All things HE-MAN

[BruiserBrody]

The plot of the film has not been revealed until now. The press release indicates that the film is now officially titled MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE 3D and will tell the story of Prince Adam (Tatum), son of King Randor of Eternia. When the King is overthrown by his trusted advisor Skeletor, Prince Adam is cast off to the wastelands of the planet along with his sister Adora, his mentor Duncan, and his childhood friend Teela. Together, the siblings encounter a mythical sorceress who shows them the power of Castle Greyskull, the mystical center of the planet. With the Sword of Power, Adam will become He-Man, the Master of the Universe! -

See more at: http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/channing-tatum-will-play-he-man-in-the-masters-of-the-universe-movie#sthash.2WbpWLlx.dpu


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So He-man was my favorite toy line growing up, an obsession that has led to my basement still full of totes of toys both classic and modern releases.

The mini-comics that came with the toys supplied me with hours of joy and the books had some awesome cover art along with some solid stories.

The 2002 cartoon series was solid and the whole thing is available for like 5 bucks at Wal-mart now, the original cartoon series is pretty terrible with essentially the same storyline used for most episodes with no central long term story.

That new movie makes me nervous though, but hopefully it makes it off the ground unlike the 2002ish movie that John Woo was to direct.

 

[LaParkaYourCar]

Channing Tatum is going to be He-Man? LOL! I can't wait to hear him say, "By the power of Greyskull..." with such a dead, wooden, emotionless voice. :

 

[Youth N Asia]

Little YNA approves

He-Man had me glued to the tv more so than any other program in my younger days. That and WWF wrestling.

 

[BruiserBrody]

He-man toys were a huge part of my wrestling obsession as well, as I didn't really have many WWF toys til Xmas '90, so a couch cushion served as a ring and my Masters of the Universe toys were my wrestlers primarily served as my workers (and were the same size as the AWA Remco toys for easy cross play)

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He-man has one of the the largest popularity drop offs ever as they were raking money hand over fist in 1986 (I'd wager they were only behind maybe Barbie, if not # 1 (can't find the exact stats) but an overflow of He-man and Skelator dolls clogged up the shelves instead of the rather large variety available of other MOTU toys and sales plummeted to unbelievable lows. (At its height in 1986, MOTU reached $400 million in U.S. sales, only to plummet to $7 million the following year. During its six-year run, the MOTU line sold $1.2 billion worldwide). Mattel attempted to revive the franchise and released toys until 1987 (including a dinosaur line that every toy line just HAS to have eventually) but it was not to be.

A rather bad live action movie was released in 1987, but it largely bombed as the fad was finished and TMNT was on the rise, not to mention GI JOE.

One last gasp in 1989 saw "The New Adventures of He-man" which saw He-man sucked into a time warp and he ended up battling Skelator in space. A cartoon and toy line was released and achieved little success. (I still collected though as I was a fan boy).

 

[AA484]

I would say that G.I. Joe and possibly Transformers were both probably outselling He-Man by 1986.

 

[AA484]

Found this after a quick search:

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1986-11-26/features/8603120769_1_gi-joe-morning-cartoon-hobby-world

 

[The Amazing Rando]

If I was a King, there is no fucking way in a billion years I'd let one of my top advisors be someone that looks like that and is named "Skeletor". It'd be like selecting "Nuke Brownie" as your VP.

 

[BruiserBrody]

If I was a King, there is no fucking way in a billion years I'd let one of my top advisors be someone that looks like that and is named "Skeletor". It'd be like selecting "Nuke Brownie" as your VP.

Skeletor is actually He-man's uncle. His real name is Keldor and in the comics Hordac turned him evil and Keldor was transformed into Skeletor. Still not sure how Scare Glow fits in all this. (S.G. was a toy that was dubbed "Ghost of Skeletor" I never owned him so I didn't have access to the mini comic that would serve as an origin story.

 

[Gary]

http://youtu.be/X8Nc8RCLy1s

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

Gary you know what might be a good It Was a Good Idea At The Time? The MOTU movie.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cEZ20vh3pw

 

[BruiserBrody]

Gary you know what might be a good It Was a Good Idea At The Time? The MOTU movie.

No...

They made up characters and took us out of Eternia. A mess from the start. Only good as B-riffic comedy to riff on and pretend it's not MOTU related!

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

But it seemed like a good idea. Plus who doesn't love GOD SKELETOR?

Also when I was a kid I used to get really pissed when - more than once! - I'd fall for the TV listings saying MOTU 2 was on TV.

 

[The Amazing Rando]

If I was a King, there is no fucking way in a billion years I'd let one of my top advisors be someone that looks like that and is named "Skeletor". It'd be like selecting "Nuke Brownie" as your VP.

Skeletor is actually He-man's uncle. His real name is Keldor and in the comics Hordac turned him evil and Keldor was transformed into Skeletor. Still not sure how Scare Glow fits in all this. (S.G. was a toy that was dubbed "Ghost of Skeletor" I never owned him so I didn't have access to the mini comic that would serve as an origin story.

That's fine. I'll accept the King's advisor being turned evil and transforming, just not being the guy from the start.

 

[Kageho]

For those who liked He-Man, there's the rebooted mini-series by DC. I think it was 6 issues, which lead to it being renewed into a proper release. Though I put rebooted, its more just giving it a shot in the leg than a full out reboot. I liked it to say the least. Haven't read any of the actually proper release though.

As for the movie, it'll probably be bad. I think He-Man really only works as a series, than a stand alone. Though if they take the rebooted mini-series by DC, they could probably make that into a movie. Maybe.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

As expected as it may be to do this...

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xehca_cky-skeletor-vs-beastman_music

 

[BUTT]

The plot of the film has not been revealed until now. The press release indicates that the film is now officially titled MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE 3D and will tell the story of Prince Adam (Tatum), son of King Randor of Eternia. When the King is overthrown by his trusted advisor Skeletor, Prince Adam is cast off to the wastelands of the planet along with his sister Adora, his mentor Duncan, and his childhood friend Teela. Together, the siblings encounter a mythical sorceress who shows them the power of Castle Greyskull, the mystical center of the planet. With the Sword of Power, Adam will become He-Man, the Master of the Universe! -

See more at: http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/channing-tatum-will-play-he-man-in-the-masters-of-the-universe-movie#sthash.2WbpWLlx.dpu

Apr. 1, 2013

 

[Haws Bah Gawd]

The 2002 MOTU cartoon was fantastic! You can't even fathom how much I hate that it was abruptly cancelled where it was. According to Heman.org, the proposed 4th season was going to finally feature the return of Hordak, and Duncan was going to be transformed into a Snakeman and permanently defect to the side of the Snakemen, and Fisto was going to take his place as Weapon Master.

The 2002 toyline was a complete clusterfuck from the beginning. For some reason, Mattel decided that children would only want to buy He-Man and Skeletor, so all secondary characters were defacto "chase" figures while Smash Blade He-Man and Spin-Blade Skeletor clogged shelves. After the line was killed-off, the Four Horsemen released a line of GREAT "Staction" figures. Basically what the figures would have been, but since they didn't want a nasty visit from Mattel's lawyers, they had zero articulation and were simply statues. Just look at that Hordak figure!

 

[The Metal Maniac]

Kinda funny reading that the He-Man line shot itself in the foot by not having enough characters readily available. I recently had to get some birthday gifts for my nephews, and they're big into the current Ninja Turtles cartoon - I went to 5 different stores, and literally could only find about 3 villains, all the same guy, which my nephews already owned. Racks upon racks upon RACKS of the same 4 goddamned Ninja Turtles, nothing else. I couldn't fathom why they seem to think kids ONLY want to play with good guys - you gotta have someone for them to beat up!

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

One of the (many) things that the Star Wars franchise did right. Most people wanted Vader, so they gave them Vader.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

I am not familiar with this toyline.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Jesus hates liars, Venk.

 

[The Amazing Rando]

I am not familiar with this toyline.

Well, Big Josh later went on to be Doink The Clown.

 

[BruiserBrody]

------

Part of the issue I have with He-man is that he has several back stories. (RE: The original series)

The earlier books show him as a barbarian traveling along who meets a slew of soldiers dressed alike and one ends up being man at arms.

Other books list He-man's mother Marlena as a earthling who crashed on Eternia and ended up marrying King Randor and bearing He-man.

Some books follow the storyline that there is not one but two power swords and that Skeletor and He - man are attempting to snag both so they can be combined and through that open the doors of Castle Greyskull. (The toy swords they came with did indeed snap together, but the cartoon never touched on this)

I've also seen two separate angles on the King Hiss and the Snake men.

 

[Kageho]

That's caused by them rebooting the toy line and coming up with new origins each time. I think the toy line has more rebooted origins and backstories than most comics do.

 

[BruiserBrody]

That's caused by them rebooting the toy line and coming up with new origins each time. I think the toy line has more rebooted origins and backstories than most comics do.

I was referencing only the 1981-1987 books and TV show.

 

[Dobbs3K]

(The toy swords they came with did indeed snap together, but the cartoon never touched on this)

I remember being really puzzled by this as a young boy.

 

[Kageho]

I was referencing only the 1981-1987 books and TV show.

Ah, yeah, between then. No idea. Maybe its because there was so many chefs to cook the meal?

 

[SFH]

When I was moving out of my parents' house I went into the attic to retrieve all of my childhood junk (to presumably put into my new place's attic) and I was horrified to discover the rubber in the legs of all of my action figures had been victimized by the attic heat. I guessed it never crossed anyone's mind that heat causes rubber to melt and stretch. Every single figures' legs just dangle now. I left them there. As far as I know my dad put them in his shed's attic instead.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

When I was moving out of my parents' house I went into the attic to retrieve all of my childhood junk (to presumably put into my new place's attic) and I was horrified to discover the rubber in the legs of all of my action figures had been victimized by the attic heat. I guessed it never crossed anyone's mind that heat causes rubber to melt and stretch. Every single figures' legs just dangle now. I left them there. As far as I know my dad put them in his shed's attic instead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7_K28GZHdo

He has won.