The incredibly quirky worlds of Masters of the Universe aren’t just about He-Man! She-Ra and her pals, plus the crazy vibrant enemies we’re all so used to are a part of it as well! Heck, there’s tons to learn about Eternia and Etheria! Let’s do it!
1. Orko was originally called “Gorpo” but they decided to change his name in order to save the animation costs. By putting an “O” on his tunic, they could simply flip the cell and re-use the same asset!
2. He-Man was essentially created, along with all the other co-horts and villains, in order to sell Mattel’s new action-figure line. However, characters that would appear on the show without toy counterparts would eventually get them. An example? Prince Adam whose alter ego is He-Man, eventually got his own toy!
3. It doesn’t matter how many times you re-watch She-Ra: The Princess of Power, you will never see her skirt fly up despite the flips and tricks she does. This is due to the creator, Lou Scheimer, insisting that the animators allow She-Ra to keep her modesty. She-Ra was never about titillation to a young male fandom and instead was about offering girls the same opportunities as boys who wanted to be superheroes, as Scheimer and the She-Ra team saw it.
(Mattel, Filmation)
4. The ‘big-bad’ of She-Ra’s Etheria is Hordak. Which, if you can believe it or not, he’s actually superior to Skeletor. While I won’t get into the lore and spoil it for folks (the story is VERY interesting actually), Hordak was a mentor to Skeletor. Things went south and now you’ve got the Skeletor you know and love now. Hordak definitely doesn’t have that same accidental kindness that Skeletor can get now and then. Hordak’s definitely a brute of a fellow.
5. The same studios that worked on Battlestar Galactica were working in different teams on She-Ra. This is why you can make out sound effects from Battlestar Galactica in quite a few episodes of both He-Man and She-Ra cartoons.
6. Linda Gary was the voice actor responsible for most of the female voices you heard in He-Man, such as Evil Lyn, The Sorceress and Teela but sometimes also Prince Adam’s mother and others. The only time another voice actor would step in would be Lou Scheimer’s wife due to contract stipulations where Linda would require that she only did three different voices per episode. When an episode called for four, Scheimer would call his wife in to help out.
(Mattel, Filmation)
7. The original designs of the He-Man action figures were built aside from the builds of Castle Greyskull and mounted vehicles. This meant that the Castle Greyskull creator didn’t necessarily have the right dimensions for the doorways and had to go back to the drawing board once he realized the figures were too big to even fit in the door and scale had to be adjusted.
8. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is the very first cartoon series to come AFTER the toy line was created.
9. She-Ra was originally supposed to appear in the film adaptation of the toy line and cartoon series but was later scrapped when it turned out writers were concerned they were fitting too much story into a feature film and had to cut back.
(Mattel, Filmation)
10. Back to that animation costs situation, Prince Adam was supposed to have the build of a teenager. However, to cut down on costs and make it easier for folks to replicate in the animation department, they gave him the same build as He-Man.
