Ah-ha! I bet you thought that we were not going to be bringing you this feature, didn’t you? What? With all the SDCC and Fwoosh crash crisis going on, would there even be time for such a thing? Well, even in the hubbub of the convention Toy Guru packed up a Spikor and gave him to me at the show so I could hurry home and get this feature up. Furthermore, I got to open the figure with Cornboy of the Four Horsemen (he had not gotten to play with a production piece yet), and he personally quality checked him for me. Can’t get a better contribution than that, right? We tore him open right on the convention floor, so no packaged pictures for you! Well, what were our findings? I think you will be pleased and I am personally very excited that the last member of my childhood “Big Five” has come to the shelf. Spikor just went on sale at Matty Collector a few hours ago, so you better get him while he lasts.
I am going to keep this pretty quick since I have a TON of post-con stuff to publish for the site, and I think this figure will pretty much speak for itself. Personally, I have been waiting for Spikor for a very, very long time. When I was kid, there were five figures that were always–ALWAYS–with me: Mer-Man (my very favorite), Whiplash, Fisto, Mossman, and Spikor. I am not exactly sure what drew me to each of these guys, but I have loved them all since childhood, and, even amongst a loaded 2012, this year has brought me the final pieces. I have been very fortunate, too, because I find, and I think a lot of fans will agree, that these five figures are some of the strongest in the entire line. The thing is, though, I thought that Mer-Man would stay my favorite MOTUC figure for all time, but Spikor is making a serious charge at dethroning him.
As far as the figure itself is concerned, structurally, I (and Cornboy) was not able to find any real nits to pick. The joints are tight, the plastic is strong, the loincloth is flexible, and CB made a point to mention that most of the paint highlights from the original prototype have been preserved in production. The teal armoring spikes do retain their metallic effect and it is very nice and helps them stand out. One thing I was actually surprised to find is that the spikes are actually spikier than I had originally thought. No, you are not going to cut yourself on them, but don’t leave old Kleffton lying around on the floor. If you step on him, you will be cursing his evil ways more than ever. I guess it was just supposition that I was expecting that his spiky overlay would be rubbery like the vintage figure, but it is actually made of pretty solid plastic. It is not stiff to the point of being inflexible, but as you can see in the picture below, playing around with him leaves some divot and pings in my hand. I actually find this to be a VERY pleasant surprise.
One of the biggest draws of the figure has to be the recreation of his spiked trident hand from the vintage figure. As you know, it is not telescoping like before; instead, Mattel has included retracted and extended swappable pieces so you can complete the effect. The red connector piece is separate, but it is not required to attach the tridents. In a figure first, the Horsemen also tossed in a plain hand so that he can match his FILMation styling. I never thought I would consider displaying that, but now that I have it, I am giving it serious thought. I always thought of his trident as something that fit over his hand anyway, so decisions and considerations need to be made.
His orange mace looks great as well. I know many have been worried about paint applications after Stinkor’s accessories lost their highlights, but I am glad to say Spikor’s mace retains them. I really like the metallic orange effect on them and I cannot imagine how flat this weapon would have looked without them. As it stands, though, it looks great. One thing to note is that if there is something to nitpick about this figure at all, it is that the mace is made of a slightly softer plastic than I was expecting. It is not even in the same league as the MAA mace, but it is softer. I will be interested to see if it will bend over time, but I am thinking we will be okay.
I could literally talk about Spikor all day. I am sure some you probably know that since I have been counting down his days to release in the forum thread. We have been waiting for a new Spikor since the 1980s, and in talking to Cornboy, he said that Spikor is a great example of *finally* getting to a favorite of his. He said that, while he enjoyed working on the 200x line, Classics is his favorite incarnation and that this is what the characters *should* look like. I think Spikor is a strong testament to that. We got a lot of cool and off-the-wall reveals at SDCC, but it is always nice to fill in a vintage favorite of mine, and Spikor might just be my new favorite MOTUC figure. I really hope that all (and by all, I mean as many as mass production will allow) the Spikor figures are as nice. If you are an Evil Warrior fan like me, you are going to love him; past that though, he is just a great MOTUC figure in a year of pretty awesome MOTUC figures. Like I said, pick him up today at Matty Collector while he lasts, and don’t forget that all of the Matty Subs are for sale now too.
*Thanks to Toy Guru for carting Spikor all the way to SDCC so we could get this one in under the wire, and thanks to Cornboy for helping me inspect and play with this bad boy. He has been a long time coming!
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