Deep Six v1 - GI Joe '84

Deep Six was one of the most unique figures in the Real American Hero line of GI Joes. In many ways his uniqueness wasn't really a good thing. Deep Six was kind of a brick. His only articulation points are at his shoulders. He can't even hold a weapon with his blocky fists. Deep Six came packaged with his flying submarine, the S.H.A.R.C. which was a small one-man craft.

 

Deep Six came with a plastic billows that attaches to his back. The billows allows you to pump air in and out of his hollow body. This makes him dive and surface when played with in water. It's a neat gimmick for a deep sea diver, but to make it work his sculpt suffered. (Billows not pictures, but I do have them somewhere). At one point in time, I cracked open one of these figures to use his head for a custom figure of Deep Six out of his scuba suit. My buddy Paul gave me the figure below because his dome was broken off, so he couldn't resell him. I kind of like having him in my collection with and without his helmet.

 

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Well, I'm off to the farm. I have to do some painting to help get ready for the Haunted Hayride. We used to have a Chainsaw Massacre Drive-In scene as well as a Zombie Gas Station scene. This year, the Drive-In screen and projector are being moved next to the gas station, which I am helping to paint up to look like the snack stand for the theater. The Chainsaw's are going elsewhere on the hayride trail and the zombies are being moved into the corn maze. I haven't heard what movie is playing at the Drive-In this year. Since the chainsaws aren't there anymore I can't imagine we will still be playing Chainsaw Massacre. Oh, and the actors at the scene will be creepy clowns this year.

Gamaira - Bandai

I recently came across some paperwork that helped my identify more of my Ultraman Monsters. I feel bad posting about a toy if I don't at least know the toys name. This green and silver spiked monster is from one of the various Ultraman shows from over the years. Unfortunatly, I don't know I lot about the different series. As a kid I was into Godzilla and other giant monsters, but with most of the Bandai packaging  (usually a hang tag) being in Japanese it's hard to get information about the figures. This monster is from 1991 and there are a few variations in the paint scheme avaialable. The other paint options I've seen are darker and more true to the show image on his tag.

When I was a kid, each summer I would take care of my buddy's pet frogs while he was on vacation. Often times his family would visit relatives on their way back from whatever comic convention his Dad was appearing at. Every year they would bring me back an Ultra-Monster as a thank you for taking care of Lilly and Sandy the grow-a-frogs. My monster collection was always much smaller than my buddy Derek's, but Gamaira was always one of my favorites.

Alpha 5 - Power Rangers

Alpha 5 is a humanoid robot with a high strung personality from the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. He worked with Zordon to find "Teenagers with attitude" to form the Rangers. He was often responsible for teleporting the teens to the Command Center, and then into battle after they morphed. This figure came packaged exclusively with the Power Dome (Command Center) play set. I was happy ti pick him up for a few bucks at NJCC. I'm a big fan of the original MMPR show, but never really had the toys. With this being the 20th Anniversary of that show, and the new series Megaforce being on tv, I've been have fun reminiscing about the original series and toys. The Power Dome play set that included this figure is based on the Command Center from the TV show, but was not very accurate.

 Alpha has a five points of articulation. I think it's worth noting that his hips are more like the vintage GI Joe figures than vintage Star Wars. As a kid I used to love playing Power Rangers with my younger cousins because they had tons of the toys. I remember taking a C3P-O toy to their house to use as Alpha and drawing a blue face on a toilet paper roll to represent Zordon.

Alpha is currently being displayed on my California Job Case. These trays that make great nick-knack shelves were originally used to store metal type for old fashioned printing presses. You can see lot of other Mini-figs display here including my Mordles, Glyos, DC Squats, Loyal Subjects GI Joes, Kre-o Joes and Transformers, Battle Beasts, and Mega Blocks Power Rangers.  I bought this tray at a yard  sale and hung it on the wall during the summer, and it's filling up quickly.

Jack Bennet - Bionic 6

I was happy to find a Jack Bennet from LJN's Bionic 6 toy line at NJCC this summer. He has some paint chipping on his chest, but that is common with these die-cast metal figures. Jack features a lot of clear plastic on his limbs. These are all his bionic body parts. Jack operated under the call sign, Bionic-1. Jack is a test pilot and field agent for a technology company and has secret bionic upgrades. After his family is trapped in an avalanche the rest of them are given bionic upgrades to save their lives and then form the team Bionic 6.

Jack and his wife Helen. I like that Jack's eyes are not the same color as his hair.

Jack comes with a black and red scuba mask and tank.

Pimp Daddy Destro - 25th Anniv. GI Joe

When I was at the New Jersey Collector's Convention (NJCC) a few weekends ago, I was lucky enough to win a cool action figure door prize. I won a Joe Con exclusive figure from 2007. This is a 25th Anniversary Destro painted up as a tribute to the rare Pimp Daddy Destro figure (as he was quickly named by fans). If you are not familiar with the original PDD, it goes back to when Hasbro was bringing GI Joe out of hiatus in 1997. They were releasing 3 packs of figures and a few vehicles as Toys R Us exclusives. Many of the figures had interesting paint schemes that used cool fades and other techniques not really seen on Joes before that time. Someone approved a paint scheme for Destro that featured gold, maroon, and leopard print. Shortly after production started, Hasbro decided it was a bad move and made a change in the figure. This resulted in very limited quantities of the original figures. Ten years later the GI Joe collectors club released this tribute figure.

Merman - Vintage MOTU

Merman was always a character from the vintage cartoon that I liked, but never thought his toy was that great. The head he actually came with looks nothing like his early mini-comic apearance and nothing like his Filmation cartoon apearance. He's not a bad figure, but I like this head sculpt better on Stinkor. I also was never a huge fan of the goofy bow at the bottom of his armor. This evil warrior was the Ocean's equivalent of Beastman. Merman could control fish and sea creatures similar to Aquaman. Merman was the only figure to come with his particular armor and sword. Very few early Masters characters had unique accessories.

 Merman's body is recycled from Skeletor and his head, as mentioned above, was used for Stinkor. I never had Merman as a kid, but I did play with him some at a neighbor's house back in the day. I picked up this complete figure at NJCC a few weeks ago. He's been swimming into trouble ever since.

* I put a little effect on the front and back shots of Merman. Let me know what you think. I was trying out something a little different here. I like to try to make my images to be clear representations of the figures, so I don't usually tweak the pictures. I was just in the mood for something different today.

End of Summer Visit to the Toonseum

Well, Summer is coming to and end and this was my last weekend off. I wanted to do something fun and I heard my favorite Cartoon Museum was hosting a "Pop Up Exhibit" of the old Filmation Masters of the Universe Cartoon. If you've been reading Action Figure Adventures for a while you may know that I collect animation cels and have donated some to the Toonseum. I figured some of the art in this exhibit would have come from my collection, so I spend 10 hours in the car round trip on Friday to go out to Pittsburgh to see the art exhibit and drive home.

 The Toonseum is trying out some smaller short run exhibits to gauge interest in various series that way may want to do full gallery exhibits on. This quick exhibit will only be displayed for a total of four weeks and consisted of 12 pieces of original animation art along with four prints of He-Man and She-Ra inspired art. All four animation cels below came from my collection. Hordak, She-Ra are in the top row and Man-at-Arms and Imp are in the bottom row. Three out of the four in this cluster are from the Princess of Power show, while Man-at-Arms is from the original Masters of the Universe.

I had a good time talking with Joe Wos, the Director of the Toonseum. We discussed a lot of the recent super hero movies and some of the things happening at the Toonseum in the near future. Joe pointed out that they had copies of Creating the Filmation Generation in the store portion of the museum. I've been wanting to read it for a while, so I picked up a copy.

Like I said at the beginning, Summer is over. I start back at work on Monday. I'm teaching two new Science classes this year (7th Grade and 9th Grade) along with my Technology Education classes (Woodworking, Photography, 7th and 8th Grade Special). So that's going to keep me pretty busy. On top of that I have a meeting today for the Haunted Hay Ride were I also work. So by the time I get in the swing of things at school, my weekends will become super busy making sure everyone has a scary Halloween season.

I hope to continue to be able to add quality post to AFA on a daily basis, but you know how that works. I'm sure I'll miss a day here and there. I've been pretty happy with what I've written over the Summer. I didn't post quite as many animated video reviews as I wanted, but I think the Retro Con commercial is one of my favorite animated videos I've worked on recently.

Keep reading and keep posting comments!

Toys that go Bump in the Night!

At 4:50 AM, I awoke to the sound of a loud crash. In my startled state I thought for sure the display cabinet I recently hung in my toy room fell. Oh, man... it probably crushed my 2nd Flagg and messed up all the toy inside. I had to go check on the carnage. I turned on the light, and thankfully it was still on the wall. So, now I had to think what else could have fallen.

I walked through the kitchen and turned on the light to the dinning room. I found the problem. It looks like my Marvel Universe Sentinel decided to commit suicide. The Sentinel took a nose dive off the top shelf of the hutch in my dinning room. The weight of the figure actually pushed the hutch doors open and he fell on the floor knocking lots of other toys off that shelf. Luckily the other shelves survived unscathed.

Here's the hutch as I found it. The doors were wide open and lot of figures laying all over the place on the top shelf.

A few figures from the top shelf landed on the bottom shelf, but they didn't really knock anything over.

Well, since I mentioned the new cabinet in the Toy Room, and since I have been meaning to do another Toy Room Preview. I still don't have the room carpeted, so it's not really done, and that's why this is still a preview. The new display case is the top portion of a hutch that I mounted to the wall. I plan to fill it with my GI Joes once I finish painting the doors and hang them back on the case. Right now I have my DC Direct Elseworlds and Knightfall figures in there plus a few other boxed toys. 

 Some of my carded figures on display in Zoloworld cases. On the left is my Snake-Eyes collection (25th Anniversary and newer). On the right are other carded Joes along with my Batman: Bloodstorm poster.

 

Shelves with my vintage Masters of the Universe, 200x MOTU, Ninja Turtles, Robocop, Realm of the Underworld and even some stuffed Rainbow Bright toys. Along the end of the next wall you can see a bunch of my carded vintage GI Joe figures.

I previously posted pictures of the shelves I built in the closet. It's still kind of the same, but I do have a few figures and vehicles displayed with the play sets.

 
The Mobile Command Center, The Triple T, Sky Hawk, and Mean Dog are all on the top shelf with Jinx, Sgt. Slaughter, Snake Eyes.


The next shelf shows off the 1983 GI Joe HQ. The Dragonfly helicopter is on the helipad. I need to get a VAMP and MOBAT out of the basement to put in the garages. For some reason the Star Wars Speeder Bike and Taun Taun are also on the shelf.


The next shelf has the Tactical Battle Platform. It's flanked by the Whale Hovercraft, tMoray Hydrofoil, the Water Moccasin, and the Devil Fish. Admiral Keel Haul and Shipwreck are on the deck of the TBP.


The bottom shelf, aka the floor, is were I keep the Defiant Space Shuttle Complex. The He-Man New Adventures Star Ship Eternia is housed there as well.

Saga of Crystar: Crystal Warrior

Crystar was a short lived toy line made by Remco in the 80's based on the Marvel Comic. The Forces of Order were all crystal people and the Forces of Chaos were all lava people. The basis of the story line was that when the King died his two sons went to war with each other to determine who would be in charge. While this conflict went on the King's brother was in charge. He was half crystal and half lava and so was neutral in the war between the Princes.

I bought one of the Lava Warriors at a yard sale as a kid. I used to use him as just a monster for other toys to fight. I recently picked up several other loose figures from the line at NJCC. They are all missing their accessories, but I just think they are cool looking so I decided to pick them up.

Crystar is one of the two battling Princes. He originally came with a sword, shield, helmet, and a prism scepter all made out of a blueish "crystal" plastic. Feldspar is the neutral uncle. He came with a "crystal" flail and "lava" whip and a bluish prism scepter.

Moltar is the other battling Prince and leader of the Chaos forces. He originally came with an axe, a club, and a red scepter (which he is pictured with). The smaller Lava man (who I've owned for a while) is known as Magma Man. He came with a mace, a flail, and a scepter.

I previously posted about some retro Crystar stickers here on Action Figure Adventures. I really don't know a whole lot more about the line. I never read the Marvel Comic, and I didn't have any of these figures new as a kid. I'm not sure if the card backs had any sort of bio for the characters.

Mechanic - Bionic 6

Mechanic was Dr. Scarab's main muscle in the Bionic 6 cartoon. He's a huge hulking man and since the Bionic 6 figures are made out of die-cast metal he's a hefty toy. In the vein of classic architypes, since Mechanic is very large and strong he's also dim witted. His only accessory is his rubbery tool belt. It's made of a flexible orange plastic and has several tools sculpted on it, including a hammer and pliers. In the cartoon he was seen using a nail gun and throwing saw blades for weapons. I bought this figure at NJCC and he looks pretty good. Loose Bionic 6 figures are tricky, the paint chips easily on these metal men and they often time look rough when found in the wild.

 When I was a kid, my mom did in home day care. Meaning that every day four or five kids would get dropped off at our house and my mom would look after them and make lunch and what have you. This meant that there were always a lot of kids around to play with. One of the boys my mom watched for a couple of years seemed to get a new toy every week. His mom would show up to pick him up from our house and she would have bought him a new action figure. Mechanic was the first Bionic 6 toy I ever saw, and this boy brought him to my house so we could play. We pretended that he offered to help some GI Joes fix a broken down vehicle, but then it turned out her really worked for Cobra and made their vehicle even worse. A week or so later this kid had a second Bionic 6 figure and we started playing out scenarios that matched that cartoon more closely.

Look out Helen! The Mechanic's got a grip like a vice.

Glyos and Mordles

 Glyos is both a toy line and a system for creating modular articulation points for action figures. Onell Design created the Glyos System Series, a line of action figures what feature small pin and socket joints that snap together, but can come back apart to be rearranged. Their line of toys can all be mixed and matched allowing people to create their own unique color schemes or figures. Since the creation of the Glyos pin and socket system, it has been integrated into other toy lines created by other toy design companies. The cool thing about this it that all the parts for all the lines that use the Glyos system are interchangeable.

Pheyden figure by Onell Design

Last weekend while at NJCC, I meet John Kent from Toyfinity. His company has recently acquired the rights to some 80's toy lines and are working to bring these loved but forgotten toys back. Currently they are selling the eggs that Manglor toys came in back in the 80's. They are also selling new Mordles, which were little accessories to the Rocks and Bugs and Things toy line. Their next project is bringing back Robo Force. John also told me that they are working on new sculpts for the Mordles and they will by Glyos compatible.

Mordles come in a variety of sculpts and colors

I'm a child of the 80's but until recently I was not familiar with any of these toy lines. I have seen Robo Force figures at yard sales before and vaguely remember then from my childhood, but that was about it. A while back I bought a DVD of 1001 Classic TV Commercials at Target and it contained ads for Manglors and some of these weird toys that have showed up in other places like Toy Hunters and Topless Robot. I learned about Rocks and Bugs and Things from Pixel Dan's review of the new ToyFinity Mordles. They remind me of Monster in My Pockets, which my best friend Derek and I played with all the time as kid. They also remind me of Squigs from the table top battle game Warhammer 40,000.

At the ToyFinity booth John was also showing off toys from other companies that use the Glyos system. All these independent toy companies are working together with this shared pin and socket system to allow collectors to customize and trade parts around between these different toys. The Four Horsemen who sculpt the MOTU Classics figures have been releasing Outer Space Men toys for a while now that use the Glyos system. They are also using the Glyos system in their revival of the Power Lords toy line. Another company that is using Glyos (and the company that made me aware of the system) is Spy Monkey Creations. Pixel Dan has done reviews of the cool modular weapons Spy Monkey has been making for 6" action figures. These weapons sets are clearly designed to work perfectly with the Masters of the Universe Classics figures. Then a short time later they released their own figures called the Weaponeers of Monkaa.

My buddy John (and fellow blogger) sent me a Weaponeer figure a while ago when he was blogging from the Cosmic Arc. These figures are totally modular. The fists for the Weaponeers are also heads. Even the arm cannon has a face on it and can be used as a head to create a different character. Yesterday as I was starting to think about writing this post, a package came from John. We had worked out a trade (for something awesome that will get it's own post some day) and John included a bunch of extra goodies in the box. One of them was a Glyos figure. Check his blog out at Clawful Punch! Now I can post a picture of a Glyos figure with with a mix and match paint scheme.

So, now I present an Action Figure Glyos Adventure...
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 Pheyden: Hello there little guys...

Pheyden: What a strange manner of creature you guys are. You seem nice enough.
Mordle: purrrr purrrrr!
Pheyden: My sensors indicate that you are called "Mordles".
Mordle: grup...yup.

 Pheyden: C'mon guys. Lets go for a walk.

Pheyden: Wow, check out that armor. It's very impressive. Clearly there is life on this planet more intelligent than you guys.
Mordle: urg!
Pheyden: Oh no offense. sorry.

Pheyden: Hello! Is anyone around?

Pheyden: Ha! caught you! Though you could steal my mechanical suit while no one was looking?
Pheyden: whaaaa!?!
Mordle: Squeeeee!
Mordle: Rrrrggggu?

Pheyden: As soon as I get my suit on I'll teach you not to steal.
Pheyden: No, no, I think we have a misunderstanding.

Pheyden: Run guys!
Mordle: Squeeeee sqwallll!

Pheyden: I'll pulverize you!
Pheyden: Listen buddy, I didn't do anything to you.

    BAM!
Pheyden: Power Punch!

Pheyden: Oh, is that how it's going to be? You really are asking for a beating.
Pheyden: what? I hit you in self defense.

Pheyden: Suit, activate hand-to-hand combat weapons!
Weaponeer Armor: Hand-to-Hand combat weapons activated.
Pheyden: oh boy!

   CLANG!
Pheyden: Any last words?
Pheyden:  Mordles attack!

Mordle: Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Mordle: Sqwaaaaaaaagh!
   CLANK!

 Pheyden: Thanks guys! I'm going to miss those legs, but it's a small price to pay.

Pheyden: Get off of me you fowl beast!
Pheyden: Let's go guys!
Pheyden: Argg! my weapon is stuck in the ground. I can't free it.

 Pheyden: What a mess. I'll get you for this!

Pheyden: Oh come on. He's getting away! Work with me here armor.