Trap Jaw Card Art : Masters of the Universe

 Beautiful card back art from the packaging of Trap Jaw from the vintage Mattel Masters of the Universe line, the recent Origins series and Filmation He-man and the Masters of the Universe by Super7.

The card back art really helped to capture the imaginations of children in the 80s, showing a glimpse of a dark, barbaric world. Not many toy lines, especially today feature such beautiful art work.

Small Soldiers Gorgonites

Skeleton Warriors Collection

Skeleton Warriors figures, comics, books, DVD and Skeleton Fighter knock offs. 

Skeleton Warriors sadly never gained a foothold in the toy market of the 90s but it's influence can still be seen today in the toy industry. Todd McFarlane saw the Skeleton Warriors line at it's initial reveal during a toy fair and was very impressed with the sculpting detail. Other toy companies and designers had been telling him such detail was impossible at the small scale of 4-6 inch action figures. Motivated by what he had seen from Playmates Skeleton Warriors line, Todd went on to insist on such detail in his companies action figures, leading to Movie maniacs which spawned the horror and movie action figure collectors market we see today from the likes of NECA. Hasbro and Mattel also took note of the success of McFarlanes toys and started to put more effort into the detailing of their Marvel and DC toylines Marvel Legends and DC Universe Classics as well as Mattels Master of the Universe 200X series of figures. 

If not for Skeleton Warriors and it's influence on Todd McFarlane, we may not have the many highly detailed collectible action figure lines we do today. 

Skeleton Fighter

 Though Skeleton Warriors proved unsuccessful, it did still spawn a bootleg line that featured reasonably nice quality figures for the time considering they were semi knock offs. They make good army builders for any Skeleton Warriors collection. Though funnily enough they are rarer and harder to find now than the official Skeleton Warrior figures which can be found quite cheap and easily on ebay.

Skeleton Warriors Unproduced Toys

Skeleton Warriors had a high quality toyline and cartoon series yet for some reason never caught on. Much like Visionaries which too had a well made toyline and cartoon, a second wave of figures that were shown in promo images and prototypes never saw the light of day. The second wave of figures would have included Claw, a Skeleton Warrior who made a few appearances in the last episodes of the cartoon and Talyn, the only main member of the Legion of Light not to have been released in the first wave.

 A large skeleton dragon that also appeared in the last episode of the cartoon was planned and shown in promotional pictures. October Toys had planned to produce and release the dragon in the mid 2010s but unfortunately this never came to pass.

Skeleton Warriors

Gary Goddard, director of the Masters of the Universe movie conceived of the Skeleton Warriors in the hope it would be to the 90s what Masters of the Universe had been for the 80s. A phenomenon of toys and cartoons. Unfortunately like many other cartoon and toylines of the 90s it failed to catch on, with comic book properties being the flavor of the decade. Much like Masters of theUniverse, Skeleton Warriors was influenced by Conan the Barbarian when Goddard took his godson to a Conan attraction and saw how much the child enjoyed it.

A 13 episode cartoon series was produced with an ongoing story arc and dark, apocalyptic tone. A reasonably mature series and maybe ahead of it's time. It failed to get a second season but did end with a finale that made the series feel complete. 

Marvel comics produced a four issue mini series that tied into the cartoon and an annual was also published in the UK featuring some UK exclusive comic strips inside.

A toyline consisting of 8 figures was released by Playmates who were riding high on the success of their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line but looking for a replacement after the failure of the Toxic Crusaders line and with the Turtles popularity starting to decline. All five of the main Skeleton Warriors were produced but only three of the four heroic human leads were made into toys. Talyn the token female however was left out, much like female characters in other cartoon toylines such as Visionaries and Bucky O'Hare. A second wave of Skeleton Warriors figures were revealed as prototypes along with a giant skeleton dragon but unfortunately never saw the light of day.

The toy boxes featured beautiful artwork very reminiscent of the 80s Masters of the Universe packaging. An obvious inspiration after Gary Goddard worked on the Masters movie.

NECA Toony Terrors vs Scooby Doo. The Lost Mysteries

 NECAs Toony Terrors line of figures seem influenced by the art work of ibtrav who meshed classic horror villains into the Scooby Doo style to show us the 'lost mysteries' of mystery inc.

 Though slightly taller than the Scooby Doo action figure line the Toony Terrors do still gel pretty well on display with them.

Indominus Rex Jurassic World Mattel

Toy Story 4 Mattel 7 Inch Figures

Mattel have released a fantastic line of 7 inch figures based on the characters appearing in Toy Story 4. Looking like they have been taken straight from the screen these figures feature a good range of detail and articulation that will please older collectors as well as being play friendly for children.

Action figures for the previous three films have all been the 5 inch scale so hopefully Mattel will gradually expand the new 7 inch line to include characters from older films in the franchise such as Zurg and Lotsos gang from Toy Story 3.

It would also be great to finally get some decent action figures based on the Battlesaurs from Toy Story That Time Forgot. The figures released for that line in 2015 were only 4 inches tall so didn't even fit scale wise with Mattels previous toy Story figures from the third movie. So much wasted potential as the Battlesaurs were given great designs in the movie short that would appeal to 80s kids who loved Thundercats, He-man and Skeleton Warriors. 

Mattel have really improved upon their efforts from Toy Story 3 and Toy Story That Time Forgot. The third movie figures looked good but had minimal articulation and the Toy Story The Time Forgot figures were quite small and cheap, wasting the potential of the designs. Much like Mattels Jurassic World toyline they really seem to be putting the effort in now to create good quality toys that will appeal to adult collectors and children alike with great sculpts and articulation at a decent size too.

I'd also love to see the inclusion of characters from the nigh on forgotten and underrated Buzz Lightyear of Star Command series. 

Mars Attacks Toys and Action Figures

Over the years Mars Attacks has had a few different action figure lines based on the property. The most well known being the Trendmasters line from 1996 that tied in to the Tim Burton movie and was based on the films designs. The was followed up by a wave of Martians based on the 90s Topps comic book designs which were far more EXTREME!!!! with viscious looking fang filled faces, overly muscular bodies and dynamic yet hard to stand poses.
Mezco produced a figure based on the original Topps trading card art work which is at a more adult collector standard to fit in with the likes of NECA toys.

Mars Attacks has also had multiple comic books published over the years. The 90s Topps comic which featured far different designs to try to appeal more to a 90s audience. The in the 2010s IDW picked up the license and gave us comics based far more on the original art and concept. Most recently Dynamite comics has launched their Mars Attacks comic book also using the iconic original designs. 

If it's not Jurassic Park, it's extinct!

G I Joe Rise of Cobra and Retaliation Figures

The Joe line up from the G I Joe movie universe of Rise of Cobra and Retaliation. Duke, Roadblock, Flint, Snake Eyes, Scarlett, Lady Jaye, Ripcord and Heavy Duty.
Though many Joe collectors favor the vintage figures, the quality of the line was at it's highest during the movie period. A higher level of articulation and great sculpting from computer scans of the actors faces make for some great looking figures.

G I Joe Rise of Cobra and Retaliation figures.

 

                        Heavy Duty and Roadblock from the G.I Joe movie universe toylines.

                                  Duke and Ripcord from the G.I Joe Rise of Cobra toyline.

Bucky O'Hare

Bucky O'Hare is the captain of the Righteous Indignation along with his crew mates Jenny the cat, Deadeye Duck, Blinky the android and Bruiser the Betelgeusian Berserker Baboon. Together with other allies such as Commander Dogstar and Willy Duwitt they battle the evil Toad Empire who seek to rule the aniverse.

 Bucky began life in 1978, created by Larry Hama of G.I Joe fame but wasn't published until 1984 in Neal Adams Echo of Future Past comic, later to be reprinted in it's own 5 issue mini series to tie in with the cartoon and toyline of 1991.
A UK comic was also released at that time, reprinting the 5 US comics and then continuing the story with original UK material for another 15 issues.

The animated series titled Bucky O'Hare and The Toad Wars which aired in 1991 only lasted 13 episodes before being cancelled. The first two episodes are heavily based on the original 5 issue comic run. So far it has not had a US DVD release though the UK got the complete series.

The cartoon series was of course created to advertise the toyline that consisted of ten characters along with a few vehicles. In this first and only wave we saw Bucky, Deadeye, Bruiser, Blinky, Willy, Commander Dogstar, Toadborg, Al Negator, the Toad Air Marshall and a Toad Stormtrooper released. Noticably absent is Jenny, the final member of Bucky's crew who would have seen release in a planned second wave. Unfortunately with the first wave toy sales not meeting expectation, the second wave was cancelled.

However, in early 2018 Boss Fight Studio released the first two figures in a new line of Bucky O'Hare toys. To scale with the original toyline but featuring modern articulation and highly detailed sculpts based on the original comic art. The first wave consisting of Bucky himself and Jenny! So long time fans can finally complete the crew of the Righteous Indignation. Wave two will add Deadeye to the line up while wave 3 will include an updated Toad Storm Trooper.