Snow Day! - GI Joe Arctic Strike Team

Well, we got a bunch of snow dumped on us again today. Luckily we got the call from work that school would be closed today last night. So what did I do... dug out a bunch of toys to photograph in the snow. I'll be posting snow pics mixed in with my regular posts for the next couple of weeks. Today's post is my GI Joe Arctic Strike Team which is all custom made GI Joes I cobbled together over the years.

 I have previously poster about all these figures (post 1 and post 2), so I'm just going to give a quick overview on them, Stalker is made predominantly using a Snow Job body. Stalker and all the early figures had a different style of neck that limits you on parts choices. Beach Head has Frostbite arms and Big Brawler legs. These figures have some small details painted on over top of the base colors the toys were originally molded in.

 Grand Slam is a mix of his '83 figure and Snow Job. His jet pack is actually a Cobra Eel backpack. Footloose has the torso from a Frostbite figure. Again some parts are painted while with little details added in other color paint. Snake Eyes is made using a few pieces from a v2 Snake Eyes along with Frostbite arms and legs. He needed a little something to jazz him up so I added the blue tiger strip camo pattern.

 I loved playing with my toys in the snow as a kid. I think that's why I enjoy making custom snow troopers. I had a lot of Frostbites laying around becuase he is one of the few figures to have no holsters or details on his thighs. So I buy any of them I find to us for customs of civilians.

Plastic Giant, Knights, & Demon by DFC

It's interesting how much fun a kid can have with a static figure like Green Army Men. I mean I grew up with GI Joe and Star Wars figures but still loved to play with little plastic knights and wrestlers. Toys like Army Ants at least had some  painted details.

 My buddy Derek always had the weirdest plastic figures. Goblins, demons, knights, and wizards all molded in a single shade of plastic. I recently found out that a whole bunch of little plastic fantasy figures I had as a kid were made by a company called DFC (thanks to Little Weirdos).
I think that all my DFC figures actually came from Derek, so I'm not sure where he got them. He had several other figures shown on Little Weirdos.

As a teenager one of my hobbies was to paint miniatures from table top board games. When I was in the mood to paint but didn't have money to buy pewter miniatures I'd paint my plastic figures. I can't say these guys are my best. They don't have the best detail, and I hadn't learned how important it is to use washes and dry brushing.

This guy is supposed to be a giant, but because all the figures are basically the same scale I just pretended he was a viking. I remember Derek having two variations of this guy. One with a detailed spiked flail while the other just had this less detailed ball flail.

Here are two knights from the same fantasy line. I think there were a few other knight figures, but these are the only two I have. I really liked the knight armed with the sword and shield. I also previously posted about a Wizard from this series.

I had all these guys lined up on the top ledge of the frame to a bulletin board in my bedroom for years.

Some of the best figures from this line of figures were the demons. Here is one armed with a flail. Again, I believe there were some figures with more detailed weapons that had sculpted details like chain and spikes instead of a smooth ball on a wavy stick.

I know I had one of these guys  holding an axe with two hands similar to the knight pictured above.

We used some of these guys along with a bunch of other plastic monster in a segment Derek cooked up for our stop motion show Animation Creation. I've included a link to the portion of Box O' Imps 'n' Demons that focus on these little guys the most. It' one of the weirder segments of the show. It used some live action bits and lots of weird lighting.

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Here is a link to some interesting photographs taken of a Batman figure I saw online. I though my fellow toy fans might enjoy them. Curious Wanderings of Batman in the American South West

Lando Calrissian (Skiff Guard Disguise)

Lando Calrissian in Skiff Guard Disguise was part of the Return of the Jedi line of Star Wars toys. I've had this Lando figure for a long time, but I only recently got his helmet. I think as a kid I would have been more excited by this figure if I had his helmet. Lando also originally came with a vibro-axe. As I've mentioned many times here on Action Figure Adventures, I never owned any vintage Star Wars figures straight out of the package and there for never had many accessories. I did have a vibro-axe accessory as a kid and thought it was so cool. The sculpt really captured the details seen in the film.

This figure really captured the look of Billy D. Williams. I've always wanted to do a boil and pop head swap with this version and the Bespin figure. Along with the great head sculpt, Lando has tons of great details in his armor and outfit.

Flea Market Finds #19

Well it was another cold Sunday at the Flea Markets. I went out hunting with a couple of guys and we went to three different markets. I bought a bunch of tools and looked at tons of comic books, but I didn't find any toys that sparked my interest until we went into Philly. I got a 2000's Tomax figure in his business suit. This figure was part of a Toys R Us exclusive GI Joe set from my college years. I liked that they finally released the twins in suits similarly to how they often appeared in the cartoon show. Princess Leia from Return of the Jedi, again a modern figure. I kind of hated how petite Hasbro made Leia for a while. She's just too tiny. The third figure is Mutt from the 4th Indian Jones movie. I figured he makes a good generic civilian if needed for a stop motion animation. I scored these three figures for a whopping $1.

Guy Gardner & Bloodwynd - Infinite Heroes

Today I'm posting about two figures from the DC Universe Infinite Heroes Crisis 6-Pack: Prelude to Doomsday. Infinite Heroes never had the same magic as the Kenner Super Powers line, but did have a great selection of characters. To be honest I only own a hand full of figures from the line. I got Batman and Powergirl on single cards. Then I bought the Prelude pack because I wanted Doomsday. Most of the other figures in the pack I didn't care about. I previously posted about Fire & Ice here on AFA. Today Guy Gardner, and Bloodwynd finally get a turn.

Guy Gardner is dressed in his street clothed style costume which consists of jeans, boots, and a blue jacket with a gold "G" on the chest. This is a costume he wore after giving up being a member of the Green Lantern Corps.  Guy even has his yellow power ring sculpted on his hand. Bloodynd is a powerful necromancer, and a DC character I know little about. It's kind of a shame that the gem on his chest, arms, and leg are just painted on. I feel like this is where the Infinite Heroes line kind of fell short. Many details that deserved sculpting were painted on so that molds could be more readily reused His cape does have some nice sculpting to it..

Raph the Space Cadet - TMNT

Like most toy lines, eventually we get handed some ridiculous variants of the main characters. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was notorious for this. Today's post is about the hot headed turtle, Raphael in a space suit. Why would a turtle want to go to space? who knows? Raphael originally came with a silver blaster, silver sword, yellow hose, and a clear plastic fishbowl helmet. His astronaut outfit is nicely detailed an included a large sticker  on his torso.

I think I've had three Cadet Raph's in my collection over the years, and none currently. I got him new in the pack back in the day. I played with his some. Then a friend from church, who was a little older gave me a handful of Turtles he'd outgrown. I got a second Space Cadet Raph with some of his accessories. The second one I used to like to take in the pool. I wouldn't use the original figure in the pool because of the sticker, but once I had a second one... he looked enough like a deep sea diver to have lots of summer adventures. The thought had also crossed my mind to paint all his red parts purple to make a custom Astronaut Donatello. Eventually when I was down sizing my collection I sold both figures.

Later I got the third copy, which is pictured above in a lot of TMNT figures my mom bought for me at a yard sale. After photographing him and having Raphael sit around her for a bit I sent him to one of my blogger buddies in a care package. His helmet was really his best feature.

Clawful "Packs" a Punch

I recently sent off a couple of packages to blogging buddies of mine. Mainly stuff I picked up at a recent sale at my local comic book shop. John from The Clawful Punch returned the favor and sent me a package back. What a package... it had all kinds of stuff in there.

From a Superman Lunch Box to action figures, trading cards, buttons, and mini-figures, all included in the package. Two GI Joes, two Transformers, two Pez Dispensers, two Eraser Airplanes, and a barrel of slime.

I'm really excited about Aquaman and Flash. These guys are both really cool retro toys. I have a collection of Pez Dispensers and Lunchboxes, so I've got the perfect spot for some of the items John shipped over.

I also really love this Megatron figure. He's nicely articulated. He doesn't transform, but that allows for him to be a better action figure because he doesn't need articulation points for transforming. Thanks John, you didn't have to and that's part of what makes it so special.

Retro Pictures - Godzilla Set Ups

I've mentioned on AFA several times about how in the 90's my buddy Derek and I used to make little dioramas with our toys and take pictures of them. We called these Set Ups. We did a yearly Godzilla Set Up as kids around Christmas time. We occasionally did set ups with other toys as well. At some point in time Derek's Mom started taking a photo of us before or after we took our toy photos.

This is a photo of Derek and myself at his house. We are each holding a monster figure and wearing matching Godzilla t-shirts. Derek has a cast on his arm from a Red Rover accident at Boy Scouts.

I know it's basically impossible to read the sign Derek is holding in the photo above. With a little Photoshoping I've made the sign slightly readable. It says...

"Godzilla Set-Up 1/2/1995

 Deco & Buzz Chuck"

I pointed this out because it proves just how long I've been using the name Buzz Chuck. At the time, I had probably only been using the nickname for a year.

 

I'm not sure if this photo is from the following year or two years later, but I think this was the 2nd to last year that we did a set-up. If you look carefully you can see Fire Rodan hanging from fishing line from Derek's finger. We often times dangled flying monster into photos. Unfortunately we occasionally got our hands or legs in the photos in the process. If we had digital photography and Photoshop in those days these set-ups would have been an even bigger production.

Magneto - Secret Wars

In the past I have posted about Marvel Secret Wars as an entire toy line, as well as some of the individual toys. Today is all about Magneto, the leader of the evil mutants who fought along side the X-Men as a fellow mutant during the Secret Wars. Magneto's sculpt like many of the figures in the line is very plain. He has purple gloves, boots, shorts, and collar. He has a few tiny bolt details on his collar plate. I always felt like the figure was missing something, so as a kid I gave him a spare Kenner Super Powers Superman cape that I had laying around. The yellow "S" on the back rubbed off long ago.

 Magneto also came with a blaster... I'm not really sure why. He's a decent figure for his age, but no where near to coolest figure in the line. The lack of a cape and the fact that he doesn't have pupils painted in his eyes always hurt this figure in my book.

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.