He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Season Two, Volume 1

On the next stop of our He-Man/ BCI dvd release tour, we'll be visiting the first volume of the second (and final) season of Filmation's beloved classic series. I was personally looking quite forward to delving into the second season on account of the simple fact that much of my attraction toward He-Man was I was a kid stemmed from the concept of replaying the onscreen action with my modest action figure collection (which did include the Castle Grayskull play set). That said, season 2 introduced many of the characters that made up my toy, er I mean action figure collection. Among the noteworthy additions were the villains Whiplash, Cobra-Kahn, and the ever-cool Webstor. On the side of justice, He-Man's crew expanded to include Buzz-Off, Fisto, and Mekaneck.

Unfortunately, I cannot report all positive as far as the second season is concerned. While the charm of the first season was retained, it starts to become clear by the second or third disc of this collection that the well of material was beginning to dry up. Make no mistake, several of the episodes here represent some of the finest writing of the entire 130 episode run (Into the Abyss, The Origin of the Sorceress for example) but the great works tend to be surrounded by plots that we've experienced time and time again (kidnapping to other dimensions, Skeletor's endless failures). In addition the ever-annoying Orko takes a turn for the worse this season. While I realize that he was placed into the series for the benefit of the children, his continual spoils do grow a bit thin.

This isn't to say this isn't a worthy addition to the BCI collection. In fact, in many ways it is the most impressive box set to be released. The cover art is spectacularly reminiscent of the original production's look and in my estimation, this volume contains one of the most interesting documentary segments of the entire run: The Magic of Filmation. This retrospective really provides a solid feel for the family-like environment of Lou Scheimer's legendary company. To be honest, by this stage of the game, the viewer actually begins to feel like they actually know the individuals involved in the production of He-Man personally. Should I bump into any of them on the street, I suspect maintaining a healthy conversation should be effortless after watching these collections.

As is tradition for this box set release, the sixth disc includes the stories behind select episodes from the first half of season 2 (episodes 66-98) in addition to 3 full episode commentaries. 2 more 4x6" collectible cards are packaged in this time from Frank Cho and Emiliano Santalucia.

Included on this 6 disc set are the following episodes:

The Cat And The Spider
The Energy Beast
Day Of The Machines
The Gamesman
Fisto's Forest
The Rarest Gift Of All
The Great Books Mystery
To Save Skeletor
Island Of Fear
Origin Of The Sorceress
The Ice Age Cometh
Trouble In Trolla
Betrayal Of Stratos
Disappearing Dragons
The Shadow Of Skeletor
The Arena
Attack From Below
Into The Abyss
Fraidy Cat
The Rainbow Warrior
A Trip To Morainia
Things That Go Bump In The Night
Three On A Dare
Just A Little Lie
One For All
Jacob And The Widgets
The Littlest Giant
Trouble's Middle Name
Journey To Stone City
A Bird In The Hand
Battlecat
The Time Wheel
Search For The Past

Once again BCI has somehow managed to pack way more material into a compilation than previously thought possible. The tradition of excellence BCI has introduced to fans of the original season is present through the transition into the beginning half of the second, and unfortunately final, season of Filmation's He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.