MOTU Questions by newbies, and not-so-newbies

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Mattel sold $53,000,000 of Princess Of Power toys in 1985, more than He-Man made in its first year. And that doesn't even count the sales of Horde toys, which were also supported by the She-Ra cartoon. There were a lot of girls watching He-Man, which was the rationale for the spin-off.

Wow, thats interesting right there.

Girls must like the muscles hey?

[kup]

Sky Shadow is correct, She-Ra ran for a pretty decent length given the larger than average amount of episodes in the 1st season and the toy line was fairly successful. There are a good amount of POP toys in the after market signifying that they sold reasonably well back in the day.

Wow, thats interesting right there.

Girls must like the muscles hey?

Not really. He-Man had a strong female cast. They weren't archetyped into the typical 'damsel in distress' role and treated no different to the male cast while still maintaining their femininity - Teela, The Sorceress and Evil-Lyn were all 'core' characters and in a position of power. This is probably what attracted girls to watch the cartoon as those female leads were pretty prominent.

When it came to She-Ra, the same formula was used and the cartoon was very successful with both girls and boys despite the cast leaning more to female characters. Aside from still having a lot of action/adventure elements it also had much better written episodes than He-Man which IMO stand up better to the test of time and more watchable for an adult.

I have almost finished watching the first season of She-Ra, It's massive with over 60 episodes. There is a good amount of '80s' goofiness but a lot of the stories are entertaining and smartly written enough to hold appeal. It is also no where near as repetitive as He-Man with much better animation.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

I notice that Larry DiTillo and Bob Forward seem to do a fair bit of writing for She-Ra. Omoshiroi!

[Hursticon]

I notice that Larry DiTillo and Bob Forward seem to do a fair bit of writing for She-Ra. Omoshiroi!

Indeed and the lessons they learnt with He-Man and She-Ra, with regards to story writing, ended up creating the best written TF cartoon show to date.

[Lord_Zed]

Not really. He-Man had a strong female cast. They weren't archetyped into the typical 'damsel in distress' role and treated no different to the male cast while still maintaining their femininity - Teela, The Sorceress and Evil-Lyn were all 'core' characters and in a position of power.

It's funny how in a lot of these 80's toons the female villains are often the only competent ones, at least this seems to be the case in He-Man, She-Ra MASK and Visionaries.

[kup]

It's funny how in a lot of these 80's toons the female villains are often the only competent ones, at least this seems to be the case in He-Man, She-Ra MASK and Visionaries.

True with the exception of Catra and Scorpia, they were a bit dumb, specially the latter but still more competent than the men. However all the other Horde women were pretty smart, much smarter than the men or Hordak himself such as Shadow Weaver and Octavia.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

What's up with Hordak's Arm? Sometimes it's a robo claw and others it a proper arm. Is that just and animation mistake or can he change it at will?

Also on the subject of Hordak, is he a robot or something as his morphing arm blaster doohicky seems cool, as does his ability to change into a badly flown rocket. Are his morph skills limited to certain forms?

Quite enjoying She-ra. The 80's sound effects that seemed to show up in a lot of cartoons of that era are so cool!

[kup]

What's up with Hordak's Arm? Sometimes it's a robo claw and others it a proper arm. Is that just and animation mistake or can he change it at will?

Also on the subject of Hordak, is he a robot or something as his morphing arm blaster doohicky seems cool, as does his ability to change into a badly flown rocket. Are his morph skills limited to certain forms?

Quite enjoying She-ra. The 80's sound effects that seemed to show up in a lot of cartoons of that era are so cool!

Hordak is not really a robot but he does have the power to 'morph' his arm and full body into weapons and vehicles like the rocket.

Unlike the comics, toy bios and the 200X cartoon, Hordak in the She-Ra cartoon is more 'technological' than magical. Ironically enough, the cartoon Hordak seems to hate magic despite most other mediums portraying him as a bad ass evil sorcerer.

Also be prepared to cringe a little when they refer to 'Horde Prime' (stupidest concept ever).

Despite those silly things, She-Ra is still a superb 80s cartoon.

[Sky Shadow]

Also on the subject of Hordak, is he a robot or something as his morphing arm blaster doohicky seems cool, as does his ability to change into a badly flown rocket. Are his morph skills limited to certain forms?!

Hordak can turn his arm into various cannons and melee weapons and turn himself into a rocket, tank, four-armed spinning top, four-legged spider, etc. His second and third toys respectively had various arm attachments and a buzzsaw that came out of his chest. There was no canonical limit to his transformations except whatever suited the writers' whims.

The same went for Hordak's sidekick Imp:

http://www.he-man.org/cartoon/feature.php?id=50&fid=54

And She-Ra's Power Sword, which (somewhat ridiculously) could become a shield, lasso, rope, icemaker, helmet, parachute, telescope, pole, bola, chain, staff, racket, boomerang, blanket, glider, net, ladder, torch, harpoon, flame, smokescreen, bow, digger, magnet (and line), battering ram, grappling hook, bat, lightning rod, discus and handcuffs.

http://www.darah.com/she-ra/usrg/epi...to/swordto.asp

[kup]

Would this constitute as an improvement?

Before (out of package):



After some light improvements:



The attempt was to get him closer to his proper 200X character model: