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  Lawrence Savage

 

A joke at the office got me and some of the guys talking about He-Man. I visited your site for the first time, today (july 17,2000) and after reading the "memories" section, felt compelled to write.

My first encounter with He-Man's world was in the sandbox, during a second grade recess in 1982. A goofy kid had a He-Man figure, riding a rubber lizard. He proclaimed his figure, not as He-Man, but as "Conan the Barbarian". Intrigued, I made it my mission to find out about this "Conan" toy line. I was especially confused because I never saw Conan with blonde hair!

That Friday, I was at a toy store in the mall, and saw this huge display for "Masters of the Universe". I sat there for about 30 minutes, reading all the descriptions of the various characters. Buying a new figure was a huge step for me. I already had tons of Star Wars and GI Joe figures...and these guys were bigger than both of those! A few weeks later, my older brother saw the same display at the mall and thought it was 'cool'. Since MOTU now had my big brother's seal of approval, I had to buy one!! We searched a couple stores that night and ended up buying Mer-Man..simply because I had never seen him in any of the stores. We took him home and appointed him a "general" in Darth Vader's Emperial Fleet. He was bigger... but it wasnt a problem.

As we found out more about MOTU, we were intrigued. My brother was into the role playing games "D&D" and "Gamma World" at the time..and MOTU seemed like a cross between those two role-playing worlds. Plus, there seemed to be a dark mystique to the early MOTU packaging and minicomics. By Xmas of that year, I had received Castle Grayskull and every character except Teela and Beast Man. I picked up the MOTU DC Comics and began to mold my stories around that one.. but with a few exceptions. He-Man and his pals didnt live in a happy kingdom with King Randor, they were rebels, fighting against the tyrannical Skeletor. I never had He-Man use his sword.. I had Skeletor steal it and use it to take over Grayskull..just like he did for awhile in the DC stories. Plus, I had a cheesy rule, that each character was only allowed one weapon, thus He-Man only used his axe, and not his sword. In the early months of MOTU, there was no real set format or story to follow.. so I concocted my own.

There was also a promo at some toy store,a little bit later. They promised "personal appearances by He-Man and Skeletor!" I remember being disappointed at the "characters" that showed up, though. I expected to see a Skeletor straight out of a horror movie and some Schwarzenegger dude as He-Man. What I saw was two dudes in rubber suits....ugh...

When the cartoons began showing, around the fall of 1983, I think... I was disappointed. He-Man was alot friendlier and the dark mystique was missing. Plus, the "cool" characters, like Stratos, were'nt seen enough. I watched the show.. but not with alot of passion. Also, I didnt have a "Prince Adam" figure, so I didnt care for the whole "He-Man has a secret ID" aspect. Still, depsite my disappointments, I still had a huge collection. I added other second rate MOTU rip-offs, like Blackstar and Remco's "Warlord" line (with the coolest being Blackstar's "Congor" figure and Remco's "Snake Man" figure).

About the time I went into fifth grade, I began the "maturation" process. I wanted to distance myself from toys, in an attempt to act older and cooler. He-Man and MOTU were the first to go. I was a bit fed up at seeing He-Man baby bibs and Halloween costumes...that stuff was for little kids! So, around September of 1984, I packed up all my He-Man stuff in a box under my bed. I believe the last MOTU stuff I ever bought was either Kobra Khan, or Fisto and his robotic horse (forgot the horse's name...Strider?). Of course, the whole "maturation" process was negated weeks later..as the Transformers/Go-Bots bug hit and I got engrossed in those...

I would still follow He-Man, occasionally. When the whole She-ra thing hit, I gave up for good. I remember seeing ads for the movie in summer of 1987, and laughing at it... at that time, my interests were Iron Maiden, X-men and Anthrax...or course I wouldnt be into some goofy kids' movie :)

A few years later, in 1990, I saw the MOTU cartoons in syndication on USA cable. I remember thinking "Dang..I never noticed Teela had such a nice caboose!" and other, more "mature" observations. The show cracked me up with it's cheesiness. Lasted about a month for me...then He-Man disapeared forever from my world.

I'll never forget the fun I had with He-Man. In my opinion, the early days of MOTU were THE days.. because you got to use your imagination more. I do believe that some of that imagination is still with me, at 26.

Thanks for re-sparking my imagination