This was a fantastic article and I can relate so much.
For me it was Star Wars.
Rock on!
And then it occurred to me that to maintain the balance of power, He-Man had to win. If He-Man wins, Skeletor and his guys are still around, but if Skelly wins, all the good guys die, and there are no more stories to be had. That the mini-comics which came with the figures presented a marginally less kiddiefied version of Eternia helped. And by this point, the appeal of the toys wasn't necessarily about god archetypes any more, but about gimmicks - each figure had a different, unique action feature, and it was always exciting to find out what the next line would bring - I think King Hiss shedding his outer skin was the one that really made me lose my shit with excitement.
My parents divorced before I turned ten, though divorce wasn't legal in Ireland (they hadn't gotten married there, so it didn't matter as far as that went, but it made me a freak to everyone else). I found my stability in pop-culture, from the weekly TV shows I had to watch religiously (some of them reruns, but we didn't own a VCR, so it was time-slot viewed or nothing) to the recurring adventures of He-Man versus Skeletor versus Hordak (Hordak made for an interesting three-way dynamic) that took place on my bedroom floor. I didn't think I'd like Dolph Lundgren's portrayal (the cape bothered me in the promo images) but I wound up finding the live-action movie to be most representative of how I saw things. It was also a reminder of my real home country - when I'd visit America there'd be brand new and wonderful Masters figures that wouldn't see their way to Dublin's toy shelves until a year or so later.
So I can't speak for Rob, but He-Man and Skeletor helped me through childhood. And when the 2002 animated series arrived, I realized there were fans like me who had enjoyed the potential of what the story could be, and happy to remove some of the silliness of what it had been. I look at the Filmation cartoon now in the same way, perhaps, that fans of the Paul Dini animated Batman look at Adam West's TV show - it's not my preferred interpretation of He-Man, but it can be enjoyed as the camp take. (Just don't get me started on the atrocities of the She-Ra cartoon like Madame Razz and Broom. And giving Hordak a boss after the figure's card art declared him "the most evil being in the universe." I enjoyed the idea of the bad guys being in charge, for what that was worth.) And Rob has thoroughly dissected the Christmas special, so I'm not even gonna go there.
I did often fantasize that I could visit Eternia, though - the guns they used never killed, and no matter how much you screwed up, He-Man would save you. When I had my wisdom teeth taken out, I tried to influence my anesthesia dreams, Nightmare on Elm Street 4 style, and wish myself into Eternia the only way that might actually, briefly work. I only have vague memories but I think it was the Lundgren movie version.
And today, I still buy a bunch of plastic crap to keep the dream alive.
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Since I only had 3 early MOTU figures releases, I never got the Battle in the Clouds minicomics. Only the internet allowed me to finally read it, along with later minicomics I missed, like Tri-Klop's first appearance and a Tale of Teela. I was suprised to learn that Zodac doesn't appear in it, I guess I just assumed he would since he didn't appear in the other 3.
Mini comic distribution was odd at times. I had all 3 original Snake-Men but they had the same comic (the origin one), I found out years later there was another comic packed with some of them sometimes or most of the time (?).
Thanks for posting such a heartfelt article.
I felt really similarly about He-man growing up - all the mythic symbolism really inspired me. I wrote about it recently on my blog here: http://mythicwriting.blogspot.com/2013/01/why-mythology-matters.html
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As a Masters of the Universe fan that also had preexisting interest in mythology (and swords-and-sorcery, thanks to my granny buying me old copies of the Savage Sword of Conan and John Carter of Mars comics as young lad) before stumbling across the awesomeness that was He-Man, Skeletor, and their endless battles for dominion of Castle Grayskull, let me say that I truly appreciated this article.
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When it came to MOTU, I liked the villains more. He-Man was one of my least favorite MOTU characters. I didn't have his action figure for years, or Skeletor, I thought Skelly was weird/gross/creepy because he was a skull with a fleshy body. Living skeletons I could deal with, "zombies" not so much at that age. I eventually warmed up to Skeletor and got 3 out of his 4 or 5 versions. Only ever had the original He-Man, though. He was an Aryan tanned muscle man and I was a pale scrawny dark-haired kid, we weren't meant to be buds.
My first MOTU good guy figure was Stratos, and is still one of the best heroic warriors. Second was probably Meckaneck. Why him? The colors, I guess...I was more shallow than I remember.
First baddie and first MOTU I ever got, Mer-Man. I ruined his spring action punch by taking him in the bathtub a few times. Second villain was Beast Man. Third...no idea. Wasn't Skeletor, maybe Trap-Jaw?? It was a huge time gap between the early figures in 1981/82 to when I got interested in them again (partly due to playground peer pressure). Mattel didn't add too many characters those first couple of years. And a lot of figures reshipped over the course of the line.
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@Remeniscor Mer-Man was awesome. I don't think their was a point from 1982 to 1984 when he wasn't constantly riding the Battleram's Sky Sled on the toy shelves of my room, thanks to the minicomic "Battle in the Clouds." In that book, he not only stole He-Man's Sky Sled, but nearly killed him as well (something that would never do on the old Filmation cartoon).
[IMG]%s [/IMG]
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On viewing that picture out of the context of the story, , it kind of seems like Mer-Man is about to give He-Man his fish stick...
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We can't bust heads like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to tell 'em stories that don't go anywhere - like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Give me five bees for a quarter, you'd say.
Now where were we? Oh yeah: the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...
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if you can't be bothered to look up what a reader said to spur on this self indulgent post, then i can't be bothered to read it. or, as peter griffin would say:
@jamawalk We just have to find out what needs to be done to have you not bother commenting on it. Seriously, your sandy vag has been irritating you for post after post now, give it a rest. We get it. You don't like the new TR and you're super, suuuuuuuuuuuuuuper funny and cool. And post links to family guy clips. Or as Peter Griffin would say, "*diarhea noises*". Because you contribute to discourse as much as diarhea noises do.
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@JesseDeath you think i'm super funny? thanks dude.
i'd watch the sexism and the language, though. the internet is for families.
@FakeAssName You would be wrong. Jabberwalk doesn't read, just blarts menstrual blood at the keyboard. Although that's offensive to menstrual blood covered keyboards. I apologize.
This pretty much sums up what I dug about He-Man, I remember the first wave or three were 'gods' and it got toned down pretty quickly, but they had some great gimmicks as a kid. I don't really enjoy He-Man these days past doodling characters now and then, though.
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Great article! In the words of the original Monster Ballads infomercial, "Every bad boy has a soft side."
For me, it was Transformers that blew my mind. My story doesn't have as much emotional impact, but I loved them just the same. It is because of that love that my wife secretly shakes her head (she thinks I don't see it) when I go to Toys R Us every week and yet another plastic robot ends up on the shelf. She never seems as impressed as me when I tell her, "It's an amazingly accurate representation of the cartoon character." And don't even get me started on the amazing flow of 3rd party transformers now....
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Have you (or anybody) been reading the DC mini series? The 6th and final issue comes out on Wednesday, but the one-shot Origin of Skeletor was great! There was some fumbling in the beginning, but this mini series was what got my little brother to FINALLY start reading comics, and I have enjoyed taking the journey with him.
@LYT @Regular_Stormy Oh man! It's been a pretty good read. I got mine at Meltdown, through my pullbox. You can borrow mine if you want to read it, I can honestly say the Skeletor issue was a highlight last year out of the 10 titles I was reading.
@Regular_Stormy @LYT You can borrow the series from me! Just have to wait for my douche roommate to go to the Pie...
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You could have said: Cause He-Man's Fucking Awesome! and you'd be on my team... cause He-Man's fucking awesome!
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Great read indeed.
I've never been a MOTU person myself, as I wasn't exposed to it growing up, but I do have to admit the designs and story potential are pretty awesome indeed. I may not be into the line but I certainly get the appeal.
I'm exactly where you are re: villains though -I always preferred the villains and fantasized about them winning/destroying/conquering everything.... but as the years have gone on, well, you're right. That is boring and lazy storytelling indeed. I still love my villain characters, and I still find them more interesting than the heroes, but I do want them to not gain absolute victories.
(Granted, I suspect this has fueled my own love for morally grey villains, because I'm more okay with them winning- often, though their actions are horrible, their core motivations are actually heroic/justified on a certain level. It's probably why I identify with IDW Megatron's character more than G1, and why many villains I've brainstormed for my own fiction went from "bad guy" to "having their own codes of behavior/morality influenced by their own cultural norms and life experiences".)
...and I think I understand all the 80s cartoon villain apologists now on the Internet. It's a form of denial, really, because one can't accept the reality that if the better characters won, everyone else loses horribly.
The exceptions tend to be the cartoon villains who get deeper fiction in comics and such, because they HAVE to get development to be interesting. Cobra Commander becomes somewhat sympathetic, though still crazy, in Larry Hama's comics, and Megatron has gone from being constantly sidelined in the Marvel books (due to being a boring/one-dimensional character) to being someone who rebelled against a corrupt system, but who in the process became just as terrible in a completely different way.
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Great story. Thanks for sharing it. Uh, Action force looks fucking badass! I want a red HISS tank!
And on He-Man, I bought him when he first came out. In the mini comic that came with him, he was from a tribe of beautiful cave people or some such. No prince Adam or Eternia bullshit.
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"the one about Prometheus having his liver eaten every day"
even the ancients suffered their own version of the prometheus movie.
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I never had any He-man toys as a kid. Not that I didn't want any but if I wanted certain toys I had to buy them myself. Some were never allowed into the house anyways.
Great article Luke. You never realize how a pieces of plastic shaped into a figure can really affect your life. Probably why I still get as many as I can.
Although as a friend I have to tell you Ill LYTeracy, you worked too hard on that segment title.
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Luke has an endearing, vulnerable side that Rob didn't have.
Thanks for the explanation, Luke. I think I was probably the guy who asked you what you liked about He-Man.
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This.. Was a surprisingly touching article. While I didn't grow up with He-Man(I watched a few re-runs as a kid, but it was the 90's. I was more focused on B:TAM, Ren and Stimpy, Rocco's Modern Life), I have to say the "reaching out to that other world for comfort" actually resonated pretty deeply with me.
Though, mine was Sonic the Hedgehog. Yeah, being a Genesis kid slightly skewed my fantasies...
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This was a great article @LYT. I wish you hadn't waited so long to tell us this aspect of yourself but it was a good read anyway. And to this day i still defend my love for the live action movie and i find myself watching it ever couple of weeks. Anyway, you have a certain someone's approval for a good article...
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/YZ5zGLp.gif[/IMG]
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@Canadian.Scott @LYT Once my brother, cousin and I discovered that film when I was a kid, it became regular viewing. I heart it.
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When MOTUC rooled around I passed all my 200X toys onto my son who plays the hell out of them! Gotta pass on the love!
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I only had the Battle Armor He-Man as a kid, but made up for it these last couple of years with the MOTUC line. :)
