Action Figures in the Games Room
I cover off my modest Transformers, Mighty Max, War Planets and Skeleton Warrior collection
What’s a games room without a few awesome Action Figures from the 90’s? I started the Leftover Culture Review to revel in some great retro pop culture. I wanted to create a space that my childhood self would be proud of.
The 90’s for me are an incredibly nostalgic era with a clear aesthetic. Flashy colours ruled, cartoon accuracy was getting closer and improved production processes gave rise to improved sculpts and more creative designs. This is the era when I fell in love with action figures and toys.
Check out the Articles section of the website to see some other great action figures that have been added since starting this post. Including the Toxic Crusaders, NECA’s Aliens and Earthworm Jim.
Transformers
Who doesn’t like transforming robots in disguise? Obviously, I’m a long time Transformers fan. I’ve managed to pick a few of these overpriced toys up when I could. That’s been a problem with Transformers in particular, they seem to get more and more expensive. If you miss that initial batch, they start going up in price.
A lot of my Transformers had to be shipped from overseas just because they only appeared in boutique stores here. One of my favourite transformers, the Masterpieces Megatron was actually ordered through Hong Kong and Star Scream was a WalMart special I had to order through the US.
Masterpieces Megatron cost me US$130 (posted) which was just below the $140 most other sellers were asking at the time. Looking at his prices now really confirm to me how much the Transformer collecting climate has changed in the last five years. Transformers were always popular among collectors, but I don’t remember many figures costing more than $100 before post.
Unicron has to be my favourite Transformer, it’s such an awesome sculpt with a clear resemblance to the original 1986 Transformers Movie… It could nearly have passed for an authentic movie figure in the 80’s. I purchased Unicron at Toys ‘R Us for $95, there were three left and I knew I was running out of time.
Unicron makes an awesome robot with plenty of projectiles and flashing lights. As a planet, amazingly, he still looks really awesome. The early Unicron prototypes generally look embarrassing, I can’t say turning a blocky robot into a sphere is an easy task but this Unicron model uses his wings, legs and arms to form floating planet fortress.
Unicron shipped with a minicon, that small black sphere with a gun that sits on front. A minicon is required to fire any of missiles, which means that even after all this time, all his missiles are still intact and holding well.
The Masterpieces toyline is the one that really spiked my interest again. I first saw these toys in the local Big W, just Ultra Magnus and Optimus Prime, basically a palette swap, but they looked really impressive. These are the only Masterpieces I’ve seen ‘in the wild’ but that didn’t stop me looking elsewhere.
I picked up both the Starscream and Megatron Masterpieces around the same time while I had some disposable income.
Megatron is buy far the most complex transformer I’ve got so I never really transform him. Each time I go to change him, it feels like he’s going to snap in half. I think I’ve managed to keep damage down to two small breaks in some plastic pieces (I Blu-tacked them back on), so this one isn’t for the kids!
Megatron makes a fairly convincing looking gun that’s made its way into a few of my short films. It’s too big though, hard to hold, but it certainly does the original Megatron design justice, his scope fitting easily on top of the barrel.
Megatron as a robot is where the design starts to show some flaws. He looks great and all the arms and legs are where they need to be, but he’s a seriously complex transformation and I can’t imagine his design was easy to work with, gun barrel visible over the shoulder, legs made from the handle of the pistol. From behind you start to see all the seams and working of Megatron, like the toy tries to hide behind itself, but from the front Megatron really looks the part. Arms and legs all move and articulate, and even those his legs look spindly, they hold some really awesome positions.
The great thing about these Masterpieces series is how closely they match both the original character design and Generation 1 toy-line. This Megatron actually closely resembles generation 1 but feels like a super beefed up, ultra detailed revision. They always come with plenty of accessories, weapons, energon maces, smaller characters and attachments.
Starscream was always my favourite character from the cartoon series, and his Masterpieces figure (even though 100% plastic) is pretty solid feeling and articulates really well. Starscream is a really well thought out figure that even comes with a base that works in both jet and robot mode.
As a kid I had a G1 Starscream figure and I always remember he looked awesome in both jet and robot mode. I suppose that kind of balance is difficult to achieve consistently through the Transformers line, but Starscream and Optimus Prime always seemed to pull off really consistent, accurate toys.
The Transformers series went on with Armada and Energon, both, just like the original series, really aimed towards children but out of all the series, I have to admit I liked the look of the Armada and Energon toy lines, they had a distinct g1 flavour but with better transforming mechanics and production quality. I’ve only got a handful of toys from this era (only Unicron ended up in the games room) but for me, this was where the figures were really at their strongest and most diverse. We had reissues coming out, the alternators series where transformers took on the designs of real world cars and the strong Armada and Energon toylines with characters like Unicron, Omega Supreme, Metroplex and Galvatron making a return.
For me, it felt like a miniature golden age for the Transformers. I’m not sure how many other fans feel or the exact timeline, but things started looking a bleak once the Transformers movie (2007) dropped.
I have to admit, the movie line of Transformers really didn’t appeal to me much. The figures tended to look like a big mess in robot mode and even though they looked like edgier battle ready robots, as a toyline I felt they weren’t really diverse enough.
I thought the movies were fine for what they were, a modern retelling of a kids cartoon that was produced in the 80’s, but the figurines didn’t tap that nostalgia or intrigue. Characters like the Dino Bots, Constructicons, Metroplex and Omega Supreme felt really unique and added some awesome toys to the previous toy lines.
I picked up the deluxe movie version of Starscream, far less detailed than the Masterpieces (or even G1 figurine) but I liked having both these versions to serve as a comparison. The movie version of Starscream feels far more squat than the lean, fast looking Masterpieces Starscream and I have to admit, I’m really not loving this figure. It feels fat in both robot and jet mode, where it feels like a tank with wings. Robot mode certainly looks better, but not great, with his big, unwieldy arms and massive missile projectiles.
Ultra Magnus is one of the only Masterpieces that actually made it to stores in Australia (along with Optimus Prime). These two masterpieces were identical except for the paint job, same energy axe, cardboard trailer and blaster.
Ultra Magnus has had a really tough time with me. I had him all set up on top of the TV until the wind blew really hard one day and he fell, breaking his foot. I blue tacked it together but with a broken foot, he had a lot of trouble standing and was resigned to a cupboard. I set him up again recently and he seemed to be holding really well. Came into the games room the next day to find him in pieces on the ground. The metal body and snap in joints have really shown their durability but the plastic feet have got me stumped. Hard to repair and near impossible to stand up without solid feet.
If you can manage to keep this figurine together, Ultra Magnus (or Optimus Prime) really captures that initial boxy design from the generation 1 cartoons. Hidden within the chest cavity is the Matrix of Leadership, which ties in well with my collection of Rodimus Prime, Unicron, Megatron, Galvatron, Ultra Magnus and Starscream, all characters that appeared in the 1986 Transformers movie.
To round out my collection, I’ve also been holding onto my first ebay purchase ever, a 1986 Galvatron, totally loose. Terrible condition but Galvatron is one of my favourite characters (yes, up there with Megatron, Starscream and Unicron).
Mighty Max
As a kid, everyone I knew had Mighty Max. We’d travel with those playsets, swap pieces, I used to take my little Mighty Max figure and explore the world from his little macro perspective. As a massive fan of the toy line, I’ve begun reviewing each one I have over here.
I’ve managed to get my hands on a few complete sets, (zombie hand, shark head, strikes fang and a scorpion) and a mostly complete but broken Blasts Magnus.
Pick of the bunch? The Zombie Hand (Check out the full review here), it’s the real classic horror themed set I remember having as a kid. The best part of the Mighty Max playsets are the real intricacies and seeing how the whole thing fits together, and I think all the sets I’ve got together do that well. I can’t say every Mighty Max set is created equally, but the zombie hand always ranked highly for me.
Inside, it has movable tree branches, a pivoting zombie and you can open the crypt and a grave. It comes with Mighty Max, a zombie and the tree monster. To top off this set, the finger even splits open revealing a massive monster mouth. It’s these extra touches that make this one of the best sets.
One set I didn’t have as a kid is the Shark Head, and that’s a real shame. This is pretty much the perfect example of what makes an awesome Mighty Max playset.It looks cool packed up, but as you pull it apart the scene starts to build itself. It’s got three pieces, two characters and a big movable interior piece that holds it all together. No massive set pieces, nothing too complicated, just a great set with a great theme.
The scorpion is memorable, but he can’t compete with the zombie hand or the shark head. Inside you get a mechanical scorpion, a massive movable platform and two characters, Mighty Max and a baddie in a toxic suit. I always thought the problem here is it feels like you totally gut the playset. You need to take everything out and it felt a bit empty. The best part about the Zombie Hand and Shark Head is that they create a really vivid scene inside them.
Strikes Fang is from an interesting series of Mighty Max playsets that set out to do more than just being a playset. Similar to Blasts Magnus, the closed playset forms its own poseable action figure.
Strikes Fang looks cool, and comes with a missile, a staff and a whip so it’s a bit of a shame that there’s really not much to it once you open it up. Inside the chest forms the snake pit Max must escape from and apparently the inside of the snake gods head is the mummies tomb. It’s a fantastic looking set, but due to the nature of the playset, doesn’t set the scene as well as some of the other playsets.
Blasts Magnus is my biggest set with an unfortunate broken arm and it’s missing the missile launcher from inside his chest (that allows the missile to form his eyeballs). Apart from that, it’s obvious there’s a lot of thought put into this guy. Blasts Magnus opens like a clam shell revealing a whole scene inside with pipes, metal grates for floors and a prison lockup. You get a lava guy, Max, Virgil, Norman, a creature that forms opart of the arm and another lava guy on a motorbike. There’s a lot to this set and those small details, like seeing the lava guy through Blast Magnus’ leg add an awesome touch.
Skeleton Warriors
This is a toy series I’ve been trying to rediscover again for a very long time. Such faint memories as a kid, I had Dr. Cyborn and my brother had Aracula and I was always really jealous I didn’t own both of them for myself.
Aracula is such a cool character and by far the most memorable one for me (Check out the full review here). He’s a skeleton assassin with six arms and a whole host of extra weapons. The real pull for me towards these old Skeleton figures are the details. Those metallic, glowing eyes, weathered bones and torn articles of clothing.
Aracula happens to be one of the biggest figures (considering he has more arms) and it’s amazing to see that level of detail is consistent across him and and Dr Cyborn. The weapons on the other hand, tend to be generic and a little out of place, especially the bigger, brightly coloured guns.
Aracula shipped with a shield, a spring loaded mace and a gun in the shape of a spider. Seems that Aracula got some better weapons than most other characters, but the real standouts are the spider gun and the web shield, they really look like they belong with the character and not just ‘thrown in’. His spring loaded mace is really sensitive and I often find myself looking everywhere for where it fired last.
Dr. Cyborn is half machine and half skeleton, cold, calculating and for a Doctor, he packs some serious weaponry. The Dr. Cyborn figure itself looks really awesome, with metal plating, mechanical innards and bolts and straps holding him together. As far as standing this figure, it’s rubbish. They decided to give him big metal feet that look clumsy and don’t work but the cape does help a lot when trying to balance Dr Cyborn. He comes equipped with a massive purple blaster with hotdog rockets and a much classier skull pistol.
This was my only Skeleton Warrior I had as a kid and I have to admit, he’s left an amazing impression. I was always a bit jealous my brother got Aracula, as mentioned above, Aracula is still my favourite Skeleton Warrior but Dr. Cyborn is a close second. I always liked the view them as complete opposites, Aracula with his brute force and Dr. Cyborn, the unfeeling, intelligent killing machine.
Shriek is my latest Skeleton Warrior and not one I originally intended to purchase, and even though I feel terrible for picking on their attempt at making a feminine Skeleton Warrior, her plate bra and the fact she has hair is off-putting. Maybe that’s what I like about Shriek, she looks a little out of place in this purely bad-arse toyline. Unfortunately, she doesn’t stand out apart from the fact she’s a female, Dr Cyborn is half machine, Aracula is part spider, Dagger is the comical midget and Baron Dark is a leader decked in skulls. Shriek is a female.
In saying that, I do think she’s one of the best accessorized Skeleton Warriors with her scythe, dagger, shield and skeletal pet. It’s interesting to note she’s the only figure from the Skeletal Legion without a projectile weapon, even though a scythe made from bone makes up for any shortcomings.
Dagger never seemed like such a big deal and I was incredibly hesitant to add him to my lineup. He’s the comic foil in the cartoons, always messing up and he never seemed to fit in with the rest of the bad-arse lineup. That was until I actually received the figurine after finding him cheap online. Just like the rest for the Skeleton Legion, Playmates have made an incredibly awesome looking figure without much to work from. Dagger came with a massive hammer with a projectile skull, a gun and a knife strapped to his leg. Not the best accessories in the collection, but the best thing about Dagger is that he stands well on his own. No propping him up, no blu-tac, his feet are wide, and he’s a short, squat figurine.
Baron Dark is the leader of the Skeleton Figure and the only figure I bought second hand, therefore, he’s not in the best condition and is missing his weapons, but even stripped of all his gear he still makes an awesome looking character. The only reason I was happy picking this guy loose was because I had already ordered the ultimate Skeleton Legion Figurines, the Skeleton Legion Skullcycle and the Warhorse. Both these vehicle figures are labelled as ‘Baron Dark’s Skullcycle/Warhorse’ but I’ve had luck putting most of the Skeleton Legion on the vehicles. They don’t fit great, but for such a stiff, unsteady group I was amazed any of them could fit at all.
Back when it was decided this awesome toyline needed something big to make it any better, they produced a Skeleton Legion Warhorse and Skullcycle. Both vehicle figures that were styled in that hyper-detailed Skeleton Warriors design.
As kids we had the Skullcycle and this was a major highlight in our toybox. It’s massive, has just as much detail as any of the characters and just packs heaps more firepower. The drawback is only Baron Dark really fits on this thing (It is his Skullcycle after all), but even then, really awkwardly. There seems to be three ways you can make Baron Dark fit, either break off his cape, position him standing on the bike or remove the spine backrest on the bike and have his cape flowing over the back. Because I like the dramatic look of Baron Dark speeding headlong into war, I chose the later method.
The Skull Cycle itself didn’t come with any characters, and on its own it’s just a bike, but when it came to remembering that awesome toyline I had as a kid, the Skull Cycle was by far the clearest memory. With it’s thrusting skull blade, missile, ribcage encasing the innards of the bike and side mounted cannons, it wasn’t a toy designed to teach peace and understanding. It was a war machine designed solely for a villain.
The Skeleton Legion Warhorse was only featured towards the end of the cartoon, but I was pretty excited to hear it was made into a vehicle too. With a massive axe, great design and projectiles that shoot from its throat, it’s the last figurine I picked up (because I already had a Skullcycle) but side by side, I reckon it really adds an awesome touch to the Skeleton Legion.
Skeleton Warriors are incredibly stiff, hard to pose figurines with limited playing potential, but goddamn did they look awesome. Heaps of detail, heaps of weapons and they really stood out amongst those bright, multi-coloured plastic action figures. These guys always felt like a badarse toyline and it wasn’t until much much later (late 2012) I realised there were good human toys too (boring). I haven’t looked into collecting any of the humans yet and when it comes to the games room, I never imagined collecting every figurine from my favourite childhood toylines, just the ones that evoke the most memories.
War Planets
The Beast Planet is a figure that’s followed me for a long time. One of the original toys I managed to hold onto since childhood. I’ve only just started adding a few more war planets and I have to admit, with all those small little pieces I’ve got no idea what I’m missing but these are some of my favourite sets ever.
I’ve had this box for the Beast Planet to look at for a long long time and it’s in horrible condition, but that’s what finally made me decide to buy some of the smaller planets.The Beast Planet is big, black, lights up and has a lot of different movable pieces and projectiles; it makes a real fortress of a planet. The Beast Planet came complete with an army full of vehicles and soldiers but it seems the more pieces, the harder it is to keep it all together. The real highlight here is the massive arm that reaches out of the planet to capture some of the smaller war planets (call it a soft spot, just like with Unicron).
My favourite smaller War Planet? Probably my only complete set, the Bone Planet. This planet has very distinctive tentacles reaching out from it and it genuinely looks pretty cool. Unlike some of the other planets, this one just opens up, no extra compartments or secrets, but the organic armies of the Bone Planet still look pretty badarse. Bugs, parasites, tentacles and an army of these slimy looking guys.
The smaller War Planets are really just these spherical planets that open up to reveal alien armies. These smaller planets are usually very simple and the real focus is on the included army and vehicles. Each planet has its own race of aliens and technology, from the organic enemies of the bone planet to the high tech weapons and vehicles of the beast planet.
I have plenty of planets with one or two figures, but no other complete sets (which is a total shame). War Planets are some of the hardest toys to collect from the 90’s because they’re literally made up of so many small pieces that blend and get lost in toy-boxes. A cool toy line and if you managed to get some more complete planets together, I really envy you.
Lastly, War Planets also had some tanks and vehicles. I have the Kryospider tank and the Bone Tank Bioshredder. The Kryospider proves how awesome the tank toyline could be, heaps of bits and pieces to it , unfortunately, the Bone Bioshredder is totally loose with none of the weapons or accessories.