135 – POGS Origins of TFG1Mike and OptimusSolo!!

Hi, this is Larry Dottilio, writer for He -Man

and Beast Wars, and you are listening to the

Geekcast Radio Network. He -Man and the Masters

of the Universe! I am Adam, Prince of Eternia

and defender of the secrets of Castle Greyskull.

This is Cringer, my fearless friend. Fabulous

secret powers were revealed to me the day I held

aloft my magic sword and said, By the power of

Grayskull! Cringer became the mighty Battle Cat,

and I became He -Man, the most powerful man in

the universe. Only three others share this secret.

Our friends, the Sorceress, Planet Arms, and

Orko. Together, we defend Castle Greyskull from

the evil forces of Skeletor. Hello and welcome

to an all -new generation of the Powers of Greyskull

series, as we get the origins of any and all

Masters of the Universe fans that we can. This

is our 135th episode, or chapter, or whatever

you want to call it. Of course, I am one of your

hosts, TFG and Micah, and joining me as always

is... Optimus Solo. That's right. And today's

guest for the origins, well, we're starting with

ourselves. So instead of us asking the questions

to each other... I have Skeletor here with us,

and he's going to be asking the questions. So

when you find folks are hearing this, you'll

hear Skeletor ask us the questions, and then

you'll hear us give the answers to the 30 questions

we have for Masters of the Universe fans from

all generations. Yes, even new adventures. So

it's time we got into the Grayskull goodness

and we're kicking it off with the first question.

Take it away, Skeletor. Did you grow up with

Motu? At what age do you remember first noticing

the franchise? Well, of course I grew up with

Masters of the Universe. What are you, crazy

Skeletor? Because you're old. I was three. Huh?

Because you're old. Yes, yes. I was three years

old when the Filmation cartoon debuted. I know

the toy line debuted a year earlier in 1982.

We were both very young when this thing started.

Yeah, I don't really have any memories pre -Transformers,

pre -He -Man, or Transformers really, but especially

He -Man. I do remember He -Man. being exposed

to it before transformers. It was around since

I was like one or two. So obviously I don't remember

much from when I was one or two. So my earliest

memories masters universe would have been part

of, um, because we were already watching them.

I had older cousins that was not just watching

it, but also collecting the toys and things like

that. So I remember going to their house and

being exposed to the toys and then obviously

having toys myself afterwards a little bit. So

it's the earliest memories I have are masters

of the universe. So at what age do I remember

first noticing the franchise? Whenever my first

memories existed, I would say for me around the

sweet spot. And even though this is kind of sad,

but. The sweet spot from my memory of watching

it as a kid is probably close to when it actually

ended, even though I didn't know it was ending.

I kind of picked it up. I had the toys. I had

the castle. I had all that stuff. But as far

as watching the show as a kid, Syndication was

the king in the 80s. It's not now, but it was

then. And you could always catch an episode wherever.

At some point or another, they always reran those

because, you know, as long as you have 65, you've

got 65 half hours you can rerun. And I remember

watching it all the time. I remember, you know,

like I said, I've said before on the show, basically

breaking the Secret of the Sword VHS video because

I rented it way too many times from the adventure

and video store that we had had. So, yeah, I'd

say somewhere around five, six. Yeah, I mean,

that's obviously when most memories are forming.

Four, five, six. So it's probably the same age

for me. Give us the next question, Skeletor.

Which Motu series have you watched in their entirety?

Filmation, She -Ra, New Adventures, 2002, Netflix

She -Ra, Revelation, live action movie. I think

question two is just funny for us since we're

doing this podcast. Yeah, I would say so. But

there has been a lot of new stuff recently. So

I guess when it comes to which ones have we watched

in their entirety, everybody should know that

we've seen all of the ones that we've done the

podcast for, which would be the Filmation He

-Man She -Ra New Adventures 2002. Plus Revelation.

Yeah, but we didn't do an episode -by -episode

review of that. No, and we were never going to.

That's just too painful. What? I don't even know

what that means. Revelation is incredible. No,

I mean doing it episode by episode. Oh, I would

do it. But anyways, so the Netflix She -Ra, The

Revelation, and I guess there's another series

that attaches a He -Man name to it, even though

it's nothing to do with He -Man. Do it! Masters

of the universe, all your power on me! We have

the power. That would be the CGI Netflix. So

which of those newer series have you seen all

the way through? I've seen all the way through

all of them, except as we're recording this,

we're about a week away from season two of the

CGI series on Netflix. So I've seen all of them.

Okay, I need to catch up on the end of She -Ra,

the Netflix She -Ra. I haven't seen the last

little bit of that. I did watch the first two.

How many seasons were there? Four? Five. I've

seen the first three seasons, so I need to catch

up on the last two seasons. I've seen all of

Revelation twice, and I refuse to acknowledge

that He -Man and the Masters of the Universe

exist because it's just He -Man in name only.

So it's whatever. We're going to agree to disagree

on that, but... It's garbage. It's such a cash

grab. Don't get me started on that bullshit.

They just put He -Man on there so they can get

some money. It should just be called whatever

else other fantasy sci -fi name you want to throw

out there. It should just be called whatever.

Masters of the Realm or something stupid because

the only reason they put He -Man on there was

to get money. Anyway. Okay then. Skeletor, what

say you for the next question? What Motu series

is your series? And why? All right. Which one's

mine? I mean, that's clearly the one I grew up

with. So it's Filmation, He -Man, the original,

the OG. But that's not to take away from anything

else that's come after it. The only ones I despise

are the New Adventures and the most recent one.

And for me, Filmation will always have my heart.

However, as an adult, I have to say 2002. 2002

and Revelation for me are so neck and neck. They're

so good, both of them. Yeah, 2002 is so good.

And Revelation. No, it has too much Kevin Smith

in it. You were singing us praises when we did

the review for it. You've had a change of heart

apparently recently. No, I was not. No, I was

not. I was not seeing... I liked certain things,

but there were also many things in there that

like... The whole Kevin Smith and Evelyn thing.

Skeletor and Evelyn thing. No, that was very

Kevin. I can't believe you prefer the CG bullshit

over the revelation. I don't. No, no, no. Okay,

so I'll get into it since you said that. I didn't

say I preferred it. What I said was. The new

He -Man and the Masters of the Universe CGI cartoon

from Netflix is to what I think kids of today's

new, their new journey as to what Filmation was

for us back in the 80s. There was nothing like

He -Man before the Filmation cartoon. And that

started us on this whole 30, 40, 50 year journey.

I think the new CGI series is... Kids of this

era is their version of that. That's what I said.

I feel sorry for them. Anyways. My God. Skeletor,

please. Give us the next question. What is your

opinion on the other series? I mean, if I haven't

made my opinion clear on what the other series

are, I don't know what you guys have been listening

to. But Filmation has got great moments. It's

got some dud moment too, obviously. It was early

on and it was what it was. It wasn't trying to

be this continuity -based storytelling, which

a lot of people prefer. So if you judge it on

an episode -by -episode basis, which is how it

was meant to be viewed, there's good episodes

and there's bad episodes, just like every series.

I kind of feel neutral to positive on Filmation,

both He -Man and She -Ra. I think the New Adventures

is an abomination. I think 2002 was phenomenal.

If it would have been able to finish, it would

have been the best series, but it wasn't able

to. So for me, it's neck and neck with Revelation

so far, which I'm waiting to see where they go

from next. Yeah, Revelation has some bad moments

as well, but overall it's really good. The visuals

are fantastic. I think the characterizations

are great. And I'm just looking forward to seeing

where that goes. I think the Netflix She -Ra

is good for what it is. I think that is what

you would say is an introduction to kids of these

days into that realm. And it is made for the

youth of today. And I think that does a phenomenal

job of still staying true to what He -Man actually

is, unlike the CGI version, which is called He

-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which is

He -Man in name only. Skeletor, next question.

Did you own any Motu toys as a child? If so,

do you remember what your very first Motu toy

was? Of course we own the toys. Why would we

be doing this if we didn't own the toys, Skeletor?

Yeah, I mean, I own more toys now than I did

as a child for that series, obviously. And I'm

talking about the actual vintage toys. I have

more now than I did before. Right, yeah. Before,

when I was growing up, I can almost tell you

exactly what I had because I think it was like

a half dozen. I had the actual He -Man and She

-Ra, or excuse me, He -Man and Skeletor. as well

as like a battle armor, battle damage, He -Man

and Skeletor. And I think I had another one,

which was like a flying fist or whatever. So

I think I had like three Skeletors and three

He -Mans. So I had Sorceress. I had Rattler.

I had one of the rock people. And that might

have been it there. I think I'm missing like

one or two other ones that I had, but that was

about it as far as when I was a child. So I think

my first one was just the original Human and

Skeletor figure. I believe I got them both at

the same time, which was probably either at my

birthday or Christmas. Very cool. For me, I was

very lucky. My mom bought me everything. And

I've told this story before, but I, for some

odd reason, I kept most of the good guys at my

mom's house and most of the bad guys at my dad's

house. I mean, obviously there would be some

cross -pollination with having a hero. blah blah

blah but gray skull was at my mom's house and

i was lucky enough to have both gray skull and

snake mountain snake mountain was at my dad's

house and i've told this part of this story over

and over and over in the last 14 years that i've

been podcasting when i was six years old my dad

said you were too old for toys and he sold them

all all the ones that i had at his house i had

gray skull i had he -man i had battle armor he

-man i had battle armor sky i It was so weird.

We were creating our, you know, they always talk

about the multiverses now and the this verse

and the that verse and the whatever verse. We

were creating multiverses when we were kids in

the 80s because I had the regular He -Man, like

I said, the battle armor, regular Skeletor, battle

armor Skeletor, you know. You had all four of

those versions. I had Battle Cat. I had Panthor.

I had the sorceress, I think. I know I had two

different versions of Zor. I had the... Yeah,

I didn't have the sorceress. I had Zor. I should

correct that. Okay. Yeah, the little Zor accessory

or the little Zor... It was tiny. It wasn't even

like a super large thing. It was a tiny little

bird thing. I had that. What I ended up... There's

an infamous picture that's been going around

since I've been online with... me and my toy

box with castle gray skull. And I have like the

Raven from mask and Dick Tracy and James Bond

jr. And cap basically any, any other figures

other than masters of the universe figures in

front of my castle gray skull. Yeah, I did. I

think I had Tila as well. And I had a couple

of the vehicles. I had like the bones thing that

you could put like as a carry in thing for all

of the figures. And then I had, I think it was

called laser bolts. or something the red uh laser

bolt is the only thing i can think of it looked

like a like a mouth like a thing and then i had

two guns next to it i had three wheels i had

one in the wheel in the front and two wheels

in the back so i had that it was a red one with

eyeballs on the side uh so that those were like

the only ones i have but currently i have like

i don't know 150 of the masters of the universe

toys from different lines and stuff like that

including almost Probably 75 to 80 % of the original

line I think I have. I need to do a check to

see what I'm missing. Yeah, I'm going to talk

about what I have now later because all the stuff

I have now is Funko and it doesn't really, it

relates, but it doesn't relate to when we were

kids because we didn't have Funko when we were

kids, sadly. Right. All right, Skeletor, what's

question six? Growing up, did you ever express

your fandom in the outside world? Friends role

-playing? dressing up on Halloween, et cetera.

Yeah, I think I remember at least one Halloween

dressing up as He -Man. The classic, like, 80s

Halloween costume where you just had the plastic

mask type thing that you wore and then whatever

outfit they gave you. So I think I was He -Man

once. I don't remember, like, 100%. For me, though,

He -Man was more of something that I did play

with my cousins a couple times because, like

I said, they had a big bench in their dining

room and you could open the bench and it was

storage and it was full of all of his He -Man

toys. So I remember playing with those, but it

was more so the early. toys and cartoons that

i was watching so it wasn't like transformers

and gi joe where i actually played with those

uh outside with my actual age friends and we

would role play like with the thundercats claw

and like different things like that so those

cartoons that came afterwards were more of the

ones that i expressed outwardly whereas he -man

was more of when i was like really young so it

wasn't something that i really had a lot of uh

outward expression, I guess, in the outside world.

And for me, it's kind of the same thing. I was

more so doing the whole role playing thing at

school or the playground or whatever with other

franchises like Transformers or whatever else.

Funny you said you were He -Man one year. I was

Skeletor one year. No surprise there, guys. Yes.

I'm not as good as the Skeletor we have asking

us the questions, so take it away, Skeletor.

Who is your end -all, be -all favorite character

from any Motu incarnation? Let it be known there's

only one true choice. All right. End all, be

all, hero and villain. So we each get two choices.

For me, it's so hard. No, it really is. For the

hero side, it's so hard because... There were,

like, he's not really the hero of the series,

but for irony's sake, I almost want to say Orko.

Maybe that was for comedy's sake, not irony's

sake. Sometimes I feel that I am not appreciated.

I mean, how can you go wrong with classic Filmation

He -Man or even any of the other versions of

He -Man? Except I think that... I think with

He -Man and Prince Adam, even though technically

they are the same person, it isn't like, it is

and it is not like Bruce Wayne dressing up as

Batman. I'm kind of equating it to that where

He -Man is more of the adult side of the character.

And while He -Man can still have character growth

as He -Man, really the character growth we end

up seeing in most of the cartoons is all about

Adam. So. Yeah, for me, for the heroes, I did

like Stratos as a child, but I wouldn't put him

as like my end -all be -all. I did like the sorceress.

I did like Orko, but I think if I had to pick

like my end -all be -all favorite character as

we have watched the entire series back and all

the different incarnations and whatnot. I think

I have to still go with Zodak as my favorite

hero. I know he is somewhat of an anti -hero

because he kind of stays on the outskirts, but

he never is really a villain. So I would put

him as my all -time favorite hero character would

be Zodak. Villains, man, that's tougher because

I guess I liked a lot more of the villains for

some reason, it seems like. I liked some of the

Snake Men. I liked Merman was probably my favorite

as a child. But I think after the rewatch, it's

really a toss -up between Skeletor and Evil -Lyn,

depending on which version of each it is, depending

on what series it is. Some series I prefer Skeletor

slightly, and some series I prefer Evil -Lyn

slightly. Hurry, Skeletor, hurry! I am hurrying,

I'm hurrying! So from any Motu incarnation...

I'm going to kind of cheat, and I'm going to

pick a toy version because I am going to pick

Tongue Lasher for my villain because I love that

toy. I don't know what it was about the Tongue

Lasher action figure. That is one action figure

I brought everywhere we would go. Yeah. A lot

of the kind of. Goes into the overall appeal

of the toy line and the series in general is

that the toys did things that other toys before

that didn't. Like when you got a lot of the lines

that came right before this, such as Black Star,

I think was a little bit before this, but like,

or any of the toy lines in the seventies, really,

you know, you think like the big 12 inch GI Joes

and things like that were very similar to like.

what girls were playing with in their Barbies

and things like that, which is you could change

the outfits. You could change some of the accessories,

but they were very static. They were, they didn't

do things. They didn't have a lot of articulation.

And then they, obviously the, the original He

-Man line doesn't have a lot of articulation

either, but what they did is they started giving

individual figures, different abilities to do

things, whether it was a tongue that came out,

whether it was the, the tail that rattled for

Rattler, whether it was Triclops' eye change

or Manny Face's face change or different things.

There was a lot of different, especially some

of the more tertiary characters that weren't

the main cartoon characters, especially when

you started adding in all the horde and stuff

like that. They had a lot of different abilities,

whether it was Mosquito or with the blood, things

of that nature. So it was something that made

it so that you could... have an enjoyment of

both a character that you saw on TV, but you

could also have a separate or sometimes similar

attachment to toys and the characters that did

certain things. So that was kind of interesting

way that they kind of differentiated themselves

from what had come before. Yeah, absolutely.

All right, Skeletor. What are some other Motu

characters you like? I mean, I've mentioned some

of them. I was not the classic He -Man fan. I

didn't just love He -Man and Adam because of

whatever. He would probably be down, although

I appreciated him and realized his importance

and was probably rooting for him at times. If

I was listing my favorite characters, he wouldn't

be in my top five at all. Whereas Skeletor on

the one way is just because of how he was portrayed

and how funny he was in certain series and things

of that nature and the voice work, et cetera.

So I wouldn't tend to go to He -Man, but I would

go to some of those other characters. But since

it's Motu in general, I think one thing that

I should mention that we've kind of ignored a

little bit was the She -Ra characters and some

of that. So I did. have a liking because, hey,

this was the series for females, I guess, for

girls. That didn't mean that I wasn't exposed

to it because I had a sister and things of that

nature. And a lot of these characters were semi

-attractive or had powers or things of that nature.

So I was a fan of a lot of the She -Ra characters,

both She -Ra and probably Glimmer a little bit.

And then there was a lot of the other ones like

Lee Frosta and I can't remember all their names,

but some of those that I thought were cool. I

didn't have a strong attachment to them, but

I thought they were likable. I didn't like the

She -Ra villains as much as the He -Man villains,

though, so I still wouldn't put any of those

in there. For me, as far as other characters

in the MOTU franchise, the overall series, the

overall whatever, I more so was interested in

Adora than She -Ra. I mean, don't get me wrong.

She -Ra is She -Ra. Right. I wanted there to,

and I know this is not the way it was ever going

to be in filmation because syndication, blah,

blah, blah, writing for television was not really

continuity driven at that point. And I mean,

yes, there is continuity to it, but the biggest

reveal that we got was that she's the twin sister

of, like, there was no other, other than the

explanation of Hordak stole her as a baby. We

didn't see, we never saw how Shadow Weaver and

Hordak raised her or anything like that. So,

I mean, there's character development for Filmation

Adora, but there really isn't either at all.

Other characters, Cringer, Battle Cat. Even though

I know Panthor is technically supposed to just

be there to growl and fight Battle Cat, I wish

there was a little bit more to Panthor. I agree.

You know, other characters, I'm trying to think.

We saw a whole lot of Mossman. We saw a whole

lot of, like you said, Stratos and Buzzoff and

all that. I liked Merman simply for Alan Oppenheimer's

voice. Right. Basically Seaspray, but still,

same thing. Absolutely. So there are plenty of

other characters that I just... I just don't

know if at this point at 42 years old, even though

I like the characters, they're not so fresh in

my mind. Even though you and I have spent the

last decade or so covering all of this stuff,

I can barely remember four hours ago, let alone

10 years ago. And I guess that's kind of why

we have the podcast. Maybe I should go back and

listen to those old episodes. We understand,

Mike. Yeah, I know. I'm broken. I get it. All

right, Skeletor. Are there any Motu characters

you hate? Most preferably the blonde, beefy type.

Hate's a strong word, so I don't know if I'm

going to go all the way to that. But if I was

forced, let's just say just He -Man -wise, if

I was forced to list three villains and three

heroes that I wasn't huge on, for villains, it

would be Clawful, Whiplash, and Jitsu. I think

Jitsu is just a problematic character in general,

just stereotypes, et cetera, et cetera. But clawful

and whiplash just are blah to me. They just don't

bring much pizzazz or they don't have that it

factor that you're looking for. Yeah. They're

basically dumber versions of beast. And then

for the good side, I was never a fan of Tila.

She has been represented better in certain. stories

on certain lines or whatever but i was never

a fan of her growing up but if i had to go with

uh two other ones i wasn't huge on fisto it's

a weird name first of all and i was never big

on queen marlena and some situations she's been

real bad that's one of the downfalls of or not

downfalls that's one of the downsides bad points

of revelation is how they do queen marlena and

that and i'm sorry the voice work is terrible

on her but those were some that i didn't gravitate

towards A whole lot. I think if you're talking

She -Ra, I mean, Bose, whatever. Like, not great.

And then the voice work of, shoot, what's Glimmer's

queen? Angela. Angela was kind of a blah from

a voice standpoint. And then there was a couple

of villains in that series that were just kind

of whatever. But those are the ones that come

to my mind. What about you? If you had stopped

talking earlier, I would have said. As if. Oh,

God. Anyway. Yeah, you're right. I mean, hate

technically is a strong word. In general, I'm

not a fan of the Snake Men, even though I put

Tongue Lasher as one of my favorite characters.

I just like the way the toy is and whatever.

But overall... I liked Rattler and Cobra Khan.

They were all right. Yeah, I was never a fan

of them. And King Hiss was the worst. Yeah, King

Hiss is probably one of the worst out of them.

I just could not. Snake face. Yeah. Oh, no. You

know, for good side, I don't want to throw him

under the bus, even if I could find him to throw

him under a bus. But, Lukey, guess? I don't know.

Like, I mean, there are, if people go back and

you listen to our Filmation He -Man episodes,

episode 1 through 30, 1 through 45, there's a

couple of, like, Other characters, like Ed Weiner

and other characters that we can't stand that

we don't like. And Cousin Jeremy. Oh, fuck Cousin

Jeremy. A lot of side characters that you didn't

like. Yeah, there were a lot of side characters.

But for the main characters, there weren't a

lot. It depended on what they were doing. It

depended on what Skeletor was doing to them because

they didn't do the job right kind of thing. Agreed.

It is what it is. All right, Skeletor, you can

stop punishing your minions now and give us the

next question, please. Over your lifetime as

you get older, did your interest in the Motu

franchise grow stronger or get weaker? I think

for this one, as does everything in life, it

comes in waves and, you know, it goes up and

it goes down type of thing. There are some things

that I've watched and then it was basically hit

a point where I was done with it forever type

thing, I guess. But most things that I was a

big time fan of as a child have come in spurts.

So it's like it faded away because it got overtaken

by other stuff. So like, for example, this one,

you know, as Transformers. GI Joe, Thundercats,

Silverhawks, Turtles, etc. Each new flavor of

the week came, another one gets knocked down

and stuff like that. I think the difference between...

this one is that it has popped up at specific

points. So it's not necessarily my interest that

has gone. My interest has always been there with

Motu. I've never had a moment where I was just

like weak on it. It was just, was it relevant?

Was there something new for me to bite into,

et cetera. And the He -Man has a little, Motu

has a little different story than say Transformers

or GI Joes, which I think we'll get into in a

future question here. But yeah, it's grown stronger

and weaker, but that's not because. My interest

was less. It was just there was less of me to

partake in. Yeah, it's one of those things that

I've said recently is that the 80s for us was

full of choice and full of waves. So if you take,

let's say, G .I. Joe, Real American Hero, He

-Man, Transformers, Thundercats, Silverhawks,

and Turtles. So that's 1982 to 1987. Even though

those shows had whatever runs that they had during

those five years, that's five years of content

for kids that you could go from one to the other.

And we enjoyed so much of it as kids. And for

me. And you have so much time as a child. We

don't think of that. Like when you're an adult,

you don't have a lot of time, but when you're

a child, five years is a long time. Think of

your life from your fifth birthday to your 10th

birthday or from your 10th birthday to your 15th

birthday. You consume a lot. Yeah, absolutely.

So I, I don't think like my fandom is still there

and my, you know, my, my love of the franchise

is still there. But like you said, it depends

on if there is like, we've been waiting. If it

hits 2027 and there's no live action film, 40

years we have been waiting for a new live action

film. Yeah, I know. I just have a feeling it's

not going to do it justice when we finally get

it. I don't think it is either because I don't

think the problem, and I don't want to get on

this whole soapbox, but I'm just going to say

this as a blanket statement. Hollywood from the

late 70s up until the year 2000 and maybe five

years past that. Amazing. You had all these actors.

You had all these movies. You had everything,

not just He -Man, not just whatever, but just

the whole gamut of the entertainment industry

from 1979 to 2008. Those years we had, like,

you could envision Dolph Lundgren as a, you know

what? As long as he's still alive in 2027 and

he wants to reprise. I've seen Dolph Lundgren

in a lot of good movies lately. The man has kept

up his physique and this, that. So I wouldn't

mind seeing Dolph as He -Man again. But my point

here in saying this is that nowadays. Every time

I see a casting news for anything Motu, I'm like,

who is that person? Because I'm not so in tuned

to like, oh, Eddie Murphy, Beverly Hills cop.

Oh, Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, lethal weapon.

Oh, Bruce Willis and the worst Christmas movie

of all time. You know, that kind of thing. Like

it was more, even though we had less access to

it 40 years ago, it was more of. And those actors

and actresses doing more – like you saw Bruce

Willis in so many films. You saw Mel Gibson in

so many films outside of the ones that they're

famous for kind of thing. Like we knew who they

were. Now that we are the ages that we are, 40s,

whatever, you know, I don't know what these,

you know, kids and their – Did you just call

Die Hard a bad movie? Yippee -ki -yay, Mr. Falcon.

I don't know what these young kids and their

hipping and their hopping are doing anymore.

Anyway, Skeletor, let's ask us the next question,

please, sir. Was there ever a moment in your

life where you were through with everything Motu?

And the thing with this question is, it's more

of a moving on thing. Like I was mentioning earlier

about those five years that we just moved on

from one thing to the other thing to the other

thing. As far as watching it when it aired with

those five things I mentioned. Moe 2 has never

gone anywhere for me because the stuff I love

and enjoy has always been there and will always

be there, at least until I die. Who knows when

that's going to be? But point is, what I love

about the franchise is still there, no matter

whether they create new stuff or not. Yep. All

right, Skeletor. Question 12, sir. When there

wasn't a current Moe 2 series airing, how did

you keep your fandom alive? Rewatch old series,

write fanfic, draw art, toys, comics, etc. I

think that's an interesting one for me because

this is where I'm going to go back to what I

was saying earlier with the reason it was different

from, say, Transformers, G .I. Joe, a few things

like that. Okay, I didn't know new adventures

existed, I don't think, for... decades until

we did this so i will take that out because for

me that was like that was akin to like generation

two transformers like that's not a real thing

that's just like uh that's just a weird like

thing that they're doing to like whatever so

like i don't know like so take new adventures

out of the equation in my mind when i think about

he -man we had a series in the early 80s This

isn't like Turtles. This isn't like whatever,

whatever that was in the mid to late 80s. This

was early 80s. Granted, we had syndication at

different times for different series that would

reruns, et cetera, et cetera. But its main run,

its main relevance, toys being on the shelves,

people talking about it, et cetera, was early

80s. We go until 2002 before there's another

thing that brings it back into the forefront.

When you think about, let's just use two things,

for example. When you think about Star Wars and

Transformers, you can maybe even throw G .I.

Joe in there. But especially Star Wars and Transformers,

there has almost never been a year, a full year

in my lifetime where those things haven't been

on the toy shelves. So Star Wars has always been

on there. Yes, there was expanded universe and

some weird stuff going on, you know, in the late

80s, early 90s before we started getting the.

prequels and the sequels and the Disney verse

and all this other stuff. But Star Wars has always

remained on the shelves. Transformers for the

most part has always remained on the shelves.

There might've been a little brief, brief time

periods where they weren't, but it was basically

G1, G2, Beast Wars, Beast Machines, Unicron Trilogy,

you know, Prime, Classics, et cetera, et cetera.

It's always been reinventing itself and going

on live action movies, et cetera, et cetera.

He -Man, we had a 20 year stretch with nothing.

So it's just a little bit different. So it's

not that I didn't it wasn't relevant for a long

time. It wasn't that there was no interest. It

was just buried under other stuff. So there was

a long time where there was no series airing.

So how did I keep my fandom alive? I didn't necessarily

do anything to keep it alive. It still was existing.

It still was there. But it wasn't there wasn't

anything that I did to try to I didn't do any

fanfic. I didn't draw art. I didn't really even

collect the toys for a long time. I didn't rewatch

the series that much. Until later on, this was,

you know, after 2002 probably spawned me to watch

that and then rewatch some of the old stuff.

And then we did the podcast, et cetera. So there

wasn't much active involvement in me in the fandom

in any ways. I wasn't visiting message boards

or websites like I did with Transformers fandoms,

et cetera. As I've mentioned throughout the last

40 minutes of the episode so far, for me, things

come and go in waves, as you've already said

as well. By 1980. Seven when She -Ra ended. Because

there were several He -Man crossovers in there

outside of Secret of the Sword. So we did see

some of He -Man continuing on in animation in

86 and 87. 1987, Turtles hit. 1989 to 1990, Simpsons

hit. In 1990, when I saw the intro. Just the

intro. Not even the full episode. The intro music

and the intro whatever to New Adventures, I'm

like, ooh, my He -Man is back. And then 22 minutes

later or 30 minutes later or whatever it was

with commercials, this is not my He -Man. And

I just moved on to other things, you know. By

that time, I was in the middle of the Nintendo

cartoons, so Super Mario Bros. Super Show, Super

Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Legend of Zelda,

Captain of the Game Master, all that kind of

stuff. And my enjoyment of Masters of the Universe

has never, ever faded, nor will it ever. But

it's just, like you said, it's not... so much

in the forefront of your mind. It's funny you

mentioned message boards. When I got fully into

fandom somewhere between 2006 and 2008, between

2006 and December of 2008 when I started the

TFG1 podcast, at some point or another I learned

about He -Man .org and their message boards.

At that time, and I still have this email address,

and it is what it is, not that I really care,

but it was, you know, My hotmail address. I went

on He -Man .org to join their forums. We're sorry.

We don't accept applications to join the forums

from this email. I'm like, wait, what? Huh? I

couldn't even get into the damn He -Man .org

forums. So I had no... It isn't like TFW2005

.com, which is the Transformers forums, and I

don't even want to get into that discussion.

It isn't like that where I got in and I realized

how much of a Toxitron that board is at times.

But the He -Man forms, I could never get in.

I could never get on them. And I just, okay,

sure, fine. And by that time, we were about ready

to start Powers of Grayskull series. And, you

know, it's funny because... We're recording this,

and hopefully I can have him on to do this with

me for his own personal He -Man journey. I just

recorded and released an episode of ToyCast a

couple of weeks ago with Scott ToyGuruNightlyk,

who used to work at Mattel, who worked on classics

and everything else, and we went through the

ToyCast toy collecting questions with him. So

I'm sure he'd be up to come on here. There you

go. Yeah. There you go. All right, Skeletor,

what's the next question that we got? With the

internet giving birth to the fans all having

a voice about what they like or don't like about

Motu, do you find that your voice gets lost in

the shuffle, or do you just shout louder? I love

hearing Skeletor ask that question. So, folks,

the origins questions when it comes to Transformers

and now here with Masters of the Universe, I

have always had this question, and I've always

phrased it the way that it is phrased, with the

internet giving birth to the fans all having

a voice, yada, yada, yada. So, for me, I like

surrounding myself with like -minded people for

the most part. I would say, 85 % of the time,

the people that I surround myself with, we generally

agree on the same things. It's perfectly fine

that we disagree on things. It's not the end

of the world. I mean, am I going to throw away

a 14, 15 year friendship just because Mr. Solo

over there wants, you know, would rather have

mac and cheese than watch He -Man and the Masters

of the Universe on Netflix? No. I don't care.

That's his opinion. I have a different opinion.

It's fine. It's not the end of the world. Yeah,

I mean as podcasts go, it would be boring if

we agreed on everything. So I prefer to have

differing opinions as long as it's respectable

and this, that, and the other. So like the nonsense

that was being spouted on almost all social media

outlets when Revelation was coming out or before

it came out was nauseating and that type of conversations

I want nothing to do with. So I will shout louder

than or just leave. those conversations because

that's just nonsense. Just stupid. Yeah. But,

uh, I, I don't feel like we, we, I'm going to

speak for you. I don't feel like we have needed

to talk louder. We've just talked more. We just

have more because we have like 150 episodes of

this nonsense talking about Motu. 135. This is

the 135th chapter of the Powers of Ice. So we

have over 125 chances to talk to you about Motu.

So we didn't need to talk louder because we were

just talking to ourselves anyways. You couldn't

talk over us because we're recording it separately.

Right. And I think the same thing with this question

is more so, again, on those message boards. Like,

okay, let's say, for example, I was able to get

in with my Hotmail email address back in the

day. And most forums have like a, hey, introduce

yourself to us kind of thread. At the time in

2007, 2008. I would have said, my name is Mike.

I'm blah, blah, blah. I grew up watching He -Man,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I like this, this,

and this. Hope everyone has a nice day. And this

is what I meant about the Toxitron stuff that

ends up sometimes on the other boards. If I say

I like something and somebody comes back and

says, oh, you can't like that. That's wrong.

I'm like, I don't have time for that. I don't

have time to argue. Arguing over... Whether the

sword needs to be silver or purple. That's just

dumb. There's a purple sword. There's a silver

sword. They were toys. That's it. Yeah. And I

like how they work those into the fiction too.

Even though originally those, the two have thing,

like I think over the, over the times that Motu

has been, how they've worked that aspect of the

fact that it's just two halves of the same sword.

I like how they've worked it into the fiction,

so. Yeah. So, yeah. All right, Skeletor. Is there

any music from the franchise that stands out

to you the most? For half a second there, I was

expecting him to play a flute. I have to be careful

here because I know how I am, even though I may

only include a three -second clip or something

with this question, because I generally love

all of the Filmation. He -Man music. I know you're

a very musical person. I've seen your wedding

video when you were singing and everything else,

and you like music in general. But you know what

I mean. I know that you are a musical person.

I just don't know. Music is not something you

and I have talked about. For me, when my musical

tastes are such that I prefer music that has

lyrics, I prefer songs, I prefer singing, I prefer

that side of it. I'm very much anti -instrumental

stuff. I shouldn't say anti, but I don't gravitate.

I'm not going to listen to instrumental music

in my spare time. Now, that doesn't mean I don't

appreciate soundtracks and instrumental music

that is attached to things like Star Wars and

Indiana Jones and Lord of the Rings and things

of that nature because they're just iconic and

they set the mood and that type of stuff. But

for me, when I'm asked, is there any music that

stands out to me, it's always going to be ones

with words. So for me, it's the intro, the original

Filmation intro, and it starts and ends there.

Not to say I didn't like some of the instrumental

stuff done throughout the series, but I could

never point. to my finger to like a specific

theme and be like well this music they play when

they're in eternia or something like that like

i'm not going to be able to do that because it

doesn't stick with my mind the overture for returning

it is great for filmation the orco music that

that that i'm doing it wrong but you know what

i mean Every time Orko pops up, he has his own

theme. I like the royal theme. I wish they used

that a little more. And I wish whatever the next

series ends up being past Revelation and past

the CGI stuff. I want to get more. You know how

we always, most of us, not all of us, but a lot

of us will remake. And I'm one of these people,

so I'm lumping myself in here too, folks. Remake

again. Reboot again. Why isn't there anything

original in Hollywood? Well, that's because IP

needs to stay up and whatever else. So my point

here is. We have always focused, and I know this

is probably never going to happen again. This

is like, what's his name? Kyle Higgins. asking,

even though he was able to write it, but asking

for an adult version, a more adult Power Rangers,

not Kyle Higgins, Jason David Frank, who played

Tommy Elwood. I know you're out of the Rangers

thing, but the point is Jason David Frank, who

played the original Green and White Ranger on

the original 90s Power Rangers series, has always

said as a person and as an actor, he wants a

more adult. So for me, if they were ever able

to do something, because most toy companies now

have two lanes. They have the child lane to hook

all your kids, and they have the lane for us

adult collectors who want to be children in our

40s so we can relive our childhood kind of thing.

So for me, what I would love to see, even if

it was just an opening three -parter, not necessarily

repeating what 2002 did, I want to see, basically,

as bad as this is going to sound, because I know

it sounds like me asking for Anakin and Padme's

love story in Attack of the Clones. I want to

see Randor and Marlena. I want to see how, like,

before they had Adam and Adora kind of thing.

And then you could always flash forward it, too,

after they've had them. I would prefer to see

much... further into the future than much in

further into the past but that's just me oh so

you want to see king he -man with queen tila

got it no no no i want to see uh like a he -man

shira crossover where they were both just you

know whatever doing stuff to save the world together

for a while yeah the reason why i say that is

that happened in the comics from dc anyway all

right skeletor Take it away. Have you ever rewatched

any of the series later on in your life? If so,

how often do you go back and rewatch any of the

Motu cartoons? I think with this one, we've kind

of already answered. 135 episodes. If we don't

have an answer by now in the last decade. As

far as how often are we going to go back and

rewatch it, though, it has dwindled to almost

nothing now. See, that's the thing. When you're

a podcast host and you decide to do a specific

overall genre podcast on a show and you've spent

the last decade of your life going through every

aspect of all of it, you're not going to want

to go through with it again. You're not going

to want to go back and rewatch. I'll watch the

live action movie every once in a while and I'll

probably watch Revelation again at some point.

But I'm pretty good on the rest of it for a long

time. Yeah, and that's kind of what I was saying

in another episode you and I recorded recently

about the Transformers. Because I went through

for our countdown and watched all 98 episodes

of G1 last year in 2021. It's probably going

to be the 40th anniversary before I'm going to

want to watch. Even though I have episodes that

I love that I could go back to watch, I'm in

the process of moving on and doing other podcast

things and doing other stuff. So, yeah. I mean,

right now we don't go back and rewatch most of

it, but if we had not done this podcast series,

you know, I'd probably go back maybe every couple

of months and catch an episode here or there.

All right, Skeletor, what do you got? Have you

ever read any of the Motu comics? If so, which

ones? Do you have any favorites? This question's

for you. My answer is the ones that Mike has

forced me to. Yes. I don't have time for reading.

Sorry. So, okay, here's the thing with you and

I. It's not that you don't have, don't say you

don't have time for reading. It is so hard. I

have three novels of Star Wars that I've meant

to read for the last year and a half that I can't

get to. Well, yes, but that's also because you've

had a child, you know, and all of that. But the

thing of it is, is your media focus is, again,

you can correct me if I'm wrong, but your media

focus is the cartoons, the movies, the this,

the that. And obviously it's not just on. He

-Man, Transformers, it's on whatever visual medium

you're, you know, whatever. And the only reason

why I've offered you the comics is because I

don't, you know, this is our show. I don't want

to sit here and say, I'm TFG1 Mike and I am the

master of powers of grace. Like, the whole point

is it's our show. As long as we generally agree

and I bring something to you and you say... yeah,

I don't have time for that right now. Maybe you

could find, and you've said that a couple of

times and that's fine. And I make up some excuse

of how you've gotten dragged off to the, you

know, fright zone or something or other, whatever,

you know? So I do plan on reading most of the

comics at one point. Yeah. I mean, we do have

a, a future plan that you'll hear a little bit

of at the end of this episode, folks. So the

comics keep it short and sweet. Uh -huh. Yeah.

I wish Skeletor was actually here live with us

because he would have a whole lot to say on this.

So, ladies and gentlemen, this is question number

16. And for those of you that may or may not

know, my buddy A. Das Baron is the voice of the

Skeletor you've been hearing. He does – I had

to voice direct him. I wanted him to go darker,

more towards 2002, less of the Filmation funny

kind of thing. So, anyway. He is the one that

generally joins me for the Motu comics and we've

covered most of them. I enjoy them. They're okay,

but I have not gone back and reread any of them.

Just haven't. Yeah. All right. But I mean, they're

not, again, it isn't like I read a comic and

was like, oh my God, I could never be it. associated

with He -Man ever again. It's not that at all.

Some of them were good. I enjoyed some of them.

They're alright. Okay, Skeletor. Quit playing

with your toys and ask us the next question,

please. How? Big is your Motu toy collection.

How big is my what? How big is my Motu toy collection?

It is 125 plus. So it was 125 last time I counted.

I've bought some stuff since then. So it's more

than that. Most, let's say probably a third of

that is the original line. Third of that is probably

the classic slash origin slash lines that have

come out in the 2000s. And then I have almost

all of the Revelation figures that have come

out except for one, I believe. I'm missing one.

And then I have some random other stuff, kind

of offshoots and whatnot. So over 125. I have

10. My toy collection is bigger than yours. Yes,

it is. I have 10 Funko Pops of Masters of the

Universe. And so, again, trying to keep this

short, but from... 2005 to 2011, I had a regular

everyday action figure robot Transformer He -Man

collection. Sometime in 2012, just after we started

this podcast, my mom said, I've been carrying

this thing around for 30 years. It's your turn.

And she gave me my original Castle Grayskull.

Now, my original Castle Grayskull, sadly, is

just a shell of its former self. It didn't have

the plate, the frame, the holder where you put

the chair, where you open the trap door. It didn't

have any of that. It had one of the two turret

stands, so basically the left one above the window

or the right one above the window. It didn't

even have the jaw bridge anymore, sadly. My mom

had been lugging this thing around, moving from

city to city, town to town over the years, over

30 years, and she's like, yep, nope, I'm done.

So in 2012, I grab it, and by, I think, the time

my mom passed away, it died with her. So, fun

fact, folks, I try my best to keep my apartment

as clean as I possibly can, except sometime at

the end of 2014, the beginning of 2015, right

before my mom passed away, I had just gotten,

and I'm sure I have these years right. I don't

remember, and somebody can correct me. This is

right as the Queen Marlena SDCC figure came out

from Masters Classics. Hello, ladies and gentlemen.

Future TFG1 Mike here, and what I'm saying about

Queen Marlena when she was released versus when

I had to give her up or let her go, she was actually

released in 2011. Can you believe that Comic

-Con 2011 is now just a few days away? Yada,

yada, yada. This is coming from the foosh. I

will put the link in the post on the website.

And yeah, the Queen Marlena action figure was

SDCC 2011. So even though I ended up giving her

up or letting her go because of the bugs in 2014,

she was actually released in 2011. So now...

Back to the show. God, I forgot how good this

figure was. Anyway, back to the podcast. As if.

Where she had both the queen outfit and the outer

space outfit. So I'm like, ooh, yeah, I have

a Queen Marlena now. And I had had other classics

figures at the time, so I was just, you know,

posing them with, you know, the old castle. And

picked up Queen Marlena one day and picked up

Castle Grayskull one day in late 2014, early

2015. a bug came out of Queen Marlena's dress.

And then I looked at Grayskull and I'm like,

give me a big garbage bag. See you later. Just

could not deal with it anymore at all. Dun, dun,

dun. Yeah. So my Motu toy collection right now

is basically Funko Pops. And I enjoy it. I think

it's fun because I try my best not to just get

the standard He -Man, Skeletor, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah. I have the Prince Adam. I have

the King Randor. I have the blue. I originally

had the purple, the more show -accurate version

of Evil -In. And I think I still have that. It

might be in storage. But out of the ones here

that I have, I have the new blue, the more toy

-accurate version. I have Slime Pit He -Man from

Funko. So Slime Pit not included. Slime Pit not

needed. They already did it for me. So I've got

that. I've got Terror Claws Skeletor. And then

I've got Grizzlor and Merman. Nice. And then

the other two I have, which I still have to take

out of the box, but Funko does this art series

stuff where they do all kinds of designs and

whatever. Well, He -Man is like... Grayskull,

green color. And Skeletor is purple snake mountain

color. So, you know, gotta have those. And then

I have He -Man on Battle Cat flocked. There you

go. Yep. Good stuff. Absolutely. Skeletor, take

it away. What is the one Motu toy you could never

part with ever? Or the one toy you wish you had

that you'd... I don't know if there's a toy I

could never part with ever, but any of the original

vintage line that's in good shape, if they're

not loose, if they're in decent overall shape,

I probably would not part with those just to

part with them. As far as something I wish I

had that I didn't, I don't really have a big

wish list when it comes to Motu. Maybe the Fright

Zone playset from the original or the Eternia

playset, because I have Snake Mountain and Castle

Greyskull, so I don't have those other two playsets.

I don't have a lot of the vehicles, but it's

not like it's something that I'm dying for. Once

I do my run -through of what I have from the

original line, there will be some that are on

a wish list of completing it, I guess. But yeah,

I'm not selling anything or getting rid of it

unless it's in bad shape, and I'm trying to replace

it with a better -shaped one, I guess. Yeah,

absolutely. I also phrased this question as in,

like, if the house is on fire but every human

and pet is safe, what would you run in and save

kind of thing? And for me, if I'm only picking

one, it's got to be that Slime Pit He -Man. Because

that Slime Pit He -Man Funko Pop, again, like

I said, our parents loathed that Slime Pit. That

Slime Pit made things so dirty. Yeah. It was

such a mess. It would be hard for me to grab

just one thing. I don't have one that stands

out above the other, so that's hard. And for

me, just out of design standpoint, if I was only

going to grab XXX, it would be that the art series

pops, because I need to make my next YouTube

video on the Funko Pop Masters of the Universe

art series, He -Man and Skeletor, because they

really are cool. All right, Skeletor, get your

wallet out. What was the most money you spent?

on a Motu toy item ever. You know, you would

think with as many toys as I have that I'd have

some story of one that cost a bunch or something

like that. But I actually hit the gold mine or

the jackpot, whatever you want to say, a year,

year and a half ago on eBay. I found somebody

that was selling off almost their entire collection.

It seemed like they were in spectacular condition,

great shape. And there was ones that I got for

like a dollar, $5, $6, $8. So overall, the entire

haul was a little expensive, but each individual

component was not very expensive. I think probably

the most I've ever spent would be when I was

building my hero and villain collection. I think

I re -bought either He -Man or Skeletor, the

original one, because mine was a little bit more

loose and I wanted one in a better condition.

So I think maybe that was probably 40 bucks,

maybe 30 bucks. I don't spend a lot on my Motu

stuff. Yeah, and for my Motu stuff, I mean, in

relative to what Funko actually has stores charging

for figures, I would say that the art series

pops were the most expensive ones at... just

around $50 each only because it, and Funko is

this whole other realm of things, but that was

the aftermarket eBay price. Yeah. And you know,

it is what it is, but this question here is more,

again, when we do the all things transformers

episodes of origins, when I can tell the story

of, I spent $800 on the 2008 botcon set. Along

with everything to go with all the extra things.

But that was a set of five figures plus, you

know, three or four more figures. But as far

as like one individual item, I think the most

that was ever spent was whatever the original

price of Castle Grayskull was in 82. Yeah. I

did buy Birdman Dodd's collection of He -Man

stuff, including Castle Grayskull, just to kind

of do him a solid and to add some pieces to my

collection. But again, that was a haul. It wasn't

just an individual thing. So there was multiple

things together. All right, Skeletor, time to

get fictitious on us. If you could create any

Motu fiction toy, cartoon, comic, etc. what would

it be and what story would you want to tell with

it? I kind of have already said it. I want to

see something. If I'm creating fiction specifically,

I want to see something before the twins are

born. I want to see how Marlena and Randor are

before all that happens. And then I like, so

that would be like the first half of the story.

Let's say if I'm getting Netflix 30 minutes time,

no commercials, the first 15 minutes would be

pre -birth of children. The last 15 minutes might

be like 40, 50, 60 years in the future when they're

almost dead and Adam and Adora are doing whatever

they're doing as adults kind of thing. What about

you? This would be fairly easy for me. I would

finish the 2002 series. Me too. So I would write

a conclusion to it. I would take on after the

fact, go with the Snake Man, introduce Hordak,

and we would finish that story. Yep. All right,

Skeletor, don't get all parental on us. Do you

have a my parents got rid of my toys story? I've

kind of already told this story. I said it at

the beginning of the episode, but do you have

a my parents got rid of my toys story? My mom

had a garage, so once upon a time, she knew better

than to put any Transformers in it. But I did

lose, I think I lost a couple G .I. Joe things,

but I lost most of my Motu collection, which

wasn't huge. But I believe Teela, some of my

He -Mans and Skeletors, the various ones I had,

things like that. Luckily, some of it didn't

sell, so I got to hold on to it. But I know I

lost a few figures there. I lost a Silverhawks

figure there. I was pretty angry when I got home

from my friends and realized that she had even

done that. But at least she knew not to put my

Transformers in there. There you go. All right,

Skeletor, you've been very vocal to this point.

Let's talk about some more acting. What are some

of your favorite voice performances over the

course of the franchise? This question is too

hard to answer. We've talked about this in Ad

Nauseam. In all the other podcasts. So, I mean,

I think when it comes to Alan Oppenheimer, that's

the first name that pops into my head. Just because

of all the different stuff he did for Filmation.

Mossman, I guess, in the most recent with Revelation.

But he's the one that comes to my mind first

and foremost. I think there's been individual

performances, though, that have been good in

each series. And there hasn't been a lot of garbage

outside of I wasn't a big fan of Orko's voice

in the 2002 version. I wasn't a big fan of Queen

Marlena and a couple. There was one other voice

that drove me nuts. I can't remember which one

from Revelation. But overall, Alan Oppenheimer.

I think there's been other good versions of Skeletor

and He -Man along the way. Merman's voice has

usually been pretty good. So those are the ones

that come to my mind right away. Except when

he's dressing up for Halloween as Batman. I love

you, Kevin Conroy. And I know it's not your fault,

but that was a miscast role. Yeah, not my favorite

Merman. Well, it's just more misdirected. It

wasn't that it was miscast. They just didn't

tell him to do anything to make it Merman. And

again, I... Okay, there are, you know, we should

do a whole episode on another show all about

voice acting, but there are voice actors like

Rob Paulson, Maurice LaMarche, obviously Mel

Blanc and Frank Welker that can do a thousand

different character versions. Even when he's

just speaking in his normal, regular voice. I

hear Bruce Wayne Batman with Kevin Conroy. It

doesn't matter what role he's in. That's what

I hear. I think Lena Headley, though, as like

Eva Lynn in this most recent one. Fantastic.

Man at Arms in The Revelation. I'm blanking on

the name of the voice actor, but he was phenomenal.

The other dude from Game of Thrones. I can't

remember what his name is. We'll look it up later.

For me, if I'm going to pick a favorite voice

performance, I love Alan Oppenheimer. I do. I

absolutely love him. But I love that darkness

that Brian Dobson did or Michael Dobson, one

of the Dobson brothers. I forget which one it

is off the top of my head from 2002. So if I'm

picking, I'm going to pick John Irwin He -Man

and the 2002 Skeletor. Sounds good. All right,

Skeletor, maybe you should be answering this

question. Who is He -Man's most formidable enemy?

Skeletor, Hordak, or King Hiss? I mean, seriously,

who's writing these things? I thought there was

only one possible answer. Like, a snake man?

Come on. This is my favorite part of the episode

here. We're getting to the fun questions now.

Who's He -Man's most formidable enemy? Skeletor,

Hordak, or King Hiss? This is an easy one. If

you've watched all of the episodes of all the

different cartoons, Hordak is more powerful than

both of those other two. He is, but who's the

more formidable one? Like, you're right. Skeletor,

never best He -Man, really. I mean... Yeah, that's

true. Hordak bests both Skeletor and King Hess.

That's true, but the question isn't about who

Hordak is going up against. It's about, you know,

we never really... I mean, technically, He -Man

handed Hordak his ass in The Secret of the Sword.

I mean, yes, Hordak trapped him, but once he

got loose, it's kind of all over for Hordak.

I don't know. Yeah. It's kind of like the Tootsie

Roll Pop. It's an answer we'll never know. Yeah,

I guess it depends on how much you're going to

go by, like the 2002 series, because that one

certainly sets it up for Hordak to be the end

-all, be -all. All right, Skeletor, who are you

questing with? If you had to go on a quest and

could only have three evil warriors or masters

of the universe with you, Who would you select

to be on your team? No He -Man or Skeletor. Mike,

what do you got on this one? I know mine. I am

going to pick Man -at -Arms. Decent pick. Stratos.

And just for fun, Tongue Lashore. That makes

no sense. I get, I get your man at arms one cause

he's resourceful engineering style, et cetera.

Maybe you need Stratos to fly. What purpose would

tongue lash? I don't know. All right. Mike and

my tribe will beat yours easy. Then I'll go with

Zodak. I'll go with the sorceress. And with the

third one, I guess you can throw him in and I

can't speak. Nope. Nope. Zodak, Sorceress, and

since that's a lot of magic, I guess I won't

throw Hordak or Evil Lynn in there. I'll just

go with Man -at -Arms like you did. I was going

to pick Mechaneck, but there's only so many ways

you can use a long neck. All right, Skeletor,

look out. I need a roommate. If you could live

in any of the following places, which would it

be? Castle Grayskull, the Royal Palace. Snake

Mountain, the Fright Zone, or Bright Moon? So

from a comfort level, it depends on what you're

choosing. From a comfort level, the Royal Palace

would be your selection because there's nothing

that's more with it more amenities and more people,

staff, and things of that nature. Castle Grayskull

would be the place where you're most protected.

Yep. Snake Mountain in the Fright Zone would

be odd choices for somebody to pick. I could

see somebody picking Bright Moon if they like

the outdoors, they like camping, or they just

want to be around, I guess, a lot of girls type

thing in that situation. Bo included. So for

me, I guess it would come down to either the

Palace or Greyskull. Yeah, I'm right there with

you. I guess I'll pick Greyskull. It's not that

far of a trek to Grayskull, so I guess I'll pick

the palace. All right. Skeletor, are you sure

you have your license yet? No way, does he? No

way. If all of the MOTU vehicles existed in real

life, which would you want to own, drive, or

pilot the most? All right, I'm going to answer

question 26 first, because as a kid, even though

I know I could never do this, but... Most of

us had big wheels as kids in the 80s. I always

wanted to drive or ride on the Sky Sled. Yeah.

So much of the stuff that was available, especially

in the toy line, was more land vehicles with

wheels and things of that nature. So there would

be a lot of those to choose from, but I don't

think you can pass that up when you have something

like the Wind Raider. Skyslade would be similar,

but either one of those, something that's going

to fly is going to be where I'm going to choose.

Yep, absolutely. All right, Skeletor, get planetary

here with us. Which planet would you choose to

live on? Eternia, Etheria, or Trala? So thank

God this is coming to a close soon because your

puns keep getting worse and worse. They're not

even dad jokes on your standpoint. So, all right.

Eternia, Etheria, Trala. The safest place? Trala.

That would be the one where you have to least

to worry about. There's not any evil stuff coming

after you unless they go through like portals

and things of that nature. But it's also like

living at like Willy Wonka land. So I don't know

how much you want to do that or not. I'm still

deciding. What do you think, Mike? I don't think

I would ever pick Etheria only because. I mean,

if it's Etheria after Hordak's defeat, sure,

I'll pick Etheria. But if it's Etheria before

Hordak's defeat, you're basically an enslaved

people. Yeah. You know, so Trella has too much

magnets, too much magic, and dumbassery at times.

I found the way to answer this question, Mike.

Okay. All right. if I am 10 years old or less,

I'm living in trial because that seems to be

a good place for kids to live. Lots of fun, et

cetera, magic, et cetera. If I am like 12 to

25, I'm living in the theory because hormones.

And then if I am an adult, I'm going to live

in eternity. Yeah. That's a good way to answer

that question. Obviously, the 80s was a great

time for action cartoons aimed at boys. Why did

Motu stand out amongst the crowd for you? What

made you a fan? All right. Oh, boy, the 80s.

Yeah, the 80s was a great time for action cartoons

aimed at boys. That is for dang sure. So what

made Motu stand out for me amongst the crowd?

here's where I will go with that since it came

first for me, as far as action cartoons that

I gravitated towards was a fan of was number

one on my list before anything else came out.

Why did it do that? Well, up to that point, obviously

I wasn't alive in the seventies, but the stuff

that came before it that I would have been exposed

to and things of that nature just came across

more boring to me. The stuff like thunder, the

barbarian black star. All the stuff that's kind

of in that He -Man mold that came first just

didn't have that it factor, didn't have that

wow factor. And something about Motu, and maybe

it was because of the toys and all the different

things you could do with it, like I talked about

with the blood and the necks and the eyes and

the things that you could play with and ram in.

You could make them ram into things and all that

different stuff just separated it from the static

toys, the dolls. They weren't dolls. This is

action figures. almost more than any other line

i know some people would say star wars but like

this is the line that transitions from being

a doll to being an action figure and so that

helps separate it and then there was just something

about the voice work something about the music

and the intro and something about it where it

was just like the thundar stuff and the herculoids

and the black star and all that kind of stuff

for me was more conan the barbarian type it was

more Almost in the vein of superheroes. And I

didn't gravitate towards superheroes back then.

Because they just all seemed the same to me.

So like this was something where I got. To see

something different. And something crazy. And

I don't know. It just was something that broke

the mold for me. So I think that's what kind

of made it stand out. Now it doesn't stand out

as much. As you get that other stuff going into

it. Because obviously Transformers did different

things with the toys. Mask did different things

with the toys. Etc. Turtles tried to do different

stuff with the toys. As you go through the 80s.

Maybe it blends more into the crowd, but in the

beginning, it really stood out about what came

before it. You just want to say ditto? No, I

mean, I agree with what you said. I just think

it's animation has come so far in the last almost

40 years or hell, let's just say the last 40

years from 82 to 2022. And the way animation

is presented has changed. You look at filmation.

You look at He -Man and or She -Ra, either one.

I'm Prince Adam, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Go through all of that. You get that entire opening

theme. And then you get the title card. But you

also get music on top of that. So, yes, you have

the vocal slash instrumental theme for Filmation

He -Man. But as soon as that's done. You get

a title card to see what the episode title is,

and maybe that's all you focused on was the title.

Not you specifically, but in general. Not a lot

of us as kids are focusing on how many episodes.

May the man rest in peace. Larry Dottilio wrote

for Filmation He -Man, but that title card with

that little jaunt of music got me so excited.

And nowadays it's kind of not there anymore because

they've kind of switched about a decade or decade

and a half or so ago. They switched to doing

like a cold open and then a theme song and then

something else or they whatever that sometimes

some shows forego an entire theme altogether,

like an opening credits thing. So it is what

it is. What made. stand out the most was because

it was action -packed for both boys and girls.

Yeah, I agree with that. I think the intro in

and of itself is such a hook to get you in that,

so it really had a way of getting your attention,

for sure. Absolutely. Okay, Skeletor, don't go

casting yourself in the new live -action movie,

please. If the long -rumored live -action movie

were to ever happen, what story would you want

it to tell? Who do you think should play the

role of He -Man, and why is or isn't it Chris

Hemsworth? This question. This movie has been

rumored for almost 40 years. There have been

things happening, there have been things aren't

happening. And you're of the opinion that Thor,

of all people, needs to play He -Man slash Prince

Adam. Yeah. Don't agree, but that's okay. That's

because you're dumb. But here's the situation.

If this was a movie that was done legit with

a real director, a legit director, quality director,

and was done in the same vein as, let's say...

the marvel cinematic universe where it's something

that we're going to take something that's fantastical

and we're going to try to put a spin on it and

make it for a modern audience and make it believable

and make it visual visually appealing and this

that and the other and it's all seriously done

trying to be successful there is nobody in hollywood

that looks more natural as he -man like he literally

looks like he -man so that would be and he's

a legit seasoned actor that has done this type

of stuff then that's who we would get unfortunately

what we're going to get is we're going to get

some second rate director because it's the only

person that'll take on the project for some reason

and then it's going to be some no -named actor

that may or may not be good but he's not going

to look like him so that's my problem like it

is Right there in front of you. Like if you did

a lineup, like a police lineup, Law & Order style,

and you put all these different actors in there,

and you were to try to use a computer program

and say which one, like specifically from a science

standpoint, which one matches the most features

of He -Man, it is fucking Chris Hemsworth. I'm

going to let you have it, but my problem with

Hemsworth is it has nothing to do with him. It

really has nothing to do with him. What it has

to do with is his portrayal of Thor in Thor 1

and 2. Thor 3 is a little different, but Thor

1 and 2, I just can't deal. And again, as of

this recording, I just recently rewatched Avengers

Infinity War and Endgame. Now, if you want to

put Chris Hemsworth... You know, at the end of

his He -Man – I know this is not what you want,

Kevin, but if you put Chris Hemsworth as He -Man

at the end of his career and basically use drunk

Thor from those Avengers movies, that I would

pay to see. Yeah, but I think you're associating

too much of the character that he plays. Chris

Hemsworth is an actor, so he can play other roles.

Yeah, but – So he's not going to play Thor. He's

going to play He -Man. I haven't seen him. He's

an actor. He can do it. I haven't seen him in

too many other good movies, though, besides.

Fair enough. From a look standpoint, he's perfect.

And the girls would like it, so maybe they would

go see it. Okay, so if this is live action and

this is basically, let's just say it's 87 -ish

where it's He -Man all the time. So you're saying

you want him as He -Man all the time and no Prince

Adam? Or you want somebody else because... Hollywood

can do it. So he was Prince Adam too. That'd

be a lot of CGI. I actually cast this whole live

action movie on cinema geeks a long time ago.

So you can search it on Google. I did the whole

thing. I have perfect people for everybody. Remember

what episode that was? Oh Lord. I'll try to find

it by the end of the show so that we can get

it in there. All right. Final question, Mr. Skeletor,

sir. What? Is one piece of advice that you'd

give the Motu fandom and the Motu collectors

in general? This question. Question 30. Wow.

Calm the fuck down. Yeah, I think I think the

biggest thing for me is and this is obviously

came to big time awareness when Revelation came

out that. we really need to stop thinking that

everything has to be exactly how it was in the

past. So like, just because it was this way or

that way does not mean that it has to be that

way. You can make minor tweaks. People can evolve.

Characters can take on new tasks, new roles,

et cetera, et cetera. Right. So I think that's

just something that we all need to like appreciate

and everybody needs to calm. When it comes to

just a little, like you said, like the color

of a sword or the fact that Tila was promoted

to the man at arms or whatever, things like that

are just silly. Now I get it. Sometimes if you

completely change and make it so it's nothing

like the original one, like the Netflix CGI does,

where it's just like work, there's no similarity

between what that is and what he meant has ever

been. And that, that why call it he, man, I get

that. But when it's just minor little tweaks

and things like that, Everybody calm down. Like

they were freaking out because somebody got a

haircut. I think the problem with specifically

to revelation, I'm going to put revelation and

filmation in the ring, basically Rocky and Apollo

in the ring. Okay. The problem with Rocky is

that you had a guy, we now live in the internet

age. We've been living in the internet age, but

you got a guy as a show runner, whatever. in

Kevin Smith that I get he's excited for it. I

understand that. That's fine. Great. I want the

showrunner to be excited about the show that

they're doing. Just like I want a podcast host

like myself or yourself or Steve Megatron or

anybody to be excited about the podcast that

they're doing. But if he would have just come

out and said, Mattel owns this. We are going

off of the toys that Mattel owns. Nobody ever

would have said a damn thing about filmmation

rehash or filmmation continuation or any of that

stuff. But he didn't say that until after it

had already been. on netflix right but that's

the that's the problem is that people get so

wrapped up in what they see in a poster what

they see on a trailer what they see in a teaser

what somebody says in an interview that they

always have prejudged something before it ever

actually happens and like that part is just like

infuriating because like you should actually

see the thing you should watch the thing before

you've come to a predetermined you know course

of action on what you think it's good or bad

and they do that all the time and the sickening

part about it these days that always goes on

it always gets warped into some stupid political

thing where you're either right or you're left

or you're trump or you're not trump or you're

republican or democrat and they brought that

into he -man and that makes me want to punch

people because it just has nothing to do with

it like so that's the problem no yeah Yeah, so

anyway, like I said at the beginning of this

final question, everybody just please calm down

just a little bit. A little bit. A little bit.

Tiny bit. All right, so we're going to take a

quick break. You're going to hear some ads and

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the show after this. Hello, geeks and geekettes!

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Rewind was voted Best Podcast Ever by its host,

Tim Nydell. So it's gotta be good. So let's say

you're looking for a podcast of your favorite

80s comic books. G .I. Joe, Transformers, Ninja

Turtles, He -Man, etc. Where are you going to

go to find us? Welcome to Star Joe's Podcast.

I'm your host, Ryan. And I'm Chuck. That's right,

everybody. We're the Star Joes. We host a podcast

called Star Joe's Podcast. where we talk about

your favorite comic books, your favorite toys

of all the 80s properties. Star Wars, G .I. Joe,

Transformers, Mask, Thundercats, Voltron, you

name it, we cover it. If it's in the 80s, we

will cover it at some point. Yes, so what you

want to do to find us, you can go to iTunes,

you can go to www .starjoes .com. And remember,

the Force will be with you, because knowing us

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ToyCast. All right, folks, we are back here on

the Powers of Greyskull series. And before we

close, I wanted to look this up because I know

this was a piece of news that happened back in

December. Sadly, as of December 2021, Masters

of the Universe designer Mark Taylor has passed

away. I know this is old news, folks, but we

haven't done an episode of this podcast in a

long time. He was basically, you know, if you

look at the first like 10 minutes of the powers

of gray skull documentary that we covered, he's

in that talking about how he man and Conan and

mixture of both. And he's basically the guy that,

you know, he was credited with shaping much of

the Motu aesthetic. And turtles. And yeah. And

turtles. So may the man rest in peace. I didn't

want us to do this episode and not. acknowledge

that that guy passed away. We just keep, I know

death is an everyday thing, but we just keep

losing so many awesome, awesome, awesome people.

So, with that being said, if you, now that Kevin

and I have our stories out there, if you would

like to be on the Origins episode here at POGS,

send an email to feedback at geekcastradio .com

with the subject line POGS Origins Guest Spot.

You must have one year or more of podcast experience

and have a decent microphone, please. I use Skype

or Zencaster to record these. Anything else you

want to say, Optimus Solo, before we get the

heck out of here? Nope. Just bring on the live

-action movie, bring on the next season of Revelation,

and let that other thing die and fade away. Ladies

and gentlemen, in the future, mixed in with these

Origins episodes, we will be doing all five seasons

of Netflix She -Ra. And, and the two seasons

of the new show. Nice. Oh, Hey, by the time we

get to it, it may have three seasons. I don't

know. Be gone by the time. We'll stop it. So

thank you for listening to us as we are the powers

of gray skull series podcast here on the geek

cast radio network. If you'd like to get in contact

with us, leave feedback for the show. There are

several ways to do so. Visit the website geekcastradio

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of our content. Here are all the ways you can

listen to us nowadays. Apple, Google Podcasts,

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client you choose to use. Follow us on Twitter

at geekcastradio for the network, at powofgrayskull

for the show. I'm at TFG1. Mike, what is your

Twitter? At Optimus Solo. You also want to promote

the other one you use? Um, not too much yet,

but be on the lookout for something called the

geek showcase. It's going to come soon. You're

going to be able to see a lot of vintage He -Man

toys and things of that nature. Very cool. Very

cool. Become a fan of Facebook, go to facebook

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search out powers of gray skull pogs over there

as well. I finally set up a, uh, a Facebook page

for this show. We hope you enjoyed the gray skull

goodness today. And don't forget to join us in

our next adventure when we will be doing something.

I don't know. Comics, maybe. She -Ra, maybe.

Comics, maybe. It might be... I don't know. It

just depends on when we can actually record one

of these things. Dun -dun -dun. So, for now,

I am TF2 and Mike with... The one and only Optimus

Solo. By the power and for the honor of Grayskull,

we have the power. Amen. But only now do they

understand. It was all for Skeletor. That'll

teach you to fool around with magic. Curse you

all! Once I've restored evil linen faker, I'll

be back to have vengeance! So swears Skeletor!