Clawful

Clawful is a character in the popular toy line and cartoon series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

A member of the evil warriors, he is a cross between a man and a crab or lobster, with large, sharp claws that can crush the life out of his opponent. In most mediums, his right claw is extra large and thus achieves an extra-deadly grip.

Character history

1980s

Clawful was introduced into the Masters of the Universe toy line in 1984. However, he made his debut on the accompanying cartoon series by Filmation in 1983, late into the show's first season, earlier than most other characters from his wave of toys. His appearance on the cartoon was significantly different from the appearance of his action figure. He was given fins which made him resemble a sea creature more closely, and unlike the action figure, both his claws were the same size, the reason for this being to make his character symmetrical so animation cels could be flipped over without his large claw constantly switching sides.

Introduced in the episode "Dree Elle's Return", Clawful received a strong introduction as lead villain of the episode. Having stolen an artifact called the Horn of Evil from Orko's homeworld of Trolla, Clawful was portrayed as a strong, harsh commander to the bumbling Trap-Jaw who assisted him throughout the episode. He made his second appearance a few episodes later in "Castle of Heroes" in which Skeletor described him as his 'right-hand man' (possibly a pun, suggesting his claw may have originally been intended to be giant-sized like that of the toy) and he was portrayed as such throughout the episode, as a loyal sidekick to Skeletor, whom Skeletor seemed to respect more than most of his other warriors. Although his introduction seemed to indicate he was a rung above the other villains, this was sadly not expanded on throughout his later appearances, most of which portrayed him as just another of Skeletor's henchmen, albeit more intelligent and slightly more responsible than most others. His most significant episode of the show's second season was "Things That Go Bump in the Night" which indicated that Skeletor's apparent respect for him (as demonstrated in "Castle of Heroes") had waned, as Skeletor was here shown to be aggressive and distrustful towards Clawful, who in this episode vowed that he would someday overthrow Skeletor as leader of the evil warriors. Clawful seemed to possess more confidence than Skeletor's other minions in that out of all the evil warriors who made this statement for themselves throughout the series, Clawful was the only one bold enough to say it to Skeletor's face, and he was also seen to sarcastically laugh off Skeletor's abuse with a confidence few other evil warriors ever exhibited.

2002 series

Clawful was re-used in the 2002 relaunch of the Masters of the Universe cartoon series. Although intended for the toy line as well, the line was cancelled before his figure could be released, although a staction figure of the character was produced by sculptors the Four Horsemen.

Clawful's portrayal in the modern incarnation was radically different from his 1980s counterpart. Rather than being one of Skeletor's more intelligent and responsible villains, Clawful was here presented as being the stupidest and most bumbling of them all, used purely for comedy value without the faintest hint of intelligence. Although he appeared frequently throughout the series, his roles were generally very minimal, only serving to contribute the occasional comical moment with his dim-witted statements and bunglings of schemes. The only episode to give him a spotlight role was "The Island" in which we were introduced to his race, a race of crab-like creatures who populated a small island. Clawful's cousin played a larger role than Clawful in this episode, and also seemed significantly more intelligent, to the point the audience could wonder why it was Clawful whom Skeletor had hired and not his cousin. Clawful was shown here to be so dim-witted that he did not even recognise the language of his own race (communication via a snapping of the claws). One interesting factor about his character was that Evil-Lyn, despite her general resentment of the other evil warriors, actually seemed to like him, seeming rather sympathetic towards Clawful's lack of intelligence and his almost childlike personality. The modern series' radical change of Clawful's personality proved extremely controversial among fans, who felt it undermined the effectiveness of a character who had shown so much promise in his original incarnation.

Trivia

The writers of the 2002 series had conceived an idea for an episode in which Clawful gained high intelligence, but the show was cancelled before such an episode could be written.