Toy review: Spikor

Toy review

The porcupine (or hedgehog?) guy Spikor is in my opinion an underrated henchman of Skeletor. He’s everything the Masters of the Universe stand for, he’s a slightly too serious figure for kids, he’s colorful, creative, and he has a technical feature that made him unique. Look at his face, it says ‘I’m smart and I’m evil’.

Purple is probably not my first choice for anything, but on Spikor it works very well. Mattel’s designers combined a blueish purple on the head and torso with a more yellowish purple on the limbs, and highlighted it with some turquoise ornaments on the torso. Then there’s some red on the belt and the left arm, and a brown loincloth, a choice I would never have dared to make. But somehow this red and brown makes him appear human, or civilised in my opinion. Without that contrast he might have been a space monster, not a henchman.

The uv light revealed it, his straight arm with the trident, which would fit Merman very well, is from a different material. It glows bright pink, and you might remember, it also feels harder. Unfortunately my Spikor developed issues holding that trident in quiet early in his life. That was a bit annoying. I’m not surprised that the metallic paint came off early also, and with the black plastic shining through it got a more authentic look.

He also had wobbly legs and wouldn’t stand properly, also because his center of gravity seems to be a bit higher.

Appart from these two problems I like Spikor, and I appreciate the quality of the figure, especially of the spikes itself, which give him a nice haptic.

Original 80s vintage Spikor in uv light

M.A.S.K color switch: Switchblade*Detonator

Color switch, M.A.S.K.

This color switch made one thing clear: what works on a VW beetle does not necessarily work on a jet fighter…

Though one of the most iconic vehicles from the Kenner M.A.S.K toyline, Switchblade was never one of my favourites. The mechanism was a bit sensitive, and at some point transforming Switchblade felt like breaking a birds bones. Anyways changing the blunt blue to Detonators pink and green was kind of fun. These colos though must make it hard to produce a real M.A.S.K movie now…

The most sold helicopter in the United States in the 80s was according to Wikipedia the Bell 206. Just for an orientation, the 206B Jetranger II came with 400hp and had a maximum speed of over 200km/h! I always wondered why so many 80s TV shows, like the A team, Knight Rider or The Six Million Dollar Man had helicopters so often. And do you remember Airwolf!? Keep that sound in your head when you look at Switchblade*Detonator!

A jet would be easily 10 times faster than a helicopter. Switchblade doesn’t look much like a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird unfortunately. It has a way too big cockpit compared to real fight jets. And neither dark blue, nor pink gave it a military look. But hey, I absolutely appreciate the idea of a jet turning into a helicopter!

Switchblade*Detonator