Dec 24 25

on Dec 25 in Uncategorized by

I’m a little late with my final advent entry. A combination of not being able to get off work early, Christmas parties, and present wrapping meant that blogging had to be shifted down the priorities list yesterday.

Still, I couldn’t leave the series without doing:


[Open the door / Close the door]

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

“By the power of Greyskull”

Not to be confused with He Man (何曼), a chinese military commander in the peasant rebellion against the Han dynasty in 220AD (it’s true, look it up). No, this is something far more significant than a legendary chinese rebel who’s name has managed to live on throughout nearly two thousand years of history. We’re talking Saturday morning TV here. We’re talking shoddy poor quality animation. We’re talking a cultural phenomenon that still resounds today in the very soul of the entire globe (providing the globe consists purely of Western males between the ages of 25 and 35 that is). We’re talking He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

I am Adam, Prince of Eternia, Defender of the Secrets of Castle Greyskull. This is Kringer, my fearless friend.  Fabulous, secret powers were revealed to me the day I held aloft my magic sword and said: “By the Power of Greyskull!”

He-Man, He-Man . . . I have the power!

Kringer became the mighty BattleCat and I became He-Man, the most powerful man in the Universe!  Only three others share this secret . . .  Our friends the Sorceress, Man-at-Arms, and Orko.  Together we defend Castle Greyskull from the evil forces of Skeletor. . . . He-Man!

If that quote didn’t provoke a well of nostalgia bubbling up in your heart then you are clinically dead. Well, either dead or you’re not in that western male 25-35 year old demographic (you freak). He-Man was the king of the toy marketing cartoons, rivaled perhaps only by Transformers.

The toys were originally designed as a line for Conan the Barbarian in order to tie in with the 1982 Schwarzenegger film, but Mattel got cold feet about the sex and violence associated with Conan and decided to use the toys for something else. And boy were we glad they did. I even have it on relatively good authority that they stand up to repeated viewing even twenty years later, although I have my doubts about that. However I did sneak a couple of episodes from the Thundercats DVD I got my brother for Christmas and found them surprisingly enjoyable, so you never know.

A live action He-Man movie is rumored to be in pre-production for a release in 2009.

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So that’s it, the end of the All That Comes With It advent colander. You can all start reading the blog again now.

Related posts:

  1. Little Einsteins Gandhis
  2. Advent Colander – Dec 4th
  3. Dec 11
  4. Dec 19
  5. Dec 20

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