Metalhead - Vintage TMNT

The vintage Metalhead figure was released as part of the 1989 line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He was a cool character because he was a robot version of the turtles and featured vac-metal parts. Metalhead has one of the most detailed sculpts in the entire line of turtle figures. I had this guy as a kid and loved him. Eventually I sold my collection of turtles (all but a couple) in the mid 90's. I recently reacquired this guy in a collector's case of TMNT figures my Mom bought for me for $4 at a yard sale.

Metalhead came with a green gearbox weapon called the Radical Robo-chuks, Portable Party Pack, Radar/Foot Blaster  (green radar dish) and Utility Belt. You can also pop his arm off at the elbow and replace it with the Robo-chuks. As a kid I would sometimes plug the Robo-chucks into the hole on the backpack for the radar dish and pretend it was a helicopter backpack. Kind of like... Go, Go, Gadget Copter!

Metalhead also had a cool little feature that wasn't new, but hadn't been used a lot at the time. When light would shine through his translucent brains on top his head his eyes would light up. This is the same action feature that the Super Powers Darkseid had. Hasbro would later us this feature on several 90's Star Wars figures like the Jawas and R2-D2.

A batch of custom GI Joes

I have posted a lot of toys on this blog so far, but I haven't really touched my vintage GI Joe and Star Wars collections yet. This is mostly due to the fact that they were the most well packaged toys when I moved into my house, and they are still pretty much packed up. They have been painfully waiting for the completion of my Toy Room so they can properly be displayed. So far almost all my GI Joe posts have been about figures used in our animated shows (Animation Creation and Action Figure Adventures) or custom Joes. I really enjoy making custom figures, and although I don't do it as much any morel it is a hobby that has been a lot of fun.

So, today's post shows off some more custom GI Joes.

 Will Riskit - This is a generic "green shirt" pilot that I made years ago while sifting through my parts box.  There are plenty of GI Joe vehicles with Co-Pilot or Gunner seats, so I figured I would make a character to fill this role. My Dad game me the name. There is a helicopter pilot at his work that they call Will Riskit because even in a tight situation he'll risk it! Will is made up of a Lift-Ticket head, Psych-Out upper body, and Blaster (of Battle Force 2000) legs.

Night Force Wet Suit - I was trying to create a new diver out of a broken Wet-Suit, but I just felt like he wasn't different enough. The muted paint scheme works well for Night Force though. He uses the head and lower body of Wet-Suit. His arms come from a Python Patrol Trooper, and his torso is a repainted Slip-Steam piece. His equipment comes from the 2000 era diver two pack with Wet-Down.

Jungle Mission Snake-Eyes - When ever I can get parts to cool (and hard to find) characters at yard sales I always pick them up. Then I try to make something useful out of them. This started because when I was a kid I would sometimes buy a broken figure of a character I really wanted and then cobble together a place holder version of this figure. This Snake-Eyes v2 head, torso, and arms were not even all bought at once, but were slowly assembled as a place holder figure. He originally had black mail-away Sgt Slaughter legs, but once I got an actual v2 Snake-Eyes I reworked him. For special jungle missions Snake-Eyes has Bazooka legs with repainted boots and Crosshair (2000's) vest and hat. The webbing and hat are sort of homages to his Vietnam gear. His one thumb was broken off when I bought his parts. A little bit of hot glue built up on the stump and painted black allow him to hold weapons.

Mutt & Junkyard (Improved) - This is just a slightly improved paint job really. When I get an extra copy of a figure I sometimes like to tune up the paint job a little. Paint details that Hasbro skipped or add something of my own. I have painted the lenses  on Mutt's goggles, his badge on his chest, and added a white arm band. The arm band says "MP" on it to match Law & Order better (although it doesn't really show up in the photo). Junkyard has a custom paint job to help him match his cartoon appearance more closely. He has more brown on his feet, belly, and face. He also has extra painted details like eyes and teeth. He also wears a spare Chuckles holster. This dog is packin' heat. I don't know how practical that would be, but I could see a cool story line where Mutt gets pinned down and Junkyard brings him a weapon.

 Astronaut Grand Slam - A long time ago I was working on a story outline for a GI Joe web comic or stop motion animation that would tell a new story of GI Joe. This all new telling of the GI Joe story would be dictated by the action figures. I was going to slowly introduce characters in release date order, but also slowly kill off or retire characters who never got new figures in the original line. I wanted there to be a reason for the Joe team to get a new flamethrower expert or jet pack trooper (I wasn't going to kill everyone, but have the roster change) Grand Slam was going to go on a secret mission in space (before the Joes has their own Shuttle) to stop a Cobra plot, but die in the Challenger tragedy His figure is made of an Ace body with a Grand Slam head. There are some added paint details to make him more interesting..

DC Universe Squatz

I'm a toy collector (as if you didn't know), but I don't buy a lot of gimmick kids stuff. I stick mostly to well articulated action figures from licensed properties I enjoy. I do occasionally check out something different if it looks fun or comes with some sort of mini-figures.

On a recent visit to Ollie's Bargain Warehouse I saw a few packs of these Squatz. They are DC comic book super  hero mini-figs that come in weird packaging. You unwrap the figure and drop it in hot water to dissolve a fizzy coating and reveal the figures you got. The packaging makes them seem much larger than they really are.

Color Blanks - Rose Art

I recently started buying Color Blanks by Rose Art, plain vinyl figures that you can draw on with markers. Then I noticed that Pixel Dan reviewed the holiday themed Color Blanks. He asked readers to send him MOTU themed figures. I had thought about making a Spikor using this style of Color Blank. Spikor here is based on a weird rubber mini-fig of Spikor from the 80's (That's why he's blue instead of purple).

Pixel Dan is featuring two different Masters of the Universe themed Color Blanks I created.

Flintstones Car (Flintmobile) - Hot Wheels

The Flintmobile was a mail away promotion in the mid-1990's. This unique Hot Wheels car was available through Pebbles Cereal. For about 30 years all the Middle School kids at the school I work at made wooden Flintstones Cars in wood shop. I had the kids make them my first year there, but then changed the project to something a little more mature and useful. From time to time we still crank out a Flintstones Car or two. Usually it's because a kids older sibling made one or we sometimes make a few for our holiday toy drive. When I saw this car at a yard sale I had to get it.

Realm of the Underworld - Zoloworld

Hot out of their molds from China comes a brand new line of action figures from Zoloworld. The company known for their protective cases for carded figures have just released a new retro styled set of figures. Realm of the Underworld is a line of sword and sorcery action figures that are styled to look like 1980's Mattel and Remco figures. I per-ordered some figures over the summer and they just arrived. The package included promotional cards for the three characters I ordered.

Each figure comes carded on a cool looking card back. The only packaging difference between the figures are the little star burst sticker at the figures' knees that state the toys name. The reverse side of the card back features hand drawn cross sell art (not pictured)

 Hercules - Son of Zeus

Archfiend - Skeleton Minion

Acromancer - Evil Warrior

 Acromancer without Hades' helmet

The battle between good and evil... check out the animated review below.

Temple of Darkness Sorceress - MOTUC

Temple of Darkness Sorceress was Mattel's traveling convention exclusive. She is a repaint of the standard Sorceress figure. This time she has white and gray paint apps and frosted translucent wings. This figures deco is based on the character's appearance in one of the vintage mini-comics titled Temple of Darkness (Big Surprise!)

TOD Sorceress came with two accessories. She came with a gray and translucent blue orb holder and a glossy gray staff. The staff came with the other release of the figure and is based on the vintage figure's weapon. The orb holder works with the marble/orb that came with King Grayskull.

 I was not at Power Con or NY Comic Con this year, but she was also sold at an Art Gallery in NY during Comic Con that has a Master of the Universe themed exhibit. They had stock for sale on their website the day after the event they hosted during the con. I ordered her from them. When Mattel's remaining stock was finally listed on Matty Collector she sold out very rapidly.

TOD Sorceress was not really a must have for me, but since I had the orb I kind of wanted the stand. I'm hoping the stand will fit in the "Orb Room" of the MOTUC Castle Grayskull to be released at the end of 2013 (already per-ordered).

Magneto - ToyBiz

Magneto is without a doubt the X-Men's biggest bad guy. His character is so complex that he could almost be the hero. If his methods were different he could totally be the good guy, and he thinks he is. Magneto has different goals from Professor X, but they aren't really bad goals if you are a mutant.

This Magneto figure, from the first wave of X-Men figures by ToyBiz, and was my first X-Bad Guy. He's a nice looking figure with decent articulation. He has 9 points of articulation which is pretty good for a toy from the 1990's. They are at the neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees. Other than his head he is molded out of red plastic with clean purple paint apps on his boot, gloves, shorts, and collar.

 

Magneto comes with a removable helmet, cape, and three magnetic pieces of junk. The helmet is a little bulky, but fits pretty well. His purple cape clips on his neck like the 80's Super Powers capes. I always wished it was larger. The cape is so small it is almost completely hidden from view by his torso. Magneto has three magnets imbedded inside him. One in the torso and one in each hand. This allows light weight metal objects to stick to the figure. He came with three pieces of junk that have small metal plates glued into them.  It's kind of a shame that the magnets make his hands unable to grip accessories, but it's a fun gimmick for kids.

 

When I was picking out villains for the stop motion animated show my friends and I made in college, Action Figure Adventures, Magneto was immediately included. He didn't really get as big of a role in the show as I originally though, but none of the villains really did. The show mainly focused on the good guys. My buddy Derek, who wrote the scripts for the episodes isn't a huge X-Men fan and I also think that had something to do with why Wolverine, Gambit, and Magneto didn't get used much. The following link takes you to my favorite Magneto scene from AFA Episode 4.

 What a great head sculpt!

Norman Osborne - ToyBiz

Norman Osborne with Talking Green Goblin Mask was released with the figures for the first Spider-man movie. He is an excellent likeness to actor Willem Dafoe. The figure came with a large wing chair and Green Goblin mask that can attach to the chair. He has decent articulation, but is slightly pre-posed. He can't  quite stand in a casual stance because his one arm always sticks out a little. He has swivel shoulders so his arms can't move closer or farther from his body.

 I actually bought this figure while my friends and I were working on our stop motion animated show Animation Creation. We were constantly in need of generic and normal looking people. This figure was used during the interview portion of the 10th episode.

Antlar - Bandai

I haven't posted any of my Japanese monsters recently, partly due to the fact that I don't know the names of a lot of them. All the Ultraman monsters my buddy Derek and I collected in the early and mid 90's came with Japanese tags so we never knew half of their names.

Antlar is a giant insect monster. He has nasty looking mandible in front of his face. I remember there being a similar (but skinnier) villain on Power Rangers in the early days.  His figure is a typical hollow body with only articulation at his shoulders. He features some silver and yellow highlights on brown plastic.

Derek some how got a duplicate of Antlar and gave me the extra figure after we made Godzilla Flick. In the video the collector's toys come to life and kill his landlord. Both Antlars were used in the film, and were a pain in the butt. He's a pretty top heavy figure and so from time to time would dive bomb out of the shot in the middle of an animated sequence. Around 10:30 in the video is where he can be seen climbing off a shelf and caused us lots of head aches.

I have a little paper with small line art drawings with some of the monsters and their names. I need to dig that up so I can identify more of them. If anyone knows of a good site that has pictures of the monsters and their names in English that would be super helpful. Leave me a link in the comments.