Action Figure Overview: Buck Rogers - Killer Kane (Mego, 1979)
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| Buck Rogers: Killer Kane (Mego, 1979) |
As years pass from an event, the facts surrounding that event sometimes become less and less clear. I'm confident that the Buck Rogers 1979 movie / TV pilot was made because of the success of Star Wars, but I've read conflicting information about some of the details with Buck Rogers. We know that Mego acquired the license to manufacture the toys, but the circumstances surrounding the acquisition of that license are a little fuzzy. I have read that Mego picked up the license as a favor and didn't really have high expectations for the line, but I've also heard that they were willing to gamble on this line because Buck Rogers was a space-themed property with an existing track record. Maybe both are true. I've also heard that the figures sold well for Mego and I've heard that they sold poorly. I guess it's possible that some characters sold well while others didn't. Either way, kids who played with the figures were the real winners!
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| My childhood Mego Buck Rogers figures |
I had most of the figures in the line as a kid. Tiger Man didn't survive and he was one of my favorites. But these six figures are what remain of my childhood Buck Rogers collection: Twiki, Wilma Deering, Buck Rogers, a Draconian Guard, Killer Kane, and Draco. Each figure played a bit of a different roll in my childhood adventures, but today, I'm mainly talking about Killer Kane!
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| Killer Kane in the 1964 Buck Rogers comic book |
Kane first appeared in the Buck Rogers comic strip in the late 1920s where he lost the affections of Wilma Deering to Buck and became Buck's enemy. He continued to be a thorn in Buck's side a decade later in the serials as the leader of the bad guys, but didn't actually come in contact with Buck very often. He mostly just yelled at people from the safety of his base. By the 1960s, Killer Kane was more of a hands-on villain in the comic book. The version of Kane from the Buck Rogers movie (played by Henry Silva) and TV show (played by Michael Ansara) had a lower rank than he did in previous versions. In this version, the main bad guy who never actually came in contact with Buck Rogers was Emperor Draco. Kane was the commander of Draco's Draconian army and seemed to be the brains of the operation despite having to submit somewhat to the wishes of Emperor Draco's daughter, Princess Ardala.
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| Mego's Killer Kane action figure from all sides |
When the Buck Rogers line of figures was released, I thought they were neat. Star Wars figures were easily my favorites, but the Buck Rogers figures had more articulation than Star Wars figures, so you could pose them a lot better. Even though Killer Kane wasn't my favorite Buck Rogers figure (that honor belonged to Tiger Man), Kane ended up seeing a lot of action over the years! I threw my Buck Rogers figures in with other toy lines like Star Wars and GI Joe more than I played with them as "Buck Rogers" figures. They typically had the same names, but were completely different characters in each of their toy adventures. When GI Joe first came out, there weren't a lot of bad guys, so Killer Kane was sometimes the leader of my Cobra Troopers.
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| Killer Kane leading the Cobra troops! |
Ninjas were everywhere throughout the 1980s: video games, movies, toys, you name it. But in the early 80s, they hadn't quite risen to popularity yet. However, martial arts in general were popular among my friends thanks to the Bruce Lee movies that aired on TV on the weekends. As a kid, I thought my Killer Kane action figure had a face that looked like Bruce Lee (I can only barely see it now) and his clothes looked kind of like the clothes I'd see guys wearing in Bruce Lee movies. With a name like "Killer" Kane, he became my karate guy. At the time, all martial arts were just "karate" to me. When my Killer Kane action figure's thumb broke off, I decided it was because another guy bit it off in a fight, but Killer Kane still beat him! When I got a Cobra Commander figure, Killer Kane was no longer in charge, but he was still Cobra's karate guy...until an even cooler, official Cobra karate guy showed up!
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| Killer Kane: Master Fighter! |
Even though I was more of a fan of Star Wars than Buck Rogers and by the time GI Joe came out, I was more into military themes, I thought this line of figures was well worth having around. They mixed in with whatever adventures were going on, especially with the first wave of GI Joe. Overall, my Buck Rogers figures went on many adventures and I was glad to have the extra characters...particularly a karate guy like Killer Kane!
Did you have any of the Buck Rogers action figures as a kid? Do you collect them now? Which character was your favorite? Tell me in the comments!
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