Spikor
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 Spikor from A Christmas Special |
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Spikor is a character in the popular toy line and cartoon series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.
He is a member of the evil warriors, whose head and torso are completely covered in razor-sharp spikes. It is not clear whether the spikes are a natural part of his body or some kind of special armor. In place of his left hand is a trident, which can extend and in some mediums fires a laser beam.
[edit] Character history
Spikor was introduced into the Masters of the Universe toy line in 1985. His action feature was his spring-action waist, which propelled his trident to shoot out of its socket when his torso sprang back. His first appearance in any story medium was in the Mattel mini-comic "Spikor Strikes". This portrayed him as a deadly warrior whose spikes and trident were a formidable weapon, but gave him no real character development. He was given more development in the mini-comic "The Terror Claws Strike!" in which he was portrayed as a blacksmith who lived in a mountain cavern in which he fashioned various weapons for Skeletor. This comic showed he was the creator of the Terror Claws, which came with the action figure variant Terror Claws Skeletor.
Spikor was introduced into the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon series by Filmation shortly after his figure was released. While it was standard for Skeletor's henchmen to be portrayed as dim-witted and bumbling, Spikor was portrayed as undoubtedly the most stupid and useless of them all. He was given a comical voice, frequently altering in tone and emphasizing every second syllable as if singing, and an almost childlike personality. It is quite probable that this was intentional on Filmation's part, in order to make his character more suitable for a children's audience given his potentially frightening design. Appearing in three episodes ("The Gambler", "Visitors from Earth" and "The Games"), never once did he actually use his spikes. The only episode to give him a main role was "The Games" in which he was infused with the villainous energy of all of Skeletor's minions so that he would chosen to represent the side of evil in a series of games set by aliens, but he was clearly a bizarre choice for the role given that he was shown to foul up repeatedly and was used as mere comic relief through the whole episode.
However, despite the heavily toned-down portrayal of his character, he came across significantly differently in the episode "Visitors from Earth". Although he only appears briefly, in this episode he comes across as a silent, menacing, zombie-like character in complete contrast to his other appearances. At one point, the screen fades to black as Skeletor sets him towards a captive, hinting at some kind of horrific use of his spikes; the only point at which Filmation acknowledged the character's potentially deadly abilities which were too extreme for them to show. Another notable point of this episode is that it is the only episode in which he has the trident arm of the toy- in other episodes, the trident was excluded in favor of a normal hand so he could appear symmetrical, thus allowing the animators to flip over the character cels.
While his exposure in the cartoon was minimal, Spikor featured more predominantly in various comic series, including the UK comics by London Editions. Surprisingly, Spikor was completely excluded from the 2002 relaunch of the MOTU toy line and cartoon, and although the line only lasted for two years, no mention was ever made of plans to incorporate Spikor.
