A coworker had the religious station on that carried Talkback with Bob Larson. He once had a guest with a growly voice who claimed to be Legion, and also alleged he got a letter from Satan.
I can also remember a local guy on the local religious station–sort of a budget Bob Larson–claiming that He-Man was a gateway to hell.
I think it was the phrase “Masters of the Universe.” Remember, there’s only one master of the universe, kids, and that’s Jesus!
Fun fact, in an interview with the He-Man creators they noted that, originally, the name was going to be: “Lords of Power”. The executives at Mattel nixed that because it sounded “Too religious”, so it became 'He-Man and the Masters of the Universe". One of the creators called it a very ridiculous reason to change it, and also: it was a ridiculous long name.
[Aside]
I had the funny theory that there was a reason why there was never a “Beach episode” like in Manga or Anime, because:
Teela: Ok Adam, the queen and I are going swimming, are you coming?
Prince Adam: Oh, go ahead, I will keep an eye on the buggy and sleep a bit under the sun.
[After an hour or so…]
Teela: Hey Adam, we are back, I see that you got a nice tan… [looks again] Hold on! You are He-Man!!!
Adam couldn’t be He-Man, Adam had to wear glasses.
That’s great!, I suggested the same thing but my wife did not agree. In her defense “Miles” would be a really strange name in our culture.
Roger Sweet, designer from Mattel, is the one that in an interview in “The Toys that Made Us” said about Prince Adam from the 80s:
“He is a wimpy guy… But he is a wimpy guy with the He-Man Physique… Ridiculous!!”
The Masters of the Universe action figures had one mold for male figures and one for female. At least at the beginning. So every male character was ripped like Charles Atlas, even Skeletor who was in no way skeletal.
Therefore, Adam had to be buff. Because the cartoon followed the toys, not the other way around.
My brother and I discovered that the arms and heads could all be pulled off and attached in any combination desired, so we had great fun with that.
Did anyone ever actually have the Adam toy? And if so, why?
Same reason I owned all those Star Wars figures who were background extras: I was a kid and Santa bought my toys for me.
There is no such thing as a background extra in Star Wars. Somewhere in the Extended Universe, everyone who ever appeared onscreen for even a second has a name, a detailed backstory, and probably one or two novels and/or comic book series written about them.
I never did, and none of the kids I can remember had one either. There certainly was such a toy, of course, because it’s almost the same as He-Man and cheap to make.
He even came with a pink sword, because I guess they needed something to suggest he wasn’t a tough guy, despite his vicious scowl and obscenely jacked physique.
I suppose if you wanted to really recreate scenes from the show, you’d play with this figure, then swap it out for He-Man. But I’m not sure how many kids into He-Man in the 80s wanted a toy with fuzzy lilac underwear molded into the figure.
And Mattel went a step farther; not only did they have a Prince Adam who was just a recolored He-Man, they also made “Faker”, a recolored He-Man figure who comes with recolored Skeletor accessories.
I played the Star Wars collectible card game by Decipher in the mid-late 90s. At that point, anyone who appeared for a second on screen from any of the original 3 films (even distantly in the background) was represented as a card with a name and background. For a complete Star Wars nerd like me it was awesome to have so many new characters to learn about, as ridiculous as it might have been.
I once referenced Hammerhead to my wife and she was “Huh? Who?” I said “Hammerhead. Had a head sort of like a hammerhead shark. Was in Star Wars for three seconds in the bar scene so I’m sure he has a rich and compelling story at this point. [one internet search later] Check it out! He was a gardener who had some moral dilemma about selling herbs to the Empire so he started day drinking!”
I couldn’t tell you if Lucas already had “Drunk unemployed landscaper” as part of Hammerhead’s saga, but I do know that it wasn’t a part of the 1978 action figure packaging and he was just some rando Star Wars dude.
I can tell you off the top of my head that his actual name is Momaw Nadon, and he was an Ithorian. The Ithorians for the most part are pacifists and big into agriculture; so not only was he a gardener, his whole culture was based around it.
(Ithorians were also a playable species in the Star Wars Galaxies MMORPG.)
His action figure when released was just called “Hammerhead”, and you can see him featured in this vintage commercial for the Creature Cantina.
“Gotcha Hammerhead!”
Just more proof that Han shot first!
I don’t think Ice Cream Maker Guy had been named Willrow Hood back then yet. Did he have a card?
He did, as a matter of fact!
I’m telling you, it was ridiculous.
I see that his actor’s identity was finally figured out in 2023:
(No action figures of his daughters yet. I say without searching because there might be.)
The actor’s real name “Egbert Sen” sounds more like a Star Wars character name than Willrow Hood to me.
Much as “Rupert Grint” sounds more like a Hogwarts student’s name than “Ron Weasley” does.