{"id":612873,"date":"2026-04-29T07:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T07:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/612873\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T07:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T07:53:09","slug":"roger-sweet-creator-of-he-man-dies-at-91","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/612873\/","title":{"rendered":"Roger Sweet, Creator of He-Man, Dies at 91"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tRoger Sweet, the creator of the He-Man action figure, which spawned the popular \u201880s cartoon series \u201cHe-Man and the Masters of the Universe<\/a>,\u201d died on Tuesday after a battle with dementia, TMZ reports<\/a>. He was 91.<\/p>\n

\n\tSweet was the lead designer for Mattel\u2019s Preliminary Design Department in the \u201870s and \u201880s. In 1976, Mattel turned down a deal to produce toys for \u201cStar Wars,\u201d an offer that proved extremely lucrative for Cincinnati-based toy maker Kenner Products after \u201cA New Hope\u201d was released in 1977. After the fact, Mattel struggled to launch a popular action figure based on original IP. Enter Sweet, who, in pursuit of a fresh idea, experimented by gluing a Big Jim action figure into a fighting stance and adding clay to its body for bulk. This became the prototype for He-Man, which he successfully pitched to then CEO Ray Wagner. He-Man officially hit markets in 1982.<\/p>\n

\n\tA year later, in 1983, Mattel and Filmation launched the \u201cHe-Man and the Masters of the Universe\u201d cartoon as a companion project to the highly popular He-Man toyline. The show took place on the magical planet of Eternia and followed the young Prince Adam. When wielding the Sword of Power, Adam would utter the now-iconic line, \u201cBy the Power of Grayskull! I have the power,\u201d which would turn him into He-Man, the galaxy\u2019s most fearsome warrior. The show ran for 130 episodes from 1983 to 1985.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmazon, MGM and Mattel will soon reboot the He-Man franchise with the upcoming action film \u201cMasters of the Universe,\u201d which hits theaters on June 5. Nicholas Galitzine stars as He-Man. Other cast members include Camila Mendes as Teela, Jared Leto as Skeletor, Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn and Idris Elba and Man-At-Arms.<\/p>\n

\n\tSweet is survived by his wife, Marlene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roger Sweet, the creator of the He-Man action figure, which spawned the popular \u201880s cartoon series \u201cHe-Man and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88,37198],"class_list":["post-612873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-masters-of-the-universe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}