RULERS OF THE SUN
Sun-Man
Yla Eason made him so Black children would have a hero who looked like them, built to stand beside He-Man in the same toy box.
Sun-Man is the hero of Olmec Toys' 1985 Rulers of the Sun line, created by Yla Eason, and has been part of Mattel's Masters of the Universe toys since 2021.
The record
The facts
THE 1985 FIGURE
A hero made for her son
Sun-Man began with a three-year-old. Yla Eason's son came to her having worked out, on his own, that he could not play He-Man: "My son said he couldn't be He-Man, because he wasn't white." She went looking for a Black action hero to give him, found none, and founded Olmec Toys to make one herself. Sun-Man reached stores in 1985 as the flagship of a line called Rulers of the Sun.[1]
He was built to share a toy box with He-Man. "It was conscious decision of ours to make Sun-Man fit into play with He-Man," Eason told Yahoo in 2022, and the figure stands five and a half inches tall with a spear, a shield, a breastplate and a pair of wings in the package, along with a comic. His powers come from the sun, and Eason has said the name is a play on "son." The psychologist Kenneth Clark, whose doll studies were cited in Brown v. Board of Education, backed her conviction that Black boys needed heroes who looked like them.[2]
His enemy in the 1985 line was Pig-Head, sold with a mace, a shield and a weapons belt.
[1] ^ Most accounts, and the 1985 Olmec copyright that Mattel prints on the new packaging, give 1985. Mattel's 2021 announcement, as Toyark reported it, dates the original figure to 1986.
[2] ^ Toyark reported that Olmec's line also took in Hispanic, Asian and Native American heroes. Eason met Clark while researching how toys shape the way children see themselves.
MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE
Mattel calls on Olmec
Sun-Man's Masters of the Universe stories are non-canon, written for Mattel's figures of the 2020s. Mattel contacted Eason in 2021 about bringing him back, and he returned as a deluxe Origins figure sold through Mattel Creations.[3] It came with a spare portrait, a flame effect for his sword and a certificate carrying Eason's signature, and the back of the blister folds out into a short comic of his fight with Pig-Head. Eason told Complex that she approves every step of the licensing.
In February 2022, for the franchise's 40th anniversary, Mattel announced that Sun-Man and the Rulers of the Sun were joining He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, with solo figures of Sun-Man, Digitino and Space Sumo, and Pig-Head as their enemy. The standard Origins Sun-Man came in the line's ninth series with his sword, shield and wings, and his minicomic sets him beside Anti-Eternia He-Man against Skeletor, though, as Action Figure Barbecue noticed, the two heroes never speak to each other. Masterverse followed with a seven-inch Sun-Man and a Pig-Head of its own.
[3] ^ Toyark reported the Mattel Creations pre-order opening on September 13, 2021. Toy Habits notes the figure was first shown at Power-Con that year, and Action Figure Barbecue's review places its arrival in early 2022.
THE FIGURE TO OWN
Origins Sun-Man
The standard Origins figure is the closest thing to the 1985 Sun-Man on sale, wings and shield included, and BigBadToyStore has it in stock.
Origins Sun-Man
MSRP $18.99
Buy at BigBadToyStore, $3.80 Paid link
Full details and photosPrices and stock read from BigBadToyStore on November 2, 2026. In collaboration with BigBadToyStore. #BBTSpartner
IN BRIEF
From Olmec to Origins
Rulers of the Sun
Olmec Toys releases Sun-Man, with Pig-Head as his enemy.
Mattel Creations
Pre-orders open for a deluxe Origins Sun-Man.
Origins
Mattel announces that the Rulers of the Sun are joining Masters of the Universe.
Questions
Sun-Man, answered
Who is Sun-Man?
The hero of Olmec Toys' Rulers of the Sun line, and a Masters of the Universe figure since 2021.
Who created Sun-Man?
Yla Eason, who founded Olmec Toys to make him.
What came with the 1985 figure?
A spear, a shield, a breastplate, a pair of wings and a comic, according to Wheeljack's Lab.
When did the first Sun-Man come out?
1985 by most accounts. Mattel's 2021 announcement gave 1986.
Was the original a Mattel toy?
No. Olmec Toys made the first figure, and Mattel brought him into Masters of the Universe with Eason in 2021.
Who is Pig-Head?
Sun-Man's enemy, sold beside him by Olmec and made again by Mattel for Origins and Masterverse.
Where do his powers come from?
The sun. Eason has also said his name is a play on the word son.
Is Sun-Man in the cartoons or the movies?
No He-Man series or film has used him, the 1987 movie and the 2026 film included. His Masters of the Universe stories are told in Mattel's minicomics.
Can I buy a Sun-Man figure now?
Yes. The standard Origins Sun-Man is in stock at BigBadToyStore.
Buy the Origins Sun-Man, $3.80 Paid link See the figure
Compiled by the heman.org desk from Ethan Alter's report for Yahoo Entertainment (February 1, 2022), Complex's interview with Yla Eason (February 1, 2022), Toyark's report on the Mattel Creations figure (September 11, 2021), Wheeljack's Lab's records of the 1985 Olmec figures, Toy Habits' comparison of the two Origins releases (April 16, 2022), Action Figure Barbecue's reviews of both (April 11 and June 19, 2022), Mattel's product copy and BigBadToyStore's current listings.
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