Regular readers to this blog may recall that as a vegetarian and somebody who hasn’t stepped inside a McDonald’s for a couple of decades, I’m not usually a collector of fast food toys…unless, of course, I happen across one at a flea market, as I did with this Creature from the Black Lagoon recently. As a Universal Monsters film fan I couldn’t resist this action figure, which was issued by Burger King in 1997 alongside equally accurate movie-likenesses of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolf Man – all my concerns about the influence of these very toys on childhood obesity flew momentarily out of the window!
Debs
The Real Ghostbusters Fright Features: Peter Venkman
The countdown to Halloween continues! I simply couldn’t let October go by without including one of the Real Ghostbusters team and another action figure from one of my favourite Kenner lines from the late 1980s.
This 5-inch Peter Venkman action figure is from what was probably the most successful and popular sub-series from their Real Ghostbusters toy line – Fright Features. Far simpler than the Super Fright Features that followed, these figures were their first foray into innovative interactive expressions – each figure in the series is featured with one arm held slightly wide from their body and, if squeezed, the facial expression changes into one of alarm. Our Doctor Venkman here, for example, has clearly had a hair raising encounter with a ghost, his eyes pop out of their sockets and his jaw drops.
The Mummy from ‘Tales from the Cryptkeeper’
With Halloween fast approaching this seems the perfect time to dig up – terrible pun! – this Mummy action figure from the animated cartoon series Tales from the Cryptkeeper. Running for two seasons from 1993-1994, the Mummy character appeared in episode 11 from the first season – This Wraps It Up – which first aired on December 4, 1993. Created in 1994 by one hit wonder toy manufacturers Ace Novelty, who appear to have only ever produced the Cryptkeeper series, this 4 ¾ inch figure is pretty cool if you are into monster action figures.
The Wolf Man aka Midnight Wolf!
Midnight Wolf? Surely, that’s the Wolf Man as played by the great Lon Chaney Jr. in the 1941 Universal horror film of the same name?! Apparently not, folks, although I’ll admit that this 4 ½ inch action figure had me flummoxed for ages! I’m a huge fan of the Universal Monsters so when I saw him going for a song on an Internet auction site I couldn’t resist buying him, but once he had arrived and I’d peeled off the bubble wrap I could find no copyright information, COO or date of manufacture stamped anywhere on the figure. After trawling through dozens of websites I eventually lucked out and found the Universal Monster Army website and a post on the forum there quickly helped me discover the background of this figure.
Richard Roxburgh as Count Dracula in ‘Van Helsing’
With the month of October now well under way, let’s start the countdown to Halloween with the first post in a series dedicated to monsters and ghouls, with a few slayers thrown in too! Today’s action figure is a fresh lucky find that I picked up only yesterday in a mixed box of random toys on a market stall in Rome. Some years need to elapse before this becomes truly vintage, of course, but it’s such a fun figure that it merits its own review now!
Whilst Stephen Sommers’ 2004 action-movie-meets-horror-film Van Helsing starring Hugh Jackman as Gabriel Van Helsing may have divided critics, I thought it was a highly enjoyable if camp homage to some of my favourite all time movies – the Universal Horror Monster films from the 1930s and 40s. One of the high points of the film is certainly the amazingly versatile Richard Roxburgh’s performance as an extremely dapper Count Dracula.
Robin: Mego and the World’s Greatest Super Heroes…and Sidekicks!
As promised in an earlier post, here’s another vintage Mego 8-inch action figure that was found in a recent loft exploration at my parents’ home. Like Batman, the Lizard and Cornelius, this was another of my sister’s childhood toys, but of all of them, this Fist Fighting Robin probably made me smile the most when I first set eyes on it. Once again, this is a figure in almost perfect condition with only one immediate defect – the original paper logo glued to the left side of his tunic is missing and instead the letter “R” has been carefully drawn in its place! What made me smile was the thought that very probably, as big sister, I was more than likely the guilty culprit who had wielded the felt tip pen all those years ago, although I honestly can’t remember!
The Real Ghostbusters Super Fright Features: Egon Spengler
It’s been an another exciting week for Ghostbusters action figure collectors, and in particular, fans of the character Egon Spengler, with a new 6 inch Mattel figure closely resembling actor (and co-writer of the original movie) Harold Ramis hitting the company’s online store and selling like the proverbial hot cakes. I thought it might be fun, therefore, to take a look back at a vintage Egon Spengler from Kenner’s phenomenally popular line of spin-off action figures from the cartoon TV series The Real Ghostbusters.
At 5 inches tall and with only 5 points of articulation, The Real Ghostbusters action figures saw Kenner at the top of their game with line after line of clever, interactive toys produced between 1986 to 1991.
The Lizard: Mego and the World’s Greatest Super Heroes…and Villains!
The World’s Greatest Super Heroes was the line that made Mego’s name, kicking off with the most famous characters from DC Comics and then moving into the Marvel Universe with a plethora of new heroes appearing from 1975 onwards such as Captain America, the Hulk and Spider-Man. A line of good guys only would have been no fun at all though, so a couple of villains were thrown in for good measure – The Green Goblin and The Lizard. When Mego’s UK distributors Palitoy added Marvel characters to their Fist Fighting line a few years later, however, The Lizard was the only Marvel bad guy to make the assortment.