We Had That

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...

  Star Wars Nikto action figure (Kenner, 1984) Just like most of the boys I knew in the early 80s, I was a huge Star Wars fan!  Kenner's action figures from Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back were easily my favorite toys during the late 70s and early 80s.  There for a while, I'm pretty sure I had every Star Wars figure that Kenner released!  I spent hours creating adventures for these amazing action figures!  In 1982, the GI Joe "Real American Hero" line started showing up in toy stores and my interest became divided between GI Joe and Star Wars with GI Joe probably getting more of my attention because they were new and therefore more exciting at the time. My childhood Nikto action figure Still, when the first figures for Return of the Jedi started showing up in 1983, before I had even seen the movie, that got my attention and Star Wars was on my mind again.  Seeing the new figures and the photographs on the packages made me speculate about the upcoming ...

Masters of the Universe "Eternia Minis" (Mattel, 2020) Way back in 2014, Mattel released a series of Masters of the Universe mini figures.  They were sold in 2-packs and each pair came with a different piece of Castle Grayskull so if you bought all 6 packs, you could put together the castle!  I thought they were great, but they didn't sell all that well and ended up on clearance.  Fast forward to 2020, Mattel is trying again and this time, it seems like they're a hit! Original Masters of the Universe Minis 2-Packs from 2014 I'm glad they're back!  Even though those 2-packs offered my favorite figures, it's nice to be able to add more characters to my collection!  Also, although the 2014 figures may be better in the eyes of some collectors, I actually really like the bright colors of the new figures.  Sure, maybe the paint applications on the 2014 figures was a little better than on the new ones and many of the 2014 figures came with 2 accessories rathe...

Vultura from the "Golden Girl and the Guardians of the Gemstones" line (Galoob, 1984) Mattel had phenomenal success with their Masters of the Universe line starting in 1982.  In 1984,  Galoob's sword and sorcery line 'Golden Girl and the Guardians of the Gemstones' was released to serve as a companion series to The Masters of the Universe, but targeted towards girls.  Mattel's own "She-Ra" line would serve essentially the same purpose shortly after and, in the long run, achieve much more success.  However, despite Mattel's application for the She-Ra trademark being filed about a week before Galoob's application for the Golden Girl trademark (She-Ra trademark filed on Oct. 23, 1984 vs. Golden Girl trademark filed on Nov. 2, 1984), Golden Girl was able to beat She-Ra to the stores. Teela (Mattel, 1982) - Vultura (Galoob, 1984) - She-Ra (Mattel, 1985) At about 6" tall, the Golden Girl figures were slightly taller than the female Masters of ...

Phantom Starkiller: The Cosmic Ghoul Warrior! Near the end of 2019, I picked up a few random Super7 ReAction figures which included an awesome yet mysterious green, skeletal creature.  After some quick research, I learned that he was called Phantom Starkiller!  At the time, I didn't look up much more than the name, but I did notice that there were several color variations of the figure.  Over the last few months, I had become more curious about this random mystery guy, so last week, I really started digging in and researching the history of this dude.  It turns out that the character first came into existence back in 2013 as a very limited run (25 pieces) custom figure created by Peter Goral under his "Killer Bootlegs" company. Phantom Starkiller (Super7 - 3rd Edition "Lich Green" 2019) In July of 2013, Killer Bootlegs released a San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) limited edition run of 25 "Phantom Starkiller: The Cosmic Space Ghoul Warrior" 3.75" action ...

Golden Girl and the Guardians of the Gemstones (Galoob, 1984) Mattel released the original Masters of the Universe toys in 1982.  Although they were popular upon their release, the final push that turned the franchise into one of the biggest in history was the Filmation cartoon "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" which debuted in September of 1983.  For the next few years, He-Man was absolutely unstoppable!  His popularity led to many imitators.  Other toy companies were manufacturing buff, squatting, almost nude 5.5" action figures in the sword & sorcery style that walked very close to the line of trademark infringement.  Because professional wrestling was also popular at the time and many of the wrestlers were running around in nothing but shorts and boots just like He-Man, there were also many different lines of wrestling action figures produced in a similar style as well.  It was really no surprise.  When 12" G.I. Joe was the top sell...

Marvel Comics and Mattel Toys team up for The Secret Wars! By 1984 Mattel had a hit with their Masters of the Universe toy line, but they were looking for the next big thing.  Mego, who had been making action figures of DC and Marvel characters throughout the 70s and early 80s, had gone out of business.  That meant the licenses for DC and Marvel were open to new toy possibilities.  Kenner ended up working with DC for their Super Powers action figure line and corresponding comic book series.  This left Marvel open to work with Mattel.  According to toy legend, a focus group determined that kids like the words "Secret" and "War," so the toy line and corresponding comic book series were called "Secret Wars." Mattel's 1984 Secret Wars Captain America Leads the Team! The Secret Wars comic book was a 12-issue mini-series written by Jim Shooter.  The basic premise is that a cosmic being takes a group of heroes and a group of villains, puts th...