Hey everybody! I'm sending this issue out a little early. I was afraid Iwouldn't have enough content for this issue, but now it's stuffed. :-) Alot of this is due to the responses to the question of the month...I hopeall of you keep sending me your responses. It's great to hear what fansthink. My e-mail address is ctyner@he-man.org - I'd love to hear yourresponses to this month's question, along with any other comments andsuggestions you may have.
Due to popular demand, the deadline for the figure customizing contest isbeing extended another 6 weeks to Sept. 15. More information on thecontest can be found at:
I've
received some exciting news from Rendition Figures, a small toymanufacturer
specializing in producing high quality 7" full-articulatedaction
figures. Usually Rendition's action figures are based on comic booklicenses,
but since the president of Rendition Figures, Kevin Alsop, is abig MOTU fan,
he's looking into the possibility of producing new He-Manfigures! This is
still in the very, very early stages - they're working oncontacting Mattel
about the licensing, but if the price is right, we couldvery well see new
action figures! Kevin says that if the deal works out,the figures would be
more detailed and movement than the figures we grew upwith, but they would
still be faithful to the originals. These figures, ifmade, would more than
likely be available only in comic and hobby storesrather than mass-market.
Again, this is all in the very early stages and nothing is definite yet,but as soon as I hear any news, I'll e-mail the list immediately. I'llalso let you know if there's anything we, as fans, can do to make this happen.
[Secret Of The Sword - Back?]
I've
gotten messages from several people saying that "Secret Of The Sword"is
appearing again in theaters! As many of you know, it's common fortheaters
to have special summer showings of movies for kids, and apparentlyRegal Cinemas
(among others?) had chosen SOTS. Keep an eye on your locallistings...
[Another New Series?]
I'm sure
most of you are familiar with John T'lustachowski's proposed newseries, "Greyskull Tales".
It turns out that John isn't the only one witha new series in mind, though.
Larry De Meza II (DeMzaLF@Hotmail.com) isplanning on posting art and other information on the series that'scurrently in the planning stages. Both Larry and John are still waitingfor approval from Mattel, the copyright holders to MOTU. For moreinformation, you can write Larry at:
DarkLight Studios
Attn: Larry DeMeza II
6909 St Clair Ave. #1
Cleveland, OH 44103
[Cartoon Petition]
I received an update from LSkywlkr36@aol.com about his cartoon petition:
My petition is nearing its end. Soon, it will be mailed to each of thefour following stations: Cartoon Network, USA, UPN, and Fox. I haverevised the letter, which is written below. Please LMK if any of it needsto be improved. I don't have names of execs from USA, UPN, or Fox, so ifyou know of any names please tell me.
Dear (station's programming department),
This is a
petition I started a year ago with people who would like to see the two greatest
cartoons of all time, "He-Man and the Masters of theUniverse,"and "She-Ra: Princess of Power," re-air. I have collected thesenames from June of last year to June of this year. After Filmationproduced a combined 200 episodes of He-Man and She-Ra, they went on toproduce a futuristic He-Man cartoon titled "The New Adventures of He-Man."This
futuristic cartoon lacked the original He-Man formula. Soon, itcaused the
demise of He-Man altogether. However, there is a lot of demandfor the original
He-Man, along with She-Ra, to return to television. Theseoriginal cartoons
were popular throughout their time, even when nearing the200th episode. Filmation
just went on to try something new, which was afailure. There is an incredible
amount of webpages devoted to He-Man andShe-Ra. Both cartoons appeal to both
males and females.
They have
not been on the air for 9 years in most areas (11 years in my area). "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" became one of the mostpopular cartoons of the 80’s, one of the most popular toy lines of the80’s, and today’s
most popular un-aired cartoon. By the way, the values ofHe-Man collectibles
have skyrocketed in the past year.
Hallmark
Entertainment owns the rights to these two shows. Pleaseconsider adding "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" and "She-Ra:Princess of Power" to your television lineup. They will surely increaseyour station’s
popularity. Hallmark Entertainment can be contacted at thisemail address: info@hallmark.com.
With these two cartoons back on the air,we would all be able to re-live
our favorite childhood memories. For thechildren of the 80's, He-Man
is a classic toyline and a classic cartoonseries. Today’s kids could also get interested in these shows. There iseven a He-Man newsletter, called "The Scrolls of Grayskull," which has 2000subscribers. Your company has a golden opportunity if you bring backHe-Man (and the Masters of the Universe, not "The New Adventures ofHe-Man") and She-Ra. I have spent a long time and a lot of effortorganizing this. Could you please respond about what your plans withHe-Man and She-Ra are, and I’ll forward it to everyone in the petition. Ienclosed a SASE for a response. Please feel free to use this petition asevidence of He-Man’s
popularity if you contact other parties.
(closing)
(my address)
(names of 422 petition signers)
[He-Man Guides]
Matt
R. has released new versions of his companion guides. These free guides
for 32-bit Windows systems have information on nearly everything related
to MOTU that you could possibly imagine. To download these guides or
for more information, visit:
The Milky Way Maltshop, a site featuring fan-fic with a different themeevery month, is currently presenting fantasy fiction, including -- youguessed it -- Masters of the Universe! You can visit the site at:
Ever wonder what's happened to some of the people involved with MOTU?D113C@aol.com sent me some information on what's new with Hal Sutherland,who is currently living in Washington painting portraits. You can see someof Hal's current work (as well as a photograph of him) athttp://www.whitetailbutte.com/noframes/hsx.htm
Also, in June, Dan Khokhar (dan200@ibm.net) conducted an interview with Hal that can be found on his site at:
This month's
featured file is a blooper from "The Dragon Invasion",courtesy
of Scott White. The animators didn't complete the cross-bones inthis
shot.
[New Actors/Actresses?]
Everyone seems to have a dream list of people they'd like to star in a newHe-Man movie. There's currently a discussion athttp://www.he-man.org/ctyner/board/ on who various fans would like to seeon the big screen. Thanks to Edwin Vasquez (ev8760a@american.edu) forkicking the discussion off...
[Question Of The Month]
This month's question comes from Nx76x@aol.com - "Besides He-Man & She-Ra,who
is the out and out toughest character and why?" E-mail your responsesto me at ctyner@he-man.org and they'll be included in the next newsletter.
Last month's question was: "If
the series were back on the air and theydecided to make a 5 episode
mini-series about
the origin of one of thecharacters, who origin would you like to
see?" I was very pleased with thenumber of responses. The results were about what I expected, though -Skeletor was the overall favorite.
If I could see a 5 part mini-series on the origins of any character,it would definately have to be Skeletor. There are so many stories asto how he became his disfigured self and why he is so evil. What Ireally want to know is what He-Man did to Skeletor that pissedSkeletor off so much in the first place and made Skeletor hate He-Manthrough all those glorious cartoons. Well I hope my answer madesense.
For sure, Skeletor. There is just no argument about it. I'll admit I tunedin
each week more for Skeletor than for He-Man. He certainly ranks amoungone
of the best toon-villains of the '80s (Megatron & Destro being theothers).
I'm sure there is a very epic story behind Skeletor's orginsinvolving Hordak,
Evil Lyn, the Sorceress and maybe even the royal family.
After Skeletor, the next one who I've always been curious about isMan-At-Arms (Duncan). I always found him to be a very interesting character.
SKELETOR! 'cause his OWN past has been very spottily revealed (association
with various individuals/groups, mostnotably the Evil Horde). We
all know what ultimately happened to him(thrown into the void of
the cosmos by He-Man proclaiming Skeletor "Emperorof nothing"),
so why not know who we was in the beginning?
I'm going to make a prediction right now. Skeletor will have the mostresponses to this question...hands down, and rightfully so! Who wouldn'twant to see the origin of one of the baddest of the bad? One of the alltime classic villians for a cartoon series. I'll give the nod to Skeletor.
I'd like t' see Meckaneck. He was always the kewlest and had that awesomeaction figure! I'd like t' know more about how he got his neck andfacemask... and his parents and stuff... But after him, I like Skeletor.He's got an extensive past w/ character's from the current series thatappeared.
I also received a couple of additional messages about June's question,which was: "Do
you think that Prince Adam would ever reveal his secret toTeela? If so,
when do you think he would do it?"
Um...let's think about this. Teela's in labor. This is a time whenordinary women gain the strength of ten men and swear to kill theirhusbands because all this is their fault.
Is this _really_ the time to tell a warrior that you've been keeping alittle secret all these years and making them angst for _nothing_?
I think Adam would reveal his secret to Teela as they became closer or
right before he proposed. Another possibility might be that one day, he
would get fed up of Teela calling him lazy and just tell her unintentionally.
(As could have happened in "Into the Abyss).
A good question for a future month might be what would happen if Adam and Teela had children and the children iherited some of his powers. Kind of a Clark Kent lois Lane type question.
Thanks to everyone who responded. Please try to keep those responsescoming! :-)
(1)
Name the episode in which Syvline defects from her evil master Gorgon.
(2)
Name the only He-Man episode in which Stridor appeared.
(3)
Name the only He-Man episode in which Roboto appeared.
(4)
Name the He-Man episode in which Fisto tells a young boy a story about
him not always being a good guy.
(5)
Name the episode in which He-Man stops a Sorcerer and a Sorceress from
obtaining The Sword of the Ancients.
(6)
Name the episode in which Teela removes her tiara.
(7)
Name the episode in which an evil villain uses toys to try and take
over Eternia.
(8)
Name the episode in which Evil-Lyn turns Orko into a cricket.
(9)
Name Prince Adam's twin sister.
(10) What is Skeletor's lair called?
Here are the answers to last month's trivia:
(1)
Q: Name the rectanglar vehicle that He-Man travels in sometimes.
A: Attak Trak
(2)
Q: Name the single person flying machine that people at the palace
use.
A: Sky Sled
(3)
Q: Where is Darksmoke located?
A: Ice Mountains
(4)
Q: Name Orko's friend who has a habit of telling outlandish stories.
A: Squnge
(5)
Q: Name Skeletor's snaky ally.
A: Kobra Khan
(6)
Q: Name Skeletor's beasty buffoon.
A: Beast Man
(7)
Q: Name the episode in which Man-At-Arms is turned to stone.
A: "Colossor Awakes"
(8)
Q: Name the episode in which Man-At-Arms is turned to crystal.
A: "The Dragon's Gift"
(9)
Q: Name the episode in which Prince Adam, Teela, and Cringer try to
stop a hunter from hunting the last unicorn
on Eternia.
A: "The Huntsman"
(10) Q: Name Man-At-Arms' teacher.
A: Rohad
The Scrolls Of Grayskull: Issue 27
by Adam Tyner (ctyner@he-man.org) and Scott White (Cringer)
No copyright infringements were intended in the publishing of this newsletter.
