NEW ADVENTURES - 1990

Quest for the Crystals

Quest for the Crystals title card
E02

Official Synopsis

Skeletor holds a glowing pink crystal flower high on a ledge above He-Man.

Skeletor and Flogg settle their pact: Flogg's Mutants will get Primus, and Skeletor will get He-Man. Their first move is to send Slush Head to photograph the planet's defenses and then to wreck the Trifusium generator on the island of Titus, which keeps Primus from overheating. The only crystals that run it are mined in Gorn City on Denebria, so He-Man, Hydron, Flipshot and the young Caz take the newly freed Starship Eternia there with a pouch of Rondiel gems to trade. Skeletor's trap waits at Shaft 13, where He-Man faces him without his sword. The crystals come home, and Flogg closes the episode by delivering the lesson himself.

Morals by Closing safety lesson spoken at the end of the episode. Paraphrased from the audio.

Flogg delivers the closing lesson himself, after a dive into the swamp goes wrong: check the depth of the water before you dive in.

heman.org Episode Review

The first thing "Quest for the Crystals" teaches the viewer is that this show has a villain problem and a villain solution at the same time. Skeletor and Flogg spend the opening scene negotiating who is in charge, and the episode keeps coming back to that argument because it is the funniest thing in it. The second thing it teaches is that Primus has no weapons left to fight with, and that every victory from here on has to be earned with a salvaged ship, a plan and a lot of help.

The Mutant side of the story is the stronger half. Flogg, a warlord with a very short fuse, wants Primus and doesn't see why he should listen to a skeleton in a hood, and Skeletor keeps steering him back with flattery. Slush Head, the amphibious Mutant who refers to himself as the hero of the Quagmi Swamp, gets the dull errands, takes pictures like a tourist and then drops a bomb on a generator, and each time he looks pleased with himself. The Mutants are menacing in the dumb way a toy line wants them to be, but they are also very good at bickering, and that gives their scenes more life than the heroes' scenes can claim.

On Primus the council scene carries a rare piece of argument for a children's cartoon. Master Sebrian's critics say the time experiment wasted effort that should have gone into weapons, and he answers by producing He-Man and nothing else. It is a deft little reversal, but the debate ends faster than it started, which is the pattern for this cast. Everyone speaks in complete paragraphs and then nods.

The heart of the half hour is the Starship Eternia. Hydron and Flipshot have wanted to fly a real ship their whole lives, and the episode lets them. Weapons were outlawed on Primus long ago, so the ship has sat unused, and the heroes must break that habit to save the planet. It is a good premise for a hero's call, and the script pays for it by putting an eager boy, Caz, aboard against orders. He-Man's lecture about obeying orders is the preachy part of the episode.

The trap at Gorn City is a competent set piece with a clear idea: He-Man arrives to trade for crystals, and Skeletor has bribed the miner. The boy is sent to safety, Skeletor taunts him about having no sword, and the hero has to improvise. The staging is plain. It is an episode where nothing surprises you and everything works well enough.

The weakness is the shape of the finish. The crystals are collected, the ship is named for Eternia, and then the story gives Flogg the closing moral, which is the sort of reversal that sounds clever on a story board and plays as a gag on screen. A dive into the swamp goes badly, and the lesson comes from the villain.

Verdict: a mid-tier adventure with a decent engine and two good ideas, the rivalry between the villains and the long-grounded flying ship. It is the first episode where the series feels like itself.

Notes of Interest

  1. Continuity: Per the He-Man wiki, this episode introduces Werban and Meliac, who both become recurring characters.
  2. Continuity: Flogg delivers the closing lesson, which the wiki says is the first and only time a villain does so in the series.
  3. Continuity: Slush Head calls himself the hero of the Quagmi Swamp for the first time here, a place the series only shows in the next episode, per the wiki.
  4. Homage: Skeletor's tumble into a water-filled pit and his grumble that nothing goes right echoes the end-credits scene of the 1987 Masters of the Universe film, according to the wiki.
  5. Animation: The wiki notes the skull on Skeletor's helmet is coloured white in some shots, a slip that continues from the first episode, and the Mutant Mothership bridge appears in bright pink and purple here instead of its usual dark palette.
  6. Voice cast: Ted Cole voices both Slush Head and the robot Gleep, and Don Brown covers Hydron, Gepple and Werban, per the wiki's cast list.
  7. Continuity: The generator sits on the island of Titus in the Guardian Sea, and its crystals are mined only in Gorn City on Denebria, according to the wiki. Wikipedia's summaries spell the machine Trithuseum, the wiki spells it Trifusium.
  8. Toys: The first wave of the toy line included a Starship Eternia playset, per The Toy Collector's Guide, and the wiki lists this episode as the ship's first appearance in the Jetlag series.

Cast Appearances

Full roster →
He-Man
Good

He-Man
Skeletor
Evil

Skeletor
Flogg
Evil

Flogg
Slushhead
Evil

Slushhead

Episode screenshots

Two mutants fly through a blue sky, one green-skinned and one in brown, arms thrust forward.
Two mutants fly through a blue sky, one green-skinned and one in brown, arms thrust forward.
Skeletor stands on a ramp inside a dark mutant ship as others watch from alcoves.
Skeletor stands on a ramp inside a dark mutant ship as others watch from alcoves.
A spiked green organic mutant warship drifts through starry space.
A spiked green organic mutant warship drifts through starry space.
Flogg and a bald yellow-helmeted mutant sit at the controls of a mutant ship, gesturing.
Flogg and a bald yellow-helmeted mutant sit at the controls of a mutant ship, gesturing.
Skeletor spreads his arms wide with a toothy grin inside the mutant ship.
Skeletor spreads his arms wide with a toothy grin inside the mutant ship.
Skeletor stands at the top of a stair ramp in the ship while mutants gather below.
Flogg scowls with bared fangs, his purple face framed by a grey hood.
Flogg scowls with bared fangs, his purple face framed by a grey hood.
Skeletor smirks between Flogg and Slushhead at the ship controls as a small creature crawls above.
Flogg stands with arms crossed beside a horned helmet and a bald mutant at the controls.
A white-haired elder in a blue robe talks with Adam beside a green tube with yellow doors.
A white-haired elder in a blue robe talks with Adam beside a green tube with yellow doors.
Adam raises a glowing sword overhead as blue light rays burst around him.
Adam raises a glowing sword overhead as blue light rays burst around him.
A hand with a pointing finger fills the frame against a dark blue background.
A hand with a pointing finger fills the frame against a dark blue background.
A bald man in grey-green and a man in a tall red pointed hat stand side by side.
A bald man in grey-green and a man in a tall red pointed hat stand side by side.
Primus elders and a young woman stand in a dark hall as a grey-haired man turns away.
A white-haired elder holding a wooden staff stands beside a dark-haired young woman in a pale dress.
A purple-haired man in brown robes gestures with one hand beside glowing pink crystals.
A small robot in a glass helmet faces a purple-haired man standing beside pink crystals.
A grey-green mutant in yellow and blue armor snarls at the controls of a ship.
A blonde woman in a pink dress looks startled with one hand raised.
A boy in yellow and a blonde woman in pink carry staffs across a sandy plain.
The blonde woman in pink touches her chin and gazes up at the sky.
Two small figures walk across a plain inside a targeting screen on a ship console.
The grey-green mutant pilot grins with a clenched fist raised at the controls.
The boy and the blonde woman run hand in hand as a dark ship flies overhead.
The boy and the blonde woman huddle on the ground, eyes shut tight.
The blonde woman kneels in the grass with her arm around the boy.
He-Man turns to the blonde woman and the boy, a sword hilt visible on his back.
He-Man turns to the blonde woman and the boy, a sword hilt visible on his back.
The underside of a mutant ship with twin cannon barrels passes through the sky.
The blonde woman smiles gently, looking toward someone off to the side.
The dark-haired boy in a yellow cap smiles with a sideways glance.
A small ship trails a white cloud of smoke through space, seen through a round window.
A green-skinned mutant and a brown-clad mutant stand over a bald yellow-helmeted figure sprawled in a chair.
Flogg grimaces with his teeth bared, hood pulled low.
Skeletor grins widely beside Flogg, who clenches a red fist.
Skeletor leans toward Slushhead, who sits at the controls with wide eyes.
Skeletor rubs his chin and frowns at Slushhead in the pilot seat.
Photographs of a hilltop tower base lie on a console between Flogg and Skeletor.
The spiked mutant warship drifts toward a storm-wrapped blue planet.
A tower complex stands on a rocky cliff edge among drifting clouds.
The green mutant ship looms in shadow against dark space.
Skeletor, seen from behind, gazes out a window at the planet.
Skeletor holds his staff against a view of the lightning-lit planet.
A round multi-level domed building sits on a barren plain under a pale moon.
A red-haired man in a green armored suit stands in a garden at dusk.
A brown-haired man in blue armor and a red-haired man in green armor stand together.
A city of domed towers and curved bridges stretches across a park at sunset.
Two men in armored suits and a shirtless He-Man stand before an overgrown crashed ship.
Two men in armored suits and a shirtless He-Man stand before an overgrown crashed ship.
He-Man gestures with an open hand toward the two men in armored suits.
A grassy plain with jagged rock spires lies under two pale moons.
A flat dark hatch sits in a yellow field as white animals flock nearby.
He-Man and two men stand beside the large overgrown starship, which tilts above them.
He-Man kneels on the ship and hands a small box to a dark-haired woman in a pale dress.
A small figure in light clothes runs across a dry plain.
He-Man holds a small box between the two men in armored suits beside the ship.
The boy in a yellow cap and the blonde woman look up together on the plain.
Glowing blue panels sit on the hull of the starship.
The overgrown starship hull shows two red-bladed turbines on its side.
The starship rests on its pad as two women stand watching from the grass.
A dark-haired woman and the blonde woman smile as they look off to the side.
The two women stand on the plain as the ship rises into the distant sky.
He-Man sits in the foreground of the ship interior while two pilots and a small robot sit behind.
He-Man walks across the ship deck with a sword in hand.
He-Man grips a console as the two pilots sit beside him.
The boy sits on the deck by a crate as the two pilots and He-Man stand over him.
He-Man leans on a control panel with a stern look.
He-Man stands beside the boy in the yellow cap, who looks up at him in alarm.
He-Man looks at a small green robot on a moonlit rocky surface.
He-Man holds a box and raises a finger while the boy and the small robot look on.
He-Man stares ahead with a worried look.
A busy night street of neon signs is crowded with creatures of many kinds.
A figure stands in a lit doorway at the end of a dim stone alley.
He-Man stands at a doorway with the boy and the small robot on a dark street.
A green toad-like trader in a purple cloak grins slyly.
He-Man hands a small box across a table to the green trader.
He-Man sits at a table between the green trader and a blue-skinned man.
A blue-skinned one-eyed man with long dark hair sneers.
A yellow drilling vehicle sits on tracks near a rocky wall.
He-Man holds the box and turns to the small robot in a mine tunnel.
He-Man, the boy and the small robot walk through a red cave past a blue hand.
The boy and the small robot stand in a cave while several mutants gather in the background.
Two drill machines lie on the red rock floor of the cave.
A blue-skinned one-eyed man stands next to Skeletor as pink smoke billows behind them.
He-Man holds a sword at his side as pink lightning crackles beside a blue arm.
He-Man stands in the red cave while mutants crouch at the edges.
He-Man smiles confidently, looking off to the side.
A heap of long pink crystals fills the frame.
The starship shines a bright beam downward through dark space.
Skeletor flies upward in a pink cape, hands crackling with blue light over a bed of crystals.
Skeletor surfaces from dark water with his teeth bared.
A red-haired pilot opens a small box while strapped into his seat.
A brown-haired pilot in a blue suit smiles, looking off to the side.
A red-haired pilot grins over the control pad.
He-Man, the boy and the two pilots smile together on the starship bridge.

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