Action Figures with Spring Loaded Wings & Pixel Dan!

As a child of the 80's I always loved the spring loaded wing action feature incorporated into Silverhawks. Kenner used this feature several times including Golden Pharaoh from Super Powers and Shadow Wing Batman. Recently Playmates included a similar feature in Wingsuit Raphael from the new Ninja Turtles movie toy line. Last weekend at TooManyGames I got to hang out with Pixel Dan and we filmed a fun video talking about this feature. It was cool getting hang out with Dan again and I you guys enjoy the video we filmed.

Steelwill - Silverhawks

Steelwill, the strong guy, from Silverhawks is another recent addition to my collection. As a little kid I only owned Bluegrass from this series. Later I got Steelwill and Stealhart form a yard sale. I remember playing with them in later Elementary school. I don't know what happened to them. I picked this guy up at a toy show a few weeks ago.

The hard thing about collecting Silverhawks is that the flesh colored paint on them always flakes off the chrome finish. Plus the chrome finish can get scratched up. I think Steelwill is a decent sample... not perfect. He may end up only being a place holder in my collection. We shall see.

Along with the cool chrome finish, Silverhawks also have an action feature that causes their arms (and wings) to spread out when you squeeze their legs. This figures feature works great. I checked it before I bought him.

In the cartoon when their wings would come out all the Silverhawk's faces would be covered by a faceplate. This was not worked into the action figures. I think from a design stand point I'm glad they didn't ruin the head sculpts with the goody plates. I do think they should have released all these guys in another wave with different heads that represented them with the face shield on.

Steelwill's wings are a soft sparkly fabric piece that's attached to his back and clipped to his wrists. I've always been a big fan of the line and the cartoon. I need to track down Steelhart, I'm trying to get the old gang back together.

Silverhawks & Thundercats @ Retro Con

At Retro Con I picked up some more Silverhawks. I've been slowly collecting figures from this line. They are hard to find in nice condition. I bought two figures and three birds. Copper Kid is one of the original characters with the spring open wings feature. Condor is a later character who has a spring-loaded missile launcher built into his arm.

Talley-Hawk (Gray) came with Quicksilver. Rayzor the blue bird came with Steelheart. Slybird who is orange came with Stargazer.




Three Thundercats voice actors were at Retro Con. Peter Newman and Larry Kenney were also voices for Silverhawks.

Birthday Bash - Photos

On Saturday I attended a Birthday Party for myself and three other friends with birthdays in May. We all met up at Arnold's Family Fun Center in Oaks, PA. The theme of the part was based around the annoying She-Ra character Kowl. There has been a joke online between a few people about Kowl being banned from Retro Con. This joke has grown into a huge thing within our group.

Rose posing her vintage Kowl figure on my head.

The Kowl cake with four clusters of candles. One for each birthday in May.

The Kowl joke went so far as to have everyone trying to kill Kowl. He eventually died, a casket was built for him, and photos from his funeral were posted on facebook. Mike brought the dead kowl and casket with him to the party.

Here's a shot of Tony and Nick playing arcade games.

Michael Breaux of the Breux Show fame was the champ on the air hockey table.

The group spent a lot of money on the giant claw machine. Nobody got anything out of it.

 Jen, Mike, and Rose all taking photos of the Kowl cake.

 

I was shocked at how awesome the presents were the everyone got for each other. Here you can see the '66 Batman & Robin 2-Pack Connie gave me.

Rose, Mike, and Jen are all holding up the Kowl wrapping paper I made for their presents.

Oh no, the Mon-Star that Rose and Tony gave me has captured one of the Kowls.

Silverhawks to the rescue.

Tony being eaten by a shark

Mike climbing the rock wall.

Everyone lining up for Go-Karts

I got two awesome 90's carded GI Joe figures. Flak-Viper from Nick and Destro from Mike

 Here's a better shot of the Batman pack from Connie

Along with Flak-Viper, Nick also gave me some pieces to the Water Moccasin and Mobile Command Center that I need for my GI Joe collection.

Mike and Jen Breaux  gave me a set of GI Joe Kre-O and two mini-figs. 

The set contains mini-figs of Stormshadow (v2) and Beachhead (my favorite Joe) 

and the blind bags contained Scrap Iron and Torch.

Here is a better shot of Mon-Star, Steel Will, and Bluegrass from Tony and Rose. Mon-Star and Will include their companion birds. Tony knew I had a complete Blue Grass, but this one is in nicer shape than mine.

Toy Hunter does England

This is the second recent episode of Toy Hunters that started inside Jordan's store. It give the show a little bit of Comic Book Men or Pawn Stars feel.

Two guys brought in the He-Man stationary riding toy. It's basically a spring rocking horse, but instead of a horse it's Battle Cat. I've always thought it was really cool, but Battle Cat is one of my favorite characters. Jordan and his buddy Steve couldn't agree on a purchase price with the two fellows, so Jordan is going to to broker the piece.

Jordan seems to be building up a collection of Merry Men these days. He took Travis, the young kid dealer, with him to pick toys. They go to see a toy collector, who studied toy design. Jordan bought a set of card Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures including a Krang. Next we purchased a bunch of carded Silverhawks. Travis said they were like Thundercats in space. Jordan said," not really". Then they explained that they were made by the same people. Silver Hawks was LJN & Rankin/Bass trying to cash in on the success of Thundercats. They would try it a third time with Tigersharks. Jordan was excited to buy the Silverhawks, because he is buying toys for Birmingham Comic Con and the Hawks were never released overseas.Jordan also picked up the RoboTech Veritech Fighter.

Jordan takes yet another friend, Dave, with his to England. Dave is an international toy expert. They hit up a couple toy shops. In the first shop they find some Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. We find out the history of Action Man, the British GI Joe. Jordan also buy a Lyon's Made Ice Cream sign that features Star Wars themed treats from the 70's.

At the second shop they visit, which is a record store and toy shop, Jordan and Dave buy a Give a Show projector and slides made by Chad Valley. In American we had the same projector made by another company. Many of the British slides are unique to their country. Finally Jordan finds a real show piece. He buys a complete Batman Equipment Set. The set includes a plastic cowl (almost a helmet), a cape, and utility belt with gadgets.

At the Birmingham Comic Con Jordan learns that the American toys he brought with him sold way better than the English pieces he bought for the show while he was over seas. In the end he brought home some great British merchandise for his store back in New Jersey.

Flea Market Finds #18

I usually post my Flea Market Finds the day I find them, but I was so shocked to find the DC Multiverse figures that I decided to post them first. Sunday was kind of cold. I crossed the frozen Delaware River to go toy hunting in New Jersey. The Flea Market was kind of dead as far as vendors go, and there were a ton of people looking for toys. Lots of competition, but I ended up with some great finds.

 Jake Rockwell is the orange and green Centurions figure. These guys are covered in sockets that  weapons and gear can be plugged into in various combinations. The humanoid with antenna coming out of his forehead is from the Sectaur line. I'm not sure which character I purchased. The guy in dress clothes with the bionic parts is Commander Stargazer from Silverhawks. He is the Professor X of the team, leader but not field commander.

Shortly after buying these Battle Beast, I had a guy ask me how much I wanted for them. I was going to just give him Delta Chameleon since I already have him. When I pulled them out of the bag I was carrying my finds in, I saw they both still had their rub-signs so I told him I wanted to hang on to them. War Weasel is the name of the red furry Battle Beast. I always like the ones that had weapons instead of hands.

 Infinite Heroes Superman was actually my first purchase of the day. His eyes have red paint apps. I'm not sure if that is a special variant or not. I bought the odd looking blue super hero because he is an obvious Marvel Secret Wars knock-off. He looks like he shares parts with Captain America. With a little digging online I found out he's from a line of knock-offs called Action Heroes Sparking Rocket Cycle. He original came with a red cloth cape like the Kenner Super Powers figures and a Rocket Cycle vehicle. Like many knock-offs this figure has no real name.

This next batch of figures is from several different lines. The blue and white astronaut is from Robotix. The easiest way to identify these figures is to look for the large hexagon socket on their backs. The tan guy is Lt. Tank Ellis alongside the blue and chrome Major Hawk Masterson from Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future. The next two figures who like kind of like vintage Star Wars figures are from a line of toys that seem to be inspired by Mad Max: The Road Warrior. Wheel Boss and Metalface or the leaders of the two factions from the  steel Monsters toy line. I had never heard of the line before researching them fir this post, although I have seen a few of the figures at flea markets in the past. The final figure in this photo is a blue demon minion from Blackstar

For several years I had been passing up on vintage Star Wars figures at flea markets unless they were mint or had weapons because I have the entire collection. Buying duplicates was pointless unless they could complete or replace the played with figures in my collection. I even sold off a dozen or more duplicates on Ebay about six years ago. Since so many of my blogging buddies are clamoring for Vintage Star Wars I figured I'd  star pick them up. Nikto the Skiff Guard is pretty beat up and yellowed. Chief Chirpa the light gray leader of the Ewoks is missing his hood. Han Solo without his Endor Poncho was always my go to version of the character as a kid. My buddy Derek always preferred Han in Bespin Gear. Boba Fett the dreaded Bounty Hunter is some how missing his rocket. Yoda the Jedi Master was always one of my favorite Star Wars figures. Sy Snootles is the singer from Jabba the Hutt's band..

What started off looking like a weak showing at the Flea Market turned into an amazing day of finds. I bought all these action figures for a total of $7. I was pretty excited to find so many figures.

Flea Market Finds #11

Today was my second time this season I've been out to the Flea Markets. Today I got my first finds.

Knight's End Batman from Kenner's Legends of Batman toy line. He's missing his cape and weapon. I'd love to find his cape some day. I'm a big fan of the Knight Fall (Quest & End) story from the 90's Batman comics. I also picked up a nice Quicksilver from Silver Hawks. These figures can be tricky to find. Their chrome often times shows wear and their flesh tone paint often rubs off the chrome. He's not perfects, but he's not bad either for his age. His action feature even still works. When you squeeze his legs this arms pop up to unfold his wings. I also picked up the Robotech Master figure.

I scored a Captain Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Air Marshal figures. These guys have really cool designs and I always kind of liked the figures. I own one other figure from the line. The original Bucky O'Hare comics were written by Larry Hama of GI Joe fame. My good friend and comic author Doug Moench even wrote an episode of the cartoon show back in the day.

I paid of total of $4.50 for my five figures today. Quicksilver was the most expensive at 2 bucks.

Totally Tubular 80s Toys - Mark Bellomo

I'm still posting stuff from Retro Con, but I'm going to stop numbering the posts related to the show. I've been seeing talk about a new toy book by author Mark Bellomo online. I knew he was going to be at Retro Con as a quest and took a few of his books with me to get signed. While I was there I listened to him talk about his new book as he flipped though it with some fellow toy fans. Totally Tubular 80s Toys is giant flash back to the pop culture of the 80's. The book has a little introduction to each year and then goes into more detail about the various toy lines from that year. Then each year is wrapped up with a little review of the top TV shows and movies from that year. The book is well put together and could serve as a text book of the decade.

Naturally I enjoy the sections on Star Wars, GI Joe, He-Man and TMNT the most. I'm also very happy to see Transformers, Thundercats, SilverHawks, Robocop, Volton and dozens of other toy lines I still love today. There are also some toys in there I never had or barley remember. Most toy lines get one or two pages. A few of the heavy hitters get more. This is not a complete guide to many of the lines, although some of the smaller lines are showed completely. TT80T gives a good over view of the toy lines. In  the section on 1982, GI Joe in the 3 3/4" format is discussed and pictured. This section represents the entirety of the toy line so it pictures toys from though out the lines history in the 80s.

The book features tons of great photographs of various toys in their package as well as loose. the photos of the toys are also accompanied by images from the cartoons and movies that supported or spawned many of the toy lines from the 80s. I really enjoyed reading this book. It is also impressive to know that every toy photographed in the book comes from Mark Bellomo's personal collection. The only thing I didn't like/agree with in the book was that He-Man & The Masters of the Universe is listed under 1981. I'm not sure where that date comes from. 2012 is the 30th Anniversary of He-Man cementing that the line debuted in 1982. I'm not sure if this is a mistake or if it's based on a development date.

 Mark was very cool to talk to and was kind enough to sign copies of all of his books that I brought with me or bought from him that day. His table was next to my buddy Paul's table and so when I wasn't hanging out with Paul or helping him keep an eye on his tables of retro video games I was talking with Mark about toys. I was wearing a Pixel Dan "Comparison Time" t-shirt at Retro Con in case anyone is trying to figure out what he's talking about in the autograph.

Some of the other great Mark Bellomo books in my collection include the 1st and 2nd editions of The Ultimate Guide to GI Joe 1982-1994 and Transformers Identification and Price Guide. I actually have two copies of the 1st edition of the GI Joe book. The one copy has little notes and check marks in it about my GI Joe collection, while the other copy is kept pristine.

Bluegrass - SliverHawks (Retro Con Part 3)

Yesterday's post highlighted my experience at Retro Con meeting and getting autographs from a couple of Thundercats (and SilverHawks - Larry & Peter) voice actors. So today we are moving on to Goal 2 - Part A

 2) Buy lots of  cool Toys
    * at least one Silverhawks

Obviously I didn't know if there would be any SilverHawks for sale, or who they would have, but I figured there would be a good chance of finding at least one. It turns out I was able to get my favorite SilverHawk. Bluegrass was the only toy from this line I had as a kid. I really liked the show and a kid I went to school with had them all (which made me jealous). At Retro Con I saw a couple of carded SilverHawks for very high prices and a couple of loose figures in various conditions.

 All the SilverHawks toys featured a cool vac-metal chrome finish on most of their bodies. They also all had an action feature and a bird accessory. Bluegrass stands out because his armor is an interesting blue/green color and includes a cowboy hat. It can be difficult to find loose SilverHawks in good condition. Their flesh colored paint chips off the chrome easily and their chrome can also rub off of the figures.

In the cartoon show Bluegrass has a guitar called Hot Licks. The guitar could be played, used as a weapon, or help him pilot the SilverHawks ship. Each toy came with a bird accessory, heroes and villains alike. All the birds had some sort of a feature. In the case of Bluegrass his bird is his guitar. His toy package refers to his bird as Sideman. When you push the head of the guitar towads the body the neck shortens and the wings fold out. Bluegrass is the only SilverHawks hero in my collection currently. I have two villains and several  of the characters bird accessories.

Bluegrass is the pilot to the SilverHawks ship, the Miraj (pronounced Mirage). Unlike the rest of the Heroes he does not have spring loaded wings that unfold when you squeeze his legs together. Instead his back can be used as a spring-loaded launcher for his bird.

 Since I did not have the Miraj as a kid, and a Silverhawk that can't fly is not very exciting I used to attach Sideman to his back and pop out his wings. Then I would pretend he was a jet pack for Bluegrass.