The New Adventures of He-Man


Why The New Adventures sucked!

Yes, after He-Man’s series had ended and the toy line ceased, Mattel had to do something to bring back interest in He-Man, but THIS was not the way to do it. Giving He-Man and Skeletor weedy-looking bodies and taking them off Eternia and onto completely different planets with no sign of the other characters was a big mistake. They’d changed the whole thing almost beyond recognition!

But, if you stop comparing it to MOTU, the New Adventures of He-Man IS a pretty decent toy range. Characters may not be as imaginative, but you can still get a load of good out of this idea. It’s just not enough like He-Man, but it’s pretty good.


So it’s just a shame that when the company JetLag produced a cartoon of the NA, it completely sucked….. they got He-Man and Skeletor’s personalities completely wrong, and didn’t do justice to any of the Eternian characters who they showed from time to time. And the plots were very forgettable and pitifully bad. The Adam to He-Man transformation was so undramatic, and the series did not even feel like the old one….. once He-Man was on his new world in the future, Eternia seemed to be completely forgotten all of a sudden and there was barely even any reference to it, like the series was a whole new thing! It wouldn’t surprise me if the makers hadn’t even seen any episodes of the original He-Man…..


Basically, I think the potential of the New Adventures was wasted. If Filmation had done the TV show, I'm sure it would have been pretty good- if it had stayed truer to the style of the original series, kept He-Man and Skeletor's personalities the same, and developed the other characters better, it could have been an excellent show. In the UK, London Editions produced an excellent comic series based on the New Adventures, and if the show had been like these, it would have been great.

Here’s a list of characters from the New Adventures- I don’t know them all that well so E-mail me if you can fill in the gaps:

HEROIC MASTERS
He-Man/Prince Adam- now defending Primus (the future Eternia) from Skeletor
Darius (UK only)- leader of the galactic council and master of arms in the toy range, ignored by series
Icarius aka Flipshot- space-age pilot who does powerful backflips
Hydron- undersea commander and captain of Starship Eternia. His main target is to find the Red Sun, who killed his whole family.
Tartarus aka Kayo- strong and fearless warrior
Vizar- master of vision and mind power
Nocturna- night warrior with powerful martial arts skills
Tuskador aka Insyzor- warrior with powerful tusks strapped to his armour
Artilla- cyborg with a lot of weapons
Sagitar- four armed slave from a planet which He-Man saved
Spinwit- has the power to spin fast

EVIL MUTANTS
Skeletor- now commanding the mutants of Denebria
Brakk aka Flogg- Skeletor’s second-in-command and ruler of Denebria
Kalamarr aka Slush Head- cyborg reptile from the swamps of Denebria, with metal tentacles
Optikk- one-eyed cyborg
Hoove- hoofed creature who helps Skeletor
Lizorr (UK only)- mutant lizard from the murky swamps of Denebria
Karatti- hard-headed mutant warrior
Krytta- attractive female assistant to Skeletor, and his most loyal warrior.
Butthead
Quakke aka Earthquake
Staghorn

Thanks to Darrell "Atomic_Dog" Minor for helping me out with some descriptions!

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