Greetings, all.
I've been watching from afar for a VERY long time, pretty much since the beginning, but for whatever reason I never bothered to join. I've occasionally gone many years without looking in, but recent events have compelled me to finally make the leap. Apologies in advance for what will likely be the first of many long-winded posts. That's a thing I sometimes do.
He-Man and MOTU was very likely my First Favorite Thing. I only have vague memories, but photos exist of me at only about a year old wearing a He-Man shirt, playing with He-Man toys... I'm almost as old as the brand itself, being born in 1982, and so for whatever reason my father most likely decided that He-Man (along with Superman) would be "what I was into" from the very beginning. For that, I am eternally grateful.
Like many of you, there has never been a time when I WASN'T passionate about He-Man and MOTU. Again, to my father's credit, he did his best to spoil me rotten with MOTU stuff; I didn't have EVERY figure, vehicle or playset, but most of them. Some of them are in disrepair, sadly, and others have gone missing, likely stolen, but I still have most of what I had from the beginning. I still have all of the Golden storybooks, book-and-tape sets and role-play toys I had from back then as well, although again not all of them are in perfect shape. Part of how I learned to read, was from my father reading me comic books and He-Man storybooks before bed, along with those book-and-tape sets which were so invaluable. When the cartoon came out, I watched it religiously multiple times a day, until the sad day around 1989 or so when the reruns were taken off the air for good. Although I immediately noticed a stark contrast between the MOTU I knew first from the mini-comics, storybooks, toy packaging artwork, etc., and the more "kid-friendly" aesthetic of the Filmation cartoon, I loved it all the same just for being He-Man. It was familiar enough, and even then, somehow, I knew that things aimed squarely at young children had to be "different" and was accepting of it. I still preferred the slightly "darker" take of the storybook and mini-comics material, but it was all still He-Man, and I never missed an episode of the He-Man (and later She-Ra) cartoons. The day in 1989 or so when I turned on the USA Network and the He-Man reruns were no longer on the schedule remains one of the saddest days of my life. It was unfathomable to me that just like that, He-Man was... "gone". As silly as it may sound, it was one of my first experiences in dealing with loss; it really did feel like I'd lost a friend. Especially once the local video stores gradually purged all of their MOTU inventory (keeping only "Secret of the Sword" if one was lucky), leaving me no way at all to revisit what had been my favorite cartoon show of all time.
It just made no sense to me that MOTU just didn't exist anymore, either the cartoons OR the toys, nor did it make sense how other kids I knew who'd claimed to love the brand subsequently "grew out of it" very quickly. Some of them never even talked about it again, other than as a thing they "used to like" in the Long Long Ago. At times, it felt like I was the only one who'd ever REALLY cared about He-Man or MOTU, or at least was the only one left who still did. I went on to like other things as well, obviously, like TMNT, pro wrestling, and so on, but in my heart I felt like I'd have traded most or all of it just to have He-Man back. Obviously, you get older, and you learn about things like toy sales and TV ratings and market shares and demographics, and you can put the pieces together and finally understand WHY things go away. But to me, the hurt never really stopped, and the feelings of loss never really went away, for the remainder of my childhood. As I said, I loved plenty of other things, but my FAVORITE thing was gone, and it seemed like it would be forever.
I tried to give "New Adventures" a fair chance, but I wasn't ready at the time. It was too different, basically unrecognizable from what I'd known, and it felt like a pale imitation. Revisiting it as an adult, I can see what's good about it, and while I don't love it I can admit that it's not a bad show for what it is, but as a kid, it felt like a knife being twisted; I wanted He-Man back more than anything, but then to get a "He-man" that was so drastically different from what I wanted or expected... well, it wasn't good enough. I suspect a lot of kids felt the same way.
I'll never forget the feeling I felt when I was walking around Toys R Us in 2000 or so, and saw the Commemorative Sets prominently displayed. I almost dropped to my knees and started crying, as I picked up a couple of sets to take home. Around the same time, I found the internet, and over the next couple of years I found this site, and discovered the news of the upcoming 2003-era reboot, and I couldn't have been happier. He-Man was back! Collecting those toys and watching that show made me feel like I was 3 all over again. We all know how the reboot stumbled and eventually flamed out all too quickly, but it's still one of my favorite periods of my life to look back on.
So much has happened since then; the "Dark Years" of little new activity, and then the MOTU Classics, the various Super 7 lines, and now "Origins" - all of which I absolutely love to death - and it fills me with a renewed sense of hope that the MOTU brand just might be around forever in some form after all. I sincerely hope so.
What finally compelled me to become more active and ultimately join this forum, was mostly the pandemic last year. I lost my job, and that along with all the other uncertainty in the world left me very anxious and fighting to stave off depression. In turn, that led me to reconnect with lots of things from my youth, primarily toy collecting, which I'd gotten away from for some time. As I was going through my many boxes of old toys, I finally got around to taking inventory on all of my MOTU action figures, both vintage and 200X, making lists of what I still needed, etc. I also picked up the Super 7 5.5 He-Man and Skeletor from the FYE at the mall right before the shutdowns, and it lit a spark in me just as Origins was getting ready to hit. Before I knew it, I was buying up all the Super 7 5.5s, the entire first Wave of Origins, and finally going online to buy a few of those awesome "Classics" figures (which I'd entirely missed out on during their entire run, long story), as many as I could afford anyway. At the same time, I've been slowly filling in my Vintage gaps, as well, and I now have almost all the figures except for the final Wave. All of this has done a lot to keep me feeling upbeat and holding back depression over the past year.
It's no understatement to say that He-Man and MOTU is by far one of the most important things in my entire life, and that much of who I am as a man comes from what I learned as a very young child in those original books and cartoons. That's why I'm here; I'm not a huge fan of online forums in general, but it no longer made sense to me to avoid "my own kind". After a long time of lurking, I can see that there are many people here who "get it", who feel every bit the same way about He-Man and MOTU as I do, for a lot of the same reasons.
Right now, in this moment, I feel as passionate and inspired by the brand as I did when I was little, perhaps moreso. I might never have been as big a He-Man fan as I am Right Now. And I want to share that feeling with other, like-minded people. The feelings I get from collecting these toys, reading these books and watching those old cartoons is simply too much to contain.
As for where I am now aside from being a He-Man fan, well, for anyone interested I'm also a huge fan of video games, DC comics, wrestling and toy collecting. I've been wrestling on-and-off on the NJ Independent scene for over 10 years, and I occasionally do crummy low-rent toy review videos for my YouTube Channel, just for fun and to give my wife and I something to do when we're bored. I'm also a semi-frequent guest on the Diving Cutter and Jack Knives Reviews Podcasts, videos of which are also on YouTube.
I'm glad to finally be here, and I look forward to "meeting" and interacting with all of you.
Long Live The Power. Long Live He-Man!
Thank you for reading. Good Journey.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Jukka
Welcome to the community!! What a great introduction, it's clear you have a love for MOTU that flows through you!! I'm sure you'll fit right in and enjoy all the info and discussion!! As you know, we have the best He-Fans and She-Ravers around and as always, we have great ongoing MOTU and POP discussions, so feel free to join in the conversation!! 
