Stripe

Stripe was the chief villain of the 80s comedy-horror movie Gremlins - being easily recognised from his many brethren via his distinctive white stripe of fur on his head somewhat resembling a mohawk.

Role In The Film
Stripe's reign of terror began when one of Billy's friends got Gizmo wet, resulting in the "birth" of several mogwai who were shown to be much more unruly than the mostly docile Gizmo. In hobbies, Stripe and the other Mogwai (before becoming Gremlins) prefer the video game Donkey Kong while Gizmo prefers playing the trumpet. They were also sneaky as they managed to trick Billy into feeding them after midnight, which would result in them mutating into full-grown gremlins. Stripe instructed the four other unfriendly Mogwai into tricking Billy it's not midnight yet and make him feed them chicken legs. The next day, Stripe and the others formed cocoons.

Billy's mother was attacked by the gremlins and managed to kill a few but Stripe managed to escape - despite Billy giving chase Stripe showed his wicked intelligence when he broke into a swimming-pool and leapt in, resulting in him spawning a literal army of mischievious gremlins and forcing Billy to flee as they stormed the town and caused untold havoc.

However as dawn approaches Stripe and his crew of gremlins must retreat from the sunlight, which is deadly to them, and hide in an abandoned movie theatre where they watch Snow White and The Seven Dwarves (and even sing-along) - Stripe obviously wasn't much of a movie-lover however as he decided to raid a nearby store for candy, temporarily abandoning his "friends" when he saw a store with a glowing sign that said "Candy".

It was at this point Billy rigs the movie theatre to explode - killing all the gremlins in side, Stripe witnesses this and dives back into the store in a bid to find some water in order to spawn another army - but Billy pursues him and the climatic battle between man and gremlin gets under way - during this battle Stripe shows his vicious side as he attacks Billy with sawblades, a crossbow and finally a chainsaw - he was even ready to use the chainsaw to lethal effect when he was frightened away when Billy's girlfriend managed to open the store windows, allowing sunlight to enter.

Yet Stripe was not going down so easily, retreating into a greenhouse where a fountain is running, the violent monster also manages to find a gun in a case - which he decides to take and puts to use when Billy enters the greenhouse in an attempt to finish the battle once and for all.

Stripe begins to use the fountain to spawn while randomly firing the gun at Billy in an effort to either kill him or keep him at bay and would have been successful if Gizmo did not intervene - managing to open the blinds and causing the sunlight to enter, killing Stripe in a gruesome melting-scene that ultimately left him nothing but a puddle of slime.

According to the writers, he is reincarnated as another Gremlin named Mohawk in the sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch.

Mohawk
Stripe was reborn as Mohawk in Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Gizmo gets wet again inside a media mogul-owned skyscraper, and Mohawk locked up Gizmo in an air vent container. Later on, he eats after midnight, which makes him turn into a Gremlin again, and attacks people. Instead of leading the other Gremlins, (letting another Gremlin who is capable of speaking and high intelligence called "The Brain Gremlin" take leadership). Mohawk bullies Gizmo by torturing him with electric wires, pressing Gizmo down on a copier machine to print numerous copies, and hitting Gizmo with a toy train. Mohawk then drinks a spider serum that turns him into a half-Gremlin, half-spider hybrid. Gizmo eventually shows up and comes armed with an arrow on fire and a bow in the style of John C. Rambo. When Gizmo fired the arrow at Mohawk, the creature burned to death.

Personality
He was a vicious creature, showing more malice than the other Gremlins - who in large were more tricksters than actual villains - showing great hostility towards Gizmo and Billy, especially when they threatened to interrupt his fun. He also has absolutely no respect for life, even other gremlins.

Popularity
Stripe is the most iconic of the gremlins next to Gizmo and alongside his fellow gremlins is probably one of the most famous comedy-horror monsters of the 80s, the popularity of gremlins has also given us some interesting franchises that tried to cash-in on their popularity - such as the Ghoulies, Critters, Munchies, Pet Shop of Horrors, and the toyline Furby was extremely controversial with Gremlins fans claiming that Furby had plagarized the design of Mogwai from Gremlins.