Master of the Universe

The "highly successful business person" sense is derived from Mattel's Masters of the Universe toy line and media franchise, which was launched in 1982. It was first used as such in the 1987 novel The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe (see quotations).

• "First, by them made obstinate by the onetime masters of the universe."
• "I have told you, where the air is pure, where every sound soothes, where one is sure to be humbled, however proud may be his nature. I love that humiliation, I, who am master of the universe, as was Augustus"
• "They felt themselves lords and masters of the universe, with power over life and death."
• "The Masters of the Universe were a set of lurid, rapacious plastic dolls that his otherwise perfect daughter liked to play with. […] On Wall Street he and a few others—how many?—three hundred, four hundred, five hundred?—had become precisely that. . . Masters of the Universe. There was . . . no limit whatsoever!"
• "They had their suit jackets off, and at this hour of morning—9:20 a.m.—they were leaning back in their seats, reading their Wall Street Journals, and congratulating themselves on being young Masters of the Universe."
• "No matter how much you may dislike the Masters of the Universe, my friends, there are plenty of other parts of the universe that would welcome them."
• "The man who once boasted he was "master of the universe" for making Vivendi a global media giant arrived in less triumphant fashion on Wednesday – through the back door of a Paris court."

• baron
• big cheese
• big enchilada
• big gun
• big kahuna
• big man
• big name
• big noise
• big shot
• bigwig
• big wheel
• boss
• grand poobah
• head honcho
• heavy hitter
• heavyweight
• high muckamuck
• high muckety-muck
• king of all one surveys
• king of the castle
• king of the hill
• kingpin
• macher
• mayor
• muckamuck
• muckety muck
• mugwump
• numero uno
• poobah
• rooster
• somebody
• top banana
• top boy
• top cat
• top dog
• top gun
• very important person
• VIP
• wheel