Yeah, i can certainly see where you're coming from. For me - i never had any He-man figs as a kid, only my mates. As such i had a poor memory of what the original toys looked like until recently.
When i saw these classics for the first time, they matched up with my memories so closely! Then, i looked up the original figures and the overall difference is huge, but the new figs manage to give a flawless nostalgic feel; a bit like the modern updates to G1 toys.