Being born in 1982 I missed the retail launch of the original Masters of the Universe toyline. By the time I was old enough to begin receiving He-Man related action figures the cartoon had already run its course and was in its syndicated reruns era. I have very faint memories of seeing commericals for the then upcoming live action Masters of the Universe film in 1987. I was barely 5 years old so these memories are rather dusty at this point.
I don’t have early enough memories of when I got my first He-Man toy but I know at some point I remember having in my toy box of a handful random MOTU figures in obviously well played with condition. Obviously I had been given these toys before my brain began storing permanent memories so I can’t say for sure how old I was when I got them just that by the time She-Ra Princess of Power’s toyline and cartoon took over and the live action film was just around the corner, I have at least one distinct memory. The first new on card figure I remember getting, probably for a birthday or some other occasion, was Hordak, leader of the Evil Horde from the brand new She-Ra rebranding of the line.
The only other early He-Man related memory I have confirmed is close enough to how I remember it via my moms own account and long developed old 35mm photographs of me dressed as He-Man himself for Halloween. It’s probably the early Halloween memory I have. I just remember wearing the mask, and the plastic sword I carried with me. Nothing else really stands out definitively.
By the time I was old enough to start forming memories that would last longer than the day before, I had lost all interest in Masters of the Universe and was already well deep into late G1 Transformers and just starting to get into the super new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures.
The thing is I know I watched the cartoon cuz I remember images from it, the theme song and I remember being disappointment when it went into reruns and She-Ra took its place. I don’t remember anything specific though.
So years later after moving into the ever green world of TMNT and Transformers, discovering Nintendo and later growing into a full on adult, I stumbled upon a revived He-Man toyline. The then new revived line affectionally today referred by fans as 200x. I remember casually watching a random episode of the cartoon, being totally lost and changing the channel before the commerical break. I looked at a few of the toys on the shelf as I was scouring the aisles looking for the latest Transformer figure to take home with me. They didn’t really appeal to me then so I moved on.
It was more than a decade later before I took my first venture into deep nostalgia to explore the Masters of the Universe line again. Actually it was almost twenty years later because it was the MOTU Classics line and the newfangled Netflix and Revelations series that caught my eye. I started casually picking up a few random figures, watched the first episode of both new cartoons, tracked down and watched the first episode of the original cartoon from my childhood and re-watched just for the thrill of it, the old live action film.
That was it. I have yet to dig any deeper into the lore or story of the characters. I haven’t gotten into any of the shows or comics. I have built up a rather large collection of various He-Man and the Masters of the Universe related toys from all toylines from the OG, the 200x stuff, classics, WWE crossover, and a few others. I realized I didn’t care enough about the lore or the story I just liked the toys.
Now today I sit here unsure if I will even have any desire to see the latest He-Man film until it comes to digital platforms. I know going in even if I do see it I wouldn’t have any verifiable connection to the story beyond faint memories and random bits I’ve picked up just watching Youtube videos about the toys over the years. All I know is I can go into it recognizing some of the toys as they are brought to life and have no baggage about what the story or setting or characters personalties, should be. I am hoping this frees me from the burden of comparing the film to what came before so I don’t find myself saying “thats not how it was in X cartoon, comic or toy bio” I can just enjoy it, or not, for what it is. This is probably how I want to go in. As blind of the lore as I can aside from the really scattered bits and pieces I’ve picked up over these past 4 decades.
