4/7/08

I Have The Pow... I Mean Wonderbread He-Man!!!!!!!!!



Okay kids, here's what's likely to be to this point the most extensive look at a Wonder Bread He-Man online. In my online search, I was only able to find a few fuzzy images, so I tried to take some nice close-ups and comparison views for this entry.

First up is a close-up of Wonder Bread, or Savage, He-Man. He has the soft rubber head of the early releases of He-Man, and his features are well defined. As a Hot Wheels collector, I know that the dies and molds wear out, and one indication of age on a figure or toy car is how well defined the details are. This may be a hint that Wonder Bread He-Man was one of the first releases out of the mold.



Next up is a full body shot. This figure was clearly used as intended - as a toy - and has some minor play wear. The kid who had him played with him, but didn't beat the living heck out of him. He has loose hips and doesn't stand up well on his own, which can be common for old Masters of the Universe figures.

The kid who owned him did, however, take a sharpie to his wrist guards. No big deal, and the wear on the sharpie indicates further that this figure has been around a while. He was also wearing this armor when I found him. Maybe it was added later in the figure's life, but I find it interesting that this is not the only Wonder Bread figure found in this fashion (according to scant online reports) - could it be that he was in fact released with this armor at some point, or a case of great minds thinking alike in playing with this figure? We may never know.


Here's a comparison shot of all the He-Men I own at this point.

Top Row: an original Thunder-Punch He-Man, the mysterious Wonder Bread He-Man, aka Savage He-Man in some circles, and an original Battle Armor He-Man.
Bottom Row: Commemorative re-release He-Man, Commemorative re-release Faker, and an original Faker.


Here are some head shots for comparison. All shown but the Commemorative version have soft heads, and the Wonder Bread He-Man has the sharpest sculpt of the three with rubber heads. Again, hinting that he was molded before the other two, and before the mold had much wear.


Here he is from the back. The kid he belonged to put his initials on his back: "D.R." in sharpie. Again, no big deal, easily removed if I wanted to, but it helps add context to the figure. Heck, maybe "D.R." himself will pop up someday to share his story about where this guy came from!

Or maybe henceforth we can have a new name for this He-Man: "Dr. He-Man!" Okay maybe not, but you have to admit it has a nicer ring than "Wonder Bread He-Man" ;)



Here he is from the top. You can see the minor wear on his hair color, and the detail of the sculpt in the hair.



Here is a close-up of his boots. You can see they have minor wear and were not re-painted as the plastic shows under the boot paint.


Here's a very interesting observation. Apart from the fact that I should probably not have been looking so closely at this area ;)
As you can see, there is a slight gap where there is no design/sculpting between the belt and the fur of the shorts. For comparison I added a pic of the original Faker's shorts to show the fur/sculpt goes all the way to the beltline. I don't know what that may mean, but I found it to be interesting and it may hold a clue as to the date of this figure's release.




(Don't stare too long)

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UPDATE:

Wonderbread He-Man has been sold and no longer resides in my collection.

Before selling him, I cleaned off the sharpie on his wrists and back. It came off very easily - just required a little heavy rubbing. He-Man didn't seem to mind ;)






ANOTHER UPDATE: I consider the mystery of Wonderbread or Savage He-Man solved with this first hand account from a pair of brothers over at Flashlights are Something you Eat.
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Buy stuff by me at Zazzle!

29 comments:

  1. That was a very interesting study of the famous "wonder bread He-man"... Thanks!

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  2. so it was basically just he-man with zodac's armor? I must say..I never knew a damn thing about "wonder bread" he-man!

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  3. YW jean-pierre

    Jay, other than the color of the shorts/hair/boots, yeah that's it. Even the armor is part of the debate - some say it came with no armor while others say it came with this black Zodac armor. Others claim he came with various maroon plastic weapons.

    My opinion is he probably came in a few different ways. Toy companies were a lot more lax about things like that back in the day, and so were kids.

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  4. believe it or not, this figure was made about 12 years by a guy in the US, for some reason the idea of rare mail away variant from wonder bread spread across and seemed to grasp everyone's mind. It is not by chance that no one remembers where it came from, it came from nowhere. And if you remember owning when you were young, think again, deep down you know there is not 100% certainty.

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  5. Bruno,

    While it is true that I did not own this guy before finding him in a garage sale lot, I doubt very much that he was made twelve years ago as a custom of any sort. He was clearly a child's toy from the eighties and had been boxed away for years along with all the other toys that were being unloaded at the garage sale. If he were made to fool anyone, I would not have gotten the box (which also contained Snake Mountain, King Randor, Scareglow, WB He-Man etc etc) for five bucks.

    He came from somewhere, and he came from the eighties. WB or no WB.

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  6. How can you justify that every month this figure shows up on ebay was owned apparently by hundreds of people, yet no one remembers where it came from? IF this was truly a mail away it would be well remembered, like every mail away from other toy lines so i rule out mail away, if this was sold in cheap stores more than 1 exemplars would show up now and then.

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  7. Wheeljack,

    I think it comes down to the fact that for all the possible scenarios put forth, the one with the most weight (however limited it may be) is held as the most likely.

    To quote Sherlock Holmes: "When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

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  8. hmmm so you're basically taking for granted that this figure MUST be true, i wouldn't assume that since most of the stuff points that it did not exist in the past, no company records, no promotions, no mattel association, let's be honest, things don't show up out of thin air. Only giant pyramids can do that.

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  9. Awesome analysis of the WB He-Man. I appreciate the Sherlock Holmes reference to combat all the doubters. People need to remember that as a child we may not always be aware of how or where our parents obtained gifts. In addition, I highly doubt that anyone would allow a money maker like this to slip out of their grasp if they were the sole creator of a pseudo He-Man remake. Maybe he is the ultimate faker, but I BELIEVE IN WB HE-MAN!

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  10. "I BELIEVE IN WB HE-MAN!"

    That would make an excellent T-shirt!

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  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. Wonder Bread He-Man is a Fact.

    I remember making my mom get me it so clearly and Thus:

    http://www.grayskullmuseum.com/HeroicWarriors/WBHM.htm

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  13. Thanks for the link Travis. I agree - he's real!

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  14. I completely believe in WB He-Man. I actually met a fellow collector in person and held his WB/Savage He-Man. It was NOT a custom. The only question I have is this; Why does Wonder Bread have absolutely NO RECORD of this figure/promotion? Same for Mattel Inc.

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  15. i believe it is because it was not a deal that was MOTU, i believe it was to be a conan giveaway but had to be changed. even if thats wrong....which it very well could be....do you really think they looked back into the deepest archives of wonderbread.....would there be records...a few boxes of toys sent to a distributor...to be given away. the record could be a few scraps of paper out of hundreds of thousands.....you should all read the book - "masters of the universe: the rise and fall of a billion dolar idea"

    it was written by the creator of the he-man figure...


    -Have The Power,

    -Travis

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  16. also the black armor is from the accesories pack, its zodacs. it doesn't belong and has no value to the figure....at all....it only serves to cloud the truth of "SAVAGE HEMAN"

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  17. I read that book from cover to cover. The author mentions the Conan connection however does not mention ANYTHING about a conan figure produced and distributed to the market.

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  18. My friends, i like most of want (and mulder from xfiles) WANT TO BELIEVE, i have 2 wonderbread he-mans and i don't rule out the chance of them being fake, i have accompanied my father over 10 years in old records and old toys thingy, the rarest stuff that you never thought would be possible to still exist showed up once or twice in our lifetime to date, explain to me how does one piece, wb heman, that shows up HUNDREDS of times still hasn't got it's origins defined? Both of mine have that belt space you talk about

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  19. hey Boyz and Girlz...I am a believer, he visits me at night sometimes...gimme a minute and I'll post a pic....

    Graded by AFA and COA by Tom Derby.
    ALL Wonderbread He Man are circa 1981...earliest MOTU's are labeled 1982.

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  20. I'm having trouble posting pics to site, email me and I'll send over photos....seems to just add more mystery.

    Believe my Eternians.....

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  21. nterGalacticGangster - email the pics to me at bubbashelby@gmail.com and I'll add them as an update!

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  22. hey bubbashelby, ...
    Thanxx for the help.
    Wonderbread He Man thanxx you.
    ...enjoy Boyz and girlzz

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  23. The ORIGINAL "Wonderbread" He-Man did NOT come with the black armor. The black armor was available in a weapons pak. An image of this "weapons pak" is available online, and I have a picture of it, as well as all of the weapons that were contained in it originally. The ORIGINAL WB He-Man had on yellowish Armor with a black round shape in the center. As for the so-called ONLY WB He-Man in a package (owned by the Fowler Brothers), this is a REPACKAGED WB He-Man. The document you can see in the package can also be found separately, and does not even reference the WB He-Man. The two weapons you can see in this "packaged WB He-Man" (dark maroon sword and axe) are only two of the FOUR original weapons Wonderbread He-Man came with. I have the complete Wonderbread He-man, four weapons, original yellow armor (and I have the black Zodak armor for kicks). I do not have the original packaging as I opened him when I was a kid, BUT there are NO known packaged WB He-Man, as, again, the one the Fowler Brothers have is NOT complete, has the WRONG armor, and has been repackaged. If you want to see, or buy, a TRUE complete Wonderbread He-Man, I can be reached by email at alandlord@hotmail.com.

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    Replies
    1. Yellow armor with a black circle in the middle? You mean the Beastman armor from that same accessory pack you used to rule out the black Zodac armor? ;)

      I think we should face facts and admit NO ONE is an expert on this figure. And it may have well been packaged differently, with different accessory assortments, or even distributed in alternate way, possibly dumped on the market in some way other than sold (Mattel legally not allowed to sell their "Conan" perhaps?)

      There's so little consistency and documentation no one can be taken as an authority, and the wildest theories may be plausibly entertained. We just don't know!

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  24. Here's my own first hand account of Wonder Bread He-Man. Straight from my brother's childhood collection. He got this figure as a mail-in and has had it in his possession ever since. http://mattandtimfunny.blogspot.com/2012/11/wonder-bread-he-man-savage.html

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    1. I always figured it was just a matter of time before someone with a first hand account came forward. Thanks TL!

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  25. I was a kid when the He-Man series came out and it was one of my favorite shows so I always got figures for my birthday and Christmas. Long before he was a Wonder Bread toy...you could find He-Man characters with packaging that announced when you send in a specific number of UPC codes from the packages (8 or 10 I think) they would send you an "Exclusive" He-Man character not for sale. This was around 1984 so I sent in the UPC labels, a check (my mom's check) for shipping and waited...and waited...and waited. About 8 weeks went by I remember coming home from school to a plain, brown package with my name on it. It was from Mattel. I couldn't believe it was finally here and I tore through the packaging. What I found inside was reminiscent of Ralphie getting his Little Annie Secret message decoder. What I found was a brunette, semi-nude He-Man staring at me from behind his plastic prison attached to the cardboard back. There was no name on the packaging and he had NO armor. He came only with the same sword He-Man used. Even as an 11-year-old boy, I quickly realized that this "Exclusive" He-Man character was really just a defective toy that they were trying to recoup their losses. Originally this had NOTHING to do with a Wonder Bread initiative. I do believe it was this very experience that taught me to mistrust product claims and advertisements ever since. I think I quickly turned to another popular series "Blackstar" (pre-laser-lights) and collected and played with those too.

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  26. You have to remember the lawsuit between Mattel and conan, if you were a company that made a toy based off a franchise you did not own youd bury it and deny it specially if you won the lawsuit. I'm convinced the 2 brothers (earlier post nailed this theory spot on.

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  27. I've had Savage He-Man since I was 3 or 4 years old. Because I was so young, I can't be 100% certain, but we moved when I was 4, and it was before that. So this was 1983 or 1984. He had no armor, and I can't recall if he had any weapons. I still have the black Zodac armor and maroon weapons, but I did have the weapons pack as a kid, as well. It never occurred to me that it was a super rare figure - no rarer than any other mail-in exclusive, anyway - or that its origins would be shrouded in such mystery, until many, MANY years later, while researching my old collection online. Though none of my friends growing up had him, so I guess that should've been a sign.

    I think the most likely scenario is that this figure was some kind of test run, before the legal department at Mattel got cold feet about the Conan connection (and not without good reason, it turns out) and an eleventh hour decision was made to alter the character's color scheme, in an attempt to distance He-Man from Conan. That would account for the sharply defined features, as well as the belt gap and other anomalies. Rather than destroy the figures, they decided to off them as quietly as they could, offering a deal to get a free figure. A mystery figure that was never pictured, never advertised, never appeared on store shelves...not even a cardback depicting the character design. Except for the kids who received it, it was like the figure never existed.

    As Mattel were on the verge of a lawsuit by Conan Properties,Inc., I do believe that the discretion is all by design, and the reason that only kids who actually got the toy remember it, is because it was meant to be forgotten. On paper, these figures don't exist, because aside from tossing them into baggies and sending them to kids who participated in a very vague promotion, Mattel treated them as if they didn't exist.

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