>>10008243>Heman and pants never go together.So what happened, apparently, is that Mattel approved all the 4 Horsemen's "barbarian-with-more-detailing (sometimes tech greebling)" designs, paid for the molds, and once sales weren't meeting expectations, THEN focus grouped the 200X toys with little boys. The answer coming back from the focus group was "I don't like He-Man because he doesn't wear clothes", which led to some repaints of those 4H sculpts painted to look like they were wearing tank tops and tight pants.
I don't know on whose initiative DC He-Man was given his New 52 look, but based on Shield Strike He-Man here, I wouldn't be surprised if the CGI costume has been sitting in a manilla folder at Mattel marked "If we ever try to sell He-Man to kids again" since 2004.
Whether they research whether the little boys of 2021 would reject barbarians or not I don't know.
