Berserker
Top-Spinner
A shield, a spiked ball, and a tornado spin.
Top-Spinner is the newest of Hammerhand's principal Berserkers, introduced in ThunderCats HO! and voiced by Bob McFadden. He spins like a tornado with his shield and chained mace, making it difficult to attack him or defend against. His seemingly only weakness is the spin also makes him inaccurate and can leave him dizzy.
On Screen
Top-Spinner barely talks
Every other Berserker gets a boast or a catchphrase. Top-Spinner mostly doesn't speak at all.
Hammerhand shouts, Ram-Bam charges, Cruncher is the muscle, and Top-Spinner is the least vocal of the crew. He appears alongside the others repeatedly and speaks little across any of his episodes.
His attack pairs a shield with a spiked ball on a chain, set spinning at speed. Because the spin has no fixed aim, it is hard for an opponent to block, and the animation shows the whirl coming from a different angle each time.
There is a cost that goes with it: the spinning makes his attacks slightly inaccurate and can leave him dizzy. Every Berserker has a mechanism that comes with a drawback built in.
LJN made him in 1986, sharing Series 2 assortment 3526 with Ram-Bam, and Playful reissued both figures for the Argentinian market not long after. He had no Super7 ULTIMATES until October 2026, when Super7 put a cartoon-color one on pre-order at Big Bad Toy Store after the modern line had reached Hammerhand and Cruncher; see our Top-Spinner figure page.
The least vocal of Hammerhand's crew. True across both of his appearances.
Stills captured from ThunderCats (1985). Copyright WBEI.
The lifeboat gag, in full: the crew strap him to the stern and use his spin as the motor.
Clipped from our own copy of ThunderCats, ThunderCats HO! Part Four (1986), 13:31 to 14:03, 32 seconds. Nothing is added and nothing is sped up. Copyright WBEI.
On Screen
Top-Spinner's on screen action.
Most of Top-Spinner's screen time is crowd scenes with the rest of the crew. Two scenes are his alone, one in ThunderCats HO! and one in Together We Stand.
The first is a comic scene in ThunderCats HO! Part Four: with the Berserkers' lifeboat broken, Hammerhand straps Top-Spinner to the back of it and uses his spin as the motor. Our review of that episode calls the scene both genius and hilarious. It repurposes the spinning attack, already established as a weapon, as transportation instead.
The second is a fight scene in Together We Stand: he drills into the ThunderStrike's central escape pod and comes up directly against Lynx-O. It is one of only two moments in the crew's run where a Berserker and a ThunderCat share the frame without a Tower, a tank or a ship between them.
Both scenes give the animation more to do than the character's design usually calls for: he is the motor in one episode and the obstacle in the next. He has no dialogue in either scene.
In both scenes he stays silent: he is turned into transportation without a line, and he squares off with Lynx-O without a word passing between them. The character introduced as the crew's quiet one stays quiet in his two signature moments.
Behind the Scenes
A crew built to sell a toy line
Top-Spinner exists as a powerful addition to the Ljn toy line. The Berserkers all had action features that resembled their powers in the cartoon. In Top-Spinner's case, a hidden trigger makes him spin just like he does in the show.
Leonard Starr built the entire crew from scratch for ThunderCats HO!, and by his own account the motivation was commercial: the toy line needed expanding, so Hammerhand got a full crew rather than working alone. Top-Spinner is one of three new additions built for that reintroduction, each given a distinct ability.
In Part Five, the Fistpounder comes off a cliff and lands on the Berserkers' ship, sinking it and ending the naval threat that has run through the story. This is the second time the Berserkers have lost their ship, the first being in the episode "The Terror of Hammerhand."
Together We Stand brings the crew back with even more power. This time, Mumm-Ra equips their armor with Thundranium, a substance that weakens the ThunderCats if it comes anywhere close to them.
On the Shelf
LJN got there before Super7 did
The figure shares a catalog number with Ram-Bam, and its one removable piece is a trap for a loose-figure buyer.
LJN's 1986 Top-Spinner and Ram-Bam share Series 2 assortment 3526. Top-Spinner's catalog listing includes a detail worth knowing before buying loose: the shield unclips, but the spiked ball on its rope does not. A seller describing that ball as missing is describing a broken figure, not an incomplete one.
Playful's Argentinian reissue uses the same LJN mold, the standard arrangement for that market through the mid-1980s: license the tooling rather than resculpt it.
The Long Run
Top-Spinner, episode by episode
ThunderCats HO!
The five-parter that brings the crew back.
Together We Stand
His last appearance.
Questions
Top-Spinner questions, answered
Who is Top-Spinner?
One of Hammerhand's principal Berserkers, the crew led by Hammerhand. He spins at great speed to produce an attack an opponent cannot easily deflect.
What are Top-Spinner's weaknesses?
Accuracy and balance. The spinning makes his attacks slightly inaccurate and can leave him dizzy, the same design logic as Ram-Bam's uncontrollable charge.
Where do Top-Spinner's powers come from?
Unstated. Like Cruncher and Ram-Bam, the series leaves open whether the ability is birth, training or cybernetics. The original crew of Berserkers we assume perished when the ThunderCats sank their ship in "The Terror of Hammerhand." Evidence of this is seen in "Spitting Image" when Mumm-Ra commands Hammerhand's spirit from his "watery grave" to embody a clone of Panthro. In "ThunderCats Ho!," the Berserkers reappear, this time with cyborg bodies much like Hammerhand's mechanically enhanced arm and fist. The backstory is unexplained.
What is Top-Spinner's best moment in the show?
ThunderCats HO! Part Four, where Hammerhand uses him as an improvised motor to drive the Berserkers' broken lifeboat. It is the one time the character's gimmick gets used for something other than fighting, and it's a memorable gag.
Does Top-Spinner fight any of the ThunderCats directly?
Yes, in Together We Stand. He drills into the ThunderStrike's central cockpit pod and comes face to face with Lynx-O there, one of only two Berserkers the episode puts in direct contact with a ThunderCat rather than a vehicle. He also battles Bengali in this episode.
Who voices Top-Spinner?
Bob McFadden, whose ThunderCats roles also include Snarf, Lynx-O, Slithe and Vultureman.
Who wrote Top-Spinner's episodes?
Leonard Starr wrote the ThunderCats HO! five-parter, where Top-Spinner is introduced and gets the lifeboat gag. Herb Englehardt wrote Together We Stand, the crew's last appearance.
Is there a Top-Spinner action figure?
Yes. LJN made him in 1986 as part of Series 2, sharing an assortment number with Ram-Bam, and Playful reissued both for the Argentinian market. Super7's ThunderCats Ultimates line has reached Hammerhand and Cruncher, and a cartoon-colour Top-Spinner is now on pre-order at Big Bad Toy Store for $64.99, estimated December 2026 (our Top-Spinner figure page).
Does Top-Spinner appear outside the 1985 series?
No. The character is confined to ThunderCats HO! and Together We Stand and does not appear in the 2011 series or any ThunderCats comic line.
Compiled by the thundercats.org desk. Character facts come from our encyclopedia record and the guide entries. No dialogue is quoted, because our archive holds no subtitle track for the ThunderCats HO! block onwards; the keyClip's lifeboat scene was located and timed against an external subtitle file for ThunderCats HO! Part Four rather than our own archive copy, which carries no captions past episode 65. Stills and the clip come from the SD-only archive copy of Part Four.
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The Shelf
The rest of Wave 16
Top-Spinner has had one figure. These shipped alongside it.
Tug-Mug SUPER7 · Wave 16 Pre-order Paid link Prices and stock read from BigBadToyStore on 2 November 2026.
Alongside
