Roger Sweet, a toy designer who created the musclebound hero He-Man for Mattel as well as other characters for the popular Masters of the Universe cartoon and toy franchise in the 1980s, died on Tuesday. He was 91.
Mattel confirmed the death in a statement, which did not cite a cause or say where he died.
“Roger played a pivotal role in the early development of Masters of the Universe, helping introduce iconic characters like He-Man and Skeletor to the world and inspiring generations of fans to find their inner power,” the statement said. “His legacy endures in the characters he helped bring to life and the imaginations he ignited.”
The He-Man character arose from a missed opportunity. Months before “Star Wars” was released in 1977, Mattel was among the companies that the director George Lucas approached with a proposal to license toys connected to what would become one of the most celebrated and lucrative franchises in the world. Mattel passed. Kenner, which scored the licensing deal, would become a toy powerhouse.
Mattel scrambled for an answer and asked Mr. Sweet, who joined the company as a designer in 1972, to come up with a response.
“Mattel market research found the three most popular things were barbarian fantasy, futuristic military as in ‘Star Wars’ and current military, as in G.I. Joe,” Mr. Sweet told The Daily Herald of Everett, Wash., in 2019. “I took this nine-and-a-half-inch figure, and I glued him in an action pose and I widened his shoulders. A lot. Then I added a huge amount of clay to him.”
He-Man, known as “the most powerful man in the universe,” was almost fully naked, showing off his chiseled abs and bulging biceps as he carried an ax and a shield. The toy’s design portrayed what was then a platonic ideal for masculinity during a period when action stars like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger were household names.
The He-Man figure invited comparisons to Barbie, whose appeal to girls had made it a cash cow for Mattel. And it was the opposite of Mr. Sweet, who described himself as “a puny guy.”
The toy, after its release in 1982, became the centerpiece of a larger Masters of the Universe character set that included the skull-faced villain Skeletor and He-Man’s sister, She-Ra — another creation of Mr. Sweet’s.
Mattel turned the franchise into the syndicated cartoon “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe,” which ran from 1983 to 1985 and helped cement the toys as cultural touchstones. He-Man’s battle cry — “I have the power!” — reverberated from elementary school playgrounds across the country. (She-Ra spawned an animated spinoff in 1985, “She-Ra: Princess of Power.”)
Mattel sold more than 125 million Masters of the Universe toys in the first three years — a needed boost in an increasingly competitive toy marketplace for boys that included Transformers (Hasbro) and Voltron (Matchbox). There was also a live-action film that was released in 1987 and starred Dolph Lundgren as He-Man. It was a box-office bomb and pointed to a decline in popularity for the franchise. As the 1980s came to a close, Mattel wound down the line.
Roger Sweet was born on April 4, 1935, in Ohio to Helen McQuigg and Byron M. Sweet, an art director at the advertising agency Firestone. Mr. Sweet graduated from the Institute of Design in Chicago.
Mr. Sweet left Mattel in 1991 and largely stayed out of the public eye, except for occasional appearances at conventions to sign He-Man merchandise. But as Mattel reaped the financial rewards of his designs, he would later lament that he did not.
“Three years in a row, midway through managing the original series, I got 50 percent of my salary as bonus from Mattel,” Mr. Sweet recalled in the Daily Herald interview.
Mr. Sweet released a memoir in 2005, “Mastering the Universe: He-Man and the Rise and Fall of a Billion-Dollar Idea,” in which he accused Mattel executives of trying to take credit for his concepts.
“I wanted to make it extremely clear who did what,” Mr. Sweet told The Boston Herald around the time of the book’s release. “I wanted the credit to be given exactly as it happened. I have a huge number of documents and am extremely well organized. Everything I say in the book I can back up very clearly.’‘
The Masters of the Universe franchise has had a resurgence in recent years. In 2021, an animated He-Man reboot series, “Masters of the Universe: Revelation,” developed by the director Kevin Smith, was released on Netflix. The next year, the Masters of the Universe toys that Mr. Sweet helped create were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.
In June, Amazon MGM Studios and Mattel Films will release a new live-action “Masters of the Universe” film starring Nicholas Galitzine as He-Man alongside Jared Leto and Idris Elba. Last month, Mattel announced a new line of Masters of the Universe toys.
Despite Mr. Sweet’s antipathy for Mattel later in life, he maintained a love for the character he helped originate. When he married his wife, Marlene Sweet, He-Man and She-Ra figures were on top of their cake, Ms. Sweet told The Daily Herald earlier this year. The cake read, “He-Man takes Marlene for his bride.”
“I always wanted to be a He-Man and never could,” Mr. Sweet said in the 2019 interview. “I knew almost every guy in the world would love to be a He-Man.”
Sopan Deb is a Times reporter covering breaking news and culture.
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