Very cool read Jason..and quite informative, as I had no idea of the existence of the half of what you discussed there, but am certainly interested in the Minternia comics.

I was never a huge fan of the MOTU series as a kid because of the reasons you described...but did like the more modern, aggressive style of the 200x Toon.

These comics however, seem to be the cat's ass and I plan to try and track them down.

Well done sir..you've sparked my interest in a line I only had limited interest in, based on cool looking figures alone.

Good read sir, nice stache

Ugh, makes me rethink (not really) trying to get rid of the MOTUC stuff. I will always have fond memories of my old 80s toys, the cartoons, the comics, everything I had surrounding that and even the 200x line was fun for me. MOTUC tho has been bumpy, yeah they are just toys. Guess I will fall under "cherry picker" category for now, but will always love the toys in my mind?

The comics are online at that usual He-Man site.

I remember these comics fondly from my childhood so I took a quick look last night. The early ones seem to have stood the test of time. I didn't look at any of the later ones. I see that some of of the ideas from the new bio based continuity (which is a mess in my opinion) came from comics. For example, the comic for the Eternia playset is titled Ultimate Battleground.

I never had a name to put to the Conan-esque version of He-man I preferred and now I do I first encountered He-man at Hamley's in London, when I was 5. Didn't know who they were but my parents got me He-man and Teela anyway. They came with the Alcala mini books so that was my first impression of the series. I used to read Marvel's Conan so I loved them that way. Later when I finally saw the animated series I thought it was rubbish.

JJ you missed out the DC comic mini-series. It was very close to the universe set up by Glut / Alcala, but added the Price Adam element. Yes, it got stoopid once Clark showed up...

What's the origin of the name Mineternia?

There's a link to the site that coined the term in my article.

-JJJ

I always wanted to mix and match continuities, myself. Which is why I started writing a fan script years ago that I never finished.

For me, the mini-comics pretty much defined it. I was aghast when I finally saw the cartoon and realized how silly they made it, but I've revisited it lately and actually appreciate it more. I don't like how terrifying-looking villains like Hordak and Skeletor are portrayed as idiots, and everything He-man does is a deus ex machina based on him being stronger than anyone expects. I thought the MYP cartoon did a good job leveling all that out, jettisoning the sillier aspects, removing earth from the equation and coming up with a coherent continuity. Yes, there were some blatant product-placement episodes, like the one with the Samurai Armor - and yes, the way Serpos is defeated by the sudden revelation that He-Man's sword can split open and shoot green lasers is as awful as anything Filmation. But in general, I could tell the folks that wrote that show were on my similar wavelength as far as what worked and what didn't.

NEVER dug POP continuity. The figures and the mini-comics told me Hordak was the most evil being in the universe, from a wasteland of a planet. Then the cartoons tell me no, he's from the pretty planet of princesses, and he answers to something called Horde Prime. In my continuity, She-Ra was killed by him very swiftly.

Don't get me started on madame Razz. I hope she's a con exclusive so I don't have to get her in a subscription.

Would like to see where Miniternia could have gone, but I also love several late-gen characters like Rio Blast, and even some of the NA figures (never saw that cartoon). The Star comics had their own continuity, which was pretty fun.

200X was about as good as it got, for me, from a storyline standpoint.

As a collector that pays $9 for shipping of a figure to take 2+ weeks to get to my house, I cannot wait for the day that, roughly, the last 6-7 characters I want are released. For me, saying good bye to Mattel will be a sweet dream come true. Being increasingly forced into a subscription that is not run effeciently and has WAY too much unwanted variety doesn't help either. Anyone else remember Mattel telling us just wait and see what 2012 holds? So far it looks just about the same as previous years, except a larger selection of unwanted characters. So to that end I'll be a cherry picker, no matter the additional cost (I save a lot more money this way not having to buy the unwanted characters) until Mattel makes the final error and starts skimping on quality. For me, the quality of the figure is the only thing holding the line together.

Just curious - aside from the original characters in the optional 30th line, who are the unwanted characters for you?

This is the first year I've bought a sub, and have been pretty happy with the selection. I don't like the Star Sisters, but thankfully my girlfriend does. Didn't like Snake MAA at first, but with the new parts he's more acceptable. Horde Prime I will treat as a variant Hordak, as he looks to have a similar face hidden inside.

And I'm okay with Frosta, surprisingly.

I really really want Rio Blast, though. And I hope they can gimmick the figure up appropriately if/when they do him. Don't care about Ram man as the 200X version works fine and is almost in scale if you go by Filmation scale, where he was shorter than He-Man.

I am clearly a Mineternian.

I was in the grip of D&D mania when MOTU came out and I thought Masters was the answer to my love of action figures, RPGs, Conan and Flash Gordon. To me, MOTU was ONLY the Alcala mini-comics - Skeletor was just one of a race of Skeletors. He-Man (which wasn't even his real name - we didn't know what that barbarian's name was) got his powers and weapons from a green sorceress and the battle was waged over who could fit the two swords halves together.

About a year into my MOTU collecting, I quit. High school was coming and the fact that I despised the Filmation stuff so much I gave all my original figures, vehicles and playsets to my younger brother - never to look back. I can't say I'm a huge MOTU fan (although I did lobby for it really hard when I worked at THQ who held the license) but I liked it enough to live on that planet of sword and sorcery for a year.

2008 was the best year, but here is my list of unwanted characters:
1. The goddess
2. Adora
3. Wundar
4. Tytus
5. She-Ra
6. Gygor
7. King Grayskull
8. Preternia He-man
9. Catra
10. Battleground Teela
11. Merleena and Cringer
12. Megator
13. Snout Spout
14. Swiftwind
15. Bubble power She-Ra
16. Battleground Evil-Lyn
17. Hurricane Hordak
18. Demo-man
19. Star Sisters
20. Sorceress - I'd only buy her if she was included in a Castle of Greyskull playset
21. Fearless Photog
22. Shadow Weaver
23. Thunderpunch He-man - The only reissue of He-man I'd buy is 200X Snake Armor He-man
24. Slushhead
25. probably Horde Prime (I'll have to see the reviews)
26. Snake Man-At-Arms
27. Frosta
28. Temple of Darkness Sorceress
29. possibly Sir Laser Lot (I'll have to see the reviews)

In 2012, out of the roughly 18 "new" characters shown so far only 5 are core MOTU figures and one of them is the Sorceress, which I don't want. That's about 28%, which just isn't enough for me to buy a sub, especially given this was the year branded to knock our socks off.

For me, once I get the following, I'm definitely out of MOTUC for good:

1. Two Bad
2. Rio Blast
3. Ninjor
4. Tung Lasher
5. Rattler
6. Clamp Champ
7. Ram man
8. Mechaneck
9. Horde Trooper
10. Mantenna
11. Modulok

Honestly, if quality falls at all, Twobad, Ram Man and Mechaneck will be the only three I buy from that list.

I appreciate what Mattel has finally done for MOTU, truly I do, but like I said before, they just have too much going against them (for me) to give the line my full support. The DCU sub would have been a slam dunk for me, but they poorly mishandled that as well. I'd be interested in knowing how many certified project management professionals they have working on these subs.

That all said, I'm happy to have the MOTUC figures that I do, so thanks Mattel.