Vintage MOTU art & photos thread

[Battle Ram Man]

This is a thread for posting photos of vintage MOTU figures and artwork, whether it's your own or others. I think it'd be cool to have a long running thread filled with awesome pictures of the original figures and artwork to browse.

I'll kick it off with pictures of the original licensing kit:

[Shawn]

The He-Man.Org water mark is odd since the original file was uploaded to the forums at nearly twice that size by I can't remember who.

The Original "Grayskull" who was to be King is a particular favorite of mine. It explains so much but also BEGS so many MORE questions...

I wish I knew who owns or uploaded this as I would love to know the media and original size. http://www.grayskullmuseum.com/motuindex.html




This more techno looking staff looks like it was designed by the same artist who designed Gwildor's toy key.




The Energy of the Golden staff...



Same as the color of that strange Cosmic Key mini comic back cover variant...



Turned out to be the PoG cardback...









Continuity or coincident? Understanding these writers original intent is SOOO crucial before these things are rewritten like in DC's current comics and MYP's creation of "King Grayskull". A simple retcon...The Book of Living Spells and Cosmic key certainly provide mcguffin enough to alter any plot point on a whim...or fix them perhaps what POG would have done perhaps?


(thank you Joe Amato for that Mashup!)

[Battle Ram Man]

More Errol McCarthy

[Shawn]

McCarthy loose penciling isn't my preferred personal preference of artistic styles, but he certainly is great at what he does. I love his compositions. It's clear that by looking at the style guide images, that he was greatly influenced by Alcala's illustrations from He-man and the Power Sword. I wonder if he was directed to do this, or was inspired to do so just by looking at what came before?

WTF is up with Stratos though? Off to the side is a birthday cake and everybody just screamed "surprise" The way he draws Mer-Man's face is AWESOME. It's clearly in between 8-back and Filmation! Man-E-Faces looks looks like he is board as hell. I would love to know what he is thinking, and what McCarthy was thinking when drawing this...Other then "now where do I put contractually obligated He-man in this composition". Why is He-man always late to the battle? Shouldn't he be FIRST?

[Battle Ram Man]

Yeah, Stratos is in super intense and MEF is super mellow. Not Every McCarthy drawing is great, but I really love his style overall, especially the He-Man card back (post 8-back)

[Battle Ram Man]

[Shawn]

I forget where does the card back styled card series come from? It was like a portfolio or something?

(BTW I like how your using the Albums. It's less messy that that 1st post of mine. I may go back and clean that up.)

[Battle Ram Man]

I forget the source, I just a have big folder full of images that I've saved and don't always remember where from

[Shawn]

Ah. Yeah when i save files I'll rename it so i know who to credit. Some people are vary particular about being credited for scanning things. Take a second to ricght click save, but it takes TIME to properly scan large amounts of material. That can feel like work. Credit where credit is due should always be true IMO. However I didn't ALWAYS rename files with proper credits. I only thought to do so I think because of hanging out with Scanning groups and having done the work my self for a short time which made me aware of how much time it takes to do these types of things.

BWT, having lost all my files TWICE (because I'm an idiot like that) I love this thread already. It's the best thread idea EVER!

[Shawn]

Concept art - Mark Tayler. Published in the Power and Honor foundation Vol. one Catalog

Photograph of prototype sculpt Mark Taylor and his wife (on stickers) as published in the Power and Honor foundation Vol. one Catalog

Vintage box art Rudy Obrero; Uploaded by Rudy (I think) Contact him for a print.

Filmation Castle Grayskull cut away Robert Lamb. found on his site

Filmation concept drawing by Robert Lamb 1982. found on his site

Icon Heroes box art Nate Baertsch (found via Google images)

Grayskull 2015 subscription poster by Axel Giménez.and Nate Baertsch

[Shawn]

I know it's going to sound a little blasphemous, but I think Nathan did. How about that Filmation model sheet bio? It isn't a sculpted skull, but is actually the bones of some primordial beast? Doesn't get much more METAL then that!

[Battle Ram Man]

Nathan's painting is truly great. It captures a lot of that same moodiness from the Rudy Obrero painting, but with improved clarity. I'd have a hard time picking which one was better, setting nostalgia aside

[Shawn]

Different styles different media. So I take back my previous statement. I enjoy them different ways. In a MOTU film, I would love to see this scene depicted. More so, a reverse of this situation. Skeletor attacks (everybody fighting each other) and it's He-man, having just transformed for the first time that is inside the castle having just transformed for the first time for the climatic battle of the new movie. That would evoke the memory of this scene!

The frazetta influence is so clear in the first Rudy Obrero box arts. That's something that will always be part of MOTU's foundation. If not for MOTU, I might never of liked Conan or frazetta considering my age. This is something most kids need to be exposed to in this day and age of digital artists and Ninja Turtles/Power rangers/pokemon type things. hand made non digital art is a lost form.

[Battle Ram Man]

Speaking of Rudy Obrero...

Not sure if he did that first one with Teela, but I believe he did the others

[Battle Ram Man]

More Errol McCarthy....

[Battle Ram Man]

The amazing William George...

[Mechanizor]

Awesome thread and vintage art, thanks Battle Ram-Man. I really love those Errol McCarthy's art pieces, his style is very fluid and perfect for those action poses.

[Battle Ram Man]

Thanks!

Here's some art by RL Allen I think

[Matthew L. Martin]

I've never seen that He-Man/Faker picture before! Cool!

[Battle Ram Man]

[Battle Ram Man]

[Battle Ram Man]

The incomparable Rudy Obrero!

[Battle Ram Man]

Dino D'Achille's Golden Books cover art

[Battle Ram Man]

Larry Elmore

I believe I got a lot of these (including artist names) from a MOTU art Facebook group

[Battle Ram Man]

Artist unknown. These were screen grabs from a short documentary about the Filmation He-Man show

[Shawn]

James Eatok uploaded this series Guide .org cartoon area document's library eons ago.

http://www.he-man.org/cartoon/documentslibrary.php?id=44

[Battle Ram Man]

Awesome, I didn't know about that. Thanks!

[Shawn]

Click on each area's the documents library for great goodies.

[Battle Ram Man]

A ton of William George

[Battle Ram Man]

Fred Carillo

[Shawn]

The best Golden book's artist! Him and Norem where like a one two punch combo that knock my socks off every time I look at them!

[Battle Ram Man]

Yeah, I'd love to see a Skeletor head in Classics based on his artwork!

[Battle Ram Man]

Vintage figure pics, mostly from catalogs, ads, etc

[Battle Ram Man]

Random posters - product pics and art

[Battle Ram Man]

Misc catalogs

[Battle Ram Man]

He-Man card back (post 8-back)

[Battle Ram Man]

Teela & Man-at-Arms Cardbacks

[Battle Ram Man]

More first wave (post 8-back) cards, plus Faker

[Battle Ram Man]

Most other card backs, I think:

[Shawn]

Let the right click save recommence