Thanks to a cosmic accident the central figure of the entire Masters Of The Universe series came into being. The central figure, Prince Adam, becomes He Man with ease, calling on mystical powers to transform himself. He owns a tiger who receives the same transformation along with him. His adventures as Prince Adam are few, but when he transforms into his alter ego, he controls the fate of Eternia, his planet. Mattel made an action figure out of Prince Adam in series three of their Masters Of The Universe toys.
The powers of Prince Adam are limited to regular physical strength. He is seen as a child of Earth astronaut Queen Marlena, whose ship crashed on the planet Eternia. The Queen marries the Eternian King Randor and Prince Adam is born. He is muscular and grows up not knowing his future until the day he sees a certain falcon flying in the sky. The falcon leads him to Castle Grayskull where he finds out there are things foretold of him. The Sorceress of Castle Grayskull opens the Jaw Bridge of Grayskull for him even though it has not been opened for centuries. Prince Adam scoffs at the news about him, but later realized they are true when he is given the power sword. Man At Arms, the Sorceress, Orko, Cringer his talking tiger and Zodac are among the few that know that Prince Adam is actually He Man. He also tells his parents and transforms in front of them. Prince Adam vows to use his powers to fight Skeletor and all who are enemies of Castle Grayskull.
Prince Adam and the other 1984 Masters Of The Universe action figures are 5 ½ inches tall. This was a departure from the standard 3 ¾ inch figures of the day. He came packaged with his power sword but for some reason it was pink. The body molding is exactly the same as the He Man figure. The difference is in the clothing. Prince Adam comes with a removable red jacket held together with a black belt. Light purple tights make up his leggings while a white shirt handles the top. Small purple shorts match his white trimmed purple boots to finish out the look. One of the details on his sword is that one side has engraving while the other side is completely flat, save for a small bump. It is designed as half of a sword. The reason is that the sword of Skeletor is formed with the ability to link with the sword of Prince Adam using the small bump. When the two are linked, they make one sword.
This Mattel action figure pivoted at the waist. This was interesting in that the waist contained a spring which brought Prince Adam back to his original position. Mattel gave this movement the title of “power punch”. The spring inside the toy was made from an elastic band that would become weaker with continued use.
There were no different versions of the original Prince Adam figure. Some of the bodies of the figures came with rubber heads and some came with hard plastic heads. The bubble package that he came in is going to be a “12 back” card. That just means that 12 other Masters Of The Universe figures are depicted on the back of the package that Prince Adam came in.
There is no shortage of Mattel Prince Adam figures for those who are interested in having one. He can be found in his original bubble packs or “loose” without one. For those collectors who want one loose, the going prices will range from $20 for a figure that is incomplete and used to nearly $100 dollars for one that is in mint condition. For a Prince Adam in an unopened bubble pack, the price will range from $200 dollars up to almost $600 dollars. There are plenty of accessories available for him as well, such as that pink power sword.
