Masters of the Universe Classics: Spikor Review

A popular vintage figure that never got a 200X update as either a toy or a staction, Spikor was overdue for the Classics treatment. Now the Evil Master of Volleyball Untouchable Master of Evil Combat is back with the usual update in detail and articulation of MOTUC.

Spikor seems to be a favorite for many people, but I never had him as a kid. He wasn’t one of those figures I wanted but couldn’t find like Sorceress, nor was he one that I specifically didn’t like for some reason like the movie characters, or one I didn’t even know about like Dragstor. No, I just… didn’t care I guess. So when it came time for a MOTUC figure I was less enthusiastic than I was for someone like Fisto.

Build and Deco
The vintage Spikor’s head was kind of round, covered in spikes and looked somewhat like a sea urchin. This Classics head is a bit more human shaped, with far fewer spikes. It looks more serious, which is definitely a good thing, but I also kind of miss the goofy look of the original. I suppose it makes him look more like his Filmation appearance though. The head is almost entirely purple, with the only paint apps being his yellow / black eyes and white teeth.

Separated at birth?

Most of Spikor is the standard human MOTUC body (using the newer boots with non-visible ankle pins), but he has newly sculpted forearms to recreate the vintage figure’s wristbands, and an interchangeable left hand/trident. His spikes are part of a set of removable armor, not part of his chest like the vintage figure.

The arms and legs are a kind of rosy purple while his head and chest are a dark bluish purple. Those arms and legs seem lighter and more pink than the vintage figure, maybe intending to be closer to the cross-sell artwork and Filmation. It looks like much of his body is actually cast in black plastic for some reason and painted purple. That always bugs me, but this time he came with a splotch of black on his shoulder where the paint had scraped off. Otherwise though, it looks pretty good, with some nice shading on the arms and legs. Also, at least they all match, instead of just one piece being painted.

Articulation
The articulation is what you’d expect from MOTUC. He has a ball-jointed neck, shoulders that rotate and move up and down, hips that move back and forth, up to the sides and rotate, ankle bends, boot twists, knee bends, wrist twists, elbow bends, bicep twists, waist twist and ab crunch. Like most figures with armor, it stops his arms from going quite all the way down, but nothing serious. The head turns a full 360° without issue, but the armor stop it from moving up and down much. Joints are all tight, as the figures have been trending. The shoulders were actually too tight, especially the right one. It wasn’t moving quite right and I was worried something would break, but after working at it a while it moves fine now.

Accessories
The spiked armor works just like we’ve seen on figures like Stinkor and Icarius. It slips on and off after you’ve removed the figure’s head. It’s made of a reasonably flexible material and pegs together at the bottom. It’s mostly dark purple like the head and bare chest, with teal on the collar and running down the back, and metallic green spikes on the collar and down the front and back. It all looks very nice.

Spikor includes an update of the vintage figure’s orange club. Its spikes are painted a metallic orange, and it’s probably one of my favorite updates of a vintage weapon. The vintage figure’s action feature was a trident that would extend out of his left arm. In place of this, Spikor includes two interchangeable tridents, one long and one short. They’re just painted silver instead of using vac-metal like the vintage figure, which I think was the right choice. The trident is actually pointed, while the one on the vintage figure had balls at the end. There’s also the red spacer thing the trident slid out of on the vintage figure, which is optional, as the tridents can just plug directly into the wrist. Last, he has a left hand you can use instead of the trident, another feature that’s closer to the Filmation design. It’s pretty nice getting an optional hand with a figure that didn’t originally include one, just as with Roboto.

Extra Fun
The tridents, spacer, and hand all use the same plug as previous figures with interchangeable parts, such as Hurricane Hordak, Roboto, and Horde Prime. So all their parts can be swapped.

Well even though I wasn’t a big fan of Spikor for whatever reason, this is a nice looking update that I’m happy to add to Skeletor’s evil forces.

Huh, I never noticed before how short Beast Man is.

Spikor was sold in July 2012, so you’ll have to check places like Amazon, BigBadToyStore or eBay to get one now. New figures go on sale on MattyCollector.com each month, usually on the 15th. The lineup for the August 15 sale seems to be:

Sir Laser-Lot (30th Anniversary figure, designed by Geoff Johns)
(Wait, really? There’s no regular figure this month?)
Eternian Palace Guards 2-Pack (reissue)
Bow (reissue)
Chief Carnivus (reissue)
Grizzlor (reissue)
A selection of “Essentials” (He-Man, Skeletor, Battlecat, etc.) are also available for purchase any time.