I prefer The New Adventures of He-Man to the Filmation cartoon. There I said it. 
Yes I had some of Masters of the Universe toys but I only seen a couple episodes of the cartoon on TV.
This is the He-Man cartoon I grew up with. I had some of the toys, books, comics and recorded lots of episodes off the TV.
As for the origin story I knew the story from the comic, the annual, the cassette tape that came with the He-man figure and also the mini comic that came with some of the figures.
Main difference, in the cartoon He-Man and Skeletor travel tot he future. In the comic they just travel to space. I personally prefer the latter of them just going through space to a different galaxy.
As for these origin episodes I originally seen these back when they came on TV. They were originally shown as a movie on ITV. My Dad recorded it. The title card during the commercial breaks still used an image of the Filmation He-Man.
The New Beginning.
I really like this origin episode but I recall the first time I seen it I was a little disappointed at how different it was compared tot he comic and cassette tape story. Compared to the Filmation cartoon the animation in this is really beautiful. No recycled rotoscope animation. The animation is much closer to Thundercats.
Slight nit pick I wish Skeletor’s eyes were red and black like they are on the toy and throughout the rest of the cartoon from episode 6 onwards.
I always loved the scene with He-Ma and Skeletor emerging from the time vessel still fighting as they were when they left Eternia.
King Randor and Queen Marleena look quite like their Filmation designs but with different colours.
Prince Adam’s design is great and looks far better compared to Filmation.
I also really like He-Man desing but I do wish it had matched the toy a little more…or vice versa, but then again the second or third version of the He-Man toy looked a lot more like the cartoon.
Skeleotr’s design is great. The cloak and Helmet gives him more of a regal evil overlord look. Shame about the eye and nose colour in these 5 episodes. It’s also a shame that they never included the cybernetic enhancements the toys had and that the character got in the comics etc.
I didn’t have the Filmation Skeletor growing up but I had the New Adventures one and He-Man before I got the Filamtion based He-Man figure. I do like the Filmation toys but I definitely prefer the New Adventures, they were all unique sculpted and different from each other.
A good opening episode.
Quest For The Crytsals.
This episode is a nice introduction to how different, and Star Wars like the series is. We get to se Denebria, the aliens and the Starship Eternia. I always really liked the fight in the mine.
I have a strange memory related to this episode. I always recall watching it on VHS one Saturday night after coming back from the town having got a He-Man chocolate bar. The bar had caramel in it, something like a Cadbury’s Freedo The Frog. The packaging on the bar had The New Adventures logo but on the chocolate it had Filmation character designs.
The Heat.
A good episode but maybe the weakest of the 5 episodes. It was interesting to see how devious Skeletor could be. I really liked how the Terror Claw as in this episode as I was lucky enough to have the toy of this that my Mum and Dad got me.
Attack On Onnor.
It was pretty cool seeing the Quagmire Swamp. I like how He-Man uses a plan to out smart the Mutants to free his friends rather than rely on super strength.
Actually thats one thing I really liked about this series as a whole. He-Man doesn’t really have the super strength he had in the Filmation cartoon. He relies more on his skill as a warrior to beat them physically and out smart them.
The Ultimate Challenge.
I always thought this was a really cool episode and really enjoyed the finale.
Skeletor luring He-Man into a trap was very interesting.
Interestingly I believe this is the only episode in the series that features He-Man using his shield.
Coincidently the sword and shield are both coloured like metal whilst the toy had them a clear green making them look more like crystal and giving the sword more of a lightsabre look.
Like I said I really like this series. These 5 episodes are a great introduction to the series. The series gets even better. I would argue episode 6 Sword and Staff is even better than all of these 5 episodes and would highly recommend everyone checking them out. Perhaps eventually we will cover some highlight episodes from through the series.
A really interesting thing about this series is that in the beginning design stages, one of the concepts for the series was for it to have more of a G.I. Joe inspiration, and I think overall that element can still be seen in it with the unique characters of the Primus Space Force/ Galactic Guardians. Aside from He-Man there was Flipshot the pilot, Hydron the diver, Nocturna the martial artist, Artilla with his various weapons, Tuskador with his strength etc. Same for the mutants with their very different abilities. Slushhead was always one of my favourites along with Hoove and Tuskador.
It’s a shame this series didn’t have better success, but it was mostly ignored due to Turtlemania at the time. Unlike the previous Masters of the Universe figures these figures were far better articulated and proportioned along them to fit better into vehicles and incorporate better battle actions.