Aw yeah. This is the good shit.

This cartoon was HUGE when I was a kid. I had (and still have) dozens of He-Man toys, read the books, and rushed home after school to watch the cartoon. It blew my eight-year-old mind.

When Prince Adam raises the Power Sword to the sky and speaks the magic words, “By the power of Grayskull!” he turns into He-Man…the most powerful man in the universe! Christ, just typing that makes me want to churn out some embarrassingly awesome fan-fiction.

The cast of He-Man includes some of the greatest characters ever invented: Ram-Man, Skeletor, Trap-Jaw, Man-At Arms, Beast Man, Orko, Hordac, Teela… The list goes on and on and on.

So how does it hold up? How about fucking awesome?! The He-Man series has been reinvented a few times since the mid-80s, and the series from 2002 was actually pretty decent. But the original is still the best. From the cheesy acting to the stilted animation to the “what did we learn today?” segment at the end, there are fewer cartoons that better represent childhood in the 80s.

The classic He-Man series is available by season, but there’s also a “Best of” collection containing ten episodes, some cool artwork, and interviews with the creators. You can find it here: The Best of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (10 Episode Collector’s Edition).

I came in to work on Tuesday morning and found this waiting for me:

My dear friend Craig, knowing of my love for all things He-Man, found these Golden Books at his local thrift shop. That guy goes to the thrift store about three times per week and always comes back with some sort of awesome – and oftentimes ridiculous – treasure. I’ve gotten some great stuff from him (all with the price written in marker in the upper left-hand corner), but this is easily the best bit of booty he’s brought back for me.

So what we have here are three He-Man books, put out by Golden in 1983 and 1984. From what I can discern from the back cover, there were at least six books. This lot contains Time Trouble, The Trap, and Mask of Evil. Missing are The Sword of Skeletor, Caverns of Fear, and The Thief of Castle Grayskull. A quick look at eBay reveals that the books can be found for a buck a piece.

Paging through the books resulted in a rush of nostalgia. I swear I had The Trap as a kid. The artwork is a combination of cheesy 80s action art and just plain bad artwork. However, the cover art is fantastic, each book displaying highly detailed hand-painted covers. And the stories, as you’d expect, are steeped in 80s cheese, straight out of the cartoon. Here’s a sample:

These books will go nicely next to my massive He-Man collection, ready to be busted out when my son’s the appropriate age. Which, hell, could very well be tonight!

People have children for all sorts of reasons. Some people want to carry on their family name. Some people have a yearning to take care of someone. Some people got drunk and had dirty sex in a bar bathroom. Me? I wanted an excuse to play with toys. Seriously, if there’s one thing I miss about my childhood it’s all the bad ass toys.

While growing up, my favorite toys were He-Man action figures. I had dozens of figures, all the accessories, and watched the after-school cartoon religiously. In my mind, Eternia was a real place and Skeletor was a diabolical villain who needed to be eradicated.

While in retrospect He-Man figures seem to be, I don’t know, a little homoerotic, was there any sweeter toy than Castle Grayskull? I mean, just look at this thing:

The most awesome toy of the 80s.

Given my childhood obsession, it was only natural that immediately upon finding out that my wife and I were having a boy, I returned to my parent’s house and fished all my He-Man toys – and Castle Grayskull – out of the attic so it would be ready for him. I knew that any son of mine would find Castle Grayskull to be the coolest toy ever. But as cool as Castle Grayskull is and was, Ethan got something for Christmas nearly as awesome: the motherfucking Batcave.

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