Scare Glow

Scare Glow is an evil ghost in Mattel's Masters of the Universe toyline. In 1987 Mattel released an action figure called Scare Glow, Evil Ghost of Skeletor. The toy was a skull faced figure with a purple cape, that had the added feature of glowing in the dark. Since the original Masters of the Universetv series had already been cancelled by this point Scare Glow did not get a chance to appear on the Filmation cartoon. Consequently the only back story provided for the character comes from the mini-comic that accompanied his toy, that comic being “The Search for Keldor.” In this comic Skeletor uses his power to summon “the most evil beings of time and space to Eternia” to do his bidding. The two beings that appear are Ninjor, a ninja warrior and Scare Glow. Ninjor and Scare Glow are both confused by their sudden and instantaneous translation to Snake Mountain. Scare Glow speaks threateningly to Skeletor, saying “Speak Skull-Face before I scare you to death!” Skeletor threatens them with his Havoc Staff and proclaims himself their master. He tells them he will send them home when they deal with his enemies, they submit to his yoke and he teleports them away to engage He-Man and Clamp-Champ. They are both promptly defeated by the heroes, however before this happens Scare-Glow divulges a bit more information about himself. “I am Scare Glow… The Ghost of Skeletor! An in my glow even brave men tremble” He cries.

Although never stated, the implication of this story could likely be that Ninjor was from the past and Scare Glow from the future. This assertion is based on Skeletor’s own statement about Ninjor and Scare Glow being “the most evil beings of time and space”, Scare Glow’s proclamation that he is “The Ghost of Skeletor” and the assumption that Ninjor (based on his over all theme) is meant to be from either medieval Japan or some world’s equivalent thereof. The logic of this idea is by no means impervious to attack, however, assuming it is correct, and that Scare Glow was indeed meant to be from the future it is possible that he is literarily “The Ghost of Skeletor”, that is to say he is Skeletor himself, from some point in the future, after the villain’s own demise. However, this may not have been the intended implication of the writer. The idea that Scare Glow, is Skeletor’s own departed soul, seems challenged by the fact that Scare-Glow does not appear to recognize, He-Man or even Skeletor himself. It is possible to assume this to be memory loss, perhaps caused by time travel or the experience of dieing itself, however it is also possible that Scare Glow is not Skeletor but is simply calling himself “The Ghost of Skeletor” to indicate that he is merely a ghost in the service of Skeletor. If this is the case though, it seems somewhat unusual that the toy box would title Scare Glow as “Evil Ghost of Skeletor.” The only other MOTU toy that was ever announced to be a possession of Skeletor in it’s title was, Faker, who was similarly billed as “Evil Robot of Skeletor” and that is probably due to the fact that he was meant to have been built by Skeletor.

In an interview with the website He-Man.org, Steven Grant, the writer of “The Search for Keledor”, said the following regarding the Scare Glow question “Mattel came up with these characters when they wanted to put out new toys ... Mattel wasn't very concerned with the backstories, except on the main characters. These lesser characters were thrown in there and often not expected to be seen again.”