Back in the day some call the 80’s, a series of mini-comics started to appear in the middle of DC’s offerings. Starring a strange fantastic hero and concerning a mystical blade split in two, it was all very weird and otherworldly. In 1983, a cartoon and toy line captured the imagination of suburbia and a legend was born.
But what lies beneath the plastic shell of our heroic sword slinging hero? Everyone from legendary creator of Filmation Louis Scheimer, animation scribe extraordinaire Don Glut and even sci-fi icon J. Michael Starczynski weighs in on the various and sundry tales of ‘Barbarian Fiction.’
Check out the trailer for this behind the scenes story of the action figure that ruled the 80’s.
Muscles! It’s all about the Muscles. Let’s face it. The 80’s were covered in muscles be it block buster movies from Stallone,Ahnold and Lundgren and tons of other impostors, the music industry were littered with well oiled musicians from cheesy dance music to the high octane metal of Manowar. And children’s toys were about to get their share of muscle galore with a legendary toy line and a Saturday morning cartoon that was about to carve its name in stone.
He-Man and The Masters of the Universe grabbed the sword and sandals genre and crammed it down our throats. It was the ultimate adventure, a young prince who’s alter ego is the walking mountain of flesh that is He-Man who battles a skull faced villain and his beastly minions but at the same time gives us a lesson on how to treat friends and not to make fun of others. Essentially the Mr.T cartoon with monsters and more action really.
The franchise still lives on today, though not nearly as strong as it used to be and people of my generation feel He-Manwas a big influence on their lives and helped turn their attention to the more fantastical side things, making nerds of us all.
Now a group of filmmakers have started production of a documentary called TOYMASTERS, chronicling the creation of the character and how it became one of the biggest cultural phenomenons of its day. And judging by the long trailer below it has all the ingredients to make a smashing film, riches, backstabbing and drama. The film is still in production and has a planned release next year and the guys are looking for the worlds biggest He-Man fan to be featured in the film. So if you think you got what it takes to be a contender for the biggest He-Man nerd out there drop them a line through their official website.
Check out the trailer below and then head on over to TOYMASTERS website and take a gander at some additional clips and news.
(note: all information including ad copy is from the publisher)
If you can’t make it to the shop, just click on any of the images below to be taken to an online retailer. I don’t get any referrals for these sales, I’m just doing my bit to spread the word on some neat products.
Doctor Who Tenth Doctor's Coat Replica
Based on the 10th incarnation of The Doctor (played by David Tennant), this designer-quality coat is bound to be your favorite everyday garment! The replica trench coat, officially licensed by BBC Worldwide and available in a very limited run, features high-quality wool-blend fabric, deep blue lining (color-matched to the costume coat), double-breasted buttoning, detailed stitching on the back, two inside chest pockets, outside welt pockets with flaps, and a Doctor Who woven label. Order your time-travel gear today!
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Tokidoki X Marvel Thor Blk T-Shirt
Simone Legno’s world of tokidoki collides with Marvel Comics on these stylish t-shirts that feature cute versions of the Human Torch, Thor, and Wolverine!
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Iron Man 2 Whiplash Bobble Head
This summer Robert Downey, Jr. suits up again as Marvel’s armored hero in Iron Man 2, and his opponent in the big-screen blockbuster is Mickey Rourke as the diabolical Whiplash.
This 7″ tall bobble head recreates the insane Eastern bloc villain with a detailed facial sculpt based on the actor’s appearance, and this bobblehead comes with his trademark energy whips.
Editorial – Scare the whole family with this officially licensed Iron Man 2 Whiplash Bobble Head! Sure to keep even the sturdiest child on edge for days.
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Solomon Kane Official Movie Mag
Go behind the scenes of the epic movie, Solomon Kane, with this Official Movie Souvenir Magazine that brings you exclusive interviews, stunning artwork and storyboards, set secrets, and the history of Robert E. Howard’s puritan adventurer and fantasy hero.
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X-Men Second Coming
Part of X-Men: Second Coming! MANY WILL BE WOUNDED. SEVERAL WILL DIE. The climax of four years of X-Men stories is the X-Event of 2010!What started in HOUSE OF M with the Decimation of mutantkind and erupted with the first new mutant birth in MESSIAH COMPLEX finishes here.
In the epic crossover SECOND COMING, Cyclops’ faith pays off when Cable returns to the present with Hope, the girl he believes to be the mutant messiah. But will she be the savior or destroyer of mutantkind? We may never know, as she is the target of an initiative for mutant eradication unlike anything they X-Men have ever experienced. Many will be wounded. Several will die. Is Hope worth it?
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Iron Man: Extremis HC
BACK IN PRINT!
It’s the beginning of a new era for Iron Man! Renowned scribe Warren Ellis joins forces with acclaimed illustrator Adi Granov to redefine the armored avenger’s world for the 21st century – a landscape of terrifying new technologies that threaten to overwhelm fragile mankind!What is Extremis, who has unleashed it, and what does its emergence portend for the world? Plus: this new edition comes packed with extras, including armor designs, page layouts, issue scripts and more!
This title collects
Collecting Iron Man (2005) #1-6
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99 Classic Movies for People in a Hurry
99 Classic Movies for People in a Hurry compresses 99 of the worlds most famous movies – in just four squares! In a remarkable way, riotously entertaining texts and spot on illustrations let’s you, so to speak, get the picture, summarizing all the must-see classics. Get the low down on: Citizen Kane, Psycho, The Seventh Seal, Gone With the Wind, Dirty Dancing, Jaws, Bagdad Café, Rocky, Yojimbo, The Guns of Navarone, Jailhouse Rock, The Big Blue, Rebel Without a Cause, Taxi Driver, The Shawshank Redemption, The Misfits, among many others.
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My Life with Charlie Brown
While best known as the creator of Peanuts, Charles M. Schulz (1922-2000) was also a thoughtful and precise prose writer who knew how to explain his craft in clear and engaging ways. My Life with Charlie Brown brings together his major prose writings, many published here for the first time.Schulz’s autobiographical articles, book introductions, magazine pieces, lectures, and commentary elucidate his life and his art, and clarify themes of modern life, philosophy, and religion that are interwoven into his beloved, groundbreaking comic strip. Edited and with an introduction by comics scholar M. Thomas Inge, this volume will serve as the touchstone for Schulz’s thoughts and convictions and as a wide-ranging, unique autobiography in the absence of a traditional, extended memoir.
Inge and the Schulz estate have chosen a number of illustrations to include. With the approval and cooperation of the Schulz family, Inge draws on the cartoonist’s entire archives, papers, and correspondence to allow Schulz full voice to speak his mind. The project includes his comics criticism, his introductions to Peanuts volumes, his essays about philanthropy, his commentary on Christianity, his newspaper articles about the creation of his characters, and more. My Life with Charlie Brown will reveal new dimensions of this legendary cartoonist.
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Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep Vol. 02 (of 6) HC
Influential sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick’s award-winning Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? has been called ‘a masterpiece ahead of its time, even today’ and served as the basis for Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford. A ground-breaking maxi-series experiment taking the full text of Dick’s novel and bringing it to comics, DADOES? is illustrated by acclaimed artist Tony Parker!This title collects
DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP #5-8
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Creeper By Steve Ditko HC
Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man, struck again in 1968 with the strange hero The Creeper. Now, for the first time, DC collects Ditko’s Creeper epics from SHOWCASE #73, BEWARE THE CREEPER #1-6, 1ST ISSUE SPECIAL #7 and short stories from WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #249-255.
This title collects
SHOWCASE #73, BEWARE THE CREEPER #1-6, 1ST ISSUE SPECIAL #7 and short stories from WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #249-255
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The Lord of the Rings (Remastered Deluxe Edition) (1978)
Although it was ultimately overshadowed by Peter Jackson’s live-action Lord of the Rings trilogy, Ralph Bakshi’s animated adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy classic is not without charms of its own. A target of derision from intolerant fans, this ambitious production is nevertheless a respectably loyal attempt to animate the first half of Tolkien’s trilogy, beginning with the hobbit Frodo’s inheritance of “the One Ring” of power from Bilbo Baggins, and ending with the wizard Gandalf’s triumph over the evil army of orcs. While the dialogue is literate and superbly voiced by a prestigious cast (including John Hurt as Aragorn), Leonard Rosenman’s accomplished score effectively matches the ominous atmosphere that Bakshi’s animation creates and sustains. Bakshi’s lamentable decision to combine traditional cel animation with “rotoscoped” (i.e., meticulously traced) live-action footage is jarringly distracting and aesthetically disastrous, but when judged by its narrative content, this Lord of the Rings deserves more credit than it typically receives. –Jeff Shannon
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War Of The Worlds War Machines Attack Se Model Kit
War Of The Worlds War Machines Attack Se Model Kit is an Urban Collector pre-order. The battle for Earth from George Pal’s 1953 film The War of the Worlds is chronicled in this amazing diorama model kit that recreates a scene from the film. The kit comes two War Machines, two Sherman tanks, a desert-style display base, and death ray. Lenses and death ray parts cast in clear plastic, not colored. The Martian war machines are made using the same computer model used for the 1/48-scale models, based on the original Paramount prop blueprints. This special edition kit comes with chrome copper-style plated finish. Some assembly required.
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Rough Justice: The DC Comics Sketches of Alex Ross
Alex Ross opens his private sketchbooks to reveal his astonishing pencil and ink drawings of DC Comics characters, nearly all of them appearing in print here for the first time.Thousands of fans from around the world have trilled to Alex’s fully rendered photo-realistic painting of their favorite heroes, but as they may not realize, all of those works start as pencil on paper, and the origins of the finished images are rarely seen. Until now.
From deleted scenes and altered panels for the epic Kingdom Come saga to proposals for revamping such classic properties as Batgirl, Captain Marvel, and an imagined son of Batman named Batboy, to unused alternate comic book cover ideas for the monthly Superman and Batman comics of 2008-2009, there is much to surprise and delight anyone who thought they already know all of Alex’s DC Comics work.
Illuminating everything is Alex’s own commentary, written expressly for this book, explaining his though processes and stylistic approaches for the various riffs and reimaginings of characters we thought we knew everything about but whose possibilities we didn’t fully understand.
As a record of a pivotal era in comics history, Rough Justice is a must for Alex’s legion of fans, as well as anyone interested in masterly comic book imagination and illustration.
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Fantastic Four #577
By: Jonathan Hickman, Dale Eaglesham, Alan Davis
On the Blue Area of the Moon, the Fantastic Four discover that the history of the Inhumans runs much deeper, and richer, than previously believed. It’s big adventure on a cosmic scale, its Prime Elements part three: Universal Inhumans!
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Dark Wolverine #84
By: Daniel Way & Marjorie Liu, Guisseppe Cammuncoli, Salvador Larroca
PART 2 OF 3-Daken has been given glimpses of the life he could have-as well as the lives he might destroy-and the time for a choice is finally at hand. Will he become a force for good…or reign as a king in Hell?_____________________________________________
A midnight call to duty brings Captain America aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D Heli-carrier to identify the corpse of his most feared adversary: the Red Skull! The shocking murder of Cap’s oldest enemy may not be the end of the Skull’s plans, however, because whoever shot the Skull has stolen his final project: an unfinished Cosmic Cube with the potential power to alter reality itself. Adding to the imminent danger, a cadre of the Skull’s followers has already set in motion a plan to ignite bombs in the hearts of Paris, London and Manhattan – causing untold death and destruction.
Racing against these bombs’ rapidly ticking clocks, the Star-Spangled Avenger must not only solve the mystery of his nemesis’ murder, but find the Cube before it can be used in the Red Skull’s malevolent plot against the United States! Then, the questions plaguing Captain America’s dreams and memories have been answered in the most brutal way possible.
And in the wake of this brutality, General Lukin makes his first all-out assault – tearing open old wounds and threatening to make new scars that will never heal!
This title collects
CAPTAIN AMERICA #1-9 and #11-14
The Daily P.O.P. 