What do you mean you’ve never heard the legend of “Wonder Bread He-Man”, one of the most sought-after action figures in toy collecting history?! Don’t worry, I’m about to fill this gap clearly left by our country’s education system.
Back in 1981, Mattel teamed up with Wonder Bread to create an exclusive mail-away figure. It was pretty much a cheap, nameless variant of the original He-Man figure. They changed his colors up by giving him dark brown hair, black boots and a black belt. They swapped his traditional “iron cross” armor for Zodac’s “Cosmic Enforcer” armor, cast in black plastic instead of it’s usual red.
Browsing through Ebay, you’ll find a few original Wonder Bread He-Man figures, ranging between $250 to $1,000+ depending on quality. You’ll also find a number of fakes out there, where some clod repainted a standard vintage He-Man figure and tried to pass it off as a “Wonder Bread”. (That’s not customizing. That’s LYING!) Occasionally you’ll also see an auction for the actual Wonder Bread wrapper that had the promotional info printed on it. (30+ year old bread not included. Usually.)
Over the years, “Wonder Bread He-Man”, sometimes referred to by fans as “Savage He-Man”, has developed a mystique amongst MOTU collectors, as well as his own myths (both as a collectible and as a character) and even a fair amount of fan art and fan fiction.
In 2010, Mattel released a modern version in the Masters of the Universe Classics collection. They gave him the official name of Wun-Dar, in tribute to his Wonder Bread roots. As a subscriber exclusive, that rationed him out to “one per hard-core collector”, keeping his status must like his vintage predecessor as “rabidly sought after.” Even this modern version is fetching as much as $250+ on Ebay.
And that brings us to the the reason why we’re here today. As with all my previous “Customs on a Budget”, I’m not dishing out over $200 for a figure. Especially when his 80% body-double, Mo-Larr, can be bought for around $10 to $15 on Ebay.
I made a few changes to my version. I used Dekker’s forearms to give him matching gauntlets rather than mirror He-Man’s mismatched ones. Also, instead of using a MOTUC He-man head, I ordered the “Conan” head from Mat O’Toole. It’s longer hair and gaunt face gave him the look of He-Man’s ancestor rather than his fraternal twin.
Tri-Klops is another MOTUC figure that is going for $100 to $150+ on Ebay, making him another candidate for an “On a Budget” custom figure!
Like Wun-Dar, Tri-Klops is also a Mo-Larr body double. I ordered the cast head and torso armor from Karak Nul’s Customs. I swapped out his gloved forearms with a second pair of Dekker forearms to match Tri-Klop’s gauntlets.
As usual, I made a few changes on my version. Instead of a flat green, I decided to go with metallic green on his armor. I also used a peridot green for the accents on his armor, to give it a little more dimension. I never liked the sherbet orange accessories, so I painted his gauntlets, belt and chest strap in copper instead. For reference, here’s the vintage figure, along with the modern figure.
I also added rhinestones to two of his eyes. I almost added one to the red one, but I liked it more with just a big, black pupil.
I also painted his sword in two-tone metallic green/peridot green. You might notice I changed the handles on the sais on his back. I would have preferred to leave them as they were, but I got a little rough and snapped the handles off by accident. I replaced them with some little syringe tip covers. (Yay diabetic supplies!)
