Written by Adam McCombs
Name: Spikor
Faction: Evil Warriors
Approximate US release date: May 30, 1985
Spikor is the one figure from 1985 that I have no memory of ever being aware of as a kid. I don’t know why that is, but I just draw a total blank. The 1985 wave of figures introduced quite a lot more purple into the MOTU color palate, and Spikor is the most purple of them all.
Spikor was designed by Roger Sweet. In the image below, from The Power and the Honor Foundation Catalog, we see that Spikor originally had much more of a porcupine look, down to the tail and animalistic face. Per the Catalog, the character’s name early on was “Spike”. The mace is somewhat reminiscent of Mekaneck’s weapon, also designed by Roger Sweet.
Further evolution on the design is evident in Spikor’s first minicomic appearance, Spikor Strikes. You can see that other than losing his tail and shortening the character’s snout, Spikor (in this comic) is a recolored version of Roger Sweet’s original concept art. You can see that especially in the specific shape of his central chest piece and collar and in his mace weapon.
Interestingly Spikor holds his trident weapon, which he also did at times in the Filmation cartoon. On the toy, the trident is a part of his hand, like a pirate’s hook. It’s not totally clear what the original intention was from Roger Sweet’s artwork. It looks like a part of his arm, but it could have been something he was holding, with some kind of hand guard design blocking the view of Spikor’s left hand. If that wasn’t the case, then perhaps the source material was misinterpreted.
Spikor was trademarked on September 10, 1984. The final toy design has a less prominent design on the front of the chest piece. Because of the way it’s designed, his torso spikes look like armor and not a part of his actual body. But his head is the same color and has the same kinds of spikes. so it’s difficult to suss out what’s going on there. Spikor was given a much spikier mace, and his trident was fused to his straightened left arm, to allow for its telescoping action feature.
Interestingly, the figure used in the commercial had red “glove” painted on its right hand. He also has the red glove in several of his minicomic appearances.
It’s a mystery to me why Spikor’s trident’s tines end in balls. Surely they could have been shaped like spikes, but rounded off at the ends to satisfy safety requirements, like all the other spikes on his body and mace. Having balls at the end makes it look like Spikor is very concerned about accidentally poking someone’s eye out.
Spikor very easily could have reused the right arm from He-Man (he does have He-Man’s legs, and in some version the legs from Thunder Punch He-Man), but Mattel opted to give him a unique bracer with pyramid-shaped designs in the center.
The artwork on Spikor’s card was illustrated by Dave Stevens, who worked on other 1985 cardbacks such as Stinkor and Moss Man.
In addition to the single-carded figure, Spikor was also sold in a JCPenny giftset with Stinkor:
Errol McCarthy gave Spikor a puffer fish physique in this illustration intended for a T-shirt:
In the previously-mentioned minicomic, Spikor Strikes, Spikor is given a nemesis in Sy-Klone (for those keeping track, in the 1985 wave, Stinkor’s minicomic nemesis is Moss Man and Two Bad’s nemesis is Roboto). In The Terror Claws Strike, released the following year, Spikor plays the part of sinister blacksmith, creating Skeletor’s new Terror Claws weapons in the heart of Snake Mountain:
In the fall, 1985 issue of Masters of the Universe Magazine, Spikor takes part in a humorous story about a ball game for control of the Fright Zone:
Spikor shows up in several episodes of the Filmation He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon series. He is characterized as a typical bumbling henchman throughout. In some appearances he had his trident attached to his arm, like the toy, and in others he has a normal left hand.
In the December 1987 UK MOTU magazine issue, Spikor (colored in two tone blue) rudely interrupts a game of kickball and bullies some kids, before Mekaneck steps in a puts a stop to it.
Spikor doesn’t make any appearances on box art, but he does show up in several posters by William George and Esteban Maroto
For more information about Spikor, check out this great video series from ToonJukka!
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I love these blog posts! Very informative and much appreciated!
Thank you Dan!
Great job, these are always a fun read!
Thanks very much!
Nailed it once again, man! Cheers!
Thank you Peter!
Enjoyable read. Thank you.
I think he has Thunder Punch He-Man legs.
Some versions do. We have two copies at my house, and both have the original He-Man legs.
Hey cool, I was waiting for this one! No mention of the variation of the number of torso spikes on some Spikor figures though?
I definitely remember Spikor because my friend Mitchell had him, and I’m sure I was at least a little jealous ?
Another good entry, @Battleram.
I had Spikor (still do) in my original childhood collection; I remember getting him one Saturday afternoon after being ‘well behaved’ on a shopping trip into town with my Grandma, though I recall choosing him more simply because I was allowed to choose a figure and selecting from the limited selection the shop had for one I didn’t already have, more than actually having him high up on my ‘wanted’ list.
Spikor’s a strange sort of character. Something about him feels like he should be pretty hardcore, one of Skeletor’s “no nonsense” henchmen. But he’s always come off feeling like a very generic, almost “filler” warrior IMO.
I don’t quite know why this is; he’s always just felt a bit underdeveloped. Kinda like “We need another Evil Warrior for the next wave… okay how about one covered in spikes”. Beyond that nothing was ever much developed about the character – though I suppose saying that, the likes of Jitsu and suchlike were never that much developed either, yet Spikor just seemed to kinda ‘fade into the ranks’ in my own toy lineup.
His arm accessory is curious, as the blog covers. It seems to have one point maybe have been removable when conceived, and the conclusion of just what it was/did seems to have remained undecided through many different sources. I always thought it would have at least been more interesting if the trident had been spring-loaded, so it could be pushed in only to spring forwards again.
It’s interesting to consider Spikor’s porcupine-like influence. Maybe this was at the backend of the streak of thinking of ‘what animals could we mutate into Evil Warriors’ (see also Clawful, Whiplash, Kobra Khan, etc.). However in other sources this influence is played down, such as the Filmation version, where he is seen to even have a humanoid-like noise.
The cover of the mini-comic also used to interest me, decades before I’d ever seen the prototype sketch, as I used to muse that at one stage they had planned to recycle Mekaneck’s club as his weapon.
The illustration in ‘The Terror Claws Strike’ of Spikor hard at work is also interesting – Spikor, with a hammer arm extension (again, was he once considered to have changeable arm extensions?), looking like a blacksmith. I wonder if this was influence for his Classics bio, which suggested him to have once been an Eternian blacksmith, fused with an enchanted spiked suit. However personally I felt he never really needed much of a backstory in this way.
Maybe I’ve sounded a little harsh on Spikor; I don’t hate him, I just kinda always wanted more from him. He should have been more of a big deal, but just kinda felt a little ‘bump up the numbers’ entry and was often drawn to look very goofy and not very threatening for a man covered in spikes.
Wonder who the next blog will be on…
You know, I kind of feel the same way. Spikor is the one I always kind of forget about or don’t notice. Nice thing about writing the blog is that it forces me to be laser focused on each subject. But I do feel he’s lacking something.
Man, glorious as ever. Never had Spikor, but I love the art. Love that he created the Terror Claws.
Thanks so much!
Wonderful, as always — just a note, you’ve included a model sheet of Two-Bad instead of Spikor at the beginning of the Filmation section. 🙂
Thank you James, I really appreciate you pointing that out. I just fixed it 🙂
I work with a Guy called James Wardell who claims that he designed the character Spikor for a competition in the 80’s. is there any truth in this? Is Roger Sweet a fraud? We need answers.
never heard of it.. the original design would have had to have been… 84 at the latest.. While such ‘design a character’ competitions were common, often held by Magazines.. I’m not sure if any He-man mag did one, but they almost never had anything to do with anyone working on the toys because it would give raise to it being possible that character was ‘stolen’.. It’s kinda why Spec scripts for TV shows aren’t read by anyone connected to the shows writing or most of the time, just the show in total..
would be very unlikely your friend would have the ‘original design’ he did or anything.. it would be a bloody surprise if it was anywhere near final design because of sooo many things which non-toy designers don’t understand (like most kids wouldn’t have factored in what is POSSIBLE to make, what is SAFE to make, parts which would be reused etc… so.. from all that you have said, which is pretty much nothing (not even how old the guy was in the 80s, what competition, what his job (roughty) etc.. I would say… your friend didn’t design Spikor. If you have more information or anything, It could be looked into much easier