SUMMARY:
Battle Armor He-Man, the “most powerful man in the universe” was produced in Taiwan, Mexico (Mabamex + Aurimat), Venezuela, Argentina, Spain, Italy, India, and France. Equipped with an ingenious “battle damage” action feature that had three damage indicators, as the chest is struck, the emblem changes from undamaged, to one slash, to two slashes.
The Battle Armor He-Man marked Mexico was produced in Tijuana, Mexico for the USA Market by the company Mabamex. This figure is marked © Mattel. Inc. 1981. 1983. U.S. PAT. PEND. MEXICO. Under the head, the figure can be marked Mexico or completely blank. The blank head is marked MATTEL INC 1981 U.S.A in the very bottom of the pin, but that can only be seen by removing the head.
The Mabamex Battle Armor He-Man has some variance in both head consistency (Hard Rubber Head, Semi-Hard Rubber Head and Soft Head) and some minor color shifts/changes. What stands out though with this particular figure are the weapon variants.
Most weapons for this figure were made in the USA. You can see this when reading the card back “FIGURE MADE IN MEXICO. BALANCE MADE IN U.S.A.”. Still, there has been a set of rare weapons marked MEXICO that were also made for this figure. Those weapons are almost identical to the USA-marked weapons with slight color changes, with the difference in that they are marked MEXICO. Not to be confused with Aurimat weapons that are also marked MEXICO, but that are a completely different mold, color and plastic. These (MEXICO marked) variant weapons can come stamped either with a 1 batch number or with a 2 batch number.
It is unclear to me at what point these variant weapons were released (only time will tell), but my theory is that they were early releases while the production was still adjusting.
FIGURE MARKED: © Mattel. Inc. 1981. 1983. U.S. PAT. PEND. MEXICO
WEAPONS MARKED: USA on one variation & MEXICO on the other variation.
VARIATIONS:
1. Soft head
2. Semi-hard rubber head
2. Hard rubber head
WEAPON VARIATIONS:
1. USA marked
2. Mexico marked
