Any He-Man developments?

[El-Kabong]

(sorry - I know this has been brought up before, but the suck ass search engine wont do less than 4 letters. Oh well.)

So much to my great surprise, Blackstar has what appears to be Classic old school He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (http://www.blackstar.co.uk/video/item/7000000081370). Being that I'm trying to recapture my childhood, I'm of course all over this . . . BUT!

I've of course been hearing rumors for ever and a day about the series coming to R1, but the most recent news bite I can find is from way back in January.

Has anyone heard something more since then? Or should I jump all over this release?

[Regurgitator]

Forget about He-Man and the Masters of the Universe..

I want She-Ra!!!! Woweee Wow Wow! ;)

[DonnachaOne]

The He-Man/She-Ra movie would tide me over...

[Class316]

Just imagine how horrible it would be if they censored the “cross” a la WWF logo on the old series!! I got the new He-Man action figure with the “cross” but then they pulled it out and replaced the symbol with a meaningless sing. Search ebay for “he-man cross” if you want this figure.

[tonymontana313]

Damn the region 2 cover looks pretty cool as well. It seems that a good portion of 80's cartoons will probably never make it to dvd since the studios that own them will probably think of them as being too cheesy to release on dvd. Just my 2 cents.

[wordtoyamotha]

I, too, am eagerly awaiting any R1 news. I'd LOVE to see a multi-disk set(s). The way I see it, Transformers got good dvd treatment and was successful, why not He-Man?

[Breakfast with Girls]

At 6 episodes a disc, I hope you have a lot of shelf space.

[El-Kabong]

Originally posted by Breakfast with Girls
At 6 episodes a disc, I hope you have a lot of shelf space.

That's only one episode less than Transformers got onto a disc - and He-Man had less overall episodes (2 seasons of 65 for 130 episodes vs 4 seasons at 135 episodes). Pick up a handful of those new slim cases and it wont take up all that much space at all.

That is - of course - if they manage the whole run. Hopeful that they'll do it, but unlikely that they will - unless they put out a disc a month for the next 22 months.

[JoeyOhhhh]

I thought this was tied up in legal issues, or that the rights holders didn't want to release them or something...?

[Sosai X]

Hallmark (the card people) currently owns the Filmation library. They would be the people to contact about it.

[mythmaker18]

Originally posted by Sosai X
Hallmark (the card people) currently owns the Filmation library. They would be the people to contact about it.

Do you know this for a fact, or it is an assumption? Hallmark owns a big portion of the Filmation library (notably, the live-action series except Shazam, which is owned by Warner Bros), but it does not own the entire catalogue. When Filmation went out of business, it was sold in bits and pieces. Heck, even the cosmetics company REVLON owned a chunk of it (and may yet)! Fat Albert is out on DVD (from Time-Life), so I wonder if Hallmark has a piece of that, or if the rights reverted to Bill Cosby, or something else?

If Hallmark does own it, we probably won't see it here in R1 anytime soon. They claim, at least, that the live-action stuff is too embarrasing to "ever allow to pollute the airwaves again" (the words of one of their VPs). Makes you wonder why they don't just sell the material to someone who is interested in it...

[Adam Tyner]

Originally posted by mythmaker18
Do you know this for a fact, or it is an assumption?

Fact, at least in part. Going strictly by memory, the He-Man t-shirts released a few years back had a Hallmark trademark note at the bottom.

Also, from a recent he-man.org chat with Mattel's Jeremy Padawer:

(NealHyde) Jeremy, am I correct that Hallmark Entertainment (subsidiary of Artisen) still owns the rights (or partially) to the Filmation Series?

(JeremyPadawer) Neal, it's complicated. I don't have the contract, but there is truth there.

From that chat, related to the topic at hand:

(AAAprime) Thanks Do you know when the classic or new series will be available on dvd and we will miss you

(JeremyPadawer) Thanks. One of the things that we will be doing in Nov/Dec is packing out some figures with VHS & DVD. So, there will be some DVDs on the market then. I'll bet that moving into 2005, you'll see a TON of DVDs...