We Had That

Comic Action Heroes presents The Joker! (Mego, 1976) In the 1970s, Mego brought many of our favorite comic book characters to life with their 8" World's Greatest Super Heroes line.  Since they were having so much success, they decided to branch out into other scales as well.  One of their lines of Super Heroes was the smaller scale Comic Action Heroes line which gave Mego the ability to offer a variety of vehicles and playsets that would have been too large for the 8" scale.  I've seen copyright dates for both 1975 and 1976 for these figures, but from what I understand, their actual first release was in 1976.  The figures continued through 1977 and were given new, straight legs in 1978 and re-branded as "Pocket Superheroes." Two pages from the Mego 1976 mini catalog packaged with the toys I thought these guys were great!  I know as a kid I had Batman, Robin, 2 slightly different Superman figures, Shazam, and Aquaman (the only one of my originals that I still...

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Twiki (Mego, 1979) When the Kenner Star Wars figures first came out in the late 1970s, they sold so well that many other toy companies wanted in on the game.  Action figures for a wide variety of movies and TV shows started arriving at toy stores across the country with each manufacturer hoping that they had the "next big thing" on their hands.  It seemed like Science Fiction was an especially popular genre to gamble on and in 1979, when the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century movie was in the works, Mego acquired the license to manufacture the accompanying action figures Twiki outside of the city (Mego, 1979) The figures didn't sell terribly well and the single wave that was released only consisted of 9 figures, which actually isn't that bad when you consider how many toy lines had only around 4 characters back then!  Regardless, I thought they were pretty cool!  They had more points of articulation than Star Wars figures and several coo...

Imperial Stormtrooper (Hoth Battle Gear) (Kenner, 1980) Just like most kids in the USA and Canada at the time, I loved Kenner's Star Wars figures!  From the first time I saw them, I thought they were the coolest toys ever!  When The Empire Strikes Back action figures were arriving in stores in early 1980, I was probably at the height of my love of Star Wars and I was very excited about having new figures for the first time in over a year! 10 NEW Kenner Star Wars figures for 1980! Seeing The Empire Strikes Back in the theater was an awesome experience for me!  I thought it was an amazing movie with all kinds of cool characters and great, new adventures for the heroes that I loved from the first movie.  My favorite scenes were the ones that took place on the ice planet Hoth.  Obviously, being a huge fan of the movie and loving the action figures, I wanted every single Star Wars figure that Kenner released, but the figures from Hoth (plus the  Bespin Luke Skyw...

Vintage G.I. Joe "Swivel-Arm" Scarlett (Hasbro, 1983) In 1964, GI Joe became the first doll for boys...I mean "Action Figure."  Hasbro was extremely careful to make sure that GI Joe was never called a "doll" because in the 1960s, the idea of boys playing with dolls was 100% not ok.  The plan worked and throughout the 60s and 70s, GI Joe was a huge seller.  However, Hasbro did make a few missteps along the way.  One of the biggest was the Action Nurse released in 1967.  Apparently, it was ok for boys to play with male dolls if they were called "Action Figures," but no matter what you call it, a female "Action Figure" was still a doll in 1967.  Hasbro learned from their mistake and never released another female character for the GI Joe line for the rest of the 60s and 70s. "Swivel-Arm" Scarlett with her Crossbow With the relaunch of GI Joe in the 80s, Hasbro reluctantly included a female figure in the line and the character of S...

MegaConstrux Scareglow (2018) The original Masters of the Universe toys first came out in 1982.  Each year, new figures were introduced all the way through 1988.  The character "Scare Glow" was part of the sixth wave of figures which was the last full wave of figures that came out in 1987.  Scare Glow's gimmick, aside from being an awesome skeleton, was that he glowed in the dark.  As a kid, I never knew about him.  Apparently, a lot of people didn't know about him at the time and only discovered him when they returned to the line as adults.  Because Masters of the Universe was winding down by the sixth wave, not as many figures were produced and many of the figures from this wave are more difficult to find.  Scare Glow is one of the most difficult to find and because he is so cool, he's also in demand which means an original, vintage Scare Glow figure is very expensive these days. Scare Glow: The Evil Ghost of Skeletor! When the series was re-launched...

Cobra C.L.A.W. (Hasbro, 1984) When G.I. Joe re-launched in the 3 3/4" scale in 1982, I thought they were the most amazing toys that I had ever seen!  When I saw the first wave figures and toys on the shelves, I wanted every G.I. Joe piece that Hasbro made.  Waves two and three seemed just as appealing; although I have to admit that I didn't play much with the S.H.A.R.K. and the Deep Six figure sucked.  The G.I. Joe Slugger and Cobra A.S.P. didn't see much action at my house either.  But in 1984 the Cobra C.L.A.W. was a definitely "Must Have" vehicle for me!  It was one of the vehicles from wave 3 that I played with a good bit!   How many Cobra Troopers does it take to launch one of these things? The C.L.A.W. (or Covert Light Aerial Weapon) was a Cobra air vehicle that could either be piloted by a person or controlled remotely like a drone.  When piloted by a person, there wasn't much protection for the pilot...not that Cobra really cared much abou...

Power-Con Prince Adam (Super7, 2017) The Masters of the Universe Classics line started in 2008 and it's one of my favorite modern action figure lines.  Although there were a few quality issues throughout the line, the figures were overall well made and certainly had much better articulation than the vintage figures.  Just as importantly, the figures look so ridiculously cool!  A friend of mine told me that the Masters of the Universe Classics figures look in reality just like what the vintage figures looked through the filter of his imagination.  We weren't alone in thinking they were cool figures.  The line was very successful! Maybe THIS Prince Adam is good with a sword? In fact, the Classics line was so successful that it included new versions of all of the vintage Masters of the Universe figures as well as the Princess of Power line, many variant figures, and characters from the cartoon and mini-comics that were never released before.  One example that ...