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 Rotoplast Battle Armor He-Man is characterized by its mid-dark skin tones, characteristic pink (or reddish-pink) boots, dark maroon shorts, and dark mustard to dark brown belts. The figure is a soft head, and while out of the factory had vibrant yellow paint, it's a low-quality paint that generally is found faded and dull yellow. The arms all are rubber, but they vary in consistency from very flexible, to very rigid).
The figure is marked © Mattel. Inc. 1981.1983 TAIWAN and all accessories are marked TAIWAN.
The accessories come in 2 variants. A very rigid, shiny silver finish, and a semi-flexible dull gray color. Both are marked the same, and both can come with either variant of the BA He-Man.
There are 2 main variants of the Rotoplast Battle Armor He-Man. The common figure has a dark mustard belt, and the chest symbol is peach in color, with a red outline. The slash marks on the chest are unpainted. This figure can come packaged in a standard blister, or it can be packaged in a bag with cardback.
The (very) rare version of this figure is the Red Scar BA He-Man. The slash marks on this figure are a bright red and do not have a painted chest symbol. In fact, the “stage 1” chest is completely blank, since it has no battle damage. Stage 2 has 1 red slash mark, and stage 3 has 2 slashes. This figure generally comes with a dark-brown belt, and the chest mechanism on this variant never works. Seems they are all missing the chest springs. All come packaged in bags with cardbacks (never on blisters).
A note about the arms on Battle Armor He-Man. As stated previously, arms are always rubber and can vary in consistency from flexible to very rigid. What's curious is that they can vary within the same figure. It's not uncommon to have a figure that has one arm flexible, and one arm hard, from factory.
Another thing to understand with Rotoplast is that each figure is like a fingerprint. No two are typically the same. They will vary in color tones, both in the injected skin tone hue, and the painted surfaces.
DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS:
1. Mid-dark skin tones
2. Pink to reddish-pink boots
3. Dark maroon shorts
4. Dark mustard to dark brown belts
5. Silver weapons or dull gray weapons
6. Soft heads with (low-quality) yellow paint
7. Rubber arms (rigid to very flexible)
MARKED: © Mattel. Inc. 1981.1983 TAIWAN
ACCESSORIES MARKED: TAIWAN
VARIANTS:
1. Red scar battle damage
2. Common (unpainted battle damage)
