Inspiration for Style and ideas for my characters

I decided to look more closely at cartoon characters and illustrative design of the eighties to work out the sort of level I want for my designs as Justin pointed out that some of my designs looked too cartoony so I will try to advoid this by taking in some inspiration for the 1980's period that am supposed to be influencing.

I like the idea of more reduced approach because I feel that my ideas are turning too realistic which is the main problem when I try and stylise them. I think the style of He man and it's equivalents is the style to aim for because there are enough interesting shapes to make a definitive silhoutte and there is a lot I could borrow, for example the character Liono could help with my problem of what to do with the mane and also added extra hair features in the elbows could improve the hero design further. The features of this style in the face designs look cleverly simplified but enough lines to distinquish what sort of character it is. This is another part to take forward as the faces is another weakness of style in previous developments.