How He-Man Mastered the Universe

<p> Elaborate cinematic universes and sophisticated marketing tie-ins are commonplace in entertainment today. It's easy to forget that the transmedia trend began in 1982 with a barbarian action figure. He-Man and the other characters in Mattel's popular Masters of the Universe toy line quickly found their way into comic books video games multiple television series and a Hollywood film. The original animated series (1983-1985) was the first based on an action figure and the cult classic <I>Masters of the Universe</I> (1987) was the first toy-inspired live-action feature film.</p><p> But it wasn't easy. He-Man faced adversaries more dangerous than Skeletor: entertainment lawyers Hollywood executives even the Reagan administration. The heroes and villains of Eternia did more than shape the childhoods of the toy-buying public--they formed the modern entertainment landscape.</p>