#macy’s thanksgiving day parade – @princess-unipeg on Tumblr

Masters of the Universe at Macy’s Thanksgiving day Parade

I was made aware of the existence of this decades ago by a now extinct website called X Entertainment that did recaps of old Macy Parade VHS recordings from the 80s.

In 1985 Mattel commissioned a float to promote both the Masters of the Universe and Princesses of Power toy lines and the two Filmation animated series airing at the time.

It was the most technologically complex float at the time, the front of the float featured Castle Greyskull in Eternia and at the back is She Ra’s Crystal Palace in Etheria. Connecting the two iconic play sets brought to life is an arched bridge with a menacing dragon breathing smoke at those trying to cross.

Riding on the float are live action versions of various characters from both toy lines:

He-Man
Man At Arms
Teela
Orko
Moss Man
Buzz Off
She Ra
Frosta
Glimmer
Queen Angella
Castaspella
Skeletor
Beast Man
Hordak
Grizzlor
Catra

Instead of a musical number like you’d see in the modern Macy’s parade, the characters on the float performed a mini stunt show in front of Macy’s Harald Square store complete with smoke machines and prerecorded audio track.

It sounds really cool but unfortunately the NBC film crew has no clue how to film this stuntacular, the camera work is all over the place with them trying to keep up with what the actors are doing, sometimes nearly missing parts of the performance. Some of the performers miss their cues, most notably He-Man himself almost forgets strike his power sword pose at the end. The whole thing is just a mess but a memorable one, which is why It’s always stuck with me since stumbling across it online as a kid.

They brought it back the following year for 1986 and added some newer characters to the float:

Ninjor
Mosquitor
Clamp Champ
Snout Spout
Squeeze (complete with the long arms)

And back again was the stunt show stop in front of Macy’s for the NBC broadcast, this time they brought in Dolph Lundgren from the live action Masters of the Universe movie to narrate the segment. Really the whole narration is unnecessary and doesn’t explain what’s going on at all, really Dolph is just there to promote the upcoming movie.

The stunt choreography is better this time and the film crew does a great job this time keeping up with the action, unfortunately the only clip online of this segment is really washed out and glitchy from the condition of the VHS it was taken from. You can see a better look at some of the new characters on clip from a rival Macy’s Parade broadcast.

Sadly that year would be the end of the Masters of The Universe float, the following year had the live action movie flopping and the toy line would be discontinued a year after that.

And while legally He Man and She Ra characters can’t intermingle outside the realm of toys, and they probably won’t be able to have a stunt show this time for everybody’s safety, I think They should consider making a new MOTu float for the parade in the future. Netflix has made balloons to promote Shows like The Christmas Chronicles and Green Eggs and Ham, I don’t see why they shouldn’t make one for their new version of MOTU, only time will tell if they make one someday.

Happy Thanksgiving Day everybody!

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