Karen Willson & Chris Weber

Lou Kachivas

Skeletor gives the devious Toy Maker a chance to prove himself worthy of a spot on the Evil Warrior team, by directing him in a scheme to kidnap Man-at-Arms. All the Toy Maker has to do is trick Orko into accepting the suspicious gift of some monstrous toys. Don't do it, Orko! Stranger, danger!

Man-at-Arms, Orko, Teela, Prince Adam (He-Man), Cringer (Battle Cat), King Randor, Ram Man

Whiplash, Skeletor, Screeech, Beast Man, Trap Jaw

Toy Maker, toys (soldier, bear, dinosaur, Ro), insect

Hover Melter, Wind Raider

Snake Mountain: exterior. Cue diabolic music. Entering within, we find Skeletor engaged in brushing off an entreating visitor, who calls himself Toy Maker and insists his magical toys are capable of impressive levels of evil. Skeletor decides to give the supplicant a chance to prove himself. Evoking the spying powers of his havoc staff, the bony villain displays a vision of Man-at-Arms, requesting that Toy Maker kidnap the clever inventor. To put the toys into play (as it were), our Toy Maker need merely set his sights on the childish dupe, Orko: a few compliments combined with a friendly manner and an offer of free toys should be sufficient to turn his head! To set the plan in motion, all that's needed is a good distraction, which Skeletor promises to provide...

Orko, we find, is hanging out with Man-at-Arms while the mustached hero makes some last-minute adjustments to his new "hover melter." Also present is Teela, and the party is joined by a dilatory Prince Adam and Cringer. They're all ready to watch in awe as the hover melter begins its demonstration. The well-named vehicle does both the things it says it does, hovering over to a hill and firing a beam out of its "eye" that melts the rock. But - what's this?! - out of the sky comes swooping the insidious Screeech, Skeletor's bionic bird. The frequencies of the creature's high-pitched cries disrupt Man-at-Arms's handheld remote control device, and the hover melter goes haywire, spraying rock melting beams all over the place - yikes. Adam decides it's time to... go do something, along with his tiger, and soon enough He-Man and Battle Cat are on the scene. Orko tries to solve the problem magically by cancelling out the avian cries, but his spell instead just conjures a pair of very firmly placed earmuffs over Duncan's ears - to the man-at-arms's great consternation. The day must be saved in the usual way, by He-Man, who uses his tiger to race up to the hover melter and leap atop it, then warps its thruster to force the melting beam to point up into a passing cloud. The ray causes a sudden rainshower, chasing Screeech away and ending the catastrophe.

Afterwards, with the magical earmuffs finally removed from his friend, Orko offers to try his hand again at a helping spell - but the other irritated heroes point out that the time for that has passed, and send him to fetch the royal guard. The demoralized Trollan floats off into the woods, muttering to himself about not being wanted, and collides with the Toy Maker. The Toy Maker very effectively butters up his chump, assuring Orko that he's well acquainted with the famous court magician. While Orko is at first hesitant to accept gifts from a stranger, he's eventually convinced to take Toy Maker's magical dancing toys: a soldier, a teddy bear, and a blue dinosaur (of the species that used to be called brontosaurus). Toy Maker also insists that the gift should remain a secret between the two of them. As Toy Maker wanders off, Orko warns his new friend against continuing on the route he's chosen, pointing out that it leads to the dangerous Valley of Echoes, a misty and mystical region full of auditory hallucinations which will lure and imprison those who venture in. This gives Toy Maker a wonderful idea...

Back at Duncan's lab, Orko's demonstration of the magical performing toys is a big hit: Duncan is impressed with the engineering, and Adam even suggests that the king and queen would enjoy seeing them. Asked where he got the things, Orko prevaricates, claiming they were a present from a friend. At this point, it's been a long day, and our friends all depart the lab, headed for bed. Duncan turns back, having remembered that he needs to turn on his alarm; a very convenient circumstance for the evil toys, lurking in the shadows. The trio grow to human height and ambush the man, announcing their intention to take him to their master. The next day, the dastardly events of the evening are quickly discovered, as Adam, Teela, and Orko enter the lab to find the toys gone, Duncan missing, the place trashed, and a giant hole in the door forming the perfect outline of the three toys. Overhearing the commotion, King Randor appears, and the assembled heroes convince Orko to give up his secret and reveal the name of his benefactor. As soon as he says "Toy Maker," Randor is aghast: he is familiar with the villain, calling him a "very dangerous man."

A chastened Orko joins Teela and Ram Man as they follow the trail of the toys. Soon enough, they're joined by He-Man on Battle Cat! (How did he know? Well, Adam promised to "go for help.") The trail leads our heroes into the dangerous mists of the Valley of Echoes, where they are all quickly bamboozled by various illusions. Orko believes he can hear Dree Elle; Ram Man believes he can hear Man-at-Arms; Teela believes she can hear Prince Adam; and He-Man not only hears a taunting Skeletor, he also sees the villain's giant floating head, and must escape the grasp of a massive ghostly Skeletor hand. Having done so, however, he seems to have weathered all that the valley can throw at him, and He-Man quickly tracks down Orko, bringing the Trollan back to his senses and suggesting that he use his earmuff spell on all their comrades. Blocked from hearing the deceptive voices, the heroes escape the echoing valley and follow the trail towards Snake Mountain.

Because of course, that's where Toy Maker has had his toys deliver Man-at-Arms. Approaching Skeletor in the fortress to demand his reward, Toy Maker instead finds himself mesmerized by the evil sorcerer, who forces his would-be minion to repeat the magic words for controlling the toys. Skeletor then sends the toys off on a mission to capture He-Man. But the heroes hear the toys coming and lay traps in the form of rope snares. Not content to simply lure the toys into the loops, our friends instead opt to force them. Ram Man rams one into place, and Teela does for a second with an icy patch; but they've only made two snares, and there are three toys. Orko decides that his magic, flawed as it often is, must be stronger than Toy Maker's on account of the Trollan being a good guy, and good naturally being stronger than evil; so he takes a crack at summoning the evil magician and gets his conjured, floating head to once again give up that magic spell. Using it, Orko is able to turn all three toys into his slaves - er, friends - and the heroes are free to continue their journey.

Back at Snake Mountain, Skeletor is boasting of his assured success to a manacled Man-at-Arms. And here come his toys now, with the captured He-Man! Skeletor gets a surprise when the empty-handed toys march right up and free Man-at-Arms. Oops! Maybe you shouldn't have counted those chickens, Bonehead. He-Man and friends then bust in through the wall. The villain sends his minions at the Heroic Warriors, but the dinosaur smooshes Trap Jaw and Beast Man under its capacious belly. The crushed pair call for help from their boss, but Skeletor decides he's had enough for today and zaps himself out of there. The only person left to deal with is Toy Maker, who tries to make his own escape by transforming his three toys into a winged beast and hopping on its back. But he's forgotten that Orko is still the boss of his creations. The Trollan banishes the creature with a rhyming spell, and He-Man stands over the fallen Toy Maker, promising legal retribution is in the man's future.

End with a Joke: "You know something," Orko pipes up, "this has been a great day. It's sure good to be with people who appreciate my magic." An amused Teela gives the Trollan a hug.

• Toy Maker: These are not ordinary toys. Why, my toys could bring a kingdom - or a galaxy - to its knees. Now, all I seek is a master and a place where I can create undisturbed.
• Orko: It's not right to accept gifts from strangers. / Toy Maker: Strangers?! All right, let me introduce myself: I'm called the Toy Maker. And I already know who you are. Why, you're Orko, the great wizard extraordinaire, heh heh heh. There, now you can accept my little gift.
• Prince Adam: When someone asks you to keep secrets from the people you trust - well, there's usually something wrong.
• He-Man: Here I am, Skeletor! It takes more than toys and echoes to defeat the power of Grayskull.
• Beast Man and Trap Jaw: Skeletor! Help us! Help us! / Skeletor (not mincing words): No, I'm only interested in saving myself. (teleports away)
• Man-at-Arms: Skeletor doesn't realize there's one magic he'll never defeat: the power of love and friendship.
• Orko: It's sure good to be with people who appreciate my magic.

• Skeletor shakes his fists, three-quarter view: Celebrating the successful capture of Man-at-Arms
• He-Man jumps on the back of Battle Cat: To find his friends in the Valley of Echoes
• He-Man in battle stance on Battle Cat: Approaching a deluded Orko
• A look through widespread legs: He-Man lands after grabbing some bendy trees

One full

Brought to you by King Randor and Orko
In a rare shouldering of the public service duties, the king of Eternia predictably warns us against taking gifts from strangers - a very basic rule of childhood which Orko was somehow dense enough to fail to heed in today's story. Orko arrives to add the other common-sense lesson: secrets that you're told to keep from your friends are fishy. Note that aside from MU060's "The Return of Granamyr," this is the only time Randor has appeared for the ending announcement.

N/A: I decided on consideration that I couldn't quite live with myself if I tagged this episode as belonging in the "Skeletor summons a monster" category. He is briefly in charge of the Toy Maker's monstrous toys, but he can't be said to have "summoned" them, and they're pretty paltry as monsters anyway. I don't believe any of my other categories apply.

• Even though he's in his throne room and just inches away from his desktop dome, Skeletor chooses to conjure an image of Toy Maker's "test" subject on the back of his havoc staff's skull - a spying method he hasn't used for a long time.
• Just as in the last episode (MU113), our villains are after the technological knowledge and skill of Man-at-Arms. What they should be trying to do is steal that hover melter - that thing's incredibly dangerous!!
• This episode features the third Filmation appearance of the evil bionic bird, Screeech (it having last shown up briefly in MU119's "Visitors from Earth," after debuting more centrally in the plot of MU084's "Fraidy Cat"). We are told that its screeches have the ability to interfere with the signals from Duncan's hover melter controller - handy!
• Orko introduces us to Eternia's Valley of Echoes: "It's a dangerous place. Voices and memories of times past can trap you inside forever." It's a happy accident for our villainous Toy Maker that he learns about this terrible place! In an earlier episode, Skeletor daydreamed about dropping He-Man into a "Lake of Oblivion" (see the already-mentioned MU084); this valley reminds me of that. Note, the Valley of Echoes should not be confused with "Echo Valley," a completely different location from MU100.
• "Uh-oh, I forgot to set the alarm," Duncan mutters to himself as he's leaving his lab. He has an alarm? He must have also forgotten to set it in the last episode (MU113), when he left an undefended Roboto in his lab to be easily kidnapped by Modulok.
• This is another episode, like MU113, that makes thorough use of Duncan's lab as a setting, so we see many of the familiar backgrounds, including those originally identified as different rooms in the palace and later subsumed into the lab (i.e., the computer room and radio room); but we also see new interior shots, such as the darkened areas where Duncan is assaulted by the toys.
• It turns out Man-at-Arms has a key ring with some very old-fashioned looking keys on it - something he drops in his scuffle to hint that mischief has been perpetrated. It makes sense that he would have the ability to lock up various areas of the palace, especially his lab (I'm remembering an explosives closet in an earlier episode, MU006, which would have benefited from being more thoroughly secured!).
• Turns out Randor, a grown man and responsible public figure who should no longer be playing with toys, is very familiar with the Toy Maker and the threat he poses. When Orko mentions the name, the king is surprised to hear the villain is "back in Eternia," implying a previous altercation. It's unclear how long ago this meeting occurred, and no one else indicates prior knowledge of the character.
• Oh hey, it's Ram Man! We haven't seen him since he got blinded in MU101. He's looking well.
• The episode features one on-screen He-Man transformation. Adam turns into He-Man twice, but the second time happens between scenes.
• Dree Elle kind of makes an appearance in this episode, but in the end I felt it wasn't real enough to be worth including in the character lists above. Her voice is heard by Orko as one of the illusions in the Valley of Echoes. (If you don't know who Dree Elle is, check out her first and most important appearance, in MU020's "Dawn of Dragoon.")
• Orko's magic: his amusing goofed spell from earlier, which conjured earmuffs onto Man-at-Arms, is reused to much better purpose in the Valley of Echoes, to keep the beguiling siren-like voices from leading his friends astray. However, if the muffs really worked, we have to imagine the deafened heroes using miming and hand gestures to communicate with each other and make their escape. And how do earmuffs work on Ram Man, when his entire head is already encased in metal? Sorry, I know I'm ruining this for everyone. I'll stop now.
• We see Teela make use of the freeze ray on her wrist, to cause one of the toys to slip into a trap. The last time she used her wrist blaster, in MU117, it was to perform the opposite function, thawing out a frozen control panel.
• If you ever meet some evil toys, just remember to speak the magic spell: Kazam kazar, kazam kazee; will not your own, take orders from me. Probably really helps if you have one of those cursed monkey shines toys!
• It's very odd that Skeletor sets his minions on He-Man and the other heroes by saying, "Guards! Get them!" That's a strangely impersonal way to refer to Trappy and Fur Face! You'd think he'd at least call them "you fools."
• He-Man's intrusion into Snake Mountain again leaves Skeletor with the desperate option of having to teleport out of his own base - an extremity he's been forced to on several other occasions, recently in MU111. He does so at the expense of his "guards," and even more callously than usual, replying bluntly to their cries for help: "I'm only interested in saving myself!" As usual, you have to wonder where he's headed. Does he have an even more secret secondary base? A skull-shaped bomb shelter? Given the well-established practice of home invasion in the series, I like to think Skeletor has a spare room in the royal palace the heroes don't know about, that he escapes to at times like these.
• The Toy Maker confidently believes he can escape from the heroes, when in the ending seconds of the episode he transforms his three toys into a pink Ro beast - the same winged creature featured in MU038's "Valley of Power." We also saw this creature design used in MU078's "Betrayal of Stratos," where it was called a "carrock." We will see it used again in MU128.
• He-Man vaguely promises the Toy Maker that he's going to deliver him and Skeletor's minions to "the authorities" - indicating some level of legal punishment is actually going to be visited on most of the evil-doers from this story. What that might be (prison planet? slaving in the Eternian prison mines? stuffed in the royal dungeons?), and whether there are actually any courts of justice in their future, is unclear.
• I did some googling and discovered that it's very difficult to discover whether an action figure of the Toy Maker was ever produced, since the search engine just thinks you're looking for the company name of the "toy maker" for MOTU action figures. But I'm pretty sure that Mattel (that's them) never made one.
• Another appearance of the variant ending credits for Season 2.

• Animation error: In the image on Skeletor's havoc staff, the background painting is already in place and Man-at-Arms fades in on top of it, as though he's teleporting into the Evergreen Forest.
• The story's requirements cause Orko to again be depicted as an immature, child-like dupe, even though he's been educated at a magical academy, has a betrothed back home, and works a permanent job at the palace. Skeletor explains to Toy Maker that the poor naive Trollan can be easily won over by compliments and toys. Feh! Well, to be fair, I suppose there are grown-up men who still collect He-Man toys... not me, of course. I'm a mature and stable individual! (Shoves He-Man Funko figurines into cabinet)
• There are several things that don't make sense in He-Man's method of getting rid of Screeech. First, he causes the hover melter to point itself upward by warping one of its rear thrusters to point up. This is the reverse of what he should be doing - basic physics dictates that the thruster should be angled down to make the ship go up. Secondly, the beam of the redirected hover melter shoots into a cloud, causing the cloud to burst and drop rain ...why? If anything, the heat from the beam should burn the cloud away. Thirdly - why does Screeech hate rain? He-Man suggests that the water would make the metallic bird rust. But - surely - it's meant to simulate a bird. Shouldn't it be able to handle a little wet?
• The enlarged toys speak threateningly to Duncan as they close in on him, but the dialogue seems very much as if it was added after the fact; though the soldier is sort of growling at the time, none of the toys' mouths are moving to speak the lines, and the voice used is identical to that of the Toy Maker.
• It would have been really funny if He-Man accidentally exposed his secret identity to Teela in the Valley of Echoes when, while the Eternian captain is standing right next to the blonde stud, she believes that she hears Prince Adam calling her. "What are you doing? I'm right here! Oh, @#$%..."
• It's interesting that several creatures seem to be immune to the effects of the Valley of Echoes. I suppose it makes sense that Toy Maker's toys, being magic-infused inanimate objects (we assume), are not sentient and therefore do not hear any of the valley's treacherous sounds as they pass. But what happened to Man-at-Arms as they were carrying him through the valley? Was he unconscious at the time, or did he hear weird stuff and try to struggle out of their grasp to follow the voices? And what about Battle Cat? Though all the humanoid heroes have their heads turned by some voice or other, we get no sense that He-Man's tiger is lured by anything during the scene in the valley.
• The inclusion of Beast Man and Trap Jaw in this episode feels very tacked-on. They have almost no dialogue and contribute nothing to the story, serving mainly to be crushed by a toy and provide the extra time Skeletor needs to escape. Recall also the brief and pointless appearance of Whiplash in the opening: he actually had no lines, and just sat there next to Skeletor while Old Bonehead was interviewing the Toy Maker. The story clearly had no need for these minions, but I guess the animators felt Snake Mountain would look pretty empty without some other lugs sitting around in the background.
• There's definitely some home invasion in this episode, though I'm not sure it counts as a double. I don't think you can strictly consider the infiltration of the toys into Duncan's lab a "home invasion" given that Orko planted them there of his own free will. Certainly there's no question that He-Man and friends break into Snake Mountain for the final confrontation - and a smug Skeletor, distracted by crowing to Man-at-Arms over his certain victory, gets no advance warning of it. Duncan made passing reference to an "alarm" in his lab, but there is no evidence of one in the evil fortress when He-Man bursts through one of its exterior walls.
• This episode feels like a missed opportunity. The villainous Toy Maker had promise, but I was hoping for someone more like Superman's villain, Toyman (I'm sure if our friend and fellow fan of Supes, J. Michael Straczynski, had written this episode, we would have gotten a more Toyman-like baddie!). Of course, if Filmation had just ripped off the DC nemesis, it would have been unoriginal (not to mention plagiaristic); but it still would have been nice to see some more interesting and varied evil toys than the ones we got in this story. The toy soldier, bear, and dinosaur are fairly archetypal, but that makes them very bland and boring. They also don't really do anything, apart from look menacing and break down a door. Toy Maker also makes zero use of them for the final battle, preferring to morph them into an escape dragon. The more impressive and interesting enemy of the episode is the Valley of Echoes - I thought the scene where the heroes were lost among their auditory hallucinations was one of the cooler ones in here. This idea could have stood to be expanded and maybe made into its own episode, instead of being a throwaway and frankly out-of-place addition to this plot.