A Decade at the Super-DuperToyBox

It's hard for me to believe ten years went by so fast, but a decade ago today was my first post on the Super-DuperToyBox. In the summer of 2010 I was selling old toys on E-Bay, and soon found a listing for the 15" Kenner Darth Vader I had as a child. I bought him with the money I earned selling some of my wares, soon finding other toys that brought back childhood memories. Mattel's 8" D.C. Retro Action figures caught my eye quickly,  tapping my nostalgia for the old Mego World's Greatest Heroes line from the 70's. Shortly thereafter I discovered the 90's line of  Marvel Famous Covers 9" figures by ToyBiz that featured cloth outfits much like the old Megos. Before I knew it, I had bought more action figures and a glass curio case to hold them all. I became consumed!

Above: Table full of action figures I had collected in just the first couple months of toy blogging. (December 2010)

Along the way I befriended many a toy blogger I know to this day, and while many have abandoned this platform in favor of Instagram and YouTube, I keep the light on here. I like the long form personally, and after nearly 1,000 posts and well over 1.6 million page views, it's become a thing I'm somewhat proud of, visited by people worldwide every day. Cheers!

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More To Come- Make It FUN!

Marvel Universe Dr. Doom

As Jcee requested, we will now open up the Marvel Universe Doom I picked up Thursday. When Mario mentioned picking up a single Marvel Universe Dr. Doom on the last Articulated Monster podcast, my ears perked up. Previously released only in the Secret Wars/comics two-packs, I had seen Doom on the pegs more than twice, but passed on him. Lo & behold, there was a single packed Doom on the pegs on Thursday, along with some other very cool fresh stock.

There are a lot of good things to say about this action figure- the sculpt is great, including the great cloth texture on the tunic and cape. As Mario pointed out, this single carded Doom is a more subdued green than the Secret Wars/comics two-packs version. He has double jointed knees, as well as swivel AND hinge joints on his ankles. And the details on his armor are sculpted AND painted. Doom's cape is also removable...

While his hooded pate sports only a cut joint, the painted details in the eyes & mouth of his mask really give Doom a lot of personality up close...

What I don't like is the the somewhat loose joints in this figure, but any consistency with this issue in a mass produced figure has got to be difficult to achieve. More annoying is the lack of pistol in this package, and further insulting is the right hand molded in firing pose! Hello?? Skaar & WW Hulk, both with accessories and twice the mass of this figure retailed at the same price, Hasbro! And the Skrull Soldier had TWO guns- what gives? FAIL!

Still, this is a pretty cool likeness of the villain Canadian Cal said had a worse success rate than Cobra Commander, who couldn't (laughs) take over an ant hill  :D  Like Cal, I find this irresistible about Doom- he could take over the world, but always fails. This put a funny scene in my head- the Fantastic Four rolling their eyes, groaning in the background while Doom spouts out an exasperated soliloquy, detailing a final, glorious, & deserved victory over the universe. :D

Double Doomed: Marvel Universe Dr. Doom with my childhood Secret Wars Dr. Doom... they gave HIM a weapon...

Time for a group shot!

From left to right: Marvel Select Dr. Doom by Diamond Select Toys (still boxed- bought for $12.95!), Marvel Universe Dr. Doom by Hasbro, Famous Covers Dr. Doom by ToyBiz, Secret Wars Dr. Doom by Mattel, Issue #10 of Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars (Feb. 1985).

*Mattel Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars Action Figure Archive!
*The Latverian Embassy!
*Marvel Legends Dr. Doom review at OAFE.Net!

Toys From My Childhood: Masters of The Universe

My brother & I had an impressive collection of Masters of The Universe toys back in the early 80's. It's sad to see there isn't much left of them, but it's only because they were really played with by us and then the neices and nephew, and whoever other friend's children came around after we had moved out. And that makes me happy :)

BattleCat was awesome- he had no articulation, but the sculpt is great! Mine has the tip of the tail snapped off, and his armor has some fading/discoloration. He was definitely played with. His gnarly coloring & armor design is proof at how trippy this toy line was!

 

The beefy blue guy atop BattleCat isn't He-Man- that's Faker, He-Man's "evil twin", created by his arch nemesis Skeletor! He outlived both my He-Man figures  :D  He didn't have blue skin or funky orange armor in the single episode of the animated 80's television show by Filmation in which he appeared.

Man-E-Faces was an example of some of the fun , imaginative character design with this toy line, with the ability to change his faces from a human face to a monster face to a robot face by twisting the dial atop his head...

Next up is my favorite of these- Jitsu, who like Faker, appeared only once in the cartoon, and with no character development at all. According to Wikipedia, his name was "Chopper" in the script, but he was never called by name, nor did he have his famous golden hand...

I always liked this toy because I could remove the hand  :D

Mattel is making a killing off the new Masters of the Universe Classics, which looks totally awesome... and somewhat expensive. And if you miss out on MattyCollector's release of these, you will pay even more on the secondary market, many single figures running from $40.00- $60.00 each! People are going bonkers for them! In the 80's they were a BIG deal, too- we had many of the figures, a few of the vehicles, and even a Castle Greyskull playset. They were FUN toys that bring back good memories!

*He-Man.Org... the name says it all

*Check out more vintage Masters of The Universe at ToyArchive.Com!

The Stranger

Here's my submission for the ChunkyB's Cantina Crawl pics!

"The Stranger"
I waited until the last minute on Chunky B's assignment, of course, and started assembling a makeshift cantina on the fly when I got home from band practice at 10:30pm on Tuesday night. Everything was going okay, but nothing really exciting was happening until I saw Martian Manhunter up on the shelf in my toy vault. My favorite alien! He was grossly out of scale with my vintage Star Wars figures, but when I put him into my little diorama, something  kinda fun happened. It looked so (laughs) ridiculous that it worked :D  I was really proud that Chunky said it was his favorite, because as usual everyone did a great job! I love doing this with everyone- Thanks ChunkyB!

And now some outtakes from my photo session:

Use Your IMAGINATION To Make It FUN!

Show Me The Droids!

In addition to compliance with the recent 28 Day Challenge, ChunkyB also used his Jedi mind trick to convince several of us bloggers to photograph some of our favorite robot toys for a post at Eclectorama called Show Me The Droids! (how does he DO THAT??). My childhood stash of Star Wars figures were safely tucked away in my Darth Vader carrying case at Mum's, where they have resided for over for over twenty-five years. My brother & I destroyed a lot of Star Wars toys back in the day, including but not limited to: 1 Death Star playset, 1 Droid Factory playset, 1 Millennium Falcon, 1 X-Wing Fighter, 1 Darth Vader Tie Fighter, 1 Landspeeder, at least 2 Micro Collection playsets, and God knows what else escapes my memory... wouldn't I love to have those in mint condition today. But as my dear Mum says, we played with them. And we did have a lot of fun, especially with our Kenner Star Wars toys!

So in taking some shots of the few remaining droids that survived my childhood, I popped a few more- take a look...

Imperials with bounty hunters...

Jabba's Royal entourage...

Ewoks of Endor...

I have more,  too- including an original Hammerhead, Walrusman, and Chewbacca from 1978, as well as some Hoth characters. The case was packed! Some of you have some serious Star Wars swag, but I have very little really- the fascination sort of fizzled after childhood. However, the humble beginnings of this blog started with a 15" Kenner Darth Vader, so there ya go...!

*Action Figure of The Day is a blog I was looking at for a long time before getting back into toys this past year... great fun, full of Star Wars goodness!

Batman Returns Poster, 1992

This past Thanksgiving I found a few treasured relics from playtime past, including some vintage Master of The Universe and Raiders of The Lost Ark action figures, a vintage Marvel Secret Wars figure, an old Tron tabletop videogame, and this killer 1992 Batman Returns poster!

I finally got around to drymounting and framing it in black. The poster was still attached to the wall of my old bedroom with four white thumbtacks- I hadn't given it much thought since those days, until I recently started reading comics, collecting toys, and blogging. It was in pretty good shape and turned out beautifully, a gleaming glass & metal prize- I LOVE it! Though released in June of '92, my timing is perfect as the setting of Time Burton's dark masterpiece was Christmastime, the snow swept bat emblem bestowing a chilly, noir feel to the herald of Batman's $80 million return to the silver screen.

I really enjoyed this movie, and still believe it may have been better than the first, Danny DeVito not to be outdone by Jack Nicholson's Joker swagger in the previous film, and instead delivering a visceral performance as The Penguin. It's safe to say however, that Michelle Pfeiffer stole the show as Catwoman in the opinions of most- she turned in a sexy delivery tinged with a saucy good-girl-gone-nuts aura- Riveting!

I just scored the new 1:6 scale Movie Masters Chris Reeve Superman at MattyCollector.Com, and if Mattel would be so kind as to release a Michael Keaton Batman I would be most grateful!

*Batman Returns at Wikipedia.Com
*Warner Video Batman webpage
*Interesting Batman Returns styled 1:6 scale Catwoman at ToyHaven... where does he get all theose Wonderful Toys?

Tabletop Tron Video Game by TOMY, 1981

As mentioned in my previous post, I dug out some of the old toys that survived my childhood when I was visiting the folks over Thanksgiving weekend. One of these survivors was a tabletop Tron video game, produced by TOMY in 1981. I thought this would be a timely post due to the brouhaha surrounding the highly anticipated 2010 Tron: Legacy motion picture coming out in December. My younger brother played with this the most, beating all of the levels of difficulty it offered quite easily- he was a smart cookie, that boy! Released at the height of the video game craze, this simple game was a relatively advanced toy for it's time. My brother and I were feeding quarters to the machines at the local arcade regularly in the early 80's, so this was right up our alley.

There are three levels on the game:
1.) The lightcycle game- Tron (you) tries to cut off the Sark light cycle path before he cuts off your path. You get four tries.
2.) The ring game- Tron and Sark pass the ring back and forth until one misses his catch, much like a game of frisbee. Again, you get four tries.
3.) The MCP game- Tron (you) must throw his disc through the MCP barrier that's moving up and down around it- a simple game of timing.

All these levels get faster each time you master them, until you achieve 2,000 points when you gain an additional Tron for each level (5 total). The highest possible score is 15,995 points to completely master the game.

The game is powered by four "C" batteries, but can also be powered by a 7.5 volt AC adapter. I don't remember if the game came with an adapter, but I was lucky enough to have a roommate that has a bunch of spares. He had to reverse the polarity in the adapter's wiring however, as most modern adapters now run on positive polarity as opposed to negative. We plugged in the modified adapter and the game came on and played just fine! A special thanks to my pal Mike, one of my biggest supporters- he's always enthusiastic and a good sport about my growing piles of toys all over our apartment! And because of Mike's electrical knowledge, this fun game came back to life! Hooray!

-TOMY Tron on HandHeldMuseum.Com
-TOMY Tron on RetroThing.Com
-New Tron: Legacy Impulse Projection action figures at Nostalgic G- COOL!
-Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece Series 1:6 scale Sam Flynn Collectible Figure with Light Cycle from the Tron: Legacy movie at ToyHaven!

Mattel Kraken, 1981

I managed to dig out some old toys from my childhood over Thanksgiving weekend at Mom & Dad's- a lot of the toys we had were destroyed or lost because, well... we played with them. We had some fun stuff back then- Lord knows I'd love to see all those toys new again!

When Clash of The Titans came out in 1981 I was nine years old, and was really into knights, swordplay, dragons, and the like. My little friends and I would wage war against one another with crudely fashioned, homemade weapons in the backyard or at the creek on the edge of town, lost for hours in our play, lost in our imagination. Those were fun days! The Christmas after the movie came out, we got the Perseus, Charon, Thallo, Calibos, and the very cool and now rare 15" Kraken!

Mattel had planned to release a second wave of toys for this line, including a playset for Calibos' Lair. Unfortunately this didn't come to fruition, eclipsed perhaps by the merchandising phenomenon of the Star Wars toy line by Kenner, in full swing at the time.

Depicted as a giant squid in 19th century literature, the great special effects artist Ray Harryhausen reimagined the creature as a four-armed, reptilian monster for Clash of The Titans.

I have no idea how this totally awesome toy survived my childhood, how we had not managed to break off one of his four arms, two front flippers, or lose his removable tail. Mattel either made a really durable toy or we some how held the sea monster in higher regard than some of our other toys.

I've yet to see the 2010 remake of Clash of The Titans, but I would be willing to- while I'm sure the new special effects would eclipse Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion photography and "dynamation" technology, as a child I was fascinated by the 1981 version.

*Take a closer look at Mattel's Clash of the Titans toys at Action Figure Archive!

I hope you have been able to hold on to some of the joy and imagination from YOUR childhood- maybe this blog is helping you do just that, as it has for myself. I personally believe it's healthy to enjoy toys, especially if you are an adult- we love toys because they are FUN!  Do yourself a favor and take a peek at some of the "Blogs of Note" on the sidebar of this blog- these like-minded people bring me a lot of happiness, inspiration, and laughter. And friends, that is both rare and beautiful- it's something the world really needs, perhaps more now than ever. I want you to remember:

-You deserve to be happy- don't ever let anyone tell you any different!

-Help others achieve happiness whenever you can, they deserve it, too :)

-Play with TOYS and have FUN with your life!

Hello there...

This is my first post on this Super Duper Toy Box- it's funny that it came to this so quickly, let me explain...
This summer I decided to sell some old toys I had on E-Bay, and soon began poking around some of the merchandise in order to find out what I had was worth when I found him... my long-lost 15" Kenner Darth Vader Doll for $20.00.  I bought him with the money I earned from selling some of my wares. He was in really good condition and complete minus his lightsaber, which I found a replacement (reproduction) for on Ebay as well for $10.00. Not bad.

I then found about some other toys that brought back some childhood memories, namely Mattel's 8" D.C. Retro Action action figures, that reminded me of the old Mego World's Greatest Heroes line from the 70's- an old favorite! I bought two on Amazon.com, then four more. After that I discovered the 90's line of Marvel Famous Covers 9" figures by ToyBiz that featured cloth outfits much like the old Megos- I bought fifteen of them within two weeks.  Before I knew it, I had bought some MORE action figures by other manufacturers, and a glass curio case to hold them all is on the way as we speak, and I guess I just became consumed... I had even began keeping up with action figure blogs!

I 'll post pictures of these toys in future blog posts on Super Duper Toy Box, share some thoughts on them, and we'll see where this all goes. And for my first observation, the one that started it all...

I was chatting with my pal Darrell about a 7th grade picture of his, and how MY 7th grade picture featured an insecure kid who wouldn’t smile because of the braces in his mouth. And I went on to say that if I could go back in time and talk to that boy, I’d tell him everything was gonna work out, that he’d be OK. Darrell went on to say that Dr. John Bradshaw’s book "Homecoming--Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child" suggests doing exactly that: go back into your memories and telling "little you" that it's going to be OK. And Darrell believes some kind of deep level healing like that would keep society from having so many angry children walking around in adult bodies. I like that idea.
     When my brother and I were kids, we LOVED Star Wars, and collected/played with all the George Lucas merchandise we could get our hands on. And played with them we did- some of it didn’t survive, including Kenner’s large-scale Star Wars figures, of which we had at least three if my memory serves me correctly: Boba Fett, Chewbacca, and Darth Vader. Not a trace of them was left among the toys up in my mother’s storage closet- Lord only knows their fate, but as mother says, we actually played with those toys. We probably destroyed them! Ha! When I stumbled across my favorite, Darth Vader, in decent condition, I snapped him up for $20.00. He probably cost almost that much in 1978, and I’ve seen him recently for $75.00 complete, mint (but without the box). The 15” Vader I purchased came without his lightsaber, but I was able to get my hands on a replica for ten bucks. He was a little dusty with some light scuffs on his helmet when he arrived, but his cape was in excellent condition and he cleaned up nicely. I was extremely pleased!
     Darth Vader is so interesting in that he is a symbol of lost innocence, and how such promising beginnings can go so very wrong. Inside all of us is the ability to do such great things as well as very terrible things- and so many factors are at play, making it a miracle that there ARE so many good people. I went back in time when I saw that silly thing- I went and won that back for that good little boy in me. He deserved it.

...some other fun shots I took of Vader: