Inspired by He-Man.org’s Roast Gooble Dinner podcast, welcome to PGPoA’s latest MOTUC Bio Discussion!
Battle Armor He-Man Bio
Real Name: Adam of the House Randor
To adapt to new enemies and situations, Adam has learned to tap further into the great power that his sword unlocks. The combined Power of the Universe and the Knowledge of the Elders is called upon by Adam and channeled through the Sword of He to create new forms of armor and weapons to combat evil. His Battle Armor was created to protect He-Man during his early battles with Skeletor and his evil warriors. Using the Power of Grayskull, He-Man — The Most Powerful Man in the Universe, is now shielded by his mighty Battle Armor!
Portrait Art Source: Vintage Marketing Art
[Poe’s Note: I copy the quoted text for these bios directly from the Mattycollector website. So apparently, they added the bit about “channeling through the Sword of He” after the figures went to production.]
There’s not really a whole lot to discuss here. The notion of He-Man’s armor adapting to new threats and situations comes from the Millennium cartoon. In one episode, He-Man had to go to a polar region, covered in snow; when Adam transformed into He-Man, he found himself wearing Ice Armor instead of his traditional armor. Later, when the Snake Men became the greatest threat to Eternia, Snake Armor He-Man came to its defense.
I like the idea of incorporating He-Man’s other armors in to this concept. As I’ve often said, I generally dislike non-iconic versions of figures, but several of the He-Man guises (including Ice Armor, Battle Armor and Snake Armor) are exceptions. Working the change into the “story” is even better.
This is a fairly short bio, and I don’t really have any more thoughts to offer. How about you?
Dead Man Walking
I think I'd rather that the armor just be some enchanted relic formerly in the possession of King Grayskull.
The line, "…is used by Adam to imagine and create new…" seems to Green Lantern-y to me.
BTW, your text box doesn't accurately reproduce the bio card.
Poe
@Dead Man Walking: The text box is copied directly from Mattycollector.com. I guess they added the bit about the Sword of He later on.
FakeEyes22
Even a toy package cannot hide from the Retcon Monster!
Yeah, it works. Simply pointing out that his gear changes based on circumstance explains why he doesn't throw away his standard harness.
It's intetesting that the armor is now meant for his early battles, until he was experienced enough to be more naked. If he saves the day several times he racks up enough XP to level up to full frontal nudity I guess.
Maybe the early use if the armor is meant as a similarity to the mini-comics' harness being a force-field.
Chad B.
I normally don't care enough to mention typos but that "Adam of the of House Randor" is really getting to me, is that really how it was on the packaging?
Other than my obnoxious nitpicking, I do like how they incorporate the armor as part of the power of Greyskull. Seems like an easy out, but it works well enough.
Poe
@FakeEyes22: Yeah, one of the inevitable take-aways from this idea (which, let's remember, was really introduced in the Millennium era), is the question of whether He-Man's "normal" outfit is also a response to the "basic" threat of Skeletor. Presumably the suit ups the ante whenever necessary, such as when Skeletor shows up in Battle Armor, or with a Dragon Blaster, or Laser Light, etc.
Lemonjuice McGee
In the bio, I'm down with the armor adapting to new threats. However, I would have liked it more if this armor came after Skeletor's forces were getting tougher, like it did in the original line.
It makes sense that he'd need more protection when first learning how to fight, I just prefer it the other way.
dayraven
@FakeEyes22: then's it's not just He's Sword you'd need to fear!
i must say, that new sentence fragment does help a bit. it's a nifty way to make the story fit the "necessary" crapload of reduxes.
Fakeeyes22
@Poe
Yeah, I suppose the basic harness is still considered standard. I was reading it as the Battle Armor being his first outfit, like training
gear, but I'm probably reading into it. I can imagine the possibilities if this were to get even more out of hand at retail than 200X. Whiplash Defense Armor: He-Man/Whiplash head swap and so on. He never gets pants though.
@Chad B.
The punctuation typo on Whiplash's bio is more maddening to me than any that defies story or logic. It's got the word "year's" as a possessive, when it should be a plural "years." Simple mistake, but I see that goof online so often that it is beginning to hurt my nerdy soul.
Mysterious Stranger
I didn't know that bit about He-Man getting the armor based on what conditions he was fighting in (ice armor in the cold etc). That makes the bio on this particular armor more interesting to me. Also makes me really really want an Ice Armor He-Man.
Here's an interesting thought. MOTUC BA He-Man doesn't come with a Power Sword. The Sword supposedly creates the armor for He-Man. What if the Sword BECAME the armor? That would explain why the figure doesn't come with a sword. Yeah its a lame retcon but kinda cool too I think.
Thrawn
I'm fine with this bio. The notion that the power of Grayskull does more than just give He-Man his strength is a good idea to me.
It also makes Skeletor's battle armor potentially more interesting to me as well. He-Man just gets his from Grayskull. Skeletor probably has to make his with a combination of dark magics and metal works. I like the idea of Skeletor forging his, almost like Sauron from LOTR.
I'm still irked that BA He-Man didn't come with a sword though.
Give me Snake armor He-Man and a 200x variant and I don't need any more He-Man variants. Possibly Ice armor.
Fakeeyes22 wrote:
That's hilarious. Bravo, sir. Bravo.
Mose
I really liked the ice and snake aroars. The snake armor in particular I'd like to see get a figure down the line.
Reilly
Ice Armor: As cool as Ice-Armor He-Man is, I think it's amusing that the Power of Grayskull tried to protect him from cold by giving him armor that still left him half-naked.
This BA bio is okay, though I prefer the version that Man-At-Arms built the Battle Armor (as it was told in the European comics and audio plays).
I also wouldn't have minded if BA He-Man was revealed to be Prince Adam's look when he wielded the electronic Power Sword while searching for both halves of the real Sword of He. Being weaker and more vulnerable during that time would have explained why he needed such an armor (and BA He-Man looks quite cool with the 200x sword).
Noteworthy is that He-Man's regular harness already was described as the "techno vest", which according to the first-ever minicomic creates a force-field around him for protection. One's gotta guess that his Battle Armor serves as protection against fatal sword blows while the regular vest only protects against energy rays.
But then, I gotta agree with the others questioning why he bothers wearing his regular suit at all. Let's take the Thunder Punch and Flying Fists dresses, which were given to him by the Sorceress to increase his strength. Why should Adam run around as regular He-Man at all instead of summoning his Battle Armor and the extra powers all at the same time?
That's why I prefer the idea that He-Man's look changes through the years, with the regular dress depicting him in his early adventures before getting the Battle Armor, followed by the Thunder Punch and Flying Fists powers up to the Laser-Light dress (which in my personal canon was bestowed upon him the the powers of the Central Tower) before he travelled through space.
Snarf! Snarf!
The way I see Battle Armor, Flying Fists, and Thunder Punch is as temporary boosts or upgrades from the Powers of Grayskull (overlords of Trolla) to aid He-Man depending on the situation. BA Excels at Defense, Flying fists is for Speed and dexterity while T-Punch is pure power.
as I said before I see them as temporary boosts, they are not meant to last too long. The "Absolute defense" of the BA makes He-Man completely immune to ANY attack, but this increased defense must come with a side effect. (Loss of speed and strenght come to mind.)
The "damage" on the Armor is a visual cue of the Armor's effect weakening over time. When it's super power was drained the armor behaves like a normal armor, hence the damage. (though the armor has techno/magickal properties that allow it to repair itself after being damaged.)
Why would the "absolute defense" have a time limit? (It's a failsafe from the Overlords to avoid over using the power of the sword of He and leaving their champion in a far weaker state. Just imagine He-Man using ALL of thepower on the BA just to Reach Skeletor to suffer a full power down and turn into Adam before facing the Overlord of Evil.) The same can be applied to the other upgrades. I used the blast caps as reference of the Super powered mega punches that He-Man had left.
I was more inspired by Japanese sentai shows and anime. (the power upgrades from many sentai shows including those transformed into Power Rangers, Ultraman, etc.) not videogame upgrades…
This idea allows Skeletor to get upgrades as well. Thanks to the MOTUC bio and adding the merging of Demo-Man and Keldor I have a new power source for the evil armors.
Skeletor can "borrow" Demo-Man's power and get his armors too!
Poe
@Snarf! Snarf!: I definitely like the idea of the Battle Armor coming with some sort of price–i.e., costing He-Man some of his strength. It would explain why he wouldn't just use it all the time.
The idea that it only lasts a certain amount of time depending on how much damage it's taken is cool, too.
dayraven
of course, if we consider that He Man gets his wonderful toys from grayskull and his own imagination (levar burton would be proud), then where does skeletor get his? or at least, why are skeletor's upgrades as seemingly powerful as the oft-desired but never acquired PoG? skellie seems to get a cool upgrade every time he man does, which not only violates the necessity for the upgrade (power creep is universal, so no one gets net boost), but makes it again seem as though the Power of Grayskull isn't really that much of a boon to skeletor.
it's kind of like, if i had to sleep with 100 hot rich women in order to bed paris hilton… if i could bed 100 hot rich women, what the hell do i need paris for?
BTW, this leads to another observation, that king hsss is either absolutely the baddest ass in the mythos or the chumpest… why? cuz he didn't get an upgrade. now, some could blame this on timing, and it's true, he always came at the end of a cycle (which scares me for feb, but oh well) but he-man, skeletor, and hordak got upgrades… and in Mo2K, so did MAA. so does this mean hsss is too cool and powerful to need an upgrade, or is he too much of a chump to be worth one (like the un-upgraded peons?)
Reilly
@ dayraven:
I wouldn't be surprised if Hiss gets an "upgrade" in the MotU Classics line through a bonus figure with some new parts taken from the 200X design.
Errrm, I mean, "influenced by his modern look". Yeah, that's probably how it's gotta be worded to Mattel's upper management these days.
@ Snarf! Snarf!:
Intriguing idea. Considering that He-Man might not have access to the whole power of Grayskull yet, this works for me.
DoctorKent
Coming soon – Cyber Snake King Hssss!
As previously mentioned, I like the idea that the armor has a lifespan of sorts. The line in the bio that the armor was used during the early battles with Skeletor would indicate that he needed it while learning to use the Power of Greyskull…I guess even He-Man needed to learn how to fight.
Thrawn
Dayraven wrote:
I always viewed King Hsss as some sort of supernatural demi-god king. I always thought the snakemen combined were more powerful than the Horde.
My interpretation of the mini-comics was that the Horde ascended to power when the snakemen were defeated by the Elders; especially since in the mini-comics and Filmation Hordak and the Horde were defeated by Randor, Man at Arms, and the Sorceress. I love both the Horde and the snakemen, but I thought the snakemen were more powerful as a group. Plus the whole Conan/Set connection.
Despite wearing BA I never thought Skeletor needed any. I just thought his basic powerset increased over time. I recall the minicomics and they were drawing TP He-Man fighting alongside regular version Skeletor and King Hsss. You could look at that as the villains growing more powerful and He-Man and Hordak just keeping up pace with them.
Reilly
And that's where the Goddess, Trainer of He-Man come into play:
"Another scratch across the armor because you didn't take care of Skeletor's blows? Waddaya thinking, they selling these things in 1 dollar stores!? Another two hours combat practice today for you!"