The Power Sword, also referred to as the Sword of Power or the Sword of Grayskull, is a fictional sword from Mattel's Masters of the Universe toy line. In the original mini-comics produced with the toyline in 1981, the Power Sword was a mystical object split into two parts, which Skeletor tries to obtain and put together in order to gain control over Castle Grayskull. In these early stories, He-Man uses an axe and a shield, rather than the magical sword. With the arrival of the 1983 He-Man and the Masters of the Universe animated series, the Power Sword became the means by which Prince Adam transforms into He-Man, and his pet tiger Cringer into Battle Cat. The weapon kept the same basic shape during most of the 1980s, but then it was radically redesigned twice: for the 1990 series The New Adventures of He-Man, and the 2002 remake, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. In addition to the action-figure-sized Power Sword packaged with the character, full-size "He-Man Power Swords" were a favorite Christmas gift for decades, allowing children to role-play the barbarian hero. Some of these kid-sized Power Swords have been electronic, making a variety of battle sounds. Power Swords have also been sold as accessories for He-Man Halloween costumes. In the unsuccessful 1989 relaunch of the toy line, the electronic Power Sword reportedly sold better than the entire rest of the toy line put together. Early appearances The Power Sword was a late addition in the creation of the Masters of the Universe toy line; in the concept art, He-Man battled with an axe and shield, and a thin, unimpressive sword was wielded by the flamboyant Prince Adam (at that time a separate character, and not He-Man's alternate identity). When the initial Mattel toy line was introduced in 1982, the He-Man and Skeletor figures each came with half of a plastic sword which could be joined into one "complete" sword, corresponding to the storyline in the included mini-comic. Together, the combined sword was used as a key to open the jawbridge to the Castle Grayskull playset. According to the original storyline, the Goddess (an early name for the Sorceress) had split the sword into two and scattered the pieces, in order to protect the castle and its source of universal power. The story was told in the He-Man and the Power Sword illustrated mini-comic, which was packaged