The Secret Origin of Skeletor from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe toy line from Mattel 

I love the funny insults Skeletor always said to his henchmen when they messed up. The Christmas special showing that Skeletor has a heart was great.

Man just like the later Thundercats reboot! That early 2000 HeMan series was great! Such love of the franchise, and care for the canon!

I didn't think _He-Man_ was this well fleshed out. It's a lot better than what I grew up with in the 80's. I'm going to find more stories about it.

This type of storytelling would have really hooked me in 83... instead of the everyone smiling in Filmation cartoon. I just think I was born too early, late '71, to be the target audience for He-Man at the time... now...I love it!!! Thanks for the history lesson!!

Wow they made a suped deep lore, many toys, comics and even animated series, just for an internet meme where a pink bodybuilder sings whats going on. Cool

This is the best origins of skeletor I ever heard. This would make a great animated movie, in the style of the 200X Mike Young series.

The puppy licking Skeletor’s face is worrying, seeing as dogs like to chew on bones.

Keldor: Please Master, I'm sorry for betraying you, I beg you heal my face. Hodak: I'll do ya one better. Now you don't even NEED a face. Skeletor: Nyeh!!!

Interesting. I wouldn't mind if a movie begins telling this story and then He-Man origin.

Never knew there was such detailed lore behind Skeletor. Now I want to read the comics.

Nobody mentions that the penciller on the comic book "The Search for Keldor" was Bruce Timm, later known for creating Batman The Animated Series in the 1990s.

Great Vid! The Letterer of the "The Search for Keldor" mini comic is Stan Sakai, legendary cartoonist, writer and creator of Usagi Yojimbo.

Great villains always have the best origin stories 😎👍

The Pimp of Evil. Man this is the best description of villain I've ever heard xD

This would make a great movie! Part 2 could be when He-Man is born. They seriously need to make this! Awesome video man!

I always rooted for Skeletor, mostly because he was just so darn entertaining. Now I find out he’s the rightful ruler of Eternia!

I think the key to beating hordak, is by giving Demoman his own conscious back and turning him on Hordak and sending him back to dimension to battle him.

I just came across your video as recommendations. Wow, I never knew other versions of Skeletor existed. As a casual fan, who had the toys in the 80s & watched the cartoon, I only know of Three versions...the one that came with the mini comic, the 80s cartoon then the 2000 version. Thank you for doing all the research and taking the time to make a video. Is it me, or as time goes on, we get back stories of some villains, that they are not the evil, out of control, pure evil as we think they are. Those villains have depth and a sad story.

“Pimp of Evil.”

I suppose the accident with the Queen Mother was supposed to be covered in major detail later and was also Hordak doing.

Don't forget that Skeletor is the master of memes who is into whatever sh*t one can think of. I really liked how you guys combined both origins of Skeletor for Classics. Very creative, and I hope they bring that into any MOTU media going forward

I remember Keldor. It goes like this, "Keldor!!! Take me away!!!....."

Just remember Skeletor is Bad to the Bone !!!👍💪💀

Holy cow Scott, this was awesome man! Really appreciate the well told "backstory to the backstory " of my favorite villain of all time. Of course, second only to the mighty Mer-Man!

I learn something new every time i tune in !

The more I learn about all the Preternia events, the more I want an anthology series of them. Like have an episode or two that focuses on a He-man or He-man like figure (He-ro, King Greyskull, Vikor, and Vykron), and maybe go on to the adventures of the son of He-man!

Next to the creation of Despara, Keldor is my favorite character in MOTU mythology.

"It's the Mr Skullhead show... Starring him: Mr Skullhead! Cuz it's his show that he has, Mr Skullhead!"

And here I thought I knew everything about MotU. Thank-you for giving me new knowledge.

Always liked that he was the rightful heir to the throne but Prince Adam/He-Man is essentially oblivious to that; Randors dirty lil secret. Similar to how the Thundercats were an invasive species to Mumm-Ra's 3rd Earth in the OG cartoon; never occurred to them that's why he was trying to get rid of them lol

Looking forward to this exciting origin story to be fleshed out (pun intended)

I don't know how I stumbled across your videos, but I'm enjoying them, not a huge MOTU fan, but toys in general, born in 83. When I was maybe 5 or so I had tons of motu, and greyskull while TMNT lasted my collecting and extended enjoyment, I've been watching the resurgence of MOTU and the mythos, over the years from the various mini documentary's on netflix and toys that made us. and these deep dives on extended story telling.

I wonder what would happen in an alternate timeline, where Keldor managed to throw the acid at Randor, sucessfully burning his face

Wow, you could easily adapt Obi-Wan's speech in Revenge of the Sith to this tragic tale! Randor: "Why, Keldor? You were the CHOSEN ONE! You were supposed to bring balance to Eternia! You were supposed to help us destroy the forces of evil, not JOIN THEM! You were my brother, Keldor. I loved you..."

I want to thank you for sharing your stories with us common folk.

Wow I love this cartoon is a child. I have to say at this point the fan base is beyond me. Keep The art of storytelling alive!!

Wait, so keldor was going to be king , but hordak helped fire up the crowd to reject him so he could lead keldor to his castle where he is going to help him become king?

A Skeletor origin story followed by a He-Man origin and leading to an epic final battle in the third movie would be enough to to put MOTU on par with all of the greatest cinematic series.

Very cool. I knew about Keldor from the 200X cartoon, but I didn't realize the concept had seeds reaching even further back than that. Also I love the idea that Classics Skeletor is created by merging with what was the original "prototype" for Skeletor. Amazing stuff!

Skeletor and Hordak, such a great rivalry!

This lovely acid not only cleans your hands while you wash the dishes, it also melts your face clean off!

I wish this story was r rated, it’s pretty amazing for a reboot. I must admit when I heard the pitch of skelator being hemans uncle I was not sure. However this was beautifully presented.

This origin story is pretty good, apart from the one glaring issue, that being that everybody on Eternia would know Skeletor was actually Keldor. I guess it just retcons the whole part about the truth destroying him.

I love this franchise.

Thanks for this video, Scott! I recently did a video on the Royal Family of Eternia and got into thinking about Skeletor's origin, and your video certainly helped clarify that a lot, particularly with how Demo Man fits into all this.

I'm ready for this, I work at 6am, it premieres at 7am, can't wait!!!! Oh Hell Yeah!

Fantastic work,thanks again!!👌🙏🙏

Awesome vid as always.. This right here is why a MOTU movie universe would work,, the stories they can tell would be amazing.

This was great. The back story makes it even better.

Also like to think it's the Demo-man entity that's also keeping Skeletor "alive" if you will. Makes sense in the episode where Hordak threatens to "take back the life I gave you" if Skeletor didn't release him from despondos. If Keldor is Miro's son as well, making him a descendant of King Grayskull - if you want to say the person that sent Hordak into despondos - I guess that would make only one of the few that could free him.

I love how you manage to make sense of somehting so disjointed... Perfectly balanced, as all things should be... Skeletor is a really impressive villain. In the 200x series he would always lose, like, always, even the Snake Men would manage to score a few victories, but not Skeletor... And yet, I just loved seen him back again and again... He was just so damn charming I loved it! I just loved when he was around because I knew he would make the scene so much cooler!

This was excellent! The backstory really ties in with what we already know and what makes sense. The timeline has always been a bit confusing regarding when Skeletor lost his face, and when the twins were stolen. Personally I like to think he helped Hordak steal them when he was still Keldor, but! I think it would be amazing if Hordak agreed to save Keldor on the condition that he owes him a debt, and Hordak later calls on Skeletor to kidnap the twins to repay his debt. I think it’s so perfect and really fits in with mythology (Uther Pendragon and Merlin, though Keldor is really a Merlin type character). I never really understood the Demoman aspect of Keldor’s transformation and this explained it so well. I’d love to see all this in a live action film, and not just flashback, but as the first film, or a standalone Keldor film in a MOTU film universe. 👍👍

This is a damn solid origin story for Skeletor. It's probably better than the one I concocted when I was a kid. In the days of the mini-comics, before the cartoon and WAY before Hordak, my personal Eternia was a post-apocalyptic, Thundarr-like world of radiation, half-rediscovered science, and weird wizardry. My Skeletor was a genetic mutant: half-human, half-ram, irradiated into a single being... but born with a human skull and a ram's face. You follow? Without the correct bony under-structure, the ram's face SLID OFF the skull, revealing the ghastly countenance of our favorite cackling villain! His ram-headed staff, of course, bears the likeness Skeletor might have had, if his skull's shape had matched the flesh of his face. (His blue skin was a by-product of the mutation; he also had purple blood. His massive musculature was conjured with sorcery, which was self-taught and did not require some mystical uber-master above him. My Skeletor was a complete badass: strategically brilliant, fantastically gifted in the Dark Arts, a worthy if ignoble nemesis for the stalwart He-Man. I digress.)

I am so glad this video popped up in my suggestive feed! This was an amazing in-depth look at a character I thought I knew more about (having read comics & watched the cartoon). Thank you for doing this & I look forward to seeing more of your videos. I wish there was a collection of the mini-comics or exclusive stories I could find. Again excellent work!

Remember when Retroblasting thought that Scott created Keldor (in spite of the fact that he was first mentioned in the 1980s mini-comics and appeared on the 200X cartoon before MOTU Classics even started)? 😅

I grew up watching Masters of the Universe. I always liked Skeletor although I didn’t understand why he was portrayed so foolishly. Yet, he could be a very interesting villain if written correctly. After watching this, I wonder why this character hasn’t been expanded on.

I dont mind learning more back story of Skeletor. Usually I want to know but don't want to know for the sake of mystery. But Skeletor I always look forward too his story.

*Skeletor's real origins:* *Mini-comics -* *1)* Keldor, brother of King Randor, was messing about with some magic one day. *2)* Keldor got sucked into a parallel universe, where he met a race of skull headed people. *3)* The skull headed people did magic on him to assimilate him into one of their own kind, turning him into the skull headed Skeletor. *4)* "The Great wars" happened, and opened a portal between the skull head world and Eternia. *5)* Skeletor fell through the portal into Eternia, once again. *Filmation cartoon -* Skeletor was a demon from another dimension who crossed over into Eternia. *200X cartoon -* Keldor, half brother of King Randor gets his face melted off in a fight. Hordak then makes him into Skeletor.

So many answers! This is to MOTU what the Mandalorian is to Star Wars. I love it! Origins of Trap Jaw next on the docket lol

@16:26: Keldor to Mer-Man: "This is like shaking hands with a dead fish".

A masters of universe fighting game would be awesome.

Spoony: HE TOOK A FLASK OF ACID TO THE FACE!

We need a series about this, or a movie

Scott is such a great storyteller!!! ❤️❤️❤️

I personally always hated that He mans team were called The Masters - since the old toy tag line was "who will be the MASTER of the Universe- YOU DECIDE...."

So he's basically " Evil Ghostrider "

Skeletor is one of my fav Villians ever created, i grew up in the 80s and He-man was my hero but the hero is only as good as the villain and Skeletor is awesome, just think of him now in a live action movie, gosh why hasnt it been done already, yes i did like the other movie version but it cud be so much better!

I remember when Masters of the universe first came out when i was a kid; i was probably 6-7 in the early 80s. I wanted one badly, in the way that only 6 year olds can. Like all kids i figured the way to get one was to just talk about it CONSTANTLY. I made up a little song (basically "HE-man, HE-man da dada da daa.") My memories were that i was doing this for months and months, though it was probably more like weeks but to 6 year olds, weeks are months. We had a Science Fair every year at my school and my father had come to it and watched me do my little presentation to the judge. Ive had a few different careers in my life but the lion's share has been sales and i swear it started then. I had seen that all the other kids basically just read the report they did for their projects, where it sounds like they're just reading it with that halting way kids do when they've only been reading for a few years. I had already figured that i didn't want to sound like that so i did it in a relaxed way, almost conversational. I'm not bragging (why would anyone?)when i say that all the teachers and other faculty that watched us give them said that i had done the presentation the best, but as these things go the kid who did win did because he had this impressive volcano that was obviously built by a parent. On the ride home my father said he needed to get something at the store in the way home and I sat out in the car (while this may sound like neglect in today's environment, it was common back then to leave kids alone in the car." When we got home he told me he needed help carrying things in from the trunk. When he opened it there was only 1 small bag that he handed to be, i saw the "K.B. Toys" on the side and when i opened it just a crack, i saw literally only the corner of the "E" from where it said Masters of the "UniversE" and i pulled it out so quickly that i swear it hit some Quantum field and the bag flashed out of existence for a moment before flashing back. At 44 years old i can STILL remember the almost manic excitement when i had the the box (or more of a card) in my hand.

That was a great and fascinating story, makes me want to go even deeper into it, a series focusing on the great unrest would be cool, especially if it worked in Marlena arriving on Eternia. I do have to wonder where and how the kidnapping of Adora fits in with it.

Skeletor is heman's uncle. Thats what surprised me!

Amazing break down!

Got me all empathic towards em now

This was great ...I had forgotten most of history...

The content and knowledge you drop is great keep up the great work brother

I love the pulp sword and sorcery art. I also love the Continuity with the explanation of the original mini comic skeleton. And I didnt realize that the original mjnicomic heman was a different one.

Cool vid! I was working at Mattel when that reboot happened in the early 2000s (not working on it though unfortunately). I always thought Skeletor would have been even cooler if he'd kept the 'stache after his transformation...!

Keldor's merge with Demo-man could be the reason he keeps calling himself a "Demon from another dimension"!

My God you've just blown my mind with this video😯😯😯😯😯😯😯😯😯

This is the first I heard mention of Big Jim Captain Drake & the Skeletor head. Weird that other docs like Power of Grayskull or Toys That Made Us didn't point that out, especially with the "I created Skeletor" debate.

Interesting back-story 😬👍🏻 I think your channel's about to blow up 😬👍🏻

dunno if i’m messed up in the head, but ever since watching MOTU revelation i’ve had a huge crush on skeletor 😂 skull face and all

Kinda reminds me of Loki and Thor too.

It's always interesting seeing different versions and adaptations of these stories, I often wonder what a 2000s version of She-Ra would have been like, and with the more recent She-Ra series having brought back Hoard Prime from the 80s series as the overlord of the Hoard, I wonder if a version of He-Man in that universe would see the events of the 2000s series involving Hordak play out with Hoard Prime instead, had that story been allowed to continue. It would have been fun to see each series versions of the characters from the other.

Such a good thorough breakdown of his origins...👌🏼💯✔ I wish the 200x cartoon would've lasted longer...💁‍♂️

Thank you for this. I've always loved Skeletor since I was a kid back in the old He-Man and She-Ra days. I don't really remember the 80s Filmation cartoons talking much about Skeletor's backstory. Of course 80s cartoons were very black and white and simplistic. You were either good or bad and the how or why was unimportant. In fact the only piece of Skeletor's history that I remember was from Secret of the Sword when he helped Hordak kidnap Adora. Of course I was just a little girl at the time so maybe I just don't remember everything. Still this is great thank you.

Man this all would make one great movie 😊

I always wanted the 200X Keldor. My brother wrote for Wizard magazine and Toyfare. So Faker and SDCC She-Ra were easy to get. Keldor was too expensive and I had Mossman for a week before my ex-wife (then wife) broke him just to spite me.

I really loved the world building that the later mini-comics were coming up with. The Snake Empire during Preternia and their battle against the Horde. Randor having a brother named Keldor who vanished. The Unnamed One being a villain even more powerful than Hiss. Not having any definitive answers to what happened left us with so many fun fan theories and discussions over the years. Then MYP came along and they tried to answer some of these burning questions but it just never lived up to what was now ingrained in our memories because of those discussions. The way they executed Keldor left me feeling so disappointed in them, from his generic villain look to having him be a half brother from a different species just to explain Skeletor having blue skin. I'm glad your mini-comics were able to improve upon their Keldor origin, but I hope that one day in a future incarnation of MOTU, that they retire the Keldor is Skeletor story and give us a new take on him. I think I'd be happier if they returned to Skeletor being from the planet Infinita with no ties to the Royal Family. Make Scare Glow and the Great Black Wizard characters who come from Infinita too. Speaking of the Great Black Wizard, any chance you could tell us what you had in mind for him? Along with Lady Slither, he was definitely the one new character I was looking forward to the most. It's a shame he never got a figure.

I had the search for Keldor mini comic.. I had kept thinking Keldor sacrifices his face to gain magical powers.

Would have been awesome to have had younger versions of Keldor and Randor with the different looks. Removable helmets or changeable heads would make the pair a must have. I saw a two-pack of Keldor and Kronis for the Origins line and would love a two-pack of the princes of Eternia in different attire. The Galactus helmets must be sculpted!

So Skeletor is He-Mans half Uncle. Gotta love a good family feud.

The 2002 show was awesome. They went by the original origins

Very cool! Thanks.

Imagine if Randor got hit by the vial. A deformed king, kept from dying by a hi-tech helmet. He is a force for good as Randor The Skull King.

I wish they would have finished the last season of the masters when Hordak shows up. I liked the new 2000s masters show it was great and should have been completed i was so waiting to see how they brought hordak after the snake men came and left.

Skeletor, Evil Lord of Destruction And then a little guitar lick with sweep picking and stuff, hear it?

The acid damage toy face looks so cool

Everyone has a weird, crazy uncle. He-Man is no different.

So basically, Skeletor's head was replaced with a skull shaped Phylactory containing the power of this demon to keep him alive.

The penciler for the classic He-Man mini comics was Stan Sakai, who would later go on to do art for the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, as well as for the related comic lines of Ninjara and also founding his own comic in Usagi Yojimbo.