Written by Adam McCombs

Tuskador is one of the few heroic New Adventures of He-Man figures that is every bit as outlandish in his design as his Evil Mutant counterparts. Sporting gigantic tusks and a gold and blue elephant costume, Tuskador thinks subtlety is for other Galactic Guardians.

Design & Development

Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of specific information about the design and development of Tuskador, but I do have a few images. Most of the Galactic Guardian characters were designed by Martin Arriola, and that may be the case here.

There is some artwork by Errol McCarthy that shows a concept that might be related. On Errol’s file for the image below, he calls the character “Battle Beard”. I’m not sure if that was the actual name for the concept, but it does show an elephant-like trunk coming out from the character’s chin like a sort of beard. He has the same blue and gold color scheme as Tuskador, and he has an elephant-like appearance, so it could be related.

There is also a prototype image of Tuskador (known as Insyzor overseas), where he sports a gold costume with green skin. It’s possible at this stage he was intended as an Evil Mutant, which might explain his more outlandish design.

Here is a test shot version of the figure, originally shared by King Megator, and posted at www.grayskullmuseum.com. Test shots are produced in random colors to test out the mold. This one sports two golden guns.

A finalized, hand-painted prototype appears in various catalog images. The clearest image I’ve found is on this Spanish playing card, via La Cueva del Terror:

The production figure sports a gold and blue costume, with ivory-like tusks and mega blaster. He features a leaver on his back that can swivel the tusks in and out to capture opponents. Tuskador is slightly bulkier than many other New Adventures figures. Unlike his MOTU counterpart Snout Spout, Tuskador’s trunk is somewhat diminutive. All the focus is on the tusks.

Packaging

Tuskador was released on the standard New Adventures card. On the back there is a bio that gives some background on the character:

Mighty and Mysterious Inter-galactic Trader from the star system Polarides. He’s ready to fight fist and tusk for He-Man to keep the starways clear of evil mutants. There is no escape for an evil mutant caught in his swiveling tusks.

Mission: To search the star system for the supplies that He-Man and the Galactic Guardians urgently need to battle Skeletor and his evil mutants.

Battle Equipment: swiveling tusks and mega blaster

Tuskador’s cross sell artwork is very faithful to the design of the final figure:

His European card has a couple of different bubble designs, which can be seen here.

Animation

Tuskador featured much shorter tusks in the New Adventures of He-Man cartoon. He uses them for flipping over opponents rather than for capturing them, as seen in this video uploaded by James Eatock:

Tuskador is primarily a hand-to-hand fighter, but also assists the Galactic Guardians as a pilot. Tuskador appears in a number of episodes, outlined in this guide:

Other Media

Unfortunately later figures like Tuskador don’t tend to appear in New Adventures minicomics or magazines. Tuskador does appear in a few catalogs and photo magazines, however:

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