Powet Alphabet: O is for Odiphus

Many who are familiar with the Masters of the Universe franchise are familiar with the diverse and comical cast of villains. Many of the characters in general were named pretty obviously; Fisto had a big fist, Skeletor had a skull for a head, Tri-klops had 3 eyes, Webstor was a big spider guy, Ninjor was a ninja and Spikor was a henchman with lots of spikes. The people naming these characters should have taken the moniker Masters of the Obvious. Not to be outdone by those examples, though, they went ahead and named an anthropomorphic skunk, Stinkor.

Stinkor never made it into the Filmation He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series. In fact, Stinkor was actually proposed as an addition to the Horde for the Princess of Power series. When he was proposed to the show makers, he was rejected for effectively being “a walking fart joke.” A character that had the same exact powers as Stinkor, named Odar, would actually be included in the series bible for the sequel series He-Ro, son of He-Man (Not to be confused with The Powers of Grayskull). That series was never made, though.

Despite its exclusion from the television series, the figure would go on to be released anyway as one of the only three scented figures made. Perfuma, from the Princess of Power sub line, and Moss Man would be the only other two figures to have that distinction. Stinkor was a repainted Mer-man figure with repainted Mekanek armor. Patchouli oil was mixed in with the figure’s plastic to create the scent and make sure it would not wear off, as opposed to being sprayed or coated.

At this point, you are probably wondering “What about Odiphus? What has he got to do with this walking fart joke?” In 2002, when The Masters of the Universe was reintroduced, Stinkor made it into the show and was given a new origin in his first appearance. He was not always the Evil Master of Odors. Stinkor was originally a Paeleezean, an anthropomorphized lemur of sorts.

In the episode titled The Sweet Smell of Victory, Odiphus, a common thief, goes to Skeletor looking to join him and his Masters of Evil, but the somewhat clumsy and diminuitive sized Odiphus is laughed at and rejected. After the rejection, he sneaks into Tri-klops’ lab. Odiphus, unwittingly, caused a chemical chain reaction that caused his body to grow significantly, in addition to making him smell unbearable. Unfortunately for Odiphus, he was not immune to his own stink and had to wear an oxygen mask to be able to breathe. Tri-klops would later build him some armor with a breathing apparatus built-in. Odiphus would also be able to control his odor to a greater degree with the help of this apparatus. At the end of the episode, Skeletor referred to him as Odiphus and he replied “Odiphus? Who’s Odiphus? Call me…Stinkor.”

In a later episode titled “Out of the Past”, it was revealed that at a very young age Odiphus had betrayed his village during the time of the Great War to a warlord named Prahvus. Fortunately for the village, the sorceress was there tending to a wounded soldier and saved the village. Odiphus would be exiled from his home for his transgressions.

Stinkor was not released as an action figure in the 2002 line of figures due to its cancelation. He did make it into the second wave of mini-statues from NECA, though. Originally, he was also supposed to be packaged with a mini-figure of Odiphus in his original form, but due to a spike in oil prices, the mini-figure had to be dropped. The mini-figure would later be packed in with Jitsu as part of one of the last waves of the mini-statues.

So O is for Odiphus because Odiphus? Who’s Odiphus? Call him Stinkor, the Evil Master of Odors!