Decorated Palace Guard.

The Masters of the Universe Ladybird book "He-Man meets the Beast" features some beautiful artwork by Robin Davies. This illustration showcases an interesting looking member of the Royal Guard. He is obviously based upon the Filmation design, but we can see that he appears to be of higher rank, as he sports a cape, carries a sword, and has the image of an eagle spread across the breastplate of his armor! Without a doubt this is an interesting take on a generic character design...


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Bat Snake!

Remember at the end of "House of Shokoti" Part 2 when Ram Man mentioned the "Snake thingie" that they had encountered in the pyramid? Well even though the lengthy action scene was storyboarded and later removed from production Filmation had actually finalized the design of the Bat Snake! And here I present the character model for the creature that attacked He-Man, Battle Cat and Ram Man, but who was subsequently left on the cutting room floor...


(click on the image to see it at full-size)

cereal:geek issue two OUT NOW! :)

Yes, as unbelievable as this may sound issue two of cereal:geek is actually available to purchase. More importantly it is filled with lots of exclusive new He-Man and She-Ra artwork and articles. Go to the website and read all about it! :)

www.cerealgeek.com

The Sand Demons?

As you can see in this image, the original design of the Sand Demons from the He-Man season one episode "Temple of The Sun" was very different to what appeared in the final episode. As with most model redesigns the creatures that appeared in the actual episode looked much better than this design. The Sand Demons became a familiar sight during the He-Man series, so it is hard to see how this original odd-looking threat could have been taken seriously...


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Castaspella is evil?

"She-Ra and the Golden Goose" is one of the Ladybird books that treated Catra and her associates as jealous untrustworthy companions to Adora and her friends. Thankfully this theme would only feature in a few books! Oddly in this particular book Castaspella is portrayed as having strong alliances with Catra and Entrapta, and yet the toy line had already established that she was one of the forces for good...


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Tri-Klops is relentless!

Here is something that we unfortunately never saw in the Filmation cartoon, Tri-Klops overpowering He-Man to the ground with his swordsmanship! Yes, there was one scene where He-Man and Tri-Klops appeared evenly matched in "Diamond Ray of Disappearance", but that was just four seconds of footage! The original idea of Tri-Klops, as evident in the early minicomics, is that he was a skilled swordsman and warrior that could not be bested by many...


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Original Davy Jones!

In the script for the She-Ra episode "Anchors Aloft" Part 2 there is a suggested character model for Davy Jones. This was more than likely illustrated by this script's writer and Filmation storyboard artist Bob Forward. The illustration was sketched on the very page and scene where Davy Jones first appeared to ensure that the storyboard and layout departments could see the initial design...


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Dashing wildly.

Even though the later She-Ra minicomics had the talented Jim Mitchell illustrating them, the quality of the final production was never quite the same as the earlier minicomics. Even so here is a nice illustration from the minicomic "Across the Crystal Light Barrier" that perfectly summarizes the style found in these later minicomics...


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Clawdeen dozing...

One thing I do like about Glenn Steward's style in the "She-Ra and the Golden Goose" Ladybird book is that Clawdeen is illustrated perfectly! The large glamorous cat does not look ridiculous like the toy, or too aggressive like the Filmation version, retaining a cunning look throughout the book. If I had one criticism of Robin Davies' artwork on She-Ra, it would be that his Clawdeen never looked quite right...


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Leena redesigned...

Here is an interesting look at the character of Leena from the She-Ra season one episode "Just Like Me". This redesign occurred very late during the production of the episode, and it is obvious that this was done so to make her character design slightly tougher and less girly. Even her pose is tough!


(click on the image to see it at full-size)