Paul Dini

Lou Kachivas

Squinch the Widget is tricked by Evil-Lyn into giving up a chunk of coridite. If Skeletor uses it to upgrade his armor, he will become just as strong as He-Man!

The Widgets (Squinch, Kando, Lara), Prince Adam (He-Man), Cringer (Battle Cat), Zoar (Sorceress), Teela (PSA only)

Skeletor, Panthor, Beast Man, Mer-Man, Evil-Lyn (Nadira)

Young boy, slow tow (a yak-like beast of burden), stone demon, assorted unnamed Widgets

Basher, two-wheel cart

We open not with any of our regular heroes, but with the Widgets: a collection of small people living in a fortress and guarding something important in their mines which, it appears, Skeletor wants. The evil sorcerer soon appears with Panthor, Beast Man, and Mer-Man to try to break in. The Widgets make a brave attempt to defend themselves, but seeing they are in trouble, they shoot off their He-signal (which He-Man modestly calls "the Widget-signal").

Meanwhile, Prince Adam is walking along peacefully with Cringer, but quickly discovers that when you're secretly He-Man, you don't get much of a break. First he has to transform to help a boy with a runaway cart, and then he spots the Widgets' signal and comes to foil Skeletor's plot - which, we learn, is to obtain the Widgets' supply of coridite. He-Man makes quick work of Beast Man and Mer-Man, and deflects the beams from Skeletor's havoc staff until a stray beam blows up the bad guys' basher. Skeletor decides to call it a day and teleports himself and his men away. When the Widgets explain Skeletor's intentions to He-Man, he points out that his chest harness is made of coridite and that it would be bad if Skeletor got his hands on it.

Back at Snake Mountain, Skeletor is unwinding by giving his two lackeys a tongue lashing. Evil-Lyn, amused at the spectacle, says that she has a plan to sneak into the Widgets' fortress and steal the coridite. Evil-Lyn turns herself into a cute blonde with a bob (named Nadira) and stages a scene in which she is menaced by Panthor in front of the Widgets' fortress. The Widgets fall for the trap, letting her inside and giving her aid. While the entire garrison leaves to look for Nadira's non-existent parents, Squinch tries to cheer her up by showing her lots of pretty gems. Nadira tricks the poor sap into showing her their chunk of coridite, which she immediately steals, revealing her true form in the process. Lyn then flies off.

The Sorceress, who can spy on people just as well as Skeletor, sees what's happened and turns into Zoar so she can go tell He-Man. She tells him Skeletor will be shaping the rock at Volcano Cave. Meanwhile, Squinch is receiving his own tongue-lashing from Kando, commander of the Widgets, for being tricked by a pretty face. Squinch feels awful, and wants to redeem himself by foiling Skeletor's plans - he also knows that the only place Skeletor can work the coridite is at Volcano Cave. A final showdown looms! At Volcano Cave, He-Man attempts to stop Skeletor, but Evil-Lyn conjures a "demon of stone" to distract him, and Skeletor has time to fashion the coridite into a duplicate of his cross-bone breastplate decoration. Now he is as powerful as He-Man! He grapples with He-Man and Battle Cat, and even manages to get a hold of He-Man's power sword for a short few seconds. The fight swings in He-Man's favor; Evil-Lyn is about to tip the balance with a well-timed spell, when the Widgets intervene! They get a loop of rope around her and lift her off the ground, successfully incapacitating her. He-Man gives a nice speech about real power while he handily crushes Skeletor's fancy armor, and the bad guys zap themselves away.

End with a Joke: Squinch gets himself in very, very deep with his girlfriend Lara after trying to explain what he meant by saying he is "through with women for good," to He-Man's immense amusement.

• Squinch: Aw, shucks; it's quieter than a flea's hiccup!
• Skeletor: Forward my lackeys, in the name of destruction!
• Skeletor: Curse you, He-Man! Some day I'll have the power to destroy you - some day!
• Skeletor: Now I have the power!
• Skeletor: This is the way it had to end - with Skeletor triumphant at last!
• He-Man: The only real power comes from inside, Skeletor: from courage, honor, and other things you wouldn't understand.

• He-Man smiles close-up, looking at the viewer: When speaking to the boy, and when speaking to Squinch at the end
• He-Man jumps on the back of Battle Cat: Three times - once after helping the young boy, once after helping the Widgets, and once after talking to Zoar
• Mer-Man swings sword overhand: Mimicking a loop usually reserved for He-Man
• Beast Man runs at the viewer, bug-height
• Skeletor shakes his fists, three-quarter view: Multiple times
• He-Man spins Beast Man in a circle: By the end of his whip
• Skeletor shakes his fists, front on from below
• Skeletor leans in close to the viewer: Played in reverse, to show him leaning back
• Nadira runs away from the viewer
• Skeletor laughs, head back
• Evil-Lyn, hands on hips, laughs with her head thrown back
• Sorceress spreads/unspreads her wings: Turning into Zoar
• He-Man rolls along the ground
• Skeletor rolls along the ground
• He-Man picks up and throws a rock
• Skeletor picks up and throws a rock
• He-Man runs at the viewer, bug-height
• He-Man punches the viewer: Multiple times, to break rocks
• He-Man laughs, head back: At ending joke

One full

Brought to you by Teela
Teela, despite having not been present during the episode, tells us the lesson we can glean from today's events: namely, that you can't judge a book by its cover, a favorite lesson for He-Man. In this case it means that people can be deceiving - so watch out!

Appearance of the Widgets: There will be others!
Landmark Episode: Because this is the first Widgets story, and because it has some fun villain scenes and covers the importance of coridite.

• Beast Man, as one would logically assume, is better at climbing than Mer-Man, and scales the Widgets' fortress wall much faster.
• The first episode to feature the Widgets, a group of little people who will appear in a surprising number of other episodes.
• He-Man is an old friend of the Widgets, which they demonstrate by the fact that they have their own He-Man signal (or "He-signal"?), a flare in the shape of the cross symbol on his armor.
• He-Man is able to fuse chain links with his bare hands!
• He-Man does a whole lot of beam deflecting with his sword in this episode.
• We learn that He-Man's chest armor, or "harness," was fashioned from coridite by the Sorceress. This doesn't explain where it goes when he's not He-Man... Coridite will also form an important part of the plots of MU091 and MU107.
• When Skeletor is yelling at Beast Man and Mer-Man after their poor showing with the Widgets, he expresses his rage by shooting fire out of two tiki-totem-looking tubes. He also seems to use the tubes to activate a trap door that sends his minions down by the waterfall - much like the throne-activated trap door in the Grayskull toy playset.
• There are lots of good villain escapes in this episode. Skeletor teleports himself and his minions away from the Widgets, and vanishes again at the end of the episode using his finger guns - producing some lightning and a gust of wind. Evil-Lyn has the flashiest move of them all, however: after robbing the Widgets, she turns into a giant ball of fire and flies away (she'll pull a similar move in MU019).
• Interesting that when He-Man is informed by Zoar of the stolen coridite, he is just relaxing with Battle Cat. The obvious reason for this in terms of the plot of the episode is so that they don't have to show another He-Man transformation; but it's interesting to consider He-Man just staying He-Man for a while, even when there is no one to save. Possibly Prince Adam had absolutely no princely duties that day (he calls those "weekdays").
• Zoar visits He-Man in person but speaks to him telepathically. In other episodes she can send him a long-distance message without being so close, so it's unclear why she felt the need.
• This episode is unusually light on Heroic Warriors. The presence of all the Widgets seems to have left no room for regulars like Duncan, Orko, and the king and queen. Teela does make an appearance, but only during the PSA.
• Yet another Evil-Lyn plot that does not include her trying to double-cross Skeletor; so it's starting to look like I had entirely the wrong impression about her. (Lyn will begin demonstrating her ambitious tendencies in MU014.)
• The "demon of stone," or rock monster, which Evil-Lyn conjures is an oft-used character design, though it will be a long time before we see it again - MU050's "Temple of the Sun," where it will be used for sand demons.

• In the category of "Beast Man gets no respect from anyone," he manages once again to be defeated by a beast - the one situation in which he should prevail. Specifically, Panthor leaps and accidentally knocks Beast Man off the wall of the Widgets' fortress.
• The boy whom He-Man saves in an early scene is dressed like He-Man without his chest armor - in other words, he's basically naked except for a belt and a pair of furry underpants. Hot day, I guess!
• Even though He-Man is supposed to be an old friend of the Widgets, he apparently has no idea they have a supply of coridite and is surprised to hear about it. This seems like an odd oversight that can only be explained for plot purposes, so that the audience learns why coridite is important.
• It's odd that this episode seems to suggest that most of He-Man's strength comes from his armor and is not innately part of his big muscly body. He-Man does specify that it only "helps add" to his strength, but when Skeletor actually makes use of the stuff, the implication seems to be that they are evenly matched. The main reason He-Man comes out on top during their fight, we learn, is basically because he's a good guy and Skeletor is a bad guy.
• I always love a good "Skeletor scolding his minions" scene, and this episode has a lovely one where he yells at Mer-Man and Beast Man, shoots off some fire tubes, and shakes his fists - all while Evil-Lyn shares a good laugh with Panthor. There's a lot of fun character animation in this scene as well.