A little look at Faker's appearance in the cartoon, and what he should have looked like.

In Filmation's adaptation of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe the one character they misused is one that people often forget; Faker. Released with the earliest assortment of characters the blue-skinned He-Man was given a poor origin in "The Shaping Staff" episode and did not resemble his toy form.

A lot of people are often confused by Faker and what his purpose was in the world of He-Man. The only real decent story for his existence was given by the UK annuals which stated; "A being created by Skeletor himself with the aim of looking exactly like He-Man, to create maximum trouble and confusion. Unfortunately for Skeletor something went wrong in the spell, and Faker is a miscolored and negative version of He-Man, easily detectable as the evil being he is. Through magic, Skeletor can make him into an exact likeness, but the spell lasts only a very short time, and the evil creature is soon revealed."

In "The Shaping Staff" Faker seems to be largely a diversion for the episode, having nothing to do with the Shaping Staff. His appearance is so fleeting that it attains the notion of being an add-on or an afterthought. The concept of there being an evil He-Man is so interesting that we wonder why Filmation did not create an entire episode around the Faker character. We hope that the challenge of Faker will make for a more entertaining battle, and the gimmick works, at least for a little while. By combining the Skeletor and He-Man model sheets you can see what the character may have looked like in the hands of Filmation. Below are two versions; on the left is Faker colored as the action figure; and on the right colored as he is pictured on the backs of the cards.

Faker; possibly one of the most wasted characters in the He-Man series.