Agira - Ultraman Mini-Monster

Years ago I visited a "Dollar Store" that was not part of a chain (as far as I could tell) and they had lots of cute little baby versions of Ultraman monster for sale. I bought one of each style for my best friend Derek who is a huge Japanese Monster fan. I  also picked up a few for myself as well. The figures came with no tags or packaging. I figured out this guy is Agira by looking through lots of pictures of monsters online. These figures are lot of fun and there were probably 8 or 10 different monsters available at the time. Agira features no articulation. He is a golden/brown Triceratops with a red frill. He actually has a pretty decent amount of shading for such a small toy. He stands about 4" tall.

Merlin - The Sword in the Stone

The Sword in the Stone is my all time favorite Disney movie. It's old enough, and not quite popular enough, so there isn't a lot of merchandise for the movie. This little Merlin figure was part of a fast food promotion. He is solid plastic with articulation at the shoulders. His beard is made of rooted hair. He's a cool little figure, but I kind of wish his beard was just sculpted on.

Spider-Man (Black Costume)

I have always loved Spider-Man's black costume. Since it's first appearance in Secret Wars I have loved the simplicity of the black and the boldness of the large white spider logo. I have always wanted the black costumed figure from the Secret Wars line, but he's genrally more expensive than I care to spend. I picked up this super articulated Spider-Man from the Super Hero Show Down line.

 

This figure came with a base, some trading (game) cards, springloaded rocket launcher, and some gaming dice. I've never played the Super Hero Show Down game. I only own a few figures from the line. I picked up Spider-Man (Blue/Red and Black), Thing, and Doc Ock from SmallJoes.com when their were on clearance years ago. He's a pretty nice figure, but occasionally the joints fall apart.

Gung Ho - GI Joe '83

Gung Ho is the first member of the Marine Corps to join GI Joe. He was one of many unique characters to join the team in the second year. Characters like Gung Ho, Snow Job, and Doc helped break the mold of the '82 Joes. As a kid I wished the Gung Ho figure was a little bulkier. In the Sunbow cartoon series Gung Ho was a very imposing character and the original figure didn't quite reflect that.

 Gung Ho is dressed in a light blue uniform with green camo on his pants. His vest is open revealing a large Marine Corps tattoo on his chest. He came with a light blue backpack (mine has yellowed some) and a dark gray grenade launcher.

I sometimes like to equip Gung Ho with the weapon pack version of Snow Job's gun. All the characters in the original cartoon used this gun and I closely associate it with Gung Ho. as a kid I loved the rivalry between Gung Ho and Horror Show (from the October Guard) in the cartoon series.

St. Patty's Day Parade

Earlier this week Wade from Wade's Comic Madness (local comic book store) posted on Facebook he was looking for people with comic costumes to walk in the St. Patrick's Day Parade that goes past his shop. We had Superman (Wade), Spider-Man, Batgirl, Optimus Prime (myself), and a whole team of kid Avengers.

Wonder Woman Car - Corgi

I have previously posted about other 1979 Corgi Die Cast Cars featuring DC Superheroes. Today's car features Wonder Woman. She's not real attractive I might add. This orange convertible holds a seated (torso up) Wonder Woman figure and has a sticker resembling her outfit.

 The sticker as well as the orange paint show some wear, but it's it pretty good shape for a toy of it's vintage. My neighbor gave me this car as a kid and it's been in my collection ever since.

 It's a pretty cool car. I'd love to see it painted differently with a better looking figure of just about anyone riding in it. I also think it's kind of funny that Wonder Woman is so large and her car only has one seat.

Spikor - Vintage MOTU

Spikor... the spikiest guy on Eternia. This purple villain is Skeletor's blacksmith. He's covered in spikes from head to waist. His left arm houses his action feature. Like the rest of the Masters of the Universe figures he wears furry boots and underpants. In addition to being covered in spikes, Spikor came with an orange spiked club for a weapon. The spikes on his torso are oddly rubbery and occasionally ripped off on loose figures I see at yard sales.

When you twist Spikor's waist it activates his action feature. His spiked trident arm extends as his torso is twisted. The chrome on mine is a little worn.  Spikor has a cool appearance and was a figure I always wanted as a kid. You can always check out my review of the MOTUC version and my custom Color Blanks Spikor.

Ace Duck - TMNT

Ace Duck was released as part of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy line in 1989. He was one of my all time favorite figures from the original line. In fact, when I slimmed down my toy collection in Middle School Ace was one of three figures I saved from my large TMNT collection. He has a great sculpt and awesome accessories. He's a yellow duck dressed in jeans, a leather jacket, and pilot hat.  He is reminiscent of Donald or Howard the Duck. I always wanted Ace to get an episode in the cartoon show, but all he got was a super brief cameo that was more of a sight gag. Maybe Nickelodeon will bring this guy back.

Ace Duck comes with removable articulated wings, a removable hat, a bandolier, four egg grenades, and a pistol. His wings are articulated on a pivot that plugs into his back. They  articulate like a pair of scissors. They can't "flap". His hat has a little post inside that plugs into a hole in his head. Unfortunately this makes it so no one else can wear it.

Here is Ace without his hat and wings. The sculpting on the feathers on his chest look really great. He has sort of a wind blown look. His legs are slightly pre-posed like all the rest of the Turtles.

 Ace has a cool "Turtles" logo on the back of his jacket similar to April O'Neil. One interesting thing to note about Ace Duck is that his arms are articulated differently that pretty much every other figure in the TMNT line. His shoulders have hinge joints allowing him to "flap" his arms.

Maverick - X-Men Origin

One year for my birthday my buddy Greg went to our local comic shop and bought my pull file (in store monthly comic subscription service) and two X-Men Origin figures for me, One of those X-Men Origin Wolverine figures was Maverick. This figure looks just like Maverick in the 90's comics. He comes with a large rifle and a bandolier. The figure has a lot of nice details. I like all the lines in the silver armor. I don't really know a lot about the character other than he is linked to Wolverine through the Weapon-X program.

The Penguin - Toy Biz

After the success of the 1989 Batman movie Toy Biz renamed their Batman toy line and expanded the characters they were releasing. The DC Super Heroes line featured many characters and were based on the old Kenner Super Powers line. Here is the Super Heroes version of the Penguin. I previously posted about the Batman Returns version of the character. I don't own the Super Powers figure, so I'm not sure the exact differences there. It appears that the Super Powers and Batman Return Penguins share a head sculpt, but the Super Heroes version has it's own head. If you look at pictures of the other figures note the size of the nose, shape of the eye, and mouth. You can see that the head is similar but not the same. I have also read there are variations in the tails to his jacket (I'm not sure about that).

 

The penguin is dressed in his blue jacket with purple pants. I always wonder if he was supposed to wear blue or black. In old comics, when they only had twelve colors, blue was often used as a highlight on something black.The white paint on his shirt is easily marred, so if you have this figure take care of that. He comes with an umbrella weapon. The handle contains a spring loaded mechanism to launch the umbrella top missile. The mechanism lock is very weak and frequently fires without the button being touched. The coat tails are removable (on this version at least)

He's a great figure and I had a lot of fun with him as a kid. I always found the umbrella weapon very frustrating. I would have rather he came with a two versions and no spring action. I would have loved it if  he came with an open and closed version of the umbrella.