Category: World’s Greatest Toys
The Original “Ralph Bakshi” Style MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE 1982 Animation?!
The Masters of the Universe were always one of my favorite action figures and animated series of the 1980s! I had soooo many of the toys and watched the show every day after school. The cartoon series was a lot of fun but I always wondered later in life what a darker grittier version of the show might look like?!
A lot of their original artwork had a sort of “Frazzeta/Vallejo” style to it. It looked pretty edgy and dark in that 70’s fantasy style. Here’s a few of my favorite images of the artwork that show the darker fantasy potential to He-man and the Masters of the Universe:
I recently saw this 1982 TV ad, apparently the first commercial of the toyline, it raised my eyebrows a bit. The animation style has a grittier feel and I wonder if this version of it was ever on the table for the animated series? It definitely feels like a bit more time or frames were used for these limited sequences. That’s not to say the animated series didn’t have it’s charm but it does have a lighter feel to it. Check it!
This version almost feels more in line with something like “Fire and Ice”, Ralph Bakshi’s iconic sword and sorcery animated epic. Whatever the case I really love that a glimpse into the darker side of The Masters of the Universe exists even if just in a short animated sequence in an early 80’s toy commercial…..Oh and becuz it rules so hard here’s the Fire & Ice trailer! The guy kinda has a “He-man” vibe to him huh?
Comic Cover of the Week: SHOCKWAVES of ’85!!!
One of the most memorable Marvel Comics covers of the 1980s oddly comes from the most unsuspecting title!! The Teansformers #5 is one of the best of the era hands down! It’s a brilliant work of iconic art by Mark Bright from 1985 that gave the series sn “edge”, transforming it from a mere kids toy property to a possibly gritty sci-fi series..A truly stunning example of how to execute comic book cover perfection….
Halloween Party Tips: How to Make a True MONSTER in the 70s!!
It’s time to take a spooky trip down memory lane! Not everyone is an artist but literally anyone can make a monster using using the Monster Maker Kit that was released way back in the late 1970s by Tomy! Yeah you could mash up a whole variety of creepy monster villains with this nifty toy, and as a kid I definitely made my fair share of them.
Interchange the head, the abdomen and the lower body to create some wild weirdos by rubbing your pencil over the top of your chosen creations. It was a ton of fun back in the day, though after. a short period you might discover it slightly redundant-but who gives a shit when you’re making monsters! So check out this sweet little blast from the past with this creepy forgotten little commercial, simpler spooky times must NEVER be forgotten!
Weird Ass Action Figures of the 1980’s: The Super Naturals!
One thing I love are those weird ass toys of the 70’s & 80’s many of them long forgotten by most. Today I was thinking about a strange action figure line called ‘The Supernaturals’. This bizarre gang of monster toys from 1987 had a gimmick, a spooky 3-D hologram sticker attached to their bodies, often times the heads and torso that really created an incredibly creepy unmistakable look for these action figures. These dudes were pretty damn awesome, each one came with a mini comic book that explained origins of the ghosty heroes and villains.
They also had glow in the dark hands and weapons just to make them even spookier when the lights went out as well as spooktacular vehicles they used in battle. I had a few of these as a kid, they were truly bizarre and that’s one of the main reasons why this toy line was so short lived. Luckily someone was kind enough to upload these old commercials of them so they can truly live on forever!!!
STINKOR: The Smelliest Action Figure of All Time!!
Here’s a great old retro commercial from The Masters of the Universe featuring one of my favorite action figures Stinkor!
Yep there was a He-man villain that was a man sized skunk and the action figure did indeed stink! They basically took an older He-man figure, a villain called Mer-man who was a fish man and just repainted it like a damn skunk giving him Mekaneck’s battle armor!
Yeah as awesome as the He-man figures were they often times used the same body parts, swords, armor etc. and just cheaply created new characters.
As kids we didn’t care though we still ate that shit up anyway! So here’s a truly funny commercial that highlights this bizarre bad guy check it out!
Forgotten Monsters: The 1960’s ‘Great Garloo’ Meets The 1990’s ‘Gorzak’!
I have to admit until today I’d never heard before of the legendary Great Garloo! Well now I come to find out he was the grooviest monster of the 1960’s! Yep this big green monster toy looked like cross between The Incredible Hulk and Fred Flintstone.
Sounds like a great guy to me personally and he was there to obey your every command as long as you had the batteries to keep him at bay. This here vintage commercial from 1961 shows just how bad ass he really was:
Um how awesome was that commercial?!
But wait there’s more…Let’s revisit another forgotten monster from 1990’s: Gorzak! First off I’m not sure who’s got a better name between the two, but damn Gorzak is one cool 90’s dude. Like the Great Garloo, Gorzak also obeys your commands and up until today I’d never heard of this guy either!
So if you’re a fan of old toys like me (and as a kid AND as an adult today I’m still crazy about monsters) it’s got me combingT Ebay looking to possibly track down these two guys to do my bidding in 2016! 😉 So check out this old Gorzak commercial from 1994:
The Krampus Movie of the 1950’s?!
So I’ve already raved about how much I loved Krampus by Michael Dougherty and I’ve bee so surprised that no one has come out with a Christmas movie about Krampus before the craze hit recently. However yesterday I saw an odd trailer for a movie supposedly from 1958 called Krampus- check this out:
So the question is, is this trailer legit? It seems a lot of websites out there claim this to be a lost trailer of movie which only print was destroyed years ago. After a little digging however it seems that this faux trailer was actually produced by Midnight Crew Studios. I had a feeling, but damn if that trailer wasn’t convincing upon the first watch!
Lastly there’s some cool new Krampus holiday figurines that have just been released from James Sizemore’s (The Demon’s Rook) company Wonder Goblin, they’re pretty awesome and can be purchased through the website for that Krampus fanatic in everyone’s life this year!
Vintage Star Trek Mego Action Figures! Plus the History of Mego!!
I was walking to work today and passed by a giant tree with a huge bulbous moss covered root system and all around it were a bunch of action figures set up, no kids there playing just the action figures hiding out. For a split second I was transported back to simpler times when I was a kid and the highlight of my life was playing with awesome action figures all day and running around outside trying to find the coolest places for them to adventure! Ahhh to be a kid, how wonderful it truly was.
Well I decided to check out some action figure commercials on Youtube and came across this awesome collection of Mego Star Trek Action Figures commercials. As I watched them I imagined all of the cool spots today that I could play with these guys. Check this out:
Yep, I played sooo much with Mego Action figures they were my favorite and so naturally i found it incredibly awesome that someone had mad a Youtube video about the history of Mego!! If you were as a big a fan as I was then this will be pretty interesting for you as well. There is a reason why they are still called the world’s greatest action figures!!
The Outer Space Men: Those Groovy 60’s Aliens!
Let’s take a second to look at some cool action figures way back from the 1960’s! The Outer Space Men by Colorforms!! You may know Colorforms better as those little plastic stickers of your fav cartoon characters you’d stick on and peel off the backgrounds way back when. But Colorforms also put out these totally radical bendy alien action figures as well!
They had kick ass names too like Commander Comet, Xodiac, Colossus Rex, Electron+, Astro-Nautilus, Alpha 7 & Orbitron. They wasn’t much to their backstory just a gang of groovy aliens you could collect and play with all day, unfortunately I wasn’t born yet when the hit the stands and the chances of finding one in good shape of the original series is pretty slim. Also the bendy figures with the wire inside them had a limit to their lives normally, you’d often break the wires and get a bunch of limp wristed bad asses- not a good combo!
Power Lords Vintage TV Ad! The Coolest Action Figures of the 1980’s?!
I’ve raved here before about The Power Lords action figures from the 1980’s, they were probably some of the most bizarre action figures of that decade and that’s exactly why I needed them all!! Finally someone thankfully uploaded one of the vintage TV commercials that got me all revved up as a kid and I’m starting to think I need to hunt all these down again for myself! The Power Lords weren’t very well known and that’s probably because these action figures were creepy as fuck!
As a kid even I was a little off put by them in the best way possible-I mean the hero of the power lords is Adam Power a decent looking gentleman until he turns into a blue skinned, black eyed, veiny super powered weirdo!! Check out these classic adds, I’ve gotta say I love that animated sequence it opens with, if only they had a full on animated show back then!! Damn!
Now THAT’S what I call some cool action figures!! I must admit I had He-man go up against the Power Lords many times and Adam Power always won, then of course they teamed up and took on Skeletor & Griptogg!! Check out this awesome video to get a full on look at how cool the Power Lords mythos really was!!
It’s really no surprise that The Power Lords were created by Wayne Barlowe who gained a cult following for his book “Barlow’s Guide to Extraterrestrials” way back in 1979. It contains his visualizations of different extraterrestrial life forms from various works of science fiction, with information on their planetary location or range, biology, and behaviors, in the style of a real field guide for animals, such as Roger Tory Peterson’s guide to birds of North America. I may have to hunt down this book too while I am at it!! Barlow has also worked on creature designs for movies like Pacific Rim, Blade II, Both Hellboy movies, Avatar & The Hobbit!
Universal Dork 