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Comment by marban | Hacker News Reader

No, I'm not aware of anyone getting scammed by He-Man.

He-Man was the scam. The entire show was created specifically to sell toys to children. Before Reagan's deregulation crusade in the early 80s, that was illegal.

What was illegal? Disney was selling character stuff for decades prior. Star Wars toys were licensed by Lucas before that movie came out[1].

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenner_Star_Wars_action_figure...

I mean its not a scam if you get a toy after you pay for it. The issue with this scam is none of these people got what they paid for.

If true that’s yet another reason to celebrate Raegan. Better for kids to buy toys of men in leotards than the Johnny 5 all in one super weapon.

What is the Johnny 5 all in one super weapon?

I think the parent commenter meant the Johnny Seven O.M.A (One Man Army) toy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Seven_OMA

Jonny Seven One Man Army.

Legal Eagle did a video over dangerous toys recently and had this in it.

https://youtu.be/UtT34FNuBf0

At the 3:15 mark.

You benefited from strong regulations which covered television programming, and even stronger regulations about those aimed at kids.

If NBC had broadcast scams in He-Man or Scooby Doo rather than the weekly moral messages they'd have been off air faster than you could blink.

Regulation barely exists any more, except mainly to defend copyright owners.

You clearly never ordered the products advertised in the back of the comics.

I wanted that hovercraft kit so bad.

More than x-ray vision? Real x-ray vision[0]?

[0] Or so I was led to believe.

Lol, forgot that one!

But kids were being scammed by those 1-900 "call Santa" television commercials.

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