The Crazy Story Behind Why Mattel Passed on STAR WARS… and Created HE-MAN Instead

It’s one of the craziest “what if?” stories in toy history. Imagine sitting in a meeting with George Lucas before Star Wars exploded into a worldwide phenomenon and saying: “Nah, we’re good.”

That’s exactly what Mattel did. Long before Masters of the Universe turned He-Man into an ‘80s pop culture icon, Mattel had the chance to secure the toy rights to Star Wars.

Instead, the company walked away from what would become one of the biggest merchandising goldmines in entertainment history. But that mistake directly helped create He-Man.

Without that decision, there’s a good chance Eternia never would’ve existed. During the late 1970s, Mattel was struggling badly in the boys action figure market.

Barbie was still dominating for the company, but over on the boys side, competitors were crushing them. Hasbro had GI Joe. Kenner had Star Wars. Mattel was scrambling to figure out what came next.

That’s when Tom Kalinske, who would later become one of the major architects behind He-Man, recalled the moment Mattel passed on Lucasfilm’s offer. In an oral hostory of Masters of the Universe Kalinske said:

“Did I ever tell you the whole story with Star Wars? This one really is bizarre. It takes place some time in the 70s, back when I was at Mattel.

“It must have been a year or so before the first film came out, and we were presented with the concept of Star Wars. At the time, George Lucas was seeking an upfront fee of $750,000 for the rights to manufacture toys based on the film.”

That sounds hilariously cheap now considering what Star Wars became, but back then movie-based toys weren’t viewed the same way they are today. The idea of a film launching an empire of action figures wasn’t proven yet.

Kalinske explained that the final decision came down to Mattel president Ray Wagner. “The decision, ultimately, came down to Ray Wagner, who was the president of Mattel. And Ray, he was one of the reasons why I joined the company in the first place.

“Dynamic and smart, he was a very impressive guy. Really hammered into us that you need to think about every aspect of a toy. Not just the design, but the packaging, the advertising and everything else.

“Anyway, so we have this meeting with George Lucas' agent, and we all come away impressed by what we've seen. Even Ray, he liked what he saw.

“But in terms of Mattel doing the toys, here's what he said: ‘Movies never work. Get me a good TV show instead. Television shows are seen weekly, they impact over and over, versus a movie that just comes out one time.’ And so, in the end, Ray passed on licensing Star Wars.”

Oops.

As Star Wars exploded into a cultural juggernaut, Mattel suddenly found itself watching Kenner print money while they had nothing close to competing with it.

“Going into the 80s, Star Wars had taken off and GI Joe over at Hasbro had come back with a bang. Meanwhile at Mattel, we didn't have a strong male entity at the time,” Kalinske explained.

Mattel needed something huge. Not another licensed property. They needed their own universe. That kicked off a massive internal research project at Mattel as executives searched for the next big thing in boys toys.

Joe Morrison, who became VP of Marketing for Mattel’s Boys Division, explained: “Mattel was looking for new concepts in Boys. We had licensed some properties but, you know, nothing really outstanding.”

Eventually, the company narrowed its ideas down to three concepts. “One was an army theme, a la GI Joe. One was a futuristic space theme, a la Star Wars. And the third was what we were calling a "Barbarian theme."“

That “Barbarian theme” would eventually become He-Man. The original prototypes were created by legendary Mattel designer Roger Sweet, who reportedly brought several muscular fantasy warrior concepts into a product conference in 1980. According to Sweet’s own recollections, Ray Wagner pointed at the figures and declared: “Those have the power.”

That was the spark. At the time though, “He-Man” wasn’t even supposed to be the final name. “As the product line developed, He-Man was always just the test name. It was "Star Wars 2," "GI Joe 2" and "He-Man" but nobody in management wanted He-Man as a name. So it was just this placeholder that nobody wanted,” Morrison said.

But Morrison loved it. He explained: “So it was just this placeholder that nobody wanted. But I did, I knew it was right. And when I was a little boy, my uncles used to call me He-Man all the time so I just yessed everybody to death.

“Yes, we'll make a change, yes, it'll be revised eventually, don't worry! Knowing full well that I didn't want to change anything. Nope, this is going out as He-Man.”

I love that he stuck to his guns because there’s no universe where “Barbarian Theme Action Figure Guy” catches on.

As development continued, the mythology around He-Man grew bigger and weirder in the best possible way. Mattel introduced heroes like Teela and Man-At-Arms, villains like Skeletor and Beast Man, and eventually built the world of Eternia around them.

But what really separated He-Man from everything else was the storytelling. “I think that the storytelling element was the most important part of it all,” Kalinske explained. “We needed to create a series of great stories, as well as a place where kids could imagining those stories happening.”

Mattel understood something huge before most toy companies did. Kids didn’t just want cool action figures. They wanted worlds to blow up in their imaginations.

That led to Castle Grayskull, the mini comics, the TV series, and eventually the massively successful Filmation cartoon that changed children’s television forever.

And then came the slogan that every kid in the ‘80s screamed at full volume while swinging a plastic sword around the living room… “I HAVE THE POWER!”

Morrison explained the genius behind it: “Our tagline for the commercial was "I have the power!" And that was the theme, really. Because, I mean when you're a little kid, everybody tells you what to do. Parents, teachers, everywhere. So little boys, they want power. And the kids who had He-Man had the power.”

That simple idea turned Masters of the Universe into a monster success. Mattel originally projected $12 million in sales for the line in 1982. Instead, the toys exploded. “We wound up doing $32 million. These were significant numbers in 1982,” Morrison recalled.

Then things got even crazier. According to Morrison, the He-Man brand became so massive it may have literally saved Mattel from collapse. “He-Man was doing, at that time, $400 million. If you took that piece out of the equation, there would be no Mattel.”

Not bad for a toy line born out of one giant Star Wars mistake. That’s part of what makes the story of He-Man so awesome. Mattel completely whiffed on one of the biggest opportunities in entertainment history, got punched in the face by the success of Star Wars, then responded by creating one of the defining toy franchises of the 1980s.

It all started because one executive believed movies didn’t matter nearly as much as television.

Source: /Film