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He-Man and The Masters of The Universe

Lark

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Was this really a big thing in the US? I remember that it was THE thing in the UK and DC and Marvel's merchandising couldnt put a dent in the armour, they had even released a new range of merchandise each year and had their own business cycle going on which I suspected wouldnt ever end, until TMNT came out of nowhere and sort of replaced them overnight.

The strange thing is that I dont remember there being much in the way of availability merchandise wise for TMNT, probably because they were an American range, availability only picked up towards the end of the TMNT business cycle when simultaneously the main line of figures got weird (Pizza Delivery Raph, Brain Surgeon Leonardo, Spaceman Donatello, I jest but you get the idea) and the market got swamped with cheap rip of merchandise (wind up games and stuff). It was headline news because during the high of their popularity you couldnt get any of the toys especially around peak demand at Christmas.

Now despite having released a new range of figures at that time, more awesome than any others prior to that, very clever for the most part and with some wicked back stories the He-Man range disappeared. They simply wherent stocked.

Does anyone remember that? Also do you think there's some sort of business cycle which reflects innovations in merchandising with comic, TV and film tie ins? Is there any way of predicting that ebb and flow or trends and have they simply been eliminated by the changes in the marketplace, ie kids wanting mobile phones or tablets or consoles instead?
 

lowtech redneck

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It was extremely popular where I lived, I assume it was elsewhere.

TMI: As a little boy, I used to tie a green sleeping bag to my back and pretend I was that crocodile-man villain with the long tail, re-enacting scenes from one of those little He-Man picture books.
 

Lark

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It was extremely popular where I lived, I assume it was elsewhere.

TMI: As a little boy, I used to tie a green sleeping bag to my back and pretend I was that crocodile-man villain with the long tail, re-enacting scenes from one of those little He-Man picture books.

I totally dont know what character you're talking about.

There were scores and scores of attacks on that series by PC critics, they said that it was racist, mysogynistic (actually She-Ra was simultaneously an attempt to counter that and also to appeal to new markets of kids) and even demonised amputees (there was that dude with the metal jaw and arm which was a lazer or a couple of other things) or people with deformities.

I actually loved The Horde and Hordac, the comics which came free with the action figures were actually much more for mature readers material than the TV show, I remember that the one which came with Grizlor, who was like a fuzzy bear like creature, was something like Beowulf, he'd been hiding in a cave and eating people who got lost, some of the later Horde figures were the victims of freakish Mengala (spelling) style psychosurgery and cybernetics. Stuff used to shock and stun me as a kid, way more than the formulaic TV series. I also liked that in the comics, as opposed to the TV series, there wasnt that vaguely cold war-ish divide between good and evil, with skeletor and hordaic obeying a single, evil for the hell of it, baddy, in the comics Hordac was a sort of totally maverick third force out to kick everyones ass.

As a series it was capable of a lot of reinvention and revivals, although it got beat by something completely out of nowhere which seemed to change everything up, be odder yet situated in the "real world" or one closer to it than eternia.

Its always intrigued me, the trending of these things, and subculture of fandom surrounding it. If you could crack it and understand it perfectly you'd be fit to understand and predict trending of other mod cons and consumer goods, like be able to tell why blackberry now sucks when it was once, without much reason, the very top dog.

I do think there's less of this sort of thing for kids now, plus a lot of the older things He-Man, GI Joe etc. go through relaunches without originality, despite attempting to do the whole "gritty reboot" kinda thing (skeletor now has fangs, dude has a fleshless skull for a head, was that not awesome enough?)
 

kyuuei

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The same one? Like from the eighties?

That's mad! It never went away then?

:laugh: Not at all! It plays later on at night, and on regular TV (I'm unsure of cable as I lack it) to boot.
 
W

WALMART

Guest
I never liked that show.

Apart from being little more than a trifling distillation of male ideals (lolz jk) I think the main character reminded me of The Beastmaster, a film that had a particular scene in it that creeped me the fuck out when I was young.

marc-singer-beastmaster.jpg


I also didn't care much for ThunderCats. I almost might say I'm not into the Sword and Sorcery genre, but that isn't true at all.

I was a huge TMNT fan. I still have my THE SECRET OF THE OOZE poster hanging on the wall.
 

Lark

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I never liked that show.

Apart from being little more than a trifling distillation of male ideals (lolz jk) I think the main character reminded me of The Beastmaster, a film that had a particular scene in it that creeped me the fuck out when I was young.

marc-singer-beastmaster.jpg


I also didn't care much for ThunderCats. I almost might say I'm not into the Sword and Sorcery genre, but that isn't true at all.

I was a huge TMNT fan. I still have my THE SECRET OF THE OOZE poster hanging on the wall.

See, I didnt like Thundercats either, begrudgingly went along with the trend and probably liked the villains more than I did the good guys.

When I think what the actual gimics were associated with the range of action figures they were a rip off too and not as good quality as the he man range, although they were "bigger" in scale so people loved that at the time.
 
W

WALMART

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See, I didnt like Thundercats either, begrudgingly went along with the trend and probably liked the villains more than I did the good guys.

When I think what the actual gimics were associated with the range of action figures they were a rip off too and not as good quality as the he man range, although they were "bigger" in scale so people loved that at the time.

Yeah, I did watch both shows pretty regularly despite my distaste, and always really liked Mum-ra.

mumm-ra.jpg


Had a lot of style.

I wasn't born until '88 though, so I probably didn't catch what craze their might have been.
 

Lark

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Yeah, I did watch both shows pretty regularly despite my distaste, and always really liked Mum-ra.

mumm-ra.jpg


Had a lot of style.

I wasn't born until '88 though, so I probably didn't catch what craze their might have been.

Same here on the distaste but I used to dislike Mumra because he seemed to do the same thing each week, the same formula, go out and annoy the thundercats, reveal his badass side, get it kicked by superior firepower and then retire to rejuvenate, lucky for him the thundercats didnt decide to take apart his temple thing in the mean time. He's like south korea or something.

Mind you I read wikis recently which had a bit of insane detail to them and revealed some pretty convoluted and complex story telling going on at another level about dimensional shifts and time travel and stuff but no one was really interested in that, I couldnt even be that bothered to finish the wiki.
 
W

WALMART

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Same here on the distaste but I used to dislike Mumra because he seemed to do the same thing each week, the same formula, go out and annoy the thundercats, reveal his badass side, get it kicked by superior firepower and then retire to rejuvenate, lucky for him the thundercats didnt decide to take apart his temple thing in the mean time. He's like south korea or something.

Mind you I read wikis recently which had a bit of insane detail to them and revealed some pretty convoluted and complex story telling going on at another level about dimensional shifts and time travel and stuff but no one was really interested in that, I couldnt even be that bothered to finish the wiki.

lol. I suppose it'd be rough breaking out of that trope, producing syndicated action cartoons during the 1980's. Did you watch the Power Rangers? Same formula, only worse. Each episode had three stages: they would fight plainclothes, then call upon their Morphin' power to fight in their suits, then call upon their Zords to fight in their mechs. Same thing every week and I gobbled it up.
 

Lark

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lol. I suppose it'd be rough breaking out of that trope, producing syndicated action cartoons during the 1980's. Did you watch the Power Rangers? Same formula, only worse. Each episode had three stages: they would fight plainclothes, then call upon their Morphin' power to fight in their suits, then call upon their Zords to fight in their mechs. Same thing every week and I gobbled it up.

Nawh, I liked power extreme in which they got power suits themed for air, sea or land beamed from an orbitting satellite
 
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