The mysterious Savage He-Man variant formerly known as "Wonder Bread He-Man"

[skeletoncrew]

Once again, we don't know that to be certain.

right...but, that SEEMS to be the consensus, especially for the outlet/clearance version at least(IF it exists)...who knows the mail away version(IF it exists) might be different still...

something tells me it's like how many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop...

the world may never know...

[JVS3]

That's true, we may never know.

[Ram_Man_21]

Hey Guys long time no see, I see we still didn't solve this mystery. Check out my Tribute to He-Man in the thread with the same name.

[MOTUfan]

I honestly don't think we will be 100 percent for sure on this. Unless ofcourse the person who came up with this specific figure comes to the .org with the proof. But I honestly think if that person was out there they might've came forward before now.

Brent

[carlo]

Hey Guys long time no see, I see we still didn't solve this mystery. Check out my Tribute to He-Man in the thread with the same name.

dude, you're alive

[Ram_Man_21]

yeah Carlo I live Man!!! How have you been bro? Did you check out my tat?

[Ram_Man_21]

Anyone have anything new to report?

[Brian Ozone]

Anyone have anything new to report?

nuthing which really sucks

[Ram_Man_21]

yeah that does suck

[Trev-Or]

Man I just read through this entire thread and I have to say it was like reading a mystery novel. I should have been studying for finals but I couldn't stop clicking to the next page like a crack head to see if anyone had made any new discoveries. It’s amazing that after all that input and investigation from so many people it really feels like we've gotten no where.
I can't help to still think of Darren and David's baggie still as the Rosetta Stone for this mystery. I mean if that 'buy three get one free' flyer wasn't for WB He-Man what was it for? And the fact that Darren (or was it David?) checked out the seller's rep. which was spotless. I do however understand the need for skepticism.
I also can't help to think that the maroon weapons were originally intended for WB. Why would sellers, or whoever else, choose to match him with rare wan-e-faces weapons when they could just as easily give him grey weapons pack weapons or other more common, less in demand weapons. And I wonder, why did Mattel choose to release Man-e-Faces with extra maroon weapons anyway? Don't you think that is pretty random? Especially since the fact that they don't even match his color scheme. 95% of the He-Man line seem to be color coordinated in some way with their armor and weapons but the whole 'extra maroon weapons' thing just seems out of left field.
These colors do however match the color scheme of WB He-Man. But maybe that is precisely the reason why sellers chose to match him with these weapons.
My feeling is that WB He-Man was created by Mattel solely for the purpose of increasing sales. They needed a character that was different and worth buying more characters to send away for. The maroon weapons possibly were created for WB He-Man but for whatever reason the promotion didn't do so hot so they decided to pack the weapons with Man-e-Faces so they could sell WB He-Man without packaging to whole sale stores like a few of the members were talking about.
Do you guys know when the proof of purchase tags stared showing up on the back of the cards? It would be interesting if they showed up the same time WB He-Man was available to consumers.
I realize that I have nothing new to offer to this discussion. I'm only throwing out my own ideas which ultimately don't do any good. What we need is a smoking gun which we still haven't found one yet. It's just CRAZY to me that you guys have practically exhausted all resources including JVS3 going directly to Mattel and coming up with the same 'I have know idea where this figure came from’ answer. Maybe they don't have records of him because all the records are gone. The fact that they didn't even have all the records to come out with the repros certainly would support this. And Mattel was involved in SO much merchandising it is ridiculous. I don't know if I could remember some random character created 20+ years ago amongst all that merchandising going on. Or maybe, and more probable, they DO know and for whatever reason they don't want to tell us and it's going to take a posse of us to go kidnap the Mattel creators in the middle of the night and hold them ransom until they tell us the real story . Either that or we need to put one of them in a hypnotic trance so they will remember. Correct me if I'm wrong but it still seems there is more we can do with the Barbie lead. I remember it was a matter of waiting for some books to come out. And wasn't there 'Hot Wheels' on that flyer as well? Maybe we could follow that lead a little more. I know some one here in Sacramento that has an extensive amount of contacts both in the Hot Wheels and Barbie realms.
That answer Gilgamesh got from Conan Inc. was pretty interesting saying that they 'thought it was the original Conan'. Why the heck would they write that in response to some stranger’s inquiry if they actually didn't have a clue?
Anyways, I could go on and on. I don't know anymore than you guys. In fact, I probably know considerably less than most of you about He-Man. But this is a very fun topic and I just wanted to keep the thread going. Later skaters.

[Gilgamesh]

Wow, I can't believe this thread is still going. I haven't visited the .org in years, I guess its true what they say, once you graduate from College and go into the real world your whole life changes. This includes hobbies too. I haven't bought anything MOTU related for years. I still have my collection displayed in my hobby/game room but its just more for display.

Anyway, nice to see many of the old faces still post here and that this thread is still going strong.

I had completely forgotten about the WB mystery til Trev-Or emailed me a few days ago. I actually had to re-read a lot of this thread to bring me back up to speed on the situation.

One of clues that never got answered was what promotion did WB come from. If you recall in 2004 we were trying to track down a book which could tell us who teamed up with Mattel to offer the mail away. Well it turns out that book has finally been released.

http://www.amazon.com/Collectors-Enc...e=UTF8&s=books

Find it and hopefully we finally get one more piece of the puzzle!

YOU CAN SOLVE THE WONDERBREAD HE-MAN MYSTERY

Hi Everyone,
I have been working on solving this mystery for a while now and I believe I am very close. But I'm going to need your help. I have talked to several Barbie collectors and have discovered that the Barbie item mattel gave away for girls is a "Barbie Best Buy Fashion" this is also confirmed by the insert in the WB He-man that the Fowlers sent me.
Go to this site http://barbiefanatic.bobsville.com/nrfb.htm
and go to the section :

MOC Barbie Fashions
1980 -1981

As you can see there are about 4 items that it could be.

But just today I got an email from the owner of this site and here is her reply.
____________
Hi,
There is a great book published about Barbie Fashions written by Sarah Sink Ames (or Emes). The one you would need is Volume II, which is Fashions from the mid-late 70's through the 90's. It should have all promotional items and the company Mattel partnered with to do the mail away offer. Unfortunately I don't have a copy of this book. I have Volume I. Good luck,
Donna
_________________

So if anyone here can locate this book the mystery is solved. I'm trying to find it myself. But I figure the more people we have looking for this book the sooner the mystery gets solved.

Steve

[carlo]

oh oh..

got to check it out now or find it that is

thanks for the link Gilgamesh and good to hear from ya again

[Ram_Man_21]

I wish I weren't broke or I'd buy it

[Brian Ozone]

i cant use that link it tells me that it cant find it, or something. dam this mystery. its like the davinci code.

[Ram_Man_21]

dam this mystery. its like the davinci code.

Yeah I definatly agree there

[JVS3]

I can't help to still think of Darren and David's baggie still as the Rosetta Stone for this mystery. I mean if that 'buy three get one free' flyer wasn't for WB He-Man what was it for? And the fact that Darren (or was it David?) checked out the seller's rep. which was spotless. I do however understand the need for skepticism.

One has to be skeptical. It's a loose figure with a random, unassociated coupon, sealed up on a baggy.

Who knows if the seller got it from someone else a long time ago.
Or heck, it might even be from the seller's own childhood and he or a parent happened to seal the figure up in a sandwich baggy nearly 20 years ago for storage.

Just because a seller has a 100% rating doesn't mean they weren't tricked earlier on by someone else. They can easily be the unknowing seller of a hoax or misinformation. That doesn't mean they were out to trick bidders.

I also can't help to think that the maroon weapons were originally intended for WB. Why would sellers, or whoever else, choose to match him with rare wan-e-faces weapons when they could just as easily give him grey weapons pack weapons or other more common, less in demand weapons.

I'm not sure why you think the brown hair / brown trunked He-Man figure shares a color scheme with maroon weapons.
He doesn't.

And I wonder, why did Mattel choose to release Man-e-Faces with extra maroon weapons anyway? Don't you think that is pretty random? Especially since the fact that they don't even match his color scheme. 95% of the He-Man line seem to be color coordinated in some way with their armor and weapons but the whole 'extra maroon weapons' thing just seems out of left field.

Why not?
The Grayskull weapons were used before in variation for the accessorie pack.
So if those weapons had been pulled before as a set to recast in blue,
it's very easy to randomly select them to recast in another color.
Sometimes spitting out a cheap, easy variant to make more money isn't based in the plans of the original toy designers. Slapping Man-E-Faces together with maroon weapons could have been 100% Marketing.

Take a look at some of the variants in the new MOTU line.
Why were some of those colors chosen? There were some ugly variants.
Not everything is based in precise color scheme planning.

On top of that, why do factory changes on some of the classic figures?
Pink or Purple hose on Man-E-Faces?
Orange or a bright-green-out-of-place belt on Mer-Man?

And let's look at Man-E-Faces' own weapon.
A red/orange gun? That didn't mesh with his color scheme at all.

This sort of thing happened.

These colors do however match the color scheme of WB He-Man. But maybe that is precisely the reason why sellers chose to match him with these weapons.

No they don't.

Do you guys know when the proof of purchase tags stared showing up on the back of the cards? It would be interesting if they showed up the same time WB He-Man was available to consumers.

That is a possibility.
Unfortunately, we have nothing to make the connection.
And it's odd that Mattel would go to the effort to do this JUST for a dark haired He-Man variant that seemingly had little fanfare, commercial endorsement, or printed proof of its existence.
Those proof-of-purchases were on tons of toys back then as potential marketing gimmicks to use at any given time.

Maybe they don't have records of him because all the records are gone. The fact that they didn't even have all the records to come out with the repros certainly would support this. And Mattel was involved in SO much merchandising it is ridiculous.

Thing is, Mattel has to keep those agreements in perpetuity.
The one thing that's easy to box up and store away forever is a half a dozen big boxes of agreements that could span nearly a decade for one brand.

Correct me if I'm wrong but it still seems there is more we can do with the Barbie lead.

I agree.

And hopefully, we'll figure this out eventually!

Until then, I have to remain skeptical.
This figure has no evidence to suggest it was from Wonderbread, and it's showed up a lot over the past 5 years on eBay so it's not that rare.
Too many fans have been gouged for money based on hype for something we can't even confirm to be true.

[Brian Ozone]

Go Val Go!

[hatesminion]

some may have alreadyposted this link but i BELIEVE
http://www.grayskullmuseum.com/HeroicWarriors/WBHM.htm

[JVS3]

Believe what?

[Ram_Man_21]

I think he meant that he still beleives in Wonder-Bread He-Man I just thought of something when I saw that they refered to him as Savage He-Man. I have heard of him being called that before. Has anyone tried contacting Mattel or Wonder Bread and asking them about a Savage He-Man instead of WB? Just a thought. We have to get this Mystery Solved b4 the next Millenium

[JVS3]

People started callng him Savage He-Man when we knew it wasn't from Grayskull Museum also does a good job of presenting that entry as questionable.

[Ram_Man_21]

Yeah, that is a good point. I myself am starting to thing that maybe it is a Hoax since we can't find anymore proof out there to dispute otherwise. The only other lead I think we have left is that Barbie book that lists the different promotional items. If it's not in there I don't know what else to say but, it might just well be a hoax.

[Lulu-Berlu Reg]

"Savage He-Man" is just a nickname those guys at Grayskullmuseum used to give to this figure. Not an official name of course.

But is there any official name for this figure ?

I don't believe in the Wonderbread theory.
I got mine from an old lady at the Chicago-area Kane County toy show back in 1996 or 1997... for 50 cents. This lady was selling a lots of collectible dolls at the time, many Barbies and Mattel fashion dolls, and she basically told me that she got a bunch of these He-Man years ealier from Mattel (from a Mattel outlet or from Mattel employees maybe, she didn't specify), but that the figures came to her loose, with no accessories or packaging. I suspect she got them for free, because she was basically giving them away, and she had no interest in MOTU whatsoever (but who had in 1996?! ).

Anyway, my intimate belief regarding this figure is that somebody in the overseas plants mistakenly produced a wrong colored run of He-Man figure, and that Mattel, for whatever reason, didn't destroy them immediatly and got rid of them or gave them away to their employees or other collaborators...
This is just my theory, but that would explain why there is no record at Mattel for that figure. If it was a Wonderbread promotional item, Mattel would have kept records for sure.

[JVS3]

Having them for sales at a Mattel outlet is a good theory.

Someone also remarked about the possibility of these being sold at a dollar store.

Both of these, in my opinion, hold possibilities.

[skeletoncrew]

Having them for sales at a Mattel outlet is a good theory.

Someone also remarked about the possibility of these being sold at a dollar store.

Both of these, in my opinion, hold possibilities.

yeah, i think this is probably how it went down(both outlet and dollar stores)...after the Conan legal debacle Mattel had to get the Savage He-Man's out the back door QUIETLY i think...maybe even dropped the whole lot of them for cheap to some other vendor(s) or distributor(s)...

if only we could get access/information about that legal battle, something tells me the answer lies within that hidden and forbidden knowledge...

the mail-in theory holds less and less weight...maybe Savage He-Man was SUPPOSED to be a wonderbread promotion, but after the legal case was solved they switched the promo to the trading cards or somethin' like that...

i also think the man-e-weapons maroon weapons might just be Mattel recycling weapons that were made for the Savage He-Man that legally they couldn't do "properly" anymore...so, they were stuck with all these maroon weps and decided to add them into a new figure that had tested well or whatever...

obviously nothin' i have to say is concrete and is just ANOTHER theory at this point, but we might as well consider everything, at least for a moment...