It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that He-Man had his own 1-900 number, which was the style at the time. Except there’s something really…off about this ad. “He-Man” doesn’t sound anything like himself. Neither does his “sister” who seems to be his partner in crime for this scam. And “Orko” sounds like some child they found on the street riding a skateboard who had probably done time in juvie. Wait a minute…that’s not He-Man! THAT’S FAKER!!!
As is unfortunately always the case with these stupid 1-900 numbers, finding any information as to who was behind this is virtually impossible. This, my friends, is true He-Man lost media. Whatever “stories” or “messages” or “sleazy ways to trick your parents” you would’ve heard on this hotline have been lost to he-time. What is certain is that’s not John Erwin voicing He-Man, nor is that Filmation head Lou Scheimer playing Orko (for budget reasons, Scheimer lent his pipes to a lot of characters on the show). I’m also 99.9% certain that ain’t Melendy Britt as She-Ra either. In other words, Filmation had zero involvement with this ad despite it using their animation. Which checks out, since I don’t recall any end-of-the-episode morals about how it’s “okay to spend your dad’s money without asking if he’s looking the other way.”
This ad is also copyrighted 1989–long after She-Ra had premiered its final episode in December of 1987–which would explain why toys from the live-action movie are among the “prizes” you could allegedly “win.” That action figure line didn’t sell well for Mattel at all (sorry, Gwildor stans), so maybe someone out there was just trying to get rid of them.
Have the power tonight, y’all!