Oft Off Topic
He-Man: From Theaters to Netflix, the Nostalgic Journey of an 80s icon
Nathan continues his hosting duties for part 2 of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe! Embark on a time-traveling adventure as we look on in horror at the 90s "New Adventures" iteration that may have had its heart in the right place, but missed the mark by a wide margin. Then, we'll leap ahead to dissect the bold narrative choices of "Masters of the Universe: Revelation" and its sequel. Controversy? Check. Plot twists? Double-check. And we'll weigh in on whether the new layers added to our Eternian heroes and villains enhance or tarnish the legacy of the franchise we grew up with.
As our cosmic journey comes to an end, we pay homage not just to the Power Sword-wielding hero, but also to the broader world of fandom. Touching on the age-old Star Trek vs. Star Wars debate, we champion the cultural titans that shaped our nerdy hearts. And for a final nostalgic roundhouse kick, we'll pit the charm of '80s He-Man against today's animated offerings, asking if the new generation will ever experience that same unbridled joy—or if they'll even care to seek it out. Join us for this kaleidoscope of pop culture reverence, critique, and everything in between.
Feel free to check out our website for links to our YouTube channel and more!
https://oftofftopic.com/
Our host Nathan also does art in addition to this podcast, including having is own sticker store. Please check it out and purchase anything that strikes your fancy.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/stickersbytownsend
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review us on your favorite podcast platform. Even if you didn't like the show, please do it, we appreciate it. You can also email us at OftOffTopic@gmail.com and let us know what you like or don't like, maybe we will even read your email on our show!
Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more Oft Off Topic!
Nathan continues his hosting duties for part 2 of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe! Embark on a time-traveling adventure as we look on in horror at the 90s "New Adventures" iteration that may have had its heart in the right place, but missed the mark by a wide margin. Then, we'll leap ahead to dissect the bold narrative choices of "Masters of the Universe: Revelation" and its sequel. Controversy? Check. Plot twists? Double-check. And we'll weigh in on whether the new layers added to our Eternian heroes and villains enhance or tarnish the legacy of the franchise we grew up with.
As our cosmic journey comes to an end, we pay homage not just to the Power Sword-wielding hero, but also to the broader world of fandom. Touching on the age-old Star Trek vs. Star Wars debate, we champion the cultural titans that shaped our nerdy hearts. And for a final nostalgic roundhouse kick, we'll pit the charm of '80s He-Man against today's animated offerings, asking if the new generation will ever experience that same unbridled joy—or if they'll even care to seek it out. Join us for this kaleidoscope of pop culture reverence, critique, and everything in between.
Feel free to check out our website for links to our YouTube channel and more!
https://oftofftopic.com/
Our host Nathan also does art in addition to this podcast, including having is own sticker store. Please check it out and purchase anything that strikes your fancy.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/stickersbytownsend
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review us on your favorite podcast platform. Even if you didn't like the show, please do it, we appreciate it. You can also email us at OftOffTopic@gmail.com and let us know what you like or don't like, maybe we will even read your email on our show!
Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more Oft Off Topic!
Well, mattel tried to revitalize the franchise in 1990 with the cartoon called the New Adventures of He-Man and poided they missed the mark. One strange design look of the new He-Man. It looked like Prince Adam had hit the gym for a while, ate his veggies and watched his carves basically just clean living and a positive mindset. So he had a pretty decent physique to show off at the beach and that was all good. But that's not He-Man. The magically roided up barbarian then crushed your skull with a bicep alone. They really just kind of like toned them down on muscle. And they did the same thing with Scowtour.
Shaun:Yeah, I'm looking at this cartoon. I do not remember this cartoon in the least. I do not even have an inkling of it.
Nate:I stumbled into it once and I didn't actually watch it because the moment I saw it was like He-Man and Space. I mean I guess it was all Space, but I don't know.
Shaun:It was just also odds are. It was on a channel. I didn't get it. It's probably on CBS or something.
Nate:Yeah, it just it was. It was not good. Yeah, I'm looking at it does not look good.
Shaun:It kind of looks He-Man, kind of looks like Dolph Lunkard in this actually.
Nate:Yeah.
Shaun:And I mean it's funny too, because like.
Nate:It's not like the 80s, that great animation, but it's still better than this. You know, you think animation improves over time, but this is. They took a step back in terms of like the art direction.
Shaun:Scowtour just looks bad.
Nate:He doesn't he? He really looks bad. I mean they gave him eyes, that's just bad. So I mean, plus, it was just stupid. You know, he mass Scowtour on the distant world of Primus.
Shaun:And you know even that logo the new adventures of Seaman is bad. Everything about this is bad. It really is. This just like shakes me at my core level how bad and cash in this is.
Nate:Oh man it, yeah, it really hurts your soul.
Shaun:I feel like he like this is painful to look at.
Nate:Well, they're at the distant world of Primus and the story ditched, the backstory, the old cartoon, and they're trying to go from the original mini comics, which are respectable, but no one really knew about the mini comics. They got a lot of people forgot about it because they released the mini comics with the original launch of them but they didn't continue releasing mini comics.
Shaun:I had forgotten about them too until you brought them up and had me look them up for you. And then I'm like, oh yeah, I do remember those, because those are the cool thing. You got the toy at the store and then you got to read the mini comic on the way home, kind of.
Nate:Yeah, and I mean I said on here it didn't last long, only lasted one season, but still 65 episodes, yeah, which has to be said earlier, is a lot. So obviously I guess they made the make the episodes before they released them. So they're like oh, we're released in one season now at 65 episodes, we'll do the next 65 after that, yeah.
Shaun:And I think it's one of those things like a lot of networks and stuff demanded have like a minimum number of episodes before they would accept it and stuff and right. Wow, the new adventures of He-Man Sagittar.
Nate:Have you seen a?
Shaun:picture of that.
Nate:Well Sagittar.
Shaun:Yeah, it's a man horse dude thing.
Nate:that's weird, anyway, I heard I heard a dog barking in the back. I was like Sagittar.
Shaun:Yeah, SAGITAR, yeah, first like Sagittarius, that's like a man Centaur thing. Oh wow Ha that looks awful. Yeah, I'm looking at one. It's like a cartoon version and also the toy next to it, and the toy looks like some man made a horror beyond our comprehension.
Nate:Well, it kind of looks like a Gorro figure, but instead of like but instead he's all hunched over, he's like a gorilla with it? Yeah, I don't know.
Shaun:But you can also. You can also stand him up to. It looks like.
Nate:Okay, and you okay. I'm just looking at the when he's all he was all getting, you know, getting in a, getting his position, if you will, he's getting to the Catholic position, yeah, ultra boy position, I should say that horrible cartoon. He stayed dead for another 12 years until 2002 TV series he man and the master of the universe was released. This animation cause actually pretty good for the time and it follows a storyline of the original series. They kind of picked up where they left off, you know, but the thing is on, this time they made him and more of a child and adult's body, unlike the original where he act. Basically the act the same, you know, be it Prince Adam or he man, he was basically the same dude. This time they kind of Well, not necessarily the same dude, but, like you know, he acted more adult, but this time at him and actually kind of like hey, I'm a kid and child's body.
Shaun:Yeah, almost like a shizam kind of thing.
Nate:Yeah, I was actually just thinking about the shizam. Oh, try to, I'll try to get. This is where I got the image of Prince Adam as a smaller guy, because that's, it's still. I can't believe that. Yeah, this is where I got the image of him. That's exactly the image I had in my head too. It's like, oh, he's not quite as cowardly as he looks. He's still like he's down for his DTF, but yeah.
Shaun:Dirt daring like a rogue scoundrel or whatever.
Nate:Yeah, Anyway, you know it.
Shaun:Golly battle cat. What's going on?
Nate:Right. So the only real change, notice thing, that incarnation, the only change to the story overall, what they did on this one is Prince Adam and the slash he man is the descendant of King Grace Gold, the original owner of the power store. So they kind of made it like, oh yeah, there's a. You know, you remember this guy? He had powers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not sure. The series ran from 2002 to 2004 at a total of 39 episodes. So the R word is like you know, they're not do the whole 60, some episodes.
Shaun:39 is still decent, but it's like yeah, that's actually not a bad run.
Nate:I mean, that's not something you can watch all in one sitting and yeah, I mean that's a couple of things at least you know it's 65 episodes, that's like a journey.
Shaun:That really is a journey, a journey that probably takes you nowhere.
Nate:But I never really. You know the series. Actually the series got canceled like midway through the second season so they never really got to see the stories going. I never saw it myself. I've seen some clips. You know. The only storylines worth mentioning is a character named Keldor they introduced. Keldor was actually originally mentioned back in the mini comics. He was just mentioned as the long lost brother of King Randor and nothing really came of it. It's kind of like a name drop. But in this series the Keldor becomes scowl tour after making a deal with Hordak falling like a freak through acid throwing accident, the accident being how freak acid throwing accident Right so like a Dr Doom kind of thing almosters.
Nate:Kind of I mean, and I took that line off. I tried to like adapt that line from the Zulean air line. It just didn't fit.
Shaun:I was just thinking that it was like yeah, it was, it is quite Keldor after a freak acid flinging accident. Yeah, it did quite plug in, it didn't hit the same humor as that one. But I read it.
Nate:It could have worked but it would take it a lot of effort. But he actually says you know, keldor was the original acid thrower and King Randor had the audacity to block with the shield.
Shaun:You know, that's basically yeah, yeah, that bastard Uh finally, that series has good reviews too on, uh, google and stuff like 90.
Nate:Yeah, I mean it clearly, people actually cared, yeah, people who made it, it looks like this one they actually put effort into to you know, do you know?
Shaun:good, decent animation, decent story. This looks like one of those where, like the people who put the show together, actually cared a little bit and tried Right, as opposed to that 1991 that we saw. That just, oh god, just.
Nate:Okay, and if they really did care, they, that's the same. That's really the shame.
Shaun:Yeah Cause that means that they're just dumb yeah.
Nate:How do you f?
Shaun:that up yeah. I mean it looked a lot like Captain Planet kind of.
Nate:anyways, Well, finally, the critical claim but much shadow pawn series, master of the Universe revelation, came out in 2021, produced by Kevin Smith. This is a direct sequel to the 1983 to 1985 series. The animation story is quite good. Unfortunately, it committed the cardinal geek sin of starring women. Ha he, he had a long a skeletor, apparently killed in the beginning of the series. Afterward, tila takes the raise and main character and searches for the secrets of Castle Grayskull. Eventually, she reunites with Adam and the attorney at Afterlife, which is actually a real place. Uh, then go to, not just a metaphysical thing like oh yeah, it's, it's actually like a place that can be traveled to.
Shaun:Hmm, it's not just inside of your mind, right?
Nate:Eventually, prince Adam is resurrected as a skeletor During this time. During this time, evil Lynn had taken the roles the main baddie and steals all those powers from the sorceress. Now Adam and Skeletor form a temporary alliance to get the power away from Evil Lynn, because she's kind of tearing the fabric of the universe. Um, of course, just for Adam can take control of the power, you know, and Skeletor betrays Prince Adam and steals the power sword. So now He-Man reveals he doesn't need the power sword and he just summons it down and becomes kind of like a feral He-Man. He gets super jacked and he's all like in very barbarian like, and he still cut is one of those things like, no, remember me, yo Tila. I was like, don't rip my head off, it's me Tila. And he, uh, you know the idea is pretty cool, but you know it was a brief thing.
Shaun:Um, they could have fleshed out the idea a little bit more maybe.
Nate:Yeah, I mean it was fine, but I don't think they really, you know, wanted to roll with it that long, because you know this actually happened they split this original series into two and by the this time it was coming out, I mean they had already heard like a lot of mad geeks going it's a He-Man show, he-man's not it. It's like, can you? Yeah, I mean I, I one hand, I get what your your point, I do understand what you're saying, but at the same time, let let it marinate, yo, let it happen, and honestly, in my opinion, it might be worth the wait because, uh, once, once he gets back the sword, it's actually pretty damn awesome. You know there's an extensive scene which he goes rolling through the battlefield just owning Skeletor's minions and armies and they, you know he's massively overpowered, he's just great.
Shaun:You know he just slaughtering his way through He-Man being bad as He-Man, as He-Man should be.
Nate:Yeah, I mean, it was actually a really cool that whole setup. Now, ultimately, though, he-man wins the day. Skeletor's repelled slinks off in the desert, only be turned to a cyborg by something like no name villain mother board and she was an evil AI, you know, dun Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun Dun, and so I remember that happen. I was like, oh, that's crap.
Shaun:But you know I I knew there'd be more so there's only a second season for that one right, the newest T-Man cause. I haven't watched that one yet. I watched it first and enjoyed it. There's a I don't remember what you talked about whereas, like uh, tilo is basically the main character and it's like, hey, we're gonna figure out a way to bring He-Man back, possibly because I mean they made? They made a very clear He-Man was going to be back in the series, so oh yeah.
Nate:It was super obvious.
Shaun:Yeah, it's not like people. Yeah, people just jumped her as assumptions on that one be like well, he's obviously got forever. They're womanizing he man. How dare they mean, I kind of feel the same way about when the Velma show came out and everybody's freaking out because there's no Scooby-Doo in it. It's like, well, if you actually watch the show, they're kind of laying the groundwork for Scooby-Doo being seasoned to.
Nate:but Well, but I've also heard the show isn't terrible in general. Oh, I enjoyed it. Oh, did you? Okay, like I, I was actually.
Shaun:I mean they're a bit extensive.
Nate:Like YouTube, people just tearing it to shreds.
Shaun:No, actually there was one C episode where they come into a room full of like somebody's like kidnapping all of like the Valley girls in the town and like put, taking out their brains and putting them into jars and they would have been a room just full of all these Valley guard, valley girl brains and jars talking to each other, and anyways, eventually they catch Fred like making out with brains and jars because they're like you're hot Fred, Come here. He's like, yeah, come here. He's like tongue in their brains. That's funny.
Shaun:It's dumb but funny, oh yeah it's a stupid show, but it's actually pretty funny. I'm not saying it's good, I'm not saying it's a good show, I'm saying I enjoy it.
Nate:There's a big difference between that. There's a big difference.
Shaun:One is not. They are not the same thing. I can also admit there's good shows that I don't like too, so it's like hey, that's a well made thing. I don't like it, and that's okay it is okay.
Nate:So that same year Netflix actually released a very forgettable CGI version of He-Man and the Master Universe. And you know, I'm taking a pause for a second, like it is kind of confusing because all these series of not all you know, but most of these series, they're all named He-Man and the Master Universe. So it's kind of like which one you talking about there First one, yeah, which one are you talking about?
Shaun:He-Man and the Master's Universe, or just He-Man, the master of the universe, or He-Man?
Nate:Yeah, you kind of have to slap the year on there. It's like this is when we're talking about this. Hey, kevin Conroy was in this one Neat. So instead of building off the original like Revelation, this one rebooted the 1983 series. You know it's kind of redid it. Prince Eddie was kidnapped by Kildor and ended up being raised by a jungle tribe instead of at the Royal Palace. You know they drastically changed the look design of multiple key characters, but avoid the backlash.
Shaun:He-Man has a very tiny head on this one.
Nate:Yeah. Maybe a picture I've seen is yeah, I mean they definitely they took some liberties with it where they looked.
Shaun:On one hand, I don't know, the look is definitely different, but I don't necessarily hate it. No, actually, I really appreciate this. Yeah, I kind of like Battle Cat that I'm seeing from it too there's little cyborg armor and stuff and I actually like the look of.
Nate:He-Man you know, he has a kind of a Joe Maduro. If you know the comic artist, he has that kind of look yeah. Where it's like I really do appreciate that, but again the He-Man version because he's like insanely huge.
Shaun:You know it's definitely one of the better renditions they've done of him, so, yay, good on them.
Nate:Yeah, this series also introduced Adam's twin sister, She-Ra, and their predecessor He-Ra.
Shaun:Oh Jesus Right, He-Ra, he-ra.
Nate:He-Ra, oh God, and it's He-R-O, so that's why Is his last name sandwich He-Ra sandwich?
Shaun:Oh, that'd be it, yes.
Nate:You know what it is now it's. That's the US canon. That's the US canon I will be editing the Wikipedia article later.
Nate:So, finally, we come to the most recent incarnation of He-Man, Master of the Universe Revolution. That's a series that just came out. It picks up directly after Revelation and if you consider two parts to a whole, skeletor is still cyborg. That's how it starts off. Skeletor is still a cyborg, or the commander, mother board, who is in turn serving Hordak. Hordak in this one is our world conquering warlord, who claims to be ruling over a thousand of the world. He was like I rule 10,000 worlds, and I mean, if he's ruling 10,000 worlds, how does he have so much time to dedicate to conquering eternity?
Shaun:You're, like I do, a delegate.
Nate:I mean delegate five. It seems like he only cares about the taking over, not the actual, like ruling yeah.
Shaun:I like.
Nate:Christian, I don't like actually managing the data.
Shaun:He learned his galaxy conquering from a course taught by Saiyans where slowly you just go through and you quote unquote conquer the planets but naturally you're just destroying them. Yeah, true.
Nate:I mean, might as well. Yeah, because I remember the one scene that he was like conquering these rock people's planet. They were just bombarding it from orbit, so it wasn't like they were going down there and doing things.
Shaun:Yeah it's like they're going down there and challenging them in a duel. They might get their ass kicked if they tried that.
Nate:So this series also reintroduces Keldor as the original Skeletor. It turns out Keldor felt betrayed by his brother and he turned to Hordak for more power. And they actually kind of play with it for a little bit. Because when a Keldor originally showed up in the series, he's like hey, it's me, you know. Like he goes to Prince Adam that everyone now knows as he man. He's like, hey, it's me, I wasn't really supposed to be king but they passed me over for reasons. And Prince Adam is like OK, well, you know they, they fight together, they, you know Keldor gets him to actually like believe him and trust in him. And they actually Prince Adam gives him, I guess, king, but he gives him the king. So Keldor actually becomes the king of Eternia.
Nate:And but come to find out, it was all all a bruise. You know, skeletor is actually working for Motherboard. Who's working for? You know, hordak, and he wasn't fully Skeletor. But he starts at one point our mother motherboard like kicks the crap out of him because she's mad at him during the beating. It kind of like breaks the thing that's keeping Skeletor as a slave and so he starts kind of coming out of it and so he starts taking more onage of like himself. So that was actually again. It was really good. I liked it.
Shaun:Yeah, skeletor is going to turn into a good guy. No, no, no, ok, no, that's always annoying A little bit.
Nate:That's. I really appreciate it too because you know they the whole Keldor thing and Skeletor release they because they have there's actually several opportunities, even the original one, like the original revelation. There was a couple of times where Skeletor could have like stepped up into the right thing and he didn't. Oh nice.
Shaun:On this one. You know those stories I've talked about where he hated, where he like yeah, finally there's going to be two bad ass villains in a series. Is like oh no, no, they're just turning into a good guy, right.
Nate:So well, it was cool to see a large Amon Skeletor and he man, but I didn't team up like last time they teamed up to beat Evelyn, this time like they were both doing the separate things several times. Skeletor, you know you're almost expect to see this huge fight between Skeletor and motherboard and it just like. I don't want to do too many spoilers, but it wraps up off screen Like he does.
Shaun:It's a pretty cool Like you don't feel cheated when they're having like a standoff, you know big dramatic music and everything, and then just cuts to the next scene and they're all just sitting around table having coffee.
Nate:You don't have to have a fight.
Shaun:I'm a total fight. I wish people could have seen that.
Nate:It's actually. You don't feel cheated at all, it works. It just does so well. So Tila actually serves a large part in this series as well. There's a whole thing about her trying to become the new sorceress and during this process she goes through several physical changes, but one of them was actually the original look of the sorceress back in the mini comics, where she had green skin and like stinker. It was a pretty cool throwback, you know it's like I knew she looked Settle little nod that made people go.
Shaun:Ee, hee, hee Right.
Nate:If you're on the know, that's it was. It was cool. They also brought back Gildor from the live action movie and they dropped several lines in there. So strongest suggesting the movie was canon, in which I both like and hate, you know.
Shaun:I don't know. So that means that there's no such thing as whistling in Eternia. Oh my God Right, that changes everything. We need to go back and watch every episode of Masters University if there's any whistling in it. And then we got to the action.
Nate:Yes, we got fired for that blunder and on this one, gildor and Orco team up. You know which is which is also kind of. You know, it's interesting little twist because Gildor was going on in a well, it was that. It was that.
Shaun:I hope they both die.
Nate:Sadly no, but Gildor is actually was a replacement for Orco in the movie, because there was no way they could have Orco any justice in a live action movie in the 80s.
Shaun:No, because if they were going to do that, they probably would have just dressed up a dwarf and something stupid and called him Orco, and it would be awful, awful, awful awful. First of all, they would have been, probably would have had a fucking. Uh, what's his butt willow doing blackface or something like that.
Nate:Something like that. I mean it would have been bad. So for both revolution and revelation, which actually reversed that revelation and revolution, they look so similar. The voice acting talent was actually top notch Like several notable actors came out, the voice of various characters. You know they had some game or throwing people come in and like they, some other ones, like people, like, oh yeah, them. But it's like the most notable course, yeah, most notable course is Mark Campbell for Scalator. You know, yeah, he's great. Let's be real, scalator is a higher pitch joker.
Shaun:Yeah, I was just about to say he's just doing the joker at a slightly different.
Nate:Yeah, so he's basically born for the role.
Shaun:I'm not, that's not complaint, I mean, and also he might not even be doing it in different register, they might literally at the sound board just be like upping it just a hair, yeah. So I was disappointed. You know the South Park dudes, they don't even really do the voices anymore, they just modulated afterwards. Oh really yeah, for like Cartman's voice and stuff, they're just talking normally and then they just doing the sound booth afterwards because it's easier.
Shaun:I mean, I guess it saves on the throat, but it is a support. Yeah, that's exactly what it was. It can't hide you, the catmanteek. Well, yeah, you got like tighten up your throat and stuff.
Nate:So well, well, they also killed doors in it and they it actually took me off guard who used for Keldor, and I don't know the jump is so whatever, but they use William Shatner for Keldor. So when he first pop up and start talking, I'm like I know that voice.
Shaun:Who is that? I know that cadence. Why is that cadence?
Nate:so familiar and I actually I looked. When I looked it up, I felt dumb. Of course it was him, like it was, you know, you know William Shatner's voice by just listening to it. And I did, I had to look it up and I felt dumb, but it just took me off guard to here coming out of this large, muscular blue guy.
Shaun:It's also got a Steven Root and Phil Lamar from another off topic episode, phil Lamar.
Nate:Yeah yeah, Phil Lamar is actually from a Mr T episode.
Shaun:Yeah, he's done a lot. Yeah, and then Steven Roots, the boss from news radio.
Nate:I believe it was or yeah, yeah, he does a lot of stuff too.
Shaun:Yep, he's in town stuff and he's a Bill Dothriebuff of King of the Hill. Oh is he. He also is the inoff space, sarah.
Nate:Michelle Gullar. He's inoff space with the, you know, with the red stapler.
Shaun:Yep, he is in a ton of stuff. He is a very popular. Oh, Jason Muses in there too.
Nate:Yeah, Henry Rollins is tri-.
Shaun:Henry Rollins is triclops.
Nate:He shows up for like five seconds.
Shaun:Does he do like beat?
Nate:poetry for a moment, That'd be hilarious. No, he just shows up for one second. He's like you'll hail the boards, but it.
Shaun:Oh, okay, yeah, well, that's lame yeah like you're like a Henry Rollins rant or something. Very, very bit parts, yeah, basically whoever was doing the movie just wanted to like hang out in the studio with him for an afternoon, right.
Nate:Yeah, pretty much a million, let's talk.
Shaun:Yep, I assume that's how a lot of that stuff goes. Danny Trejo is Ram man.
Nate:Ram man with a Mexican accent.
Shaun:Very brief what the hell? Very brief appearance man it was very white in the original one.
Nate:I am offended In the nice bow, leaving room for more if necessary. Of course they did. Skeletor is killed. Future Nathan here to correct that. Hordak died, not Skeletor Hordak, big difference. He-man finally hooks up with Tila and people are freed and turned to his safe once more. Skeletor gets turned back into Keldor and is tossed in the prison. So there's no Skeletor.
Shaun:There's a lot of or suffixes on names Keldor. There really is Skeletor Ramor yeah.
Nate:Yeah, it's kind of ridiculous. Orco, because of powerful sorcerer, evil in, reforged, now good in, or whatever I can't remember, just to win, you know, he-man has now widely known as Prince Adam and frees the people from Marneke and turns to Keen democracy. Thus is the journey through animated. This is like that.
Shaun:Capitalism took over and destroyed all of Eternia Right.
Nate:Well, because he goes I'm a warrior, I would hit things my sword, I don't want to actually rule, and that was his whole thing. I guess the final solution was just like let's just get democracy. And here's the thing he doesn't do anything, anything to set this up. He tells people about the democracy. They're just surprised, as like as the audience is. So I'm like dude, it doesn't work that way. You can't just say hey, democracy.
Shaun:Here's a concept. Yeah, here's a concept. Make it work by.
Nate:I mean, look, dude that requires prep, like okay, you get some people together to form like I know committees are boring, but they exist for a reason and you know you get. You get people who like okay, you represent this group, you represent this group. For now I'm appointing you guys, but afterward you guys can vote for your stuff.
Shaun:But we need to get and all fight amongst each other. But first of all we set up some stuff.
Nate:But instead he's like democracy, peace out, and now he's going to leave it to like whoever's hungry for power. You know, it sounds like.
Shaun:it sounds like an allegory for Afghanistan and America. To be honest, if you think about it, just show hey, you know what. We're here to save you, but I turns out I just rather hit stuff with my sword. So democracy by. I'll see you over in Iraq, or whatever.
Nate:You guys got that right See ya, yeah, at least this guy will be like hey, democracy guys, but remember, if you do it badly, I've got a giant power suit.
Shaun:Yeah Well, no, that's, that's America too. If you do it badly, we've got some nukes Right, yeah, so okay, so cool. The newest He-Man is a allegory for the war in Afghanistan. It's an off-topic fact. I'll be editing the Wikipedia page later. Dan Strait.
Nate:So I'm glossing over several media. He-man appeared in. There were, of course, golden books, actual golden books, where he showed up, and you know other stories.
Shaun:There's like a 2000s She-Ra show, I think too.
Nate:Oh, I'm a past She-Ra, like I actually thought about that. But my justification was like I'm not writing this by She-Ra, I'm writing this by He-Man Because you know, she-ra kind of became his own thing. It's nowhere near as big as this and my um, my eldest actually watched the She-Ra when it first came out and she was into it, but she lost interest pretty fast and they actually came a second season like oh, you know what she's like, I don't care.
Shaun:Yeah, it's like it started interesting and then devolved into just bleh.
Nate:Yeah, that's basically what happened. Yeah, it just you know it started off and then it's like mmm so.
Shaun:It almost looked, if I recall from what I saw, it looked almost like it was trying to ape a cartoon network like Steven Universe stuff a little hard.
Nate:Oh, for real, I'm not going to be wrong on that, yeah, I kind of yeah, because I wanted to watch it with her, because I was like, oh yeah, I have a nostalgia for She-Ra, but not really. You know, I had a nostalgia for She-Ra because it was attached to He-Man.
Shaun:Yeah, yeah, nostalgia for that world and that setting and that storyline.
Nate:Right, I didn't really knew much about because you know it was all attorney and I don't know even Hordak I didn't know that much about. I know more about Hordak because of this, the most recent show. You know I actually had a Hordak figure and a couple of his like little sets, but I didn't. I knew I knew Scowthor. You know I don't really know much about Hordak.
Shaun:Yeah, I don't really know much about him either, to be honest. For some reason I just Googled him up when I was picturing Hordak in my head I was picturing like a big, fuzzy, hairy dude who was actually somebody else in the He-Man world.
Nate:No, hordak is. The guy you're thinking of is one of his minions, gotcha, so he is attached to Hordak as his beast man, if you want.
Shaun:And he also had to do with the eyes that came out, little eye stalks of bloop. You push a little button in his back and his eyes go Yep, Yep. I had him too. And also there's big snake mountain where it had like the little microphone you could talk into. You remember that toy, yeah.
Shaun:I never had that one, though, oh yeah, it was just the same place yet, but, for whatever reason, had a microphone on it and you could talk to him. There's like a little speaker that would speak out of the front of it. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, fun fact. Nerdcore rapper MC Chris learned to wrap off of that thing. That was like where he did his first recordings as a little kid off of oh damn yeah. You will probably state that whenever you talk to him about it.
Shaun:But yeah, so there you go, there's some fun He-Man toy facts.
Nate:Ooh la la so one of the things he was in.
Shaun:Atari released video games, and there aren't much for He-Man, I seem to remember having the Atari He-Man game and it was one of those where it was just a video game, that could have been anything and they just attached the He-Man name to it.
Nate:OK, because, yeah, when they released it, I was researching this and I just saw they released it. I know nothing about it. I didn't know. It was just until I was writing my thoughts.
Shaun:Yeah, that's one of those where it's like, oh, part of the game is it's a quote unquote racing game. Then the next part is a quote unquote run at the guys and attack them. Yeah, just man.
Nate:And there were several other games from back then that came up with the Commodore 64 and some other gaming systems I ain't even heard of. Like I was actually going to write them all down and I'm like never mind the Magnavox Odyssey and stuff. Yeah yeah, I'm like I don't care, like I don't know what these are. Yeah, I think I've heard of them briefly, I think one or two of them I never actually heard of, so I just I didn't care, I didn't write them down.
Shaun:I'm curious what the name of them is, if you've never heard of them before I didn't.
Nate:So yeah, I like you.
Shaun:You're like I didn't write them down. Where did I write it down, anyways most.
Nate:I saw it on the Wikipedia page. So most recently there was a fun phone game that was released that came out. I say recently, be like last 10 years. It was fine. Yeah, it is kind of came and went. I mean it's not really worth talking about. I did not know he meant phone game existed.
Shaun:Yeah, it's basically.
Nate:It's very yeah, side scholar, very cartoony and it was. It was fun, it was fine. Yeah, you know I'm not going to knock it it, it did its purpose yeah it also looks like a reskin side scroller kind of game it. Yeah, there's nothing really unique about it other than like a man.
Shaun:Yeah well, those were you play the game. You're like oh look, he man references he man references he man sound bite.
Nate:Yay. So the question is is there a future for he man? Absolutely there are. The reviews for Revolution stuff are good. The interest of franchise risen considerably among other eighties properties. That should probably go back to the past, you know. Like not all eighties properties are great.
Shaun:You know, as people, as our generation gets older, we'll be looking for comfort in the olden ways and yeah, that means we'll just be watching nothing but Marvel movies and old Saturday morning cartoons and the old folks home.
Nate:But still the new. A new live action movie has been talked about for years, looks like actually recently, netflix has acquired the rights from Sony and they've already cast a guy named Kyle Allen to play he man, I've never heard this guy. I looked him up, I mean he has the face for it, I guess, but he's not jacked, you know, and I mean I guess you need to have.
Shaun:Now I can put one of those foam suits from the eighties and you'll look badass in it.
Nate:You know, honestly, like the best he man scouter I ever seen was in that one commercial. I know you've seen where it's like they dance.
Shaun:Oh yeah.
Nate:But. And.
Shaun:I don't know what that's probably enough, they looked real good.
Nate:I mean, they were common. They were like toy slash, early cartoon accurate.
Shaun:Yeah, yeah, you. If you put a whole show together, that aesthetic, I don't know if it'd be like great over a long run, but I could easily see you sitting down and watching a show with it.
Nate:I'm sure one shot or something For for the way they looked. It would need to be like funny.
Shaun:Oh yeah, oh, absolutely. It had to be a self aware thing.
Nate:Yeah, there's no way.
Shaun:I like this time to use the tour, but I can't fit through this door in this suit.
Nate:Yeah. So yeah, I know this dude. I don't know what you know, I'm sure he'll be being. Even Dolph Lunger wasn't insanely jacked, but he was. I mean, he passed. He passed because he was tall and he was muscular. Oh, look at this dude.
Shaun:Yeah, that's not very. Hmm, this Kyle Allen dude, he doesn't look very manny, I guess.
Nate:I mean I guess they could always like you know it's CG, for a reason. You know they could definitely like OK, now you're, now you're huge.
Shaun:I was trying to think off top of my head who would play it, and first push and pop in my head was Henry Cavill. For some reason, I don't know why.
Nate:Henry Cavill could be Henry.
Shaun:He could pull it off.
Nate:That's a good. I don't. I don't think it would fit his, I don't think he would do it. But he, that is definitely more of a he man, like yeah, he's also a lot more hairy, like that's. One thing about Superman that was kind of irritating me was, like you see his chest hair poking up over his thing. I'm like I honestly want you to shave. But you know, come on man.
Shaun:Yeah, took that shit in. Yeah, depending on which comic book series you look at, he man's hair is not supposed to grow under a yellow sun, I guess.
Nate:Oh yeah, I thought he did, because I've seen him like he has long hair and some things he has fucking.
Shaun:Yeah, there's episodes where he shaves I've. I just remember one specific comic where he man's like good thing I don't ever have to worry about cutting my hair because my hair doesn't grow under a yellow sun. And then, like two days later in the comic store I saw him with a mullet and I was just like what the fuck people? Yeah, there's literally a comic cover with a mullet at one point.
Nate:If I were oh yeah, that was after he died. He died, yeah, he died from Doomsday, and then he, like, went to the first solitude where his body was cooked until you know it came alive.
Shaun:Until the egg timer came off Exactly and it came back to the mullet. Basically, he came back to life. When sales required, he came back to life Exactly, yeah, where DC was like, ok, it's time to milk in that cash cow, bring back the.
Nate:He-Man and walk again, yeah they had four Superman comics at the time going, which was the real Superman.
Shaun:I'm like OK.
Nate:I'll tell you what. I don't know who the real Superman is, but I can tell you this the black, the black guy in a complete sea of iron or like steel outfit.
Shaun:That's not Superman. I can tell you that right now.
Nate:Steel or whatever his name was, or it was just steel, it was steel and like well, even then, like that you went in, there is like, yeah, they gave him a name and a backstory, like he's not Superman. And then, you know, superboy came out and they're like he's a clone. Like OK, then he's obviously not Superman. Yeah, and not even like that. He's like he's not, he's an imperfect clone, he's not exactly Superman. And then they had one guy who looked most like Superman, like he was a robot, he was a cyborg Superman. Although he had like a half of Superman's face, it's still like he's a cyborg, he's not Superman. And then there was going to be none of these people.
Shaun:They're just going to bring back the old Superman. That's exactly what happened.
Nate:The last one was an alien. He was like the annihilator, this guy would. He shot like energy from his hands. He did look like Clark Kent Superman, but he was. You know, he had shades on. He was very much alien and so it, I don't know, like it was pretty obvious he wasn't, because he was more murdery. So it comes to find out. Yeah, the cyborg guy was evil and blotty, blotty blah and Superman came back. He didn't have his powers until he did, and it was yeah.
Shaun:And I remember nobody was fooled by the fact Superman was quote unquote dead, because I remember he was trying to pull off the like hey, he's never coming back and everybody's like uh-huh.
Nate:Yeah, I mean, it was even the news that I remember it was like in the news oh, it was actually a big.
Shaun:It was big news and people were like, hey, there's going to be the big comic to buy to the Superman dies comic. It'll be one of the most valuable comics of all time, which, of course, it wasn't because everybody bought it, because they printed four trillion copies of it, right, yeah.
Nate:So, and I actually missed it I there was a Walden books. I was begging on the mall to go the wall, the books so I can get it, and then they never took me and they finally did. They were all Gone until I was like they're all gone, I'm looking through, I didn't find it. I'm teaming. I finally kind of gave up like I guess it's gone. This fucking woman pulls it up. I had nowhere. She's like oh, this. And she got the last one. Oh, mm-hmm.
Shaun:Ah, you should just tackled her and taken it, almost did. So, that's my death of super cut man comic. Curse you so.
Nate:Yeah, I'm looking forward to the future. This franchise, I mean, let's be real, it's dumb. The storylines are bonkers. And here's one thing that I discovered you can't go back. You know, much as you want to, you can't go back. I try to watch from the old episodes and I just I couldn't.
Shaun:Wow, this cartoon has a frame rate of eight. I it just yeah some of those old cartoons. They did not have a whole lot of in-betweens, if I remember correctly.
Nate:Yeah, there's a lot of like princess, hey, that person.
Shaun:Yeah, it's in there, just his mouth is moving and at the very end of the scene, like his arm moves up just a little bit.
Nate:Yeah, I mean even like. That was like for Transformers too. I saw some old Transformers. It was like Transformers in the foreground, talking, and French were in the back of the flying by are literally just like a drawing. They're moving across.
Shaun:Yeah, yeah it's. You could almost like see the cellophane sheet sliding along with yeah. So, hair that stuck on the cellophane. Moving with they're like Do-do-do-do-do, go leave, mr Peabody.
Nate:Yeah, so the magic of that time, you know it was. There was one. I was five, you know, when I was eagerly waiting for the new episode start, I had a broken ram and one hand and a beast man the other one. Still, I'm looking forward to what they came out with.
Shaun:For some reason I always associate he man with Chinese food restaurants. I think that's cuz. Oftentimes it was like one of those hey, it's payday, we'll go get Chinese food and buy you a he-man toy or something like that.
Nate:Oh, nice, yeah, I had, I had a bunch of he-mans. I mean, a lot of them are broken, a lot of them are lost.
Shaun:um, I Don't have any of them anymore.
Nate:Yeah, I have a couple lingering around, but I'd say the grand majority of my collection are gone, which is why they're a valuable, you know, but they're not that valuable I've seen. I looked online and like, oh yeah, by this he-man figure, 15 bucks. Okay, Well yeah, if you want like mint in a box.
Shaun:They're kind of expensive, but yeah, there's no place where it's like, hey, you just want to buy a crate full of these loose toys for 50 bucks.
Nate:It's like kind of well, I do like you would use something like that, just like a. Can you see those two?
Shaun:and you're like I could do stop motion with those toys, wow. And then you realize how much effort stop motion is.
Nate:Oh, yeah, it is very time-intensive. Yeah, I got myself a I was a good will and I saw there was just like a Nice like figure of a red Robin not Robin Yo, but red Robin and it's like I looked online like, oh, these are some for like 80 to $100 and so I went and bought it cuz it was like 25. I can't, I can't anybody buy it like David, yeah.
Nate:I don't know, I'm not in that world, I'm not in those forums, I don't. I mean, maybe if I went to like a comic-con I could sell or something, but like I don't know, like yeah, and they'd probably offer you 15 for it. Yeah, I'm not gonna do all that. I mean the the bear minimal, take for us 30, because at least give me $5 profit. Yeah, that, because I'm not gonna spend $25 on that and then not give my money back, at least.
Shaun:You'll be taking that thing to the grave before you take 25 for it.
Nate:But yeah, I'm gonna make a profit with this ask for he man. That was it. So looking forward to see what happens next to he man and memory lane. It was a nice trip down the memory lane, you know. I just also remind me of stuff I've forgotten.
Shaun:Yeah, I didn't need to be reminded of that 1990 series. I didn't know existed cuz that was just boy Howdy and man at arms without the mustache that's another thing I had forgotten existed with a really squished face. I mean the really squished face yeah, it looks like you took a big bite out of an Lemon or something, or like one those old World War two vet sailors who has like no teeth in his mouth left, so he's got like a scrunchie Popeye face.
Shaun:Yes yeah, yeah, once you like talk to you about, you know, taiwanese prostitutes. For no reason you're like I'm 12. I don't want to hear this. I'll make my childhood is a little weird, but anyways so yeah, this is this one.
Nate:The next one I'll probably do is a Star Trek deep space mind. Deep space nine Is the best. Our track. Fight me on it, you know like people like oh no, the original original is great. I you know it had is good. Well, dumb too, but it has good moments. Start starting the next generation. I really do have a place in my heart. I enjoy it. Those characters are awesome. Voyager I barely watched it. I didn't have that CW at the time so I didn't get a chance to watch a little coming out and I didn't care to follow it. Enterprise and ever seen an episode. I've only seen a few clips of it. I'll never watch it Because it's stupid.
Shaun:Say, if we take the original Star Trek way back in the day and we go back in time and we take out two episodes the Gorn episode and we remove the triple episode, do you think Star Trek is nearly as popular as it is nowadays? Because I remember the Gorn episode in the triple episode being the two episodes I loved back then because like, oh look, triples and big lizard monster and I feel like those are the two most popular episodes, or two of them might be they might be and strangely enough, you mentioned the triple episode.
Nate:There is actually an episode, deep space nine, where they end up going back in time and they're in that episode. So, like they're they're actually, they take the original.
Shaun:Seen where that person is, where that room is just full of triples. Underneath. All that is Cisco pleasure.
Nate:Well it's actually there for the scene where, like Captain Kirk opens it up, all the triples fall down on.
Shaun:Yeah, they're there.
Nate:They're up in there like trying because the premise is the Klingon from back then, like that, the guy who was behind the whole thing of the triples. He goes back in time and replaces one of the triples with a bomb and so he's trying to kill Captain Kirk and so you have war. Who goes back there? And they slightly address the fact that like the Klingons in the original series Don't look anything like the Klingons now and it's just kind of like they look at them and they're like well, first, like oh, we're here for Klingons, and ladies like oh, she's, like it's so scary the Klingons here, and they look around like where she goes over there as she. They look at the Klingons from back then. They just kind of look at them and I look at work, they look at them and look at what like what happened?
Nate:He's like we don't like to talk about it. That was it. That was the entire the dress. Like we don't like to talk about it.
Shaun:I did not know that the Klingons look different in the original Star Trek.
Nate:Oh, I don't.
Shaun:I don't remember. I should say, yeah, they look like an Asian racist.
Nate:Yeah, they look at Asian characters and brown face, that's all.
Shaun:Yeah, that's literally what they look like. They look like they would be flying, of course, like a space junk, like the old Chinese ships, but in space. So it was, captain Kirk. We have things to discuss.
Nate:It was pretty fun. So it's very in. Though, like you know, cisco's like okay, look, I really like he apparently kept in Kirk's one of his heroes. And so at the very end, you know he breaks protocol and he like goes to Captain Kirk oh, he does this, like he hands about, he like delivers something like here, you know, sign this, and you can't curse like okay, and you know that they shake hands real quick and he's like okay, bye, that's it. Like he didn't want to change the timeline, he just was say I gotta meet him when he was a prime and that was that was kind of cool.
Shaun:It turns out it did change at the timeline.
Nate:Well, it did a little bit, because you know that's right, here comes around or someone I don't know right. I mean anyway, like D space nine. I really, really think that is Superior Star Trek in my opinion. I'm there are plenty people out there and I am fully aware that is a controversial statement amongst people who are Trekkies.
Shaun:I'm not like you, like the majority of people I know that are Trekkies, all three of them say that deep space nine probably is the best. Okay, because I'm not a full Trekkie.
Nate:I do appreciate Star Trek. I really like it. There are certain things that I'll argue over, but by no means I don't own any of the DVDs. I don't have any memory, really, before it. You know, people say things about Star Trek and I'll be like okay, I have a different opinion, that's fine. Hey, I am definitely Star Wars.
Shaun:So you're like I have not studied the altar of Star Trek enough to be in an argument about this Right like I'm a Star Wars guy.
Nate:I've always been a Star Wars guy. So Star Trek, I appreciate it, I love it, but it's, it's not Star Wars.
Shaun:Yeah, Star Trek people do look down on Star Wars fans a little bit.
Nate:They absolutely do it's rightfully.
Shaun:It's rightfully so, though, cuz Star Trek, it is honestly the more superior universe Science fiction wise Star Trek is. Star Trek is over Star Wars.
Nate:Yeah, they, I mean.
Shaun:Star Wars. They thought out world and stuff.
Nate:Yes, because Star Wars they um, yeah, they do. When you start going to like the lore, it is a little more regimented, but it's still chaos. You know there's not like you were Star Trek.
Shaun:they're like okay, here's a Federation, there's a neutral zone here They've got a list of rules they kind of have to abide by.
Nate:Where a Star Wars, they kind of just go a little willy nilly sort of yeah, because when you start Because when you start, yeah, once you start introducing like, let's say, let's just be real magic, once you introduce a magic system, they can get messy, yeah, and they're like okay, we acknowledge there's like powers out there with Q. You know, we acknowledge is like a godlike thing out there who can do magic, but that's the exception of the stuff.
Shaun:That's not.
Nate:Yes, exception, not the rule. Whereas in Star Wars, you know, it's like oh hey, look, here's some random chick and, as she is a force, powers two seconds ago, but not in control of mind, and like a fight with lifesavers.
Shaun:Well, even Star Wars, two Star Wars. It started out kind of cool at the beginning, where it's like only a few select people know how to use the force, but then now it turns out pretty much everybody can.
Nate:Yeah.
Shaun:And they're like oh well, no, you don't have to necessarily be. You know force, you know sensitive force. Anybody can kind of use the force in a way, including blind monk.
Nate:Well, that's what they were doing with the Soka thing, Like oh you know, we took this Mandalorian who has almost no force ability, Like nothing really to talk about, and we're going to train her to use the force it's like and make her really good at it, right off the bat. Right off the bat. She's like just now learn how to force me something. So now she's going to show people around.
Shaun:you know moving jets and this and that and, yeah, deflecting blasts, whereas you know Luke Skywalker took him a long time in a swamp being molested by a frog to learn how to do stuff. What's that?
Nate:poke in my back. Yeah, my toenails.
Shaun:Turns out. You know, it's just kind of like little suction cups to hold on your back. What's he doing to me? He's laying eggs underneath your dermis. That's how they reproduce.
Nate:That's exactly it.
Shaun:It's not even sex to me, God. He just let his traumatic insemination.
Nate:Yeah, and you know what they. There's so little about a species that could be absolutely true. They can't prove anything otherwise, yep.
Shaun:All right. So we are at the close, finally, for he man Yay.
Nate:Yeah, he man. Yeah, if you definitely were. You know, this is, this is definitely property of the time in the 80s. I mean, I hard pressed to think anybody like Gen Z is going to like pick it up. I mean, even if they watch the new Netflix series, it really does Like it really gains a strength from knowing the original. You know, because it's it is a spin off or a spin off. It is a continuation of the original 83 series, so but, that being said, it is totally enjoyable. If you've never seen it, like I, you can go in there, just know, hey, there's a guy named He-Man and he does stuff.
Shaun:He man stuff, he's a guy man. I mean, it's not deep yeah. Yeah yeah, the original He-Man series too. Like the artwork and everything kind of just reminds you of. Like some dude in like 1976 was smoking a dubious like staring at a Molly hatchet Frank Frazetta artwork cover and just like you know, I bet you kids would really like something like that. Give me an angry barbarian.
Nate:So, yeah, thanks for joining us and thanks for listening to my first lead time leading a podcast on off topic. Yeah, you did well, nate, cool. So, um, shawty, you'll be ready, or do you think I'll be getting my star trickly ready first?
Shaun:Oh, we'll see. I'll probably be ready pretty soon.
Nate:Probably on.
Shaun:Tuesday maybe. Yeah, huzzah, scott Capital Haush.