Cinnamon-Wengrod

Steve Clark

Skeletor steals Man-at-Arms's latest invention - an imperfect duplicating machine which creates a slightly smaller copy of whatever is put inside it. The villain then uses the machine on himself - creating an army of mini-Skeletors! Is Eternia doomed? Watch and see!

Man-at-Arms, Prince Adam (He-Man), Cringer (Battle Cat), Orko, Moss Man, Sy-Klone, Mekaneck, King Randor, Queen Marlena, He-Boys

Skeletor, Whiplash, Skeletoids, Two Bad, Modulok

bear people (Jova, Jeeta, Jade), Eternian citizens

Wind Raider, Roton, Attak Trak, royal taxi (et al)

Prince Adam and Cringer have come out to a secluded spot in the woods with Man-at-Arms, where no one at all will ever find them, so that Man-at-Arms can test his new invention: a duplicating machine! It works p-r-e-t-t-y well on a rango berry borrowed from Cringer, except that the duplicate berry is slightly smaller than the original. Orko, who wasn't supposed to be here but got bored, shows up to point out that there's no need to invent a duplicating machine when you have an amazing Trollan magician. He then casts a rhyming spell that makes many rango berries fall from the sky, most of them splattering over Duncan's armor. Moss Man, it turns out, is also spying on the secret experiment - unintentionally in his case, since he has a habit of turning into random plants and blending in with his surroundings.

There are, however, some much more malicious spies present in the forest today: Whiplash and his boss Skeletor, who Whiplash has brought along. Skeletor is thrilled at the prospect of being able to duplicate anything he chooses, and desperately wants to get his bony fingers on that machine. Duncan and Adam pack up the duplicator and leave in the Wind Raider, so the villains pursue them in their Roton. Without the heroes even aware they're being followed, Skeletor zaps their engine, causing the Raider to go down in the middle of the tar swamp. Adam sees no option but to transform himself and his tiger. Leaping out, He-Man and Battle Cat manage to tow the vessel out of the tar using a handy rope Duncan has tossed them. Battle Cat hops back in while He-Man tugs the Raider rapidly enough to make it launch into the air again, where Duncan kickstarts the motor into life. He-Man climbs the rope to get back inside, and the heroes are on their way - all without ever realizing their detour was caused by Skeletor and Trap Jaw, who have managed to crash their own ship into the tar swamp.

Back at the palace, Adam arrives late to a royal audience. A family of bear people (Jova, Jeeta, and Jade) have come to plead for assistance from the king and queen (and, rather randomly, Mekaneck and Sy-Klone), because they are running out of their supply of bambite. The bear people use the gems to turn invisible - seemingly their only way of getting food. The mineral is mysteriously disappearing, and without it their people will starve! Prince Adam thinks of a solution: he leads the bears to Duncan's lab, planning to duplicate the bambite in the duplicating machine. But before they can execute the plan, disaster strikes! A ring is cut in the floor exactly around the machine, and it drops into an underground chamber below, where Skeletor and his minion Whiplash are waiting to tote it away. Skeletor recognizes Jova, who he had earlier asked to abet him in the theft of the diamond of Loch Meade. The bear, being a good guy, had turned him down. Skeletor makes a suggestive comment about the bear people's lack of bambite and then runs off, cackling.

Adam leaves the room to get his tiger, then seconds later He-Man and Battle Cat arrive in the lab (huh! go figure), where Man-at-Arms informs them of the theft of the duplicating machine. He-Man is ready and willing to chase down the villains, and Mekaneck, also present, volunteers to help. They all climb into the Attak Trak and start the pursuit; but it turns out that Skeletor has laid a bunch of laser mines, which slow down their progress. With the mines behind them, the heroes continue on, but don't have any luck locating their quarry, and are eventually called back home by a distress signal from Moss Man. He's not specific about the danger, but advises them to get back to the palace as soon as they can.

Once there, He-Man and co. see what Moss Man was on about: Skeletoids! An army of mini-Skeletors, spawned from the stolen duplicating machine, are swarming all over the palace grounds. He-Man sees that a direct approach through the main doors will not be possible; but Battle Cat reminds him of the Rainbow Tunnel, a secret entrance to the palace that Randor had built for Teela and Adam when they were children. The heroes dodge past a horde of Skeletoids and find the secret entrance to the Tunnel; but once inside the many-colored rocky passageway, they find even more Skeletoids already ensconced within! The demons use their half-sized havoc staffs to commence a "sonic sound trap," from which the heroes are forced to flee. They make their way into the throne room via a secret door (which we have to assume the Skeletoids in the Tunnel don't know about) and find everyone else already gathered there and under seige from without: the king, queen, assorted Eternian citizens, and even the bear people are all holed up in the room, and just outside the doors is a pack of dawdling Skeletoids.

Jova the bear person selflessly offers a way out for He-Man and Battle Cat: he can expend the power of his last piece of bambite to help turn the pair (and himself) invisible, so they can sneak out of the palace and locate the duplicating machine. As Duncan explains, destroying the machine will do away with all the pesky Skeletoids, reversing Skeletor's conquest. Orko creates a distraction by rushing out of the throne room and pelting the lurking Skeletoids with a rain of rango berries, and the invisible He-Man, Battle Cat, and Jova make their escape. On their way out into the palace grounds, the trio overhear a Skeletoid conversation revealing the duplicating machine's location: Snake Mountain (which, honestly, didn't require special intelligence to figure out). Before they can safely get away, the bambite wears off, leaving them blatantly visible in the midst of the enemy. Luckily, He-Man spots Sy-Klone, who has been conveniently manacled to a wall outside. The blonde oaf frees the captive and Sy-Klone uses his wind-generating powers to blow away the attacking Skeletoids and allow our heroes to ride for Snake Mountain.

At Skeletor's fortress, there are lots of little bony eye holes available to watch for trespassers, and the approach of He-Man is detected well before he can break in. Whiplash is able to climb to the top of the mountain's snaky head and whip some boulders down on the arriving heroes before they have a chance to react. Skeletor happily brings his prisoners inside and turns on the TV for them: he wants to show them how far his Skeletoid conquest has gotten. It turns out the little guys have been spreading all over the globe, even into the icy regions of Eternia; with the help of newcomer minion Two Bad and second-timer Modulok, they are going to make Skeletor ruler of the whole planet!

Skeletor, king? He-Man acts confused: he thought Skeletor was going to share the rule with all of his little facsimiles. Don't they deserve a reward for their help in this scheme's success? This suggestion is all it takes for every Skeletoid present to fall to loud and violent bickering, and give He-Man the chance he needs to make a break for the duplicating machine. Skeletor rouses his rowdy bunch and directs all of them to zap He-Man with a power-draining ray; but even the combined beams from all their havoc staffs are not enough to keep He-Man from reaching the machine and clambering inside. The gadget produces not one, but two mini-He-Men (He-Boys?), who assist indirectly in their own destruction by aiding full-size He-Man in smashing the machine. The short-lived He-Boys then vanish, along with all the Skeletoids, and the remaining villains have no choice but to flee. As an added bonus, behind a wall burst open by the exploding machine the heroes find the entire missing supply of bambite, all stolen by Skeletor.

Back at the royal palace, the heroes celebrate a successful conclusion to the day's wackiness, as well as the restoration of the bambite. Man-at-Arms decides that he really shouldn't have built the duplicating machine that caused all of today's problems - so I guess he's not going to build a version 2.

End with a Joke: Orko demonstrates more misplaced confidence in his magical abilities, when his attempt to duplicate the bambite results in the episode's third shower of rango berries on the assembled heroes.

• Orko: Even when he's not trying to, Moss Man's a spy. Being able to change into any plant can sure be handy.
• Skeletor: Wonderful! With that machine, I could duplicate anything. There would be no limit to my power!
• Skeletor: It may not be long before Eternia has a new king - me! ... Quiet, Skeletoids, you wonderfully horrible creatures - get in line!
• He-Man: What is it, Battle Cat? / Battle Cat (snarls): Big trouble! / Mekaneck: You mean a lot of little troubles!
• Skeletoids (giggling): Skeletor is our name and evil is our game!

• Adam runs at the viewer, bug-height: To go fetch Cringer, turn into He-Man, and stop Skeletor
• He-Man in battle stance on Battle Cat: With Jova riding behind, as they approach a chained Sy-Klone

Two full

Brought to you by Man-at-Arms and Orko
Duncan advises us that you can have too much of a good thing - like candy, or Skeletors. Orko appears to announce that he is the exception to this rule, to which a dubious Man-at-Arms replies, "We'll, uh, talk about it later." I'd like to be a fly on the wall during that conversation!

Landmark Episode: For its many character debuts, and also because this story is just delightfully wacky and wonderful. This is another episode that might qualify under the old "Skeletor summons a monster" trope, but on consideration I don't think Skeletor himself qualifies as a monster - so summoning little Skeletors doesn't count.

• I have provided the writing credit the way it appears on the episode's title screen, but according to Wikipedia the writers (plural) are the more predictably named Ken Cinnamon and Karen Wengrod.
• Cringer appears with a "rango berry" in his mouth, a previously unheard-of Eternian fruit. It's surprisingly large for a berry - probably for the purposes of more easily showing the size difference in its duplicate.
• This episode brings us the first appearance of Moss Man, the flocked hero toy from Mattel's Wave 4 (1985). Right away, the show establishes Moss Man's ability to "change into any plant," as Orko helpfully expostulates. (This episode turns out to be debut city for Wave 4 figures, as we'll see!)
• Whiplash reappears after an absence of 10 episodes (we last saw him stuck in a tiny glass tank with some shrunken confederates at the end of MU105's "No Job Too Small").
• The evil vehicle Roton makes its third series appearance. In its last appearance (MU106), Beast Man and Trap Jaw were able to fire a freeze ray out of its eyes. Here, Skeletor shoots the Wind Raider with a separate gun that projects out of the front.
• The Wind Raider crashes in the tar swamp, seen most famously in MU018's "Creatures from the Tar Swamp." The setting was also used in MU048, in a call-back to its first appearance.
• Believe it or not, this is not the first time that Adam has changed into He-Man because a crashed Wind Raider is sinking into a swamp. You might think that's too specific to be duplicated, but in fact it happened already in MU099's "Hunt for He-Man." Fortunately this time He-Man does not have to submerge himself in the swamp - which would have been a very sticky proposition in this case, though possibly less poisonous!
• By the way, Adam's transformation here is another unknowing stroke of luck for the prince and the integrity of his secret identity. Usually it's Skeletor watching remotely and never quite tuning in to Adam's Spy TV channel in time to catch the transformation sequence. Here, the villain was following right behind the heroes, in person, yet somehow still missed the magic moment.
• He-Man manages to get the tar-choked Wind Raider started again with a bit of a tow, his muscular tugging causing it to glide up into the air, in a seeming brazen denial of the laws of physics. That's the power of Grayskull, yo.
• Another heroic Mattel figure makes its first Filmation appearance in this episode: Sy-Klone, who is standing next to Mekaneck in the palace throne room. He was another cool Wave 4 toy from 1985. His series debut is oddly abbreviated, though he does get a chance to recite a robotic-sounding line of dialogue and show off his wind-generating powers late in the story. We'll see Sy-Klone again in just the next episode, MU117.
• The throne room scene throws a lot of characters at us at once: we also meet a family of bear people, who for some reason all have names beginning with "J." Their look is somewhat reminiscent of Disney's Gummi Bears (from the 1985 series Adventures of the Gummi Bears). We also very recently saw a bear man working in the mines of the Slavemaster (MU109), but he seems to have been a member of a different, more humanoid, race.
• The bear people use a gem called "bambite" to make themselves invisible. This is an incredibly useful little rock which you'd think we would have heard about before!
• Just to add an added layer of drama and depth to the episode, Skeletor is given a back story with bear person Jova. According to old Bonehead, he failed to convince Jova to help him steal "the diamond of Loch Meade." Presumably Skeletor thought Jova's use of bambite to turn himself invisible would be an asset on a diamond heist - which seems sensible enough!
• He-Man makes use of Attak Trak, a vehicle we haven't seen utilized since MU102. And while I'm tracking things like this, we also haven't seen Mekaneck since his debut episode back in MU079. He accompanies He-Man in the Trak on the journey to catch Skeletor, and seems to have a bit of a fight with the vehicle over who can do a better job of spotting laser mines (see more on this in the commentary).
• MOTU scholars, on first seeing the army of gathered Skeletoids, will surely be reminded of that bizarre seconds-long scene in MU084's "Fraidy Cat" where Orko and Cringer discovered that Mer-Man was inexplicably the proud parent of a school of mini-Mer-Men (or perhaps a "pod," a "gam," or a "gurgle;" what's the collective noun for a group of mini-Mer-Men?). After the pair of heroes flee from the tiny monstrosities, they are never seen again, and nobody discusses them. The Skeletoids get more screen time and more... well, perhaps "respect" is not the best word. Attention?
• The first shot of the Skeletoids gathered in the royal palace uses a background painting first seen way back in MU015's "A Beastly Sideshow." We also saw it behind Orko and Cringer during a friendly outdoor tabletop gaming session at the beginning of MU079. The background includes some distinctive vehicles (which I've identified as "royal taxi (et al)" in the listing above) which make it fairly easy to recognize; they were probably meant to be carnival vehicles in the original context of MU015, but have apparently just hung around in the palace ever since then.
• This episode introduces the "Rainbow Tunnel," which, as He-Man explains, is "a secret passageway the king built for Adam and Teela when they were children." Mekaneck, hearing this story, doesn't stop to wonder why He-Man and Battle Cat should have heard about it. Interesting to remember that we saw Skeletor with plans of the royal palace in MU084 (an episode I've already had call to bring up), but the plans don't seem to have included this passageway, since the villains have to break down a wall to get inside. It's believable that even official plans of the palace might intentionally leave off the Rainbow Tunnel - always good as a king to have a secret entrance to your palace that no one knows about!
• Having just brought up Teela, I'll also just note here that the captain of the guard is mysteriously missing from this episode. You'd think she would have shown up in the besieged throne room scene, at least.
• It's been a long time since we've gotten to see a map of Eternia! We find that Skeletor is using one to track the progress of his conquest of the planet. Very appropriately and amusingly, it's covered in skulls - even the compass is a skull. The shape of Eternia's supercontinent land mass is slightly different than we've seen in other maps (notably MU034, MU046, and MU076), with a very large chunk blooming off the east side of the more usual, vertically oriented blob on the left/western side. It's possible that most maps of Eternia we've seen previous to this have simply cropped off the big eastern blob - perhaps it's that "dark side of Eternia" we've heard tell of (see MU041 or MU072).
• Skeletor makes use of a video screen to brag of his impending success to He-Man; we've seen video screens in Snake Mountain before (see for instance MU099's "Hunt for He-Man"), but this one looks a bit plainer and possibly smaller.
• A third Wave 4 Mattel figure makes its animated debut in the closing minutes of the episode: Two Bad, who's seen in a very brief shot standing next to Modulok on the video screen Skeletor turns on for He-Man. Ironically, in his first time on screen, Two Bad's two sides are reversed from that of his action figure, with the purple side on the left and the blue on the right. This is Modulok's second appearance in the series.
• Skeletor's Skeletoids weaken He-Man through collective use of a "power drain ray" that they project from their many havoc staffs. We can assume that the reason we've never seen single, full-size Skeletor using this with his staff is that it lacked the necessary oomph that he gets from a bunch of smaller rays being used at once. And of course, as we discover, even all the rays together are not enough to stop our favorite blonde beefcake.
• As a delightful digestif to conclude the episode, we get a brief few seconds to enjoy a pair of tiny duplicate He-Men, who I've decided to identify as "He-Boys" in the character listing (since He-Man's one line to them is "Ready, boys?"). I also briefly considered calling them "He-Mites," but that makes them sound parasitic - probably the wrong tone to strike.
• Per what is now proving to be a regular ending to every lore section, I must again point out that this episode features the variant ending credits with the flat-painted Jawbridge in the background painting.

• As Man-at-Arms begins to realize (though he's ignorant of the full extent), everyone seems to have shown up to witness his "secret" experiment with the Duplicating Machine. In addition to Orko and Moss Man, neither of whom were invited, Whiplash and Skeletor also get an eyeful. Maybe stop posting your itinerary on Facebook, Duncan.
• Continuity error: When He-Man first starts tugging on the rope that's attached to the Wind Raider, its loop seems to reach around part of the vehicle's dashboard. In a subsequent shot, the rope has moved to somewhere on the tip of the Raider's nose. In a still later scene, we see it again looped around the dash. (About that rope... see next point.)
• Duncan makes a confusing and inexplicable comment during the Wind Raider rescue scene. Just before He-Man tows the thing into the air, Duncan informs him that "The undercarriage cable is released." The what now? The only "cable" in sight is the rope that He-Man was already using. This line sounds like part of an idea for an animated sequence that never made it to the screen. It may be related to a fact about the Wind Raider which I somehow completely forgot, and which is not in evidence here: namely, that it should have its own built-in grappling hook and line, which we've seen in several previous episodes (some examples: MU055 and MU049).
• After the heroes' escape, we cut to the pursuing villains, now taking their own turn sinking into the tar swamp's muck. It's hard not to mimic Whiplash's confused comment: "Uh, gee, how'd that happen?" Indeed! Nobody shot the Roton's engines, so it would have taken some exceptionally crappy piloting to pull this off.
• The bear people claim they will starve unless they can turn invisible, apparently because otherwise they'll fall prey to other animals in their forest - animals that hunt and eat bear people. WTF eats bears?! I'm not sure I even want to see it. Can they not just sharpen some sticks or something, though? Or aren't they, as bears, equipped with claws and sharp teeth? If they're smart enough to talk and make clothes, they should be smart enough to make/use weapons and defend their damn selves.
• Adam's solution for the bear people is to duplicate their bambite. But he misses a much easier way to keep people from starving, which was already demonstrated at the beginning of the episode. Why don't you just duplicate their food, bro? Man-at-Arms has cured the food supply problems of Eternia for all time, and nobody seems to have noticed.
• Jade (I assume that's the name of Mama Bear, and Jeeta is Baby Bear) explains that the bear people's supply of bambite is "mysteriously disappearing," but the reason for its disappearance is not explored. When Skeletor spots Jova he amusedly asks, "Need bambite, do you?" a knowing comment which suggests the villain is the cause for the mineral's scarcity. This is concerning! The implication eventually pays off at the very end of the episode, when our heroes accidentally discover Skeletor's stash of the stuff. This thankfully allows the good guys to prevent Skeletor from turning himself and his minions invisible (though the minerals' spectacular advantages seem to have been entirely lost on the villain, who seemingly was only stealing it out of spite). But imagine if Bonehead had combined the duplicating machine with this stock of bambite - giving Skeletor not only an army of himself in miniature, but an invisible army? Our archvillain missed a trick here!
• Home invasion, royal palace style! After a long, one-sided period featuring only heroes breaking into Snake Mountain, we finally get to see some villains breaking into the heroes' home - specifically, Duncan's workshop - to steal the duplicating machine. They accomplish this by means of a heat gun which cuts through the floor; but the more disturbing fact shown in this scene, not brought up by any of the characters, is that there is a huge, hollow sinkhole right under Duncan's lab, big enough for the villains to stand in, and ready to suck the palace complex under. Get some structural engineers in there right away!
• Animation error: In the shot where we are looking up at the heroes from the hole in the floor Skeletor has burned open, the top of Mekaneck's helmet is incorrectly colored silver instead of the usual red.
• I brought this up in the lore section, but it feels like the commentary is a better venue for discussing the odd jealousy between Attak Trak and Mekaneck. Mekaneck stretches his neck up above the Trak's roof so he can spot laser mines in their path; but Trak tells him to "rest your neck," because it can do that job, and has already detected the obstacles. Mekaneck ignores the machine entirely and continues to yell directions - seemingly with good cause, since Attak Trak fails to avoid the last mine and takes a hit. A dismayed Mekaneck believes the explosion - and the deep gorge directly in front of them - have left them stuck. But a smug Trak insultingly comments "You are new here, aren't you?" and simply drives into the gorge and back up the other side. What's going on here? Are Mekaneck and the vehicle vying for He-Man's favor, so they can earn appearances in subsequent episodes? (Perhaps worth noting is the fact that in their next episode together, MU122, Mekaneck opts to drive the Battle Ram instead of sitting in the Attak Trak... hmmmmm.)
• When Skeletor begins using the duplicating machine on himself, we see that each newly produced "Skeletoid" obediently walks out of the machine's cage after having been created. This got me thinking: what if they didn't walk off? Then every time the machine was activated again, you would have another Skeletoid (produced by duplicating full-size Skeletor) and another, even smaller Skeletoid (Skeleteen?) duplicated from the first Skeletoid. This would quickly create a sort of geometric progression of successively smaller Skeletoids, sort of like skeletal nesting dolls. I'd pay to see that!
• By the way, I should just note that this concept of an army of tiny Skeletors is pure genius and utterly hilarious. I enjoyed the hell out of every second of it. Let's be honest: Skeletor is one of the brightest lights of this series. The original character design was something special, and Alan Oppenheimer's memorable voice work transformed the villain into a cultural icon that continues to resonate. Why wouldn't you want more of him to go around?
• Animation error: When Mekaneck shields his ears from the Skeletoids' sonic sound trap, his hands are colored blue instead of the correct flesh color.
• It's revenge of the home invasion when He-Man, Battle Cat, and Jova attempt to break into Snake Mountain and destroy the duplicating machine. However, in a rather unique deviation from the usual practice, our heroes are actually spotted and captured before they get inside! (Of course, this doesn't stop He-Man from saving the day; but it's good to see the villains protecting their base a little better than usual!)
• Whiplash makes impressive use of his one talent - flicking his tail - to drop some very well-aimed boulders down on the heroes from the top of Snake Mountain. "Watch out!" cries He-Man; then proceeds to stand absolutely stock still and allow the boulders to land in a perfect prison around him. Way to dodge, He-Dope - or perhaps we should blame his mount Battle Cat for the inaction.
• So what the heck is Modulok doing on Skeletor's team? We last saw him (based on my DVD sequencing) in MU123, his origin story. After turning into a red monster, Modulok went right home to call Skeletor and offer himself as a new hire; but Skeletor gave him a hard pass, and Modulok ended the episode in prison. The problem of Modulok being incarcerated is an old one - villains are often being captured and then appearing free again in later episodes, with no explanation expected or given - but how he managed to talk himself onto the Evil Warrior squad is a story I'd like to hear.
• It is absolutely hilarious and marvelous that He-Man is able to turn the Skeletoid army into a squabbling riot simply by speaking two sentences to them about how he thought they were going to help Skeletor in ruling the planet. It reminds me of Captain Kirk's ability to talk any computer or robot into destroying itself by telling it some well-chosen logical contradictions.
• Duncan reveals late in the episode that once the duplicating machine is destroyed, everything that it has made will likewise cease to be. Doesn't that make He-Man a bit of a mass murderer, when the gadget's destruction annihilates all those living, thinking Skeletoids? And doesn't that make the two He-Boys' assistance in the deed a case of double suicide? It also kind of ruins the efficacy of the duplicating machine as a solution to world hunger, if as soon as the thing breaks down, it means everyone's food stockpile will disappear.
• The creation of the He-Boys, while fun, raises a couple of questions. First, why is the machine now set to auto-duplicate as soon as someone steps into it? Did Skeletor make some modifications when we weren't looking? And is it just because He-Man is so awesome that the machine produces two duplicates of him for the price of one? Every other time we saw the machine work, it made only one copy at a time, but our hero gets a pair. We could possibly chalk this up to further Skeletor tinkering with the machine: after all, if you want to make a huge army of duplicates, it would certainly save time to pop out more than one at a go.
• From top to bottom, this was just a gem of an episode. The premise is fabulous and amusingly executed, it's full of fun and new characters, and I thought the subplot of the bear people and bambite was well incorporated into the main story, with a satisfying conclusion (albeit with some logical issues, already discussed above). I've added it to my absurdly long list of Landmark episodes.