Poe’s Review > Spikor (Masters of the Universe Classics, Mattel)

August 23, 2012 | Poe

Sega’s first attempt at an “edgier” Sonic

I admit I’ve neglected to write up a post about it, but I did get The Power and the Honor Foundation‘s excellent Volume One: The Art of Masters of the Universe Toy Design. It’s everything the Mattel art book should have been (for the same price). Anyway, the book includes an early concept sketch of Spikor. He’s similar to the final version except the porcupine aspect is played up more – he’s brown and has a more animalistic face. Why Mattel decided to make him purple in the end is beyond me, but I now find it part of what makes the character endearing.

I had the vintage Spikor as a kid. He appealed to me because of his color scheme (I like purple), the fun rubbery spikes, and the odd extendable trident feature. Like Whiplash and Leech, Spikor survived (or post-dated) the day that I gave away many of my He-Man figures to a cousin in Florida. He eventually became a generic monster foe to the likes of the Ninja Turtles. (more…)

Sightings > Rare Robo Force Figure “Tiltor” Unearthed

August 21, 2012 | Poe

First off, big thanks to Battlegrip for pointing this out. It had totally flown under my radar.

As longtime Poesters are no doubt aware, I’m a big fan of the 1984 Ideal toy line Robo Force. They were fun, if somewhat goofy, robot figures with suction cups and accordion arms that could “grasp” when a button was pushed on the back. I wrote an article about them for ToyFare years ago where I interviewed Paul Kirchner, one of the creators behind the line. The article had a sidebar about unproduced Robo Force toys, including Tiltor, the Changer.

The line was quickly pushed out of the market by the juggernaut that was Transformers, but apparently at least one Tiltor did make it out into the wild somehow. A collector and diehard Robo Force fan found one on eBay – for twenty-five bucks. You can see the story of the discovery of the figure here, along with plenty of photos. Then head over to Roboplastic Apocalypse for a transcript of a podcast wherein the saga of Robo Force and Tiltor is discussed at length. Like, at. length. But I kid – it’s a great, fun read.