Debs – Page 9 – Vintage Action Figures

Extreme Sports Thrashin’ Mike

When Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reappeared on the small screen in 2003 in a relaunched animated TV show Playmates Toys picked up their old license and resumed production of their legendary TMNT action figures, raising the bar with every new figure set with increasingly clever and inventive toys.

Their range of solidly constructed action figures were also built to survive heavy play. This particular 5 inch figure, for example, was part of an accessory-packed set of figures from that same year – the Extreme Sports line – which kitted out the turtles in helmets, knee and elbow pads, to protect them whilst scooter riding (Leo), BMX riding (Don) in-line skating (Raph), and in the case of Mike here, skateboard surfing.

Snikt! Wolverine gets his claws out with Toy Biz!

Several years ago I posted a great vintage advert for the first wave of 5-inch X-Men action figures produced by Toy Biz, which appeared in issue #1 from the October 1991 relaunch of the comic book starring the mutant superhero team as simply “X-Men” (rather than “Uncanny X-Men”).

I finally got around to tracking down a few of these enduringly popular figures recently and will be posting them here, starting today with what seems to be everybody’s favourite figure from the line – Wolverine!

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Pink Ninja by Bandai!

Who can resist a ninja action figure?! Not me, evidently, as I knew I had to have this figure the second I saw it in a charity shop on a recent trip back to the UK to visit friends and family. I wasn’t entirely sure who this character might be, but knew it probably wouldn’t take much sleuthing to discover the identity of this dazzling pink net launching girl ninja!

She may look like something out of Disney’s Aladdin, but I soon discovered that this 5 ½ inch action figure is a Ninja Ranger released as part of Bandai’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers toyline in 1995, in conjunction with the TV show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 3 and the big screen version Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie.

Marvel Superheroes Thor by Toy Biz!

With no less than three Thor movies starring Chris Hemsworth appearing at the rate of one of year – last year’s Thor, directed by Kenneth Brannagh, and the imaginatively titled sequel Thor 2 still to come in 2013, and of course, Joss Whedon’s The Avengers presently smashing box office records all over the world – Thor, the Norse God of Thunder, has never been so popular. A veteran character from the Silver Age of Comic Books, Thor was created by the comics dream team Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, together with Lee’s younger brother Larry Lieber, first appearing in Journey into Mystery #83 in 1962, looking rather like this 1991 action figure by Toy Biz.

Mego Lion Rock World War II Japanese Fighter Pilot by Polistil of Italy

The great Mego Corporation initially balked at the idea of creating a series of World War II themed figures in the 1970s – after all, this would have meant entering into head to head competition with Hasbro’s military G.I. Joe Adventure Team action figures in the US – but they liked the idea enough to try it out across the Atlantic, handing the reins to European distributor Lion Rock. The resulting series of 6-inch figures released by various different European toy companies saw some truly wonderful toys, works of art in their detail which remain popular in the world of Mego collectibles.

Charting the history of some of the greatest military battles – “Storie delle grandi battaglie” – the Italian figures like this Japanese Fighter Pilot here, were issued by Polistil;

Stunning DX Series Sixth Scale Figure of Michael Keaton as Batman!

As regular readers will know I’ll occasionally feature a modern action figure if it has a vintage theme or if it’s just so darn good that I can’t let it pass! And once again, it’s the team at Sideshow Collectibles and Hot Toys to pique my interest with this stunning Michael Keaton as Batman in Tim Burton’s 1989 movie sixth scale figure.

Action figures don’t come more movie-accurate than this high-end Batman collectible, and with the Parallel Eyeball Rolling System (PERS) be prepared to be seriously freaked out as Keaton stares you down. As to be expected his costume is detailed perfection

Goo Goo G’Joob…It’s Pink-tusked Walrus Man!

Whilst almost all of Kenner’s 3 ¾ inch Star Wars action figures were pretty accurate movie-likenesses by the standards of the day, Walrus Man here – later revealed as being called Ponda Baba when secondary characters were issued with colorful back stories too – stands out from the crowd as being one of the least like his movie counterpart.

Walrus Man’s screen time may be brief, but it is certainly a memorable moment when Obi-Wan Kenobi slices off his arm with his light saber during the famous cantina scene. As the camera lingers over the bleeding limb just about everybody, with the exception of Kenner’s toy designers, must surely have noticed that he wasn’t wearing an orange tank top over a blue body suit!

Zanzibar the Pirate… so nasty the other Dreadnoks hate his guts!

Every toyline of action figure heroes needs bad guys to fight against and the G.I. Joe Team had the Cobra Command. A dastardly bunch, they hired the even meaner Dreadnoks as mercenaries to do their dirty work, and as action figure villains go, they just don’t get nastier than Dreadnok member Zanzibar. First released as part of the sixth series of Hasbro‘s hugely popular G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toyline in 1987, he was packaged exclusively as the pilot of the Dreadnok Air Skiff toy and was issued with three useful accessories – a handgun, hammer and spear. According to his G.I.Joe file card this guy was “so nasty that the other Dreadnoks hate his guts!”