With
Masters of the Universe sales falling at the end of its run,
Mattel launched, allbeit briefly, a spin off: The Powers of
Grayskull. Though this line would have probably helped bring
continuity to the line, (which was struggling in that department,
what with DC, Marvel, Filmation, and Mattel stories all contridicting
each other), it was scrapped after the release of just three
toys: The Powers of Grayskull Dinosaurs.
The
story was, primarily, the tale of a wizard named He-Ro, and
his battles against the evil Keldor in Preternia...or, how
Eternia had existed thousands of years in the past. Keldor
would one day become Skeletor, and was also the twin brother
of King Randor, ruler of Eternia. (See The Search for Keldor
and The Powers of Grayskull: The Legend Begins)
Peter
Gullerud produced some paintings for the children's dinosaur
book The Little Blue Brontosaurus with Don Morgan and William
Stout, shortly before being approached about designing the
cybernetically enhanced dinosaurs of the Preternia era.
The
Little Blue Brontosaurus was the basis for the Lucas and Spielberg
collaberation The Land Before Time, an animated film that
followed a group of young dinosaurs to "The Great Valley".
Masters
of the Universe fans will be familiar with William Stout for
his work designing costumes on Masters of the Universe: The
Motion Picture. He is an exceptionally accomplished artist,
having designed for film, comics, cartoons, and provided an
inspiration for Michael Crichton's novel Jurrasic Park. For
more, click here.
Peter
Gullerud obliged us by talking a bit about his involvement
with the Powers of Grayskull line.
"I
was hired as a freelancer, along with one other artist. Between
the two of us, we designed all four dinosaurs." (Bionatops,
Turbodactyl, Tyrantisaurus Rex, and Gigantisaur)
Of
the four, only the the Gigantisaur was not produced into a
toy. It looks like it may have made a good one, though!
"At
the time, I had not done a lot of similar work to this,"
Peter recalls, "Mostly I'd done animation. Mattel had
learned of my work with Don Morgan and William Stout on a
children's dinosaur book, so I was offered the job designing
the dinos for Masters of the Universe"
"I
wasn't very familiar with Masters of the Universe when I got
the job, and very little in terms of story was offered by
Mattel when I sat down to create these creatures. They had
the idea of dinosaurs with high tech artillery incorperated
into them, and I just sketched many designs until they were
pleased!"
"My
experience working for mattel was quite pleasant. I did some
more work with them, but that ended too soon in my opinion.
I would, of course, love to work on designing vehicles for
the new line, though I haven't had a chance to check it out
yet."
"These
days, I've just completed a novel and I am helping design
a local western town on a ranch in Frazier Park, California."
I'd
like to thank Peter Gullerud for his time, and all of you,
my fellow fans for reading this article. I hope it was insightful
and informative. You can read more about Peter at here.
