#573 MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE – LADYBIRD BOOKS (1984 and 1985)

I have 5 out of 6 books from this series. They were printed in 1984 (or 1985 if the German translation) in different languages: At least English, Dutch and German. I found mine in flea markets and I hope I can still find the sixth one. Mine are in German, and the one that is missing is "Die stählerner Gigant".

Ordered by publication number, the titles are:
2985-0 Die Schwingen des Unheils
2986-0 Eine Falle für He-Man
2987-0 Skeletors Eisblockade
2988-0 Der stählerne Gigant
2989-0 He-Man und das ungeheuer
2990-0 Castle Grayskull in Gefahr

Later, there were two more titles released. One of them is called "He-Man and the Asteroid of Doom". The other one "He-Man and the Lost Dragon". These are rarer, and to my knowledge are only available in English.

They are written for children by John Grant and are beautifully illustrated by Robin Davies. The stories are simple and involve a few characters each, including monsters and secondary characters from which there was never a figure made. The pictures of these characters (also vehicles and landscapes) are very interesting and add some interesting background for playing or even for customizers.

The books are more or less A5-sized, hardcover and intended for children´s hands. They have 43 pages each, more than 50% of them are illustrations, the rest are filled with text. With a big font, the text is easy to understand. Nevertheless I had to search for a few words in the dictionary each time (German is not my mother language), so not really an easy thing for children, kids younger than 10 will probably learn a few words in each book.

There was a similar book collection published by Golden and also licensed by Mattel.