The Awesome Fun of the Masters of the Universe Land Shark
Recently, while again reading through Mastering the Universe*, subtitled He-Man and the Rise and Fall of a Billion-Dollar Idea, I started thinking about how much fun it could be to select one vehicle from the 1980s Masters of the Universe series and take a closer look at it. And while I considered several different toys, in the end I settled on the Land Shark . . . because it’s just so ridiculously fun.
Combine the irresistibly gruesome appeal of a shark with a great big open-cockpit sports utility vehicle. As the Land Shark ran along, you could press down on it, causing its fearsome jaw to snap open and shut.
Roger Sweet’s Description
It is perhaps fitting that it was Mastering the Universe* — Roger Sweet’s book covering his view on how the Masters of the Universe line came into existence — that inspired me to put this post together. Sweet has been quite vocal about how the line was created and that he was the architect of He-Man — there’s a documentary in the works all about this issue — but regardless of the specifics of what happened it’s tough to say Sweet had no input on the line and his book is a valuable resource for any Masters of the Universe fan.
Concept Art by Ed Watts
Straight out of The Power and the Honor Foundation: The Art of Masters of the Universe Toy Design (reading post here) comes the concept art for the Land Shark. Basically every detail — weapon placement and design, the angles of the shark face and fin, and even the design of the treads — differs from the final toy, but the concept art clearly led to the creation of the toy and is in its own right a fun piece of art.
Ed Watts . . . illustrated the idea (above), and the end result was a fearsome-looking vehicle for the Evil Warriors named Land Shark. Although this concept piece features a few minor differences from the vehicle released in 1985, the fundamental design is already in place at this point.
— The Power and the Honor Foundation: The Art of Masters of the Universe Toy Design (reading post here)
Invented by Otto L. Gabler and Ronald L. Torres
If we check the patent for the Land Shark toy we find that neither Sweet nor Watts were credited with the design of the toy, showing that the Masters of the Universe line was, unsurprisingly, the work of a team of highly creative people.
Packaging Art by William George
One of the things that really made the eighties Masters of the Universe toys stand out on store shelves was the packaging artwork, and it’s the excitement of William George’s Land Shark painting that shows us Mattel was serious about every release no matter how small. Damn, I really need a book that collects all of the old eighties Masters of the Universe packaging artwork and mini-comics.
Sell the Land Shark!
By the Land Shark ad hosted at he-man.org we can see that the toy was $10 when it was released in 1985, and when it came to selling their Masters of the Universe toys Mattel did everything they could in 1985 . . . including producing commercial after commercial for the series.
The commercial — and yes, that’s Optimus Prime selling us He-Man toys again — does a great job of showing off the Land Shark’s opening mouth feature . . . and doesn’t waste the opportunity to demonstrate Mekaneck and He-Man’s play features. All in all an excellent commercial and just one example of what helped make the line such a huge success before the crash of 1987.
And Looks Great as a Toy!
So it was designed, given beautiful packaging artwork, and promoted with a television commercial . . . but how was the Land Shark once it was ripped out of the box? Fantastic! Just take a look at the Land Shark page at he-man.org for both toy and packaging photos for an idea of how well Mattel executed this project. Seeing this makes me wish we could have a Land Shark for the Masters of the Universe Classics series (Amazon.com search*), but that’s highly unlikely.
The below photo shows the toy in the package and clearly lets us see both the William George painting and the toy; this is a great piece of packaging design and it’s really too bad we don’t see this sort of design in stores these days. (Though, to be fair, Hasbro’s Transformer Generations toys have been featuring some nice artwork these days.)
And the Marketing Didn’t Stop!
The Earl Norem painting below — which comes from someplace I can’t identify, help! — proves that Mattel didn’t stop marketing the toy once it was on shelves. Showing off the Land Shark fighting the Laser Bolt (he-man.org page), this only again makes me wish for that Mattel artbook devoted to Masters of the Universe art of the eighties.
Seriously, it’s Awesomely Fun!
If all of these images of the 1985 Masters of the Universe Land Shark don’t convince you of what an amazing toy it was then I’m not sure what else can be said. It’s a shark-headed hot rod with guns and a snapping jaw, and in my book that’s always a great thing. Thank you, Mattel of the eighties, for giving some many weird and wonderful toys like the Land Shark a chance to reach the kids of the world.
I wonder if you could do a book review or give us your thoughts on that particular piece of reading.
I’ve heard mixed things about the book’s accuracy but mostly just curious if its a good read or not.
@Court – Back in 2009 — https://www.battlegrip.com/?p=4030 — I wrote:
“I have this book and agree with your review. From the start this is a book that’s all about how great Sweet is. The discussion of how he turned himself into a powerful, well-toned man was especially annoying. It’s the side comments, many of them bitter, that turns this from an interesting read into a train wreck of someone’s emotional journey through toyland.â€
But after so many years since I wrote that comment I continue to find the book a useful and entertaining reference. I agree with you; I should write a review. I didn’t think that back then, but it has been in my hands enough times now I can see how I would structure a review of the book.
Articles like this keep me coming back to Battlegrip. This was a great article to read. Thanks for putting it up.
@T-rav – Thank you! I needed that encouragement this morning.
Whenever you see a piece of Norem art of two things fighting that looks like it should be a poster, it’s probably from the He-Man Magazine. Great magazine – wish I still had my childhood copies.
Ah garbage – I didn’t even say anything about Land Shark.
If we could pick one vehicle, I would pick this for an update in classics – with Bionatops a close second.
@John K – Thanks! Sounds like I should avoid searching for those magazines on eBay. If they’re packed with art like that I would only end up wanting every issue.