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Cool and Collected

Collecting pop culture toys, comics, and collectibles collections

July 1, 2011 By 14 Comments

Vintage Masters of the Universe and GoBots children’s books

I was at the used book store yesterday with the kids, looking for some new Bob the Builder books to add to their collection, when I stumbled across these…

heman masters of the universe and gobots children's books

Of course, these Masters of the Universe and GoBots books from the early 80’s were immediately added to the basket. The artwork on the covers is pretty great…

collection of heman masters of the universe children's books

Check out this epic Eternian battle…

collection of heman masters of the universe children's books

Did our parents really read these to us as kids? I found myself hiding them from my boys, not wanting to feed them any nightmare fodder. Seriously, as a dad, looking at these paintings of Skeletor is totally different than seeing them when I was a young kid.

Skeletor and heman on the cover of a masters of the universe children's book

Yep, that explains all the therapy sessions.

Skeletor and heman on the cover of a masters of the universe children's book

The artwork on the inside of these books is basically drawn like a comic book without the panels, and is pretty good, with the exception of “The Trap” which is awful. Here’s the best page spread from the bunch, which appears in “Time Trouble.”

Skeletor and heman fight in a masters of the universe children's book

I was surprised to see that the GoBots books were illustrated by Steve Ditko, of all people. It looks like Mr. Ditko may have phoned these in just a little, because they’re pretty lackluster…

gobots children's book illustrated by steve ditko

Well, these were a fun trip down memory lane and I’m happy to add them to the permanent collection. Now I have yet another thing to look for in my travels: Golden Super Adventure Books. Anyone else out there collecting these?

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Van says

    July 1, 2011 at 11:36 am

    I love them all, even the GoBots books in their flat glory! It’s settled, looks like I have to shop the kid’s book section of our used book stores extra carefully, too! I’d love to uncover these beauties.

    Reply
    • Brian says

      July 1, 2011 at 11:41 am

      This store actually had a shelf for “Movie and TV Tie-Ins” in the kid’s section. Needless to say, I’ll be revisiting that shelf. 😉

      Reply
  2. Rondal says

    July 1, 2011 at 11:56 am

    I’m not too big a GoBots fan, but those Masters books look too cool. He-Man was made for painting portraiture. 😀

    Reply
    • Brian says

      July 1, 2011 at 12:00 pm

      Yeah, those He-Man covers are amazing. I wonder what happened to all that original artwork. It would make for a great art show.

      Reply
      • Frank says

        July 1, 2011 at 1:39 pm

        There was a dealer out of New Jersey who had an original painting of Eternia. Not sure if he still has it or not but it sure was pretty :).

        Reply
        • Brian says

          July 1, 2011 at 1:47 pm

          That sounds great! I’d love to see one of those paintings in person.

          Reply
  3. Paxton Holley says

    July 1, 2011 at 2:28 pm

    That Time Trouble cover with He-Man on the giant clock face is FANTASTIC. What a great find.

    Reply
  4. Paxton Holley says

    July 1, 2011 at 2:34 pm

    If you want to see a ton of awesome He-Man art, check out these articles from the blog Monster Brains:

    http://monsterbrains.blogspot.com/2011/05/masters-of-universe.html

    http://monsterbrains.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-masters-of-universe.html

    There’s tons of kick ass paintings I assume were used on toy packaging and children’s books. it really is awesome.

    Reply
    • Brian says

      July 1, 2011 at 11:05 pm

      Thanks for those links, Paxton! There were some amazing pieces of art created for MOTU merchandise.

      Reply
  5. Floor register says

    July 5, 2011 at 5:49 am

    Wow, full collections!!!

    Reply
  6. Russell says

    July 5, 2011 at 8:43 am

    These are awesome. I want to start collecting Choose your own Adventures actually.

    Reply
    • Brian says

      July 5, 2011 at 9:18 am

      Funny you should mention those Choose Your Own Adventure. I saw a few of those at the same time I picked up these He-Man books, but the store was asking $4 a piece for those! I guess they know that people collect that series since most other books were 50 cents.

      Reply
  7. Russell says

    July 5, 2011 at 8:24 pm

    $4 each is about going rate actually.
    Check this out…

    http://tinyurl.com/m5mpte

    Reply
    • Brian says

      July 5, 2011 at 10:58 pm

      Aww man, I remember those well. Thanks for that link, Russ!

      Reply

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