Mastering the Universe

Mastering the Universe: He-Man and the Rise and Fall of a Billion-Dollar Idea
Author(s)	Roger Sweet & David Wecker
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Non-fiction
Publisher	Emmis Books
Publication date	July 11, 2005
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	240 pages
ISBN	1-578-60223-8
OCLC Number	59712548
Dewey Decimal	688.7/2 22
LC Classification	NK4894.3.H46 S94 2005

Mastering the Universe: He-Man and the Rise and Fall of a Billion-Dollar Idea is a 2005 book by Roger Sweet and David Wecker that recounts Sweet's reminiscences behind the scenes of the corporate culture of the 1980s American toy industry. Sweet (with his co-author and nephew David Wecker) details the creation of the Masters of the Universe toy line, its rise to immense popularity and then dizzying crash in which profits fell from a peak of making $400 million in US sales alone in 1986 to a mere $7 million in 1987. The book is primarily a view of the corporate workplace side of MOTU's creation, and actually details very little of the conceptual process behind inventing the individual MOTU characters and products.^[1]

Sweet's book is also noteworthy for containing many errors. The text contains a higher than average number of spelling mistakes and obvious inaccuracies in its constant citations of sales figures.^{[citation needed]} Of specific note are a number of glaring factual errors regarding specific toys/events that any casual to moderate MOTU fan would immediately spot, including:

-p. 120 "Tri-Klops was a good guy". The original toy's subtitle, carried on all packaging and advertisements, was "Evil & sees everything". It was rumored that the character was originally supposed to be a hero, but if this was the case, Mattel scrapped the idea before the figure went into production. Tri-Klops was a well-known villain in the MOTU line, and was one of Skeletor's chief henchmen.

-p. 132 & p. 207 describe Webstor's pulley mechanism as a thread which "ran through him, through his head and out his hintermost parts." The toy did not have the thread device pass through his actual body, but rather quite clearly fed through a detachable backpack.

-p.143 claims that the Masters of the Universe 1987 live-action film starred "a young Courteney Cox in the role of Teela." Teela was in fact played by actress Chelsea Field. Although Cox did feature in the movie, it was in the role of Earth girl Julie.

Notes

1. ^ "Mastering the Universe: He-man and the Rise and Fall of a Billion-dollar Idea". Pop Matters. http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/mastering-the-universe/. Retrieved 2009-11-29.