Tri-Klops
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Tri-Klops is a character from both Mattel's toyline Masters of the Universe and the Filmation animated series of the same name. He is minion of the evil Skeletor and enemy of He-Man and the other heroes of Eternia. He wears a rotating visor helmet with three artificial eyes fixed to it (hence his name), each with a special type of vision. In some mediums this gives him the advantage of seeing in three directions at once, while in others he sees only out of the front eye and rotates his visor depending on which type of vision he requires.
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[edit] Character history
[edit] Early Mini-comics
Tri-Klops was one of the first characters to be designed for the Masters of the Universe toy line. According to the line's creator Roger Sweet, he was originally designed as a Heroic Warrior but wound up packaged with the evil characters.
The first story to feature him was the Mattel mini-comic "The Terror of Tri-Klops" which introduced him as a near-match for He-Man in terms of strength, summoned by Skeletor when he decided he needed a warrior with strength on par with He-Man's. He was presented as a skilled hunter and swordsman, and also a handy spy given that his helmet enabled him to see all around him and thus be able to spot all attacks from behind. One of his eyes possessed night vision while another possessed far vision (Distavision) enabling him to see over great distances, and he could also fire various ray beams from his eyes.
[edit] The Cartoon
Tri-Klops was introduced into the toy line's accompanying cartoon series by Filmation in the pilot episode "Diamond Ray of Disappearance". This episode continued in the vein of the mini-comics by presenting Tri-Klops as an almost equal match for He-Man in strength. His eyes here possessed the powers of Gamma vision (seeing around solid objects) as well as Distavision. The clicking and whirring sounds that accompanied the rotation of his helmet here suggested the helmet was mechanical rather than magical as the mini-comics had implied. However, Tri-Klops' appearances in the series were surprisingly sparse and he received little in the way of character development, portrayed mostly as a generic bumbling henchman and consigned mainly to background roles. The series bible states that Tri-Klops was a crew member named T. E. Scope, on Marlena Glenn's ship[1], though this origin was discarded for the series. His largest roles in the series came in the episodes "The Royal Cousin" and "Ordeal in the Darklands" in which he was paired alongside Evil-Lyn, although even in these episodes he was portrayed as little more than a bumbling sidekick incapable of thinking for himself. These episodes also indicated that he was a lot more loyal to Skeletor than most of his teammates. Given his lack of development, the notion of him being a match for He-Man was never built upon and he quickly faded into the background of the series, and by the time of season 2 he had been almost forgotten by the writers, though he did make one final appearance in the She-Ra episode "Reunions".
[edit] 2002 series
Tri-Klops was reused in the 2002 relaunch of the MOTU toy line and series. His design here was slightly modified and his helmet was shown to be a cybernetic attachment. In one episode of the cartoon, "Rise of the Snake Men part 1", when the helmet was smashed we saw that his artificial eyes were wired cybernetically into his real eye sockets.
The cartoon gave him a much bigger role than the 80s one had, and he was here depicted as a technologist and inventor, far removed from the original concept of the character as a more primitive warrior. He was Skeletor's main inventor and spent most time in his workshop coming up with all sorts of weapons and vehicles to aid Skeletor, one of his most notable inventions being the Doomseekers which were used to spy on He-Man and the Masters. Shown to be considerably more intelligent than most of Skeletor's minions, the cartoon also retained the portrayal of him as one of the more loyal of Skeletor's minions. However, he did finally branch out on his own and attempt to betray Skeletor in the episode "Roboto's Gambit" in which he attempted to use his latest invention to take over Eternia for himself after the invention was rejected by Skeletor.
The cartoon's accompanying comic series gave him an origin story, which tied in with the original idea of the character as a medieval-style swordsman. He began as a noble swordsman (who bizarrely enough wore a bandana which concealed his eyes completely) who was blinded by a magic spell, and became the defender of a scientific research center, who used his senses of smell and sound to fight his enemies, now wearing a helmet over his eyes in place of the bandana. Having been given this position by the building's owner, whose life he had saved, when the building came under attack by Keldor (prior to his transformation into Skeletor) the two began to battle. Keldor tricked Tri-Klops into believing the tower's owner had used the helmet to keep the spell on his sight intact for the sake of using him as his defender, and Tri-Klops helped Keldor overcome the tower. Keldor rewarded Tri-Klops by creating the mechanical visor he wears today to restore his sight, but the visor also secretly serves to keep Tri-Klops loyal to himself, and Tri-Klops has remained in Skeletor's services ever since, mistakenly believing that he saved his life.
[edit] Trivia
There were two versions of the mold used for the 1980s action figure of Tri-Klops; one a quite "normal" looking one, and the other quite distorted, looking as if he was sticking his bottom lip out.
[edit] References
- ^ Masters of the Universe Series Bible p.17. He-Man.org.
