History Trivia / MastersOfTheUniverse

** One example happened because of Mattel reusing a trademark to keep it active -- the human form of Beast from ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' was named Adam in the script but the name "Prince Adam" was used on toy packaging. Mattel made these toys. This has been dropped after Creastor/{{Hasbro}} obtained the Creator/{{Disney}} toy license.

* FollowTheLeader: In a sense, as He-Man was the result of the success of Franchise/StarWars. Mattel was asked to make the action figures, but immediately rejected it. But seeing how well Kenner's Star Wars toyline were sold, Mattel made action figures of ''Film/{{Clash of the Titans|1981}}'' and ''Film/{{Flash Gordon|1980}}'', but didn't sold well due to the movies not being as big as ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'', with the latter being a BoxOfficeBomb. So Mattel decide to make their own action figure line.

** Fisto's 2002 series toy even had to be called "Battle Fist" due to trademark issues with ''StarWars''[='=] Kit Fisto, despite being created like 20 years earlier (unused trademarks expire shortly however, and Mattel had let their hold on the name lapse)

** One example happened because of Mattel reusing a trademark to keep it active- the human form of Beast from ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' was named Adam in the script but the name "Prince Adam" was used on toy packaging. Mattel made these toys. This has been dropped after Hasbro obtained the Disney toy license.

* SavedFromDevelopmentHell: The winning character design from the contest mentioned above was never made for unknown reasons, though Mattel came through with every other promised prize. Finally the character, Fearless Photog, was made as part of the Classics line for the 30th anniversary of the franchise.

** Early designs for Beast Man was bear-like, but was soon redesigned to its final look so he would not resemble a [[Franchise/StarWars Wookie]].

** Similarly, Vikor, He-Man of the North, is a MOTU classics figure based on the earliest stage of what would become He-Man's design. Vykron is also based on an early concept prototype where the idea was to have a hero with separate costumes, similar to Mattel's prior ''Big Jim'' line - a barbarian, a military man and a space man with a Boba Fett-esque helmet.

** The unreleased "savage" He-Man toy with brown hair, often mislabeled "Wonder Bread He-Man"(Wonder Bread did have a MOTU promotion but this figure was NOT offered through it). To this day no one knows what its purpose was, how many were made or why it was made, let alone how the few samples were released. Even Mattel doesn't know. Theories have floated between a prototype Conan toy(Mattel did negotiate for the movie toy rights but never followed through, and they were in development on MOTU before then), a prototype Prince Adam look(possible as Adam looked different in the early DC issues) or a product for a promotion that never happened.

* WorkingTitle: The early name for the toyline "Lords of Power" was considered, to be in par with "Star Wars". But was soon rejected as it sounded "too religious".

* ActorSharedBackground: Anthony De Longis, who played Blade, in addition to being an actor, is also a trained swordsman and whip expert, often hired to train actors to use said weapons (check his IMDB page for examples). So, naturally, Blade uses both weapons in the movie.

* ContestWinnerCameo: In the {{DVD Commentary}}, Gary Goddard mentions how Creator/{{Mattel}} held a contest where the winner would get a role in the film, but they didn't tell them about this until very late in production, so the winner just got a cameo as one of Skeletor's guards near the end with his face hidden under a pig mask.

** The final sword fight between He-Man and Skeletor was filmed at the very end, ''after'' the money ran out. The director paid out of his own pocket to get that vital sequence filmed and have a finished movie, which is why the set and lighting change so dramatically just for the lions share of the duel.

** The film went into production at the wrong time, as He-Man was slowly dwindling in popularity, Cannon Films was going bankrupt AND Mattel was having financial issues. It went from getting a slashed budget right before filming began to spending the entire back half of filming trying to convince the crew that paychecks will be in that day. Filming was officially shut down just before they could film the climactic sword fight and have a completed movie, the director had to wiggle in another two days of extremely calculated filming to do the bulk of the fight later that evening and then squeeze in another day a month later (on the directors dime) to get the final shots before the set was torn down. They designed the set with the intention of the final fight using ''all of it'' and were disappointed in the end result themselves.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Late into the line's lifespan, Mattel held a contest for fans to design their own character, which they would then make into an official action figure (the plan never came through). The winner was Nathan Bitner, who grew up to design characters for the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' series.

* RoleReprise: The Mexican Spanish dub use the same voice cast from the animated TV series.

* MarthDebutedInSmashBros: The movie was the only thing related to the franchise that was released in Japan until ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower''.

* MarthDebutedInSmashBros: The movie is the only thing related to the franchise that was released in Japan.

** One example happened because of Mattel reusing a trademark to keep it active- the human form of Beast from Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast was named Adam in the script but the name "Prince Adam" was used on toy packaging. Mattel made these toys. This has been dropped after Hasbro obtained the Disney toy license.

** ''Film/{{Cyborg}}'' was originally intended to be a sequel to this movie.

* FollowTheLeader: In a way, as He-Man was the result of the success of Franchise/StarWars. Mattel was asked to make the action figures, but immediate rejected it. But seeing how well Kenner's Star Wars toyline were sold, Mattel made action figures of ''Film/{{Clash of the Titans|1981}}'' and ''Film/{{Flash Gordon|1980}}'', but didn't sold well due to the movies not being as big as ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'', with the latter being a BoxOfficeBomb. So Mattel decide to make their own action figure line.

** Before coming up with He-Man, Mattel tried other ideas like Giants or Midgets, but were immediately rejected during their pitches.

* RoleReprisal: The Mexican Spanish dub use the same voice cast from the animated TV series.

* InspirationForTheWork: Gary Goddard confirmed that film was heavily inspired by the works of Creator/JackKirby, most notably ''ComicBook/TheNewGods'', as well as ComicBook/FantasticFour and ComicBook/{{Thor}}.

** He-Man was the result of the success of Franchise/StarWars. Mattel was asked to make the action figures, but immediate rejected it. But seeing how well Kenner's Star Wars toyline were sold, Mattel made action figures of ''Film/{{Clash of the Titans|1981}}'' and ''Film/{{Flash Gordon|1980}}'', but didn't sold well due to the movies not being as big as ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'', with the latter being a BoxOfficeBomb. So Mattel decide to make their own action figure line.

** Early designs for Beast Man was bear-like, but was soon redesigned to its final look so it would not resemble a [[Franchise/StarWars Wookie]].

* WorkingTitle: The early name for the toyline "Lords of Power" was considered, to be in par with "Star Wars". But was never used as it sounded "too religious".

* WorkingTitle: The early name for the toyline "Lords of Power" was considered to be in par with "Star Wars". But the name was considered "too religious".

* RetroactiveRecognition: A pre-''Friends'' Courtney Cox.

** The Director has admitted he wasn't excited about Creator/DolphLundgren as He-Man, in large part due to his thick accent, but was cast by the execs due to his exposure in ''Film/RockyIV''. He auditioned others and even had one he felt better suited, but was overruled. He even anticipated [[SameLanguageDub to have him overdubbed]], but Lundgren's contract specified against it (Lundgren did redub himself in places where his original performance was difficult to understand).

** There were plans for a prequel to both [=MotU=] and She-Ra featuring an ancestor of the main characters, He-Ro. Yeah, those never saw the light of day, but He-Ro has recently been released as part of the [=MotU=] Classics toyline.

** Creator/DolphLundgren was somewhat embarrassed by the film.

** Fisto's 2002 series toy even had to be called "Battle Fist" due to trademark issues with ''StarWars''[='=] Kit Fisto, despite being created like 20 years earlier(unused trademarks expire shortly however, and Mattel had let their hold on the name lapse)

* PropRecycling: Because of the tight budget, the crew had to recycle miniatures previously used by ''Film/BladeRunner'' and ''Film/{{Ghostbusters}}'' to pad out the skyline footage they had.

* TroubledProduction: The film went into production at the wrong time, as He-Man was slowly dwindling in popularity, Cannon Films was going bankrupt AND Mattel was having financial issues. It went from getting a slashed budget right before filming began to spending the entire back half of filming trying to convince the crew that paychecks will be in that day. Filming was officially shut down just before they could film the climactic sword fight and have a completed movie, the director had to wiggle in another two days of extremely calculated filming to do the bulk of the fight later that evening and then squeeze in another day a month later (on the directors dime) to get the final shots before the set was torn down. They designed the set with the intention of the final fight using ''all of it'' and were disappointed in the end result themselves.

** The planned second film Skeletor invade our world once more, this time in the guise of an evil corporate tycoon, and would have introduced both She-Ra and Trap Jaw.