Roger Sweet created and named He-Man after years as a Mattel toy designer in the 1970s and 1980s.
LAKE STEVENS, Wash. — Roger Sweet, the Lake Stevens man credited with creating Mattel’s He-Man action figure, died Tuesday after a battle with dementia, Variety reported. He was 91.
Sweet lived in Lake Stevens with his wife, Marlene, who survives him.
Sweet was the lead designer for Mattel’s Preliminary Design Department in the 1970s and 1980s. His best-known creation began as an effort to give Mattel a new action figure after the company passed on a deal to make toys for “Star Wars,” which became a major success for Kenner Products after “A New Hope” was released in 1977.
Looking for a new idea, Sweet used a Big Jim action figure, posed it in a fighting stance and added clay to make the figure look larger.
That early model became the prototype for He-Man, which Sweet later pitched to Mattel chief executive Ray Wagner.
He-Man reached store shelves in 1982 and quickly grew into a larger franchise.
Mattel and Filmation launched “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” in 1983 as a companion cartoon. The show, set on the planet Eternia, followed Prince Adam, who transformed into He-Man after raising the Sword of Power and saying, “By the Power of Grayskull! I have the power.”
The series ran for 130 episodes from 1983 to 1985.
In a GoFundMe post, Marlene Sweet said her husband worked at Mattel for more than 15 years and helped create the characters and playsets that became part of the “Masters of the Universe” world. She also wrote that he enjoyed meeting fans at Comic-Con events over the years.
“He always loved talking about HE-MAN and MASTERS with all the fans!” she wrote.
Marlene Sweet had shared updates in recent months about her husband’s declining health. She wrote that Roger Sweet had dementia and was moved into a memory care facility after a fall that led doctors to find two brain bleeds.
In a March 2 update, Marlene Sweet thanked fans for their support and said her husband had long enjoyed knowing that his creation became part of childhood for so many people.
“He has always loved that his creation led to a whole world of fantasy and fun for so many kids,” she wrote.
She also said she hoped the upcoming “Masters of the Universe” movie would be dedicated to Sweet and Mark Taylor, whom she credited with creating Skeletor.
Amazon, MGM and Mattel are set to reboot the franchise with “Masters of the Universe,” which is scheduled to hit theaters June 5.
Nicholas Galitzine stars as He-Man, with Camila Mendes as Teela, Jared Leto as Skeletor, Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn and Idris Elba as Man-At-Arms.
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