During the late 1980s and early 1990s Playmates Toys invented some wonderfully imaginative scenarios for their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures with endlessly creative variations. These weird and wonderful figures seem to divide collectors straight down the middle, but love ’em or hate ’em, there’s absolutely no denying the sheer quality of the designs. As a Universal Monsters movie fan, the 1993 first wave of Official Universal Studios Monster Turtles, which saw our reptilian heroes disguised as Frankenstein (Mike), Dracula (Don), The Mummy (Ralph), and Leo as “The Wolfman” (rather than “Wolf Man”), has always been high on my list of must-haves. I was thrilled by this recent flea market find, therefore. Leo may have seen some heavy play and suffered more than a little paint loss, but these 4 ½ inch figures were solidly built-to-last, and he’s a great starter figure in this series.
Debs
Green Frankie aka Frankenstein’s Monster
With Halloween nearly upon us I thought it would be a great time to share another vintage figure from my Universal Monsters collection. I’m a huge fan of these classic horror movies produced by Universal Studios during the 1930s, movies which turned actors such as Bela Lugosi (Dracula), Lon Chaney, Jr. (The Wolf Man) and Boris Karloff (The Mummy and Frankenstein), into legendary Hollywood figures. Whilst the Remco Mini Monsters are the focus of my movie collection, I can never resist buying just about any action figure with a Universal Monsters theme, even if I don’t necessarily recognise the toy line.
Friar Tuck: Robin Hood and his Merry Men by Mego
The legendary Medieval outlaw Robin Hood has been a hugely popular figure in English folklore for centuries. Armed with bow and arrow and sword, he would steal from the rich to give to the poor, and then head back to his hideout in Sherwood Forest with his band of fellow “Merry Men”. With love interest in the shape of Maid Marian, and the Sheriff of Nottingham as his arch enemy, the story of Robin Hood has been a perennial favourite with Hollywood filmmakers since the early days of silent movies, right through to Russell Crowe’s recent Robin in Ridley Scott’s 2010 Robin Hood. Curiously, it was another Australian-born actor, Errol Flynn,
The Undertaker aka Big Evil by JAKKS Pacific
The collection of wrestling action figures is a thriving sub-genre of the hobby, and whilst these figures have never been the focus of my own collection, I’ve always admired them from afar. Never one to resist a well-made figure in a bargain bin, this 7-inch WWE JAKKS Pacific figure caught my eye some time ago, but I confess lay forgotten until I happened upon a spoof news story recently – Ben Affleck to portray The Undertaker at WrestleMania 30 – which after I’d finished chuckling, reminded me to dig out this rather good Undertaker action figure.
Princess Leia in combat poncho on Endor
This blog has been running a little low on girl power recently, so let’s fix that right away with a truly wonderful vintage figure from Kenner’s legendary 3 ¾ Star Wars line – Princess Leia Organa sporting her Endor combat poncho. It’s a staggering thought today, but of the entire list of 93 characters immortalised in the original Kenner line, Princess Leia is the solitary female. As if to make up for this, besides her iconic white robed figure as she appeared in Star Wars, Princess Leia was issued in several different guises, which charted her progress through the three original trilogy movies: from beautiful princess in need of rescue, to this tough rebel in combat gear.
Davros, lord and creator of the Dalek race – by Dapol
I am back in Rome after a relaxing summer break visiting family and friends in the UK, so thought I’d kick off a new season of blog posts with a distinctly British vintage figure. My August trip happened to coincide with some major geek news from Blighty: the BBC finally revealed that Scottish actor Peter Capaldi will take on the coveted role of The Doctor in its legendary sci-fi TV series Doctor Who, when current Doctor Matt Smith hangs up his bow tie later this year. It’s a big year for the show, with a 50th anniversary special set for global transmission on 23 November 2013, which will feature, amongst other characters, a return of the Doctor’s archnemeses, the Daleks.
Holographic Cobra Commander
Ever since picking up a translucent vintage TRON Warrior action figure earlier this year I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for more figures from the series whenever I rummage through bargain bins of loose figures at flea markets. When I spotted this 3 ¾ inch fella cast in blue translucent plastic, for a joyous split second I thought I’d found a TRON Flynn figure, only to quickly realise my mistake once I held the figure in my hands. No matter – it was clear that what I’d found instead was a cool figure from the legendary Hasbro G. I. Joe: A Real American Hero line. But who was he? The hooded face and details on his torso made the Cobra Commander a likely candidate, but which version?
Remembering Bruce Lee
On this day back in 1973 Bruce Lee, the greatest martial arts icon of them all, died at the shockingly young age of 32. Tragically, after a string of Hong Kong movies – Lo Wei’s The Big Boss in 1971, my personal favourite, Fist of Fury the following year, and his self-written and directed Way of the Dragon (also 1972) – at the time of his death he was on the edge of finally enjoying global super-stardom with the Warner Brothers’ produced Enter the Dragon, the last movie he would complete in his lifetime.
I picked up this 6 inch Bruce Lee action figure in a bargain bucket many years ago.