Monday Memory: Masters of the Universe UK Comics Christmas Issues pt2 (w/ Jeff and Thom)

What’s up, dudes? It’s another bonkers He-Man Christmas tale from the UK comics! This time I’ve got Jeff Loftin from Lost Christmas and Thom Crowe from ‘Tis the Podcast with me to break down the power of Grayskull!

Hordak has cast a spell that freezes men’s hearts, cutting out all hope. Desperate to lift this ice-fear, He-Man and the heroic warriors battle the evil Horde. Unfortunately, the villains escape through a portal leaving Eternia to the desolation.  In a last ditch effort to bring hope to his people, He-Man concocts a plan with Man-At-Arms to deliver presents to all children. The fruits of his labor are seen through the eyes of woodcutter Nik-Las and his daughter Mouse. The sudden appearance of the doll gave Nik-Las hope and Mouse the courage to speak after many silent years. The ice-fear was banished from the realm!

Cage of ice spears? Check. He-Man holding a basketball? Yep. Father Kis-Mus? Well…they tried, didn’t they? So grab the Sword of Power, fill a sack with toys, and stave off the evil Horde with this episode about He-Man Christmas!

Lost Christmas Podcast
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IG: @lostchristmaspodcast

'Tis the Podcast
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IG: @tisthepodcast
FB Group: Tis the Podcast Group

Check us out on Facebook, Twitter,  Instagram,  Totally Rad Christmas Mall & Arcade, Teepublic.com, or TotallyRadChristmas.com!  Later, dudes!

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Using the twin forces of science and magic, I have managed to deepen the winter that holds attorney of frozen and trance like. Once again, we're talking Masters of the Universe, UK Comics, and I think that's the same. And He-Man played Santa Claus and Eternia to save it from eternal winter. I'm your host, Jerry D, with another episode of Totally Rad Christmas, the podcast that talks all things Christmas in the 80s, toys, movies specials, music, and fads. If it was gnarly during Christmas in the 80s, we got it covered. Now, joining me are two Totally Rad Christmas All-Stars. My first guest, you'll know from Tis the Podcast, it's Tom Crow. Tom, how's it going?

SPEAKER_02 1:24

Hi, Jerry Davala. It's going well. How are you?

SPEAKER_05 1:28

I'm wonderful, man. I really am. It's good to see you. It's been too long. I feel like it's been forever.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

It has. I'm glad to be back.

SPEAKER_05 1:36

Right on. Uh, my next guest is the host of the Bodacious Lost Christmas podcast. It's Jeff Lofton. Jeff, how's it going?

SPEAKER_04 1:44

Uh, absolutely wonderful, Jerry. Except we are almost on the surface of the sun in Texas.

SPEAKER_05 1:49

So I mean, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's definitely I and I've seen that meme, I'm sure you guys have, where it's uh Mar from Mario and it's got the sun. It says that level that where the sun's trying to kill you, and that's Texas. I mean, it really is like people, you have no idea.

SPEAKER_04 2:02

Yeah, yeah, I think that's a fair assessment.

SPEAKER_05 2:05

So, okay, I definitely am.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

I was able to walk outside for a ridiculous amount of time today, and it was that's yeah, that's that's a brag for sure. Yeah, I did have to fly halfway across the country to get that, but that's fair.

SPEAKER_05 2:21

Yeah, well, it's pretty hot up there in uh Oklahoma as well, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 2:26

Uh I yeah, well, actually, we had a we had another the other day we got rain in the morning, and our high was only like 78.

SPEAKER_05 2:34

Oh, that's awesome on Friday. Yeah, we had a cold front and it was like 100 instead of 106.

SPEAKER_04 2:41

So yeah, the heat index was like 103. I know it's pleasant. It was really nice.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

It was ridiculous. Anthony and I were walking around uh Central Park today and it was like 86.

SPEAKER_05 2:51

Man, I wish like that's what it's gonna be like in late October, early November. And yeah, I can't wait.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

Why do we make the decision to live in this part of the country? I just don't understand.

SPEAKER_05 3:04

I think it's just because I've always lived here, and so it's like that's what you do, you live in Texas. So I don't know. Um, but okay, before we dive into it, Jeff, you just did uh I think it was your last season, right? You did a whole series on Santas and like the origin of Santa. Did you include He-Man like as uh part of the attorney in Santa? I'm just curious.

SPEAKER_04 3:26

I did not, but that gives me much to think about for Cartoon Santa's from from fantasy worlds, so it's like much to consider.

SPEAKER_05 3:34

Yes, yeah, you gotta branch out.

SPEAKER_04 3:36

That's true.

SPEAKER_05 3:37

Yeah, we're gonna talk He-Man tonight. Now, before we do that, I want to get into my brand new segments called Hit Me with the Toaster. So, this is where I'm gonna ask you guys some questions. I want you to hit me with the very first answer you can think of. Okay, don't think too hard about it, just whatever comes uh pops up on the top of your head. So, first question skeletor is Scrooge. Which attornians would be the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future?

SPEAKER_04 3:59

Man, I'm gonna say present is man at arms. All right, and I would say future is oh, what's his name? The space travel guy. I'm drawing a blank from the comic book. Zodak? Zodak, yeah. Yeah, right. And then and then I guess past would be the sorceress or Tila. And if we're going to the comic books, they're the same character, so it really doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_05 4:24

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it depends on which continuity we're talking about.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

That's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:28

What do you think, Tom?

SPEAKER_02 4:29

For past, I'm gonna go with Tila. Okay. Present, I'm gonna go with Queen Morlena, and it's probably just because she's always in green, like the original, like imagine that's okay.

SPEAKER_05 4:40

Yeah, yeah, we'll take it.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

Oh, and future. That's a tough one because honestly, if I were doing if I were to cast, I would have Skeletor as he would be yeah, he would be the one.

SPEAKER_05 4:50

Yeah, oh I feel like I feel like Evil Lynn would be a good future, you know, like like Skeletor is somehow is dead and she's taken over his evil warriors. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 5:01

That's you're creeping into Revelation, the Master of the Universe Revelation.

SPEAKER_05 5:05

Exactly. Yeah, I don't know. That was a hard one. I'm sorry I sprung it on you. Uh, here's an easy one though. Okay, so which cat would you rather spend Christmas with? Garfield or cringer? Cringer.

SPEAKER_04 5:17

Yeah, I agree. I'm not I'm not a huge Garfield person.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

I can talk to cringer. Yeah, exactly. Garfield just wants to take and take and take from me.

SPEAKER_05 5:26

And you're gonna be making like a bunch of Christmas lasagnas. Right, and not getting to eat any of them.

SPEAKER_04 5:31

Exactly, exactly. Yeah, what a waste. Anti-bully is Odie. So, I mean, I'm not all about that. Yeah, is that yeah, so I'm gonna say no. Give me cringer, the scared one.

SPEAKER_05 5:43

Yeah, you'll get some good puddles at least. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

I'm gonna have to go back and say Horak as the ghost of Christmas future. Okay, that's fair.

SPEAKER_05 5:50

That's a good one. That's a good one, too.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

Yeah, I'm changing.

SPEAKER_05 5:54

Sorry. No, no, no worries, no worries. All right, last one. You're going to Adam and Adora's birthday slash Christmas party. What party food do you bring?

SPEAKER_02 6:02

Swedish meatballs.

unknown 6:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 6:06

I think like seven-layer dip. I think that's just a like every party needs it, so why not?

SPEAKER_05 6:11

And you know they've never heard of it in eternity. I know, yeah. Or or like little smokies, you know, those gross hot dogs that are just a barbecue sauce. Pigs in a blanket, yeah. All right, I'm into it. That's just a way for our listeners to get to know y'all a little bit better.

SPEAKER_02 6:27

Do either of y'all watch Animal Control?

SPEAKER_05 6:30

I haven't yet. I've heard it, I'd love it, and I just haven't.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

They have this whole long drawn-out scene where there's a pig running and they're all trying to catch it, and uh they finally wrap it in a blanket, and they're like, You you did this whole thing just so you could say pigs in a blanket. He's like, Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 6:47

Nice. I mean, if that's your job, that's like hashtag goals, right? I mean, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:55

They love fun. You need to mimify everything, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:58

That's right.

unknown 6:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:00

Oh goodness. Okay, so tonight we actually are gonna be talking about he-man. Okay, before we dive into this particular issue and some of these others that I want to get into, what is your experience, your history with He-Man? Like, what do you remember about it most? Uh, why don't we start with you, Jeff?

SPEAKER_04 7:32

Ooh, uh, so born in the mid-80s, I grew up with He-Man and reruns of He-Man, the Funimation cartoon, as I became a teenager. I found out there was history before the um very interesting cartoon. And uh, I still have a lot of my figures, and I have a ton of the comics, and I absolutely love He-Man. He's my favorite 80s. That and Bravestar are like 1A, 1B for 80s characters for me.

SPEAKER_02 7:59

So it's a lot deeper cut, man.

SPEAKER_05 8:02

Yeah, yeah, Bravestar is cool. I like Bravestar.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

What about you, Tom? Uh, I mentioned this before, uh, so I won't be beleaguered, but I was I grew up with He-Man as well, being an 80s child, and um He-Man was so near and dear to me that when I got a cat, I named her She-Ra. And then learned she was a he, and so He-Man. And he lived up to his name. He put my grandfather and great-grandmother in the hospital.

SPEAKER_05 8:32

Oh, geez, that's sorry to hear that, but that is a vicious cat.

SPEAKER_02 8:38

Yeah, be careful with who he has.

unknown 8:41

Right.

SPEAKER_05 8:41

I'm actually right there with you guys because he-Man, I'm actually I'm sitting about a foot away from my old Castle Gray skull, and uh my toys, my He-Man toys are in a box down there. Um, but He-Man was one of my favorites, and if you don't have this uh encyclopedia here, then you're totally missing out. And it's a whole series of hardcover books. There's uh the toys of Masters of the Universe, which is super cool. Oops, there goes my phone. There's the uh He-Man and She-Ra, a complete guide to the animated series as well. There's the mini comics one that is also awesome. That uh, and I'm missing two. I'm missing the the art and the uh the comic strip one is and so I'm hoping that I can uh get those this Christmas. And there's a new one coming out, also. Oh that's awesome. A He-Man lunchbox and thermos uh have the original, the original metal ones, yep.

SPEAKER_04 9:42

Rusted and wonderful. Love it. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_05 9:45

That's so cool, man.

SPEAKER_04 9:46

Yeah, love He-Man, we'll forever love He-Man.

SPEAKER_05 9:49

There's something about He-Man, it's it's we talked about it, Tom. You and I, when you were on it. It was uh, you know, the chance for kids to embrace control and power, and of course, we we went into the whole backstory, so we don't have to go into it too much again. But essentially, they did some market research, they found kids were saying the word power quite a bit, and so they developed this toy line around that, and it really is. I mean, I connected with it a lot, it was like my chance to become something more. I and superheroes were huge to me at the time, but with He-Man, it was I mean, he didn't really fight, uh, he used his mind a lot more than his muscles. Uh, it there was uh this cool um mix of science and magic. I mean, it just was next level for me as a kid, and I just remember loving it so much that we we had to tape all of the series on old Betamax tapes. We didn't even have a VHS, we have Betamax. I mean, they don't play anymore, but uh I remember just loving it that much. I was like, Dad, you gotta record these.

SPEAKER_04 10:53

Yeah, he-Man is science fantasy to me, like he is Conan for kids. I I absolutely love it. It's um it just yeah, it's it just has like the all the like the trademarks of like what kids didn't have but wanted, like you guys like you guys mentioned, it's got all the the power, the intelligence, the cool characters with crazy weird names and abilities.

SPEAKER_05 11:16

I mean, although you can tell as the line went as the line went on, the names got worse and worse. It's it's like they didn't try, yes, they didn't quite try as hard. Snout spout, you know. I mean, you know, that to compare it to like man at arms. Uh that's just right, not quite the same level there.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

Not at all. Yeah, no, not at all.

SPEAKER_05 11:37

But I did like how it wasn't just, I mean, at first it was just He-Man and Skeletor, but then there were other factions that came along, so it was almost like these tribes against each other, you know. You had Wordak and the Evil Horde. Later on, we had the snake man, and then when they introduced She-Ra, I thought her cartoon was really well written. And and as much as I love He-Man and I love the cartoons, I just they're going back now, they don't quite hold up as well as I think the She-Ra cartoons do. I think they had kind of streamlined their process and and edited down some of the writing better for the She-Ra um series than they did for He-Man.

SPEAKER_04 12:12

Yeah, I agree. I think um She-Ra and the the connection to Princess Amethyst from the DC comics is is pretty straightforward, and I think they they had a lot of world to build on, and they learned a lot from the He-Man series too, which is why there's so many like crossovers and there's so many shared characters. I agree though, the Shira cartoon is probably probably holds up better.

SPEAKER_05 12:33

Yeah, yeah, it totally does. Well, and Tom, if I recall, didn't you like She-Ra better than the He-Man? I did, yeah, I get it. I do. I've gone back and watched a few with the with my daughter, and and she, I mean, I it just it does, it definitely holds up more, yeah. And it's it's kind of a cool premise as well. It's like this big rebellion against this oppressive regime, essentially. You know, they're like freedom fighters, so you can't go wrong with the story about freedom fighters. I mean, yeah, you probably could looking at you, Sonic, but yeah, you could, but you you rarely do. I'll I'll say that.

SPEAKER_04 13:10

It's easier to cheer for an underdog, I think.

SPEAKER_05 13:13

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:14

Like he-man is still a prince, right? I mean, like you go back to it in the cartoon, he's still like he still lives in like the palace and he has Castle Gray School. He has two castles. I mean, how hard is his life, really? Oh, you oh you're a prince who's super rich. Oh, and you got all these magic powers. Oh, yeah, and your parents never told you your twin sister was stolen and just taken away. But your life's good. How long have we been twins? And um, how do we tell each other apart?

SPEAKER_05 13:41

Yeah, yeah, which is always an odd choice, and it's it is is so totally a retcon that oh, it's great, unbelievable because there's no way Marlena and Randor would would do that to Adam, but of course they do in the in the show, so it is what it is. Now, I remember we were talking about in preparation for this, you were talking uh about uh He-Man and the Masters of the Multiverse in that comic, yeah. And this whole He-Man thing really is kind of a multiverse. I know that's that's the popular thing, but they were doing it back in the 80s, like right around when DC was doing it, making it popular. Um, because we have the original toy line, we have the filmation cartoon, we have um this UK comics that we're gonna talk about, and that's set in its own little world. There was also some German and Brazilian comics as well that have their own mythologies, and later on, the German was adapted into some of the UK uh comics as well, and we'll get into that. But you know, then you had the DC comics, you had uh what Dark Horse, I think, is doing it now. It really is a ton of different iterations. You think about the movie and Dolph Lundgren that we usually don't speak of, but for some reason I think it's freaking awesome, even though it's terrible. Oh, it's so bad. It's so so so bad, but I love it. It is peak 80s, but I know it's bad.

SPEAKER_04 14:56

Yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

Yes, well, there's there's something there's something you know you're gonna get when you mention, oh, by the way, Dolph Lundgren, right?

SPEAKER_05 15:04

Well, and I know he had to learn his lines phonetically, I think he was still learning English at the time, he and they weren't even gonna use his voice. He was he only had like three chances to to do the lines, and if it didn't work out, they were gonna dub him. But of course, canon films being canon films, they ran out of money, and so they just went with what they had. Yeah, it's such a bummer because apparently the last fight between He-Man and Skeletor was like epic. They had actually staged this whole thing, and when they ran out of money, they literally were like on that last day just doing what they could to make it work. They shut down the lights, they they reworked the whole thing. It was a stunt man, it wasn't even Franklangella anymore, and so it's uh yeah, it's kind of a bummer, but you need to rewatch it.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

I haven't seen that one at all.

SPEAKER_05 15:52

I love Canon, it's like uh every time that Canon logo pops on a screen, it's like ah, old friend, I've missed you. Oh misallocation of funds, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, there was a lot of that.

SPEAKER_04 16:04

They have great first half of movies that's because then they run out of the second half, and it's it's it's pretty much indefinite.

SPEAKER_05 16:12

Yeah, it's always great setup, yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

Totally totally rad Christmas should do a uh a He-Man movie watch party.

SPEAKER_05 16:21

Oh, I'd be into that. No time. I'd totally be into that.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

I'm here for it.

SPEAKER_05 16:27

Yeah, page bonus episode, Patreon episode, or something. We'll we'll get it done.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

Yeah, as awful as he is, I will not turn down a dolphin for the movie.

SPEAKER_05 16:35

For real. Yeah, I agree. Um, okay, before we jump in, what's your favorite He-Man character? Or uh who I should say is your favorite He-Man character.

SPEAKER_04 16:45

Shiro.

SPEAKER_05 16:46

Right on.

SPEAKER_04 16:47

Uh Orco for me, I think. I just love Orko. I know from the cartoon. I always like the magician. I don't, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

He was fun in the property.

SPEAKER_04 16:55

The unnecessary magician, but I loved him nonetheless. He has his moments, but yeah, he's it's mostly comedic relief.

SPEAKER_05 17:04

I mean, yeah, it's a kid's show and it was filmation, so I get it. Uh I so of course I want to say he-man, but like I think the toy was so cool, it was Cyclone. You know, he had the blue skin, you could like spin him and he would swirl around. And so he didn't get a lot of play. I think he came out in maybe one, maybe three, but I think it's one episode. And I just thought he was super cool. He just had a great look and and a cool feature, and so I think that's definitely up there, even though you know nobody knows. If you say Masters of the Universe Cyclone, nobody nobody knows what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_04 17:41

So yeah, that's that's fair. Nobody has a clue.

SPEAKER_05 17:45

Yeah, uh, okay, so let's talk about the UK comics because they're their own animal. London Editions magazine. They they actually wanted to license out Transformers property, they lost it to Marvel, UK, and so they thought, well, what else is big? And so they went with Masters of the Universe, and they brought on Brian Clark, who was like an art student. He was like fresh out of college, he really didn't know anything. He interviewed a couple of times, created a story on the spot, and he was hired. And so he was their editor, and he created this character, Scrollos, who's kind of the uh like the watcher, essentially, like in Marvel Comics, the watcher, and he knows all the lore and all the mythology, and and he answers the questions that people write in, and you know, that kind of person who just oversees it all, and from there they would create these little stories, and it really is like an anthology kind of series. It's it's like two or three stories packed into one comic, which has its moments, but at the same time, it's like some of these I wish they could have expanded a little bit better.

SPEAKER_04 18:54

Like today, like this episode.

SPEAKER_05 18:57

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a very short episode, so we're gonna just talk he-van for a long time. Uh yeah, it's it's something else. It I don't know what they were doing.

SPEAKER_02 19:08

Isn't it common for them to just take away the color?

SPEAKER_05 19:11

Yes, so that actually is common for uh UK comics in general, but especially London uh editions in specific. And so they there would be a few pages of color and then just black and white, and then again towards the end, maybe one story in full color and then another story that was black and white, or if there was only two, like if they had expanded it a bit, one would be in color mostly, and then the other one would be all black and white. But it's also very jarring to us Americans who are used to monthly comics that are completely colorized, you know, um, from the big publishers. And I'm not talking like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles here, you know. I'm I'm talking Marvel DC, of course, Image and Malibu and some of those, but it really is kind of off-putting. Like after 40 years of reading comics all in color, it it's definitely hard to get through.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

It was hard for me to finish this one. I'm not gonna lie, it was hard. Yeah. In comics, you're already outside of the comic, right? Right, you're not you're not in it the way you are a book. But when you remove the color and add the creepy winking, it's just uh yeah. There's a lot of creepy winking.

SPEAKER_04 20:22

Yeah, it's it's the hard transition, right? From like from from some panels in color, and then suddenly they're like, eh, you're fine, you don't need this anymore.

SPEAKER_05 20:31

We're gonna save some money, you're not gonna care. It's all right. Don't worry too much about it.

SPEAKER_02 20:36

Path of Grace Cole just doesn't look good in black and white, man.

SPEAKER_05 20:39

It yeah, it it really needs to have that dark green, stony texture, and it's hard to convey that. And I agree. Yeah. So they actually had uh Masters of the Universe actually had two Christmas comics, and then She-Ra had a uh Christmas comic as well. And I I was able to get Nathan Kennedy from the Fans of Power podcast on, and we covered one of the comics of Masters of the Universe, and we covered the Shi-ra one. I want to kind of quickly go over those before we dive into the main Christmas story here because that's the one I want to spend most of our time on, even though it's really short, and so we're it's gonna be like a quick episode, I feel. But so let's see, let's talk about let's talk about Shira one first because I think that's easier. So there's a an ancient scroll that Skeletor finds She-Ra in is carrying, and so he and Hordak and a bunch of other guys, they just kind of do their thing and try to take the scroll. It turns out in the end, and this is really awful, but it turns out it was actually the recipe to a big plum pudding from the master toy maker or the magical toy maker of the world, which of course is kind of an allusion to Santa Claus.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

I'm Santa Claus, right, and I'm the Tooth Fairy.

SPEAKER_05 21:51

Now, this is set in the same reality as the story that we're going to be talking about that doesn't talk about a magical toy maker. It essentially The story we're talking about, He-Man and Man at Arms are Santa Claus.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas, young lady. Merry Christmas. Rather. You know it was me all the time, didn't you?

SPEAKER_05 22:14

So it's like I I don't understand how it's all related. Who is this guy, this magical toy maker? What does he have to do with He-Man? Is this I don't know. It's just a big complicated thing that I don't quite get.

SPEAKER_04 22:29

Well, so you're confusing Ethereum mythos and Eternian mythos.

SPEAKER_05 22:33

That's the big Well, maybe that's what it is.

SPEAKER_04 22:35

Right? See, so you got it. They have a mythical toy maker on Ethereum, and on Eternia, it's uh Father Christmas character, I guess, that is really just He-Man in disguise.

SPEAKER_05 22:46

But see, that that's the hard part, uh, because here Hordax seems to primarily and the fright zone seems to be located on Eternia in a lot of the He-Man comics, and then once they started She-Ra and the cartoon came out, they kind of transported Hordax's main base of operations to Etherea. And it's it's a very confusing kind of thing uh for for a kid. I mean, nowadays you get okay, well, that's his main base, he has a little a layer here, no big deal. But also, there's like in that She-Ra comic, there's just a a weird portal that just happens to be in between that nobody knows about. Sure.

SPEAKER_04 23:22

Yeah, you know, I mean, depending on which skeletor it is, I mean, there's an interdimensional demon, or you know, E-Man's uncle, one or the or both. That's right, yeah. Tomato, tomato, yeah, it's all yeah, it's fine.

SPEAKER_05 23:35

A little from Colum A, a little from Columbi. And so in the the other Christmas comic that I covered, it was about the Joybringers, which seems to be a phrase that I guess Brian Clark really relied on because that's also uh that's also the title of the story that we're really gonna be talking in depth about. But the joybringers are a race, they sprinkle their magic joy dust and they kind of lighten the whole winter tide. And Kordak tries to steal this magic dust and use it to create a cannon, and it turns out somehow the bags got switched, and all he ends up doing is creating like a big chocolate cannonball. It's really weird. And then Orco makes some uh chocolate soldiers come to life. So you know, as one does. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:21

I mean, that's the natural response, I would imagine.

SPEAKER_05 24:25

I I I guess so, yeah. Yeah. But tonight, the story that I really want to focus on because this is the origin story of the Eternian Father Christmas, as we're talking about. It is from Masters of the Universe number 20. I do like the cover. It's not very Christmassy, but it's just kind of a cool little cover with the big orb that says Merry Christmas readers that Orco's holding, like a big magic ball of energy or something, and it's got the whole heroic warriors around it. I just thought that was a cool little design. But I mean, nothing super impressive. One thing I did discover is I could never find out who illustrated a lot of these until later on, and it's because they hired it out to a Spanish art firm called uh Selecciones Ilustradas. So no one really knows who worked there at the time. It was just they send in their script, they would get these pages back. And they never designed any characters, they never asked for input. It wasn't like, here's the idea I have for this character. What do you think? Can we tweak it? You know, nowadays there's like a long back and forth before these things get approved. Back then, it was literally just here's a script, okay, here's your drawing.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

Here's $12, go color this for me. Right? We're gonna color this panel.

SPEAKER_04 25:47

Color two a third of it, right? It's like yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

Well, I like on the cover the spend Christmas on eternia. But my favorite thing is on the like I the that orb is fine, it looks like a bobble or something, but in the bottom you put Telator and Hordack. We hate Christmas.

SPEAKER_05 26:04

Well, and I always thought the way they drew Hordack in these in these UK comics was just weird. Yeah. I get it. They're kind of basing it off, some of it was off of uh the toy, some of it was off of just concept art. But he just always looks funny whenever we see him in these pictures. It just it doesn't hold up at all.

SPEAKER_02 26:23

Especially when he and Skeletor are snuggling. It really looks like more of like resting on Kordax's shoulder and for comfort. It's weird.

SPEAKER_05 26:34

Well, we know that Skeletor is a softie for Christmas. So there you have it. Um all right, so let's let's go ahead and get in. So we have the the first page, it's a splash cover. It says welcome, uh excuse me, it's not a splash, it's the the title page, it says welcome young warriors, and talks about seasons, greetings to all my warriors. I hope that you enjoy the special Christmas issue featuring a thrilling and heartwarming seasonal adventure. I don't really know if it's uh that thrilling, but okay. If you do like this issue, look out for the Shira one that we talked about, and then have a good holiday. Don't forget to write, let me know what you think of this issue, and so on and so on. Uh, and then there's like a little thing about uh Orko the Magician. One thing that I thought was cool is that they always include like facts, just unusual facts, and that was kind of their I don't know, I guess educational tie-in. So Strange Universe, they talk about uh the Arctic Circle and things of that nature. So sure, I'm good with that.

SPEAKER_02 27:30

And a really weird explanation of binary coding of components that they can't even count to. Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, yeah. Sure.

SPEAKER_05 27:45

Why not? I I guess if you're trying to explain it to kids, but let's teach them incorrectly just doesn't seem like a good way to go.

unknown 27:53

No.

SPEAKER_04 27:54

I I mean they do it with all sorts of other things. So, you know, I figured that they were like, you know, it's fine. Let's just hand wave it. That's right. Yeah. The ones who want to know will figure it out anyway.

SPEAKER_05 28:04

I'd love to see their explanation for like quantum physics, you know. Like, like let's let's talk Schrdinger's cat and let's see what they how they explain it. But okay, so the story is entitled Joybringer. Uh, I'll I'll nutshell it really quickly. Horak has created like this spell somehow that has caused a fear that he calls it the ice fear, to really get everyone's heart and their emotions, just make them feel down, and it really has been winter for quite a long time, and it's up to He-Man to stop it. That's the nutshell version of it, which he does, spoiler alert. No, is that from uh Narnia? The Lion the Witch in the Wardroom?

SPEAKER_02 28:49

It is, it's actually a song by Switchfoot that they did for Narnia, and it's a really good song. Oh, okay. My joke would have gone over a lot better if y'all knew if y'all knew that reference. Yeah. Sorry. I don't also disappointed in both of you that you don't.

SPEAKER_03 29:03

Well, I I I the movie was not good to me, so sorry. It's not one uh not on my list, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 29:09

He he prefers the uh the 88 version of from the BBC. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 29:15

Okay, we won't get to that. I'm looking forward to the new series.

SPEAKER_05 29:20

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:21

I mean can't be worse.

SPEAKER_05 29:25

If I don't know, if you've seen that uh that BBC version, I shouldn't have spoken.

SPEAKER_04 29:29

I shouldn't have spoken that into existence. It's rough.

SPEAKER_05 29:33

It's it's rough. Yeah. Fine, Jeff. We're not editing. No, very fine. Very little editing tonight. Uh yeah, no, but uh okay. You guys edit? What is editing? Yeah, for real. I just splice in a few things here and there. Now, I wish I'd started that like my first two seasons, so now I'm like going back to my old episodes and re-editing them. And it's I set up a dangerous precedent when I started that third season. It just doesn't I go back and listen to the old ones and I just can't. So anyway, uh that's neither here nor there. We get a nice picture of Castle Grayskull, and it says, Every winter time, Eternia is gripped by ice and snow. This year, the conditions seem to be worse than ever. The ice harder, the cold more chilling, and the snow deeper. I do like the way uh Castle Grayskull looks in the snow, though. You mean not snowy at all?

unknown 30:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:30

Well, I assume it's some sort of magical protection, you know. Yeah. I mean, I can find a way out of this. It's it's it's magic. It's there.

SPEAKER_04 30:39

Yeah. I'm also curious. I I would love to get stills of every location that Castle Gray Skull supposedly is.

SPEAKER_06 30:47

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 30:48

Because here it's like on an isolated hill. Sometimes it's on an empty plane, sometimes it's like there's like trees around. I would love is this like a traveling Castle Grey Skull, kind of like in the new TV show? Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_05 31:00

The Iron Fortress uh in Crawl. It just every day it's in a new spot. I kind of like that idea, actually. But yeah, I mean here, and it's like a nice grassy hill, too. It's uh yeah, looks pretty temperate, honestly. It looks kind of nice. It's it's Texas, right? All around us, and then that's Texas right there. It it's cold, it can't be Texas. Oh, you're right, you're right. Well, the cold missed us, so that's right.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

I like I like Horak just sitting back in his chair, like, hello children.

SPEAKER_05 31:31

With his legs above Well, apparently, one of the things as they got into the later issues, one of the things that these Spanish artists would try to do is throw in more like innuendo and like sexual poses, and then they constantly had to edit them out because Mattel would uh would you know just veto it. So uh I just I find Hordax's position here just rather odd. But of course, like any great villain, he talks to himself and he monologues the whole thing. It's and he says, and I love this here because it's just so ridiculous, it is working. I have gripped all of Eternia in the ice sphere. So the ice sphere, I get is I guess is what he's calling this endless winter that sucks the joy out of people. Hence the title Joy Bringer, because that's what E-Man's gonna do later on.

SPEAKER_06 32:25

What?

SPEAKER_04 32:26

Yeah. Do you know what, Jerry? I think I think that all villains are connected by some sort of weird social network where these are just blogs and vlogs where they like speak them and they go into like the the ecosystem of villains and they kind of brag to each other about what's going on. So they're not really monologuing, right? I like the secret social network that none of us have access to until we become super villains.

SPEAKER_05 32:50

Until we become super villains. Like I'm tempted to become a super villain just so I could read their blogs.

SPEAKER_04 32:55

It's it's invite only, right? So you I mean you have to you have to fail a certain number of times to take something over in order to get access.

SPEAKER_05 33:03

I mean, I think I'd be a terrible villain because like I try my best to be a good guy. So I think I'd be a terrible villain. So I I I'm pretty sure I could fail at villainy really easily. So maybe I could make the list. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 33:16

Maybe so. I don't know. What do you think, Tom? I don't know. Tom, Tom.

SPEAKER_02 33:20

I think it it seems like these villains make it really easy to fail at conquering a superhero. I feel like something I did flip up to.

SPEAKER_05 33:30

I mean, unless you're like Scott from Austin Powers and you're just like, let me go get a gun, we'll shoot him right now. I mean, I think yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 33:39

I think that's it. No, we're gonna tie him up and leave.

SPEAKER_05 33:44

That's right. Uh so Hordax is wandering his halls, of course, and again, speaking his blog entry into existence. Uh and we get a council, and I like that they include lesser-known characters. So we have the sorceress, man at arms, he-man, and moss man, out of all people. And I guess Moss Man's there just because of his connection, you know, like Swamp Thing, his connection to the green. Uh, in this case, it's his connection to the Eternian, excuse me, the Eternian climate. Um, because I don't really know what else Moss Man brings to the table other than that.

SPEAKER_04 34:21

Insulation? Maybe he's insulated, right? He's covered in moss.

SPEAKER_02 34:25

I think he's like, and there's a a lot of moss thrives in cold environments. That's why reindeer are known to eat so much moss. There you go. See, I'm not sure this is a bad thing for Mossman.

SPEAKER_05 34:36

So he's like, hey, it's finally like this is Mossman's time to shine.

SPEAKER_00 34:41

Hey guys, that's Snowfare.

SPEAKER_05 34:45

Uh so they're having like a little pow-wow, and of course, the sorceress confirms yes, everything's magical, and so they decide they're gonna move on. And again, we get the lesser-known characters. We have now Mechanek, which I I always liked Mechaneck, although he does kind of have a dumb power, it's very specific. Yeah, so yeah, it's like it works for recon from and that that's kind of about it.

SPEAKER_04 35:07

Yeah, he's a lesser elastic man or plastic man, but it's fine, yeah, it's what it is.

SPEAKER_05 35:13

And so, and but we get cyclone as well, uh, just floating in the background there. So they're off to the fright zone, which okay, I I guess the sorceress figured out that it was Hordak. How do you detail like Hordax magic science combo from like Skeletor's magic slash sometimes science?

SPEAKER_04 35:35

You're asking too many questions, Judge.

SPEAKER_05 35:37

Well, I'm just I'm curious.

SPEAKER_04 35:38

You're poking holes.

SPEAKER_05 35:40

I want to know where you know how they know this. I mean, I we just have to take the sorcerer's word for it, I guess. But I just I don't know. I'm intrigued.

SPEAKER_04 35:48

So in Castle Gray Skull, there's like countless doors, right? There are so maybe she she peeked through because she has control over what you can see from each one of those. So maybe she just peeked through and was like, all right, where's this crap coming from? It was like, oh, it's it's Hordak. That guy. All right, again, go take care of it, please. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:05

I mean, I'll take any explanation so that works for me just at this point. Because I I really feel like this that's actually kind of a cool storyline. Remember, they we think of like Evil Seed in that filmation episode when he's like taking over all of Eternia with his plants, and then they have to, you know, use ice to freeze him or whatever. But Evil Seed's just taking it all over, and no one can do anything, and they and they have to team up. I mean, I would like to see something like that. That could have been a cool, like, just uh the whole issue just on this one thing, but of course, their restrictions and their kind of demands that it has to be an anthology series, it's just it uh I I mean I get it, but I I think this could have been a really cool story that just we didn't get too much depth in. Um so of course they make their way to the fright zone and they're intercepted by Hordak and his a few members of his evil horde, Leech and who's that, Grizzlore. Grizzlor. And the fight ensues. So I guess this is the thrilling part that they were talking about in the uh in the title. We're we're doing liberal with that.

SPEAKER_04 37:06

Well, it was the last color page, right?

SPEAKER_05 37:08

It is. So that makes it thrilling.

SPEAKER_04 37:12

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 37:13

If you're gonna your second to last color panel should not just be He-Man slicing through ice. That's a really anticlimactic moment to me.

SPEAKER_05 37:23

I agree. Yeah, I definitely agree. Although he does have a an interesting dive at Hordak there. That's a lot better. That's a lot better.

SPEAKER_06 37:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:31

Yeah, they just go like full-on assault, and Hordak seems to try to trap him with like these giant icicles. I don't know. I think Hordak would have been better served if he had turned his arm into a cannon and tried to shoot him.

SPEAKER_04 37:43

You know, or all the ice spears, so he threw spears of ice, but instead of you know throwing them at He-Man, he like made a circle around him with them. Which I guess is a a cool show of force, I guess. I suppose.

SPEAKER_02 37:57

Yeah, why impale the heroes? Yeah. And I really hate that we go through this, Hordax losing, and by the way, they're just gonna teleport to escape, right?

SPEAKER_05 38:09

Like that's like classic He-Man villain, though, right? I feel like like that's Skeletor's move.

SPEAKER_04 38:16

That's the uh the dungeon master who didn't have an escape plan, is like, oh, he teleports away.

SPEAKER_05 38:21

You can't you can't beat the big medieval guy, right? Oh man. Now I want to like play a He-Man, you know, C and D game. I mean, there's gotta be some modules out there somewhere, right?

SPEAKER_04 38:34

There was uh so I think from there there's a there's a couple.

SPEAKER_05 38:42

Oh, okay. Right on. Yeah, yeah. And that's that's why we have you on here to so you can lead this uh for us.

SPEAKER_04 38:49

Uh I yeah, I will I will run a tabletop game for anyone who wants to play He-Man.

SPEAKER_05 38:56

I'm in. Let's do it. Then Hordak, of course, begs for mercy, and uh, but also at the same time, he's like, uh, I'm good. Like, you can't hurt me at all, so peace. And he splits, and he-Man's like, no, no, wait, stay! Like, don't don't go, like, get rid of this thing, and Hordak's just he's gone. But we get to like a very pensive He-Man, it's like hard cut to he's back at Gray Skull or the Palace or somewhere, uh Gray Skull, excuse me, and he's just imagining Hordak and what Hordak is thinking and saying, and how he's done this evil thing. I I mean it's just I like those kind of character building moments, it's just such a weird transition, and it doesn't really play out the way they want it to play out. Of course, as a as if I was reading this as a six-year-old, I would have loved the heck out of it though. So I do have to say that.

SPEAKER_02 39:50

I guess I still think you'd be confused when randomly we just have a hard break and it's like, oh, retention uh what what how's it word? Our attention shifts to a small cabin in the forest of eternity. Like, why? Right? This is like a terrible segue.

SPEAKER_05 40:08

This is like that that Josh Whedon thing where he's always gotta throw in someone on the ground, you know.

SPEAKER_06 40:14

Yes, yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:17

Cut to cut to Russian family, you know, that uh has nothing to do with anything, but yeah, we need the flash to save them.

SPEAKER_02 40:25

So yeah. I like Nicholas. I just wish we'd had a better, softer intro to him.

unknown 40:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:30

So I think what what confused me about this is so He-Man and friends were going to the uh Hordax base, right? And then they got intercepted along the way, and then Hordak teleported away. Well, where did Hordack go? Right where He-Man was going in the first place, but He-Man gave up because he got in a fight, like uh, and he went home.

SPEAKER_05 40:50

Unless he transported to like Ethereum, I have no idea.

SPEAKER_04 40:53

So yeah, so I'm confused. Does He-Man have like a cap on number of fights per day? Like, is this like he's limited to like one? And he's like, ah man. Well, this was my one fight. And he teleported away, so I'm that's right. Yeah, he used up all his stamina. He needs to find his enduro mushro mushroom.

SPEAKER_05 41:12

He-Man quick, avian is under attack. I I can't. Like, I fought, I just fought Hordak. Like, you're gonna have to wait till tomorrow, guy.

SPEAKER_04 41:19

All his spell slots are gone, and he's yeah, he's gotta go.

SPEAKER_05 41:23

We'll have to adjourn and come back with you. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 41:26

Come back into the way, I just I just found that weird. And then so it jumps like, okay, He-Man, he yeah, sure, Hordak teleports away, and then he's sitting there thinking, you know, or reminiscing about his time with Hordak wrestling in the snow, and then suddenly it jumps to a cabin. It's like it's like, wait, we got we gotta leave He-Man's thoughts real quick and get somewhere else.

SPEAKER_05 41:45

Well, and and I love, but the cabin is owned by a man, uh, like a poor farmer, returnian farmer named Nick Las. Nicholas. Oh, get it, Nicholas. That's right. N-I-K-L-A-S, just in case you're a little confused. I mean, that's that's a little on the nose, I think. A little? Yeah, just a tad. Okay. But so he and his daughter, of course, this freeze, they're farmers, so this freeze has been um really messing with them. And his daughter is mute because uh and I don't know if it's because his wife passed away, you know, her mom passed away, but apparently she hasn't spoken. So he's doing everything he can to find food and feed her and keep them warm, but it's so cold, and all this time, by the way, her name is Mouse, which is yeah, a strange name. Like, Mouse. Okay. I mean, like, I get it if that's like a pet name, you know, but no, it's it's mouse. Yeah, good good job, Brian Clark. Um, but yeah, so she can actually she she can't speak, but she does think. She's she's a smart girl, and she just talks about how she doesn't think winter will ever go, and she can understand her dad just fine. And they really they attempt to at least you know bring some sort of emotional engagement in here. So I I do appreciate that.

SPEAKER_04 43:17

Yeah, I mean, the the entire planet freezing to death wasn't emotional enough, so let's like focus on one small family.

SPEAKER_05 43:24

Let's yeah, let's bring the macro into the micro.

SPEAKER_04 43:27

Yeah, yeah, uh sure, yeah. Let's yeah, I zoom in, Joss Whedon thing, right? Yeah, you gotta zoom in.

SPEAKER_05 43:33

Josh Whedon just ripped off Brian Clark everywhere. Uh you heard it here first. I'm gonna spread that around, yeah. So Mouse starts crying because she's very sad for the situation, and uh Nicholas realizes that he's gotta find some sort of food and and or some way to keep them warm. So he tucks her in and off he goes. Meanwhile, he man all this time has been contemplating. Contemplating by himself everything that uh that Horek has done, and suddenly he's surprised. He he just this revelation occurs to him that I know how to how we can get rid of this ice sphere. And I don't know where he came up with this or the logic that brought him to this moment, but his realization is that yeah, okay, maybe man, men's hearts are frozen and they're cold and they're nothing we can do, but what about the children?

SPEAKER_00 44:27

Think of the children. Won't somebody please think of the children?

SPEAKER_05 44:31

So quickly, he and Man at Arms decide to. I don't know if they just find these toys, they buy these dolls, they make these dolls. I don't know how they do it in one night either, but apparently they just come upon a ton of dolls, maybe Orco Magicdom or the Sorceress.

SPEAKER_04 44:49

It was Prince Adam's private collection. I think that's the most obvious answer, right?

SPEAKER_05 44:56

I mean that's gotta be, right?

SPEAKER_02 44:57

That's that's the only thing. You know, and you gotta give him shout-outs. This girl, you know, the dad is doing everything he can just to keep her warm. Like trying to choke this fire as a woodcutter. He doesn't have enough wood to keep her warm. Right. So what are we gonna do? We're gonna help her stay warm. We're gonna give him food, right? We're gonna supply nope. We're gonna see two grown men sneaking into this little girl's bedroom.

SPEAKER_05 45:19

But don't say it like that. It's creepy. It is creepy, yeah. Don't say it like that.

SPEAKER_02 45:23

What if we are smiling at her?

SPEAKER_05 45:24

Hey, little girl, I got a present for you.

SPEAKER_04 45:29

Yeah, it'll bring warmth to her heart, was the quote. Well, rather than warmth to her body or food for her body, here's a here's warmth for your heart.

SPEAKER_05 45:38

That's the only way we're gonna get rid of this ice sphere, man.

SPEAKER_04 45:40

So when your body freezes, your heart will still be warm.

SPEAKER_05 45:44

I love this panel of them with like teddy bears and dolls just like trying to shove them into the sack. It's right, it's weird. He does, yeah. He's he's got a basketball, or so that's what looks like a basketball. But in the background, are those elves or I think they're teddy bears and are they just larger dolls, maybe? I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 46:06

Uh, maybe it was foreshadowing a future enemy. Who knows? I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 46:10

I I can't tell you. Uh but yeah, so they they decide they're gonna leave toys for all the kids of Eternia, and what they end up doing is breaking into uh Nicholas's house and leaving a doll for Mouse, who wakes up the very next morning and is overjoyed. But of course, she wakes up just at the exact moment that her dad Nicholas comes in and is confused. He's like, Look, there's food. Well, so I guess they do bring him food because they did bring food, they did bring food. Yeah, yeah. Come and look, there's food, and we have fuel for our fire. Uh, it's a miracle. And he's like, Wait, what do you what do you got there? Is that a a doll? Where'd you get that? And she says her very first words. Oh, and it's Father Kiss Mouse. Let's say that, let's say that a little faster. Father Kiss Mouse, Father Kissmas, Father Christmas, whoa! Yeah, that's the most ridiculous thing ever, but it's the origin story for Father Christmas on Eternia.

SPEAKER_04 47:15

Uh, you know. Of of the many, many Christmas gift giver character background stories I've ever heard. This one ranks at the very bottom. This is this is the worst. And I had a whole season of these. You did a whole season of these. There's some bad ones. Um, this is bad. Father Kiss Mouse is gonna be number one. This yeah, this is this in the power rankings of turds, this is number one.

SPEAKER_05 47:44

I feel like I don't know, this this just could have gone so much better. Like, there's it's literally a land where magic and science exists, and this is what they come up with Father Kiss Mouse.

SPEAKER_06 47:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 47:57

Okay. Well, and commenting on that, I do want to I do want to talk about this. So, this was an interview that Brian Clark uh did with Aiden Cross, and let's see, it says, uh, we had that really strange one, another Tom Sweetman one. You can't really have Christmas on Eternia, same as you can't have earthquakes, you know, because it's not earthquake. But we wanted to mark Christmas, so Tom Sweetman did this really charming story about this character called Mouse. At the end, we had this thing with her saying Father Kiss Mouse, which gives rise to the idea of a character called Father Kissmas. That was a Tom Sweetman story, and it took us ages to get the right payoff. And that's what uh I wanted to emphasize that he thinks uh this whole thing paid off, and I don't think it did.

SPEAKER_02 48:43

But wow, yeah, he stood by it, huh?

SPEAKER_05 48:46

Yeah, it was a winner. Yeah, and that was back in uh 2017. So all those years later, he he enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_04 48:55

You know what? Be be proud of your stuff, right? You at least he own he owns it, right?

SPEAKER_05 49:00

He owns it, that's true. Well, I don't know, he kind of blames it on this Tom Sweetman guy.

SPEAKER_04 49:04

So oh man, it's like a back-handed compliment, too.

SPEAKER_05 49:08

That's that's right.

SPEAKER_04 49:09

Yeah, we worked really hard for this.

SPEAKER_05 49:11

We had to get this payoff, it took us forever.

SPEAKER_02 49:15

Uh we're so punny.

SPEAKER_04 49:18

I feel I do feel like this was a really big missed opportunity for another Master of the Universe character to come in. Uh I don't know. Maybe just me. Yeah, I mean, it's just it just it's ripe with opportunity.

SPEAKER_06 49:31

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:33

In instead, they have a I mean, don't get me wrong, girl speaking her first words after not freezing to death at night is probably a good thing, but so just in case anybody out there is wondering, uh totally rad Christmas stands strongly opposed to children freezing to death. That's right.

SPEAKER_05 49:52

That's true, that is true, that is true. But you know, we uh only uh if they speak their first words. That's right. Like otherwise it's open. Yeah, yeah, no, no, yeah, but yeah, but anyway, so we get in a panel of everything melting, and um then it cuts to He-Man and Man at Arms, and they're talking about how good they feel breaking into kids' houses and giving them stuff.

SPEAKER_04 50:17

So with a weird wink, yeah, uncomfortable wink.

SPEAKER_05 50:22

It's oof, and then we get Castle Gray School, which again looks like the different terrain has shifted, yeah. But I I have to read this last bit just because it's so ridiculous. Uh, who can say now how joy enters the hearts of children? Tonight, the young of Eternia have found a cause to believe in. You know what happened to destroy the ice sphere, but wherever you go, whatever you do, you must never tell Hordeck. Uh huh. I don't know. I gotta say, I think He-Man and She-Ra, a Christmas special, did it way better.

SPEAKER_04 50:56

Way better. Way better. Yeah. And it was fully color.

SPEAKER_05 51:02

That's a that that just bumps it up a few points automatically.

SPEAKER_04 51:06

Yeah, after 20 minutes, it didn't switch to black and white. Where they forgot to pick the color in, right?

SPEAKER_05 51:14

If they had tried like cutting costs, and just halfway through, like when She was being attacked by like the monstroids, it just it's black and white all of a sudden.

SPEAKER_04 51:22

That's right. Or they down to two voice actors, and that was it, like for or I guess just one, just leave it to one, because it probably was around two voice actors.

SPEAKER_05 51:29

It was, yeah, it's like Lou Shimer and uh and Erica and and then uh he-man. Um, yeah, and then the the other ones in here don't have anything to do with Christmas, it's uh child's play where he-Man and like gonna get his brain switched, and a kid tries to stop him, and no big deal, whatever. We don't we don't have to cover that. I mean, really, the draw was the Christmas story, and even then it's not really a a draw, but yeah, it's just it was an odd little piece here. I really like the He-Man and She-Ra Christmas special. I know again, it's not really good. The song that they sing in there, which I think is called Christmas in Eternia is the official name that Erica Scheimer wrote.

SPEAKER_01 52:39

Christmas season is a time of your hug.

SPEAKER_05 52:45

It's not a great song. You know, I'd put it on a playlist because I'm nerdy like that, but I would probably skip it every time it came on, you know. That's right. Which, you know, sometimes that's my kids, but most of the time it's uh it's not. I don't know. But I I just I think that one's so much better. The story, even though it's still not a fantastic story, it's more cohesive than we got here. Um, we got really I I got a lot of Christmas feels from Skeletor's turn, and I know it's only temporary, you know, like they even say skeletor is only once a year, whatever, but still I just I got more out of that than I did with uh this nice attempt at sentimentality and uh uh where the kid doesn't freeze to death. Rather than the He-Man B and E. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean He-Man B and E. That's like a good punk band name. It is but yeah, no, I just I I love He-Man and I could talk He-Man forever, and I I know we could talk He-Man forever as as a collective here, but I do gotta wonder you know, what would you guys say would be your hap, hap, happiest memory or moment with uh He-Man? And it can be anything He-Man, because there's really not a lot for this story or any of these other comic stories here. So I'm good with just any any He-Man hap happiest memory.

SPEAKER_02 54:19

Man. I'm just gonna tell you right now that those He-Man action figures were the best as a kid. There were they were the best action figures that I had. Yep. They were just sturdy, I could beat the crud out of them together, and they showed no sign of wear. I love those, and then my other memory is of course, you know, having a cat named He-Man.

SPEAKER_04 54:42

Right, right. That's fair. Mine would be Christmas 91. I got uh Castle Gray Skull. And so that was like nice. That was my that that was it because it went with the action figures that I had, and whenever I would go um garage sale shopping with my mom or my grandma, I would pick up any He-Man figures because everybody had like some they were getting rid of, especially in the late 80s, early 90s. So yeah, the action figures were great because you could make up your own super cohesive storylines that weren't hand-wavy and all that.

SPEAKER_05 55:17

I mean, when G.I. Joe and like the Thundercats came in, I don't really know how cohesive my storylines got, but oh, they were intricate, Jerry.

SPEAKER_04 55:25

Don't sell yourself short.

SPEAKER_05 55:27

I secret wars did. We just everybody came in, you know.

SPEAKER_04 55:31

Speaking of Thundercats, uh, slightly off topic. Have you read the crossover He-Man Thundercats comics?

SPEAKER_05 55:38

I haven't, no. I know about them, but I I just I never have. Okay. Are there any good?

SPEAKER_04 55:43

Yeah, okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, they're fun. They're fun. I like fun. So yeah, check it out.

SPEAKER_05 55:48

It's I mean, I feel like it would be typical, you know, hero meets hero battle, and then we're friends and we gotta stop the greater good or the greater evil together.

SPEAKER_04 55:58

Yeah, it's more like a villain swap, but yeah.

SPEAKER_05 56:00

Oh, is it? Oh, okay. Uh all right. Yeah, it's it's fun. Well, I guess that's better than standard.

SPEAKER_04 56:06

It's good to it's good to read once. Once you read it once, you won't go back to it, but it's fun. Kind of like the Masters of the Multiverse. Yep, I'm I'm solid at this point. I don't need to go back.

SPEAKER_05 56:16

Same. I read it, I read it when it came out, and I I just I haven't gone back to it.

unknown 56:19

No.

SPEAKER_05 56:20

Have you have you read that one, Tom? I haven't. Okay, well, I don't want to spoil it for you, but it's kind of like Jet Lee's the one. I don't know if you ever saw that movie. Okay. That's that's kind of where I'll I'll I'll end it for. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:33

Kind of kind of Highlander-ish, kind of a little bit, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 56:36

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's a little bit of that in there as well. So but I mean, yeah, that's great. And I'm actually kind of right there with you. So I said this last time, it's it remains the same. My most favorite memory was uh when I got Castle Greyskull in Christmas of '84, I believe it was. And it was awesome. I mean, it was Castle Gray Skull, and I had a bunch of the figures. Thunder Punch He-Man was was another one of my favorites, you know, and you put the cap in the back, and you know, it'd pop the cap. The they released uh because they're doing the origins figures now, which are like just redesigned, but essentially it's all the old figures and a few surprises here and there, and it doesn't have the cap thing. He's got the big bulky backpack, but there's I mean it's just a backpack he's wearing nothing, it's not, and you know, you I can still smell that that smell of the the gun little gunpowder essentially. That's right. You know, it's uh yeah, I I miss that.

SPEAKER_02 57:32

So are you also telling us that Christmas has just been downhill ever since then, too? Nothing's been as good as Christmas morning.

SPEAKER_05 57:39

Well, I did get Voltron in '85, so that was pretty awesome too.

SPEAKER_04 57:43

All right, that's fair.

SPEAKER_05 57:44

But then, uh, but then yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:47

No, it's giant robots are hard to beat.

SPEAKER_05 57:49

Giant robots are pretty hard to beat, yeah. But uh Castle Great Skull was was fantastic. So I mean, I can't it is it was like the pinnacle the pinnacle of 80s toys right there, you know.

SPEAKER_03 58:01

Agree.

SPEAKER_05 58:01

Yeah. Uh but now we come to my favorite part of the show, which is a little segment I like to call Gag Me with the Spoon. So this is where we do our best impression of our least favorite part of this comic. Voices are encouraged, but uh, since it's nothing really to copy, you know, uh let's get creative with it and see where we can go. Uh as a guest, I'll let you go first, just kind of set up the scene and and uh see what we what terrible dialogue we got.

SPEAKER_02 58:25

I don't need to set up the scene. But I am gonna have a face and everything to go with it for y'all.

SPEAKER_04 58:36

I'm gonna have nightmares of this.

SPEAKER_05 58:42

I feel like I need to put that as I'm gonna cut that and and make it my ringtone. And uh anytime you text or call me.

SPEAKER_04 58:51

Yeah, this has become a not safe for work podcast at this point, Jerry.

SPEAKER_05 58:56

Yeah, totally rad after dark.

SPEAKER_04 58:58

That's right.

SPEAKER_05 59:00

Oh my goodness, sorry.

SPEAKER_04 59:02

I would say mine is uh He-Man. Okay, so I'm setting it up. He-Man has just um sliced through some ice spears and tackled Hordak and wrestled in the snow, and then Hordak magically teleports away, and He-Man says, Stay, Hordak! You must remove the ice spear. Joe must be returned to Eternia. And I'm not gonna chase you any further because this is it for me today. This is it. I I met my quota.

SPEAKER_02 59:31

I can't my stamina was gone. My stamina needs to be.

SPEAKER_04 59:40

I think so.

SPEAKER_05 59:40

Yeah, let's roll a perception check for that. See where Hordak went. Um, yeah, so I mine's actually from that same panel or just about, uh, and so same thing. Um actually, I think anyway, either way, He-Man Hordack come face to face, and He-Man says, What evil you have created a sadness across the land that even I may never lift. So it's uh okay. Sure. I don't know. It's just it's so stilted and clunky. It really is very cheesy. But what's not cheesy is uh, you know, the G.I. Joe taught us knowing is half the battle. What do you guys think is the other half?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:22

You know, I would say the other half is uh breaking and entering and dropping off toys in children's bedrooms will magically cure the environment, right? That's the other half of the battle.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:33

Yeah, knowing if knowing half of the battle, the other half is not freezing to death.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:39

That's that's a huge portion of the battle there, yeah. Uh and I'm kind of along there with you. So if uh knowing's half the battle, the other half is getting rid of the Christmas blues by playing Santa. Sure. There you go. I like it. Uh guys, it's been fun. Uh, it's been a terrible comic, but it's been fun talking to you about this terrible comic.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:00

Most definitely.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:01

Tell me about like your shows. Uh, you know, what else? What do you want to plug? What do you got coming up?

SPEAKER_04 1:01:06

I'll I'll jump in. So uh this season I've got a new website coming out. Um, more lost years of Santa Claus stories for those that that enjoy it. Uh and uh maybe maybe a few guests on this season. I don't know. I'll be real. I sometimes I sometimes just like to hear myself talk, so I don't I don't always get guests on the show. Um uh so but but yeah, so uh Lost Christmas podcast, please check us out. Uh I and uh obviously I'm I'm on pretty much all the podcast networks, right? Uh so so you can find it pretty much anywhere. Are you going to be including Father Kismus in your I'm probably gonna do at some point a power ranking of worst Christmas um origin stories? Okay, this will be there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:50

As long as Jerry's that I give you permission to use my audio. I'll cut it now, I'll send it to you.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:55

Yeah, yep. That's yeah, that's gonna be my uh my my what was it, the ring back tones that they used to have back in the day when someone called you it played instead of a ring. Yeah, so that's gonna be it, Tom.

unknown 1:02:06

Hello.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:09

Right on. I've got a couple podcasts you can check out. You've all heard Tiz the Podcast, the podcast that's determined to keep the Christmas spirit alive 365 days a year. Check us out at linktree.com slash tis the podcast or wherever you get your podcast. And once every two weeks, we pick up where Jerry left off, and a high school friend of mine and I discussed the music that made our our high school years, the awesome 90s music. Uh so it's a retrospective 90s music review podcast.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:41

Yeah, very cool. Love it. So I think in all of the 90s, my favorite was probably the gin blossoms. I think that's kind of where I land on the 90s music. Gin Blossoms and Metallica were like my two favorites, as weird as that is. But that's that's kind of that's a weird combo, but I think I mean I like music, so it is what it is. But did you say that that song was by Switchfoot?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:07

I was wrong, it's Reliant K. Oh, okay. Okay. So I apologize if I was misspoken. It's from the Reliant K Let Us Know Let It Rain Dear album.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:16

Oh, yeah. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:18

I think I have that album, maybe. I I sent y'all a link to the song now and uh recommend the whole the whole album.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:26

Right on. I'll check I'll check it out. I'll definitely check it out. Yeah, yeah. Right on, guys. Well, again, let me say thank you. This was fun, and I needed it today.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:38

Thanks, Jerry.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:39

And I'll end it with if I can give the children something to believe in, then the ice sphere will melt. So check us out on our social media pages, Facebook and Instagram at totally rad Christmas, Twitter at rad Christmas, Mastodon at Totally Rad Christmas at mastodon.world, blue sky at radchmas.dsky.social, or our Facebook group, totally rad Christmas Mall and Arcade, where you can make your voice known to us as well. We post anything and everything 80s or Christmas related. And if you're feeling like the young of Eternia, finding a cause to believe in, leave us a review on iTunes. It helps us reach more people and spread some rad holiday cheer. Now don't forget to check out our merch shop on tpublic.com and our super dope website, totally radchmas.com, courtesy of this gentleman, the tis a podcast elf, Tom Crow. Thank you again for that, by the way. Seasons greetings to all my warriors. Later, dudes.