We Had That

  Han Solo in Hoth Outfit Kenner 1980 Just like most boys I knew growing up in the early 1980s, I loved Kenner's Star Wars figures.  I absolutely loved the movie Star Wars and the release of The Empire Strikes Back in early 1980 was a very big deal to me.  Some of my favorite scenes were on the ice planet Hoth.  With that in mind, it should be no surprise that when the first ten figures arrived for The Empire Strikes Back, the Hoth themed figures were some of my favorites.  Since I was a fan of Han Solo, getting a figure of Han in his Hoth outfit was amazingly cool! Han Solo out on patrol on the ice planet Hoth! I would have been happy to get any new figure of Han Solo back then and I would have been excited about any figure from Hoth, but even if I'd never seen The Empire Strikes Back and even if I didn't know who Han Solo was, I think I still would have liked this figure just because I thought he looked so cool.  If I'd gotten him a couple of years later,...

G.I. Joe's enemy: Cobra Frogman "Eels" (Hasbro, 1985) 1985 was an awesome year for GI Joe!  Hasbro gave us some of the best bad guys of the entire Real American Hero run with The Crimson Guard, Snow Serpents, and the first three Dreadnoks!  Even with all of those awesome new characters from Hasbro, the Cobra Eel was definitely one of the figures that caught my eye right from the first time I saw the new figures pictured on the back of my Footloose card!  Just from that tiny picture, I knew I wanted to add this guy to my Cobra team. Cobra Eel: Ready for Action! At that point, we didn't have many underwater figures.  Torpedo was a great figure from wave 2, but my Deep Six figure who came out in wave 3 spent most of his time living in a shoe box and rarely saw any action at all.  Torpedo needed someone to fight against and the Cobra Eels fit that role perfectly! GI Joe: Cobra Eels file card According to their file cards, the Eels are Cobra's demolition experts....

Steel Monsters: Metal Face (Tonka, 1986) With the release of Kenner's Star Wars figures in the late 1970s, the 3 3/4" action figures format became the industry standard for several years.  By 1986, it seemed like that was changing more and more.  Masters of the Universe had already had a hugely successful run with their larger scale figures and Kenner was wrapping up their awesome Super Powers line of slightly larger than 3 3/4" figures of our favorite DC characters that started in 1984.  Kenner was also on their second wave of the M.A.S.K. line of 2" figures.  Even though GI Joe was still one of the top toy lines in 1986 with their highly articulated 3 3/4" line of Real American Heroes, we were seeing a lot of other lines that featured taller figures such as Rambo, Inhumanoids, Chuck Noris Karate Kommandos, The Karate Kid, Sectaurs, and Marshall Bravestarr.  So it seemed a little behind-the-times when Tonka released the 3 3/4" Steel Monsters figures with 5...

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 w...

  GI Joe Outback action figure (Hasbro, 1987) When GI Joe was re-born as a 3 3/4" action figure under the "Real American Hero" banner in 1982, I was immediately on board!  Each year, a new wave of figures and vehicles was released. For the first several years, I was a huge fan who wanted everything that Hasbro offered!  But as the years went on, Hasbro began to stray from the original concept.  The GI Joe team had originally been made up of the military elite, but with each subsequent wave, more and more figures were showing up who didn't feel very "military" to me.  I didn't mind the crazy Cobra outfits as much since they were a terrorist organization, but I thought guys involved with the US Military should look a certain way. Outback on patrol with all his gear! To me, it felt like 1987 was the crossover year for the GI Joe team.  About half of the guys looked great.  Falcon, in particular, was one of the most military-looking Joes of the entire run....

Raiders of the Lost Ark - German Mechanic (Kenner, 1983) Egypt, 1936: Indiana Jones has had a rough day.  He and Marion were just trapped in the Well of Souls with hundreds of snakes.  After managing to escape, he tries to take the airplane that's scheduled to transport the Ark when he's noticed by a mechanic wielding a huge wrench.  After successfully knocking out the 1st mechanic, a 2nd bigger & stronger mechanic (who witnessed the fight) approaches Indy and the biggest fight scene in the entire movie ensues!  Of course this fight scene is memorable enough that the German Mechanic was made into an action figure as part of "The Adventures of Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark" toy line!  As a side note, I'm pretty sure these figures hold the record for longest title of any toy line ...ever! German Mechanic from Raiders of the Lost Ark Raiders of the Lost Ark was the highest grossing film of 1981 and kids loved it!  Since Kenner's 3.75" Star War...

Princess Leia Organa in her Boushh disguise (Kenner, 1983) From 1978 until 1982, I spent the vast majority of my free time playing with Star Wars figures.  I rarely acted out scenes from the movie and instead created all kinds of new adventures for these awesome characters.  At some point in 1982, I got my first GI Joe figures and my attention was split between the two toy lines, but when figures started arriving for Return of the Jedi in 1983, I was excited about Star Wars again in anticipation of the new movie!  Before I ever saw Return of the Jedi, I got my first new figure (General Madine) and scoured the package for any clues about the next installment of my favorite film franchise. Princess Leia or is this Boushh? Another of the earliest figures from the upcoming movie to join my ranks was Princess Leia in her Boushh disguise.  The figure and the photo on the package intrigued me.  I couldn't even imagine what strange and bizarre stories could lead Leia to...