Castle Greyskull

I had a look through my Masters of the Universe toys HERE way back in October and promised then to do a video of my Castle Greyskull, sorry it took me so long but here it is at last. I've not watched any other videos of Castle Greyskull but I think the condition of mine is pretty good, other than it being dusty as heck and a little handle broken off of the sentry gun. I realise as well that the Castle set came with a weapons rack complete with weapons which I know I have in a bag with the action figures.

The 1st Castle Greyskull action set came in 1982, I am not sure how many versions there were and which set I have but I would guess I got this one around about 1983/84, so I'm guessing it's of the 1st set and the other set never came until the 2002 relaunch.

In the lore of Masters of the Universe King Greyskull is Prince Adam's ancestor, in his time the castle was very different and was a centre of great knowledge known as the Hall of Wisdom. In a cataclysmic final battle defending his kingdom and all of Eternia from Hordak, the bottomless abyss that surrounds the castle was created. After King Greyskull's death the Hall and it's secrets were left in the care of his advisers, the Elders, who foresaw a great coming evil but also prophesized He-man. They concentrated their power to create the Orb of Wisdom and stored it and Greyskull's Sword of Power in the Crystal Chamber which is hidden underneath a secret trapdoor. They turned the Hall into Castle Greyskull to scare away intruders and protect the Orb.

By Prince Adam's time the Castle is largely forgotten and is inhabited by the Sorceress and a rarely seen, mysterious Spirit of Greyskull. We see Man-at-Arms lead Prince Adam to the castle where he receives Greyskull's Sword and this has "The Power" to turn him into He-Man. Skeletor and his forces of evil seek to get into the Castle to steal the powerful secrets housed there so he will be able to conquer Eternia.

In the 1987 live-action movie The Masters of the Universe, Skeletor finally takes the Castle and captures the Sorceress, forcing He-Man, Man-at-Arms, Teela and a Thenorian locksmith called Gwildor to flee through a portal to Earth. They are aided by a teenage couple and a police detective in finally defeating the forces of evil. One of those teenagers was Courtney Cox of Friends, Scream fame in a very early role.

In November 2012 a new character was created. to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the toys 1st launch there was a create a character competition and the winning entry was for Castle Greyskullman!! I don't own this toy, in fact I'd never even heard of it but looking at this picture it is one sweet action figure!

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Nextflix Reviews - The Toys that Made Us

Want to know what to 'watch next' on Netflix? Check out my Nextflix Reviews

Here's an interesting documentary about the creation and lives, (not sure if that's the right word?), of various great toys from history that you may well have owned and loved. Who invented them, how they were marketed, all kinds of history comes out about them. Some of them were short lived successes that blazed brightly and then faded away. Others have lasted over half a century and we learn how they've developed over the years and managed to maintain their popularity. The series is 8 episodes split into blocks of 4. The 1st 4 parts came out December 2017 with the next 4 coming in May 2018.

So far we've learned the origin stories of Star Wars, Masters of The Universe, Barbie and G.I. Joe and coming up we're getting the lowdown on Lego, Transformers, Hello Kitty and Star Trek toys. I can't say I remember any Star Trek toys particularly, perhaps they are running low on toys to feature but apparently not as there is a season 2 in the works already. So some of these toys I never played with or liked but it's still cool to meet the people behind the product and hear their story and quite often there are a few surprises. Who'd believe how cut-throat the world of Barbie could be?

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DC Exhibition: Dawn of Super Heroes

So, I'd seen the ads, I'd seen people's posts about it on Facebook and I decided that I had to go and see it for myself, so off I jolly well trotted to the O2 at North Greenwich at 12 O'clock today to go and see the DC heroes on display. And jolly glad I am that I did cos it was fab. 

Click to enlarge

The venue was pretty quiet today which was nice, I could take my time poring over all the cool vintage art from 80 years of comics action. All the great names I knew from my collecting days and even a fair few I'd not heard of were on display. I was fascinated with the way it was put together with annotations in the borders and with the lettering and page banners etc all applied on top of the drawn page. You could see the alterations made as well and penciled guidelines. 

I love the older comics with their hokey stories and dated notions of romance, they have a kind of naive innocence of a bygone era that always tickles me.

If you are more interested in the movies rather than their source material then you shouldn't be upset as there are a wealth of props, models, costumes, concept art and storyboards from all the DC hero films and even some focus on the old 60's and animated Batman shows. The display rooms were divided by characters with focus on the more recent crop of movies. So Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad & The Justice League all got plenty of coverage. I would have liked a Green Lantern dedicated room as well but with the unfair negative feedback that movie got there was no chance of that!

Upon entering the exhibition you can get an audio exhibition guide which was easy enough to use and gave some fascinating insight into the comics world. My only real gripe was the lighting which was very muted. The info plaques were black with the white text on them in pretty small font and it made them hard to read. I also missed a load of the audio guide number prompts probably due to the lack of light also. (Although I am not sure if that was the fault of the light's dimness or my own!) Perhaps I was too enraptured by the art to notice the numbers.

Another small gripe but probably only specific to old bums with flat feet like me was that there could've been a few more seats to park weary butts in for a while.

Anyway, in summary I thoroughly enjoyed my couple of hours and thought it was excellent value for money. If it sounds like your cuppa tea the exhibit runs till September the 9th. 

Click HERE for more info.

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Classic Toys - Royal Mail stamp set

Masters of The Universe

I had a rummage in my loft and found some treasures I had not played with in years, perhaps even decades! Check out the video

This video says it all really :)

I will add more detail here though as I remember it.

I was in the USA for the World Speedway Championship in 1982 it was being held in America for the 1st time at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The American Bruce Penhall won the title and I remember being incensed cos we thought he cheated and that Englishman Kenny Carter should have been the winner. I have found a video of the meeting here from YouTube, I need to watch it again myself for sure. Perhaps I'll see little me in the crowd somewhere!!

We had two weeks travelling on a coach around Arizona, California and Nevada. I had my 13th birthday whilst we were there although I was pretending to be a year younger so we got a cheaper ticket haha my dad's a cheeky chappie lol

We saw the Grand Canyon, the Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, (I was too young to gamble!! or drink but I had a few cans of Coors!), San Francisco (I never knew about the Bay Area thrash scene although this might have been a bit too early for it!), saw the prison at Alcatraz, Ripley's Believe It Or Not and loads of other great sites.

I am sure it was right at the end of the holiday that we went to a Toys R Us, I don't think the stores had arrived in the UK yet, I am sure that the Masters of the Universe toys that I bought there hadn't either as I had never seen them before. I picked up Man-at-Arms cos he is by far the coolest looking dude and Beast Man as he's a good feral looking villain. I played with them on the plane all the way home.

After that I collected as many of the figures as I could, getting them for birthdays and Christmas. I was probably too old for action figures, all my mates had grown out of them but I didn't want to. I remember thinking that growing up sucked and once you stopped 'playing' life would be a joyless thing. I did 'grow out' of them eventually but I also proved myself right. Never give up your play time, being an adult sucks!!

If you want to reject your adulthood and rekindle your imagination through the medium of Masters of The Universe then check out this link for some great stuff that you can pick up.

Masters of The Universe

I remember the cartoons came later to UK television and I was never a fan, I had already created my own stories, mythos, pantheon whatever for my toys and the cartoon version was decidedly not for me. It felt childish to me, I was probably 14/15 by then and it felt like they were aimed for a much younger audience. I still watched them but with the teenage arrogance that my MOTU world was better than the cartoon canon.

I imagine that it would be like the old Batman 60's TV show, as a kid I LOVED it, it was THE best. I would bristle with excitement knowing it was coming on and stare rapt at the TV then await feverishly the resolution of the cliffhanger on the next show. Then as a surly and wiser(?!) teen I saw the Batman movie again and watched slack jawed, amazed, astounded at how absolutely rubbish it was. I berated younger me for ever thinking it was cool. "Bat Shark Repellent Spray" I seethed?! For an obviously plastic prop shark! Young me was an idiot!! I think teen me was like that with the MOTU cartoons, they came at the wrong time for me to appreciate them with childish wonder and awe. Like the Batman cartoons though I am able to appreciate them with an older head. Yes they are twee and camp and daft and totally unbelievable as stories and characters but that becomes charming and fun and quirky and downright enjoyable as you get past your teen angst and are able to grasp their simplistic charm. I used to have the old 60's Batmobile, I think I sold it in the end on Ebay. As a young adult I wanted room for other things, booze, girls, gigs, whatever... I wish I still had it now cos it was damned cool!

After the TV series came the live action film, I was kind of excited as after the cartoons I thought a live action film would be grittier, harder, with more action & violence. It had Dolph Lundgren in it who was bad to the bone as Ivan Drago in Rocky IV. It wasn't too terrible but as an 18 year old, wanting to pretend to be mature and grown up (whilst still playing with toys) I was not impressed. Again as an older person, less angry, less hungry for experience, less hormonal maybe, I can appreciate it for what it is and am quite keen to check out the re-make which is in development and is slated for a 2019 release.

If you can't wait til then why not check out the 1987 version again, or even the cartoon versions.