Dragon Walker vehicle from the vintage Masters of the Universe toy line.

The Dragon Walker was a side-winding, land-based vehicle resembling a green dragon with a driving module shaped like a dragon’s head. It moved forward with the help of a rotating bottom level and sliding track. The Dragon Walker’s unusual movement was clearly demonstrated in the animated cartoon series, where it was explained to be another great invention by Man-At-Arms. The Dragon Walker could swipe enemy vehicles out of the way and even breathe fire upon enemies.

Dragon Walker as it appeared in the Masters of the Universe Cartoon

Dragon Walker as it appeared in the Masters of the Universe mini comic

The Dragon Walker was designed to maneuver the challenging Eternian terrain and could easily cross ravines and faults in the earth. The vehicle’s name was derived from its method of propulsion, which mimicked the act of walking. The dragon head of the vehicle sat upon a track. When the rear of the vehicle’s bulky body swung around to the front, the dragon head and driver were positioned at the back until they slid forward along the track to the new front position. The Dragon Walker boasted a coat of arms on its side that featured the symbol worn on He-Man’s Thunder Punch and Battle Armor costumes.

2002 Masters of the Universe Modern Series

Dragon Walkers made an appearance in the 2002 animated series with a very different design, becoming a fleet of massive, bipedal mobile weapons platforms built by Man-At-Arms to attack Beast Man’s Serpintaurs in the hopes of preventing them from assaulting the Royal Palace of Eternos. Their dragon-like appearance was intended to frighten the Serpintaurs, which were natural enemies of dragons in the wild; however, that plan met with limited success. Instead, the Dragon Walkers had to depend on their arsenal to combat the flying beasts. The mechanical dragons could project long streams of fire from their metal jaws while using their tails to slash at and pound their targets. They possessed wings (equipped with cannons) that were much smaller than those of live dragons, but they were not shown to be capable of flight. Their energy source was a power cell housed in the dragons’ heads, providing enough energy to allow the Dragon Walkers to sprint quickly across a battlefield. The energy stored in the power cell was so great that when He-Man destroyed one of them, it sent an explosive discharge that singed the evil Serpintaurs and sent them tumbling out of the sky. The Dragon Walkers proved formidable enough that they were later used to defend King Randor’s palace against the rampaging snake deity Serpos.