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Spotlight on... Stinkor!

Stinkor was always a bit of an enigma for me when I was a kid. Here was this guy who was obviously the same figure as Mer-Man, but repainted and way cooler looking, and supposed to be, I guess, a skunk? The orange and red of his armor and furry undies contrasted really well with the black and white paint apps, and made for quite a striking figure. I remember getting him for Christmas. That same Christmas I also got the Fright Zone and the Slime Pit (oh the fun I had!!!).


One thing that did boggle my mind was the fact that the poor guy didn’t have a weapon, per se. Sure he had his patchouli stench which could knock his enemies out with, but it would only be a matter of time before those wily Masters figured out “hey, let’s wear breathing apparatus to help us overcome Stinkor’s stench!” thus rendering him a rather impotent warrior. What weapon did he get? A shield. A shield! Seriously, what was he supposed to do with that? Whip it at someone like a Frisbee? Deflect raining blows while being ganged up on? Wear it like a hat to keep the rain off? Let’s face it he needed a sword or a mace or something right??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite his lack of material kick-assness in the form of physical offensive weaponry, I still loved the toy and yes, I’ll admit it, I liked the smell as well. I wear patchouli on my leather jacket actually and no, before you ask, I’m not a dirty smelly hippy.


So, with my rambling out of the way, let’s take a look at the man(?) himself:


Original vintage version – As already noted, the vintage Stinkor was just a repaint of the Mer-Man figure, and given Mekaneck’s armor and a shield. His paint apps are quite striking with the all black with white ‘skunk stripes’, finished with his red gauntlets and orange boots/feet. His creepy yellow eyes peer from behind the face mask and give an impression that he himself needs some kind of breathing apparatus because he smells so bad. He has the regular articulation of all the other figures in the line, complete with twisting waist ‘power punch’ feature. His namesake power though, was his ‘stench of evil’ which was achieved by mixing patchouli oil into the plastic. It was really strong when you opened the blister pack, and remained whiffy for a few years, but alas, my vintage loose one I have now has no odor. I have toyed with the idea of seeing if I could mix patchouli oil with resin when casting to achieve the same result…


I actually feel that the figure sculpt works much better for Stinkor than it does Mer-Man, something I thought as a kid too. The back of the head looks as though he actually has a hair style, and therefore never really felt ‘fishy’ enough to be Mer-Man (I mean c’mon, not a fish scale in sight!). Such was the way of Mattel then (as now), that they wanted to get as much use out of a figure mold as they could, and I’ll give them kudos here, as this was a really great design choice.


As with other MoTU figures, he came with a comic book which gave him some background origins (though nothing nearly as detailed as the 200X story). I believe the same comic came with Moss Man, as both are prominently featured and was probably a cross-sell promotion. Stinkor was clearly the evil opposite of Moss Man, who was a ‘Heroic Master’ and whose scent was the complete antithesis of what Stinkor was about. Moss Man (who was a re-use of the Beast Man mold) was covered in green flocking and had a strong pine tree smell. It always made for an interesting experience opening the toy box…


Sadly Stinkor, as with a plethora of other MoTU characters were never seen in the cartoon, which was for me as a kid, frustrating. I could also never get my head around why the characters that were in the cartoon never really looked much like their toy counterparts. Mattel were unapologetically honest about the fact that they used the cartoon as a vehicle to sell toys, which, in hindsight, didn’t really make too much sense when you still had a bunch of characters in toy form that didn’t see the screen until the 200X series. Anyway, I digress. Love vintage Stinkor!


Staction figure – Statue + action figure = staction figure. I’d never even heard of this term before seeing the MoTU ‘stactions’, which essentially means a small statue that has little, if any, articulation. These seemed to bridge a gap between the 200X toys that came out and the Classics line that we know and love now. Sure we had some characters that had already seen the 200X treatment who were also stactions, but they ventured into new territory by giving us a few characters that hadn’t seen an upgrade since the vintage days, such as Hordak, Grizzlor, Mosquitor and yes, Stinkor! (It should also be noted that a staction of the 200X Sorceress was also produced, and is quite expensive on the secondary market now).


In this version, he is represented exactly how he appeared in the Mike Young Productions 200X episodes. Slightly more gangly arms, trademark shield and his breathing apparatus complete with oxygen(?) tanks. This version is highly detailed, with all sorts of wires and whatnot on his armor and gauntlets and comes with a base you can stand him on and let him lurk, and stink, in your display. I should mention here that this version doesn’t have any scent, and never did. Boooo…


MOTUC version – The most recent version was released in the Masters of the Universe Classics line and is a really great all round toy. Sorry, collectible. Both vintage purists and 200X fans are catered to with this release as you are able to display him one way or the other. You can opt for the simplistic vintage style version (which I did), or you can add a bunch of fiddly little bits and pieces and swap out the head, and add the blaster (yes, he finally got a weapon along with the shield) to go for the updated version.


As true to the original, this version also had patchouli added to the plastic for that trademark smell. Sadly, they must have been skimping on their oil, as the smell doesn’t seem particularly prominent 3 years down the road (and indeed seemed to fade only months after opening). There was a big uproar in the fan community about the fact that his forearms were reversed, and that we were told this was actually a deliberate design decision (to make it ‘pop’ on your shelf), rather than Mattel own up to the fact is was actually a factory cock-up. I have still yet to fix mine, but it’s not on my list of priorities, I’m just happy to have him. A great all round toy!


Vintage stamper – yes, I have one of these too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


So there you have it, a look at my favorite figure, the ‘Evil Master of Odors’. He may be a walking fart joke, and is probably the butt (ahem) of all jokes in Eternia and beyond, but there is something appealing about this character which just makes him stand out from the rest.


Smell ya later!

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