He-Man's Ride Through Eternia: Nostalgia, Comics and the Power of Grayskull

Nathan takes a turn leading this episode of Oft Off Topic with a nostalgic journey to Eternia. Brace yourselves for the first part of the epic story of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe! Learn where his iconic name came from and how the audience missed the point. It's a trip down memory lane, packed with the lore and legacy of an action figure line that grew into a cultural phenomenon.

We begin with He-man's evolution from child's drawing to toys, comics and glorious emergence as a cartoon TV star. We compare the difference between his original story to the '80s cartoon, noting the changes and unique elements that both mediums brought to the Masters of the Universe universe. And of course, who could forget about She-Ra? We take a brief look into the significance of He-Man's twin sister and the impact she had, providing girls with an action-heroine to call their own during a time when gender-inclusive play wasn't so common.

Ending on a high note, we dissect the campy charm and bizarre moments of the "Masters of the Universe" film, chuckling at the cheesy effects, the budgetary issues, as well as the post-credits scene that promised us a sequel we're still waiting for. Collectors and nostalgia-seekers alike will appreciate our trip through Eternia's history and the personal stories of memorabilia that turned us into lifelong fans. 

Stay tuned for more, as we've got future episodes lined up to chat about the franchise's modern incarnations, a dive into the "Death of Superman," and even a dash of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

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Transcript

Nate: 0:16

He-Man, the Masters of the Universe. This time I'm telling stories and stuff, and Sean must listen. I've tied him to a chair and I punch him in the face, so he's listening to He-Man Repeatedly, I'm in great danger.

Shaun: 0:28

People, please listen and like and subscribe, otherwise he'll do bad things to me. Bad things, it's funny.

Nate: 0:33

I actually suggested this and Sean's like what should we do? I'm like He-Man. He's like okay, I don't feel like doing that. I'm like okay, and then finally I'm like I'm doing He-Man.

Shaun: 0:40

I'm taking it, I'm going to say I'm going to see you in six, nine, and there's one other you want to do too.

Nate: 0:46

Eventually that's a Star Trek, star Trek specifically deep six nine, and I'm going to try to lower the F-bombs.

Shaun: 0:52

But I just failed already. Yeah, it's, I think. Let's see. Usually, when you say I'm going to stop doing F-bombs, you make it on average 20 seconds, I think, before you throw one out yeah. I just it's whatever. Okay, here we go. It is who I am, it is part of my essence.

Nate: 1:11

Me, they must get out, they must when I'm at work though, like when I'm, when I go to work, I'm actually in public. I don't have that issue, but I've been working remote for two years plus and I don't center myself around my family either, so I just don't. Yeah, I have very little practice of not catching myself.

Shaun: 1:31

Yeah, so now there's just a constant string of F bombs at the computer monitor all day long while you're at work.

Nate: 1:35

Yeah. I mean but yeah, anyway, I'll be working in public soon enough, so I probably should like really work on that.

Shaun: 1:41

Yeah, it's, it's the public down in Kentucky. They're used to the F bombs. Okay, say Jesus afterwards. Anyways, jesus afterwards. Okay, here we go. All right, let's go.

Nate: 1:53

The story of He-Man begins back in 1976, two years before I was born. The CA Matilda time, rory Wagoner I love that. Wagoner is like W-A-G-G-O-N-E-R. Wagoner, wagoner, wagoner yeah, that's more. He-man, wagoner, that does. Wagoner Made a very, very stupid decision. The opportunity to make toys for an upcoming sci-fi movie came across his desk. He took issue with a seventy five thousand dollar license fee they wanted, so he passed on it. Today that's about seven million dollars, but the sci-fi movie you passed on was Star Wars.

Shaun: 2:26

Yep, I figured it was. Once you sit in 1977 and passing on the licensing thing, Right.

Nate: 2:30

And, of course, what happened happened? Wagoner. Wagoner had a ton of egos face.

Shaun: 2:35

It was desperate to fix his mistake and his wife would never leave him alone about it for the rest of their marriage.

Nate: 2:39

Can you imagine just like it is? People walking down the hallways is giving the eyes like man Star Wars?

Shaun: 2:46

People just constantly go to people like you know. I would like to be able to ask to borrow money off of you now, but you blew it.

Nate: 2:52

It's like why are you like rereading my mail that I've written Like I don't know? Your decision making is not too great.

Shaun: 2:59

You see that your track record, and it's not great man.

Nate: 3:02

So, trying to get his group back, mattel launched. The one missed after another. They kept on trying to differentiate and this didn't take. After some brain brainstorming, they concluded that simplicity was best and decided to go for more generic hero designer Mark Taylor looked through some of his older work, including some drawings, and made him a kid. For inspiration, taylor found soldier, a spaceman and a barbarian and submitted them to Mattel designer Roger Sweet, who then pitched to Mattel and his 2005 book Mastering the Universe, he man and the Rise and Fall of a Billion Dollar Idea, sweet said that I'm quoting now.

Nate: 3:34

The only way I was going to have a chance to sell this to Wagner was to make three 3D models, big ones. I glued a big Jim a big Jim figure, which is another Mattel toy line into a battle action pose, and I add a lot of clay to his body. I then made Pastor Cass made, and these three prototypes, which I presented in 1980, brought he man to existence. I simply explained that it was a powerful figure that could be taken anywhere and dropped at any context, because he had a generic name he man. So basically, the idea was that he man is such a dumb name that he has to give their own unique name and basically playing John Doe for barbarians.

Shaun: 4:10

God. So it was like he man and Guy Dude were the last two names, that they had us options. Right, right.

Nate: 4:16

It's the most generic.

Shaun: 4:18

We got he man, guy, dude and Person man, I guess Like what dumb kids go actually use he man for his real name.

Nate: 4:26

Obviously they're going to replace it with something else.

Shaun: 4:28

Yeah, although I just realized too that, dude, when he was a little kid it was like doodling, you know action stars and barbarians and soldiers. He might have been a little bit of a gay child. Huh, a little bit. I'm a little bit like I'm going to draw this man called man at Arms. He's going to have a hell of a mustache, a big arms to hug me with. I want to be my daddy.

Nate: 4:47

I remember the cartoon he had a mustache, but the toy he didn't. He didn't. He did have a mustache as a cartoon, didn't he? That's where he had a mustache in the toy. No, I had a man at arms. He didn't have it much as a toy. Ok, this is pausey for a second. Like must look at man at arms.

Shaun: 5:03

Yeah, I mean I could be totally wrong because I don't know if I actually had the man at arms toy.

Nate: 5:13

To be honest, yes, he had a mustache, but yeah, if you look at his toys they're later toys, but the toy I had did not have a mustache and he actually didn't look anything like the he-man from the series. His face is all squished up. I mean he looks like a freak. Nope, I've seen the side by side ones.

Shaun: 5:26

Yeah, you're right, he kind of looks like an angry mushroom headed dwarf thing kind of right.

Nate: 5:35

And then the series came out, he had a big old porn stash and I'm like, OK, where's? Where's my man or his porn stash? Somewhere between the invention of the toy and the cartoon Tila was like you know.

Shaun: 5:47

what I like on a man is a mustache, and it was like oh, I can go with that baby? Yeah, that's very disappointing. No mustache he does. He looks so weird without a mustache, Right, as a child I would have been very disappointed to be like I want my porn stash on my guy, Like my parents would be like what did you see?

Nate: 6:03

And he's just like. Well, I got him and Ram man in a gay relationship.

Shaun: 6:09

Anyways continue. The He-Man line launched in 1982 called the Masters of the.

Nate: 6:16

Universe was brought a was brought a headache almost immediately Mattel and Andrew, the agreement with the rights holders for Conan of Averian 1982, the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. They got sued for obvious similarities but lost in all illegal agreements between them were dissolved. So you know, they got sued. While they did the payout, that did lose the licensing to the Conan movie. I don't know what happened. I didn't go any further than that. Somewhere, Frank Frazier is staying in the shadows being like holding a raise in his hand. Be like, what about me?

Shaun: 6:41

I deserve something of this, the further controversy arrived in the form of anger and concern. Parents upset companies were now dedicating whole cartel.

Nate: 6:50

Still in toys versus a two minute commercial. He-man was by no means the only one, but it was lumped in with his cohorts GI Joe and Thundercats.

Shaun: 7:04

Yeah, that was my legal for companies to do at one point. Yeah, fcc rules and stuff Yep, how dare you? Yeah, we can actually thank Reagan for getting rid of that law. I would have thought every so often he did some good things. Yeah, everyone's like yes, A compromise. What a compromise Was reached under?

Nate: 7:18

the children's television act of 1990. That said broadcasters couldn't show more than 12 minutes of commercials on children's programming. But to be honest, that's still a lot. Yeah, it is a lot. That's a 30 minutes long. Yeah, it shows like 30 minutes long with commercials like even less.

Shaun: 7:35

It's like 12 minutes is a long time.

Nate: 7:37

Sometimes a sneaky cartoon is a sneaky commercial.

Shaun: 7:47

It's during the actual episode themselves.

Nate: 7:49

Right.

Shaun: 7:49

Yeah.

Nate: 7:50

Well, that's actually what the man in arms was Men in arms whole gig was. He would come on there with a new thing like, hey look, I've got this now. By the way, you could buy it at Toys Worm.

Shaun: 7:59

Yeah, you like skunkman from this episode. Well, tell your parents go to pay me skunkman or go to hell.

Nate: 8:07

Which is funny because, to my memory, moss man smelled worse than the skunkman.

Shaun: 8:12

He did. He had that. He had a very odd chemically smell to him. I think it's from like the fur on him and stuff.

Nate: 8:17

Yeah, so it was just really bad musk to him.

Shaun: 8:19

Yeah, it was just like that. We were almost like when you get stuff from a team or whatnot nowadays and you smell like oh God. But yeah, skunkman was just patchouli, which, I mean, isn't the greatest smell in the world, but it's not bad.

Nate: 8:31

No, it's not.

Shaun: 8:32

Patchouli. I also remember Moss man 2, that fur rubbed off really fast. It might have been because I was just like a kid, just like rubbing all over the thing Like ooh fuzzy.

Nate: 8:42

Yeah, I remember he got false spots in a hurry.

Shaun: 8:44

It absolutely did, minded to. Yeah, sad times Kind of did have some cool texture to him, though.

Nate: 8:50

Oh, it really did. I mean it was very tactile. I mean, versus the other ones, there's hard plastic. This guy was like man. This guy actually has some like you know feel to him.

Shaun: 8:58

Yeah, I could rub this on my body and feel funny and sad.

Nate: 9:03

Well, back to the initial release of Master of the Universe, mattel included a mini comic with each toy they gave a backstory of our hero or the hero that was involved. It wasn't the story that we know now. The setting was a post apocalyptic world called Eternia. The advanced civilization of the past had long followed the war. It was now. What was left was like various villages and cities that did seem to know very little of each other. One such barbarian tribe held He-Man, the strongest barbarian, who decided to leave for adventure, and as he traveled he came across a sorceress who gave him a powerful weapons and outfit and she was like green, kind of like Teela from the back of the day, had like kind of a snake thing around her, like a shawl, if you will, and she was green. In their original drawings that was a sorceress, and sorceress that we know now has the eagle Guys, yep, as he was building himself a home.

Nate: 9:53

Because why not? This villain's Scalator found the beautiful battle goddess Teela and kidnapped her. No backstory, just surprise, here's Scalator, here's Teela. You know kidnapping Cause, you know 80s. Eventually, he-man gets involved and fights Scalator, who has taken Teela to Castle Grayskull for reasons they fight. He-man wins Four reasons Four reasons. That's the best reason to do anything.

Shaun: 10:17

Reasons Yep, just for reasons why? Because I can't. He's gonna stop me.

Nate: 10:22

They fight, He-Man wins Scalator. Get him next time. While researching this, I intended to read the entire comic line, taking notes as I went. I actually started doing that. I was like, okay, this one does this, this one does this. And very quickly I was like I'm not doing this. It was a realized it was a waste of time, I just don't have. I moved on.

Shaun: 10:45

How is the actual quality of them themselves?

Nate: 10:47

That's the thing Now. Basically, he-man goes to an adventure fighting scout tour and meets various villains along the way. That's basically what these many comics are for. They weren't for some general overview of stories. Now these comics were actually comics you think of, with panels and word bubbles. I had fully anticipated to see a low budget 1980s comic with crap art and crappier dialogue. Some of these throwaway comics back in the 80s, they're junk.

Shaun: 11:12

It was literally just like kids are stupid, give them anything and they'll like it, right.

Nate: 11:18

Well, these are actually more like the little golden books. Back in the day there was actually a pretty decent, well-drawn image at the top of the page. Beneath that was like paragraphs describing what was going on. No word bubbles, no panels. You get the idea. You have seen little golden patterns. I mean seriously they were pretty well drawn, I mean they actually look pretty.

Shaun: 11:37

I'm actually looking at some of the covers here right now and it's bringing back a lot of memory. It's like, yeah, some of these covers are cool. It's like, hey, there's Battle Cat looking all badass with giant claws and everything and things.

Nate: 11:45

I don't really complain. I have a scout tour's face. It looks a little melty, but that's I mean whatever. That's a minor quibble. Otherwise art's actually pretty decent. But 1982, Deci got ahold of the character in a very limited run, like three issues. It was more like a comics, you expect. They did this to fill the character out a little bit. But I didn't really get into them, I didn't read them, I just got the information. But He-Man did have a cameo appearance with some other properties like Superman, but never really went anywhere. He just kind of, hey, Superman went to Attorney, they had a brief interaction and Superman went back to his home world and He-Man said yeah, yeah, just like one of those standard crossovers from back in the day it's like yeah, yeah catch phrase to each other and make one like curious joke about each other, and then we'll be off.

Nate: 12:31

And Superman will never mention He-Man. He-man will never mention Superman.

Shaun: 12:33

It's like it never happened, and there's always got to be one villain from the Superman world and one villain from the He-Man world, so it's like Lex Luthor and Gelator teaming up or something to do a roster scan Right right.

Nate: 12:44

Well, finally we're. We're here. The reason why we all love He-Man is the insanely popular cartoon He-Man and the Master of the Universe. It actually released a little under two weeks for my fifth birthday, september 5th 1983. They revised and expanded the original backstory even more from he was a barbarian, he was strong, so he went out to kill things. My suspicion was to avoid even more comparison with Conan, because they just barely got out of that lawsuit from last time. So they're like let's toss a little more in here to really kind of drive home this is not Conan.

Shaun: 13:13

It's like a secret identity kind of thing and you know right, adam.

Nate: 13:18

As you just said, adam, that He-Man is the alter ego of Prince Adam of Eternia. He's a total wimp who lives with his cowardly tiger cringer. His father was King Randor, ruler of Eternia. His mother was a human astronaut named Captain Marlena Glenn, who got lost in space. I do not remember that part. Yeah, I actually said that, like no further explanation on that. Just lost in space and I'm married to a king of power. They really didn't get into that.

Shaun: 13:41

Maybe that's why they speak English. Maybe she just like, had the colonial spirit in her and she's like you're all speaking my language and have my religions.

Nate: 13:46

now, yeah, I have no memory of that. You know part of it was like is that just because I didn't care? But I seriously have no memory of any kind of earth, anything on Eternia.

Shaun: 13:55

Yeah, neither do I. I do remember as a kid thinking the whole Prince Adam and cringer thing side story was stupid and they should have just stuck with straight He-Man. But now that you bring it up I see why. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I was like so much better if Prince Adam wasn't even a thing in this.

Nate: 14:11

I do get the idea behind that, like a lot of these cartoons will put like a child in there. It's kind of oh see my children, you know you're a child, children, even transformers. I remember several transformers like okay, we have this intergalactic menace to deal with. Come on, timmy, get in my driver's seat.

Shaun: 14:29

Especially all those Transformers books you'd buy like the book fairs at school. Almost all of those were like some high adventure with like a 12 year old tagging along. I mean, don't you want like an?

Nate: 14:37

experienced like warrior, Like you like. So who?

Shaun: 14:40

knows what they're doing. Nope, we need a kid who can do a Rubik's Cube on page seven really fast. So you know Rubik's Cube kids can relate.

Nate: 14:48

Well, when Prince Adam raised the power of sword, said by the power of grisco, I have the power. I said a way better when he does that's not an awful.

Nate: 14:57

I'm rolling with it best, not an awful that's all agree that was the worst, ever worst team impression of all time. Anyway. Lighting, explosion. Lighting explodes around him like Highlander, and the image of Castle Grayskull would appear in the background all the time in players in the background. Right, you're like like 80s, but and he? He uses a rippling muscles to combat the blue evil. Jack's gold face, villain Skeletor no news. He man's true identity, except for the sorceress, has weapon masters, man and arms and incompetent floating wizard thing, orco and whoever they told right, there's what the I remember orco.

Shaun: 15:45

I would never trust that man with a secret or trust him, god. He kind of annoyed me, it's like. Well, I could cause and solution to half the problems of the show exactly actually like the next thing.

Nate: 15:54

I say orco is the wrench they needed to keep things interesting. Are things going too well in your story? Bam orco, yep, there is. Oh no, his spell. Turn the villagers inside out, go get your sword, prince Adam, and fix it. I mean cuz?

Shaun: 16:07

yeah, it was just the way Prince Adam fixes it, just right around, just like putting them all out of misery.

Nate: 16:11

Sorry, that's exactly this is me fixing it. This town never existed. Uses power, uses like royal power to just wipe it off the map, just like okay, it never goes like oopsie, did I do that? It's like send out as minions throughout the city and other whatever. They're like finding cartographers like hey, do you remember this town? Well, yeah, I think I do.

Nate: 16:35

Slice, let me war we are literally wiping this from a history exactly so both he man and Prince Adam were friends with Tila the lowest lane of the story. But I give Tila a little more credit than lowest lane because Clark Kent Superman looked the exact same, except Clark Kent hunches a little bit and droops his shoulders I mean that's something. But otherwise you put Clark and Superman side by side obvious the same dude. Yeah, prince Adam and he man looked physically very different. Now he sure is the same guy, so there's obviously be similarities. But he man's a beefcake and all of the scrawny kid. No one would think they're the same person.

Shaun: 17:09

I recall wasn't like the Prince Adam Toy, all beefed up and muscular or some stupid yeah, absolutely was like yeah like oh, it's not. There's like wow, prince Adam is just like a repainted he man doll but you know what?

Nate: 17:21

I'm actually having doubts, I vote that out. Let me just get I'm. I might actually because I think I'm late, thinking the Prince Adam, we could be a thank you. So nope, you've jacked in the cartoon too. I made it was wrong because I was thinking about, like, future versions of Prince Adam where they actually, like, made him younger. I was thinking about, yeah, I was thinking about the future versions of it no, but yeah, I remember being jacked in the original he was jacked I was.

Nate: 17:44

That's totally wrong. So nope, she's just as bad like she I was, so put that like. Images them side by side. Like he man, prince Adam, it is 100%. Actually you know what. He's worse than sir man, because at least Clark Kent hunched his shoulders a little bit and put glasses on this dude looks. He changed his shirt, the end, full stop. There's. He has the same expression on his face, his same haircut like everything about hair cut.

Shaun: 18:11

Yeah, there is personally the entire world that has that haircut.

Nate: 18:15

I completely retract. Why just said full retraction? When I wrote that I was thinking of more recent incarnations of Prince Adam, where he was a wimpy kid. He's. They still play him off his wimpy, which is stupid. They play him off as like a cowardly wimpy kid but like dude, you're jacked. You look exactly like he man. What? Why?

Shaun: 18:34

are you. The worst is if you guys in teal of princess. So she's in charge of, like you know, diplomacy and stuff like that and she can't tell two people apart. That might be some problems and even worse.

Nate: 18:43

Yeah, he had a cowardly tiger named cringey. Was like dude, it is the same coloring, the same marking, like everything about, except you put like a armor on him. Like you can't tell me that's not battle cat, I'm sorry, right there's not a whole lot of giant green cats around. And then when you try to play with it as a kid that you know they had the same. You just to play cringey, you took off the battle so he still had that fierce look at his face.

Shaun: 19:11

Yep, he said yeah, it was kind of hard to make believe on that one. Yeah, just struck Prince Adam from the record in my brain yeah, prince Adam, every yeah he was like we're just gonna get by that plot point yeah, just bypass entirely.

Nate: 19:27

So well, teal of the adoptive daughter of men arms, the secret child of sorceress who rolled a sea man. See man Jesus, he wrote a role. He man is a fight scowl tour in their minions, that's a way different cartoon man right yeah completely different cartoon. That was one of the words. You go back in the 80s, we're gonna go another room, yeah exactly.

Shaun: 19:50

I'd go the behind the curtain in the block right exactly these tapes try to find sources versus see man.

Nate: 19:55

So as 80s cartoon bills tend to want scowl tour, one power to rule the world, in this case attorney for that, any castle grayskull and a power store, the he man held it, adventure was had. So that's basically that's the gist of the whole he man. You know every, every episode was skeleton resolution yeah, and it all wrap up messing stuff up, and then you know there was a lesson.

Shaun: 20:22

Hey, kids, don't snort poison you know how's Prince Adam gonna get to the sword now to turn into he man? Oh look, exactly yeah no, look no surprise. And then, of course, I was always irritated to because it's always skeletor getting shown up by his henchmen. I'm just like, if they're messing you over this many times, just kill them and move on, hire some competent henchmen.

Nate: 20:41

Skeletor, right, I mean that was actually a really cool line the most recent leg jumping head to the most recent incorrect incineration iteration, whatever iteration hordex shows up in the final series that just came out revolutions, and there was actually hold the door and fucking game thrones, huh, or doctor, never mind, oh okay, okay, like what there?

Nate: 21:04

was a. There's a really cool scene where, like this, they're destroying some random planet somewhere and the hero of that planet was like I'm gonna get you and hordex, like all right, cool, whatever man and he's go to attack hordex and his minions, beat the crap out of the dude. And you know, hordex goes. Yeah, I don't fight my own battles, I have good minions, so that's the scout, or never did scout, or I always had to do himself because yeah these were awful well, skeletal probably went like the non-union route to save some money, but in the long run you don't really save the money, right?

Shaun: 21:37

it's a good comp then, henchmen.

Nate: 21:40

Well, he man was so popular with boys and tell, try to get the girls to the spin-off series, she-ra, princess of Power, I mean. And then I was kind of got me like he man, you know, I guess she woman doesn't roll off the tongue. But yeah, she whoa, yeah something. But she Rob, like what it? I mean I'll it works, yeah, it rolls up her.

Shaun: 22:00

Yeah, she wrote us. Yeah, it sounds almost vaguely like Egyptian too. It does a little bit.

Nate: 22:05

Well, they did this with the theatrical release of he man. She were the secret sword. So in that movie they actually that's the first theatrical release of he man was the team and introducing she. She wrote in this movie it was basically edited version of the first five episodes she wrote the cartoon very similar way they did the Clone Wars. You know they came out a while back. They actually released the first few episodes in a movie theater and then they released it. You know, as the series she was print that she was Prince Adams, her before mentioned twin sister, princess Adora, who somehow was a leader of a great billion against the evil or that or evil ruler Hordak on the planet Ithria. So she wasn't even on the same planet. Like somehow she's his twin sister but she's on a different planet. Why didn't he get another dude quote?

Shaun: 22:53

unquote. Sister, this might be like an immigration thing. He just needed to get her in the right. Right, yeah, it could just be made up.

Nate: 22:59

She too used the power of a grayskull and also had adventures. In my young eyes it did work because my sister Got from a different planet.

Shaun: 23:06

huh, no same one. Oh, okay, yeah, same one. They just send the power of grayskull from a different planet though? Yep, Okay, it's cosmic traveling powers.

Nate: 23:16

And in my young eyes it did work, because my sister got in She-Ra for hot men. I remember she got some of the She-Ra toys and whatnot. It was a few toy. Few times Our toys get actually crossed over in like a cannon way, not just my human fingers trying to match up with the Amazon.

Shaun: 23:30

Barbie dolls. That was like the only time around that era that girls actually had like kind of a cool, quote, unquote, badass toy, because they didn't have a lot of choices. Besides that, it was like Jim and Barbie, and Jim was truly outrageous, truly, truly, truly outrageous.

Nate: 23:44

She was. Yeah, I remember Jim for a hot second, but yeah that that fell by the wayside.

Shaun: 23:49

Oh yeah, everybody just remembers the theme song mainly off of that. I think they did a remake of it somewhere down the road to. Oh, I'm sure they did.

Nate: 23:57

They did have a live action movie within the last 10 years.

Shaun: 24:00

I don't think it might have been a little bit longer than that, but yeah, and there's like a little flying droid that talked to them and it was weird.

Nate: 24:07

Was there, I don't know, I never really watched it.

Shaun: 24:09

Yeah, I didn't watch it. I watched and people do like reviews of it and be like this is something.

Nate: 24:13

I mean, I did see it when it came out, but it's. I didn't watch to any regularity, I don't really remember it. Oh man, it's a he-man. Ran from 1983 to 1985, consisting of two seasons as 65 episodes each 130 episodes. That really is. That's pretty decent.

Shaun: 24:31

Yeah, I mean, I didn't forget how many episodes were in seasons back in the day.

Nate: 24:35

It really is 65 episodes per season is a lot, yeah, and that is considerable, yeah, as opposed to like South Park nowadays, where you get six episodes in a year if you're lucky if you're lucky.

Shaun: 24:47

Yeah.

Nate: 24:48

I mean, I mean, they're that's actually more like an anime. You know where they have all these episodes, because I can't even think of any. Well, you consider more mainstream cartoons now that would run 65 episodes.

Shaun: 24:59

Oh, nowadays? No, not at all. I think it's like an 80 syndication thing, I'm pretty sure, because like stuff also have like 40 episodes, seasons at the start to yeah.

Nate: 25:09

I think now the average is like 20, some episodes. I think that's about right, roughly 20. But as things do, eventually both shows lost popularity, were canceled. But that's not before. Yeah, but that's not before. He managed here. I had a Christmas special called. He managed here a Christmas special.

Shaun: 25:28

Oh damn, they burned the candle. Both ends coming up with that. Yeah, it's great.

Nate: 25:31

I'm not going to spend too much time on this turd. You know some kids from Earth around Christmas time get involved. Honestly, I've cracked Christmas specials out there. Star Wars still win, but this one it gets the honorable mention. I didn't really get too far and I started reading the synopsis and I just like I rolled my ass.

Shaun: 25:49

Synopsis yeah, keep your interest and obviously the show.

Nate: 25:52

No, I mean they go to, they go to Earth, they meet some kids Christmas evolved Scout tour Learned you know magic.

Shaun: 25:58

The meaning of Christmas and yeah, it was happy. I'm fairly certain.

Nate: 26:03

And I could have swore there was some like singing that was like they. I know there was like a he-man singing meme. That happened a while back and I thought they got some of this from that, but I couldn't find. I don't know. I researched a little bit trying to kind of find like where do these could you think about? He-man is all. There's a lot of gay context to it and there's some like times where he's yeah, I wonder why, yeah, right.

Nate: 26:24

And I just I just gave up like whatever. Yeah, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, so I just quit. But yeah, that that Christmas special is something else. But now it's time. Behold the dawn's glory, bow down and give homage to the 1987 canon monstrosity. That was a live action theatrical release of Masters of the Universe, directed by Gary Goddard, starring Dolph Lundgren. Behold, I'll give homage.

Nate: 26:50

I was so excited for this movie. At the time I was getting he-man magazine. That he-man magazine. They had set photos, ads, toys, comics ads, character bios ads, and also they had this little thing when you open the magazine, little flyers would fall out. Don't you miss magazines? Yeah, right, I mean, just, you're actually ads to go with your ads, right I mean. And I remember, dude, I got that. That is a day I still stick some of mine Like we went to the mailbox, we were living in our apartments at the time and like, yeah, I was all about it and to my mind, you know, it was amazing. I'm sure if I saw it now I'd be like, um, this is like five, basically five pages with a content, with a bunch of ads.

Shaun: 27:33

Yep, yep. And then you can order stuff from those ads and take six to eight weeks for it to arrive, damn straight. Remember when shipping used to take forever.

Nate: 27:41

Right, like, okay, I ordered this now the way. Yeah, now I mean, you're right, I just sometimes I just speak fast.

Shaun: 27:46

Six to eight weeks and nowadays you can order something and sometimes it's there like the next day.

Nate: 27:50

Yeah, oh yeah. I did that recently. I was like do you want this tomorrow?

Shaun: 27:53

Yeah, right, and you're like, is it next to the charger? Like no, not really. Like huh, yeah, okay.

Nate: 27:59

Did you pay Amazon Prime? Of course I am. Well then, yeah, you're going to get tomorrow, the next day.

Shaun: 28:04

Back in the day is mail your checkout and it'll get there in like three weeks. Then they got to have two weeks to turn it around and then three weeks to ship it back to you and you're like yeah, and I have the audacity to be annoyed when I order some just for the weekend.

Nate: 28:14

They're like go get it Monday. It's like ah, how dare you. I have to wait three days.

Shaun: 28:21

But then it was kind of cool as a kid though, because you're like six to eight weeks, and then you just go stare at the calendar for the next six to eight weeks and just be like it's coming Right. Soon it will be here.

Nate: 28:31

Then the UPS truck rolls by and you're like yeah, there it flashed to me like the Calvin Hobbs comic where Calvin orders a beanie with a little propeller on the top and he like waits and waits and waits and waits, like six weeks and it finally shows up and he puts it on his head. He's like, okay, well, fly through the sky, haha, crap. Yeah, there's that one panel like the last panel, him just staying there, the little propeller going around, and he just like look, total disappointment, like oh, I do remember ordering the occasional tourney like this is going to be cool.

Shaun: 28:59

When it shows up and you get in, you're like, oh huh, yeah, this is awful. Yeah, I don't know how to feel about this. I feel cheated.

Nate: 29:08

Well, as you may have guessed, I watched in the theater opening weekend, but I became confused almost immediately because gone with the color for outfits and characters. Instead, it looked like a futuristic, futuristic version of Mad Max, shot entirely at night on empty stages. Dolph Lunger had muscles of he man, but he had a gun and shoulder pads. Skeletor played by Frank Langella is, I would say, lingela Langella. I think it's Langella.

Shaun: 29:33

And you sound more exotic and fancier.

Nate: 29:35

Skeletor, played by Frank Langella, who's actually like a legit actor, had won the war and taken over Castle Grants goal Thanks to the character Gwildor and his cosmic key. There are actually several new characters aside from him introduced. Most of them were villains and they were all just terrible. I mean, I think maybe they spent four minutes total for each character they added. I mean, the only character I actually kind of liked that thought was cool was a character came in Sorod. He was like an armor and lizard but he dies like almost immediately. He's in the first fight with he man. He gets knocked down like he's nothing and then Skeletor kills him is like look how evil I am.

Shaun: 30:13

Come on, man. See, I mean, maybe it's for the best for that character. They died right away and stayed cool, because if he had lived through the entire movie he might have gotten really lame in a hurry.

Nate: 30:21

Well, and I actually I looked at this toy like when I was researching I'm like what was his name again, because I remembered, you know, the whole thing. The toy looked awful. I mean, I mean not like the human characters were ever like great, but even on the scale of he man characters from back in the 80s they did not look good. Yeah, but he man, tila man and arms of Gwildor go to earth to meet some teenagers who of course, did not look like teenagers.

Shaun: 30:49

I'm 28 years old. I'm going to play a teenager.

Nate: 30:52

And it's actually one of my favorite scenes in there. I thought it actually holds implications about the attorney. There was a scene where they show up to like a chicken, like a KFC, but one KFC and they steal some food from them. They're eating it. They're like what are these sticks on there? And when he man, I was like oh, they're bones, they're horrified bones. You mean this used to be alive and like wait time out. Are you telling me Eternia? Are you telling me with the massive muscles that are walking around? You know from everybody they're vegetarians, are you? Are you trying to like? What kind of plants do you have?

Shaun: 31:24

in your ear. Yeah, he managed vegan indoctrination for the kids back in the 80s, but I always thought that was kind of like, not just kind of weird.

Nate: 31:31

Yeah, it was just. It was a weird add on and it puts I don't know my thing. I just love the look of horror on their face when they're eating meat and like yeah, that's right.

Shaun: 31:38

Tastes great, so matter of thing you could eat.

Nate: 31:43

Yeah, matter of thing seem. You like yeah, he's like yeah, in battle sometimes you can.

Shaun: 31:48

Right, he's just like yeah, well, back during the Holocaust, when I was a kid we had to eat what we could, I don't know, in the future.

Nate: 31:53

Now, you like you know the chickens probably sent you to. They're like no, please do not.

Shaun: 31:59

So it is all the animals on planet, or sentient, so you actually have to, like, talk to it as you're about to butcher it. Please rethink about to eat me. No, no, no, I'm really hungry.

Nate: 32:08

So amongst these teenagers, Courtney Cox was one of them, but she was. There was only a second movie and she did fine. I mean, it was a decent fish that wore a story. It was entertaining, it was the. But that story quickly falls by the wayside from like some low budget action, especially when I was going to say wasn't Delph Lundren a pretty big actor at this time too?

Shaun: 32:27

No, he was awful. He was before Rocky Four.

Nate: 32:30

Yes, no, before. Rocky Four is before this, but but like he wasn't. So he was recognizable but he wasn't Delph Lundren. You know it was because even Rocky Four he was, he was like almost like Mr T we're. I mean, this T had a bigger career after I don't know if he did, because he had the A team, but like he was big he was recognizable but he wasn't like a name. You know what I mean.

Shaun: 32:58

Yeah. He was that big, scary Russian dude who's going to take over America?

Nate: 33:03

It wouldn't like you walk up to some random kid, like you know, delph Lundren, like who? Yeah, it wasn't like. Oh, it's this Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yeah.

Shaun: 33:11

He's a dude who beat up Rocky.

Nate: 33:15

Yeah. So eventually, with the dumbest parts of the whole movie, skeletor invades Earth. He gets the cosmic key and goes back to the attorney and of course, when they invade it's not just at night. No one's on the street, no civilians are hurt and no one sees anything. No one's affected by this invasion. He shows up, his army, comes through the like, a whole like fancy parade, going through the streets and literally not a single person.

Shaun: 33:42

It's what they're budgeting. The movie is like well, we can either pay all the paperwork and stuff and have the city shut down for these hours, or we can just shoot it at seven pm, Right before people go to bed.

Nate: 33:52

And the way Skeletor gets the cosmic key back, which the whole the MacGuffin about this whole movie is the cosmic key. But Skeletor catches the humans and he threatens to kill them unless he man surrenders. So he man does and it's like what's terrible tactics. I mean you're fate of the world on your line, on the line and you just immediately surrender because he catches two randos you met like five minutes ago. I mean, I know it's heartless, but yeah right.

Shaun: 34:17

It's like hey, Nate, give me the ultimate weapon of destruction that will destroy every, kill everybody on this planet, or I'm going to punch this puppy.

Nate: 34:25

Yeah, I mean, it's not even this earth, but like your planet. Yeah, I know you're a hero, so you don't necessarily want an innocent planet that's not involved be destroyed. But priority list, yeah, this is like.

Shaun: 34:36

this is like the trolley problem. Right, you know you got the entire universe on one track and like two kids you don't even really like on the other. So I'm going to marry David Arquette.

Nate: 34:46

So he gets whisked off and then those left behind make another cosmic key Thanks to synthesizers. Because 80s you go to a music store and they're like, oh, look at Goulders. Like what happened was one of them whistles and the guy whistled for the teenagers. And you know, this guy was Lieutenant Paris from Star Trek Voyagers, the only thing I know him from. So he was, and I'm not, I wasn't big in the four-hanger, but that's just if anybody listening that's who it was. So he whistled and Goulders like what is that? You're making music from your mouth. It's like time out again. I had to ask Is the concept of music on attorney not exist?

Shaun: 35:27

I mean, right, or just the ability to like blow air out of your mouth. It's like what, why is there noise coming out of that hole in your face? It's like well, it's coming out of your hole in your face too, buddy.

Nate: 35:36

And so they break into a music store and go straight for synthesizer and like. So he starts playing music and well then he gives it to the human. He's like you, human, you must do this. Like, didn't you make it? Like you think, as the creator of this thing, you would know what to do, instead of giving some random kid who, like doesn't know anything let's be real, he doesn't. I mean, he was a musician, kind of. They barely gave him a backstory. The only backstory they gave anybody was, you know, the girl, but anyway. So humans, they get the cosmic key. He makes it free, al Tor actually gets powered up and then the final fight begins. Here's the stages set. I've bypassed a lot of stuff, but who cares? Stage set.

Shaun: 36:23

There was a lot of filler and boring stuff in there.

Nate: 36:25

Yes, there was other things that were happening.

Shaun: 36:27

Yeah, he meant people are going to sit in a bush and talk about stuff for a while.

Nate: 36:30

They actually did evil in a pretty cool Like I'll be honest with you, like the thing was like T, that was supposed to be kind of like the bombshell. But I'll tell you what, between the two, evil in was more. Oh yeah, totally yeah, oh man, her eyes. Oh, anyway, forget about it.

Nate: 36:45

At this point production was now out of money. Like what was supposed to be an epic fight, would seem, between two powerful warriors became like two dudes moving very little as bright lights flashed behind them. It was very interwebbing, of course. He then wins, scaletor falls off at a nearby pit as they do, and everyone's happy Celebrations ensues. Courtney Cox and Lieutenant Tom Paris, as I mentioned earlier, are sent back to Earth.

Nate: 37:08

But when one little amusing thing that kind of dawned on me as I was writing this and I didn't realize it back in the time, there was a side story that Courtney Cox parents died of plane crash. That was her whole thing. Oh, my parents. She drops that hints like little crumbs going through the whole movie. My parents, when they get sent back to Earth, they're sent back in the back in time, just it, just before they leave to go in their doom flight. So she gets there and stops her parents from dying. But that would create time paradox, because the entire reason she ran into a he-man and her friends was because she was about to leave town, because her parents were dead.

Shaun: 37:49

And that's why she just now stuck in a groundhog day situation till the end of time. Yeah, I mean like never ending looping hell of trying to rescue her parents.

Nate: 37:57

Right, I mean so like um, but they of course obviously know one of the movie. Like I can't fault the writers because I'm not stuck, or two.

Shaun: 38:08

I mean you could, but I mean I mean well, if I fault them for this.

Nate: 38:12

There are so many egregious things that happen in this movie that's kind of like a you know a side thing. If you think too long, there are plenty of other plot holes that are honestly just having them go to earth and meet earthlings was dumb plot idea.

Shaun: 38:24

They should just had everything happen on Eternia with wild. You know high expectations and adventures and well, that would take money.

Nate: 38:30

Monsters, it would. That was the problem. Well, I'll touch on that in a second. But as the credits rolled you know the movie is over I was at the opening weekend and the credits were rolling and I was actually walking down the aisle to leave, like I remember we were leaving out from behind the screen, so we didn't turn around and go back where we came in. We are going down to the screen and go out the back way. You're slowly going out there watching the credits go by. And then something happened that blew my fucking mind. You're nearly out of the theater and also the first in credit scene at Earth scene happened. It was the camera pans with some bubbling water and Scow towards head, pops out and declares I'll be back. But he wasn't. Yeah never.

Shaun: 39:10

And then the rain exploded Like oh my God, right, what?

Nate: 39:15

After that, after that for a while, like when I would like written VHS and more stuff. I always fast forward to the end to see there's in credits. You know it was like it was a Marvel thing before the Marvel thing and then of course, almost nobody did it Very few.

Shaun: 39:28

I remember a tiny handful of movies doing it. Yeah, very, it did happen.

Nate: 39:32

It's not that it didn't, but yeah that just that set me up for disappointment.

Shaun: 39:37

Yeah, I think the only other one that pops in top my head is, I think killer clowns from outer space did it back then A couple of like super cheesy horror movies, like super cheesy low budget.

Nate: 39:46

But yeah, I might be wrong on that. Well, after the, after I saw the movie, I was in the afterglow and it hadn't quite hit me how bad it was. You know, safety had me with a fan of mess.

Shaun: 39:56

You know sugar and popcorn and stuff like that.

Nate: 39:58

Yeah, like you were a fan of mess, I left. That was older obviously. But like you know, when I left that movie I'm like, oh yes, that was. And then it slowly just kind of dawn to you Like you saw like a hate crime.

Shaun: 40:09

You're just kind of like I know exactly what you mean when somebody's like did you like that movie? Yeah, it was good. And then you start thinking about it a few days after. It's like did I like it though?

Nate: 40:17

Do I really do Like?

Shaun: 40:19

oh no, people scoff like I heard you like that piece of crap movie. I'm like, no, I don't think.

Nate: 40:22

I know, yeah, I did, but not anymore. I actually started thinking about what I saw.

Shaun: 40:27

Yeah, and it took time to soak it in and process. I'm like, oh, no, no, no, no.

Nate: 40:32

Well, dear my research, I actually found a nice little thing where Frank Legilla, you know, said Skelter to the day was still one of his favorite roles, Like he didn't know anything about Master of the Universe, but his kids loved and pushed him to get very much like Raul Julia did for M Bison a street fighter, that's what. I thought of. But although Legilla didn't have any amazing speeches for like for me with a Tuesday, you know that's still. I love that yes man Still up there.

Nate: 40:57

But Frank Legilla actually did add one of his own lines. He stuck this in there and I really love this line. So I want to say it. I don't know, I'm going to try, I'm going to do another bad impression. So this is a really cool line. He goes tell me the loneliness of good, he man, is it equal to the lonely lens of evil? But awesome, what a bad line that's. I don't know, I just love that line Like tell me the loneliness of good is equal to the loneliness of evil. Like that, of course, he managed for his IQ of 72, just freezes up and is like huh.

Shaun: 41:28

That's what a Skeletor stabs him. I like roses. What yeah? My cat's breath smells like cat food.

Nate: 41:36

The movie did not do well. They made 17.3 million back from the budget of 22 million. The critics tore it apart and it was well deserved. You know, many of the issues can be laid to Fiamma Tell because they refused to pay on time. They had a very small budget and they tried to micromanage the director every term, like almost for the jump, like they. At one point the crew actually quit filming. They like covered up their cameras and refused to turn anything on because they're like until you pay us, we're not, we're done.

Shaun: 42:09

And so Mattel. Mattel forgot about rule 101 of making a movie you pay people to do shit.

Nate: 42:14

Right. I mean again, like I mentioned earlier, like they ran out of money for the final fight. It was actually done. That fight was done in a basement of some studio with only like Lundgren, langella and like a couple people in there. That was it. So it really was just two guys in a room Like they didn't do a big fight scene because there was nowhere. If they took two star and they walked too far back they would hit a wall.

Shaun: 42:38

It was Lundren, the other dude like a guy running the camera and the janitor just staying around waiting to lock up after they're done. Exactly, yeah, make another, make a mess. I got cleaned up beyond here by 11.

Nate: 42:51

Well, another thing was going against the movie that came out two years too late. Remember, the cartoon ended in 1985. That was when they needed a strike. Well, they needed a strike between. Honestly, the best time to strike was 1984. Yeah, so it's maybe three years too late, right in the middle of that, like the height of the cartoon.

Shaun: 43:07

And yeah, it's like by that time Transformers had taken some of the hype or some other cartoons. And I said I was here after that, wasn't it?

Nate: 43:15

I think so. I mean, I was still. Obviously I was still on He-Man Like the show ended, but I still played with it. I was still excited for the movie that came out. I got the magazine, everything. I was still into it, but I was. I was the exception of the role you know there's and I remember when I went and saw that movie theater we were one of the few people in there, so it wasn't like I went and saw the packed house, we saw it and there were plenty of seats to choose from.

Shaun: 43:41

You're like, oh my, this doesn't bode well. Well, at the time I was just too excited.

Nate: 43:46

I again, I was, I was still into it, so I was too excited, you're fucking a popcorn, your little pinnet flag that says He-Man on it.

Shaun: 43:52

And you just get little pinnet flags everywhere for like free or cheap, like those little felt flags, and just say something.

Nate: 43:58

Oh yeah.

Shaun: 44:00

I don't know why that just popped in my head. But just young Nathan with one dozen hands this is He-Man and big popcorn. I'm like, yeah, I'm excited this is going to be the greatest day of my life.

Nate: 44:08

Well, I remember my dad tried to get me to collect, like collect something. He like you just collect pins and patches. I'm like, ok, I didn't get about pins and patches, I want to play comics. And so that's what I was doing. Like I would he give me a pin like, hey, thanks Me, why go to the comic store? I got by all these.

Shaun: 44:25

And he's like but for the price for a comic book you can buy lots of pins and patches and you're like I don't care, old man.

Nate: 44:30

Yeah, I think you finally realized. I just do, I don't care, like you might like the patches by now.

Shaun: 44:34

Yeah, that's something he likes and not something you liked.

Nate: 44:38

That's it for this episode on He-Man. Next episode we'll talk about the master's universe movie, as well as future of the franchise, including the more recent cartoons from Kevin Smith. We'll also talk a little about the death of Superman, as well as Star Trek, d Space Nine.