He-Man Most Powerful Man in the Universe! Masters of the Universe Sketch Book Series Target Exclusive Boxed Figure Item No.: Asst. JGF83 No. JHJ87 Manufacturer: Mattel Includes: Axe, shield, alternate head Action Feature: n/a Retail: $21.99 $6.59 Availability: January 2026 Other: Continued Sketch Book Series, propensity to go on clearance
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I give some people grief for not supporting what they like at full price, but sometimes you just have to be good to your wallet. The entirety of Masters of the Universe Sketch Book Series and indeed nearly every MOTU Target exclusive in the past six years has gone on clearance - so I waited to get He-Man until he hit about 70% off. Some Targets were sold out early in May, but a few just sat around and I thought "Well, I go here often enough to keep an eye on it." And indeed I did - so I have this riff on Mark Taylor concept sketches, or Vykron in the wrong colors, on my desk now.

The very good Battle Ram Blog has a history on Vykron complete with sketches and art, so you can see where they got some inspiration for this figure. It's not a perfect match to the prototypes, or Classics figure, or some of the colorized artwork floating around... but it's its own thing. And they could probably recolor it and sell it as a Mattel Creations exclusive with a cape down the road.

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As usual, you get a 5 1/2-inch body with some new bits. In this case, they changed up the outfit, the heads, and I believe the gear. The default head riffs on the Vykron prototype, keeping the black wig but trading the squinty eyes for something more typical of the line. The gold hat was originally silver, and looked a little more like a chess piece. The other head has horns, blonde hair, and a slightly uglier face. I wouldn't say either is superior, or a clear winner, but both are different enough from other toys that I said "OK, I want that" back when it came out... and waited it out like a cheapskate. Everything seems decorated nicely, with white painted teeth and black line eyes. The hair pieces are molded in color, as are the helmets - with a little orange paint on Viking Head.

The costume takes more cues from the concept art with a hollowed-out cross, a slightly different bit of furry shorts, a cross on the greaves, and sandals. Sandals are, obviously, a dumb design choice because you could just stomp his feet and distract him long enough to swipe his wallet and give him the deadly purple nurple. I was surprised to see newly sculpted bracelets too (or at least, they're new to me) which protect the back of his hands from bruising. This is a very important thing in this era, and is vaguely similar to Vykron. The viking also hd gloves, and the bracelets were a bit rounder... so again, he's kind of his own thing here as a concept figure.

I doubt the average schmo is going to clock the changes in the outfit from the base He-Man, and maybe that's why it lasted until clearance. I thought this was one of the better figures in the line, with the added movie interest likely to help knock it out of the park. And it didn't sell through. It's no worse than anything else in the series, and I thought was one of the more compelling offerings.

But how's the gear? The axe is nice, and you can kind of stow it in the back of the armor. It's not a perfect fit there, but it fits in his hands without a hitch. He can also hold his sword incredibly nicely, and I had a surprising amount of fun taking way, way more pictures than I had any intention on using for this feature. I kind of wish we still got action features and spring-loaded waists, because I'd probably still be chopping up other figures with his axe rather than writing this article for you. There's no good reason for this figure to be weird fun, but it is.

I'm of two minds about Target and Mattel partnering to make sure no fan is left behind in the same way Walmart and Mattel don't. It is generally not good for every exclusive to go on clearance, but it seems the appetite from Target is bottomless and fans seem to be buying enough to justify multiple exclusives per aisle reset. I'm not sure it'll last forever - that probably is up to the performance of the movie - but there's a new Man-E-Faces hitting shelves that looks awesome as of April, and I hate to say it, but the track record means I'm going to wait for a deal. This has nothing to do with relative quality or desirability of the designs, but after a while you just can't set fire to your toy budget when a little patience can net you a treat like this He-Man. For $7, I'd say go out and buy two. For $22, I'm not disappointed. It doesn't bring any new functionality to the table, and yeah it's basically He-Man with a new hat, but those are two very nice hats.

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