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.
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 in some versions of 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.
Spikor cross sell art. Image courtesy of Axel Gimenez
Interestingly, the figure used in the commercial had red “glove” painted on its right hand:
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.
Image source: StarCrusader Original packaging layout artwork
In addition to the single-carded figure, Spikor was also sold in a JCPenny giftset with Stinkor: http://www.grayskullmuseum.com/GiftSets/SS.htm
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
Image courtesy of Jukka Issakainen
For more information about Spikor, check out this great video series from ToonJukka!
Two Bad is one of two two-headed figures released in 1985 (along with Multi-Bot and Modulok).
My first exposure to Two Bad came on the playground in third grade. I had gone to the same elementary school during kindergarten and first grade. But in second grade, we moved away for a year to a smaller town, which turned out to be something of a He-Man vacuum. All of the kids there seemed to be into either Voltron or Thundercats. But when I returned to my old school in the third grade, I found He-Man was still going strong there. One fall day on the playground, an enterprising kid brought out his Roboto and Two Bad figures.
I never had either of these figures myself, but I was pretty impressed with both of them. Two Bad was bizarre looking, and not just because he had two heads. He had an enormous barrel chest and his arms were mounted toward the top of his shoulders rather than to the sides. His main feature of interest seemed to be his ability to punch himself in the opposing heads.
I don’t know who designed the final look for Two Bad, but Roger Sweet seems to have come up with the general concept for a two-headed warrior. You can see several incarnations of the concept in the images below. An early idea was for a character that had an evil half and a good half. While the final figure was completely evil, he did have a different color scheme and sculpt for each half of his body.
According to the Power and Honor Foundation Catalog, the half good/half evil concept was rejected by Mattel marketing, who said that both halves should be evil.
Image courtesy of Jukka Issakainen, by way of the Power and Honor Foundation Catalog Image courtesy of Jukka Issakainen, by way of the Power and Honor Foundation Catalog
Image courtesy of Jukka Issakainen, by way of Tomart’s Action Figure Digest
Some unrelated concepts by Ted Mayer have a helmet design reminiscent of Two Bad’s blue head:
Image courtesy of Jukka Issakainen
A late hard copy/prototype of the figure shows a few subtle differences from the final toy. The prototype had more prominent and finely detailed ears and horns on the head. It also had a much slimmer torso design. I’m sure that the torso on the final figure had to be enlarged to accommodate the spring punch action feature on both arms, in addition to the spring-loaded waist.
Another view of the prototype. Source: Mattel 1985 Spring Program catalog Two Bad cross sell artwork, based on the final toy, but with a slightly different shade of purple. Image courtesy of Axel Giménez
The final toy has a greatly widened torso and softer sculpted details, but is otherwise close in appearance to the prototype. All of his parts are brand new, with the exception of the standard crotch piece. He is one of several figures in the 1985 wave whose only accessory was a shield:
Shortly after it was released, the figure was reissued with a greatly flattened torso. This didn’t affect the width, but it did affect the depth. This flattened version seems to be somewhat more common than the original release. The second version also has its arms at a slightly lower angle, so they don’t obscure the faces as much.
Unfortunately Two Bad tends to suffer from discoloration with age. This seems to be “sweating” out of the plastic. It can be cleaned up with a magic eraser sponge, but it eventually returns.
There are two main versions of the US card for the figure as well. The first release features “NEW!” on the front:
Note that this set of instructions says to “fit arm to body.” The plan early on may have been to package him with his arms disconnected. Image source: KMKA
The next release omits “NEW” and has a different set of instructions on the back:
Image source: KMKA. The instructions on this cardback include the idea that the figure can “crush” enemies. This is easier to do on the second release of the figure, because he chest doesn’t protrude out as much.
Two Bad is said to be a strategist with “twice the plotting power” due to his two heads, although that characterization was rarely followed in printed or animated stories.
Two Bad’s cardback artwork was done by Errol McCarthy, who also illustrated the character in a number of other contexts:
The 1987 Style Guide, which also features art by Errol McCarthy, characterized Two Bad this way:
Role: Powerful, two-headed master of evil illusion.
Power: Ability to create the illusion that he is “two” evil warriors, twice as devious as any of his comrades.
Character Profile: Though two heads are often better than once, Two Bad is a mixed blessing for the Evil Warriors. When his two heads are working together, Two Bad is nearly as clever and devious as Skeletor, and his advantage in battle is doubled. However, his two heads rarely get along. Quite often, the two heads will bicker with one another just at the wrong moment. Skeletor has little patience with Two Bad, not only because of the distracting arguments, but because Skeletor feels that the two-headed beast could one day gain too much evil brain power.
The Style Guide seems to have taken a cue from the commercial shown earlier in this article, in which Two Bad tricks his enemies into thinking he is actually two evil warriors.
In addition to the single carded figure, Two Bad was sold in a JCPenny giftset with Tri-Klops:
Mattel filed for a patent on Two Bad on December 24, 1984. The inventors lists were Larry Renger and Roger Sweet. The trademark for Two Bad was filed September 10, 1984.
Two Bad came packed with The Battle of Roboto minicomic, and he and Roboto were featured heavily in the story. Each of Two Bad’s heads is constantly arguing and fighting with the other:
Two Bad was characterized in much the same way in his infrequent appearances in the Filmation He-Man cartoon.
Image courtesy of Jukka Issakainen From the episode, Capture The Comet Keeper
Two Bad doesn’t appear in any of the MOTU box art, but he does make a few appearances in posters by William George and others:
Image courtesy of Jukka Issakainen
Update: In the comments below, Aidan notes that Two Bad was characterized as an inventor in the UK MOTU comics, so he wasn’t always characterized as a simpleton. Aidan also notes that the individual heads were named Blue Head and Yellow Band, which apparently originated from notes at Filmation studios.
For detailed information about the UK Masters of the Universe comics, check out Aidan’s site at this link: https://www.motuukcomics.co.uk/
Dragon Blaster Skeletor was the “deluxe” version of Skeletor that everyone in my grade school peer group coveted. You could tell he was a deluxe figure because he came on an oversized card and wore an oversized dragon backpack and came with a real metal chain. These were the unmistakable tokens of quality in the secret language of childhood.
Dragon Blaster Skeletor actually has a fascinating backstory. In my interview with Martin Arriola, he explained to me that the action feature was once quite dangerous:
MA: Prelim, guys like Rogers Sweet would always over-promise to marketing, and sometimes add stuff that was unsafe or not practical.
BR: Oh, like what?
MA: There was Dragon Blaster Skeletor. Prelim design came up with breadboard model. It was unpainted, using old legs and arms and a body sculpted from square styrene blocks. Sweet was touting this one, Smoke and Chains Skeletor, it was called. It had a bellows on its back. You would load the bellows with talcum powder, and there was a pipe going from a cavity to the figure’s right hand. Talcum powder would come out like smoke. The figure was draped with chains, so the working name was Smoke and Chains Skeletor.
I was thinking about doing the final design. Around that same time there was a big grain factory in Texas that exploded. It killed a lot of people, so it made big news back then. Everyone smoked back then.
I said, wow, this has powder. I lit a match and squeezed the bellows. A four foot flame came out of Skeletor! Luckily I hadn’t pointed it at anybody. I remember going to the VP of Design, Gene Kilroy. I had Smoke and Chains Skeletor and a lighter. I just happened to come across the greatest TV moment. I lit the thing and a big old flame came out it.
BR: That’s insane!
MA: When safety got a hold of this, obviously it couldn’t be released. We tried diluting the powder with baking soda, but then it didn’t look like smoke anymore.
So we brainstormed, me and Tony Rhodes. We didn’t do much with water squirting at the time. We had a big brainstorm, and thought, what about squirting water? So we ended up sculpting the dragon on the back of Skeletor, and being able to load that up with water.
Image source: Tomart’s Action Figure digest
This concept art by Colin Bailey (below) seems to have been for some kind of dungeon master Skeletor. The lock, chains and cuff from this design ended up being used for Dragon Blaster Skeletor.
Image source: The Power and the Honor Foundation Catalog
Early catalog images of the figure seem to depict a standard hollow head Taiwan figure with the new dragon backpack piece. They also include the original Skeletor’s balteus accessory, although that was cut from the final figure. This look was carried forward into the cross sell art as well.
The actual production toy had a solid, rubbery head. Mexico versions had face paint reminiscent of earlier incarnations of Skeletor, but Hong Kong examples have quite a jarring “M” pattern on the green sections of the face. Some Mexico examples had the original Skeletor feet, but most had enlarged feet (with reduced sculpting detail) for the purposes of greater stability, given the weight of the backpack. Boot colors ranged from reddish purple to blueish purple to a very dark purple. The balteus was also cut from the production version.
Mexico versionMexico version, with repro chain/cuff/lock
Made in Hong Kong version
As mentioned earlier, this version of Skeletor was packaged on an oversized card. It features some artwork by William George on the front and an action scene by Errol McCarthy on the back:
Image source: He-Man.org
Note that the dragon is supposed to paralyze victims with venom – which seems to be muscling in on Kobra Khan’s raison d’etre. Maybe that ‘s why he ultimately defected to the Snake Men faction.
The 1987 Style Guide talks a bit about Skeletor’s dragon pet:
Weapons: Skeletor stalks the land with his evil pet, freezing foes with the dragon’s vicious paralyzing venom.
Dragon Blaster Skeletor came packaged with the minicomic Skeletor’s Dragon, which shows off his new action feature as well as the Battle Bones carry case toy.
In the story, Skeletor’s chains have mystical energy draining powers, and his dragon frequently walks around off his leash:
Skeletor’s design has a strong Filmation influence (especially around the face and boots), and a differently colored costume than the toy. The colors may be based off of early concept art for the figure. The minicomic artwork is by Peter Ledger, with colors by Charles Simpson.
Errol McCarthy depicted the variant for use in a T-shirt design in the artwork below:
McCarthy also illustrated the character in the poster below that appeared in the UK Masters of the Universe Magazine:
He also appears in a 1985 MOTU poster by William George. He is again shown with the balteus from the original Skeletor figure:
Dragon Blaster Skeletor also appears in this Bashasaurus poster by William George:
Dragon Blaster Skeletor isn’t my favorite Skeletor variant – in fact he’s probably my second least favorite, next to Terror Claws Skeletor. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like him. Skeletor is Skeletor, and it’s hard to make a bad Skeletor figure.
Laser-Light Skeletor, released in Italy and Spain a year after the end of the Masters of the Universe toyline in the US, was a figure most North American fans were not aware of until they discovered it online years later. That was certainly true for me. Because the figure was produced in limited numbers overseas, it’s one of the most expensive vintage He-Man toys to acquire today. (Update: I’m also informed that there was some distribution of Laser-Light Skeletor in Switzerland. Thanks to Olmo for the information.)
I’m not someone who owns a lot of high-dollar items, but if I was going to own one, this would be it. I can’t fully explain why that is – my tastes tend to gravitate toward the aesthetics of the earlier MOTU figures. But there is something about Laser-Light Skeletor in all his creepy, funky techno-glory that really draws me in.
The earliest known concept art for the figure comes from Dave Wolfram, who also did a lot of work on the New Adventures of He-Man toyline. (That line is actually just called “He-Man”, but it’s common to refer to it as “New Adventures”, after the accompanying 1990 animated series)
In this artwork, dated June 22, 1987, Wolfram incorporates all kinds of wires and mechanisms into “Bio-Mechazoid Skeletor.” The design is quite similar to the final Laser-Light Skeletor, except he lacks his cape, glowing right hand, and glowing staff. He carries a strange claw weapon that might have been intended to work like a pair of pliers.
Image Source: Power and Honor Foundation
Wolfram created another piece of concept art that reflects a closer-to-final design, including the staff, right hand, cape and battery pack:
Image courtesy of David Wolfram
Wolfram’s style is pretty distinctive, reflecting a kind of brutal futurist design that would come to dominate the New Adventures of He-Man toyline’s look, especially in the villain faction. Laser-Light Skeletor technically belongs in the original Masters of the Universe toyline, but he is clearly a giant step in the direction of the New Adventures.
An early, rough prototype of the figure appears in a 1988 French Catalog. It looks like a quickly thrown together proof of concept type figure, built from a standard Skeletor toy, but with gloves, trunks and boots painted brown/copper. He also has some crude armor laid over his chest, as well as a cloth cape and hood ever his sculpted hood. The light feature has been incorporated into his eyes (quite effectively) and hand. His staff is built from the original release staff, but with a snake-like head and in translucent red.
Image source: Grayskull Museum
Image source: La Cueva del Terror
A close to final version of the figure appears in the Italian advertisement below. This prototype has a yellow belt buckle, a “Y” shape in red on his forehead, and a translucent red casting of the original Skeletor havoc staff, with the disk designs removed. This prototype uses all newly sculpted pieces, other than the staff.
The cross sell artwork for the figure seems to be based on a further refined design for the figure, which is almost like the final toy, but still features a not-quite final staff and finer paint work on the right boot:
The final figure lost the “Y” on the forehead and the colored belt buckle, and has further modifications to the staff design. The figure has quite an extreme “squat” pose, reminiscent of some of the knock-off He-Man figures produced earlier in the 1980s. He has a creepy, stylized, almost alien-looking skull face (loose figure images below via eBay):
Laser Power Skeletor rides Tyrantisaurus. Image source: La Cueva del Terror The laser figures on Beam Blaster and Artilleray. Image source: La Cueva del Terror
Designer Dave Wolfram provided me with some background information about the look and origin of the figure:
While MOTU was tanking domestically, it was still going strong Internationally, which was a year behind in the product cycle. This was done to have something new for that market. LISA (the light transmitting plastic) was a fairly new ‘shiny toy’ for the designers at the time, so that was the hook for that segment. I think Martin did the final He-Man design… I did the design for Skeletor. My working name was Bio-Mechazoid Skeletor, and it was inspired by influences like Giger, and the Gibson novel, Neuromancer. Sadly, like many of our products of the time, engineering dictated what we had to design around, and in this case it was a huge battery box. Try as we might to design around it, it made the torso oversized, so to compensate, we had to give the legs a little more bend, leading to our new working name: “Take a Dump Skeletor”.
Unlike every previous version of Skeletor before him, Laser-Light Skeletor had a removable hood. This variant had some extensive wiring around the back of his head – a feature he shares with the New Adventures Skeletor:
Image source: Jimmy_Ikon/He-Man.org
Skeletor’s LED eyes and right hand could be activated by raising the figure’s right arm. The light from his hand was meant to also illuminate his translucent staff, although the effect diminished quickly the further it got away from the the light source
The figure was produced in Spain and Italy. Spanish versions typically came with a minicomic-sized catalog, and the Italian versions came without the catalog. I’ve heard of the figure coming packaged with a copy of the Powers of Grayskull minicomic, but I haven’t seen an example.
Spanish release with catalog. Italian release without catalog. Image source: Hake’s Americana Italian cardback. Image source: He-Man.org Laser-Light Skeletor artwork from the front of the card (by Bruce Timm). Like the cross sell artwork, this features a havoc staff that is close to the original 1982 design, minus the ball end and the disks near the top. Image source: Jukka Issakainen (scanned and cleaned up)
Some figures came with belts painted gold on the front, and red on the back:
Image source: Wespenmann/He-Man.org
The catalog that came packed with the figure featured both of the light-up variants.
Image source: He-Man.org
Image source: He-Man.org
A nice poster featuring a photo the figure was included in the Yugoslav edition of the Masters of the Universe Star Comics:
Because Laser-Light Skeletor came at the very tail end of the line, he was never featured in any vintage minicomics or other stories, sadly. I suppose we can imagine that his tale might have been very similar to Skeletor as depicted in the New Adventures series of minicomics:
Update: the French Club Maitres de l’Univers magazine published a comic featuring early concept versions of Laser Power He-Man and Laser-Light Skeletor, alongside characters whose figures were released in 1987 (images are from Nathalie NHT):
Aidan in the comments below provides some fascinating background information (by way of Emiliano Santalucia) about the true intent behind the creation of Laser Light Skeletor and Laser Power He-Man. I’m quoting his comments verbatim here:
A little-known fact about Laser Light Skeletor and Laser Power He-Man is that they were designed to be the lead figures for a brand new interactive toy line that would be accompanied by a live action TV series. The intention was that the figures and weapons would be able to interact with the episodes of the TV show. It’s unclear as yet how far into production the live action series got, but props and sets were designed for it and from the limited information available it appears it was going to be space-based and very sci-fi, with He-Man and Skeletor battling for possession of some sort of glowing crystals that were the source of the laser power of their weapons. Vehicles and playsets were designed for the toy line, but for reasons unknown, the plans for this line were scrapped around 1988. As the Laser figures had been made, they were given a limited release in Europe as part of the regular MOTU line, similar to what had been done with the giants and dinosaurs from the unreleased Powers of Grayskull line. Later, Mattel used the space-based idea for the ‘He-Man’ line better known as the New Adventures, while the idea for an interactive toy line accompanied by a live action show was used for Mattel’s line Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future.
I hope more information about the interactive toy line and the live action series comes to light as it’s one of the most intriguing chapters in MOTU’s history particularly as so little is known about it. There’s even been rumors that the pilot episode was actually made but never screened, though these rumors are unsubstantiated.
