And here's the Swordsman

A few weeks ago I posted three of the four Aussie Indiana Jones variant figures, and now thanks to regular contributor and Toltoys afficianado Brody Walker,  here is the last of the quartet; the Cairo Swordsman.

Cheers!

Will

  

More Kenner Indy Goodness

Here we go with another four of the Indy Kenner line of figures from 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark.

First up is Indy's digging buddy Sallah, played on screen by Middle Earth's tallest Dwarf, John Rhys-Davies. This is the hardest to find of the the figures shown here, and tough to get with a nice clear bubble.  

Next we have the German Mechanic as played by Pat Roach. Roach actually played a series of villains in the first three Indy movies. The tiny wrench accessory from this figures is easily lost.   

French archeologist Rene Belloq is up next, the little paper map accessory that came with this figure is often missing from loose figures. Indy trivia lore states that actor Paul Freeman did in fact swallow the fly that crawled into his mouth during the scene where Indy threatens to blow up the Ark.     

Lastly today is the Cairo Swordsman, along with the Toht figure the most common in the Indy Kenner line. 

Aussie Indy Trivia Time

# 1 Indy's bullwhip is made of Kangaroo hide. 

#2 Indy's hat was listed as an "Australian model" when purchased new in London by the costume department.

#3 The mountaineers challenging Marion to the drinking competition in her Nepalese bar are supposed to be Aussies. 

Keen on more Indy toy info? Check out Raiders of the Lost Toys.

Will 

One green, one red. Indy might need to seek medical advice.

There wasn't a lot of merchandise available for Temple of Doom, a small run of LJN action figures, some food tie-ins, soundtracks and such, but Lucasfilm were really scraping the bottom of the barrel with the licensed Blaster Balls shown above. 

I have vague recollections of playing with this type of toy as a kid, you held one in one hand and threw the other at it creating a loud 'crack' as they hit.  A few hundred  'cracks' later and you were left with two really bad marbles. 

Kids today don't get to play with explosives as much as they would like, so lets all enjoy a glimpse of a more innocent time, when the joy of handheld detonations could be had at your nearest toy store...

Will    

Kenner / Toltoys Indiana Jones Figures

Nothing screams "Buy Me!" more than a sticker telling you about a fabulous free toy you can't get. While those lucky little sods stateside were sending off three POPs (Proof of Purchase) by the truck-load for their "Free Belloq", little Aussie kids were only allowed to dream about ever owning the famed French archeologist the German's called Bellosh.  

Kenner's Indy line was famous for completely stuffing up the case ratios in the release of the first four figures, heaps of Tohts and Cairo Swordsmen and bugger-all Indys and Marions. 

I have a mate who recalls standing in Adelaide's largest toy store searching through an entire wall of Tohts and Swordsman for either of the other toy and coming up empty. The figures were not re-ordered by the retailers in the quantities hoped, and the line died a slow death after a second release of five new characters.  

The sluggish sales were likely the reason Toltoys opted out of printing their own cards, so we received the US versions with a corrective sticker attached telling us not to send of POPs to the US, although I wonder how many Aussie kids did? Tears before bedtime if they did! 

So here we are all these years later and Indy is back on the big screen, and the first four Kenner Indy figures with the Australian sticker attached are now among of the rarest and most sought-after variations in the Indy collecting world.       

The Marion Ravenwood shown here is the only completely sealed version found to date I believe. The Cairo Swordsman isn't pictured, hopefully one of the Toltoys Mafia will send me a pic after reading this :-)

Cheers!

Will

Just like a chocolate milkshake only Indy!

In 1984 Kelloggs thought they were on to a sure-fire winner with their Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom cereal tie-in. 

Unfortunately there was an outcry from parents and family groups over the horror and occult themes featured in the film. Squeaky clean Kelloggs was of course already committed to their Temple of Doom competition featuring on kid's classic such as Coco Pops, I imagine they didn't hurry to extend the production once the flak hit the fan. 

As a 13 year old at the time I was of course all over this, fighting off siblings to collect as many of the game cards as I could (I'll be featuring them later this week) but failing to win one of the LJN figure sets as featured on the pack. 

The LJN figures came and went at retail without much fanfare, there were very clunky looking and probably also suffered from the same fate as Kenner's 1979 Alien figure - i.e. scared the bejesus out of kids and parents alike. "Hey kids, watch Mola Ram pull Indy's still-beating heart from his chest!" Hours of fun for all.

More Indy coming this week...

Will

           

Plaid Stallions turns Two!

It's hard to believe that it has only been two years since Plaid Stallions - the web's greatest repository of 70's toy legends and fashion implosions - first graced the world's monitors.   

To celebrate the milestone Stallion-in-Chief Brian has remodeled his conversation pit in flame-resistant Dupont shag-pile, giving the whole site a lovely new look. 

Go have a giggle at the garish, a laugh at the lapels and a spew over the superbad today.

Cheers!

Will

The Toltoys ESB Vader Large Size Action Figure

 

Thanks to the great detective work of Bill McBride over at the Darth Vader Toy Museum we now have conclusive proof that persistent rumors of ESB boxed characters (other than Boba Fett and IG-88) being released at retail in Australia were true!

Ever since I started collecting I've been aware of stories about people who claim to have purchased ESB boxed examples of Vader, Stormtrooper and R2-D2 at retail in the early 80's, combinations that should not exist since the line was cancelled after the release of the Fett and IG-88 mentioned above. Bill's discovery proves that specific and different boxes were produced for at least Vader in Australia, ruling out suggestions that the examples discovered here were simply unreleased Kenner salesman samples or made up box-flats or similar. 

Toltoys went to the trouble of producing three Toltoys branded figures for the Star Wars line, so couldn't they have at least test-marketed some of the more popular characters in ESB livery? Stranger things have happened down here that's for sure.

Check out Bill's site above for all the details on how to spot the real thing, plus more than you ever thought you needed to know about the big man in the black hat.

The hunt is now on for the rest of the crew!

 

Cheers,

Will

The White Rocket Mazinga



Australia is a big country, with lots of storage space. A big country demands a big toy. A really big toy. In 1979 that demand was meet by the good folks at Mattel when they unleashed 24 inches of the biggest arse-kicking missile-packing robot that the kids of Australia had ever seen- The Shogun Warriors.

Sure they were watered-down versions of the legendary Japanese Jumbo Machinders, but we didn't know that at the time. All we knew was that something had arrived to stomp on our Deetail toy soldiers and Airfix models in accurate mega-robot scale. Oh, and they could shoot their missiles clear across the room. Oh yes.

It's ironic that it has been Mattel in recent times that has been forced to recall toys because of lead paint and other safety issues. When we were kids a toy just wasn't worth having unless it was double dipped in lead paint (or contained other toxic chemicals!) and able to maim from six feet away, as the Shoguns could. These babies took the cake on missile power, Godzilla's power-punch fist is legendary still today, I took one in the solar plexus at a toy fair a couple of years ago, it's not something I like to talk about.

The first type of missiles packed with the Shoguns were of the 'red with white fins' (or vanes) variety. Some keen beans noticed however that pictured on Gaiking's box were mysterious 'white with red fin' rockets. Strangely though when you opened that box you just received the plain old red ones.

So were did those rockets go you ask? It appears that a small number of early release Mazinga's did in fact receive a full compliment of 14 white rockets. They pop up very occasionally in the collector's market today, the example pictured here was bought at retail in Australia (Tasmania to be precise) in '79 or 80.

I'm glad I've started writing about Shoguns, they really are one of my all-time favourite toys and I plan to blog a fair bit about them before my time is done here. I even donated a late release Mazinga (sans rockets) to my kids to take on Barbie, never has such an evil looking toy been so loved.

Cheers,
Will