RIP Tony Guerrero, original MOTU sculptor

[Xploding_Boy]

I had no idea about the Toy Masters Documentary before now but I have been thinking about He-Man all week because I have some bad news to report that some of you may want to know. Tony Guerrero passed away a few days ago (Feb 25th) at the age of 88. RIP Tony.

Does anyone know if Tony was interviewed for this or did they plan to interview him?

[MegaGearMax]

Where did you hear about this from X? Provide a link?

[Xploding_Boy]

I'm actually surprised that I couldn't find any mention or announcement of Tony's passing online already. I looked around and did quite a few searches. I only knew about it because my Mom told me a day or two after his passing. My Grandpa and Tony were friends since grade school and remained close ever since. I always knew that he worked for Mattel and I knew he did stuff for MOTU but I honestly had no idea just how big of a role he played in the whole thing. I thought it was very cool when I heard Mark Taylor mention Tony @6:55 in the trailer for Toy Masters. I just got home from his funeral yesterday when I started doing all these searches about him and that led me here. I do wish I asked him more about the He-man days when I had the chance but when I was a kid (I was born in 1980 so I was very young during the peak of MOTU) I loved to play with the toys and watch the cartoon but I guess at that age I didn't really care about the creative process of anything. I just looked forward to visiting him with my Grandpa because he had a little dog that played fetch . Then as an adult (I last saw Tony within the last year or two when I drove my Grandpa to visit him) I didn't really want to bother him with questions about things that he did over 25 years ago even though I could've listened to He-man stories for days . I've always known him to be very kind so thinking about it now, it's likely he would've had no problem at all talking about his work but maybe it's for the best since the reason for the visit was for Tony and my Grandpa to talk and catch up with each other.

Forgive me for this being so long but something I thought was very interesting, another one of Tony's childhood friends spoke yesterday and he claims that Tony had a major part in "Americanizing" what later became the Barbie doll but his bosses turned around and basically took the credit for his work. I have no reason to doubt this as I respect and trust the man who was speaking. Plus, he obviously has nothing to gain by saying SOMEONE ELSE did something. To paraphrase what he said yesterday:

"Tony told me one day 'I'm working on a new project right now. It's kind of a secret but I'll tell you about it because I know you won't tell anybody. My bosses acquired the patent to this German doll and they want me to Americanize her. So, I made the chest a little bigger, slimmed the waist, etc.' His bosses may have taken the credit for Tony's work but Tony lived with the satisfaction of knowing that he was the true Daddy of Barbie."

Keep in mind here, in this story, Tony is talking about a doll that, at that time, he has no idea will be as big as it was/is. Again, I have no reason to doubt any of this but I understand if you some of you doubt what some guy posted on a message forum. I just thought I would share some of it because I found all of this stuff pretty fascinating and I thought some of you would too.

If any of the Guerrero family or family friends read this, I hope you don't feel that I have violated Tony's privacy or anything like that. I tried to keep to the topic of his passing, his work, and my point of view on all of it. Hopefully you agree that I succeeded in that. Thanks.........

Where did you hear about this from X? Provide a link?

[JVS3]

I just talked to Mark Taylor to find out more info and he said Tony passed away years ago.

I searched for an obit and can't find anything. Will you post a link to more info about his passing? I wanted to do a write-up for the main page but I can find nothing about this.

[Xploding_Boy]

I just talked to Mark Taylor to find out more info and he said Tony passed away years ago.

I searched for an obit and can't find anything. Will you post a link to more info about his passing? I wanted to do a write-up for the main page but I can find nothing about this.

I can't find ANYTHING about it online. I even searched terms that should really narrow it down such as DOB, DOD, City of death, etc. The name is so common that many other people come up but they aren't THIS Tony. I'm thinking Mark might have lost touch with him at some point and mistakenly believed another Tony was this Tony and that's why he thinks he passed away before?

[TheFallen]

I can't find ANYTHING about it online. I even searched terms that should really narrow it down such as DOB, DOD, City of death, etc. The name is so common that many other people come up but they aren't THIS Tony. I'm thinking Mark might have lost touch with him at some point and mistakenly believed another Tony was this Tony and that's why he thinks he passed away before?

You are talking about Tony Guerrero but the original line sculpter is referred to as Tony Guerro in the Power and Honor Foundation Catalog. Are they the same person or two different people?

[Emiliano]

You are talking about Tony Guerrero but the original line sculpter is referred to as Tony Guerro in the Power and Honor Foundation Catalog. Are they the same person or two different people?

Yes, we unfortunately got the name wrong in the first catalog, but it was definitely this Tony Guerrero.

Xploding_Boy, I'm Emiliano Santalucia from The Power and The Honor Foundation (an organization which mission is to preserve He-Man art)
I'm really sad to hear about Tony passing away. I heard only great things about him from Mark and Ted Mayer. I tryied to track him down myself last year before Mark told me he believed he had passed away, but with no luck. I now really regret not trying harder

I recently got chance to see some of his early work on MOTU, some are polaroids no one has ever seen in 30 years. I really wish I could have chance to talk to him, there would have been a million of questions to ask.

[TheFallen]

Yes, we unfortunately got the name wrong in the first catalog, but it was definitely this Tony Guerrero.

So they are one and the same. Thanks

This is pretty big news if he has just recently died.

[Xploding_Boy]

Yes, we unfortunately got the name wrong in the first catalog, but it was definitely this Tony Guerrero.

Xploding_Boy, I'm Emiliano Santalucia from The Power and The Honor Foundation (an organization which mission is to preserve He-Man art)
I'm really sad to hear about Tony passing away. I heard only great things about him from Mark and Ted Mayer. I tryied to track him down myself last year, but with no luck. I now really regret not trying harder

I recently got chance to see some of his early work on MOTU, some are polaroids no one has ever seen in 30 years. I really wish I could have chance to talk to him, there would have been a million of questions to ask.

I'm sure there would be tons of questions! If I can get a hold of anything of interest regarding his MOTU art/sculptures I'll be sure to share it with the rest of you if I'm given permission by the family.

[Emiliano]

I'm sure there would be tons of questions! If I can get a hold of anything of interest regarding his MOTU art/sculptures I'll be sure to share it with the rest of you if I'm given permission by the family.

That woud be greatly appreciated.
Besides getting his name wrong, we talked a lot about him in the first Foundation catalog were we showed one of early sculpt of He-Man, and we planned to feature more of his work in following publication.
I hope to no sound indelicate, but maybe later on you can I ask you if the family is they'd like to share some memories. You can reach me by PM or through our website
We all wanted to celebrate his work and we would have loved to have him at Power-Con, the He-Man convention, but stopped looking because we all believed he had already passed away

[Xploding_Boy]

That woud be greatly appreciated.
Besides getting his name wrong, we talked a lot about him in the first Foundation catalog were we showed one of early sculpt of He-Man, and we planned to feature more of his work in following publication.
I hope to no sound indelicate, but maybe later on you can I ask you if the family is they'd like to share some memories. You can reach me by PM or through our website
We all wanted to celebrate is work and we would have loved to have him at Power-Con, the He-Man convention, but stopped looking because we all believed he had already passed away

I will ask my Grandpa to check with the family soon. I completely understand where you're coming from.

I just spoke with my Grandfather about the confusion here and I wanted to make sure that he felt the family wouldn't mind before I posted the following. He agreed this doesn't seem to violate privacy, however, I trust in good faith that the following scans will be removed and not shared any further if later requested.

I blacked out some things for obvious reasons:

[Penny Dreadful]

I'm so sad to hear this. If only we'd known he was with us all this time. Condolences.

[Night Stalker]

That's pretty sad. Every thing that I've ever read about Tony points to him being a great guy. I think the one and only thing that Mark Taylor and Roger Sweet could ever agree on was that Tony did some excellent work for Mattel and was instrumental in getting the early He-Man design up and running.

RIP Mr. Guerrero. And thanks for sharing this with us XB.

One thing, I seem to remember reading that Tony Guerrero had a heart attack or a stroke several years ago. Could you confirm this XB? This could possibly be why Mark Taylor thought he had already passed.

[Xploding_Boy]

That's pretty sad. Every thing that I've ever read about Tony points to him being a great guy. I think the one and only thing that Mark Taylor and Roger Sweet could ever agree on was that Tony did some excellent work for Mattel and was instrumental in getting the early He-Man design up and running.

From what I know, everything you read about him being a great guy are 100% correct. Not many people have friends for 70+ years.

RIP Mr. Guerrero. And thanks for sharing this with us XB.

You're welcome. I'm glad I was able to share this with fellow fans. I don't even know if Tony himself knew that people still had such a big interest in MOTU.

One thing, I seem to remember reading that Tony Guerrero had a heart attack or a stroke several years ago. Could you confirm this XB? This could possibly be why Mark Taylor thought he had already passed.

To be completely honest I don't know full details about his health issues but I prefer not to share any of that info anyway, even the very little bit that I know on that subject. I hope you understand. I just think it's better (in any case about any person) to focus on their character, accomplishments, and other qualities that define who they were. For example, he was also a World War II Veteran. I forget what Country he was in at the time but a friend of his mentioned that Tony went AWOL for a few days because he went to museums to admire artwork. The same friend went on to say something like "Tony had a completely different view on the war than most soldiers. He saw it as a chance to see artwork from other places that he had previously only read about when he was a boy."

Personally, I love hearing stories like this about almost anyone/anything. It shows true dedication.

[Night Stalker]

Understood completely! Thanks again for letting us know, and be sure to give our regards to his family.

[JonWes]

Very sad news. I was so impressed getting to see the original He-man sculpt in person at Power-Con. It's clear his contribution to MOTU can't be understated. When you look at what he did compared to other figures at the time, it's pretty amazing how advanced it was.

[Fendi]

Sorry for the news, Rest in Peace and my condolences.... He knows how many Motu fans owe him for sculpting the very famous figures and we praise him as one of the immortals.

[tim]

I don't even know if Tony himself knew that people still had such a big interest in MOTU.

That would certainly be unfortunate. Hopefully, in part due to your announcement, his family will eventually learn of the impact one of his contributions had on so many people.

Thanks for mentioning this.

[Xploding_Boy]

Many thanks to the mods for changing this to it's own thread! I would've started it out that way but I wasn't sure if my first post in the forum should be a thread starter. I'll be sure to send my Grandpa a link to this page so he can read your comments too. I know he would be glad to hear how respected Tony's work is and it's very likely he would share this with the Guerrero family.

[vertigoink]

I remember talking with Mr. Taylor around 2008 I believe when I first was going to start working freelance on the MOTUC ad's that they featured in Toyfare as I wanted to do some research info since I had been out of the loop since around the 200X time- of all the current employees at Mattel that were still around as well as Sweet and others I only heard positive things about his days in his studio. Apparently he developed quite a few concepts that weren't all...properly credited to him which is sad now in retrospect. The one positive thing that could result in this sad loss is that Mattel can finally credit him for the GIGANTIC contributions he gave to the brand so that he's held on the same level as Taylor, Sweet, Obrero, and other ground breaking originators of the franchise.

Step up Mattel as the ball is in your court now.

EDIT: It's not even mentioned on the news site for Mattel yet.... Thank you XB for bringing this
to our attention as a lot of us wouldn't have known.

[Neutro]

Thank you so much for sharing Xploding_Boy, your post was quite moving and said very respectfully. Very fascinating tidbits as well.
I would also like to offer my personal condolences to Mr. Guerrero's family and friends.

...And welcome to the boards!

[Firefly]

R.I.P. Sorry to hear about the loss of such an instrumental person in MOTU's history.

[Romer]

Rest in Peace Tony Guerrero. It saddens me to read about his passing. I want to say that many of us still appreciate his works, even to this day.

[Dr_SLUMP]

Rest in peace, Mr. Guerrero. Thank you for these amazing toys. Your legacy will live on and on...

[oICEMANo]

Sorry to hear this and please pass along my condolences.
MotU has lost one of its founding forefathers.

I hope that we can find more MotU related info so as to further preserve his role in MotU history.