Masters of the Universe (1987)

Costume Design by Julie Weiss

Masters of the Universe was somewhat of a gamble by its production company, The Cannon Group. The usually thrifty studio had been branching out into more expensive productions, and it was hoped that doing a tie-in to Mattel's successful toyline would guarantee that they had the next Star Wars.

(Of course, Masters of the Universe was anything but Cannon's Star Wars. Not only was it a box office bomb, but helped contribute to the company's liquidation a few years later. The fact that its director, Gary Goddard, later turned out to be a disgusting pedophile only served as a final indignity on the film.)

At any rate, Masters was an unusally lavish production for Cannon, with elaborate sets and dozens of costumes being made. Julie Weiss' costume designs were partly drawn from production illustrations by esteemed artists such as William Stout, Jean Giraud aka Moebius and Ralph McQuarrie.

While Julie Weiss enlisted Western Costume Company to construct the costumes, many specialist propmakers were required for the armor 'hard parts' of each costume. These will be named on each costume as this article.

A bit like the original toyline's designs, Masters' costumes pull from both science-fiction and 'barbarian' fantasy influences. The costume made for Dolph Lundgren as the titular He-Man, consisting of shoulder plates, a harness, cape and leather pants, is firmly inspired by the latter.

Similarly informed by the pseudo-historical designs of the fantasy genre is the robe worn by Billy Barty as Gwildor, consisting of a highly-detailed shirt, tunic and cloak.

Much more inspired by futuristic space opera designs (in fact, resembling unused Ralph McQuarrie designs for Star Wars) is the jumpsuit and harness worn by Chelsea Field as Teela. Notice how the collar, like a lot of the 'hard' costume components in the film, has highly detailed decoration.

Similarly futuristic is the armored costume worn by Jon Cypher as Man-At-Arms, consisting of a mandarin-collared top and suspended pants made of a leather and nylon blend. The uniform is worn with a futuristic helmet and chestplate, evoking the original toy's design.

Several futuristic soldier costumes, with custom-made helmets and armor plates, were made for the extras playing the Eternian soldiers.

More in line with the film's 'fantasy' trappings is the white robe and crystalline headdress made for Christina Pickles as the 'Sorceress', who spends most of the film imprisoned by Skeletor.

Two sadly briefly seen costumes on the good guys are the wide-shouldered blue robe and gold-lined white gown worn by James Tolkan at the film's end, as well as the Ancient Greek-inspired dress worn by the lady alongside him. I highly doubt these were wardobe stock, especially with how many costumes were actually made for the film!

Of course, one of the film's most memorable elements is Frank Langella in his turn as Skeletor, with his shiny costume playing just as much a role as his performance! The Skeletor costume consists of a silvery undergarment, leather chaps coated in leather detailing, and a cape.

Also worn with the costume are an ornately detailed chestplate and shoulder plates, as well as an electronic gauntlet constructed by propmaker Michael Hood.

The 'God Skeletor' costume is the same design as but all in gold, with the addition of an ornate helmet. The helmet was based on Stout's artwork and made by Douglas White and his company Makeup Effects Laboratories. Did Makeup Effects Lab also make the 'hard' parts of other costumes in the film?

A very glamorous costume was made for Meg Foster as Evil-Lyn, consisting of a lavendar unitard covered in beads, worn with a cape made of gold lame on the outside and burgundy velvet on the inside. Other details on the Evil-Lyn costume include the collar fitted with beads, and a metallic breastplate.

A similarly golden costume was made for Robert Towers as the hyena-like Karg, consisting of a quilted golden jumpsuit, adorned with a fur-lined cape, golden ruff collar and metallic armor pieces.

A less explicitly futuristic costume was made for Anthony De Longis as Blade, consisting of a leather harness with spiked shoulders and silver bands, and a long chainmail vest. Worn with the armor is a custom chin-guard fitted with a futuristic eyepatch.

Costume Reuse note: The chainmail vest and gauntlets were reused in Albert Pyun's Cyborg two years later, worn by Vincent Klyn's wasteland bandit. I also suspect the leather harness (or at least one of its stunt doubles) was distressed and worn by Ralf Moller as one of the bit-part bandits in Cyborg.

The costume made for Tony Carroll as Beast Man, while partly a 'monster suit', also required an armor vest, leather chaps and distressed trousers to be made and worn as part of it.

The armor suit and helmet made for Pons Maar as the lizard-like Saurod was based on Stout's design, but the fabrication of the costume fell to Douglas White's Makeup Effects Laboratories, with no assistance from Julie Weiss or Western Costume Company.

Costume Reuse note: The helmet, as well as other armor pieces, was reused in cheapo b-movie Star Hunter in 1996. It's even on all the posters for the movie!

Four actors pretending to be monsters, and a real monster. 

 

When it came to the uniforms of Skeletor's troops, the Star Wars influence became most pronounced. The technicians of Skeletor's army wear black uniforms, with tunics evoking older military uniforms.

The actual soldiers of Skeletor's armor heavily evoked Star Wars' stormtroopers, especially with the shared inspiration in knights' armor. The Skeletor soldiers' armor was made by speciality prop makeup and creature effects firm Robert Short Productions.

The 'warlord' costumes' quilted jumpsuits were manufactured by Centre Theatre Group. The chest armor was fitted with electronics to light up, and the helmet had a more sleek shape.

Robert Short also produced a very similar design of armor for the 'centurions' acting as Skeletor's personal guard, with brass chest armor and shoulder plates instead.

Costume Reuse note: At least one set of the centurion armor was reused for one of the bandit extras in Pyun's Cyborg two years later.

Short also made severl sets of armor for the troopers serving Skeletor, with sleek helmets very much resembling Darth Vader's iconic helmet. Just like with the centurion and warlord armor, the quilted undersuits were made by Centre Theatre Group.

Many of the images on this article (as well as some additional info on which costume house the costumes) came from Larry McQueen's Collection of Motion Picture Costume Design, while the information on which propmakers made the 'hard parts' of each costume came from Cinefex #31.