Admittedly, the war between Mattel and MGA is really interesting, particularly given that Barbie herself has her origins in a Lilly doll (raising the question of the ethics of a company who’s own product is entirely based on another suing a newcomer for copyright infringement).
In any event, here are some interesting perspectives on Barbie and the Great War
Ten Transformer Questions:
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero was the second toy line that I really got into, after Micronauts, and it holds a singular distinction in terms of the variety of items I was able to amass during my inital four-and-a-half year collection.
For me, G.I.Joe was a toy that came with great figure poseability, great detail, mail-in redemption offers and vehicles that came with drivers. Propelling G.I.Joe was the fact that my best friends were also driven to “catch them all” (which they did, actually, much to my ongoing toy envy and probably resulting in my ongoing toy fixation) which allowed us a common activity for many afternoons after class.
For Canadians, G.I. Joe had two other interesting points of note. First, we had a number of Canadian-only exclusives (like the Consumers Distribution Cobra Tank and the Sears Cobra Combat Set that appeared in 1983). Moreover, Hasbro Canada made an effort to make the Joes feel more Canadian. This meant unique decals for the Joe vehicles with a “CANADA” and maple leaf prominently displayed, and the change of select figure birthplaces (like Steeler) to Canadian cities.
All this said, 1982 was a strange year for G.I. Joe.
For those of you familar with the first year of G.I. Joe, you will know that there were a total of 13 original Joes (nine individually packed figures and four that came with vehicles). These figures came with a variety of accessories including a laser rifle, machine guns, RPG and a mortar. Moreover, Joe forces had a motorcycle (RAM), a cannon (FLAK) and a portable mobile missile system (MMS). It also had a jump pack (JUMP), a portable laser cannon (HAL), a jeep (VAMP) and the mother of all ordinance, the motorized battle tank (MOBAT).
All this to take on an evil terrorist organization that consisted officially of two figures, a soldier and an officer.
Oh sure, you can argue they had a Sears exclusive cardboard cutout base, and the Commander was available either through this purchase or through the mail. But for the first six months of G.I. Joe’s existence, it was a lonely time for those two Cobra soldiers, always outnumbered and trying to make ends meet with whatever old Tonka bulldozer or stolen Joe vehicle they could get there hands on. I never quite understood why Hasbro didn’t throw them a bone in the form of a tank or a special jeep.
While on the subject of 1982, I would be remiss if I didn’t ask the question about how it is that Steeler got an Uzi. It’s hard to imagine these days, when figures routinely end up with more weapons than they can successfully carry, but in the early Joe years, you didn’t get always get added gear. Short-Fuze and Zap were out of luck if they ran out of rockets for their mortar and RPG, Scarlett if she ran out of arrows. Even worse, Hawk, Grand Slam and Clutch were all sitting ducks if they lost their vehicles, although Hawk could theoretically make due with his molded-on grenade and knife.
But somehow the guy in the tank, the driver that should make Cobra forces quake in terror because he can just run them over, gets an Uzi. Even with a pistol moulded onto the front of his uniform! Was this because he couldn’t duck his head into his tank and risked being sniped or simply because he was not the best driver and the powers-that-be knew he’d abandon his tank at a drop of a hat.
These are the questions that stop me every once and awhile.
World Event Productions has been putting out sets of the original Voltron series for some time now. Each set is in a beautiful tin box and there are five sets in total, meaning that there is one set for each lion.
Now I was never much into Voltron growing up because, in 1984-85, I was on the edge of getting out of toys. And I always found that the situation repetative — G-Force, stuck on a Rocket Robin Hood-esque planet, losing individual fight the daily robeast until, lo, they combine and slice the baddie in two. Now that may not be entirely fair to dumb the entire 72 episodes down to that motif, but there you go.
But my brother loved Voltron so it was always on every day after school at 4:00 p.m. like clockwork. So it forms a bit of background noise, which was fine for days of working my way through four groups of 99 bezerkers in a 10 X 10 room on the Commodore 64 (we do Bard’s Tale good!)
Anyway, I do remember that there was a second Voltron show that seemed to pop on sometimes. It was never as frequent but it seemed much more interesting because it was at least set in space, even if the basic plot seemed the same. And the idea of fifteen vehicles, rather than five lions, had to form the giant robot — well, that seemed really neat too.
So the week after Christmas, I was out at the HMV in Merivale and looking for the Second Season of Transformers: Animated, when I stumbled upon a pecular box. It wasn’t like the Lion boxes (cardboard instead of metal, boxed instead of flip-style) but it was clearly Voltron. It looked like the company had continued to put out Voltron and had moved onto the vehicle Voltron.
I stared at the box for a long time but eventually put it down. I couldn’t be sure the contents of the DVD, so I figured I’d do some checking. Lo and behold, when I got home I discovered it was in fact what it said it was. Today I had the occasion to pick it up, seeing as it was only $26.99.
Getting it home I had a chance to discover the Voltron.com site for the first time. This is a site done right, with a lot of promos and additional information, notably how the company started and where the idea for Voltron and other projects came from. There is even a glimpse at what could have been Voltron 2, had vehicle Voltron done better.
There is also a really cool fan section, which is notable for the contribution of one Robert Burden, a graphic artist who put together an impressive painting of Voltron, the painting of which is told through a time-lapse camera. It is an impressive video and piece of art. Some of his other works are also very impressive.
All this to say, I’ve another cartoon series to get through. Apparently this is just box one of three, with land and sea teams to follow. It will be good to have something to listen to while I’m getting new munnies ready. I’m really eager to start watching.
Even though I attended a small school where all grades from primary to grade twelve were in the same building, there was a psychological break between grades six and seven. What in really wasn’t that big of a deal felt enormous at the time. We’re only moving between school ending in late June and school returning in early September. And yet it seemed to mark this huge change, make this big difference.
Grade six was for children. Grade seven was for adults. Or adults as seen through the eyes of twelve year olds.
Twelve years old was also perceived by many as the age in which boys put down their toys and picked up with girls. To risk doing otherwise was to risk stigmitizing one’s self as a child, and one ran the risk of having that stigma remain for one’s entire high school career. And who really wanted to do that.
In 1985, I was twelve years old.
What this meant was that the toys I got for Christmas 1984 — notably the G.I.Joe Killer Whale and the Decepticons Soundwave and Buzzsaw (my first transformers) — were meant to be discarded within eight short months. Well, not meant as much as predestined. To do otherwise was to risk the above mentioned stigma.
So I went underground.
Now that was actually quite easy for me to do. The only toy line I really collected and really connected with was G.I.Joe. Micronauts were just outside my time horizon (although I had a few pieces) and Star Wars seemed lacking because of the absence of joints. But I was all about G.I.Joe, mainly because my buddies (exactly one grade behind me in school but within a six house radius of mine) were all about G.I.Joe. And because my buddies were still a year younger than me, it was relatively easy to continue to pick up a few pieces here and there and fully enjoy my G.I.Joes. I even still got toys for Christmas the next year, notably the G.I.Joe Tactical Battle Platform (if there was ever a toy that encouraged kids to want to work on an oil platform, this was it!) and the Cobra Moray.
And then we were in 1986, and my G.I.Joe days were truly done.
In 1986, my younger friends hit the point I was suppose to have hit, and I actually didn’t feel much like playing with toys anymore. Others who I knew had gone undercover as well (one friend in particular had been inspired to buy the entire line of Coleco’s Sectaurs figures) lost their taste for it. So I carefully wrapped up my G.I.Joes and put them into storage (avoiding the familiar pattern of either blowing them up with a fire cracker or selling them at yard sales for a quarter a figure). And promptly forgot about them until today.
Okay, that’s all true except for the promptly forgetting about them part. Instead, I quietly got hooked on Transformers. But that’s a story for another day.
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I was never a Star Wars collector. Oh I liked the AT-AT of course, and the Falcon and the weird Tatooine-based, non-movie Stormtrooper transport (damn you Marvel Comics and your intoxicating cartoon advertisements!), and I really wanted to get my hand on my parent’s friends’ kid’s Tie-Fighter, but I had very few toys from the line itself. I was more impressed with the Micronauts (for which the Battlecruiser was my pride and joy, even if an incident with my foot separated the left rear wing from its peg on the very Christmas day it came into my possession) and Shogun Warriors (which I never seemed to be able to get as presents).
Really, I never played with that many memorable toys as a kid growing up. It was not until the unholy combination of (a) Hasbro decision to release a military-based line of 3 3/4″ figures in 1982 with super poseability and really cool details, and (b) my two best friends of the day decided they were also going to be completely swept up by the line, so much so that we could spend pretty much every afternoon after school for two years playing out elaborate military scenarios.
And knowing is half the battle.
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Anyway, back to Star Wars. It was impossible not to have a few Star Wars toys. I had a Boba Fett (one I certainly do not misremember firing its missile) and a Hoth-suited Han Solo. I had the die-cast Cloud City ship and Snowspeeder. And I had the Droid Factory. Seeing it on the ActionFigureOfTheDay certainly brought back memories. And I can attest for certain that:
(Apologies to www.toybender.com for the theft of the print ads.)
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