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They ought to have a life-sized bronze statue of Val erected at the entrance of any new MOTU con. Look, no quarterback throws a perfect pass every time, but Val's completion rate makes him the GOAT fan in the world of MOTU fans. Just think about all he did with launching, then maintaining he-man.org -- a site where thousands of fans and creators and artists exchanged ideas and opinions and their shared love for all things MOTU and bought and traded memorabilia. Try to imagine the monumental effort it took for Val and his team of hundreds to mount Power-con year after year after year, providing a loving Mecca where fans could gather.
Now MOTU is in ascendancy once more, with multiple television series and a long-awaited feature film. Many fans forget that Val Staples was the man who almost single handedly kept the franchise alive by selflessly marshaling the passion of a small group of fans and helping them to grow. He knew the music and he knew the words. Now that group is growing and we all owe a huge debt of gratitude to Val.
A life-sized bronze statue is too small a tribute and homage for the MOTU GOAT fan.
You're not wrong. Val was a huge part of keeping the fandom alive and was integral in its revival during the 200x and MOTUC era as well. I loved talking about MOTUC on Org. By the time you'd reply there was already another page of replies to read. It was a fantastic time to be a fan.
That being said, I'm still pissed about what happened to the Org. There would've been multiple opportunities to save the Org before it was shutdown. Hell, even years before it was shutdown it could've happened. Annual fundraisers, subscriptions, eventual buy-out by someone else, etc. All of that could've been solved by better communication with the community. His unwillingness to sell the site to someone else (since he had multiple offers from my understanding) is unforgivable. Decades of history lost because of it. Imagine spending all that time and effort to save the fandom and keep it going and then deciding you would throw it all away at the end. Unreal.
I get what you're saying, smokinya. I really do. As I said, even great quarterbacks don't throw a perfect pass every time. Even the best throw plenty of interceptions.
But there's something else to be considered.
Many years ago, when Kim and I were living in Boca Raton, Florida, my parents flew down from Chicago to visit us. I wanted everything to be perfect, so one Saturday we took them to our favorite local deli for breakfast. The restaurant was packed and wonderfully raucous. It took a long time for the waitress to bring us water and when she finally did it seemed like her heart wasn't in it. I made a few quips to try to loosen her up when she brought our menus too many minutes later, but it clearly wasn't working and she barely made eye contact.
Servers are an important part of the dining experience and this one had made our breakfast a bust, which ticked me off because my parents were with us. When then manager stopped by and asked how our breakfast was, I'd had enough. I went on a rant, keeping my voice down, telling him all that had happened. When I was wrapping up I ended by saying, "She's working with the public. If she can't do her job then she should stay home."
Drawing closer and lowering his voice, the manager told me he agreed. He shared, "Her brother died yesterday after a two-year long battle with lung cancer. I tried to tell her not to come in today but she felt it might help her. I'm sorry about your breakfast," he said, picking up the check. "It's on us."
I wanted to crawl under the table...
Since then I've realized we can never walk in another person's shoes or know what's going on in their lives in the short or long term...including what they're going through. As a result, I try to give people the benefit of the doubt and cut them a little slack. I respectfully suggest you do the same. 🙂
Battle Ram Blog on Instagram just posted that he, Jukka and Massa are bringing .Org back in it's original form as much as possible. For now they're resurrecting the most useful resources like pictures and information.
@theman No excuses. He could have sold the site to one of many willing, desperate buyers if his heart wasn't in maintaining the site himself anymore. It was a despicable, selfish move that could easily have been avoided.
Imho, I hope they don't bring back The Tar Swamp. On paper it was a good idea -- a place with spirited opinions on politics, sex and religion could be exchanged. But in practice I all too often saw it devolve into flaming wars, people going waaaaay over the line defending their passionately held positions, myself occasionally included. I think it was a burden to the administrators. Just sayin'...
For what its worth Power Con seems to be...expanding if that is the right word? They're doing a He-Man and MOTU specific con called MOTUFest next year. No dates or specific location other than somewhere in the Midwest at this point.
There also seems to be another MOTU con not affiliated with Power Con or MOTUFest planned for next year in California too!
@theman No excuses. He could have sold the site to one of many willing, desperate buyers if his heart wasn't in maintaining the site himself anymore. It was a despicable, selfish move that could easily have been avoided.
Val was on the Toy Frenzy and joked about Adam making him a lot of money running the org so Val still owns the org. I call bullshit that it was always the plan to give the org to Adam. The only reason why it's back today is because of the movie. There is new opportunity and org is needed to promote his new con.
For what its worth Power Con seems to be...expanding if that is the right word? They're doing a He-Man and MOTU specific con called MOTUFest next year. No dates or specific location other than somewhere in the Midwest at this point.
There also seems to be another MOTU con not affiliated with Power Con or MOTUFest planned for next year in California too!
Mega Jay and some other fan is involved with that California con. AJ may be involved too. It's too early to tell. With Val back doing a con I can see them scrapping the whole idea and I wouldn't blame them.
@theman No excuses. He could have sold the site to one of many willing, desperate buyers if his heart wasn't in maintaining the site himself anymore. It was a despicable, selfish move that could easily have been avoided.
Val was on the Toy Frenzy and joked about Adam making him a lot of money running the org so Val still owns the org. I call bullshit that it was always the plan to give the org to Adam. The only reason why it's back today is because of the movie. There is new opportunity and org is needed to promote his new con.
A likely scenario.
If Power-Con is still stuck in Ohio and part of their event is going to revolve around promoting that Fall of Grayskull 2 fan film, I could see that giving the advantage to the California based new one as far as celebrities are concerned. Unless Val can get some exclusive Mattel MOTU figures, I think I might give the advantage to a California one due to location and celebrities living nearby.
They'll be announcing dates and location sometime this month. They said they could announce them now but some good things came their way they weren't expecting so as a result they're getting all the plans in place before the announcement.
I'd heard it was originally going to be in April-May and some where in the Midwest which is why some were speculating Chicago, but that may not be the case any more. We'll find out this month!