The legacy of Virgil Abloh, Off-White’s founder and CEO, will continue to live on in his work before and after his untimely passing. According to Hypebeast, on Wednesday (Oct. 19), Mattel’s collector platform, Mattel Creations, announced its latest collaboration with the late designer, the Masters of the Universe c/o Virgil Abloh™ collection.
The drop features four monochromatic natural-colored figurines in shades of brown, beige, and peanut butter. The publication reports when the designer first started the collaboration, he had access to the entire “Masters of the Universe” world to cultivate the collection’s design. However, following Abloh’s death, the toy set was completed by his creative team at Alaska Alaska, a research-based design and creative agency in London.
Alaska Alaska said in a statement: “Virgil had a deep interest in the ‘Masters of the Universe’ property, in which aspects of his interest were rooted in nostalgia. The selection of characters for this offering we believe to be rooted in their iconography and significance within the franchise.”
The press release continued, “The design direction looked to preserve the existing iconography, using color theory as a point of entry into novelty, and collector’s culture, drawing a parallel between art collectors and comic book collectors.”
Mattel Creation shared a teaser of the collection on its Instagram account on Tuesday (Oct. 18) with the caption, “@masters’ reimagined heroes and villains of Eternia. #MattelCreations.” One fan of Abloh assumed it was part of the collaboration with the late designer, commenting, “Virgil was here ©️.”
The Masters of the Universe c/o Virgil Abloh™ figures will be released online on Friday, Oct. 21.
In other Abloh-related news, a new BBC documentary, Virgil Abloh: How to Be Both — directed by Cassie Quarless and executive produced by Gabriel Jagger, the son of Mick Jagger and Janet Lee — explores how Abloh rattled the fashion industry. According to The Guardian, the film emphasizes how hard it has been for Black people to be taken seriously in the fashion world, let alone conquer it.
Quarless, who has a background in political filmmaking, said: “When [Abloh] went to Louis Vuitton, he exploded, not only in how much we were exposed to him but in helping put young Black creators in positions of power and showing them that anything could be done.”
He added, “He supported people and causes and was explicit that he was doing this for young Black people — so the world could see what they can do.”
You can check out the Instagram teaser for the Masters of the Universe c/o Virgil Abloh™ figures down:
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