This is my non-official, non-commercial site about the beloved Masters of the Universe. My intention is to spread and share my enthusiasm about this fantastic toy line that accompanied my childhood.
When I got this idea, I had to draw it immediately, because it fits so well. The famous and beautiful Russian dolls are a great way to display all three faces of Man-E-Faces. His strange helmet has just the right voluminous shape to make him a doll. Let’s hope for him that the human part is the biggest one! MOTU’s Man-E-Faces as Russian dolls.
This project was a good chance to use some tools. I used the symmetry tool from Sketchbook. The line prediction caused some effect I think is beneficial, it simply rounded the corners. I also finally learned to copy and paste objects. It’s a while ago that I drew it, but it will always be one of my favourite drawings.
The grumpy, selfish, but also kind of self-confident 80s cartoon-cat Garfield had a very different relationship to his hooman John compared to Cringer and Prince Adam. While John was a truly innocent guy, who was more or less abused by Garfield, Adam with his two identities had full control over Cringer. I would say both John and Cringer were poor creatures under the control of a strong character.
As well as the crossover of roles worked in this sketch, the crossover of both cartoons has worked out well too. I managed to draw a warm back-light, suggesting a cozy TV evening. Both Warfield and Adam seem very happy and peaceful. Adams boots were replaced by slippers, and the pink sword is unnecessary. I guess they might transform to He-man and Battle cat to go for more-action activities?
Michelangelo’s master piece, part of the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling, painted c. 1508–1512, remastered, showing the creation of Prince Adam, not as a biological act, but as a logical act, the King nominating his successor. King Randor demonstrates a fierce face expression, the crown perfectly in place, his cape broad-shattered. It is subject to the viewer to decide whether the king’s arms appear weaker than we are used from the toyline, or is this a plumb try of the painter to bring some perspective into the painting? His right hand, ugly deformated, with tiny pinky and ring finger.
Supported is the king in this DIN A4 sized coloration by no one less than the Scorceress, who seems to take a central role in this act. While the original only fringes the creator, we here find much more prominent support for the Creator. Stratos, another hero with the ability to fly, appears to be abnormal large, accessing the scene from a point behind the king, if the artist considered perspective, than even larger compared to the king. Where lies the importance of this usually low significant character? Does he carry the King? His strained face could implement this thought. But over his right shoulder, we can see a bit of Buzz-off’s wing, and looking further down we can see another wing a parts of his torso. The bee man obviously has a task to do behind the king. It must be holding him, since the king is the only character on the creators side, that cannot fly. Perhaps Stratos’ and Buzz-off are in a fight of whom is the one to carry the king.
In the King’s left, maybe only 4 fingered hand, we find the, as loyal as clumsy, Orko. Half of it we see, making clear that he is of no significance here. His role is to not mess it up, from his position, unable to carry the creator, but we are left alone with the imagination that Orko’s left hand holds the hand of another hero. Could it be Extendar reaching over from a close by pinnacle?? We don’t know.
On the other side is Adam, resting, and maybe disturbed from frolicking, cleary unimpressed by the posse that showed up. Remaining in frolicking pose still, resting the holy arm on his knee, and none of his weapons around. His face speaks to us, and it hits us like a tree, he does not glance at his creator in the act of assigning him to the task of his life. Not sure if he doesn’t care, but the painter wanted us to see that Adam resignates. Wrinkels of his mouth pointing down, we must acknowledge that Adam here accepts, without any enthusiasm.
The attentive spectator will see that not Cringer is with Adam, and Orko is not even close. But Stonedar, usually nothing but a hop-in character, is closest to Adam. Even joining him on his pinnacle. But in what position, almost kissing his foot, face away from the posse around King Randor, is he hiding? Or did he sneak up the hill to convince Adam to accept? Or is Stonedar`s proximity to Adam a menace, a proof that no one can escape the assigned role as Master of the Universe? We don’t know.
THIS is my favorite so far! Each character worked out just fine. I have drawn in pencil, then used a marker for the final lines, and scanned it for Sketchbook then. I guess black background is best for my kind of drawings. I totally ignored the characters affiliation to good or evil, so that this is also a crossover of heros and villains.
We have Fred Tri-stone, who is Triclops of course! The visor is obvious, but he also wears his green I-don’t-know-what under the (sabertooth?) fur.
Orko is always good for a drawing, though I never liked him as a toy or in the cartoon. He is crossed with Dino, the dog-like pet of the Flintstones. His head is pretty cool, and his arm too. The whole attitude is a bit bitchy, not sure why this happened. No questions, his hand is in a weird angle, best is just to make weird hands my signature, isn’t it?
Next to him is Weelma – Wilma and Teela! Same as Fred, she has only subtle details of Teela, the crown, the collar and the armlets (ok I realize I have no idea how these three things are called). Her faces seems to say something between ‘Shut up’ and ‘Keep quiet, I’ll kill him soon”.
Weelma’s left, ugly hand seems to reach for the baby, Pebbles, only that she is crossed with the Scorceress, making it the Pebbleress. Like the smurfs, she was a bit small (of course you can zoom in in Sketchbook) and got a bit rough around the edges. But you should be able to see the bone in her hair, the hawk on her noodle, and feathers on the back. The legs, are weak, because she uses to fly (hmhm). She gazes at her friend, while she might have head one too much.
Her friend is Bam-a-Bam, Bambam crossed over with Mekaneck. This happened because our long necked hero carries a huge yellow bat that is just perfect for the strong baby. His futuristic glasses go very well with the stoneage style of Bambam, so that we have a very cool boy here!
His mother is rather evil, Evil Lynn with Betty makes Betty Lynn. I was in a kind of a misery, because I couldn’t make her limbs yellow, like the toy has it. That would have consumed the yellow bat. So I decided to make her entirely blue. She is well decorated with Evil Lynn’s applications (what is that thing on her head?!).
Barney is also blue, because there’s a Faker in him – now he is Barker! Isn’t Barney like a wanna-be Fred? There is some truth behind it… Orange hair and a hint of his orange amour expose him!
The two seasons of “World of Quest” were released in 2008/ 2009. It is about the slightly spoiled Prince Nestor, who’s parents got kidnapped, and his mysterious, powerful, and petulant nurse/ bodyguard Quest. Let’s talk about these two characters first.
Finding a MOTU prince for this crossover was (too) easy. Prince Adam is Adamstor, same as all characters he has the body of the World of Quest character. In future I hope I manage to meld the bodies better. There is not too much to discover on him, he got Adams legs, and Nestor’s dress. The most obvious change is his weapon, he is carrying Prince Adam’s pink sword instead of the golden axe. Prince Adam’s sword by the way is thankfully not pink in the cartoon, but anyway he rarely used it.
Quest is now Man-E-Quest, and these characters melt well, both are mystical. One is an almost 2000 years old, unbeatable warrior, the other has three faces for some reason. Wait for the Toy review on hefarts! He is wearing Quest’s suit in Man-E-Faces colors, which makes not too much of a difference. His belt and the “sword holder” or sheath, are original Quest-colored. Most funny detail is the helmet, which in case of Man-E-Faces is a chunk. Quest’s chin on the other hand is a typical cartoon-testosterone-virility symbol for the superhuman bodyguard. I kept that, with the result that the helmet had to shrink. Not sure how the face-rotation would work, but a bit of a squeezing would totally be ok in Masters of the Quest. World of Quest has a sometimes very goofy humor, so different from the 80s MOTU cartoon.
The big guy in the background is Graertos, a griffin-like friend of Quest’s. He can fly and has feathers, so who else but Stratos could have been crossed with him? Battlecat would have been funny I’m thinking now. But it is Stratos. I tried a crossover with Stratos before, in Glow-Garmel, and one more time after Masters of the Quest, and I must say he is a difficult to draw character. If you want he is just a grey figure with some feather applications. What confuses me is his face, he is a bird man, but he only got a pointy mouth, is it a beak or not? What is he? In my crossover with Graer he has a beak, and it is a big one! This crossover made Stratos a bird, and I like that! I failed to add much more Stratos-details to this character, so let’s just continue.
There is the other friend of Nestor and Quest, Gatling. A cyborg human who eats metal and chews it to bullets, which he then spits out like a gun. So a guy with dark skin and affinity to weapons, he? Let’s make him Clampling! I never owned the Clamp Champ toy unfortunately. I’m not sure why, today I would leave a Snakeface or King Randor where they are and take him. His trademark is the huge clamp-weapon. I replaced Gatling’s robo-hand by this clamp, and gave him Clamp Champ’s red pants. The rest is very much unchanged.
This MOTU- World of Quest – Crossover is still far away from perfect, but is one of the step stones on my way to hopefully great pieces on day! Drawing such characters is a great opportunity to discover details from those cartoons, which you might no catch when you just watch it.
Note the visible spiral binding on the left. I still drew with pencil first, then with felt pen. On Sketchbook I colored a photo of my drawing.
Bob’s burgers is a fantastic cartoon! Bob’s face hair remined me a lot on Rio Blast, so that a crossover was very simple! From black to brown hair, and from weapon-rich armor to an apron. The pocket on his apron is exactly Rio’s flap, where he hides his weapons. His family counts three females, what was a bit of a problem, since MOTU doesn’t give many options here. Though I think I could have invested some more fantasy here.
Queen Marlene is Marlinda now, and she lost the queen-like serious attitude, plus she wears glasses. The rest of her appearance is very much the Queen. Teela is Teena, and that didn’t work out so well. I’ve combined Tina’s shirt with Teela’s amour, and I gave her Teela’s hair color. Below the belt she is dressed like Teela, though Tina’s legs are a bit weaker… She also has the Bob’s burger’s character’s attitude with sloping shoulders, what is the opposite of Teela.
Louise became Louork, because both have pointy ears. There isn’t much left from Louise, maybe only the eye leashes. I guess she would be happy to be just Orko.
Last and least there is Genetendar – the chubby knight. I think he is okay, I didn’t know how to combine both heads, so I went with Gene’s. Arms and shoulders are nice, but I couldn’t get the right angle for the six pack on the amour (?). Below the head he is basically Extendar in blue shorts.
The black background was meant to highlight the colors, but I noticed later it is too far from the burger place, and didn’t really fit. But since this is one of the early sketchbook drawings, I made it all in one layer, so that changes aren’t that easy. To be honest I lost interest in this peace early, because except for Rio I don’t like it.
Ok two of the three kids are fine to float, but Teena is as always a bit weird…
Teela and Beastman meeting in the 1991 Disney version of Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve’s Beauty and the Beast (1756). The viewer takes part in the dancing scene. Beastman holding Beau-Tee’s hands, obviously attending to look at the camera, but then distracted by we-don’t-know-what, gazing to his left. Is this a sign of his bad conscious? Does he feel trapped, maybe even caught in the romantic act with the enemies daughter? His dress is a bit off-shape, for sure Beastman never learned how to take care of a doublet. It is a clear night, we can see many stars shining through the large windows.
Beau-Tee looks like she is fully dissolved in the situation, admiring Beastman’s strength. Her head is half a size too small for her body, and maybe that small head is what explains the situation.
“I hate these SMASTERS” may Glow-garmel shout while he waves his mesh. Gargamel is a very mean character in the smurfs, and he ruins the perfect live in the smurf village. Combined with Scare glow he does glow of course, but also got a purple collar and skeleton- hands of course! His even meaner cat Azrael is now Panthor. I’ll call him Azraelor! Very simple to crossover, any violet cat will make a MOTU fan think of Panthor..
So far so good, black background and aura around his head are fine. BUT the smurfs gave me headaches, maybe because I tried to put too many details in a tiny object. Man-E-faces might be obvious (though he’s got that olfactory bulb), he is now Man-E-smurf, but Stratos (Strato smurf, hmhm!) was not a good choice. He has just not enough outstanding details. And yes, he tries to climb down the table, while he is obviously able to fly. That’s smurf in a nutshell, isn’t it?
Yeah but the table… I was not able to get that perspective, and very clear: Drawing everything in the same layer does not help! I tried, because I didn’t know better, and that made it impossible to erase and try again. A new layer for table would have given me all options to work it out.
Be what it is, this was an early work in Autodesk Sketchbook and it is not too bad I think! More to come
I’m not sure how many of you got to know Dr. Snuggles, the warm-hearted hero in a world full of magic and technology. If you don’t, sorry, but you have missed out on something really unique! Watch it now, in a moment when you are really open for some weird stuff. His friend Dennis is a badger, he’s got a mouse friend, a robot, a space ship and so much more. Crossing him with Blade, the MOTU movie character, took a lot of his innocence, even though I only gave him a knife and an eye cap. In the comic, Dr. Snuggles appears to be much fitter than his body might make you think, so fear Dr. Bladels! Dennis became Stinkis, and he used to be a kind and handy friend. Stinkor is similar, maybe not looking friendly, but always helping. Obviously his odor causes some irritation, imagine the situation as introduction of the new assistant. There would be a *boing* sound in the cartoon. I managed to let the sun shine, and I’m proud of how the horizon looks realistic.
I forgot one hand drawn picture! This should be the last now. It is not really a crossover from another cartoon, but somehow a crossover from a music video! See the video Green Jelly – Three Little Pigs and enjoy the music, the image I used is at 4’44! The three war pigs are Trapjaw, Triclops and Stinkor, and they are looking at Skeletor, who is the wolf in this story. He is bleeding, and we will never know what happened here.
Look at the shadows, have you ever thought Triclops’ head looks like a cowboy with a hat?
Very challenging for me: helicopter view, plus shadows. Oh and Skeletor’s face from the side…
