Sunday Sale

 Picked up a few guys n dolls this morning for the various projects I have in mind.

LtoR: Modern Action Man, tall unknown figure, modern Ken or Paul, JLS member, modern Barbie, Barbie cheapo clone, 2 bent knee wrestlers, 2 finger fight wrestlers, unknown soldier

Any good?

BRINGING BACK SOME TRIK-TRAK

 The Missus and me have been on our first post-Easter rummage ramble today.

There were some highs and some lows.

The lows were waiting an hour for our ordered lunch in a cafe, after which we cancelled and left; the cost of parking going up to 90p for two hours and some stuff in one antiques joint way overpriced, namely a Galaxy Warriors Lion figure at £40 loose and 2 loose Tonka Supernaturals with a pile of accessories at £30. No chance.

The highs: we got the last 60p car parking slot and picked up a few nice bits, namely some cute vintage matchboxes [still full of matches!] and a tin the Missus loved for £4 the lot.

Some cheapo Timpo-style Western figs and a couple of dinos for a Squid.

4 loose Hot wheels for £2 at a craft/ second hand market; pink Double Demon 1988, yellow Megadestroyer 1982, 2002 Super Chromes Dodge Van reissue and to make up the 4, Wild Thing 2002.

Catch of the day had to be this 1960's Triang/ Transogram Dare Devil Trik-Trak boxed set for £8. It looks complete and the box is huge. Maybe a few rips, scuffs and biffs to the box and parts but it looks great. To be road tested later this week. Is this a toy you had readers?

I did walk past life-size kids' 2003 Jakks WWF Wrestling belts in a charity shop, two of them for £4. Maybe I should have got them. Oh, and I passed a huge black RC Dodge Charger monster car from Fast and Furious [no remote] at £3.

All in all, a decent West Yorkshire stroll.

Have you picked up anything of late? Pictures welcomed!

THE SQUAT THICKENS: BIG THIGHS AND BENDED KNEES!

 I'm enjoying looking for and finding knockoff wrestlers from the 80's and 90's at the mo.

In fact any action figure with those classic Masters of the Universe big thighs and bent knees wherever possible or if not, obvious wrestler knockoffness.

With a little patience at boot sales the bendy fellas give themselves up. Its great fun tracking them down and more often than not there are always one or two at a sale and its reassuring to come home with a result.

Here's a bundle I've recruited this year.

Back row LtoR: Tall Redpants and Boley wrestler,

Middle row LtoR: American gladiator, unknown bended soldier, headless Hulk Hogan, soft rubber Galaxy Beast Warrior

Front Row: Lion-O Thundercats miniature

Have you got any He-squatters or wrestling cheapos readers?

they live through Roddy piper

I recently saw a film called They Live. I'd never seen it before but knew of it so I was excited to see it.

Essentially They Live is about an alien occupation of America. The aliens are disguised as humans and living among us. No-one can see the aliens except for a few resistance fighters who wear special glasses, through which their faces appear like thinly muscled skulls. The blurb to the movie calls them ghouls but I can't verify this as I have no idea what a ghoul is meant to look like although I did appreciate the use of this underused horror trope. It was released in 1988.

One of the resistance is played by Roddy Piper the WWF wrestler and his character John Nada is the film's leading role.

When John wears his specs he sees a cityscape of subliminal commands to OBEY and a world full of skull beings. Unfortunately for him they know he can see them!

Very much of the ilk of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Futureworld, John Carpenter gave us a neat new slant on the sub-genre, creating a kind of socio-economic critique of Eighties America. In this sense it reminded me of Romero's Dawn of the Dead without the grue.

The version of They Live I saw was on You Tube and a Monster Vision showing. Monster Vision must have been an Eighties US cable TV station ( anyone remember it? ) as it had its own host who popped up every now and then to crack jokes. He even interviewed Roddy Piper, which was fun. Roddy had the most perfect set of top teeth I've ever seen! Sadly Roddy died in 2015 aged just 61.

Consulting my well-thumbed guide to loose action figures I noted that Roddy came as a plastic figure back in the day and sported a red tartan kilt. He was part of that initial muscled flush of famous WWF wrestlers who were made into toys during the Eighties wrestling craze headed up by Hulk Hogan. Sadly this passed me by completely but I often saw whole heaps of these figures wrestling in boxes at car boot sales in the Nineties. Should I have invested in wrestlers like Roddy, IRS and Mr. Perfect I wonder?

Does anyone collect old wrestling action figures? Have you seen They Live?