Death of He-Man

**evan.gibbs** · October 16, 2012, 07:36am

Hi everybody!

My name is Evan Gibbs. I’m a new guy here and let me tell you the story which led me to this community.

I'm an old fan of He-Man and MOTU. When I was a kid I watched all the episodes, I even had a toy Castle Greyskull with He-Man, Skeletor, Hordak and other stuff from the series. I remember spending days playing with them! I also have some He-Man VHS – my dad bought them for me in 1987 as far as I remember. I watched all of them many times. Even now I watch some of them to go back in time.

Last time when I watched VHS I fell asleep and when I woke up, there was some sort of a bonus episode or something like that. Then I rewinded it back and start to watch from beginning. This short video completely blew my mind and I want you guys to check out!
I never found this video on Youtube so I made a VHS-rip – watch this one and tell me what do you think of this.

I found it on the He-Man Original Series VHS Vol. 24 after the last episode ‘The Arena’ – does anyone have the same?

There are some more strange things about this video.
Chinese subtitles. I didn’t found any info about Chinese re-edition of MOTU – maybe Filmation planned to go to the Chinese market and they made this trailer?
Music. There is some background music starting at the middle of the video. Does anybody knows what is this?
The main thing I don’t understand about this video is that Skeletor kills He-Man at the end – how could the guys from Filmation let this happen??))
There is also a white triangle and the very end of it – ***???

BTW. As far as I know this is one is not the only existing Filmation bonus. I saw the Orco’s song with karaoke subtitles. I’ll try to make a rip, because I couldn’t find this video on Youtube.

**He-loser** · October 16, 2012, 11:30pm

after watching that video.....I now feel like I am possesed!

**Eternian-King Paul** · October 17, 2012, 12:20am

This reminds me of 'Skeletors turd in a box', the funniest video on youtube.

..(vulgar, but funny)

**rankinman** · October 17, 2012, 02:07am

Ok............................ Now am I gonna have to wait for a wet Skeletor to come out of my computer and kill me in a week?

**Spitfire** · October 17, 2012, 11:11am

That was great. Thanks for uploading it. I have no knowledge to share concerning the history of it though.

**chocolatemoose** · October 17, 2012, 04:17pm

This is super intriguing - I sure hope someone can shed some light on this clip!

I think the VCR-ness lends it a bit of a bootlegged feeling ... but there's no chance this has been spliced together out of other bits of the cartoon is there? Does Skeletor hold the power sword in any other episodes? (and I should say, I'm not casting any dispersions on the OP - perhaps it's an Easter Egg from a bored production dude)

**Matthew L. Martin** · October 17, 2012, 04:19pm

Originally Posted by chocolatemoose

This is super intriguing - I sure hope someone can shed some light on this clip!

I think the VCR-ness lends it a bit of a bootlegged feeling ... but there's no chance this has been spliced together out of other bits of the cartoon is there? Does Skeletor hold the power sword in any other episodes? (and I should say, I'm not casting any dispersions on the OP - perhaps it's an Easter Egg from a bored production dude)

Oh, it's definitely spliced together out of other episodes. The 'He-Man' falling into the pit is actually Faker from "The Shaping Staff," and I know Skeletor managed to grab the sword a couple of times. ("Masks of Power" comes to mind immediately.)

**chocolatemoose** · October 17, 2012, 07:11pm

Originally Posted by Matthew L. Martin

Oh, it's definitely spliced together out of other episodes. The 'He-Man' falling into the pit is actually Faker from "The Shaping Staff," and I know Skeletor managed to grab the sword a couple of times. ("Masks of Power" comes to mind immediately.)

You know what's a little odd? The fact that the super-obvious VCR effects are so "in your face" at the start and end of the clip. I could buy the initial VCR tracking insanity at the start IF it was the start of the tape ... but it's meant to occur after the end of another episode, which means it can't be the ends of the magnetic media. Curious.

**evan.gibbs** · October 18, 2012, 06:27am

Seems like it's gona be really hard to find a background story behind this video, but I am really intrigued.
First of all, does anybody have the same VHS, just to check it out?

**masterenglish** · October 18, 2012, 07:15pm

Originally Posted by evan.gibbs

First of all, does anybody have the same VHS, just to check it out?

I was thinking about suggesting this, but I wasn't sure if this video was just a joke or what. It seems a little too crazy! Can you give us a good description of the tape and packaging, or even better yet a clear picture of the cassette and sleeve jacket?

**Benedict Judas Hel** · October 18, 2012, 08:23pm

Well, I can tell you that the subtitles are not Chinese but Japanese.

**Matthew L. Martin** · October 18, 2012, 10:56pm

Originally Posted by chocolatemoose

You know what's a little odd? The fact that the super-obvious VCR effects are so "in your face" at the start and end of the clip. I could buy the initial VCR tracking insanity at the start IF it was the start of the tape ... but it's meant to occur after the end of another episode, which means it can't be the ends of the magnetic media. Curious.

I wouldn't be surprised if this had been copied on to the tape at some stage. Would that explain the tracking?

Also, the list of VHS tapes over in the collecting section doesn't seem to include a Vol. 24. Could this be a bootleg of some sort?

**Count Judas** · October 18, 2012, 11:26pm

However it was made, if its real or not, that was cool to watch. Skeletor for the win!

**Merso** · October 19, 2012, 03:37am

Very, VERY interesting video. With the music as well as what's going on, it gave me goosebumps! The fact that I watched it alone past midnight might have helped. A very eerie feeling. And that triangle at the end... what the hell?

So even if this turns out to be fake, the sensation I got was very real.

**Tallstar** · October 19, 2012, 07:48am

Is this real life?

**evan.gibbs** · October 19, 2012, 08:24am

Originally Posted by masterenglish

I was thinking about suggesting this, but I wasn't sure if this video was just a joke or what. It seems a little too crazy! Can you give us a good description of the tape and packaging, or even better yet a clear picture of the cassette and sleeve jacket?

So, this VHS was published by Magic Window in 1985. It includes five episodes: "Betrayal of Stratos", "Ice Age Cometh", "Disappearing Dragons", "Shadow of Skeletor" and "The Arena". There is no words about bonus video on the box. To watch it you have to rewind cassete about 2 minutes after the last episode.

I'll make a photo in a few days when I'll back to my home town. I'm out of city at this moment.

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by Benedict Judas Hel

Well, I can tell you that the subtitles are not Chinese but Japanese.

Probably you are right. I'm not an expert.

**Tallstar** · October 19, 2012, 10:20am

Just got done doing a Google search and it would appear that Volume 24 is legit even though it only shows up to Volume 22 on this site. No clue why that Japanese "trailer" is on there.

**evan.gibbs** · October 19, 2012, 10:45am

Look what I found:
ebay.com

I have the same VHS. So, this item is sold already but I'll try to contact seller. Maybe he has found this video on his copy.

**Matthew L. Martin** · October 19, 2012, 11:33am

Originally Posted by evan.gibbs

Look what I found:
ebay.com

I have the same VHS. So, this item is sold already but I'll try to contact seller. Maybe he has found this video on his copy.

If anyone else is curious, there's someone on Amazon selling the tape for about $12 plus shipping as well.

So, we can rule out the tape being a bootleg per se. If it's on other tapes, then my guess would be that someone at Filmation or in RCA was having a little fun with primitive video editing techniques. If it's unique to this one, then it's a bit more of a mystery. Evan, do you know if your dad got it new or used?

EDIT: And double-checking, Benedict is right--the subtitles are Japanese. AFAIK, while both languages use the more complex ideograms (called 'kanji' in Japanese), the simpler hiragana and katakana alphabets are unique to Japan. While it's been a long time since my Japanese courses, I can decipher the katakana for Skeletor, He-Man, Eternia, 'skull-face' and Grayskull in there. (Katakana's typically used for 'loan words' from other languages.)

**Krueger** · October 19, 2012, 12:24pm

There's something very spooky about that. The music in the middle is jarring, too. And that triangle! Weird.

**Tallstar** · October 20, 2012, 09:44am

I should make a gif of that triangle appearing.

**Thrashor** · October 20, 2012, 03:33pm

Thrashor calls shenanigans.

"Shenanigans"

**Nephilim** · October 20, 2012, 05:47pm

I'm actually a little disturbed by that.

I'd be really curious to know what Busta Toons makes of this.

**Thrashor** · October 20, 2012, 11:51pm

SkelTri.JPG

Wooooooooooooooooo!

**Malev_Emperor** · October 21, 2012, 06:34am

For a second there, when the triangle is left alone on screen, I thought "Dark Side of the Moon" was going to start!

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