There's been increasing chatter about the origin of He-Man.

I don't know what was happening at Mattel thirty years ago when the toy line was first created, but I do know what was happening at Filmation Studios when the cartoon was developed because I was there at the very beginning of it all.

Now that we're getting closer to the thirtieth anniversary of the TV show and interest is growing in how the popular series from the 1980s came to be, it's a good time to share my experiences and help set the record straight.

The He-Man series has its roots in an animated commercial produced by Filmation for Mattel in 1981. I looked for this commercial for a long time on YouTube and it was nowhere to be found.

That is, until now.

This past July 25, it was uploaded on YouTube from video that was captured at the San Diego Comic Con.

The audio is bad as the din of the crowd mingles with the sound of the commercial, but it's good enough to get an idea as to what it's about.

Here it is for the first time online. I'll be building up the topic on AN's General Discussion Forum so be sure to check in as I relate what was happening at the tiome and how the He-Man cartoon came to be, at least from my perspective as a member of the original development team.

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