History Trivia / MastersOfTheUniverse

* ReferencedBy:
** He-Man apparently had quite a fanbase in Asia, as seen in the fantasy spoof film, ''Film/TheMagicCrystal'', where the FatComicRelief sidekick, snooker, managed to absorb powers from the titular Crystal and actually strikes a pose similar to Price Adam's while shouting, "''I have the power!''"
** In ''WesternAnimation/TheBossBabyFamilyBusiness'', Tina and Ted use Castle Greyskull as a stand in for the school when they're PlanningWithProps. Wizzie (Tim's old alarm clock) has his missing right arm replaced with He-Man's, complete with sword, and is shown to become friends with a Skeletor action figure, even taking a selfie with it in the epilogue.

** The unreleased "savage" He-Man toy with brown hair, often mislabeled "Wonder Bread He-Man" (Wonder Bread did have a MOTU promotion but this figure was NOT offered through it). To this day no one knows what its purpose was, how many were made or why it was made, let alone how the few samples were released. Even Mattel doesn't know. Theories have floated between a prototype Conan toy (Mattel did negotiate for the movie toy rights but never followed through, and they were in development on MOTU before then), a prototype Prince Adam look (possible as Adam looked different in the early DC issues) or a product for a promotion that never happened.

** Similarly, Vikor, He-Man of the North, is a MOTU classics figure based on the earliest stage of what would become He-Man's design. Vykron is also based on an early concept prototype where the idea was to have a hero with separate costumes, similar to Mattel's prior ''Big Jim'' line - a barbarian, a military man and a space man with a [[Franchise/StarWars Boba Fett]]-esque helmet.

* StillbornFranchise: There were plans for a sequel, which got as far as early production. However, due to monetary issues, Cannon Films lost the rights to the franchise, and the whole project, along with the Cannon's cancelled ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' production assets, eventually turned into Albert Pyun's ''Film/Cyborg1989''.

* TheWikiRule: Wiki Grayskull, the [[http://he-man.wikia.com/wiki/He-Man_Wiki He-Man and She-Ra Wiki]].

* TalkingToHimself: In the 2002 series, Creator/ScottMcNeil voiced Clawful, Mer-Man, Stratos, Ram Man, and Beast Man; an astonishing ''five'' regular characters. While in this series most of the cast voiced at least two people, that's still impressive.
** And that's just at the start of the series. [=McNeil=] later voiced Kobra Khan.
** In the original series this was all over the place. Despite the number of characters there were at most eight actors in a given episode (and in a lot of episodes there were only ''five''). Lou Scheimer (under the name Erik Gunden) voiced the most characters. See the character page for more info.

* AwesomeDearBoy: Creator/FrankLangella says that while people assume that the film is an embarrassing OldShame, he actually ''loved'' being Skeletor, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfiOOwJTgg8 is very willing to share his experience]].

* DoingItForTheArt:
** The final sword fight between He-Man and Skeletor was filmed at the very end, ''after'' the money ran out. The director paid out of his own pocket to get that vital sequence filmed and have a finished movie, which is why the set and lighting change so dramatically just for the lion's share of the duel.
** Frank Langella embraced his role and the producers knew full well how lucky they were to have him, as such nearly everything about Skeletor from the makeup to the clothing to bits of the dialogue was based on his suggestions.

* OldShame:
** Creator/DolphLundgren was somewhat embarrassed by the film. He appears to have somewhat more positive thoughts in the documentary ''The Power of Grayskull'' where he spoke favorably of creating atmosphere with the practical effects of the 1980’s, as well as being [[SoMyKidsCanWatch one of the few films in his filmography he could show his children without worrying about the content]].
** Defied by Creator/FrankLangella, as many people [[ClassicallyTrainedExtra assumed an actor of his caliber]] would be embarrassed by being in the film. In truth, he chose the role in part to doing [[SoMyKidsCanWatch something for his kids]] and because he thought it [[AwesomeDearBoy would be fun to play a cartoon villain]]. As a result, whenever asked about it, he glows with appreciation for the role.

* CreatorKiller: This was one of several films in the 1980's that led to Creator/TheCannonGroup imploding.

* NamesTheSame:
** Fisto's 2002 series toy even had to be called "Battle Fist" due to trademark issues with ''Franchise/StarWars''[='=] Kit Fisto, despite being created like 20 years earlier (unused trademarks expire shortly however, and Mattel had let their hold on the name lapse).
** Not the last series with a character named [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers Ninjor]] or [[WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead Butthead]].
** The Classics line turned Mark Taylor's original concept for Skeletor into a new character named Demo-Man. To avoid confusion, it should be stressed that the "demo" is short for "demon", not "[[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 demolitions]]".[[note]]They are pronounced differently, compare how one would say "demon" as opposed to "demolition"[[/note]]
** One example happened because of Mattel reusing a trademark to keep it active -- the human form of Beast from ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' was named Adam in the script but the name "Prince Adam" was used on toy packaging. Mattel made these toys. This has been dropped after Creator/{{Hasbro}} obtained the Creator/{{Disney}} toy license.

* RealLifeRelative: The Japanese dub for TV Asahi cast father and son Creator/ChikaoOhtsuka and Creator/AkioOhtsuka as Skeletor and He-Man.

** In the original series this was all over the place. Despite the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters there were at most eight actors in a given episode (and in a lot of episodes there were only ''five''). Lou Scheimer (under the name Erik Gunden) voiced the most characters. See the character page for more info.

* MarthDebutedInSmashBros: The movie was the only thing related to the franchise that was released in Japan until ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'', through technically speaking this is still the only MOTU work shown in Japanese featuring He-Man.

* ReferencedBy: In ''WesternAnimation/TheBossBabyFamilyBusiness'', Tina and Ted use Castle Greyskull as a stand in for the school when they're PlanningWithProps. Wizzie (Tim's old alarm clock) has his missing right arm replaced with He-Man's, complete with sword, and is shown to become friends with a Skeletor action figure, even taking a selfie with it in the epilogue.

** The Classics line turned Mark Taylor's original concept for Skeletor into a new character named Demo-Man. To avoid confusion, it should be stressed that the "demo" is short for "demon", not "[[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 demolitions]]".[[note]]In fact, this one's name is pronounced "deemo" as in "demon", rather than "dimmo" as in "demolitions"[[/note]]

** Fisto's 2002 series toy even had to be called "Battle Fist" due to trademark issues with ''StarWars''[='=] Kit Fisto, despite being created like 20 years earlier (unused trademarks expire shortly however, and Mattel had let their hold on the name lapse).

* DivorcedInstallment[=/=]DolledUpInstallment: Was originally intended as a ''ComicBook/NewGods'' movie before it was rewritten for ''He-Man''.

** And that's just at the start of the series. McNeil later voiced Kobra Khan.

* FollowTheLeader: In a sense, as He-Man was the result of the success of ''Franchise/StarWars''. Creator/{{Mattel}} was asked to make the action figures, but immediately rejected it. But seeing how well Creator/{{Kenner}}'s ''Star Wars'' toyline sold, Mattel made action figures of ''Film/{{Clash of the Titans|1981}}'' and ''Film/{{Flash Gordon|1980}}'', but they didn't sell well due to the movies not being as big as ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'', with the latter being a BoxOfficeBomb. So Mattel decide to make their own action figure line.

* InspirationForTheWork: Gary Goddard confirmed that film was heavily inspired by the works of Creator/JackKirby, most notably ''ComicBook/NewGods'', as well as ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' and ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor''.

[[AC:The Franchise]]

[[AC:The film]]