Triclops

Toy review: Triclops

Toy review

 

Triclops is maybe the least evil looking villain in Eternia. In fact I would sometimes call him three-eyed Heman. The entire body is just a slightly different colored Heman, he’s more tanned, but a bit grayish. Many figures use this full-muscle-with-straight-fingers shape: Man at arms, King Randor, Mekaneck, Prince Adam and Faker. Triclops’ color variation is just darker boots and pants compared to Heman. The straight fingers were always an indication for the side the MOTU character was fighting for. Evil warriors with straight fingers are rare: I can only think of Faker. Things weren’t 100% thought-through in the 80s I guess, so I wouldn’t interpret too much into that hand.

Triclops’ head makes the difference, and a well-done difference it is. A rotating ring instead of eyes is a proper science fiction feature. They managed to make it look kind of natural, without the cheap 80s robot design. The fact that Triclops’ color is a natural looking green avoids any confusion with an Android. 80s MOTU toys had a much higher level of quality than other action figures, and Triclops is a good example. His face is rich in details, even though the eye-ring covers most of it. His three eyes are not only printed on, or even stickers. They are embroidered, and colored. The color lasts until today, and the whole ring rotates without any problems. Well done guys! 

Triclops’ harnish looks very tribal, as if he’s from a group of people from a savanna or rainforest. It is made from elastic, durable plastic that lasts till now.

I can’t remember any original story being told about his background. His box said that one eye is for day, one for night, and one to look around corners. And all three are to spy for Skeletor. Mattel really left us room for fantasy. On the other hand they produced such great material for stories, and just left it blank. Find my version in the titfortat tournament! 

Triclops’ sword is very different from Hemans. It is green, very narrow, and soft. It bent easily, and looked a bit funny when it pointed to the side. There is a holder on his back, which worked well. He hasn’t had any other weapon, but he had a glowing-in-the-dark ring. The ring was big enough to fit his arm, or a child’s finger. It had a secret compartment, and a black scull printed on it. A skull with three horns, that doesn’t resemble any other symbol of MOTU. So almost 40 years later I found a video on YouTube, explaining that so-called warrior ring. We haven’t had Trapjaw, otherwise we would have had two rings. The ring was meant to be for fan club members, but in the end was just for everyone who bought the right figure.

 

Crossover: Masters of the Stone age

Crossovers

THIS is my favorite so far! Each character worked out just fine. I have drawn in pencil, then used a marker for the final lines, and scanned it for Sketchbook then. I guess black background is best for my kind of drawings. I totally ignored the characters affiliation to good or evil, so that this is also a crossover of heros and villains.

We have Fred Tri-stone, who is Triclops of course! The visor is obvious, but he also wears his green I-don’t-know-what under the (sabertooth?) fur.

Orko is always good for a drawing, though I never liked him as a toy or in the cartoon. He is crossed with Dino, the dog-like pet of the Flintstones. His head is pretty cool, and his arm too. The whole attitude is a bit bitchy, not sure why this happened. No questions, his hand is in a weird angle, best is just to make weird hands my signature, isn’t it?

Next to him is Weelma – Wilma and Teela! Same as Fred, she has only subtle details of Teela, the crown, the collar and the armlets (ok I realize I have no idea how these three things are called). Her faces seems to say something between ‘Shut up’ and ‘Keep quiet, I’ll kill him soon”.

Weelma’s left, ugly hand seems to reach for the baby, Pebbles, only that she is crossed with the Scorceress, making it the Pebbleress. Like the smurfs, she was a bit small (of course you can zoom in in Sketchbook) and got a bit rough around the edges. But you should be able to see the bone in her hair, the hawk on her noodle, and feathers on the back. The legs, are weak, because she uses to fly (hmhm). She gazes at her friend, while she might have head one too much.

Her friend is Bam-a-Bam, Bambam crossed over with Mekaneck. This happened because our long necked hero carries a huge yellow bat that is just perfect for the strong baby. His futuristic glasses go very well with the stoneage style of Bambam, so that we have a very cool boy here!

His mother is rather evil, Evil Lynn with Betty makes Betty Lynn. I was in a kind of a misery, because I couldn’t make her limbs yellow, like the toy has it. That would have consumed the yellow bat. So I decided to make her entirely blue. She is well decorated with Evil Lynn’s applications (what is that thing on her head?!).

Barney is also blue, because there’s a Faker in him – now he is Barker! Isn’t Barney like a wanna-be Fred? There is some truth behind it… Orange hair and a hint of his orange amour expose him!