Crew
Directors/Screenplay – Randall Lobb & Robert McCallum, Producers – Randall Lobb, Photography/Production Design – Isaac Elliott-Fisher, Music – Matthew Hussey. Production Company – Pyre Production Definitive Films/FauxPop Media/i.Productions/Pyre Productions.
With
Martin Arriola, John Atkin, Mike Barbato, Arnaud Brun, Cam Clark, Paul Cleveland, Justine Dantzer, Anthony De Longis, Larry DiTillio, Brian Dobson, Richard Edlund, Mark Ellis, James Etoch, Derek Gable, Michael Halperin, Barbara Hambly, Larry Houston, Gabe Khouth, Frank Langella, Dolph Lundgren, Justin Marks, Ted Mayer, Eric ‘Cornboy’ Mayse, Joe Morrison, Bob Nall, David J. Negron, Scott Neitlich, Rudy Obrero, Alan Oppenheimer, Emiliano Santalucia, Erika Scheimer, Tom Sito, Val Staples, David Stefan, William Stout, J. Michael Straczynski, Tom Tataranowicz, Mark Taylor, Eric Treadaway, Janice Varney-Hamlin, Gwen Wetzler, David Wise, Charles Zemballis
The He-Man toys were one of the great success stories of the 1980s. First appearing in 1982, initially there was only He-Man and Skeletor. Out of these Mattel spun a line of action figures, battle accessories, model playsets of Castle Greyskull and Eternia, along with all the requisite comic-books, colouring-in books and lunchboxes, even an animated series and a live-action film. Some 120 toy items were released before the line folded in 1988, although there have been some revivals since.
Power of Grayskull: The Definitive History of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is a Documentary about the He-Man phenomenon. It comes from Randall Lobb, a Canadian director who has specialised in pop culture documentaries with the likes of Turtle Power: The Definitive History of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), The Crystal Calls – Making the Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019), A Riddle of Steel: The Definitive History of Conan the Barbarian (2019) and A Gamer’s Journey: The Definitive History of Shenmue (2023). Co-director Robert McCallum has also made the fantasy film Unearthly (2013) and the documentary Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe (2023), as well as several tv works about memorabilia.
Lobb and McCallum take an historical overview. They begin with background on the popularity of male action figures in the 1970s, pointing to sales of G.I. Joe and The Six Millom Dollar Man (1973-8) toys. The genre took off massively with the success of Star Wars (1977), something that Mattel ended up kicking themselves that they elected to take a pass on – they were unable to produce the toys by December 1977, whereas competitor Kenner took the bold step of giving IOU cards for toys.
The most popular toy lines of this era were ones based on ongoing media franchises. Mattel signed up to make a line based on the Conan the Barbarian (1982) film only to have to cancel the line when it was discovered that the film was going to be R-rated. The designs for this were then channelled into the He-Man line, which became one of the few male action figures based on an original, non-franchise idea.
The documentary takes us through the design and development of the He-Man characters. Novel at the time was the idea of creating realistically proportioned doll figures. Learning how corners were sometimes cut in the process has its amusements – the Battle Tiger was simply an armature for a tiger from the Big Jim toy line painted green (irrespective of the fact it was much larger than He-Man), while other characters were simply the same armatures with different costumes. Or the difficulty in selling and designing Castle Grayskull, which was an expensive $20 toy for the time.
Quite interesting is how the mythology of He-Man evolved from the simple limited comics that were sold along with the toys to then an actual DC Comics storyline in a limited run that had Superman appearing on Eternia. Most of what we accept as the He-Man mythology was put place when it came to the toys’ expansion into the animated series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983-5).
There is discussion of the animated series. Quite a bit of Power of Grayskull focuses on the late Lou Scheimer, producer of the series. We meet actors and animators – even J. Michael Straczyinski, creator of tv’s Babylon 5 (1992-8), who wrote for the show. Also discussed is the addition of the absurd little moral messages at the end of each episode to offset the censor who was obsessed with violence in the show. Also discussed in the spinoff series She-Ra: Princess of Power (1985-7) and its presentation of a strong female character.
We eventually come to discussion of the live-action film Masters of the Universe (1987). Most of those interviewed, from fans to production personnel and crew, are more favourable to the film than history is. There are a great many plaudits given to director Gary Goddard and his having to deal with constant budget slashing by Cannon Films. Dolph Lundgren is interviewed, talking of his reservations about playing a cartoon character but also saying it is the one film of his that he could show his kids. Frank Langella talks about how he took the role because his son was a fan of the toys and of the difficulty of giving a performance from behind a facial appliance.
He-Man eventually became a victim of its own success – it was apparently even out-selling Mattel’s popular Barbie line. In an attempt to sell more, executives started coming out with increasingly more ridiculous new toys and accessories, resulting in the product suffering from a market glut. The last sections of the film discuss various attempts in the 2000s to revive He-Man with new redesigned toy lines and a new animated series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002-4). Power of Grayskull was released before the recent animated tv series revival He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2021-2) and the live-action reboot Masters of the Universe (2026).
Trailer here