LOCAL CUSTOMS: THE NEW MOONBASE DIY FIGURES: ZYTHON, MR. ROCK AND CO.

I've been having fun finishing off some "Moonbase International" custom figures.

With the arrival of my new baguette plastic blisters and Bill's fabulous backing graphics I was able to complete my custom Zython.

With the card art glued down and trimmed and the figure placed behind its blister, Zython has come out looking great I if I say so myself.

Like the Star Maiden Guard last Autumn, Zython is one of the larger figures we've had a crack at. Its 12 inches tall so need a big blister and a large backing card.

Bill also worked up this superb backing card rear, the first one that we've needed. Interestingly Mattel added Zython to the Space 1999 illustration. Its a shame it only ever saw the light of day in very limited numbers, through a West German comic competition

A smaller figure, at about 9 inches, our version of Lincoln International's Mr. Rock has proven difficult to find a nice blister for. Impatient to mount him on Bill's fantastic backing art, I glued down the graphics on card and deployed an oversize blister for the time being. A WIP. You get the idea. Fascinating!

With those two figures sorted and with more small dolls at the ready, I moved onto a new custom project, inspired once more by odd rare figures I've seen online.

I finagled a headpiece from Fimo and some old PC ribbon cable.

Recognise it? 

Its one of three aliens from the obscure Martian Chronicles figurer range released by Larami. Mine's smaller than an original, at just 6 inches.

Here's my custom Martian placed next to a picture of the original Larami toy as seen in the wonderful Rack Toys book by Brian Heiler.

To get an idea of how it might look on a backing card here's mine on top of the original in the above picture [ original picture credit: Brian Heiler].

So here's this weekend's work together in a huddle showing my latest custom dolls and Bill's really terrific backing cards. A toy tag team effort.

Hope you like them.

MASH-UP MASTERS: LARAMI AND TIARRI DRAGON MASTER SETS

Here's a classic mash-up: Dragon Master.

The 'fantasy monsters' are our old friends the LP aliens - these one's suckered - and here being recycled as part of the sword and sorcery craze. I saw it on auction so saved the snaps a while back.

And its a Larami toy and not LP!

There's a bar code over the word Master, so its relatively modern as LP aliens go.

Do you like it?

 

Larami developed the line into proper dragons and warriors like this one.

and a sub-set of pocket puzzles.

Here's the same 'LP' set shown first - now called Fantasy Figures - released by someone else, Tiarri Management Services of N.S.W - New South Wales? Was this for the Australian market?

Tiarri were busy too: here's their dinosaur mash-up - are they Imperial's - with two unknown dragons at the top.

and what appear to be robot orcs and goblins. Are these from another line?

The Phantom

The prototype costumed superhero, Lee Falk's The Phantom debuted in comics in February 1936.

The character fought his baddies from his cave in the fictitious African state of Bangalla and had done for hundreds of years, the first Phantom pre-dating even Christopher Columbus.

The iconography of The Phantom is in some instances ancient. His Skull ring, reserved for villains, was said to be made from the nails that crucified Jesus Christ!

Kit Walker is the 21st Phantom and as a comic character has enjoyed huge comic success, being printed in many parts of the world.

Merchandise is easy to find online and one of my favourites is part of the rack toy boom of the mid-1970's, Larami's The Phantom Jungle Play Set.

You can enjoy many more Phantom toys, some right up to date, online here on this excellent pictorial fan site:

https://thephantom.fan/collectibles/toys/

Have you any?

Me Tarzan, You Phantom!

 Funny how things coincide. Maybe Earth should be renamed Serendipity.

Yesterday I picked up this Hong Kong Tarzan (sounds like a pop song!) 

Today waiting for the train to Bonn I saw the Phantom.

Years ago I postulated that the Tarzan figure was likely to have been repainted by Larami for their 1970's Phantom Jungle Play Set rack toy. 

I've never been sure though. What do you think readers?

ED'S FLASH GORDON

 

Pics courtesy of Ed B, Las Vegas

LJN Road Stars die-cast Flash Gordon spaceship, 1975

LARAMI THING AMPHICAT

I like this blister-carded Amphicat-style buggy by Larami I saw an old listing.

Called the Thing it would have been right up my street as a nipper.

Have you any amphibious toy vehicles?

THE LARAMI GUNFIGHTER

Continuing my look at a few toy catalogues that are on auction online here's the Larami catalogue from 1969.

Being a fan of action figures and dolls I was drawn to the Gunfighter figure on the left. He looks a lot like Marx's Johnny West to me, which I adored as a kid.

The description holds the intriguing line about the Gunfighter being a 'replica of the man who won the west'. Is that a euphemism for knocking off Johnny West?

larami toy space twins

 

These NASA Space Twins by Larami are deadringers for the Project SWORD Task Force 3.

Anyone got the Larami toys?

DON BLUTH'S SPACE ACE: THE TOYS

I wrote about a toy line I'd never really looked twice at before the other day: SPACE ACE. Not to be confused with the Ron Turner magazine we promote of the same name, the SPACE ACE toy generated a few intriguing responses.

Its obviously got a keen following and judging by the number of sites on the net covering it and the actual video arcade machines, the following is quite big. The toys are based on a 1980's video game which will gave the toys that crossover appeal with the retro gamer guys, something I've just never caught onto.

All of the toys I've found online appear to be knockoffs of other toys, which I find odd if it was such a popular video game. The toys, or at least one, the Space Ace Robot Playset, cross over into Action Figure collecting and Blackstarr, which you read all about on the cool LITTLE WEIRDO's. 

Here are the two pictures of Space Ace toys I've found online on Ebay over the years and I'm looking at them now in a whole new light. These are just a couple of the toys and collectables that were made. For a more complete listing visit the uber-ace Dragon's Lair Fans site.

SPACE SET and WALKIE TALKIE [Larami]

These two Larami knockoffs feature the Space Ace backing card but I imagine the toys have nothing to do with the game. I say this because both of these are ripoffs of other more established rack toy lines:  Flash Gordon [Larami as well?] and Buck Rogers [HG Toys]. The original toys are shown below:

Arto is a big fan of SPACE ACE and recently wrote in with some cool memories and pictures of some neat paper collectables:

Your blog posting of Space Ace toys today was a happy coincidence, because I [have] an original Space Ace press kit from 1984! So I dug it up for a couple of (shoddy, sorry) piccies. Got the press kit at the Animation Days held in Helsinki back in '84. 

Don Bluth, an ex-animator at Disney who had started his own company, was a pioneering figure introducing arcade games that had animated sequences advancing the game - and as such being precursors of today's video games. Having introduced their pioneering game effort Dragon's Lair some time earlier, Space Ace was their second major video game production, premiering in 1984.

The press kit is a lavish package with game presentation, press releases, and numerous brochures featuring both Dragon's Lair and Bluth Animation's then-in-production first full-length animation The Secret of NIMH. There is also a set of 10 promotional b/w production stills of Space Ace. To give the press kit a vintage feel, also a brochure for Panasonic Laserdisc player is included!

Arto

Any more Space Ace memorabilia in your collections readers?