Helen - Bionic 6

Helen Bennett is the mom from the 80's cartoon / toy line Bionic 6. On the team her call sign is Mother-1. Bionic 6 was a toy line produced by LJN in 1986. There were 13 figures and some vehicles and a playset. The unique thing about Bionic 6 figures is that they are made mostly out of die cast metal with a few plastic parts. Due to being made out of cast metal it hard to find loose figures with nice paint.

I picked up Helen at the Wayne NJ Toy Show. I bought her from Steve from Toy Hunter. He had a big bin of loose figures that I was digging though. There were a couple figures I was interested in, but for loose incomplete figures I felt like he was kind of asking to much. So Helen ended up being my only purchase from his bin of figures.

Originally Helen came with a blue backpack. It sort of clips over her shoulders and then there is a strap that goes around her waist. She didn't come with it, but I previously bought a complete set of Bionic 6 weapons on ebay. Even though the auction didn't mention it, I am 99% sure that the weapons I picked up were reproductions. The more rubbery accessories like Helen's backpack just aren't quite flexible enough. It's really hard to attach the belt. I have an original Meg (the daughter) belt as well as the one that came in the set I bought online and they aren't the same material.

Check out this awesome 80's commercial for the Bionic 6 toy line. I always liked how the figures started out as metal in a mold in these ads. There is a little bit of stop motion animation in the ad also.

Wayne NJ Toy Show

This morning I got up early and headed out to a local Flea Market here in Pennsylvania. While I was there I ran into  a toy collector and dealer named Mike who I have known for a long time. He works at Sellersville Auction, were I bought my 2nd USS Flagg. If you watch the show Toy Hunter on Travel Channel you may have seen the episode where Jordan bids on a carded Super Powers Shazam! figure at Sellersville.

Mike and I walked around a little, not really finding anything. He told me he was meeting up with Tony and Nick later this morning. Tony is one of the organizers of Retro Con. It a big toy (and other stuff 70's & 80's) convention in Oaks PA. They were planning on going over to the Wayne New Jersey Toy & Collectible Show and Mike invited me to go along. This Wayne NJ show is another location that has been featured on Toy Hunter. During the episode were Jordan was buying Kiss items for Gene Simmons, his buddy Steve took him to a "flea market" in Wayne. He guys some Kiss underwear and a view master disk there.

So the four of us piled into Mike's car and headed out to New Jersey. It was fun paling around with other toy fans. I was a little lost some of the time. The other three guys I was with are all huge Transformer fans. I like Transformers, but I really don't own many. If they weren't in the G1 cartoon than I don't know who they are. We also talked a lot about Matty Collector and the Masters of the Universe Classics line.

None of us found anything too crazy in Wayne, but we had a good time and picked up a few items. I will be posting my purchases very shortly. We saw a couple of "Reality TV Stars" at the show. Steve Savino who is the "Toy Scout" on Toy Hunter was there selling mostly junk. I did buy a figure off of his though. He was mostly fielding questions from people about the show. He was much more calm in person. He's easily excitable on the show and today he seemed almost depressed. Another person often referred to as a popculturist, Robert Bruce was present selling action figures. If you've ever watched Kevin Smith's reality show Comic Boon Men you have probably seen Robert. He is the expert they call in most often to evaluate items that they are about to buy.

So I had a fun time and I got to check out a new show.

popculturist, Robert Bruce was also there.

He-Man & She-Ra - Funko Pop!

I went to one of my local comic book stores yesterday to pick up a few books and I saw these vinyl figures from the Funko Pop! line and I just had to check them out. He-Man & She-Ra are the first two Funko figures I've ever bought. I wanted to get Alan from the Hangover, but I never saw him anywhere. I've also consider getting Shredder from TMNT because he looks kind of cool. I like the figures, but the Pop! style is so limited in the face that a lot of the characters don't do a lot for me. They all just have the round eyes and little triangle noses.

He-Man & She-Ra are both accurate to their Filmation cartoon appearances aside from the Funko styling.  I like that they gave He-Man the darker skin tone and slightly orange hair just like the cartoon. They are each holding their Swords in not so exciting poses. The Pop! figures each only have a single point of articulation at the neck. Allowing them to look left and right. 

I paid $10.99 a piece for these figures and it makes me feel better about the $12.99 I spent on the GI Joe Blind Bag figures. While the Pop! figures are larger they don't have the articulation and removable weapons that the Joes come with. I'm happy to have He-Man & She-Ra in my collection, but I don't think I'm going to go crazy hunting down the villains.

Moss Man - Vintage MOTU

Moss Man was one of my top three favorite heroic figures from Masters of the Universe as a kid. He was a master of camouflage and came covered in green flocking. He was so unique and cool to me. In reality he was just a green Beastman figure covered in flock with a pine scent added to his plastic. I don't have a sense of smell so that feature was always lost on me. The flock hides a lot of the details of his sculpt, but I think that helps make him feel a little less recycled. As a young kid playing with these figures I already had Beastman and Stratos that shared the entire body as well as Zodac who had the same torso.

Moss Man came with a brown version of the mace that originally came with Castle Grayskull. Clawful also had that mace. I remember liking Moss Man in the vintage cartoon and a neighbor kid game me a promotional cup from Burger King that had a comic printed on it about Thunder Punch He-Man and Moss Man. I used to occasionally have to try to pick little bits of fuzz and lint out of his flocking to keep him looking nice. My original Moss Man was sold years ago, but I'm happy to have this replacement figure in my collection.

* Little Side Note about one of my other favorite MOTU Heroes. I was watching the the season two episode Scavenger Hunt of the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and when the team ahead of the kids from Angel Grove (The Rangers) dump their bag of Scavenger Hunt items a vintage Buzz-Off figure dumps out of the bag. He is missing his wings.

Flea Market Finds #14

Happy 4th of July everyone. Happy Birthday 'Murica! I did my duty and eat stuff cooked on the grill and shot off fire works.

The flea market I like to go to in New Jersey on Sundays is also open on Thursday, but I never go then because I usually have work. My buddies that I always go with were all excited to check out what was for sale today since we all had off.

For a $1.50 I picked up the GI Joe VAMP Jeep and Tokka the evil snapping turtle mutant from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The VAMP is missing most of its accessories, but I enjoy collecting the '82 vehicles and I might have a spare laser cannon for the vamp laying around. Tokka is in great shape and a fun TMNT figure to add to my collection. I always like the Secret of the Ooze movie.

 Some of my long time readers may know that I am a Middle School / High School Teacher 9 months out of the year. In addition to teaching I have two side jobs. During the fall I work at a Haunted Hay Ride and during the Summer I run a Work Crew at my school. Basically I supervise a team of 5 students who get paid to paint and do small repair projects around the school.

While flea marketing today I saw two cool Beatles items (not toys... oh my!). I had to pick them up for the one girl on my Summer Work Crew. She loves the Beatles and talks about wanting to collect all their records. She only has one so far. I bought her a copy of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band LP. I always have felt that it is the coolest record to own on vinyl because of the awesome cover art that just isn't done justice when it is shrunk down to fit on an Ipod screen. I'm going to give her the record on Monday, but the second item I'm saving for her Birthday at the beginning of August. It's a book titled The Beatles an Illustrated Record. It was printed in the late 70's and through text and pictures tells the history of the band from formation to break up and includes information about all four band members solo projects up until its date of publication.

New Pop Culture T-Shirts

I buy nerdy t-shirts from time to time online. I like to check out different sites like T-Furry and Shirt Punch. These sites feature shirts designed by artist and are sold for a very limited time. Basically the shirts are available for one day and then they are gone. Pretty much at all times there are nerdy shirts available on these sites. I bought the following three from Shirt Punch.

The first shirt is a Star Wars / Pokemon shirt. It's a mash up of Boba Fett and Bulbasaur (Bobasaur). The image is printed on a dark bluish-gray shirt.

The next shirt is a cool Thundercats / Pokemon mash-up. This bright blue shirt features Pikachu versions of the heroes from Thundercats.

 

The third and my favorite shirt is a parody of Frosted Flakes with a Masters of the Universe twist. Kringer is standing in for Tony the tiger and is informing us that Eternia's Skull Castle is GR-R-RAY! I think this shirt is just GREAT! The design is printed on a dark green shirt. I had to use the flash to take this photos because I didn't have good lighting. The artwork on all three looks good, but the shirt colors didn't come through real well.

Bruce Wayne Quick Change

A couple people commented on this figure in my recent Flea Market Finds post so I decided to give him a full post. Over the weekend I picked up Bruce in a box lot with his Cape/Cowl and Chest Armor. I had him and all his gear already in my collection from when I was a kid. I've said it before and I'll say it again... I love the unmasked figures. Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Peter Parker... I wanted them all as a kid. I wanted this set more for Bruce than the ability to dress him up as Batman. I already had a standard movie Batman figure, but this was my standard Bruce. I used to like to have him pick up the armor in the Batcave.Then I'd just set this figure aside and pick up my '89 Batman.

Like many of the Dress Up action figures the accessories are very clunky and over sized. This is generally the unfortunate downside to these types of accessories. Bruce comes with a Cape/Cowl, Chest Armor, Boots, Gloves, and a Radio. One of his gloves has a Batarang molded into it. I used to sometimes put the Cowl on Laser Viper from GI Joe. Even though he didn't have an exposed mouth and chin. I always thought he looked cool and it gave me a Batman toy with GI Joe level articulation.

 Bruce Wayne has a great head sculpt.For an early 90's figure he really looks like Michael Keaton. I always thought it was a bit odd that Bruce Wayne would be wearing a "Batman Sweat Suit". It would have been best for him to be dressed up a little, but since he also has to be Batman I can live with the style of the cloths. In the movie he did wear a black turtle neck while in the Batcave. I don't know why they felt the need to include the Bat Symbol. Did they think kids wouldn't know who he was otherwise?

Bruce Wayne was available in both Kenner's the Dark Knight Collection line and Batman Returns toy line. The gold on the armor I got his weekend is much brighter than the gold on the figure I have from my childhood. The gold on the armor I saw in a Batman Returns version review online (un-boxing) was also very bright. There may have been a slight difference between the two releases.

Gambit w/ Light-Up Weapons - Toy-Biz

This Gambit figure comes from the X-Men Classics line by Toy Biz. Each figure in this line featured light up weapons. As a kid I had the original Gambit figure with the crappy plastic coat and sculpted on collar. When I saw this figure I just felt like he blew the other figure away. He was originally released in 1996. Gambit came with a silver staff and a magenta light up energy effect with some playing cards embedded in it. I bought this figure at a yard sale years after I have sold off most of my X-Men figures. He just looked so cool. He's buff and his coat looks great. This is the way Gambit looked in the comics.

When I bought this Gambit he didn't come with any of his actual accessories. I gave him this piece of a boom box antenna to use as his staff. Gambit was one of two X-Men figures I picked out to be used in Action Figure Adventures: the Series. My buddy Derek who wrote the script for all 8 episodes isn't a huge X-Men fan and I feel that they weren't used to their full potential in the show. Gambit is involved with a pretty funny escape plan. Check out his scene in AFA here.

Flea Market Finds #13

Luckily the rain held off this morning and I was able to hit up one of my favorite flea markets. I bought one figure for $2. Then while looking at some figures in a box a dealer offered me the box for $20. I wasn't interested in everything is the box, but it still worked out to be a pretty good deal. It worked out to be $1 a piece on the figures plus lots of accessories buried in the bottom of the box.

First up are two Kenner Predator figures. One comes from the Alien vs Predator 2-Pack and the other is known as Scavage Predator. My buddy Derek had both of these figures growing up. They both came with their masks. The regular Predator has his gun but is missing his bladed weapon. Scavage Predator has his staff, missile launcher and one of his missiles.

As a kid I really enjoyed the Kenner Aliens toy line. Again my buddy Derek had almost all of them. I've been planning on doing a stop motion animation using some of the Aliens toys in the future. The toys that drew my attention to this box were the Aliens. The Killer Crab Alien with both of his chest missiles and the Flying Queen Alien.

I've been wanting to get one (or more) of the Warrior Alien from the Alien vs Predator 2-Pack for a long time. I also got the Face Hugger Queen and Atax with some of his Alien Armor.

The box lot contained several super hero figures. The Rocketeer is a large rubbery figure. Strife from Toy-Biz X-Force line with is mask. A Punisher figure with a wonky foot. Three different Batman figures and a Quick Change Bruce Wayne with chest armor and Cowl/Cape. I'm not sure if the Spawn figure actually goes to that cape, but it displays nicely. I also bought individually (as previously mentioned) and Iceman figure. He's my favorite X-Men character. Oddly he has a snow ball molded into one hand and an ice chuck in the other.

The box also contained Rattlor from MOTU and a couple of TMNT figures. I'm excited to have another Foot Soldier. I don't collect "variant" Turtles and I already have Casey Jones. I did play with that Astronaut Raphael in the swimming pool a lot as a kid.

 I didn't look at the accessories in the bottom of the box to much before buying the lot. I just sort of crossed my fingers that I would find some good stuff. I was super excited to find Bullit's Ammo Belt and Gun from the Cops 'n' Crooks line. I've been working on building up that collection so I can post about them on AFA. I was also very excited to find a vintage Star Wars weapon. As a kid I never had many original weapons because all my Star Wars figures came from yard sales. I still get excited when I find them.

I found quite a few accessories from 90's 12" GI Joe figures. There is a mask for Snake-Eyes and Red Ninja Gear. Destro's Dagger and several other items are there. I don't own any of these figures, but I do see them from time to time. Now that I have some parts to them maybe I'll pick one up.


I do have a 12" Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow that came in a two pack called Ninja Showdown in the early 2000's.








Below are all the remaining weapons and parts. Some of them I know, and others I need some help identifying. Please comment on this post if you know some of them. I'll update the post as I find out what things go to. Feel free to let me know if you need any of them. If it's not something I need for my collection I'd be happy to part with it.

Row 1	Row 2	Row 3
Back Pack for Tomahawk Swamp Thing	Anchor ?	Club?
Gun & Axe for Panda Kong TMNT	Night Stick ?	Sheath for Samurai Leo TMNT
Sword and Hook Leonardo TMNT	Multi Barrel Gun ?	TMNT Bomb?
Bow & Arrow for Splinter TMNT	Big Gun ?	Rifle for General Traag TMNT
Bo Staff for Donatello TMNT	Fugitoid from TMNT	Swords Classic Rocker Leo TMNT
Brown Gun ?	Fugitoid from TMNT	Guitar Classic Rocker Leo TMNT
Gold Mace ?	Fugitoid from TMNT	Yellow Snakes?
Slash from TMNT	Orange Pistol ?	Yellow Axes?
	Shedder Claws?	Yellow Gun?
		Yellow Gun (from vehicle)?

Row 1	Row 2	Row 3
Belt - cheap plastic ?	Snap Up Swamp Thing	Combat Belt Batman Weapon
Boot - cheap plastic ?	Micro Machines Endor Log	Black Hair or Wig ?
Super Shredder - TMNT	Tan Weapon ?	Double Barreled Gun?
Silver Gun ?	Bio Viper Gun GI Joe	Arrow ?
Dodger GI Joe Gun Knock-Off ?		Sci Fi Gun ?
Silver Missile ?		Gun from Robo Cop's Car
Knife pointing up ?		Automatic weapon ?
Knife pointing down ?		Tommy Gun ?
GI Joe 12"  SWAT Assault		Gun Stalker v3 GI Joe

Godzilla trashes Lego City

One year, in preparation for our big "Godzilla Set-Up" I created a little city as a setting for our monster battle photographs. I drew roads and other details on a large sheet of white packing paper. I marked out on it where to place dozens of buildings I made out of Lego bricks. I took my city to my buddy Derek's house and we populated it with Micro Machine cars and tiny people. Then we set up all of the Japanese monster toys.

The road map would have shown up better in the photos if it had been drawn in marker instead of colored pencil. It didn't look as great in the photographs as I thought it would, but it was nice to not have the carpet as the background in the pictures. In the distance you can see we used a light blue towel as water. Along with dozens of Godzilla and Ultraman monsters, the city is being attached or defended by a Gundam robot and some Z-bots.