We Had That

  G.I. Joe's enemy: Cobra Communications Specialist "Tele-Viper" (Hasbro, 1985) When Hasbro first introduced G.I. Joe as a 3 3/4" "Real American Hero" in 1982, I fit their target audience 100%. I wanted all of the toys, I read the comic books, I watched cartoons and got excited when there was a commercial for GI Joe.  By 1985, I had a nice collection of Joes and Cobras who shot, punched, kicked, stabbed, and blew each other up pretty much daily.  When I saw my first wave-four figure in the toy store (It was Footloose, by the way), I looked at the back of his card and saw so many cool characters that I couldn't wait to find them!  Some of the most exciting were: The Dreadnoks, Snow Serpents, Crimson Guard, a new Snake Eyes figure with a sword and a wolf!?  The Tele-vipers, honestly, had some pretty serious competition for my very-few dollars.  The stars never aligned and I never brought home a Cobra Communications figure. Cobra Tele-Viper in the field Al...

  Buck Rogers Emperor Draco action figure (Mego, 1979) The unexpected, massive success of Star Wars in 1977 led to huge surge of Science Fiction movies, TV shows, and books.  Along with the popularity of the movie, Kenner's 3 3/4" Star Wars figures had quickly become the most in-demand toy of the late 70s.  Toy manufacturers scrambled to get a piece of the SciFi pie.  Mego, who had missed out on the licence for Star Wars didn't want to make the same mistake twice, so they seemed to jump on any license that came their way, Science Fiction or otherwise.  They ended up making action figures for everything from The Black Hole and Star Trek: The Motion Picture to The Dukes of Hazzard and CHiPs and even The Love Boat!  It was around this time that Mego was offered the license to manufacture toys for the re-boot of the Buck Rogers franchise. Mego 3 3/4" Draco with his Draconian Guards Although the toys for Buck Rogers in the 25th Century didn't achieve the popular...

Flash Gordon "Beastman" action figure (Mattel, 1980) In the late 1970s, a producer named Lou Scheimer got the rights to make a movie of the old 1930s comic strip character, Flash Gordon.  Since the amazing success of the movie Star Wars in 1977, science fiction was extremely popular at the time and Scheimer was able to convince NBC to back a live action Flash Gordon for prime-time.  Unfortunately, it would have cost too much to film what he wanted to shoot, so he reluctantly went back to NBC with the idea of switching to an animated format instead of live action.  NBC agreed and Filmation was brought on board to make the cartoon. Beastman poses beside the 1979 Flash Gordon card back Star Wars action figures had made so much money for George Lucas and Kenner that I would imagine once the cartoon was underway, it wasn't very difficult to set up a deal with Mattel to make a line of Flash Gordon action figures in scale with the Star Wars toys.  In 1979, the first four Fl...