appearing in Blue & Orange so it is wholly Possible that a Toy decision was made late in the game (The color scheme can be justified through imagination... but Faker toys also came with Skeletor's Harness) so the idea of a 'Passable' Faker prototype/early run could be plausible
It's crazy to think that there are very specific traits to the Wonder Bread He-Man that make him the "real-deal" The gap work in the belt is a big shout out to if you have a real one. I was lucky enough to get one about a decade ago. He's pretty cool.
There was a wonder bread commercial with a He-man figure promoting it, with the slogan, “I have the wonder!” Or maybe only in my universe of origin this was so?
I can tell you factualy, there are variant runs. I can personally speak of Flying Fists He-Man. During the late 80's and early 90's I accompanied my aunt and uncle to several thousand yard sales and estate auctions as part of their antique business. I was able to amass a respectable collection of over two hundred figures (plus vehicles and playsets) at rock bottom prices. I know as a fact that the Flying Fists He man has a variant run where He-Man's skin is slightly darker and his hair is brown. I used the variant He-Man as a flying fists Faker during my play time (ages 5-11). Sorry folks, I sold my collection in 2001 for a very respectable price.
The thing I find interesting is that an advertisement for a buy 3 get one free promotion has been uncovered and yet no one has ever determined what figure was associated with this promotion. I don’t remember MOTU ever having an exclusive character that was only available through send off, so if not Savage He-Man then what figure was associated with this offer? I see three possible answers: 1. You sent in the form and Matel just sent you a random figure from the line. I know it seems crappy but when I got my Coleco Vision it came with a send off offer for a free Cabage Patch Kid. The catch was that you had absolutely no say in which Cabage Patch Kid you got or even which gender. You simply sent in the from an they sent you a random Cabage Patch Kid. So long story short it would be kind of a crappy promotion but that kind of thing did happen. 2. You got an early release of a new character that would later be available in stores. I remember getting early releases of the Star Wars figures Boba Fett, Bosk and Admiral Akbar through similar promotions by Kenner so I guess Mattel could have done something similar. 3. Savage He-Man was indeed associated with this offer. I know it is far from conclusive but it seems strangely coincidental that people have uncovered both a promotion without a figure and a figure without a promotion. Kinda makes you say hmmmmm. I once read a theory that sated Savage He-Man was either a Conan figure that was produced by Matel before they decided to terminate the contract, or an early variation of He-Man that they decided looked too much like Conan and so decided to lighten the character’s skin and hair to avoid legal trouble. Matel could not legally sell a figure that looked like Conan but they could legally give them away so they decided to clear some space in the wearhouse by giving these figures away in a promotion.
Despite Mattel's poor records, it definitely *was* from that 'buy 3 get 1 free' promotion. It was just the doll, though - no armor. Mattel kind of cheated anyone who took advantage of the offer expecting another figure from the line but really it was just a repaint - or "special edition" - when they neglected to mention this fact in the advertisement, and I guess they wanted to brush the embarrasment under the carpet.
I bet if someone tried to sue Mattel claiming that they made this He-Man variant and was owed compensation due to the official release of their creation into the toy line, Mattel would all of a sudden remember whatever they needed to remember and provide all the evidence to back up a claim that they in fact created this variant themselves and had just forgotten about it until they were brought into litigation over it's origin.
Let's do the math: 1) Prince Adam's head had hair that was a little darker than the regular He-Man head. Sometimes the paint on Prince Adam's head was a little more brown than yellow, sort of like the Luke Skywalker figure variants of the original Star Wars figure line. 2) Black Statos armor and accessories are easy to get. I think it was an obvious custom job, and the memories of it being part of a Wonder Bread promotion are false. Having said that, I think it's natural to want to mix and match action figure accessories and parts. Who hasn't exchanged arms on various MOTU figures, or exchanged armor? It's a no-brainer. I really dig the look of the "The Savage He-Man", so I think I'll make one soon! It'll look great on my shelf. I won't be putting it up for sale as something legit though, because I believe in collecting original toys in their original condition. Just me.
My awnser: Kids bougth black haired bootlegg hemans (maybe similar to the Sungold figures), and when they saw the online sell (it being a custom) their mind asocisted the bootleg to the custom, creating false memories on how they got it
It could also be a figure repaint from another country. Probably from surplus after the toy line ended. Some companies buy up old molds to make cheaper versions of the old action figures, you can still find poorly made G1 and Beast Wars Transformers.
Ps: I have this figure complete in an unopened small plastic bag which has a wonderbread leaflet inside so that tells you where it came from.... Also a Mexican Kaaarg figure unpainted with inscription KARG '87 under its foot!
In 97/98 in Olympia WA, at a Goodwill store I found 2 of these figures (one was just the figure, the other had the armor and I am pretty sure the weapon). I assumed it was some bootleg and didn't think twice about it..... years later, I'm kicking myself.
Im 40 now but i kinda remember the wonder bread deal in the 80s im pretty sure thats how i got that figure when i was 7. I loved ordering things off cereal boxes as a kid and playing the little 45 record that would come with the cereal.
No it wasnt a wonderbread promotion. It was a Mattel mail in promotion where you bought 3 figures and mailed away the coupon and then they sent you the special Edition He-Man in a baggie with no armor or weapons.
Okay so this ones been solved, apparently it was a special edition version sent out on the "Buy three, get one free" promotion. A fella that worked on a MotU artbook with Mattel figured it out going through old correspondence in storage, lol.
I think it was a variation of he-man figures made at the time...I remember the figures at kaybee toy stores and cosco drug stores were remarkably different. ..my sister had a red haired teela with silver armor pieces while I know my teela had brown hair with gold armor pieces..the weapons were different colors as well. ..not to add to the controversy. .but I think instead of pulling factory mistakes or misprinted /mispainted figures ,they packaged and sold them anyways. .
I remember toy galaxy having a cat! the cat ran the TH-cam channel and kept a bearded man as a pet! no one believes me! (great video as usual. I love these oddities episodes)
Never saw or even heard of this. As a kid I would've thought it a knock off and passed on it without even thinking twice. A Faker, if you will... Oddities keeps getting better! Just finished watching Stranger Things and the music is very similar. Nice touch.
My aunt gave me TWO brown-haired He-Man action figures. I remember them being packaged in heat-sealed plastic bags, much like you'd often see from promotional figures back in those days. I don't recall the accessories, though. I might ask her where she got them, but her memory was never good to begin with and she's in her 70s now... so I don't really think I'd have any luck with that.
This HeMan comes from an universe where Gobots are the premium alien disguised robots, Jodorowski's Dune was released in the 70s, erasing Star Wars from existence and the remake of "E.T. the videogame" was the best selling game on the Super Atari Entertainment Station.
Alejandro Martin Did you know. A universe where M.A.S.K and Go-bots are more popular than their hasbro counter parts are more popular exists and is canonin TF universe?
That sounds like a horrible universe...
Lucky for us, we are not from the wonder bread universe...
He came from the flea market
Is this the same world where Tom Cruise was cast as Iron Man?
"Wonder Bread He-Man" would be a great band name.
The '90s will never truly end. They will forever live on in the hearts and minds of '90s kids all across the world...
So still we are running in the 90's
So wait, this is the He-Man-della affect? *rimshot* I will see myself out now.
cujoedaman LMAO 😂😂👌😂😂
Good one.
🤣🤣
cujoedaman rim job probly
For the win😂
In addition to Mattel denying any involvement with this figure, I can confirm that the makers of Wonder Bread (then Continental baking) also have no knowledge of a promotion for an action figure. I had a dialogue with a representative from Interstate Bakeries back in 2007 via email in which we discussed records of such a promotion. I got tired of seeing all the speculatory comments and theories on the forums by so-called experts so I decided to do my own research. (Some people commenting in the forum discussion actually thought Wonder Bread was the company name so it was hard to take their claims seriously). Although the company had changed hands and records may have been lost, they could NOT confirm such a promotion. Wonder Bread DID have a trading card promotion which everyone knows about but you can forget about the figure being a WB promo. Despite this information, people will still swear it's a WB figure which is ridiculous. That said, one of your commentors below suggested that this figure may have been given out at a convention perhaps as swag to employees which is a theory I can actually get behind. I'm very close to "a large toy company employee" (you can do the math) and there are constantly products floating around the offices and within the employee circles that never see the light of day. It's very possible that this figure was either an error from the factory that was given away to employees rather than destroyed, a figure intentionally produced and then held back for fear of being sued by the Conan people, or simply as a promo collector's item given to employees. Either way, despite the rarity of the figure, a WB promo would have had an ad campaign to back the promotion. After all, the point of a promotion is to sell more product which means there would be flyers, posters, magazine ads, and WB packaging to sell such a promotion. None of that can be produced for this figure which should seal the deal. In the 80's, mail in figures were common and you can find a TON of promotional documentation for figures like Cobra Commander, Duke, Sgt Slaughter, Fridge Perry, Mumm-Ra, Emporer, Boba-Fett, even Robo-Cop. A quick google search will produce documents as evidence for those promotions but nothing for He-Man? Mattel would have done a much better job at releasing promotional material to get this toy out there. I don't know where the toy came from but I can tell you where it did NOT come from.
It remains a fascinating toy mystery. I hope it never truly gets solved.
@@SecretGalaxyTV I am with you 100% I believe the mystery of the figure is why its so appealing to me. If we ever truly figured out the origin its going to be a sad day.
i don't know where those He-Man toys were produced at that time, but if it was in China, maybe the molds were used afterwards to produce counterfeits, and they changed the colors just to keep it off the radar..
Ah, in my mind it's a bootleg from Mexico. Prove me wrong, lol.
I remember this version of He-man & either a relative or a friend had it but i remember this. Im 42.
Let's also not forget that when He-Man first came out, he was not "Prince Adam". He-Man was a barbarian that left his tribe to wander and adventure. He was met by a sorceress (not the actual "Sorceress" as we know her now) who gave him a sword and bade him to protect castle Greyskull from Skeletor, who had the other have of the sword He-Man had. I bring this up because I never see that original story talked about in videos about He-Man.
Yep, this is the story that the fine folks at Filmation want everyone to forget about ;) The mysterious woman he met was The Goddess, and she was basically an early variation of The Sorceress, thought in the new cannon they are now officially separate characters. I think the basic story told in the original four mini comics is now Wun-dar’s story.
Go watch The Toys That Made Us on Netflix, they talk about that (but not about Wonder Bread He-Man)
NoneOfTheAbove *half
Did you not just describe THUNDAR THE BARBARIAN???
Yeah he was based on Conan originally.
Truly hilarious! Amazing story, great jokes too. Very cool that they gave the new character his own bread loath as an accessory. I certainly strongly enjoy all your Oddities series!
So great. The writing, delivery, and production value of your channel (and this vid in particular) are truly stand-out. Thanks!
Oh, yeah, I remember that figure! They gave it away free at the premiere of that Sinbad movie, SHAZAM!
Whyyyy
I love that movie.
Haa!🤭
What?👍
Yeah I stained my fruit of the loom cornucopia label.
They actually found proof of that movie
My theory of Wonderbread He-man is that he was a version of He-man that Mattel made for Wonderbread for a promotion, but Mattel made a last minute decision to cancel the figure after a small number of copies were sent out by Wonderbread. I think that Mattel cancelled this version of He-man was because he looked too much like Conan and they deny this figures existence as they didn't want to be sued by CPI for making a Figure that looked similar to Conan.
This, or something similar makes the most sense. A planned figure that was canceled, and only a few made it to the public.
I wouldn't be surprised if this is true as something like this, a figure that was put into production but canceled after a few copies got out to the public, happened in 2010 with Mattel's WWE Elite Series 1 Jeff Hardy action figure.
The WWE Elite Series 1 Jeff Hardy incident is why I have such a theory about Wonderbread He-man, as both Wonderbread He-man and Jeff Hardy were produced by Mattel.
Mattel made a undisclosed number of these "wonder bread" versions. They were part of the original connan line but since the lawsuit they could not be "sold" so they were given away. My source can not confirm they actually went to wonder bread though. But this figure was produced before he-man was he-man.
I believe I had the figure. Unfortunately, I was only like 12-13 years old. So my memory is questionable. I think I remember getting my parents to help me mail away for it because I did not know how to address a letter, put a stamp, go to the post office, etc. It took a long time to arrive, which was often the case with mailaway figures. He was in a clear plastic baggy. By the time it arrived, I didn't have much interest in the line anymore and was not playing with my He-man figures any more. He went into the box with the others. All my MOTU stuff was eventually given away or sold by my Mom. Not sure which. I thought it was strange that they would make a He-man with brown hair, but then again Faker had orange hair so it wasn't that much of an oddity for the line. I don't recall anything about any Wonderbread promotion. Think I remember sending in proofs of purchases from other figures.
The small booklets that came with the early edition action figures, especially those drawn by Alfredo Alcala, were quite arguably inspired by 70's Conan imagery by Frank Frazetta or Boris Vallejo. I especially recommend those, or the ones drawn by Mark Texeira. Those early books were beautifully illustrated, showing a quality and artistic ambition by Mattel that didn't seem to last beyond those individuals.
I really love these episodes , this channel just gets better and better.
Thanks! We're having fun with a new format.
Dumbest moment of my childhood, I saw wonder He-Man on a swap meet when I was a kid and passed on it because of the brown hair
Right there with you... Freshman year in College I was in Kay-Bee Toys (RIP) They had an 'Optimus Prime' semi with a Missile Hauler Flatbed (think the Army Scene in Superman 1, minus the tarp) and a Stealth Bomber Starscream (Named so I knew they were official) but I Passed as a 'purist' because Prime was supposed to be a 'Cab Over' and Starscream a White/Blue Fighter Jet
I had this he man when I was a kid. I actually got it from Walmart. As I lived in a small town with limited means. I sold all of my masters stuff to my dad's friend so he could give them to his grandkids. $20.
I remember passing on Scareglow multiple times at the store because I thought there was no point of having another Skeletor knock off when I already had the original Skeletor. Now I see Scareglow going for 5,6,7, 800 bucks on ebay! 🤦🏻♂️
Many did in that time as we just viewed it as a cheap knock off. It was worth nothing then
@@6eostorm man try Amazon i seen one recently for like 100+ but im a tight wad and didnt want the additional bill on my credit card
I was all about SilverHawks. That vacuum seal chrome effect was so cool. I loved the green guy, no idea what his name was. Bluegrass was dope too- i always wanted a guitar that turned into a gun lol.
blah: the green guy is "Flashback." He could travel back in time.
yeah that chrome wore off quick in the bathtub LOL
Buzz saw
In my universe, you get bread when you buy action figures.
I like it!
Hot
That Black armour Wonderbread He-man is wearing comes from the weapons pack you could buy.
They mentioned that in the video...
@@zufalllx He mentioned the weapons, but he said the black armour was from a different figure.
@@oigitsuckit He literally says „wearing the black variation of the armor worn by Zodac included in the accessory pack“.
@@nikolajkappel1506 no shit... I said it came from another figure...
Yes it does! Would you buy it?
The mystery was recently solved. He was part of the mattel buy3 get1 free promotion. He was the free mail in figure but it is believed he did not come with the armor, the black armor came in the weapons pack
Figures, history, and mystery... great video!
6:27 That was the perfect time to start your jumpcut wearing a Mirror-Universe Mr. Spock goatee and mustache.
This was a super fun video to watch while on my break at work
Great video. I've heard of this mysterious He-Man figure but never knew anything about it.
i remember there being a lot of imitation figures that all had the same body molds. i got 1 from Showbiz pizza using tickets. it could be one of those types and not a true he-man licensed figure
Unsolved mysteries + other limits + the twilight. Bravo with this episode, keep them coming.
Will do.
This is quickly becoming one of my favorite channels on YT.
Excellent, thanks!
I got a few theories.
1) I bet it was a prototype/early production model that somebody got their hands on. They probably did a small run to test out the production facilities.
2) It might've been a concept character that was never meant to be produced. Much like how Zodac was originally labeled as one of the bad guys, this guy was probably meant to be the good guy version of Zodac. They may have made a few to pitch the product and/or to test the production facilities, but never picked it up.
3. Custom, but from the factory. Maybe meant as a promotion.
Otherwise, I got nothin.
Yeah, I'm thinking prototype that escaped the factory too.
You are the best toy narrator...thumbs up man!!!
I remember the Warlord toys, which for a while I thought were part of the He-Man universe as their appearance and articulation were identical.
Thank you, Thank you...I've a fan of these obscure backgrounds from my childhood. Awesome video
Somebody may have mentioned this already, but there’s a pretty cool episode of Toy Hunter in which he comes across one of these and goes to his resident expert to get it valued. Pretty cool.
I remember getting a he-man knock off similar to this when I was a kid. It was clearly made from the same mould as Herman but it had black hair (I think) and had weapons that didn’t fit in his hand properly. It was in just a clear plastic bag. Not boxed. Years later I came across a test your skill game called stacker where one of the prizes was a he-man knock off which seemed to have been made from the same mould . I didn’t win it (but I won a knock off wolverine figure weeks later)
I think this wonderbread He-man is probably something like that.
It was quite the 'hat tip' to see this version in the new Netflix series.
I can't say it enough. This is my favorite episode of Soy Galaxy.
Soy Galaxy? Oh their not THAT bad dude.
@@AnthonyDaFox 6:17
Same
"Wonder Bra He Man" is a close second.
Spector Creative channel has solved the mystery! They found a letter in the Mattel archives confirming it's existence! It had nothing to do with Wonder Bread, but the figure was produced and mailed out! Dan and Greg, I'd LOVE to see a follow up video!!!
"How many inhabitants from that other world survived"
If I may insert a quote from Lost.
Rose-" My husbands not dead."
Jack-"Everyone in the tail section of that plane is dead."
Rose-" They're probably thinking the same thing about us"
Love the oddities videos Dan!
Thanks! Give some love to Producer Greg it was his idea!
Well he needs a raise!
Back in the 90's a friend of mine gave his Wonder Bread He-man figure. He said he had sent away for it when he was a kid and held on to it all that time. He knew I loved MoTU, which is why he gave it to me. I still have it.
If you can verify that. It's worth quite bit now.
Just talking to Pixel Dan about this this weekend! Great video!
I had loads of heman stuff and I've never heard of this debacle! Interesting video.
It's a legitimate Mattel figure from the era, that's already proven. AFA grades them. A painted custom is pretty identifiable, whereas the legitimate examples of this figure were painted during the era - it's factory Mattel, in other words. So the legitimacy of the figure has already been proven. Where exactly it came from is the mystery. I know for a fact that my friend had one - because he still does. He kept it along with all of his other figures in the same box since he was a boy. He remembers getting it through a Buy 3, get 1 free deal.
Wonder Bread He-Man is bullshit. Grading companies have been notoriously known for grading fakes. They are about as trustworthy as Adolph Hitler.
"HI I'M STAN CARSON WITH SOY GALAXY" "THIS SOY SAUCE HAS 14 POINTS OF FLAVORTICULATION" "I REMEMBER THE GLORIOUS DAY OF CHRISTMAS MORNING TO FIND SEVERAL GALLONS OF SOY MILK UNDER THE TREE WHICH NO DOUBT WAS A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR TO WHAT WE DO ON SOY GALAXY" in all seriousness these toy oddities episodes are great and the addition of the retro music was great and added a creepiness feel to a episode about a alleged Wonder Bread tie in He Man figure, id love to hear it in future episodes
Funkadelic Railroad you sir, are a genius
Funkadelic Railroad That's so freaking awesome opening intro you have there bro. Soy Galaxy could very well be a legitimate alternate timeline channel on an alternate galactic youtube platform! 😂
Do you happen to work with Kikkoman? 😊
There's a good possibility that it was an early prototype or prototype batch, that was later accidentally dumped into the public. Some manufacturers, especially then, would insist on a number of an item being made to help offset cost because making such a figure as a one off was seriously expensive. With the split between CPI and Mattel, Mattel may have reworked the figure slightly to try to avoid the legal issues that came about later.
i saw something where they said it was a early mistake at the factory where maybe a 1000 or so were made and were giving away at toy conventions as a sample....back then only industry people went to those and Mattel would give them out as swag (bc)
Very plausible explanation.
I agree with this possibility
I was something like this
But any records of this possible error were certainly destroyed to prevent further complications in the C.P.I. vs Mattel lawsuit.
If they really did make a Wonderbread He-Man, surely by this point in time there would be some evidence of the promotion - articles, wrappers, etc?
If the promotional material was released, they wouldn't be able to hide it. It would be on cereal packets, etc, and would be in people's hands. So there would be pictures online and packets on eBay, but where is the evidence? Maybe it got no further than the pre-production promotion material?
That's interesting. Less a case of 'the promotions that time forgot' and more 'the promotions that people can't forget'. I can picture Optimus with some nice Pepsi stickers...
Sorry guys, but there would most definitely be a digital/paper/video footprint somewhere. There would have to be at least 500-1000 made or repackaged from warehouses in china just to justify an order to the states, and there most definitely isn't more than a couple of them floating around and even then I've found nothing of close examination for factory issued numbers or confirmation of factory spray used to change colors on the figure and not done in a fans home.
There is nothing out there. Fake
Foucault Effect The figure is not fake, it is indeed 100% real *however* it had absolutely nothing to do with wonderbread at all. The full explanation for the origin of the figure is detailed here with actual proof: twitter.com/timlybarger/status/951546136216645632
One of my childhood friends had a stepbrother that lived overseas for a couple years (army brat). He had some HeMan figures from over there that had slightly different colorations to ours. Perhaps Chinese manufacturers did a bootleg run using MOTU molds and had them painted somewhere else and sold as bootlegs on the Asian market.
Mandela effect: the results of humans' selective memories and cognitive dismissal of any event considered by the observer to be unlikely to result in shared sexy times in the future.
You just described all of human cognition, not just the Mandela effect.
It’s like the hundreds that remember the alternate ending to “Big” but no one can find it
Conan and He-Man create unrealistic body image expectations for young boys. This has been said MANY times in the alternate timeline....
I’m a Star Wars figure collector. I can tell you with absolute certainty that paint on vintage figures is not usually consistent. To relate to Star Wars, the 1978 luke skywalker action figure usually had yellow hair, but occasionally popped up with brown. I know they aren’t fake, because Kenner released official pictures of the figures more than once, and there are very occasionally brown hair luke figures pictured.
It absolutely was real. I never got one but my memory is solid. There was a coupon in a loaf of wonderbread. You had to send 4 or more Wonderbread UPC labels and a money order for $1.99. I walked to my grandma's house to cut a 2nd UPC label from her bread,got yelled at for it haha. My mom got me the money order and my 2 UPC labels..
The coupon and money order set with the 2 UPC labels in a coupon drawer for years because I lost interest in He-man and didn't collect more UPC s. My mother remembers it there till this day...
Sure, bud.
While watching the new He-Man, I caught the Wonder Bread He-Man Easter egg and yelled out loud, "I caught that reference!" Thanks to your riveting, relentless and sometimes reckless reporting!
Oooh what episode and what series?
This is all a result of Barry Allen's Flashpoint shenanigans. LOL
I'm pretty sure I had the original Wonder Bread He-Man. But I can't recall where it came from specifically. Just one of many He-Man figures I got as a birthday gift from someone to add to my hoard... which sadly suffered the fate of many classic collectibles and was thrown away by my parents when I wasn't there to stop them. *cries*
I love how this He-Man, has an official name now
I have always heard that Mattel and Wonder Bread claim to have no known documentation that mentions any kind of mail-away premium offer for this figure. I hear stories the Wonder Bread He-Man was a mail-away offer. I read a comment below about them being found in an A&P grocery store. As far as I can remember, I don't ever remember seeing one in my childhood. I never saw another kid bring it to school, sold at a yard sale, flea markets, or anywhere else.
As the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" explains it: There is a theory which states that if anyone should figure out what the Universe is for, and what it is actually doing here, it will immediately vanish and be replaced by something even more bizarrely inexplicable. There is another theory which says this has already happened several times.
Had a friend growing up, that had all kinds of toys. Even that version of heman . He ordered all special figures.
He was part of a weapons pack. he came on a blister pack with a crap load of random weapons. I think it was unlicensed though, some of the weapons looked like the molds where slightly different. I remember some of the weapons did not fit as well in hand, and the power swords did not match up with the real swords perfectly. the colors where also unlike any other color in the figure line. Also the plastic was softer.
nah
this was in fact from a buy 3 get 1 free promotion from back in 1983 where you bought 3 action figures in the store and mailed off the 3 proofs of purchase with the selected type of figures you wanted, you get one back. From what I hear the exact figure you got was slightly random though from the line of toys you checked on the mail in rebate card for the free figure. Some lucky people got this brown haired He-man which was in fact a Conan The Barbarian prototype that was the basis of the design of the later He-Man line. It's unknown exactly how many of these special proto-type He-man/Conan action figures were shipped out but by some estimates and checking by just how rarely they come up for sale or even seen, probably very few and they do fetch top dollar to vintage He-Man collectors as this would in fact be one of the very first He-Man prototypes ever made (some made as early as 1981).
Great Episode!
Thanks.
I love the fact that Wonderbread He-Man appeared in that new He-Man Revelations series. lol
His name is Wun-Dar too!
@@fulcrum6760 YES! I love it. :)
This just made me even more confused lol
I remember chewing on there heads as a little kid yummy!
No doubt, my newest favorite YT channel. Generation X... The most nostalgic of us all. ✌️
Thank you very much.
Mattel was very close too making a He-Man or "Masters" series based in space, but instead "Re-Branded" to a different scale all together. If these had come along 1988 or 1989, this could be a very plausible answer as Mattel would often just re-color to re-market past or existing figures and play sets (as would GI Joe, and even Star Wars). They may have started a batch, aborted, then sent out what they had in some sort of promotion or perhaps a promotion out side of the US.
Another possibility would be a highly marketed Bootleg. You could often find boot legs of VOLTRON in Swap Meets in California, that were pretty decent. I can remember being in Michigan one summer in 1985, (my grandma lived in a suburb of Detroit, not to far from Canada). There was a HUGE discount Drug store near her house, much of their stock was just in huge open boxes on pallets (Warehouse style). To my and my cousin surprise They had almost identical ( only minus the Auto-bots logo ) Dino-Bots. They had the whole series for $7 a piece, they also had very good bootlegs of the tapes that went in to Shockwave for $2 a set of Two. The writing on the box was both in French and English, we surmised these were brought down from Canada.
It's very possible these He-Mans were just a very good bootleg. That's how Kids remember owning them.
Did anyone run a check on Kilpatriks bread, Hostess bread or Langdorf bread? These were all popular white breads in the 1980's. Perhaps it was a different brand.
Both Transformers and GI JOE would also have mail away variants of charactors and vehicles as well.
I've had this figure since I was in grade school. I still have it. I had no idea it was worth so much money.
Must show pictures.
Wonder Bread He-Man
Cards are completely real...Wonderbread He-Man is not. The simplest explanation is most often the correct one. i.e. neither Mattel or Wonder-Bread has enough evidence to back up the claims. This is coming from a kid who grew up in the 80's & was a total He-Man junkie (wearing my MOTU footie pajamas on X-Mas)and my family shopping at a Hostess Wonderbread store less than a mile from out house. The story is bullshit. I never once saw any advertisements for this figure in the store, I only saw the ads for the cards. Wonderbread He-Man does exist, but only as a custom and only as a classics reissue that's it.
I had that chest armor at the least! I used to hit a lot of garage sales as a youngling and had many assorted figure accessories. Its gone to goodwill since then and now
My theory is that it was a prize giveaway by nes quik in 1984/85. They had a MOTU promo during that time where you could get a game piece and enter to win. I think those who entered and didnt win the larger prizes got won this as a smaller prize for playing.
I remember Wonder Bread He-Man there were several promotions like this going on at the time. Kool-Aid had a promotion where you could mail in points get Gobots, GI Joe had a promotion where you can get the super soldier with his shield and silver armor, Hasbro in Transformers also had a special where you can mail in Transformers points and get Thundercracker.
I remember you could get a number of early Transformers through an offer like that after they stopped selling first wave figures in stores. It wasn't all of them, just certain ones, including Optimus Prime.
I surely remember a clear plastic package containing several weapons (swords, clubs, axes, halberds, laser guns, shields) and armours, one of which was undeniably this black breastplate with the white symbol on it. I'm also quite sure I remember what I thought was a knock-off He-Man with a different colour scheme, though I'm not sure what colours it sported.
I had the Weapons Pak (I believe that's how they spelled it). It had this suit of armor in in and the He-Man sword and axe I bright blue, plus all the Castle Grayskull weapons including a sword like Teela typically had in the show, but I wasn't going to break the figure so that she could hold it.
The bottom two blisters were this armor on the left and a repaint of Beast Man's armor, yellow with a black medallion on the right, which I think the TV series used for a one-off villain inspired by Kraven.
Come on... The biggest toy company and the biggest bread company would have records on any promotion of this kind.
you'd think so but as familiar with the toyline as we are to the people running things it was mostly another piece of paperwork to sign off on and file away. The bigger a company is the less number of people there are that know everything thats going on. I wonder how many of their records from that period were stored on computer. Clearly it wasn't a widely distributed item or a lengthy contract (if it happened) . The figure obviously exists and Mattel had good reason to avoid issues with the Conan people.
I remember seeing the black chest plate in a pack of multiple accessories and it wasn't appealing because it had no action figure, I also remember kids in school talking about a heman you could order through bread but the brand and the facts about this were very vague since we were all 5 or 6 year old kids that had limited access to information. I also remember how all kinds of products like cereal, or cookies had mail in promotions to get toys like hotwheels, transformers and MOTU but i never really ordered anything. So perhaps it came from a different product but not wonderbread?
Saw "wonder bread" on an exaggerated humanoid figure in my suggestions and had war flashbacks
Only the secrets of Castle Grayskull is where we will ever find the true story of Savage He-Man.
If I remember correctly, the production details ("made in" stamp, type of head) for Savage He-Man match the earliest run of figures. A couple years ago over on the He-Man.org forum I was checking out the Savage He-Man thread again and it occurred to me that Faker (a blue skinned evil robot copy of He-Man) came out with the second wave of MOTU figures, and that a possible origin for the Savage He-Man figure was that he was the original intended design for Faker. Faker is supposed to be easily confused for being He-Man and no one is going to be fooled by a blue skinned, orange haired copy, but a copy that physically looked like He-Man with brown hair has real mix-up potential for a story. If that how Savage He-Man came about, maybe a Mattel exec. took a look at the figure from an initial production run and decided that the figure didn't look evil enough and ordered a change to blue-skinned, orange haired figure we have today as Faker. And Mattel would eventually use the giveaway promotion to rid themselves of whatever amount of Savage He-Man figures they produced, since the figure was taking up warehouse space and they weren't going to move it at stores.
"robot duplicate He-Man" both Good & Evil was used a few times on the show... But I don't recall him appearing in Blue & Orange so it is wholly Possible that a Toy decision was made late in the game (The color scheme can be justified through imagination... but Faker toys also came with Skeletor's Harness) so the idea of a 'Passable' Faker prototype/early run could be plausible
It's crazy to think that there are very specific traits to the Wonder Bread He-Man that make him the "real-deal" The gap work in the belt is a big shout out to if you have a real one. I was lucky enough to get one about a decade ago. He's pretty cool.
I had that and I believe there was an opposing evil character with an orange version of that black top, toys r us
There was a wonder bread commercial with a He-man figure promoting it, with the slogan, “I have the wonder!” Or maybe only in my universe of origin this was so?
Awesome video!
Thanks!
I can tell you factualy, there are variant runs. I can personally speak of Flying Fists He-Man. During the late 80's and early 90's I accompanied my aunt and uncle to several thousand yard sales and estate auctions as part of their antique business. I was able to amass a respectable collection of over two hundred figures (plus vehicles and playsets) at rock bottom prices. I know as a fact that the Flying Fists He man has a variant run where He-Man's skin is slightly darker and his hair is brown. I used the variant He-Man as a flying fists Faker during my play time (ages 5-11). Sorry folks, I sold my collection in 2001 for a very respectable price.
Well damn it I thought you were going to have an answer at the end.
The thing I find interesting is that an advertisement for a buy 3 get one free promotion has been uncovered and yet no one has ever determined what figure was associated with this promotion. I don’t remember MOTU ever having an exclusive character that was only available through send off, so if not Savage He-Man then what figure was associated with this offer? I see three possible answers:
1. You sent in the form and Matel just sent you a random figure from the line. I know it seems crappy but when I got my Coleco Vision it came with a send off offer for a free Cabage Patch Kid. The catch was that you had absolutely no say in which Cabage Patch Kid you got or even which gender. You simply sent in the from an they sent you a random Cabage Patch Kid. So long story short it would be kind of a crappy promotion but that kind of thing did happen.
2. You got an early release of a new character that would later be available in stores. I remember getting early releases of the Star Wars figures Boba Fett, Bosk and Admiral Akbar through similar promotions by Kenner so I guess Mattel could have done something similar.
3. Savage He-Man was indeed associated with this offer. I know it is far from conclusive but it seems strangely coincidental that people have uncovered both a promotion without a figure and a figure without a promotion. Kinda makes you say hmmmmm.
I once read a theory that sated Savage He-Man was either a Conan figure that was produced by Matel before they decided to terminate the contract, or an early variation of He-Man that they decided looked too much like Conan and so decided to lighten the character’s skin and hair to avoid legal trouble. Matel could not legally sell a figure that looked like Conan but they could legally give them away so they decided to clear some space in the wearhouse by giving these figures away in a promotion.
All plausible options and it's crazy that we still don't know for sure.
Despite Mattel's poor records, it definitely *was* from that 'buy 3 get 1 free' promotion. It was just the doll, though - no armor. Mattel kind of cheated anyone who took advantage of the offer expecting another figure from the line but really it was just a repaint - or "special edition" - when they neglected to mention this fact in the advertisement, and I guess they wanted to brush the embarrasment under the carpet.
I bet if someone tried to sue Mattel claiming that they made this He-Man variant and was owed compensation due to the official release of their creation into the toy line, Mattel would all of a sudden remember whatever they needed to remember and provide all the evidence to back up a claim that they in fact created this variant themselves and had just forgotten about it until they were brought into litigation over it's origin.
That was fantastic, simply fantastic
Why do i keep watching these like someone is gonna all of a sudden come out with breaking news about Savage He-Man?
There's a very deep rabbit hole of forums if you want to do some reading for the next several days.
Let's do the math: 1) Prince Adam's head had hair that was a little darker than the regular He-Man head. Sometimes the paint on Prince Adam's head was a little more brown than yellow, sort of like the Luke Skywalker figure variants of the original Star Wars figure line. 2) Black Statos armor and accessories are easy to get. I think it was an obvious custom job, and the memories of it being part of a Wonder Bread promotion are false. Having said that, I think it's natural to want to mix and match action figure accessories and parts. Who hasn't exchanged arms on various MOTU figures, or exchanged armor? It's a no-brainer. I really dig the look of the "The Savage He-Man", so I think I'll make one soon! It'll look great on my shelf. I won't be putting it up for sale as something legit though, because I believe in collecting original toys in their original condition. Just me.
My awnser: Kids bougth black haired bootlegg hemans (maybe similar to the Sungold figures), and when they saw the online sell (it being a custom) their mind asocisted the bootleg to the custom, creating false memories on how they got it
@@KenMabie A bit harsh on him Ken don't you think? Save it for your kids, mom,dad significant other. Whoever you think deserves it more than Jesus.
It's been proven its a legitimate mattel figure. So no. Not even remotely.
Mistery has been finally solved by Scott
It could also be a figure repaint from another country. Probably from surplus after the toy line ended. Some companies buy up old molds to make cheaper versions of the old action figures, you can still find poorly made G1 and Beast Wars Transformers.
Ps: I have this figure complete in an unopened small plastic bag which has a wonderbread leaflet inside so that tells you where it came from.... Also a Mexican Kaaarg figure unpainted with inscription KARG '87 under its foot!
upload a video?
Aaaahhhh! I thought there would be a resolution. I’ve never heard of this and was curious to get answers about where it came from.
In 97/98 in Olympia WA, at a Goodwill store I found 2 of these figures (one was just the figure, the other had the armor and I am pretty sure the weapon). I assumed it was some bootleg and didn't think twice about it..... years later, I'm kicking myself.
Im 40 now but i kinda remember the wonder bread deal in the 80s im pretty sure thats how i got that figure when i was 7. I loved ordering things off cereal boxes as a kid and playing the little 45 record that would come with the cereal.
This was solved on the old He Man email mailing list early 2000s, it was confirmed it was a Wonder Bread mail-in promotion.
No it wasnt a wonderbread promotion. It was a Mattel mail in promotion where you bought 3 figures and mailed away the coupon and then they sent you the special Edition He-Man in a baggie with no armor or weapons.
Okay so this ones been solved, apparently it was a special edition version sent out on the "Buy three, get one free" promotion. A fella that worked on a MotU artbook with Mattel figured it out going through old correspondence in storage, lol.
I think it was a variation of he-man figures made at the time...I remember the figures at kaybee toy stores and cosco drug stores were remarkably different. ..my sister had a red haired teela with silver armor pieces while I know my teela had brown hair with gold armor pieces..the weapons were different colors as well. ..not to add to the controversy. .but I think instead of pulling factory mistakes or misprinted /mispainted figures ,they packaged and sold them anyways. .
"By the power of Stupidity!! IIIIII HAAAVVVE MANDELLLAA EFFEEEECT!!!"
I remember toy galaxy having a cat! the cat ran the TH-cam channel and kept a bearded man as a pet! no one believes me!
(great video as usual. I love these oddities episodes)
We still have a cat only... it's orange instead of brown with black stripes. This timeline is all effed up!
Silent Bob did more damage to He-Man than Skeletor could ever imagine.
Never saw or even heard of this. As a kid I would've thought it a knock off and passed on it without even thinking twice. A Faker, if you will... Oddities keeps getting better! Just finished watching Stranger Things and the music is very similar. Nice touch.
I probably would have preferred it as I got tired of playing with blonde haired heroes. My brother had blonde hair and I have brown hair.
My aunt gave me TWO brown-haired He-Man action figures. I remember them being packaged in heat-sealed plastic bags, much like you'd often see from promotional figures back in those days. I don't recall the accessories, though. I might ask her where she got them, but her memory was never good to begin with and she's in her 70s now... so I don't really think I'd have any luck with that.
Jozabad you must find the truth... you might be our only hope
PICS OR IT DIDN"T HAPPEN.
Wundar is really interesting. This is so weird and... Well... Odd