Myth Sells: Mattel's Commission of the Masters of the Universe Bible (He-Man‪)‬

[1] Few people know that in 1982, the Mattel Corporation commissioned playwright and author Michael Halperin to produce a document entitled The Masters of the Universe Bible. (1) This document, which became the basis of the popular cartoon series He-Man and Masters of the Universe, drew on various myth cycles as well as the bible. Normally, "bibles" are created as reference documents to foster consistency for media with multiple writers such as comic books and television series. The He-Man Bible was intended to create a back-story for a popular series of toys so that the franchise could be extended into a cartoon series. In doing this, Halperin also drew on the structural theories of mythologist Joseph Campbell, folklorist Vladimir Propp, and literary theorist Tzvetan Todorov (Halperin 2008). [2] Despite its bizarre premise, which has been called "a pastiche of modern mythologies" (Kline 1995, 299), the Masters of the Universe (MOTU) franchise had a profound influence on the millennial generation. Edgy comedy shows like Family Guy and Robot Chicken reference He-Man on the assumption that their audience shares childhood memories of the franchise. By contrast, numerous similar projects that attempted to market violent and fantastic toy lines throughout the 1980s have been forgotten. There is evidence that the commercial success of He-Man was largely the result of the mythic themes infused into the franchise by Halperin. This analysis suggests a phenomenological connection between contemporary action-adventure narratives and traditional mythology as first theorized by Mircea Eliade. (2) It also offers an alternative perspective of children as consumers of popular culture: Rather than being mental "blank slates" vulnerable to commercial exploitation, children sought a coherent cosmology and favored programming and products that could evoke a meaningful narrative.