The Horde Troopers are the infantry of the Evil Horde in the Masters of the Universe franchise. They look like stormtroopers, but with a Juggernaut-esque helmet and a Horde insignia. The Horde Troopers first appear in the She-Ra TV series. Some time later, a Horde Trooper figure was made, one of the rarest figures of the toy-line. It has a button on his Horde insignia that made him "self-destruct" when it is pressed. In the minicomic "The Hordes of Hordak", Hordak launches a mass-attack of Horde Troopers, but He-Man and Sy-Klone discover the Horde Troopers' weakness: they can not take a punch to the chest. In the Star Comics, the Horde Troopers are not robots, but armors magically-animated by Hordak.
There has been a lot of speculation over whether the Horde Troopers are robots or men in armor, for although they are generally seen as robots, the early episodes of She-Ra seem to indicate they are men in uniform. They are shown engaging in human-like activities such as socializing in bars and expressing a dislike for particular music, and are given human-like names, one Trooper is addressed as 'Marv' by his companions. However, in later episodes they are shown to be robots, their working components seen clearly. It seems likely that Filmation initially conceived them as men in uniform, but as the series progressed they were changed to robots to justify them being "killed off", given that Filmation's rules forbid the writers from killing off living beings in their scripts, but robots could be smashed apart. Fans, meanwhile, have speculated that some of the Troopers are indeed human, but Hordak created more robotic Troopers as he preferred to command robots, incapable of independent thought or opposition to his instructions.
2002 He-Man appearance
The Horde Troopers briefly appear in the 2002 series, in the episode "The Power of Grayskull", with a different appearance. This version of the show differs from the previous style as the Horde is an ancient army that fought against King Grayskull for dominance of Eternia. These Hordesmen seem more like humans wearing medieval forms of armor and carrying swords. Though there is no confirmation on whether they were machines or intelligent beings within the armor itself as the only appearance are the Troopers being commanded to fight.