verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style

Who created He-Man?

Mattel’s creative lead Roger Sweet, designer Mark Taylor, and others involved in the creative process have each claimed to be the creator of the popular 1980s character He-Man. The origin debate between Sweet and Taylor lasted for decades. Sweet, who had tested three prototypes for the action figure and asked Taylor to design one of them, claimed that the final version retained some of the features from Taylor’s sketches but that Sweet also made many changes to the prototype. In 2013 Donald Glut, who had authored some of the early Masters of the Universe (MOTU) mini comics, claimed copyright ownership for the MOTU characters—a claim that Mattel challenged in court and won. After Roger Sweet’s death in April 2026, Marlene Sweet, his wife, reportedly asked the creators of the upcoming Masters of the Universe movie to dedicate the film not only to Sweet but also to Taylor, who died in December 2021.