In terms of comics based on toys, there is petty much no middle ground. The comics either never took off, or they took off marvelously. The best examples of comics based on toys would by far have to be G.I. Joe, so much so that many regard the characters more as comic book characters than anything else. There are other successful versions of toys in comics, such as Transformers or indirectly Star Wars. There are also some huge failures. What brings this to mind is the the one-shot story which ran throughout He-Man stories in the late 1970s which has been popping up in various places as I have been reading issues in various titles from this period. it was presumably both sort of an attempt to gain interest in both the toys and the upcoming DC miniseries.
Just a random panel In the story He-Man gets his powers but almost immediately Superman also intervenes. Superman;s role here was primarily to shore up interest in the mini-series, even though I would argue Wonder Woman would be a much better characters to use (as both incorporate in both magic and science). The attempt at establishing He-Man as a popular character failed, as he bounced around to other publishers, to Marvel for a while and then even to lesser known ones from there. But his fate is not too different from other such attempts, such as Centurions and Inhumanoids, neither of which ever gained any popularity. The reasons for failure is not readily apparent. Most toy based comic titles are team based, even if they do focus on one or two characters. The popularity of the toys themselves may be an indicator, but He-man was also a very popular toy line which never translated well into comic format (whereas Inhumanoids and Centurions were never really popular in either format). I guess as always the success of titles comes down to intangibles like writing and art, but also relevance to modern society and an interest in the story being told. Except for the lingering presence of toys in comics today based on holdovers from this time, there are few new comics about toys which spring up now, so this is very representative of the era of comics from the late 70s to the 80s and is almost anachronistic to see, almost like the Hostess Twinkie superhero advertisements. I guess what He-man teaches us though is that not even two big names (He-Man and Superman) means success.
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