He-Man in SPACE!!!

[Werewolf]

The much-maligned 1989 MOTU sci-fi reboot simply called He-Man. The accompanying cartoon was called the New Adventures of He-Man. The figures are actually really nice. Good sculpts, more articulation and well-integrated action features. Most of the villains were pretty cool. The heroes, not so much. I do think the line would have fared better had they brought back more classic characters than just He-Man and Skeletor. Though, it did last a full year longer than the 2002 reboot.

He-Man, Battle Punch He-Man and Thunder Punch He-Man.

spaceheman2.JPG

You can see each new figure was getting closer to the size of the original MOTU line. Thunder Punch He-Man has the same build and pose as the original He-Man figure as well as the classic twist waist punch action feature.

[Werewolf]

Bio-mechanical cyborg Skeletors.

Skeletor, Disks of Doom Skeletor and Battle Blade Skeletor.

spaceskeletor2.JPG

Battle Blade Skeletor actually has a little tuft of rooted black hair.

[Werewolf]

This line did give us the weirdest He-Man playset ever, Nordor. It's a mechanical, asteroid, spaceship thing with Skeletor's face on it.

spacenordor.JPG

It does have a working projector which is pretty cool.

[sprytel]

I have zero memory of any of this... the TV show or the figures! Fascinating.

[PNGwynne]

I didn't know of the asteroid--that's cool. I was not a fan of the show or toys for the most part, though I agree with you about the villains and Optikk stood out for me.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I remember seeing these toys in stores, but the show was syndicated at ungodly hours of the morning in my area, so I never watched it. I can appreciate it now, but at the time it stunk of ill-advised desperation to teenage me. Somewhat of a precursor to what Hasbro would do to GI Joe: RAH in a few years, first with Sgt. Savage (which is cool in it's own right, but not necesarily for Joe) and the god-awful GI Joe: EXTREME!

Chris

[palitoy]

This one was a real point of curiosity when it hit shelves here. Reminded me a lot of Super Joe.

I didn't see the show until I went to Europe in 1992, so I'm not sure it saw broadcast here.

Some of the designs were neat but at that point, my local Toys R Us still had a wall of unsold MOTU figures right next to them.

[Werewolf]

The cartoon was proper weird. The toys were cool in their own way. Especially the villains. When I saw the first promo wave of 2 packs the original MOTU toys were already gone at the TRU I went to. I was shocked to see them. Had no idea there were new He-Man toys.

Here's Nordor opened.

spacenordor2.JPG

The red cannon is actually the projector. The playset came with 2 filmstrips which you project on the viewscreen on the back wall.

[Werewolf]

Doomcoptor

spacedoom.JPG

I passed on most of the vehicles in this line. Too bland sci-fi and didn't really look like He-Man vehicles. But a Skeletor helicoptor with a glow in the dark skull and gnashing teeth? Oh, hell, yes.

I forgot to mention, with all the gold and metallic plastic this line uses, the toys have held up extremely well. Most toys from that era, with gold plastic, have disintegrated by now.

[Bruce Banner]

The overall aesthetic of the figures was so far removed from MOTU that I never bothered to pick any up.

If Mattel had started the line with something closer to the series 4 Thunder Punch He-Man, I probably would've collected a few.

The cartoon was cool, and I managed to catch most of the episodes back in 1990/1991.

[KingKickass1983]

I remember seeing these toys in stores, but the show was syndicated at ungodly hours of the morning in my area, so I never watched it. I can appreciate it now, but at the time it stunk of ill-advised desperation to teenage me. Somewhat of a precursor to what Hasbro would do to GI Joe: RAH in a few years, first with Sgt. Savage (which is cool in it's own right, but not necesarily for Joe) and the god-awful GI Joe: EXTREME!

Chris

I thought the Extreme cartoon was actually pretty good. As cheesey as the commercials and the theme song was, the story was pretty engrossing.

The toys though... sigh*

[Werewolf]

The 1989 toy did have really slick commercials. Well done live action actors for He-Man and Skeletor.