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Most of Skeletor's henchmen may have been idiots, but there was one who was especially sharp.
Of all of Skeletor's henchmen, none is more dangerous in close-quarters combat than Spikor. The evil blacksmith with enchanted
razor-sharp spiked armor fused to his body forges weapons for the ruthless overlord. Hailing from his secret stronghold hidden in the mountains, Spikor fights by his master's side whenever he is beckoned.
On the vintage toy, the only info about Spikor (the Untouchable Master of Evil Combat) was that he "uses his spike-studded body & trident arm as mighty weapons," which really says nothing. Even the minicomic included with the figure, "Spikor Strikes," just had him as a guy threatening a village; his second appearance, in "The Terror-Claws Strike!", is where the idea that he was a blacksmith for Skeletor came from. The stuff about being fused into armor came from MotU Classics, because Scott Neitlich was a big fan of the Man in the Iron Mask - the man (who never existed), not the book (which also never existed). And with nothing else to go on, that's what the new MotU Revelation character gets to be as well.
In Roger Sweet's original design for the character who became
Spikor, he had a more animalistic look, complete with a tail and a porcine nose, suggesting that Shocka's guess that he was a giant purple hedgehog wasn't that far off the mark. By the time the toy saw release, the tail was gone and the face had been toned down, though he did still have a slight snout. The comics and cartoons reduced that even further, so what we get these days is a slightly upturned nose, nothing more. For some reason, he's got huge, kissable lips, with four small white fangs poking out between them.
Thanks in part to the inclusion of a tail, the original design made it seem like the spikes were a natural part of Spikor's anatomy,
but the way the toys were created and assembled made it look like separate armor. Animating nearly 100 small spikes all over the body would have bankrupted Filmation, so they reduced the number by about half, and Revelation drops it even more, to an easily countable 17 on the body and 18 on the head. They do know computers exist now, right? And can make animating complicated things like that real easy? For a guy who's supposed to be "untouchable," he sure has a lot of flat, smooth spots where someone could touch him. With their fist. Or a sword. And that's before we even get to his arms and legs!
Spikor's got some great colors. The head anc trunk are a dark purple, while the limbs are lighter - another thing that made
old fans think the middle part was armor rather than skin. His large yellow eyes stand out against the purple well, while the black boots and loincloth blend in. There are two metallic shades in the design: a desaturated blue for the bracelets and some detailing on the armor, and a coppery red for the belt.
The figure stands about 7" tall, because Mattel
is staggeringly dumb when it comes to sizing their figures. That makes him bigger than the Classics version, but really doesn't preclude him from integrating with Mo2K. No, he doesn't look like the Four Horsemen's planned redesign, but nothing's perfect. He's got swivel/hinge ankles, double-hinged knees, swivel thighs, balljointed hips, swivel waist, swivel/hinge chest, swivel/hinge wrists, double-hinged elbows, swivel biceps, swivel/hinge shoulders, and a barbell-jointed head. The armor over the torso keeps the chest from being of much use, but he can at least tilt around a little.
His accessories are not limited to alternate hands.
Oh, there are some - a pair of fists - but he's also got his spiked orange club and an update of the trident weapon that originally just came out of his arm. Here it's an alternate hand, because the cartoons can never remember whether he's got two hands or not, and it's also been redesigned to look like three straight bars, rather than the inverted pawn shop symbol it always was before. That's a bit disappointing, isn't it?
Spikor's new design may not be as cool as Moss Man's was, but being an oversized giant isn't as detrimental to him as it is to, say, Evil-Lyn or Teela. The cartoon will make you want those figures, but this one stands well enough by itself.
-- 11/14/21
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