This HeMan comes from an universe where Gobots are the premium alien disguised robots, Jodorowski's Dune was released in the 70s, erasing Star Wars from existence and the remake of "E.T. the videogame" was the best selling game on the Super Atari Entertainment Station.

"Wonder Bread He-Man" would be a great band name.

So wait, this is the He-Man-della affect? *rimshot* I will see myself out now.

Let's also not forget that when He-Man first came out, he was not "Prince Adam". He-Man was a barbarian that left his tribe to wander and adventure. He was met by a sorceress (not the actual "Sorceress" as we know her now) who gave him a sword and bade him to protect castle Greyskull from Skeletor, who had the other have of the sword He-Man had. I bring this up because I never see that original story talked about in videos about He-Man.

Oh, yeah, I remember that figure! They gave it away free at the premiere of that Sinbad movie, SHAZAM!

My theory of Wonderbread He-man is that he was a version of He-man that Mattel made for Wonderbread for a promotion, but Mattel made a last minute decision to cancel the figure after a small number of copies were sent out by Wonderbread. I think that Mattel cancelled this version of He-man was because he looked too much like Conan and they deny this figures existence as they didn't want to be sued by CPI for making a Figure that looked similar to Conan.

Dumbest moment of my childhood, I saw wonder He-Man on a swap meet when I was a kid and passed on it because of the brown hair

In addition to Mattel denying any involvement with this figure, I can confirm that the makers of Wonder Bread (then Continental baking) also have no knowledge of a promotion for an action figure. I had a dialogue with a representative from Interstate Bakeries back in 2007 via email in which we discussed records of such a promotion. I got tired of seeing all the speculatory comments and theories on the forums by so-called experts so I decided to do my own research. (Some people commenting in the forum discussion actually thought Wonder Bread was the company name so it was hard to take their claims seriously). Although the company had changed hands and records may have been lost, they could NOT confirm such a promotion. Wonder Bread DID have a trading card promotion which everyone knows about but you can forget about the figure being a WB promo. Despite this information, people will still swear it's a WB figure which is ridiculous. That said, one of your commentors below suggested that this figure may have been given out at a convention perhaps as swag to employees which is a theory I can actually get behind. I'm very close to "a large toy company employee" (you can do the math) and there are constantly products floating around the offices and within the employee circles that never see the light of day. It's very possible that this figure was either an error from the factory that was given away to employees rather than destroyed, a figure intentionally produced and then held back for fear of being sued by the Conan people, or simply as a promo collector's item given to employees. Either way, despite the rarity of the figure, a WB promo would have had an ad campaign to back the promotion. After all, the point of a promotion is to sell more product which means there would be flyers, posters, magazine ads, and WB packaging to sell such a promotion. None of that can be produced for this figure which should seal the deal. In the 80's, mail in figures were common and you can find a TON of promotional documentation for figures like Cobra Commander, Duke, Sgt Slaughter, Fridge Perry, Mumm-Ra, Emporer, Boba-Fett, even Robo-Cop. A quick google search will produce documents as evidence for those promotions but nothing for He-Man? Mattel would have done a much better job at releasing promotional material to get this toy out there. I don't know where the toy came from but I can tell you where it did NOT come from.

I was all about SilverHawks. That vacuum seal chrome effect was so cool. I loved the green guy, no idea what his name was. Bluegrass was dope too- i always wanted a guitar that turned into a gun lol.

So great. The writing, delivery, and production value of your channel (and this vid in particular) are truly stand-out. Thanks!

The small booklets that came with the early edition action figures, especially those drawn by Alfredo Alcala, were quite arguably inspired by 70's Conan imagery by Frank Frazetta or Boris Vallejo. I especially recommend those, or the ones drawn by Mark Texeira. Those early books were beautifully illustrated, showing a quality and artistic ambition by Mattel that didn't seem to last beyond those individuals.

That Black armour Wonderbread He-man is wearing comes from the weapons pack you could buy.

Truly hilarious! Amazing story, great jokes too. Very cool that they gave the new character his own bread loath as an accessory. I certainly strongly enjoy all your Oddities series!

In my universe, you get bread when you buy action figures.

It could be a prototype, a misprint, or a bootleg. Such occurrences are well-known to have happened in other action figure product lines.

I got a few theories. 1) I bet it was a prototype/early production model that somebody got their hands on. They probably did a small run to test out the production facilities. 2) It might've been a concept character that was never meant to be produced. Much like how Zodac was originally labeled as one of the bad guys, this guy was probably meant to be the good guy version of Zodac. They may have made a few to pitch the product and/or to test the production facilities, but never picked it up. 3. Custom, but from the factory. Maybe meant as a promotion. Otherwise, I got nothin.

I really love these episodes , this channel just gets better and better.

i remember there being a lot of imitation figures that all had the same body molds. i got 1 from Showbiz pizza using tickets. it could be one of those types and not a true he-man licensed figure

Spector Creative channel has solved the mystery! They found a letter in the Mattel archives confirming it's existence! It had nothing to do with Wonder Bread, but the figure was produced and mailed out! Dan and Greg, I'd LOVE to see a follow up video!!!

Figures, history, and mystery... great video!

Great video. I've heard of this mysterious He-Man figure but never knew anything about it.

He was part of a weapons pack. he came on a blister pack with a crap load of random weapons. I think it was unlicensed though, some of the weapons looked like the molds where slightly different. I remember some of the weapons did not fit as well in hand, and the power swords did not match up with the real swords perfectly. the colors where also unlike any other color in the figure line. Also the plastic was softer.

If they really did make a Wonderbread He-Man, surely by this point in time there would be some evidence of the promotion - articles, wrappers, etc?

Thank you, Thank you...I've a fan of these obscure backgrounds from my childhood. Awesome video

"HI I'M STAN CARSON WITH SOY GALAXY" "THIS SOY SAUCE HAS 14 POINTS OF FLAVORTICULATION" "I REMEMBER THE GLORIOUS DAY OF CHRISTMAS MORNING TO FIND SEVERAL GALLONS OF SOY MILK UNDER THE TREE WHICH NO DOUBT WAS A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR TO WHAT WE DO ON SOY GALAXY" in all seriousness these toy oddities episodes are great and the addition of the retro music was great and added a creepiness feel to a episode about a alleged Wonder Bread tie in He Man figure, id love to hear it in future episodes

6:27 That was the perfect time to start your jumpcut wearing a Mirror-Universe Mr. Spock goatee and mustache.

This was a super fun video to watch while on my break at work

I remember the Warlord toys, which for a while I thought were part of the He-Man universe as their appearance and articulation were identical.

I remember getting a he-man knock off similar to this when I was a kid. It was clearly made from the same mould as Herman but it had black hair (I think) and had weapons that didn’t fit in his hand properly. It was in just a clear plastic bag. Not boxed. Years later I came across a test your skill game called stacker where one of the prizes was a he-man knock off which seemed to have been made from the same mould . I didn’t win it (but I won a knock off wolverine figure weeks later) I think this wonderbread He-man is probably something like that.

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite channels on YT.

"How many inhabitants from that other world survived" If I may insert a quote from Lost. Rose-" My husbands not dead." Jack-"Everyone in the tail section of that plane is dead." Rose-" They're probably thinking the same thing about us"

Mandela effect: the results of humans' selective memories and cognitive dismissal of any event considered by the observer to be unlikely to result in shared sexy times in the future.

It absolutely was real. I never got one but my memory is solid. There was a coupon in a loaf of wonderbread. You had to send 4 or more Wonderbread UPC labels and a money order for $1.99. I walked to my grandma's house to cut a 2nd UPC label from her bread,got yelled at for it haha. My mom got me the money order and my 2 UPC labels.. The coupon and money order set with the 2 UPC labels in a coupon drawer for years because I lost interest in He-man and didn't collect more UPC s. My mother remembers it there till this day...

Unsolved mysteries + other limits + the twilight. Bravo with this episode, keep them coming.

I had loads of heman stuff and I've never heard of this debacle! Interesting video.

Somebody may have mentioned this already, but there’s a pretty cool episode of Toy Hunter in which he comes across one of these and goes to his resident expert to get it valued. Pretty cool.

It was quite the 'hat tip' to see this version in the new Netflix series.

Back in the 90's a friend of mine gave his Wonder Bread He-man figure. He said he had sent away for it when he was a kid and held on to it all that time. He knew I loved MoTU, which is why he gave it to me. I still have it.

You are the best toy narrator...thumbs up man!!!

I can't say it enough. This is my favorite episode of Soy Galaxy.

Conan and He-Man create unrealistic body image expectations for young boys. This has been said MANY times in the alternate timeline....

The mystery was recently solved. He was part of the mattel buy3 get1 free promotion. He was the free mail in figure but it is believed he did not come with the armor, the black armor came in the weapons pack

i saw something where they said it was a early mistake at the factory where maybe a 1000 or so were made and were giving away at toy conventions as a sample....back then only industry people went to those and Mattel would give them out as swag (bc)

Mattel was very close too making a He-Man or "Masters" series based in space, but instead "Re-Branded" to a different scale all together. If these had come along 1988 or 1989, this could be a very plausible answer as Mattel would often just re-color to re-market past or existing figures and play sets (as would GI Joe, and even Star Wars). They may have started a batch, aborted, then sent out what they had in some sort of promotion or perhaps a promotion out side of the US. Another possibility would be a highly marketed Bootleg. You could often find boot legs of VOLTRON in Swap Meets in California, that were pretty decent. I can remember being in Michigan one summer in 1985, (my grandma lived in a suburb of Detroit, not to far from Canada). There was a HUGE discount Drug store near her house, much of their stock was just in huge open boxes on pallets (Warehouse style). To my and my cousin surprise They had almost identical ( only minus the Auto-bots logo ) Dino-Bots. They had the whole series for $7 a piece, they also had very good bootlegs of the tapes that went in to Shockwave for $2 a set of Two. The writing on the box was both in French and English, we surmised these were brought down from Canada. It's very possible these He-Mans were just a very good bootleg. That's how Kids remember owning them. Did anyone run a check on Kilpatriks bread, Hostess bread or Langdorf bread? These were all popular white breads in the 1980's. Perhaps it was a different brand. Both Transformers and GI JOE would also have mail away variants of charactors and vehicles as well.

This was fascinating

As the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" explains it: There is a theory which states that if anyone should figure out what the Universe is for, and what it is actually doing here, it will immediately vanish and be replaced by something even more bizarrely inexplicable. There is another theory which says this has already happened several times.

Come on... The biggest toy company and the biggest bread company would have records on any promotion of this kind.

this was in fact from a buy 3 get 1 free promotion from back in 1983 where you bought 3 action figures in the store and mailed off the 3 proofs of purchase with the selected type of figures you wanted, you get one back. From what I hear the exact figure you got was slightly random though from the line of toys you checked on the mail in rebate card for the free figure. Some lucky people got this brown haired He-man which was in fact a Conan The Barbarian prototype that was the basis of the design of the later He-Man line. It's unknown exactly how many of these special proto-type He-man/Conan action figures were shipped out but by some estimates and checking by just how rarely they come up for sale or even seen, probably very few and they do fetch top dollar to vintage He-Man collectors as this would in fact be one of the very first He-Man prototypes ever made (some made as early as 1981).

Love the oddities videos Dan!

I'm pretty sure I had the original Wonder Bread He-Man. But I can't recall where it came from specifically. Just one of many He-Man figures I got as a birthday gift from someone to add to my hoard... which sadly suffered the fate of many classic collectibles and was thrown away by my parents when I wasn't there to stop them. *cries*

It's a legitimate Mattel figure from the era, that's already proven. AFA grades them. A painted custom is pretty identifiable, whereas the legitimate examples of this figure were painted during the era - it's factory Mattel, in other words. So the legitimacy of the figure has already been proven. Where exactly it came from is the mystery. I know for a fact that my friend had one - because he still does. He kept it along with all of his other figures in the same box since he was a boy. He remembers getting it through a Buy 3, get 1 free deal.

That was fantastic, simply fantastic

Great Episode!

I love the fact that Wonderbread He-Man appeared in that new He-Man Revelations series. lol

I surely remember a clear plastic package containing several weapons (swords, clubs, axes, halberds, laser guns, shields) and armours, one of which was undeniably this black breastplate with the white symbol on it. I'm also quite sure I remember what I thought was a knock-off He-Man with a different colour scheme, though I'm not sure what colours it sported.

It’s like the hundreds that remember the alternate ending to “Big” but no one can find it

I love these oddities

Despite Mattel's poor records, it definitely *was* from that 'buy 3 get 1 free' promotion. It was just the doll, though - no armor. Mattel kind of cheated anyone who took advantage of the offer expecting another figure from the line but really it was just a repaint - or "special edition" - when they neglected to mention this fact in the advertisement, and I guess they wanted to brush the embarrasment under the carpet.

I love how this He-Man, has an official name now

Just talking to Pixel Dan about this this weekend! Great video!

Aaaahhhh! I thought there would be a resolution. I’ve never heard of this and was curious to get answers about where it came from.

My theory is that it was a prize giveaway by nes quik in 1984/85. They had a MOTU promo during that time where you could get a game piece and enter to win. I think those who entered and didnt win the larger prizes got won this as a smaller prize for playing.

There's a good possibility that it was an early prototype or prototype batch, that was later accidentally dumped into the public. Some manufacturers, especially then, would insist on a number of an item being made to help offset cost because making such a figure as a one off was seriously expensive. With the split between CPI and Mattel, Mattel may have reworked the figure slightly to try to avoid the legal issues that came about later.

I can tell you factualy, there are variant runs. I can personally speak of Flying Fists He-Man. During the late 80's and early 90's I accompanied my aunt and uncle to several thousand yard sales and estate auctions as part of their antique business. I was able to amass a respectable collection of over two hundred figures (plus vehicles and playsets) at rock bottom prices. I know as a fact that the Flying Fists He man has a variant run where He-Man's skin is slightly darker and his hair is brown. I used the variant He-Man as a flying fists Faker during my play time (ages 5-11). Sorry folks, I sold my collection in 2001 for a very respectable price.

Silent Bob did more damage to He-Man than Skeletor could ever imagine.

Okay so this ones been solved, apparently it was a special edition version sent out on the "Buy three, get one free" promotion. A fella that worked on a MotU artbook with Mattel figured it out going through old correspondence in storage, lol.

It's crazy to think that there are very specific traits to the Wonder Bread He-Man that make him the "real-deal" The gap work in the belt is a big shout out to if you have a real one. I was lucky enough to get one about a decade ago. He's pretty cool.

I had that chest armor at the least! I used to hit a lot of garage sales as a youngling and had many assorted figure accessories. Its gone to goodwill since then and now

I remember seeing the black chest plate in a pack of multiple accessories and it wasn't appealing because it had no action figure, I also remember kids in school talking about a heman you could order through bread but the brand and the facts about this were very vague since we were all 5 or 6 year old kids that had limited access to information. I also remember how all kinds of products like cereal, or cookies had mail in promotions to get toys like hotwheels, transformers and MOTU but i never really ordered anything. So perhaps it came from a different product but not wonderbread?

Well damn it I thought you were going to have an answer at the end.

Had a friend growing up, that had all kinds of toys. Even that version of heman . He ordered all special figures.

HAIRCUT! Seriously though, love that lighting.

I have always heard that Mattel and Wonder Bread claim to have no known documentation that mentions any kind of mail-away premium offer for this figure. I hear stories the Wonder Bread He-Man was a mail-away offer. I read a comment below about them being found in an A&P grocery store. As far as I can remember, I don't ever remember seeing one in my childhood. I never saw another kid bring it to school, sold at a yard sale, flea markets, or anywhere else.

Mistery has been finally solved by Scott

I love the whole deal about him, I like him so much I got two of the Wundars (one seal)and makes a better barbarian than he man. Love the link to connan, maybe an attempt to get rid of the first test run

Damn I remember this fig. But I can't remember how got either🤔

While watching the new He-Man, I caught the Wonder Bread He-Man Easter egg and yelled out loud, "I caught that reference!" Thanks to your riveting, relentless and sometimes reckless reporting!

There was a wonder bread commercial with a He-man figure promoting it, with the slogan, “I have the wonder!” Or maybe only in my universe of origin this was so?

Saw "wonder bread" on an exaggerated humanoid figure in my suggestions and had war flashbacks

awesome!

Awesome video!

I had that and I believe there was an opposing evil character with an orange version of that black top, toys r us

In 97/98 in Olympia WA, at a Goodwill store I found 2 of these figures (one was just the figure, the other had the armor and I am pretty sure the weapon). I assumed it was some bootleg and didn't think twice about it..... years later, I'm kicking myself.

I remember toy galaxy having a cat! the cat ran the UKposts channel and kept a bearded man as a pet! no one believes me! (great video as usual. I love these oddities episodes)

Great vid

Around 1991 my family received a prototype board game from a Mattel employee, we were also given a questionare form to fill out, this same thing may of happened with that pho-he-man

Never saw or even heard of this. As a kid I would've thought it a knock off and passed on it without even thinking twice. A Faker, if you will... Oddities keeps getting better! Just finished watching Stranger Things and the music is very similar. Nice touch.

My awnser: Kids bougth black haired bootlegg hemans (maybe similar to the Sungold figures), and when they saw the online sell (it being a custom) their mind asocisted the bootleg to the custom, creating false memories on how they got it

I remember Wonder Bread He-Man there were several promotions like this going on at the time. Kool-Aid had a promotion where you could mail in points get Gobots, GI Joe had a promotion where you can get the super soldier with his shield and silver armor, Hasbro in Transformers also had a special where you can mail in Transformers points and get Thundercracker.

Absoloutly genious bravo great speech.

I’m a Star Wars figure collector. I can tell you with absolute certainty that paint on vintage figures is not usually consistent. To relate to Star Wars, the 1978 luke skywalker action figure usually had yellow hair, but occasionally popped up with brown. I know they aren’t fake, because Kenner released official pictures of the figures more than once, and there are very occasionally brown hair luke figures pictured.

Fascinating.

I remember that several kids I knew at the time had this. I never did, but I held it in my hand and played with it. I had moved onto G.I.Joes as my toy of preference. So, is it possible that this was a regional promotion just in parts of the Midwest? I lived in Kalamazoo, MI, at the time that at least 2 kids on my block had this thing. But after I moved to Indiana (a year later) none of the neighborhood kids had ever heard of this guy. 30 years later, and I have adult collector friends who have never seen this thing in person.

It could also be a figure repaint from another country. Probably from surplus after the toy line ended. Some companies buy up old molds to make cheaper versions of the old action figures, you can still find poorly made G1 and Beast Wars Transformers.

This discussion goes off the rails entirely at 2:37. I remember my best friend Josh having a browner haired he-man while mine had a neon yellow mane. Later iterations had much tanner skin, which made the yellow hair look so much more unnatural. They looked more Hulk Hogan to me, which was I thought was a dumb since he was a fake wrestler and He-man is supposed to be an actual galactic ass-kicker. He-man is a shitty knock-off of Conan, no question. I feel like the oversized comic books were pretty good, but He-man 100% sucks when I look at it as an adult. Pre-teen boys and their Moms got taken for a ride in the 1980's. Sorry Mom. I was too stupid or naive to realize I was being played. 80's department store toy aisles were so rich with new products and TV/comic tie-ins. Rubik's Cube, hand-held Atari video games, Transformers, 3" GI Joe, Go-Bots, Hot Wheels, Voltron, Micronauts, Macross, Garbage Pail Kids, Nintendo, Cabbage Patch Kids, MUSCLE, Battle Beasts, Micromachines, the list goes on. It seems like 90% of modern toys are a half assed attempt to revitalize something from the 80's. There's nothing fundamentally new. As a kid in the 80's, it seemed like there was something life changing every weekend at the mall. Going to Toys R Us was like visiting Mecca. My Dad once bought me an 18" Alien figure and presented it to me when he got home from work, and it gave me nightmares for days. This was just after the movie came out. It had a button on the back where you could expand and retract the faux chrome teeth. Later on as a teen, I loved that plastic monster. I even brought it with me to college. I brought it with me to a party, full of naivete, someone stole it and I wish to this day that I left it at home.

On several occasions I had GI Joe figures that were painted different. Sometimes it happens.

in the mid 2000s a buddy and myself bought a massive Heman lot. It had a complete eternia and damn near every figure and playset complete. this figure was there, and I had NO PROBLEM back then figuring out what it was. When I checked then there was pictures of a wonderbread display and some sort of paper you would pull from the display. From my memory it said you had to mail in X amount on wonderbread proof of purchases to get the figure. I watched this video in disbelief that that information has disappeared from the internet in less than..holy shit..its been 15 years..but yea..when we got that lot, we had no idea what figure it was. we could ID them all except WBHM. we went online and we found the pics of the display and backstory really easy. When we resold the lot on ebay, we highlighted the WBHM and eternia set (it even had every clip) we sold it for a shitload of money. We had countless questions about better pics of WBHM with his weapons and chest. I find it hard to believe all that info is gone from the web.

You are absolutely correct. You nailed it. Yes, He-Man is a direct rip off of Co-nan. The truth of that story can be seen in the box art especially.

I don't remember the Wonder bread promotion. I did have the black armor and weapons. They came in an expansion pack. I've never seen the dark haired HeMan with black boots. Makes me wonder if it was a custom.

Only the secrets of Castle Grayskull is where we will ever find the true story of Savage He-Man.