It's always a good feeling to see the issue number roll over. We've finally made it to issue 30! Another pretty significant landmark (that's not the word I want to use, but...) takes place late next month, when my Masters of the Universe site...the second ever on the web...turns 3 years old. I plan on celebrating by kicking off the second annual Create-A-Character contest! Last year's entries were very well done, and I'm looking forward to seeing what y'all come up with this time around.

I really would appreciate it if you'd send me feedback. This newsletter is for you, so please send your comments, suggestions, etc. to me at ctyner@he-man.org.

As always, previous issues can be found at http://www.he-man.org/archive/

Administriva - to subscribe, e-mail scrolls-list-request@he-man.org with SUBSCRIBE in the body of your message. To unsubscribe, e-mail scrolls-list-request@he-man.org with UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of your message.

I'm not sure where this started, but there have been rumors of Toy Biz releasing He-Man figures. I've gotten quite a few e-mails about this, and several cited Randy (from http://www.aftimes.com/) as a source. Well, I e-mailed Randy and asked if there was any basis to these rumors, and this is what he told me:

       A: Hi, Adam. I haven't heard anything about new He-Man figures, nor have I said there would be. The closest I've come is suggesting that with the resurgence/resurrection of many old toy line, such a thing could happen to He-Man. Let ME know if you hear of it coming back.. Take care. RANDY

Hopefully this'll put an end to those rumors. :-)

MOTU makes yet another appearance in Toyfare -- this time in an article called "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out", which deals with controversial action figures. Stinkor was the second of the nine figures (most of which were made by Mattel or a subsidiary) featured in the article, and below is the portion of the article relevant to him.

Thanks to Leanne Shaw (stratosmacca3@hotmail.com) for transcribing this.

This figure really stunk.

When Mattel decided to give every figure in tis ground-breaking Masters of the Universe line an action feature, you knew the company was going to be reaching on some of 'em. How else can you explain characters like Ram Man and Tung Lashor? But these pale in comparison to what's probably the strangest action figure ever made: Stinkor.

It wasn't that Stinkor looked particularly strange, and his swinging arms action feature was pretty standard. The odd thing about this "Master of Evil Odors" (his mini-comic packaged with the toy was titled "The Stench of Evil") was that he actually stunk. Really. The package read: "Product has real smell--it's fun!" A real scent was mixed into the plastic so that when children opened Stinkor's packaging, they were greeted with a smell not entirely dissimilar to that of used sweat socks. Parents voted with their pocketbooks on this figure and Stinkor languished in toy stores for a while...stinking the place up.

Hey, Mattel hasn't forgotten! Visit Toys 'R Us and look for a Toys 'R Us-exclusive four pack of Hot Wheels cars. There's a gold Ford F-150 pickup truck with the MOTU logo on the hood and doors. To aid in your search, the other cars in the set are a Barbie Mustang, an Uno Baja Bug, and a Hot Wheel Way-2-Fast concept car.

If you enjoy writing or reading fan-fiction, you may be interested in checking out the new fan-fiction board at http://www.he-man.org/ctyner/fan-fic/board/

If you write fan-fic, you can have your stories up instantly without worrying about converting text to HTML, going through an editing process, etc. Plus, people can read your stories and give you instant feedback. Also, all posts to the board will be archived on the site.

Finally, I'd like to credit Sherry (Foxsgirl@aol.com) for inspiring this idea.

Leanne Shaw (stratosmacca3@hotmail.com) has been working on a MOTU comic for quite some time now, and some character sketches, sample pages, and other information on it can be found on her site at:

You can get to it from here: http://www.angelfire.com/md/stratosmacca2/heman.html

The art is stunning, and it's worth mentioning that Leanne's submission was the winner of last year's Create-A-Character contest.

Another blooper, courtesy of Scott White (Cringer), is featured this month.

Swift Wind's tail is miscolored. If you have any suggestions for future files, e-mail me and I'll see what I can do. :-)

Here are this month's trivia questions from Scott White (Cringer). The answers can be found at http://www.he-man.org/ctyner/trivia.html and will be published in next month's issue.

  1. What color are He-Man's boots?
  2. What color is Evil-Lyn's helmet?
  3. What color are the feathers on the Sorceress' outfit?
  4. Name one thing that Cringer isn't afraid of.
  5. What color is Trap Jaw's belt?
  6. In what episode do we get to see King Randor remove his  crown?
  7. What color are Cringer's stripes?
  8. What color are the Sorceress' boots?
  9. Name Skeletor's robot bird.
10. Name Skeletor's minion that has two heads.

This month's question was submitted by tommy_lop@hotmail.com:

"Suppose you have the power to bring back He-Man or She-Ra, but you can only choose one -- what would be your decision and why?"

E-mail your responses to ctyner@he-man.org and I'll include them in the next issue.

-

Last month's question, from Nx76x@aol.com, was "What in your opinion started the Masters of the Universe downfall in the late 80's, and what caused the death blow?...or coma blow (let's be optimistic here!)"

Rod Stuberg (Veritech1A@webtv.net):

I think the item that drove me away from He-Man were the dinosaurs. I didn't like dinos that were more war machine than animal.

Julie McCarville (honeycomb1@hotmail.com):

I think he makes some very good points in that letter. Especially about how CN took off the beginning of Robotech and Thunder Cats. Heck, the begining is practically the best part! Our group has been concentrating very hard on getting MOTU and POP on CN so maybe we should focus our attention somewhere else where they may be more willing to listen to what we want.

Jimmy Izu Kanashiro (jizu@sbs.gob.pe):

In my opinion, some factors which contributed to this downfall are the not really good films: Secret of the Sword, and Masters of the Universe, and She-Ra's new role as the main feature, and He-Man becoming a guest star. She-Ra was an interesting program but never as successful as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Also time passed and new TV programs appeared which copied some characteristics of the Masters of the Universe (e.g.Thundercats).

Brent David Penkivich (bdpenkiv@students.wisc.edu):

(Sorry if this answer's a little long...)

I don't think the downfall of Masters of the Universe began in the late 80's, but rather in the mid-1980s (1985?) when Mattel stopped funding the show. It was Mattel's money that gave He-Man life, and Mattel's poor business practices that killed He-Man.

Because Mattel couldn't force Filmation to include any particular elements into the show, the show had great creative freedom, and it was that creativity that made the show so successful, even when it was forced entirely into reruns just two years after its start. Even in 1987 the He-Man characters were enormously popular, so I don't think there was any one action that totally killed off the popularity of the characters. The shows had the action and adventure to enthrall kids, the moral lessons to satisfy parents, and the depth of characters and plots to satisfy people of all ages.

However, I think the downfall of the marketing side of things (namely, the action figures) can definitely be pinpointed. By 1985, there was a ton of competition from other toys that had their own TV shows. Furthermore, Mattel flooded the stores with He-Man action figures; interestingly, in the history of the He-Man toy line, approximately 67 different action figures were made, but only 54 different molds were used. Most action figures shared the same torso, and Mattel mastered the art of selling virtually identical action figures, just with different paint jobs and accessories and passing them off as different characters. In short, stores were flooded with He-Man toys that got repetitive and boring; kids had the option of picking up other toy lines that they found more interesting. The action figures lacked the creativity that the show possessed, and this is why the toy line began to suffer from 1985 and afterward.

So, to get back to the question in a way... "What caused the downfall of the series?" The show's popularity held strong for many years, but since Mattel stopped funding the show, that undoubtedly hurt them in a way. I think that if they had been able to keep producing new shows for a longer period of time, the show's popularity would have been further hightened.

"What caused the downfall of the toy line?" The figures were too repetitive, too many were produced too quickly so as to reduce desire by the consumers, and the figures were too unlike the exciting and creative cartoon show.

(Well, in case you haven't guessed by now, I'm a college student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and I'm doing a term paper on this exact topic. I want to prove why the toy line failed, and explain what made the show successful, despite all the problems it had with some angry mothers and politicians who argued it was nothing more than a half-hour toy commercial. If you or anyone else out there think they have something they could contribute to my paper, I'd really appreciate hearing it. Some things I'm looking for in particular are... (1) Specific dates of the airing of the first and last episodes, as well as when the toy line was first introduced (2) Some sales figures of the toys so I can track the general trend of the sales, (3) Any "inside information" regarding the relationship between Filmation and Mattel. If you or any other He-Man fans can help me, I'd really appreciate it. My e-mail address is bdpenkiv@students.wisc.edu. Thanks for your time!)

HippieLion@aol.com:

The reason that "Masters of the Universe" was laid to rest was very simple; a lack of creativity. After the movie rightfully bombed, no one felt like trying to do anything new with the MOTU. They were so darn lazy, they decided to not even finish the 3-part "Legend Of Greyskull" Mini-comic they began. That's just plain ridiculous in my opinion. Look at the HORRIBLE Batman movies that have been made. And yet, Batman still thrives in his comics and animated series, same as He-Man should have. But thanx to the lazy bums at Mattel and Filmation, we've lost our heroes. Now all we have left is the patheticness of the Power Rangers and their billions of clones. How sad.

Another question that was posted last month had to do with the Cartoon Network. To read the original message, take a look at issue 29 at the Scrolls archives at http://www.he-man.org/archive/

Here are some of your thoughts:

Panthro (panthro@bigfoot.com):

Right now I think that the Fox family channel would be a better choice. It almost seems like Cartoon Network doesn't even listen to what the viewers want. They know took Thundercats, Voltron, and Robotech off the Saturday Toonami. Whoever asked for more superfriends episodes?! I wish they left Thundercats on. I hate how they have cut the intros. I hate the most that they continue to leave Johnny Quest on. Who the hell watches that show? The fox family channel seems to be the better station right now for the genre of cartoons that we want back on the air.

Nathan Smorynski (dolphins@coredcs.com):

Hi. I just wanted to give you my thoughts about Cartoon Network. I guess I'm kind of pissed off at them right now. We don't get the station in our normal cable lineup, so I finally went out and spent $11 extra dollars a month to get the network about four weeks ago. Well, the only reason I got it was because they air Thundercats, and I had a feeling that in the the future, they'd be airing He-Man and Transformers too. Well of course, after recording eight episodes of Thundercats, Cartoon Network decides to pull the show! I wish that there was a network that would pick up Thundercats and He-Man and keep them on for a while so that everyone can enjoy them. And actually put them on a network like Fox where they can be enjoyed by all, not just those that want to pay the extra money to get Cartoon Network every month. Thanks for listening!

Scott White (Cringer):

He brings out a point that I've noticed, but never thought about. They have been changing the intros for certain cartoons after running them in their entirety one round. For instance, the Thundercats had their original intros when they first ran them, but when they showed the series on their station the second time around, they had removed the original intro that we all know and put this new Cartoon Network computer-spiced-up intro on it. I agree that computer do enhance certain things, but to ruin a great show such as this is wrong. I would DEFINITELY hate to see them do the same thing to He-man and She-ra if they ever acquired them. Changing the classic introduction to these two shows after running the once would be a horrible tragedy to them. I want He-man and She-ra back on the air, but in the form they were meant to be shown....In their original form, unedited, and without Cartoon Network special add-ins.

Andy (Nerd182@aol.com):

I happen to watch Cartoon Network now and then, along with the New Fox channel. I know that CN does do a lot of stuff with the title screens, but just because they do that with some shows doen't mean they'll do it with MOTU or any of the others mentioned. I also have noticed that they mainly shrink the length of the title during TOONAMI, which are the shows that mainly have Japaniese orientation. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to protect CN, Actually I don't care what station MOTU comes on, just as long as I can watch it. Also the shows on Fox Family (RGB, Denis The Mennace, etc) Come on around 1:00 pm to 3:00pm pacific time. Most everybody is in school those hours. If MOTU did appear on Fox Family it would have to be out of their block schedule for those type of cartoons.

Nick Brinker (njb@multipro.com):

hey ctyner I completely agree that the Cartoon Network is not the appropriate home for He-Man and She-ra not only because of the reasons outlined in the scrolls issue but also because we dont get the Cartoon Network in my area and the Fox family Channel is part of the basic cable package and they would not butcher the show like the Cartoon network