Tag: Ninjor

History, Prototypes

Ninjor, Scare Glow and Blast-Attak prototypes

Posted on by Adam McCombs

Written by Adam McCombs

Danielle Gelehrter has long been one of the most prominent contributors to Masters of the Universe to come out of the fan community. A long-time member of the He-Man.org forums (and before that, a member of the Guardians of Grayskull mailing list in the 1990’s), she was also a co-host of the popular Roast Gooble Dinner podcast. She did quite a few interviews with Mattel creators that were published on He-Man.org. From there she contributed (with research, writing, photography, scanning and/or proofreading) to most of the great Masters of the Universe books that have come out in the last decade, including:

  • The Power and the Honor Foundation Vol. 1 Catalog
  • The Art of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
  • He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Minicomic Collection
  • He-Man and the Masters of the Universe – A Character Guide and World Compendium
  • He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: The Newspaper Comic Strips
  • The Toys of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
  • Character Guide and World Compendium Supplement Vol. 1

Danielle contributed to the Battle Ram Blog in the interview we conducted together with Mark DiCamillo. She and Eric Marshall co-wrote the Masters of the Universe Classics toy packaging bios and the digital “Masters Mondays” bios in an official capacity after the departure of Scott Neitlich from Mattel. She also created a horror-themed character called the Crimson Countess who appeared in those bios. In short, you won’t find any fan with more MOTU bonafides than Danielle.

Image courtesy of Danielle Gelehrter

Having said that, Danielle is also a popular horror hostess under the name of Penny Dreadful, and she hosted the television show “Shilling Shockers” from 2006-2016. Currently, she hosts the Terror at Collinwood Dark Shadows podcast. She has been a fan of all things creepy and ghoulish her whole life, and you’ll find her focused mostly on that area of fandom these days.

Why the backstory about Danielle? She was kind enough to send me a box of materials she collected over the course of her research. Much of it came from her work as the lead researcher for the Newspaper Comic Strips book. I was blown away by her generosity and by the fascinating material she sent me, and I will be working over the next months to share that material with you.

To begin with, I’ll be covering three items included in the box from Danielle. They are photos of prototypes/hard copies for Scare Glow, Ninjor and Blast Attak. They are pretty close to final in regards to the looks of the actual toys, but there are some differences, which I will discuss shortly. First, here’s Danielle’s description of the three photos:

Those photos were given to me by Chris Weber and Karen Willson. They were in their files and given to them by Mattel for reference when they were working on the comics strip. They used all three of them in the storyline, ‘Ninjor Strikes by Night’. So those are original ’80’s Mattel reference photos.

For reference, Chris Weber was a writer for the He-Man newspaper comic strip series, and Karen Willson was the editor. A couple of pages from the “Ninjor Strikes by Night” story as they appeared in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: The Newspaper Comic Strips are represented below:

Images courtesy of Jukka Issakainen

All right, so let’s take a look at the reference material that Mattel sent to Weber and Willson!

Update: in searching through a stack of photocopied correspondence between MOTU newspaper strip writer Chris Weber and Mattel, I found a few more references related to these toys. First are three text descriptions of each of the three toys. The descriptions are mostly the same as those found in the 1987 Style Guide, with a couple of differences. Beyond the description of the character, there is also a description of the toy and its features. I’m adding scans of each of them after the prototype photos. Also there was a black and white photocopy of Blast Attak’s concept art included with the documents, which I have scanned and will include in the corresponding section below.

Scare Glow

Scare Glow is quite interesting. You can tell that the figure is really just a standard Skeletor or similar figure that has been painted by hand, and given a new head. Because the white had been painted on, it’s quite brilliantly white, more so than the glow-in-the-dark plastic of the actual figure. You can see the paint starting to peel/crack around the tops of the legs. The paint pattern around the knees is a bit different than the actual figure.

Probably the most obvious difference is his halberd weapon (or “scythe of doom”), which has been painted black. The white paint of the figure’s hand has rubbed off on the weapon, as you can see. In the US his weapon would be cast in bright green, and in Europe it was usually cast in glow-in the dark white. The cape is similar to the production version, except the elastic at the neck is white. The production figure also got the Dragon Blaster Skeletor legs with the enlarged feet, while the prototype has the original Skeletor legs. The figure was designed by David Wolfram. You can read more about the history of Scare Glow here. (I haven’t yet added this prototype image to my original Scare Glow article, but I will do so soon.)

Mass-produced Scare Glow action figure.
Glowing brightly

Ninjor

Ninjor is quite a clean prototype or hard copy. I can’t tell if it’s another Skeletor figure painted over, or if it’s actually been cast in black plastic at Mattel. I suspect the latter because of the cleanness of the black on his arms and legs. You can tell that his sword is the Jitsu katana that has been painted silver – it has lost some of the paint at the handle and the original orange is showing through. His bow is a repaint of the accessory that came with the Eternia playset. His only new molded parts are his head and his nunchucks. The big difference between this prototype and the production Ninjor is the emblem on his shirt – it’s much more crude on this prototype, compared to the final toy. He also has the original Skeletor legs with the smaller feet, while the final toy got the larger feet of the Dragon Blaster Skeletor legs. The figure was designed by David Wolfram. Eventually I’ll update my original article with this new prototype image.

Mass-produced Ninjor figure with updated emblem on costume.
Eternia playset bow and arrow weapon prototype, made from wood originally! Image via heritage auctions.

Blast-Attak

Blast-Attak here is a hard copy that is very close to the final look for the figure. The only differences here are his much darker green boots and gloves, his red “thermometer” that is painted red all the way up, and the gold connectors inside his body (they were red on the final figure). You can also see that his weapon was cast in white and painted red: some of the red paint is flaking off. This prototype (or a similar copy) was actually shown in the 1987 dealer catalog (below), although you can see that the Scare Glow in the same picture is production, not a prototype:

Prototype Blast-Attak, as shown in Mattel’s 1987 dealer catalog. Image source: Nathalie NHT.
Mass produced Blast-Attak figure

The figure was designed by Mark Jones and Richard Lepik. Once again, I’ll be updating this image into my original article about Blast-Attak soon. Also included in the paperwork was a photocopy of Richard Lepik’s concept art for Blast-Attak:

So, that’s all for now. Danielle sent me quite a lot of material related to the newspaper comic strips, but she also sent me some other things as well, and I will document them here on the blog over the next weeks and months. Many thanks again to Danielle for sending these things with me so I can document and share them with fellow fans!

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Evil Warriors

Ninjor: Evil Ninja Warrior (1987)

Posted on by Adam McCombs

Written by Adam McCombs

Name: Ninjor
Faction: Evil Warriors
Approximate US release date: November 27, 1986

Ninjor is perhaps the most G.I. Joe-like figure in the Masters of the Universe series. He certainly feels like He-Man’s answer to Snake Eyes or Storm Shadow. He doesn’t exactly fit with the general science/sword and sorcery motif of MOTU, but then of course by the last couple of years of the line it had become a something of a kitchen sink of ideas. Although grouped by Mattel with the 1987 wave of figures, he was released a little early, in late November, 1986.

Design & Development

Ninjor was designed by David Wolfram. In my interview with him, David had this to say regarding Ninjor:

Early on in my Mattel career , I was given the task to do four figures using minimal new tooling. They were Scareglow Skeletor, King Randor, Ninjor, and Clamp Champ. The four characters had already been conceived of and the concepts sold in, so all I had to do was to make it happen.

Part of that was going through the tooling banks to find parts to add to the appearance of the figures. I did get new tooling for Clamp Champ’s weapon, and for four heads. Hal Faulkner, one of our good outside sculpting vendors, sculpted the heads.

Ninjor was a dead ringer for Lee Van Cleef, who had done some karate or kung fu based show around that time, so we had to change that.

Update: recently a photograph of a prototype Ninjor has surfaced, courtesy of Danielle Gelehrter. Ninjor is quite a clean prototype or hard copy. I can’t tell if it’s another Skeletor figure painted over, or if it’s actually been cast in black plastic at Mattel. I suspect the latter because of the cleanness of the black on his arms and legs. You can tell that his sword is the Jitsu katana that has been painted silver – it has lost some of the paint at the handle and the original orange is showing through. His bow is a repaint of the accessory that came with the Eternia playset. His only new parts are his head and his nunchucks. The big difference between this prototype and the production Ninjor is the emblem on his shirt – it’s much more crude on this prototype, compared to the final toy. He also has the original Skeletor legs with the smaller feet, while the final toy got the larger feet of the Dragon Blaster Skeletor legs. Because the face is covered by his mask, I’m not sure if this is the original Lee Van Cleef head or the revised head.

Production Toy

Ready for battle.

Ninjor cross sell art. Image courtesy of Axel Giménez.

Ninjor came with three weapons – a sword (borrowed from Jitsu), a bow and arrow (borrowed from the Eternia playset) and nunchucks. He also came with a cloth costume that obscured most of his face. He borrows the spring arm action feature from Fisto and Jitsu, which allows him to attack with his sword or nunchucks with his right hand. Jitsu was of course also a martial arts themed figure, although he looked more heavily armored rather than stealthy.

1984 Jitsu figure

The one piece of his design that separates Ninjor from a typical terrestrial ninja is his three-toed feet, borrowed from Dragon Blaster Skeletor.

Packaging Art

The illustration on the front of Ninjor’s card was done by Bruce Timm, while the scene on the back of the card was done by Errol McCarthy:

Images via LCG Auctions

Original Errol McCarthy line art. Image source: He-Man.org

At one point Mattel was planning to reuse the Ninjor concept to create a white-costumed ninja warrior, making the Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow comparison all the more apt. However, these plans never came to fruition.

Artwork by Errol McCarthy. Image source: He-Man.org
Artwork by Errol McCarthy. Image source: He-Man.org
Unusued instruction for the white-costumed ninja warrior by Errol McCarthy. Image source: Danielle Gelehrter

Minicomics

As in the card art and in the commercial at the beginning of this article, Ninjor was often portrayed as the nemesis of Clamp Champ. That is also evident in the comic that came packed with Ninjor, The Search For Keldor. In the story, Skeletor summons the “most evil beings from time and space” from another dimension to do his bidding:

In the comic, you can see Ninjor with the arms and legs of He-Man (all in black) rather than Skeletor. That may represent an earlier concept design for him.

Characterization and Additional Stories

The 1987 Style Guide (above, illustrated by Errol McCarthy) characterized Ninjor this way:

Power: Mastery of many martial arts weapons.

Character profile: This awful assassin has come from another world to serve Skeletor. His mission is to eliminate Heroic Warriors one by one, until He-Man no longer has any help in defending Eternia. Ninjor always moves with great speed, skill and silence.

In Masters of the Universe Adventure Magazine issue 9, Skeletor summons Scare Glow and Ninjor. As described in the style guide, Ninjor excels at stealthy attacks. In this issue he is depicted with a purple, green and white costume:

In Star Comics Masters of the Universe issue 7, Skeletor again summons Ninjor, along with Blast Attak. The two don’t immediately hit it off:

In the 1987 winter issue of the US MOTU Magazine, Ninjor makes another prominent appearance, where he manages to elude both Clamp Champ and Rio Blast:

Artwork & Advertisements

Coming so late in the Masters of the Universe line, Ninjor didn’t show up in a lot of artwork, but he was a background character in posters illustrated by William George, Earl Norem and Esteban Maroto:

Artwork by William George
Artwork by William George
Artwork by Earl Norem
Artwork by Earl Norem
Artwork by Esteban Maroto

Errol McCarthy went on to illustrate the character again, this time battling He-Man with his live-action movie costume:

Image source: He-Man.org

Ninjor also showed up in a few catalogs and advertisements:

Image source: Grayskull Museum
Image source: Grayskull Museum
Image source: Nathalie NHT

Ninjor isn’t the most distinctive-looking figure in the world, but he does look rather smart and has some fun features and accessories.

Ninjor in Action

Øyvind Meisfjord has generously shared the following image and video of Ninjor in action:

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Artwork

Masters of the Universe Cross Sell Art: 1987

Posted on by Adam McCombs

Written by Adam McCombs

The artwork for this set comes from Axel Giménez, Jukka Issakainen, The Art of He-Man, MOTU Portugal, and StarCrusader. Unfortunately I don’t have a real piece of cross sell artwork for Twistoid – the artwork used here comes from the card front.

Masters of the Universe Cross Sell Art:

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Heroic Warriors

Clamp Champ: Heroic Master of Capture (1987)

Posted on by Adam McCombs

Written by Adam McCombs

Name: Clamp Champ
Faction: Heroic Warriors
Approximate US release date: December 9, 1986

Clamp Champ nimbly escaped my detection as a kid. By 1987 I really wasn’t into He-Man anymore, and the only figures released that year that I was kind of dimly aware of were Mosquitor, Scare Glow and King Randor. But I think had I seen Clamp Champ on the shelves I would have dug him.

Ironically some of my least favorite figures (heroic warriors especially) come from 1986, a year when a lot of new tooling was brought into the Masters of the Universe toyline. It’s great that they invested the money, but stylistically a lot of it just wasn’t my thing. By bringing back some shared parts in the 1987 line, the feel of the toys became much more familiar and in line with its established style.  Clamp Champ in particular feels like an early MOTU figure, because his body isn’t overly encumbered by gimmicky action features. His gimmick is entirely in his weapon.

Clamp Champ reuses the legs, crotch, chest and arms from He-Man and the armor from Fisto (albeit warped slightly to make it fit on the slightly larger chest from He-Man). He’s given a newly sculpted head as well as a clamp weapon (“power pincer”). The figure was designed by David Wolfram, who also designed Tyrantisaurus Rex, Laser Light Skeletor, King Randor (action figure), Scare Glow, and others.

Image: Nathalie NHT

Clamp Champ’s cross sell artwork closely matched the final toy. He’s given some nice paint deco, including two tone boots and painted bracers, like King Randor. This level of paint detail, ironically, was never given to the original He-Man figure, although it was certainly planned in the prototype stage.

Image thanks to Jukka Issakainen

In Clamp Champ’s packaging art (above), he faces off against Ninjor, just as he did in his commercial and in other media. Nothing seems to make the two characters obvious nemeses, other than the fact that they were released in the same year.

In the 1987 Style Guide, Clamp Champ is given the following description (as far as I’m able to make out)
EDIT: Thanks to Jukka Issakainen for providing a higher-quality image of Clamp Champ’s Style Guide page.

ROLE: Heroic soldier with the iron grip.

CHARACTER PROFILE: This brave and galant knight is responsible for guarding King Randor and the Royal Palace of Eternia.

WEAPONS: Trigger action claw weapon that traps and holds warriors allows Clamp Champ to immediately put the squeeze on any intruder.

We see these elements in the minicomic he came packed with, The Search For Keldor (illustrated by Bruce Timm, story by Steven Grant). In the story, “Klamp Champ” (probably an early spelling of the name, later changed) is a tireless, loyal defender of King Randor who uses his might (but not his clamp weapon) to defeat Ninjor. He’s depicted as strong, agile, and in possession of super senses that prevent him from being taken by surprise.

Clamp Champ battles against a bizarrely off-model Beast Man (update: per Dušan M., it’s meant to represent the movie version of Beast Man, although it looks more like a blend between movie and toy) in the MOTU newspaper strip story, “Attack on Snake Mountain”.

In Lifetime Part 2, published by Star Comics, we got a glimps of an older Clamp Champ from an alternate timeline where Prince Adam lost his power sword in a time warp:

Clamp Champ also appears on this Spanish promotional sticker:

Clamp Champ is a part of the large cast of characters in William George’s Eternia and Preternia posters:

Clamp Champ also shows up in two posters by Earl Norem for Masters of the Universe Magazine:

The 1987 Power Tour – a live action stage show featuring He-Man and She-Ra – also included a few relatively obscure characters, like Blast Attak, Snout Spout and Clamp Champ:

Note that his description above paraphrases the 1987 Style Guide.

Because Clamp Champ came out at the tail end of the toyline (and wasn’t around in stories for years before, like Sorceress or King Randor), there isn’t a great deal of back story to the character. His narrative arc is at least expanded somewhat in the Masters of the Universe Classics continuity, but I’ll write more about that in a separate article.

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