Spikor

There are some Masters of the Universe characters that I find completely bewildering. I don't understand what they represent, nor what sort of character they're putting across. Usually this is a problem with the tiny few characters lacking and/or not defined by action features, but sometimes even with a specific weirdo action feature - naturally missing from the Masters of the Universe Classics toyline - the character is still completely bizarre and unfathomable. Originally a blacksmith from the Eternian village of Nordling, Kleffton was fused with an enchanted suit of spiked armor and a mystic trident when he attempted to steal a sacred scroll from the city's high priests. Banished from his home, Kleffton became an outcast, wandering into the Sands of Time. He was discovered by Skeletor, who saw his natural talent to forge weapons and recruited him to battle against the Snake Men. Now called Spikor, he serves Skeletor by creating new arms and armor for the Overlord of Evil. Spikor uses his spike-studded body and trident arm as mighty weapons! So, Spikor is this purple thing who's covered in spikes (get it?!?) and also has a trident arm, because tridents are also spikey. I guess the spikes are part of his armor, which doesn't explain why they're on his head and subsequently couldn't be removed like armor. But it's okay, because they were fused? As was the trident which is part of his arm? To be fair, it's just as silly as everything else from Masters but it feels dumber based on the fact that Spikor doesn't really represent anything. You have your giant bumblebee, for example, and your giant mosquito, and so on so on, but what is Spikor? What's that character's real-life representation or access point? Some kind of giant purple hedgehog? Since when do hedgehogs have tridents? Oh, whatever. Trying to find even a minimum of subtext or coherence in something as artless as Masters is a fool's errand. Fortunately, getting past his lackluster character, Spikor makes for a pretty cool toy. He's instantly appealing to kids, with the gimmick of being all spikey, so one can see why collectors would have nostalgic fondness even if I'm stumped. He stands just under 7" tall to the top of his head spikes and is gifted with the kind of awesome detailed sculpt we know and love the Four Horsemen for. He's a super update of the classic figure, looking nigh identical to the original design without any of those MO2K artistic liberties. His paint is very good on mine, with very strong colors and little in the way of errors. Like many MOTUC the "spiked armor" is removable (despite the fact that his very bio says he's fused in there) though he looks more ridiculous without it, so no one will be doing that. The articulation here is standard for MOTUC, which is excellent as always. Now, because adults who play with toys totally would never deign to own toys that had *dun dun DUN!!!* action features, but they also insist that these figures 100% duplicate toys from 30 years ago, Spikor replicates his bizarre classic '80s action feature using interchangeable parts. The original toy's feature involved having a trident slide out of his arm. No, not fire out, or even shoot out with a springload feature, like you might expect from a toy of that vintage: you just stupidly slid the thing yourself. (He also had a twist-and-punch thing, which not even I can support.) So, while having a manual slide was good enough for Photog, apparently it was too silly for the man covered in French ticklers. You can have him displayed without his trident, with just a plain purple left hand (obviously in the pre-trident-fusing era of his epic tale) or a red-orange plug fits into his wrist socket with two trident parts, one extended and one smaller and "withdrawn." This works quite well, though for some reason one of my trident pieces is bent and looks like crap when plugged into his body. Not that he didn't already look ridiculous, but this just adds to the confusion. I know it's 80's accurate, but I wish the plug wasn't such an odd unsuitable color compared to the rest of him - the red-orange color really stands out and doesn't look asthetically pleasing. His other accessory, a bright orange mace - a new sculpt that matches his spiky design - is a nicer color despite being much brighter. The orange goes well with the different purples, in my humble opinion. Though, to make up for that, it's soft plastic and will bend and sag and disappoint as much as Matty on a sale date. I've warmed to the stupidity that is Spikor. I wouldn't say I've come around to the (complete lack of) character, but this is a pretty neat toy, even with its faults. He fits in nicely with the other MOTUC villains, and if that's your bag, I'd say pick him up. -- 10/22/12

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