The Massive He-man Easter Egg Barely Anyone Caught In The Masters Of The Universe Movie

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Travis Knight's 2026 film "Masters of the Universe" is one of the year's many notorious bombs. Made for a budget of $170 million, the film only made $117 million back at the box office, domestically opening behind the release of the sixth "Scary Movie." Knight's film wasn't a total wash, of course. The production was appropriately lavish, and its character design was bracingly accurate to the Mattel toy products on which the movie was based. I hate to admit it, but Jared Leto actually gave a fun performance as the death-visaged villain Skeletor. Sadly, many found the film was muddled in its messaging about the nature of masculinity, teetering between action-movie earnestness and self-effacing mockery. Ultimately, it didn't resonate with mass audiences.

None of this stopped the world's O.G. "Masters of the Universe" fans from enjoying it, however. Some viewers, who were little boys in the early 1980s (when the animated "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" cartoon series was airing), continued to carry a torch for the characters and enjoyed the slick, big-budget treatment. "Masters of the Universe," as we all know, was based on a line of Mattel toys, and deep-cut toy collectors know all about the journey that He-Man took from the toy factory to the small screen. 

Some can even likely tell you about how Mattel's He-Man toys were actually repurposed from the molds of Mattel's 1976 line of action figures called "Big Jim." Some others might also be able to tell you that some of the toys' designs began life as a sketch of a barbarian named Torak. 

As it so happens, the new "Masters of the Universe" movie has references to both.

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According to an article on Retro Junk, Mattel's original "Masters of the Universe" toys, first released in 1981, were actually made from leftover parts of the company's "Big Jim" toy line. "Big Jim" was a line of military-inflected 10-inch action figures that was led by the titular secret agent. A quick glance at the "Big Jim" toy line will reveal that both Big Jim and He-Man fought a villain with a muscular body and a hooded skull for a head. Big Jim is to He-Man as Captain Drake is to Skeletor. 

Other "Big Jim" villains were also redesigned for "Masters of the Universe" characters. A face-changing "Big Jim" villain named Vektor was altered to become Man-E-Faces in the "Masters" world. Ditto the "Big Jim" villain Iron Jaw, who was clearly the inspiration for Trap Jaw.

Additionally, some of the plastic molds used to make "Big Jim" weapons were reused for the "Masters" line. Most strikingly, Big Jim had a 1976 tiger playset, "Big Jim on the Tiger Trail," and the tiger model was repainted to become Battle Cat for "Masters of the Universe." All the similarities of the above toys were photographed by the Battle Ram Blog. 

In the 2026 "Masters of the Universe" movie, there's a scene wherein Adam (Nichola Galitzine) has located the magical sword he has been searching for since childhood. It just happens to be in the hand of a plaster mannequin in a local collectible shop, and Adam has to push past well-stocked toy shelves to get to the mannequin. Look in the background of this scene, and you'll be able to see, quite clearly, the "Big Jim" action playsets on the shelves. 

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If you heard anyone chuckling happily to themselves during the toy shop scene, you can rest assured it was someone about age 50 who knows all about the relationship between "Big Jim" and "Masters of the Universe." In short, you might have heard the chuckles of dyed-in-the-wool "Masters" fan, /Film's own Luke Y. Thompson.

Thompson could tell you about the early concept-design period of the "Masters of the Universe" toy line, and how it gave birth to a first-draft character called Torak, Hero of Pre-History. As one might have seen in the Netflix documentary show "The Toys that Made Us," a package designer named Mark Taylor sketched out a bunch of fantasy characters, and another Mattel designer, Roger Sweet, altered some of them to make Torak. Torak, in turn, would be altered into the design that would become He-Man. 

If one looks very, very closely in the background of the toyshop scene in "Masters of the Universe," one can see a sign advertising "Torak, Hero of Pre-History." It's a very deep cut for "Masters" fans, but the right people will know. On the He-Man.org website, they even point out that the plaster statue holding the Sword of Power, called Vikor, is designed after one of Mark Taylor's early fantasy sketches. Both the "Torak" and "Vikor" characters were sweet, ultra-nerdy Easter eggs for all the history-loving "Masters of the Universe" fans, and a clear sign that the filmmakers cared about the source material. 

The film might have come a decade too late to capture a mass audience, but "Masters of the Universe" fans will likely smile to themselves throughout the film's 140 minutes.