1980s | Vintage Action Figures

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.

Creature from the Black Lagoon – Mini Monsters by Remco

I’m a huge fan of classic Universal Monster movies and consequently have a real weakness for any Universal Monsters action figures I happen to find. Luckily, these film characters have been revisited by toy manufacturers time and time again over the years and there are plenty of them out there for collectors to get their fangs into!

The Mini Monsters line is one of my absolute favourites – at 3 ¾ inches these were small, but perfectly formed, action figures that actually carried strikingly good movie likenesses.

Kenner Super Powers: Robin!

Scrolling back through recent posts I realised that this website is a little light on Batman, so let’s fix that right away with a look at his erstwhile sidekick Robin as he appeared in the first series of Kenner‘s wonderful Super Powers action figures from 1984. This 4-inch figure was a superb version of The Boy Wonder – given his more mature nickname The Teen Wonder on the packaging – and like the other figures in the line had his very own Super Power. Wait, I hear you cry, Dick Grayson may have have a whole lot of circus acrobatic stunts in his bag of tricks, but saying that as Robin he was possessed of super powers is stretching things a little!

Raiders of the Lost Ark: Toht

One of the secrets of the success of many movie spin-off toy lines is surely not only the popularity of the hero, but also that of the nemesis. Kenner’s wonderful 1982 series of 3 ¾ inch action figures – Adventures of Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark – is a case in point, where Indiana Jones has several seriously bad guys to face down during the film as he struggles to block Nazi efforts to get their hands on the Ark of the Covenant. I’m assuming that anybody reading this post has seen Raiders of the Lost Ark – if you haven’t, then I should alert you that this post might contain a few spoilers! Arnold Ernst Toht, the Nazi Gestapo agent sent to recover the headpiece of the Staff of Ra and who meets a spectacular cinematic demise in the grand finale, is just one of Indy’s enemies to be immortalised as an action figure.

It’s Showtime with Kenner and Beetlejuice!

There are some action figures that seem to divide collectors straight down the middle – you either love them or hate them – and the 5 inch Kenner Beetlejuice action figures from 1989 seem to fall into that group. I personally adore these figures and have no idea why some collectors gripe about them, as they look good, feel good and have some fun interactive extras. The most eagle-eyed readers have probably already spotted the most obvious interactive element with these figures – the heads on the four different figures in this line were actually interchangeable, which means that whilst you might pick up a figure for a few dollars he might not be wearing the “correct” head with which he was originally issued!

Beetlejuice - Snakehead — Shish Kebab head

Kenner Super Powers: The Flash!

Whilst the focus of my own personal collection of vintage action figures tends to be on movie and TV memorabilia sometimes I just can’t resist adding the occasional superhero to the stash, particularly when the figure is a real classic like this version of The Flash. Created by Kenner in the first wave of their Super Powers line in 1984, this 4 ½ inch figure really was a superb rendition of The Scarlet Speedster and like the other figures in the line had his very own Super Power – Power Action Lightning Legs.

Raiders of the Lost Ark: Map Room Indy

This 1982 Kenner Indiana Jones action figure shows our hero not in his usual brown leather jacket and fedora hat, but in the desert disguise he wore in the map room in Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indy discovers the secret location of the Well of the Souls aka the final resting place of the Ark of the Covenant.

This figure was released exclusively with the Map Room Playset and originally came dressed in a removable robe. The provided accessories gave kids everything they needed to re-enact the scene – a grappling hook, tri-pod, pick, book, rope, satchel and pistol, not to mention the all important Staff of Ra complete with headpiece, which is the key to locating the covenant, as well as the scale model of the city of Tanis.

The Real Ghostbusters Super Fright Features: Janine Melnitz

Browsing back through recent posts on this blog it occurred to me that there are very few female action figures on these pages. Time to address that right away with The Real Ghostbuster‘s erstwhile secretary Janine Melnitz! Very much the fifth Ghostbuster in the animated series where she was voiced by Laura Summer and Kath Soucie, the character first appeared in the Ghostbusters movies played by the wonderfully droll Annie Potts.

This vintage Real Ghostbusters 5 inch action figure from 1989 actually marked her third appearance in the line and is one of the best in the Super Fright Features series (the sequel to the Fright Features).