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 Aurimat Battle Armor He-Man was released in the second year of the Los Amos del Universo production (1985). In the first year, it was released with 2 variants. A France-marked, as well as a covered-up COO variant of the figure with brown eyebrows (Prince Adam head), callus in the right hand for better handling of weapons, and all accessories, marked MEXICO. The chest emblem is dark orange with a red outline.
The next year of production (1986) Aurimat used Taiwan molds, and so both variants released in the last year of production had BA He-Mans marked TAIWAN, with TAIWAN marked accessories. The chest emblem is dark orange with a maroon outline. One variant with an orange belt and the other (rarer) variant with a red belt. In both cases, this figure no longer has a hand callus. This figure uses the He-Man head with black eyebrows. The red belt variant has either regular boots or larger Thunder punch boots. It's unclear if the orange belt figure also has a large TP boot variant.
While this variant shares the (American release) Battle Armor Taiwan weapons mold, its weapons are easily distinguished from standard American release weapons in color and feel. The Aurimat weapons are darker, more rigid, and are a close match to standard MEXICO-marked weapons (as far as color and flexibility).
I've so far been able to id batch numbers #26, #27, and #28 for the axe. The sword I've only seen #32 and #31, but I'm assuming there's at least one more batch number that I've yet to ID. The sword does have the injection hole at the top covered on the Aurimat, so that's also a quick way to tell it apart. An interesting note is that Aurimat had at least 2 factories running at the same time (Mamsa y Promusa), so a theory is that each batch number corresponds to a separate factory release.
A curious note with Aurimat is that they have a condition where the skin tones become incredibly pale, almost “albino” like. While this “defect” in the plastic would not be a true variant distinguisher, it is still very cool and highly collectible. This pale skin color change can be seen in both the first and second editions.
DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS:
1. Pale skin tones
2. Dark boots
3. Semi-hard rubber head
FIRST WAVE (1985):
(All have hand callus, brown eyebrows, and orange belts)
MARKED: © Mattel. Inc. 1981. 1983. FRANCE
ARMOR MARKED: © Mattel. Inc. 1981. 1983. (Covered up COO)
ALL ACCESSORIES ON BOTH MARKED: MEXICO
SECOND WAVE (1986):
(No hand callus, black eyebrows)
1. Orange belt
2. Red belt
3. Red belt, Thunderpunch boots
ALL MARKED: © Mattel. Inc. 1981. 1983. TAIWAN
ALL ACCESSORIES MARKED ACCESSORIES: TAIWAN
