Well, here's yet another issue of the Scrolls of Greyskull, the unofficial He-Man newsletter.
Yes, we're up to issue 9! I can't believe how popular this letter is...
I was recently interviewed by Sarah Ellerman of 'Internet Underground' for an action figure story for their November issue. It remains to be seen how much of what I said ends up in print, but I plugged the newsletter...Hopefully there'll be a ton of new subscribers then!
I'm having a lot of fun writing these, but the newsletter won't stay around without your help! Please send pictures, drawings, sounds, fan fiction, and whatnot to me at ctyner@awod.com. Thanks!
It
neared dusk in the highlands of Eternia. A lone bird man named Stratos soared
the skies, as gentle northern wind ruffled
his feathers and ceremonial wings. The hum of his sky pack was all the noise
he heard in the white clouds that hovered above the peaks of his homeland.
This boy, yet to be a man in the eyes of his flock, flew free dreaming of
the world he will come to know in the future. His only responsibility was
to guard the Cliff of Knowledge at the end of the day. How could he pass
up soaring these beautiful orange skies at dusk? A simple iron tool of sorts
was all there was on the cliff, embedded in stone for ages. His people spoke
of a great bird the transformed into a woman and gave them this object to
protect. The boy recognized it to be something the ground dwellers called
a "sword"...a weapon they used to kill.
As he dipped from the skies through the clouds to return to his post, he saw the cliff was no longer there! In its rumble stood a battered man clenching to a staff to help him stand and held the sword in the other.There appeared to be someone opposing him...an equally battered warrior carrying an identical sword. Stratos' people swarmed the skies around the battle while a great beast dragged another human dressed in armor from the fury of the battle. The one in the rubble of the cliff had conjured earthly powers from his sword that whisked him from the battle. Stratos knew things for him had only gotten worse as a great bird of magnificent color flew to the ground and transformed into a woman.
The elders shouted and swore at Stratos to show the bird woman he was the one at fault. She explained this was sacred ground where she could transform into her human form and that Stratos must now serve her warrior, He-Man, in returning the sword to him. Stratos had no choice. It was he who let the evil one capture the sword and he was now cast from his homeland for it. Stratos would now fight with He-Man, his Battle Cat, and the Man-At-Arms to right his wrong. That night he soared the skies, but not free, for now he is chaineddown by duty.
[He-Man Back on TV?]
Okay, the Cartoon Network has told different fans that they can't get the rights, that they're in negotiation with Hallmark, and that there's no way He-Man will ever be on their station... So basically we really don't knowanything at this point regarding the Cartoon Network... :/
Also, I talked recently with Greg Taylor of Yorkshire Gold (greg.taylor@yorkshire.tv.co.uk) about the possibility of getting He-Man back on in England.
"About putting it back on - I don't know. I'm going to MIPCOM early next month (a big TV festival in South of France), so I'll see if the series is still available to buy. If it is, you can usually pick up "screening" copies of tapes - do you have any "He-Man" on
tape? NTSC I assume?"
I've also heard that some small local stations around the country are still
airing it. Can anyone confirm this?
[Rare Figures]
Last month there was a section in the newsletter regarding certain rare figures. Darren Fowler (dbfowl0@service1.uky.edu) sent me a letter which answers alot of those questions:
"I was looking
over the news letter and saw the one about early He Man figures. Needless
to say, they were not MOTU figures.
I have most of
them which I bought at Revco (a drug store chain down South). They
were made by Mattel, but were never called MOTU action figures. However,
I
do believe that the MOTU line was a descendent of this line. One of
mine is still in great shape. He reminds me of Ram Man. I mistaked
them for
MOTU also."
[Reviews Needed]
Busta Toons (jamric@globalnet.co.uk) would appreciate it if any of you out there with some of the episodes on tape would write reviews for his upcoming web page. He'd like to have every episode reviewed, so please e-mail him for more info.
[He-Man Desktop Theme]
Devang Patel (stealth@unm.edu) is currently working on a desktop theme for He-Man. He has the wallpaper and sounds, so it should be finished sometime soon.
[He-Man Web Pages]
These pages are, to the best of my knowledge, in chronological order.
*Kevin Hebert's Page: http://www.seas.gwu.edu/student/kmhebert/heman.html Kevin has an extremely nostalgic page about the action figures. Be sure to check out the great new drawings by Mark Farinas that he's posted!
*Erik Christianson's Page: http://www.ns.net/~kaceac/heman.htm
Erik's page has a couple of original great original WAV files. He's moving his page to another server, and it'll be better than ever when it's posted! He also made the great MIDI on the He-Fans Archives.
*The He-Fans Archives: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/3624/archive.html This is where I keep all the back issues of the newsletter and the attachments that come with them! For Internet Explorer users, you can listen to Erik Christianson's He-Man MIDI file play in the background!
*Steve Levich's Page: http://www2.fwi.com/~grasshopper/table.htmlThere are too many features to list here... Pictures, sounds, games... A great site!!! Steve's page was rated 3 out of 4 stars from Excite! Way to go, Steve!
(Thanks go out to Busta Toon for getting those last 3 links.)
=-\In The Works/-=
Busta Toons (jamric@globalnet.co.uk) is working on a fantastic page! His page is going to include a massive episode guide, text stories from the British annuals, pictures, and loads of other information! This is going to be a fantastic page when it's completed!
Eduardo Filardo Abaid (efilardo@mail.giga.com) has a great page that's in the works. He has lots of sounds, pictures, and videos that'll soon be available for everyone on the WWW to see!
Bony Fiend (bmchenry@eb.com) is working on a page with an episode guide, pictures, sound files, and other He-Man information.
David Karig (dkarig@clemson.edu)
is a big Skeletor fan that's working on a page devoted to him that
should be up one of these days... :>
[The Story Behind The He-Fans]
So many people have joined since December that I thought I'd share the origin of the He-Fans with all of you...
Basically, last December, I was futzing around on the Internet looking for He-Man information at 2 AM. I stumbled upon the Dejanews search engine (http://www.dejanews.com) and started searching for any Usenet postings related to He-Man. I'm not really sure why I took this next step...maybe it was lack ofsleep...maybe it was some sort of net.addiction...maybe I knew what it would lead to...but in any event, I wrote down 15 or so e-mail addresses from people who had posted about He-Man. I e-mailed all of them and asked if they were interested in being in a He-Man mailing list. 12 of them said yes. I wasn't sure what to call it, and eventually rbaron@burner.com suggested the name 'He-Fans'. I thought it was goofy, but stuck with it...I made a page where people could be added to a list. I didn't do anything with it for months...
Eventually,
I decided to write a newsletter. By this point, I think around 50 people
had signed up. I sent it off, and the
response was great!
The rest is pretty much history... :>
[Question of the Month]
The question
this month is: "Name an artist or group
that would do a great cover of the He-Man or She-Ra theme song."
I'd have
to say They Might Be Giants (my favorite band)... I'd love to hear
what they'd do with it... [BTW, look for me in Athens,
GA at
the TMBG concert on Oct. 2! I'll be the guy with armor, a giant sword,
and fuzzy underwear on! :> ]
"It would have to be a rapper. They are the only ones
who can compose rhythms to a song like that. I hate rap and would like
to see Hootie
playing the MOTU theme song, but it just would not sound right. My
idea isCoolio."
If you have a particular artist in mind, e-mail me who you think would
do a great job and why...
Last month's question asked who the worst action figure was.
Shawn Pisio (spisio@cln.etc.bc.ca) said:
"The worst He-Man figure in my opinion is Sy-Klone. He's blue and yellow, and
you spin this button thing on his waist to make his whole upper body spin around.
His arms can only move up and down, and they are clenched in fists. All in
all, a pretty boring toy to play with."
jmatos@windsor.igs.net has a different opinion.
" I just have to say one thing: I hate it when the arms fall off my Extendar
figure!!!!"
[Blackstar]
I've gotten tons of mail regarding Blackstar, a Filmation cartoon that bears more than a passing resemblence to He-Man... Here's some info from RunJT@aol.com.
[Blackstar should not be confused with Bravestarr, another Filmation cartoon which featured intergalactic cowboys or somesuch.]
"There is a show on the Cartoon Network called 'Blackstar'. It is about a barbarian with a blond 'bowl' hair cut, furry boots, furry underwear, and a red vest who rode a tiger and traveled with a woman warrior and a "beast man".
They fought an evil demon overlord, whose henchman had a robotic arm with
a hook. Each possessed separate halves of the same sword. Sounds familar?
"Well,
it predated the premiere of both the MOTU toy line and television show!
Mattel borrowed liberally from many sources...most times right
out in the open. They were infamous for repainting a figure and putting
him out under a new name. Most vehicles had a good and evil version
in just diffrerent colors. STILL, I LOVE 'EM! Man, I must have been brainwashed
by this stuff as a kid!"
This newsletter was written by Adam Tyner (ctyner@awod.com).
If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or anything else, please e-mail me.
This letter is not intended to infringe on any copyrights
and is written purely out of love. :>
