2000s | Vintage Action Figures

Give me the truth before I take it from you! Barricade from Transformers

The countdown to the release of the third Transformers live action movie – Transformers: Dark of the Moon, or more simply Transformers 3 as it’s being trailed here in Italy – is well underway! Megan Fox may have jumped the franchise (or, if you believe the gossip columns, been pushed out by director Michael Bay), but Shia LaBeouf is still hanging on in there, looking all grown up in this movie and ready to be dragged back into the Transformers’ war…again! These CGI epics may have their detractors, but I’ve always enjoyed them so couldn’t ignore this 3 ¾ inch Barricade action figure from the first 2007 Transformers movie when I found him on a thrift stall recently.

Goku from Dragon Ball Z

The collection of Japanese Anime action figures is very much a sub-genre within action figure collecting as a whole and I certainly wouldn’t profess to having anything other than the slightest passing knowledge of the subject. Having said that, however, I know a handsome looking action figure when I see one, so this impressive sculpt of Dragon Ball Z hero Goku immediately caught my attention when I saw him on a market stall in Rome recently. Curiously, Japanese animation TV series have always been enormously popular in Italy – far more so than in the UK where I was born and raised – so it isn’t that surprising to discover Anime related merchandise here, although this particular figure was a spectacular find!

Raphael, as seen in TMNT: The Movie!

When Mirage Studios relaunched the animated TV series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the early noughties and needed somebody to create tie-in action figures for the new millennium, Playmates Toys – who had created the first waves of TMNT action figures in the late 1980s – stepped up to the mark once again and created a huge assortment of often quite ingenious Turtles.

Likewise, when in 2007, the Imagi Animation Studios made the fourth Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie – TMNT – created entirely using CGI effects, rather than live-action footage, it was Playmates who released a line of tie-in action figures with excellent CGI movie likenesses.

Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean

Shiver me timbers! It’s Jack Sparrow!

As film producers and toy manufacturers are well aware, you simply can’t keep a good franchise down! With Johnny Depp sharpening his cutlass once more this summer and reprising his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, On Stranger Tides, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at one of the action figures that accompanied the last outing At World’s End. Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley may have finally jumped ship, but with Ian McShane as Blackbeard and Keith Richards as Captain Teague on board I’m sure the new film will be great fun!

Fightin' Gear Michelangelo by Playmates 2003

Cowabunga! It’s Fightin’ Gear Michelangelo!

Check out the nunchakus on Mikey! When Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reappeared in 2003 in an all new animated TV show Playmates Toys picked up their old license and relaunched their TMNT action figures with series after series of clever and inventive toys. These solidly built 5-inch action figures have great articulation – I love the toes and fingers – and the attention to detail is impressive, as is the thorough array of armour and weapons. Accessories, of course, are easily lost, so I was surprised to find that this Michelangelo still had most of his original gear when I found him on a bargain stall.

Kurt Adler Star Wars Fabriche Santa Yoda

It must be Christmas…here comes Santa Yoda!

Okay, so I’ll admit I’m cheating a bit with this Fabriche Santa Yoda from the Kurt Adler Star Wars line as this is a 5-inch figurine with zero points of articulation and technically not an action figure as such, but ’tis the season to be jolly, so I’m sure you’ll forgive me if I share this bit of Star Wars Christmas Kitsch that put a huge smile on my face when I saw it online the other day!

An officially licensed Star Wars product, the attention to detail and hand painted finish does Yoda proud, although he does look more like the Grinch than Santa it has to be said!

Happy Holidays and a Merry Christmas!…Back very soon with more Vintage Action Figures!

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Mini Collection

Harry Potter and the Mattel Mini Collection Figures!

The countdown to the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is well under way with Part 1 of the film about to hit cinema screens across the globe in just over a week’s time! Harry is all grown up now in this grand finale, so I thought it might be fun to take a look back at an action figure when Harry was younger, and quite literally, in the case of this figure, much smaller! Small, but nevertheless, perfectly formed with an excellent movie-likeness of Daniel Radcliffe and six points of articulation – not only the standard points at the neck, shoulders and hips, but also a fun extra with a moving flap that allows his wizard’s gown to sweep up behind him and looks great when displayed.

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.