Friday, January 20, 2012

SKELETOR'S NEW ORIGIN & DEMO-MAN


So here's something about SKELETOR I recently discovered and found.... interesting...

After I stopped paying attention to HE-MAN (ya know, when I grew up & became super mature) Mattel began mucking with various backstories. Suddenly SKELETOR's orgin was that he was once KELDOR, older brother to RANDOR (the Burger King dude).
Sigh, ok...

Now, in the early days of creating 'The Masters of the Universe', the main villain was called "DEMO-MAN". He was green and had a skull-ish face and looked like the King of the Dead from 'Lord of the Rings'...As Mattel developed the concept that would become the toyline, Demo-Man was replaced with a different character named 'Skeletor'. This tidbit of trivia survived through the Underground Nerd Network for decades and became Legend. So much so, that Mattel then brought Demo-Man into the Mythos.....

So now Skeletor's Origin includes this - one day Randor throws acid into Keldor's face! Keldor goes crying to his mentor, the evil HORDAK... who is stuck in another dimension called "DESPONDOS"... but is still able to "help" poor Keldor somehow. To "save" Keldor, Hordak merges him with an extra-dimensional being called DEMO-MAN. Merged, the two beings formed SKELETOR. Think "Ghost Rider" (Johhny Blaze merged with the demon Zarathos).

So there you have it - that's now the official origin of Skeletor, according to Mattel. Skeletor just got less cool for you, didn't he? Bah. BAH I SAY!

*I might not have all this 100% straight... if so, please let me know!
**Special thanks to Fwoosh, who helped fill-in some information while researching this.
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BONUS PIC
: Custom re-design Demo-Man figure

5 comments:

what ever.... said...

yes, that is farging lame,..please for the love that is all Holy,..EVERYONE,..everyone,...stop trying to "pull a Lucas", and re-tell, rec-con, and tie every flaming thing together in a neat little bow. the toys have gone in a crazy different direction than the original awesome Frazetta esc one shots that came out with the original line ( series 1)back in the day.....( well what ever.... not really my generation anymore...so go for it Mattel..)

http://www.he-man.org/publishing/item.php?id=296

SiMo Sol said...

Well I like it more than the pure Keldor-Randor storyline because it combines the "original awesome Frazetta" thing with the modern storyline. The other dimension thing has even already been told in "he-Man and the Power Sword", the comic you have shown. They just expanded it to match the modern storyline. ;) So... Best what they could do IMO.

Jim said...

I liked it better when Skeletor was just an evil sorcerer-barbarian that He-Man would fight. Pre-Cartoon era He-Man rocked!

Anonymous said...

i refuse to acknowledge anything outside of the Dolph Lundgren movie. hey, a purist is a purist nonetheless, regardless of how so, right?

:-/

actually, seriously, what REALLY sucked as a "re-tell" was BATTLESTAR GALLACTICA. the new one is RIDICULOUS crap compared to the old-school stuff, yet people seem to love it? what a joke.

D. said...

skeletor will always be cool B)