An Ultra-Rare He-Man Figure No One Thought Was Real For Decades Has a Weird Backstory You Won’t Believe

As iconic as the name “He-Man” are his accessories and appearance: blonde hair, silver armor, sword, shield, and axe. So imagine the confusion when images of this He-Man action figure surfaced online in the early 2000s: brown hair, black boots and belt, totally unfamiliar weapons.  Speculation ran rampant, with many fans dismissing the “Savage He-Man” figure as a bootleg or a hoax. But as more samples of the figure emerged, adding new pieces to the puzzle like black armor and more weird weapons, it became clear this was a real figure, and the question changed: where did it come from? 

Theories ranged from an early He-Man prototype to a lost Mattel toyline to a grocery store tie-in. It was only in 2024 that He-Man collectors finally got to the bottom of the mystery – or so they think. The backstory of this figure is still the subject of controversy, speculation, and debate, apparent even in the Hakes listing for this ultra-rare holy grail, which acknowledges at least three different names and origins for the figure. With decades to establish its legend, “Savage He-Man” has become a prized item for Masters of the Universe collectors, evidenced by the $1.2k price already attained at the time of writing.

How Fans Discovered The “Savage He-Man” Figure

The first fuzzy images of “Savage He-Man” were shared on early toy collecting message boards and forums in the late 1990s. The easiest explanation was that he was a bootleg, an unauthorized toy made with illegally obtained Mattel molds and parts like these Kenner Star Wars figures. But unlike Kenner Star Wars, “Savage He-Man” looked plausible, like he could have been a real toy from the line. And critically, the figure’s paint and plastic were much higher quality than bootlegs tend to be. At this time, previously-unknown Masters of the Universe figures, mail-away items, and gift sets were also still being discovered by collectors. One more was hardly a stretch of the imagination. 

If anything, as toy blogger Alex Bickmore pointed out, “He has the soft rubber head of the early releases of He-Man, and his features are well defined. As a Hot Wheels collector, I know that the dies and molds wear out, and one indication of age on a figure or toy car is how well defined the details are. This may be a hint that Wonder Bread He-Man was one of the first releases out of the mold.” 

Bickmore mentions the other common name for this figure: “Wonder Bread He-Man.” At some point early in the story, a collector shared that he was given the information Savage He-Man was produced as part of a promotional tie-in with Wonder Bread. Though no materials from Wonder Bread could be found to support this conjecture, collectors went with it.  Marrying it to Bickmore’s speculation that the figure was “one of the first releases out of the mold,” the working theory became that “Wonder Bread He-Man” was a rough prototype version of the character put out by Mattel in a 1980 or 1981 Wonder Bread promotion, before the toyline launched. This explained the well-defined details, and the figure’s incongruities with the recognizable He-Man.

How Mattel Answered One Question & Raised New Ones

In 2001, Mattel planned to include a new, official “Wonder Bread He-Man” in its line of Masters of the Universe reissues. Going off of the name and narrative that had been circulating, they checked their archives for record of the Wonder Bread promotion, and didn’t find anything like a promotional He-Man figure. The only Mattel-Wonder Bread promotion was in 1985, and consisted of exclusive Masters of the Universe trading cards. 

Around the same time, a Man-E-Faces variant was found packaged with Wonder Bread He-Man’s mysterious weapons, and an accessory pack included the same black armor. Collectors could account for everything except the figure itself, which they were sure was legitimate, but had no idea where it came from.  The hoax theory was briefly bolstered by a packaged sample that emerged, coming in a resealable plastic bag unlike anything known to be in use by Mattel. It also included a flyer advertising a “buy three get one free” promotion, where fans could mail away for a free He-Man figure with the purchase of three figures. This promotion dated from 1983 or 1984. 

Shifting to the name “Savage He-Man” for the figure, a new theory developed. Some suggested it was a prototype for a rejected Conan the Barbarian line from Mattel, kitbashed from a He-Man figure as a proof of concept (a common toy industry practice). Due to a complete lack of evidence, this theory fizzled, though the idea Savage He-Man was a prototype remained appealing. 

In 2019, Mark Ellis, a former marketing director at Mattel responsible for the original Masters of the Universe line, was asked about the original He-Man prototype. He confirmed it had brown hair like Savage He-Man. He elaborated that the first prototypes had an engineering defect with the chest sculpts. Savage He-Man had a standard Masters of the Universe torso, and the prototype theory was also dead.

One Unhappy Parent Solves a Forty-Year-Old Mystery

By this point, collectors basically gave up hope that anyone would ever know where this figure came from. And then, former Masters of the Universe brand manager Scott Neitlich found something in Mattel’s archives: a 1983 letter of complaint from a young He-Man fan’s mother, dissatisfied with the figure her son received from Mattel’s buy-three-get-one mail-away campaign. She described the figure in detail: a bizarrely-colored, accessory-free He-Man. One of the most infamous mysteries in toy collecting was solved: Savage He-Man was a giveway figure produced with poor quality control. 

As much as this explained, some were still reluctant to accept the explanation until 2024, when a collector put the mystery to rest at last while helping their mother move. He stumbled upon a Savage He-Man, still in its original mailer envelope from Mattel, the figure within sealed in a plastic bag exactly like the previously-discovered packaged sample. 

Though the aura of an unsolved mystery has faded, the figure’s standing with fans is not diminished. Savage He-Man remains one of the absolute rarest figures produced for Masters of the Universe, and Hakes expects the sample on auction to fetch a final price of $3-5k. One hopes they’ll ship it something more secure than a mailer envelope and a plastic baggie. 

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