Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Toys Are Not for Children

Adults buying toys for their inner child rather than their actual child is newsworthy, according to the BBC.

It's a genuine surprise to discover an action figure of the iconic traffic warden from the nightmarish drama Threads (1984) being available. What possessed someone to produce a toy from such a depressingly disturbing film I'll never know, but I do appreciate the attention to detail; even the box art is from a vintage BBC Radio Times cover.

Sadly, it's beyond my price range, but I applaud seeing it along with all the other figures available, as they are completely on my wavelength; especially the British Horror themed products. Big fan of Peter Cushing's antiques shop owner from the classic Amicus horror anthology From Beyond the Grave (1974):

Favourite toys owned back in the day: Palitoy Star Wars X-Wing Fighter; CGL Galaxy Invader 1000; Ideal Toys Evel Knievel Super Jet Cycle; Idea Alligator Game; and Kenner Denys Fisher Toys Stretch Armstrong.

6 comments:

  1. I was a massive Palitoy fanboy as a boy. Interesting company/story too. Most of their repaints of G.I Joe figures/vehicles they did for Action Force were way cooler than the G.I Joe originals.

    Fave original Palitoy productions:

    * Action Force Red Shadows Roboskull vehicle.

    * Action Force Red Shadows figures especially Baron Ironblood and Kraken.

    * Star Wars cardboard Death Star.

    * Action Man Gargon monster.

    * Action Man Captain Zargon the Space Pirate.

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  2. A mate of my owned the cardboard Death Star. That thing was ultra rare, IIRC.

    Never owned one, but the Roboskull always looked cool. There was a Mk. II version on Kickstarter a few years ago.

    Also, Haslab produced the Cobra H.I.S.S. Tank as well.


    More recently

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  3. The H.I.S.S Tank will always be Red Jackal's Hyena to me. Palitoy repaints FTW. Had to stop myself picking one of those up recently when I saw one complete with Red Jackal in the window of my local vintage toy shop.

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  4. Guess it was selling for a fair bit.

    The move from Action Force to G.I. Joe must have been a royal headache for everyone involved.

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  5. They handled it brilliantly in the Action Force comic by having Baron Ironblood betraying all the Red Shadows, becoming Cobra Commander, and then turning Red Jackal into Destro. Plus, the Palitoy Cobra logo is way cooler than the Hasbro G.I Joe Cobra logo.

    The vintage Hyena witg Red Jackal was £150. Tbf, that's a very good price since the figure alone goes for £90 to £100.

    (I got way too into this shit in the past couple of years after finding a handful of my old figures in the shed and then watching this video 😄 )

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  6. I've seen a few Star Wars toys videos from that very same channel. Him and RetroBlasting occasionally crop up on my YouTube side bar.

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