Pre-Filmation MOTU technology, sorcery and mystery

[Crusader]

And don't forget the minicomics. I still have some old ones from back in the day "Battle in the Clouds", "Menace of Trap-Jaw", "A Dragon's Gift"...

Yeah, the atmosphere is vastly different between the cartoons and the comics. In the latter Skeletor and his evil warrior really posed a threath to Eternia while Filmation almost reduced them to comic relief.

The Dragon's Gift and Masks of Power were my two favourites.

[Chroniklor]

Yeah, the atmosphere is vastly different between the cartoons and the comics. In the latter Skeletor and his evil warrior really posed a threath to Eternia while Filmation almost reduced them to comic relief.

The Dragon's Gift and Masks of Power were my two favourites.

Absolutely! Same here.
I still have one page of my own original The Dragon's Gift: completely worn and tattered, but I will never get rid of it. Masks of Power is really great (though some consider it to be the weakest of the very early minicomics). I disagree with that: we need those two goblins in MotUC imo ;-)

[H.A.L.9000]

YESS!!! pre filmation all the way for me!!!!!!!!!!!! the cartoon kinda turned me off of he-man when i was a little kid....

[Odrakir]

The first mini comics is what I love the most in MOTU. I almost cried when they announced that the Alcalla Skeletor head was bundled with Demo-Man! And I can't wait to find out if Oo-larr is the preternia He-Man featured in the comics

[Chroniklor]

The first mini comics is what I love the most in MOTU. I almost cried when they announced that the Alcalla Skeletor head was bundled with Demo-Man! And I can't wait to find out if Oo-larr is the preternia He-Man featured in the comics

AMEN to that!

[Spikewolfe]

So we're getting the Skeletor head, we have the Green Goddess and a blue Mer-Man, and hopefully a Jungle He-Man fairly soon. What more do we need for a complete set of "original four" mini-comic characters? A blonde teela head, Teela's unicorn, a cape for MAA, a repainted Stratos, and a red Beast Man come to mind. Anything else? The Battle Chariot and Skeletor's energy blade too of course!

[Chroniklor]

So we're getting the Skeletor head, we have the Green Goddess and a blue Mer-Man, and hopefully a Jungle He-Man fairly soon. What more do we need for a complete set of "original four" mini-comic characters? A blonde teela head, Teela's unicorn, a cape for MAA, a repainted Stratos, and a red Beast Man come to mind. Anything else? The Battle Chariot and Skeletor's energy blade too of course!

I think that's pretty much it. For me, personally, the jungle He-Man is of GREAT importance I'm really looking forward to that. Teela's unicorn would be nice (+ add Tee-La's javelin as a small extra) but I'm not getting my hopes up too high for that (unfortunately).

I would like a beast as well: perhaps the sea creature from The Vengeance of Skeletor; but again, that wouldn't sell, so we're not gonna get that.
Taking it beyong the original four: Procrustus or the two orcs from Masks of Power would be very, very nice.

There is one thing, though, that I would really enjoy: The Spirit of the Castle! Oh man, how I loved that as a kid and I still do! However: how would that be possible as an 'action figure'? Probably not possible at all (although lot's of people want Horde Prime or Light Hope, they're a bit up the same alley I guess). The Spirit could be glow in the dark... Perhaps as a kind of dio? Anyway, that would really rock my socks: just imagine your Teela, MAA and the original or Jungle He-Man action figures against that background...

Edit: you guys familiar with these sites/forums?

http://loungegrayskull.he-man.us/index.php --> the forum of He-man.us, with a huge thread on Mineternia
http://www.dyerworks.com/he-man/Main.htm --> a site dedicated to Mineternia

There's a subgroup on vintage MOTU here on the .org, where pre-Filmation and Mineternia are mentioned as possible subjects for discussion. The most recent posts are from 2010, most of them from 2009 and not a whole lot of discussion on the first minicomics (check it here: http://www.he-man.org/forums/boards/...php?groupid=15). Do you guys think it would be interesting to start a new subgroup on that socalled Mineternia? Or would that be redundant?

Just so you'd know! Cheers!

[Crusader]

Absolutely! Same here.
I still have one page of my own original The Dragon's Gift: completely worn and tattered, but I will never get rid of it. Masks of Power is really great (though some consider it to be the weakest of the very early minicomics). I disagree with that: we need those two goblins in MotUC imo ;-)

Lucky you My only originals left are The Cosmic Key, Rock people to the rescue, Snake Attack, The Battle of Roboto and Enter Buzz Saw Hordak. My parents threw them away, I guess, same goes for the toy catalogues, stickersheets, posters and cardback pictures I cut out.
I only managed to hold on to the box of the Scubattack, the audio tape the ViewMaster slides and a publicity leaflet for the '87 movie.

I don't understand the people who think Masks of Power is the weakest. Every page of that comic is burned in my mind. If there's one thing I'd want beyond anything else it's Alcala's original drawing for the cover page of Masks of Power (but I'd be over the moon with any page from that comic) and the one where He-Man meets Granamyr. I'd pay a lot of money for them so if anyone can point me in the right direction, please, please let me know

I almost cried when they announced that the Alcalla Skeletor head was bundled with Demo-Man!

That was a happy moment for me too

[Pravus Prime]

I think I may be an oddity in this thread, as I got into He-man via Filmation and that was what I grew up with, like many, I thought Mattel got a lot of it "wrong" in their minicomics and whatnot. It was about the time I joined here as an adult that I got a chance to read the original minicomics and the DC issues and was amazed by how different and far more interesting the story was. There is so much story potential and such a great setup, with fascinating characters in a unique environment of fantasy and sci-fi that it's far and away my favorite version of MOTU (and who can't love that original box art?!?).

[Spikewolfe]

Yes, seeing as we can't have any new Alcala art work, it's Obrero all the way for me! Should also note that I love Emiliano's work too though!

[Met-Hild]

So we're getting the Skeletor head, we have the Green Goddess and a blue Mer-Man, and hopefully a Jungle He-Man fairly soon. What more do we need for a complete set of "original four" mini-comic characters?

Five-toed feet for Skeletor. Although I guess I could live with Demo-Man's four-toed feet in blue, they look fairly close to Alcala's Skeletor feet. And preferrably those greaves too.

[mossyman]

I was born just a hair to early for the original story of the mini comics I was born in 80 and didn't get into he man till 84 or 85 still early but that made me more filmation loyal. So can someone give me the jist of the story? and how the characters changed?

[Met-Hild]

So can someone give me the jist of the story? and how the characters changed?

Originally Eternia was a planet that had suffered an apocalyptic war that had pushed it back to barbarism. He-Man was a warrior called Oo-Larr from a tribe that had technologically regressed back to the stone age, who was given his techno-magical weapons and armor by the Goddess (an early version of the Sorceress that looked like a green Teela). Skeletor was an extra-dimensional demon bent on taking over Castle Grayskull that was packed full of unimaginable wonders of magic and technology that survived the war. Man-At-Arms was an ally of the Goddess who was responsible for keeping the secrets of the lost pre-war technology, and Teela was a clone of the Goddess raised by Man-At-Arms as his daughter. (Skeletor also had this creepy obsession with marrying Teela as a way of taking over Grayskull.) There was no Eternos or a royal family, but a vast unexplored wasteland full of strange creatures... uh, what else?

I suggest if you are at all interested, read the original minicomics. They are all in the He-Man.org archives: MOTU Minicomics. Everything published before 1983 predates the Filmation series.

[mossyman]

that sounds pretty cool, but I think I do prefer the filmation or the 20xx story, I just like adam.

[Gonzo Merman]

Wait a sec... I thought He-man was named "He-Man" by his tribe. Where did all of this Oo-lar stuff come from anyway?

[Spikewolfe]

Mattel made it up to try and unify all the different canons into a single story for the MOTUC bios.

[Met-Hild]

Wait a sec... I thought He-man was named "He-Man" by his tribe. Where did all of this Oo-lar stuff come from anyway?

I used to think the name was some obscure tidbit from the past, something that got dropped like He-Man's jungle origin, but now that I tried searching for it I can find nothing prior to the MOTUC bio. I guess it really could just be that somebody botched up trademarking the Mo-Larr name and so they were stuck with Oo-Larr to use somewhere.

[Chroniklor]

The first mini-comic does indeed say that He-Man is the mightiest warrior of his tribe, so you could say that he got that name from the tribe. One explanation would be that Oo-Larr was his real name and, because of the fact that he was the most powerful warrior of his tribe, he got nicknamed He-Man. That would be the easy explanation, but it does not add up, since the MotUC bios suggest that a man can only receive the name 'He-Man' after he is selected to protect the Sword of He, which isn't the case in the first mini-comic: he his named He-Man by his tribe before he is actually selected.
Imo, Spikewolfe is right: they try to combine the different canons. So, there are two possibilities here: either the bio of Oo-Larr will give us an explanation (e.g. Oo-Larr's tribe perhaps was a special tribe and the tribe's elder already new what Oo-Larr's destiny was, therefor already nicknaming him He-Man) or we'll just have to live with the discrepancy, knowing that not every gap or loophole can be closed...

[VZX]

I wonder how well the pre-Filmation mini-comics would translate to a live-action film. Would it go over well with the general public, especially without a Prince Adam and the "By the Power of Grayskull" line and accompanying transformation? I'm sure people would be like "where's Adam" or "hey, Adam wasn't in the 1987 movie and look how well that did." But, I like the original minis and think that's your MotU movie.

For me, the early minis would be a great starting point for a movie. It really explains the strangeness of combining sorcery with technology. Like Spikewolfe describes in his first post on this thread, the technology of Eternia is more interesting if left to mystery. Having a society grow from a world-ravaged war and "find" lost technology and sorcery is a great starting point for a film.

[Chroniklor]

I fully agree with you, VZX - though I guess from a promotional and commercial point of view, statistics will probably show that people want Adam, the famous line (heck, even I would like to see that done properly in a movie), etc.
The post-apocalyptic world, the weirdness of Castle Grayskull (with the Spirit of the Castle), He-Man leaving his tribe... those would make great elements for sure.
My guess: the movie (if it will ever come to that) will be more 'regular', my hope/wish: a short series of cartoons based on the early minicomics (very eerie, dark... *dream on Chroniklor*)

[VZX]

Yeah, Chroniklor, you're right. The studio would insist that there be a lot of familiarity associated with the project since they would want a lot of bang for their buck.

Hey, if, and that's a big if, the movie gets made and is very successful, we might see a direct-to-video series of mini-comic MotU. Eh, dream on, I guess.

[Lich Leech]

I always interpreted the old minicomics so that most Eternians had fallen to a state of barbarism or at best medieval level where all high technology was as good as magic to them. Like Clarke's law states: "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". There was real sorcery and witchcraft abounds, and the ancient technologies were mix of science and magic, but even when faced with pure technology, He-Man would think it was all sorcery. Man-At-Arms had some knowledge of the technology passed down through generations, at least to keep things working and replicate things invented long ago, but not enough to start a new technological revolution.

I've never really been a fan of a modern feeling high-tech fairytale take on Eternia that started with Filmation and culminated with MYP. You get the feeling that they have all the technology from Star Wars but decide to wear furs and leathers and fight wars with swords and maces for no good reason. I still think the MOTU mix of barbarians, technology and magic works best in the first minicomics, where most of the technology is made up of poorly understood relics of a long-lost supercivilization.

Agree 100%.


From a practical standpoint, Eternia bears no evidence of being an industrialized world. People wear swords and loincloths and ride on beasts. It looks like iron age earth, but with magic. Where is the infrastructure coming from to develop new technology? It makes much more sense for most or all the tech in MOTU to come from the ancient, industrialized Eternia. Maybe MAA can tinker with it, but it should really all be holdovers from the past.

[Zombihamma-AI]

When I saw MOTU in the toy shops for the first time as a kid, all I thought was my dream action figure has come true,.. A big beefy barbarian who looks cool, and battles skull faced bad guys with a axe and sword,..... When I saw other figures who had guns, I thought some one had made a mistake.

But when I read the mini comics it all made sense,.. A old world of technology that had collapsed in to iron age, that then came to regard old technology as magic ( of course with real magic thrown in ),
So of course when the cartoon came out I was utterly shocked and disappointed, no longer did He-man have a angry almost Mongolian looking face and massive muscles, but gone was the feeling of mystery and magic, the feeling of a barbarian world, were, yes He-man would cleave with his axe, and in is place was a tall superman shaped moralistic super hero, that just happened to wear a fury lion cloth, and to add insult to injury, he had a bob hair cut and a talking/cowardly tiger,

To me He-man has always been the guy that left the jungle tribe to become a warrior, and his name isn't Adam or Oo-lar its He-man,.