NECA’s held the Flash Gordon license for a little while now and has been exploring it in a few different ways. A couple years back I checked out their Flash and Ming figures from the original King Features comic series. More recently, I’ve had a look at the figures based on the 1980 Dino De Laurentis film, and now it’s time to give Defenders of the Earth its turn. These figures are based on the 1986 cartoon, which had Flash join up with the stars of a couple of other King Comics franchises, The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician, to form an Avengers-like team and set out to well… defend the Earth! The cartoon is available to stream for free on a few services and I think it’s still worth checking out. It was probably among the last cartoons that I watched as a teenager before moving on to more adult pursuits. I picked up these figures as they were released and it’s long past time I open them up and give them some love…

These releases do not fall under NECA’s Ultimate series, so they come in straight up window boxes similar to what we got for the Flash Gordon: The Original Superhero line. And there’s nothing wrong with that, because the presentation here is excellent. The boxes have an animated starfield deco with character art on the lower left side, all very reminiscent of vintage 80s toy presentation. Galoob had the license for these figures back in the day and NECA even reworked their logo to copy the Galoob logo, which is a wonderful little touch. The blue and yellow deco is also an homage to the Galoob cardbacks. The left side panels have a headshot of the figure and the colorful series logo, while the right panel has the number of each figure. The Phantom is #01 and Flash is #02. Let’s start with The Phantom!

The Kit Walker that appears in Defenders is a bit different than what we saw in the comics. Most notably, he traded in his pistols for supernatural powers, but his overall appearance has remained pretty close to the Walker family roots. He still wears a skin tight purple body suit with a hood, along with shiny black boots, a wide black belt, and his black domino mask. This is a slightly reworked body that NECA used for The Original Superhero Flash Gordon with some changes to the collar area and sleeve cuffs. His trademark signet rings are sculpted on each of the fists that come on the figure. This was no doubt a very budget-friendly figure for NECA, as it gets by with a lot of recolor and reuse, but it certainly works for the character, so I’m not complaining. The musculature on this figure is beautifully sculpted, particularly on the chest and back, and the proportions are overall excellent.

The head sculpt is a great representation of his animated counterpart. The domino mask and hood have some clearly defined sculpted lines separating them from the face. Alas, the paint could have been cleaner as there’s a bit of flesh tone slopped onto the mask and hood. The facial features are sharp, with very high cheek bones, a strong jawline, and a stoic expression. It’s a solid portrait if not exceptional.

The articulation is identical to what we saw with The Original Superhero Flash Gordon figure and that is every bit a good thing. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double-hinged knees, swivels at the tops of the boots, hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles, and hinges in the toes. There’s a swivel in the waist, an ab-crunch hinge in the torso, and a ball joint in the neck. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps, double-hinged elbows, and the wrists have hinged pegs to allow you to swap hands. Both of the two additional hands are right hands: One is to hold his pistol and the other is for the energy blast from his ring. The joints are all nice and smooth and I had no issues with anything frozen or sticking.

The energy blast for the ring pegs into a hole in the extra right fist, which works really well. It’s cast in pale blue translucent plastic and I love the way this effect looks. I do wish they had actually sculpted the ring on this hand, but I suppose with the energy part inserted, it’s hard to tell it’s not there. Still, why not just use the same hand and bore a hole into the ring?

The Phantom also comes with a laser pistol and boy do I love the design of this thing. It’s got an angled trigger guard that meets the bottom of the grip and all sorts of bits and bobs protruding from the receiver. Off hand, I can’t recall the designs of the guns from the cartoon, so I’m not sure if this is accurate, but it’s a damn cool sci-fi weapon that invokes the swashbuckling Flash Gordon design that I love so much.

You get two blast effect pieces for the gun, both cast in the same translucent blue plastic as the signet ring effect piece. These socket around the barrel of the gun and work very well. One is a long blast and the other is just a muzzle blast. I’m pretty sure these are the exact same pieces that came with the previous Flash Gordon and Ming figures, only recolored from yellow to blue. I only shot pictures of the long effect piece here, but you’ll get to see the other one when we look at Flash.

Finally, The Phantom comes with Zuffy the Zuffoid! Because every one of these cartoons had to have an adorable animal sidekick to appeal to the little kiddos, Flash’s son Rick befriended this annoying little shit on Mongo. It’s a really nice sculpt for such a small figure and he even has some articulation, with ball joints in the shoulders, hips, and neck. The eyes are impressively lifelike, thanks to a high gloss finish, and he’s sculpted holding a Mongo crystal, which contains the personality data from Flash Gordon’s dead wife. The crystal was eventually used as the personality matrix of the team’s super computer. I doubt there was ever a chance NECA was going to make figures of Rick Gordon and the other kids, so they paired Zuffy up with The Phantom, because… the beasts call him brother? OK, let’s move on to Flash Gordon!

Flash shares a lot of the same body as The Phantom, right down to the boots and sleeve cuffs. You do get re-sculpted shoulders with the gold armor pieces, as well as the epaulettes and collar. The same wide black belt is used, but this time with a new Flash-branded belt buckle. The red plastic used for the suit has a nice wash to it that really brings out the sculpting in the muscles. What’s not as nice is the ankle hinges have been cast in red plastic and really stand out against the glossy black of the boots. What a shame. Otherwise, this is a great recreation of Gordon’s look on the cartoon.

I was expecting a reissue of the un-helmeted head from TOS Flash Gordon, but we actually get a completely new head sculpt here to better resemble the cartoon version. This is a fantastic portrait that reflects the character very well. From the strong chin and contours of the cheeks, to the blonde hair and high arches of the eyebrows, it just oozes classic Flash Gordon in every way. I love it!

The same body as The Phantom means the same articulation, so i won’t run through it all again. I do, however have to report that my figure has stuck joints in the feet, making his toes curl up ever so slightly. I have yet to try to fix this with some heat, as it doesn’t really effect his ability to stand, but so far, this is a figure that carries all its problems in its boots. As for extra hands, Flash comes with a set of fists, a set of accessory holding hands, and a left trigger finger hand.

All the accessories included with Flash are recycled and reworked from somewhere else. The sword is the same sculpt as the one that came with TOS Flash, but the hilt has been repainted and it’s been given a cool translucent yellow energy blade. The gold and blue used for the original hilt has been changed to black, gray, and silver, with painted red disks in the crossguard. It’s a nice update to the weapon that gives it a very 80’s sci-fi feel and gels nicely with the cartoon aesthetic.

The pistol is the same one that we just saw with The Phantom, but given a purple metallic paintjob, which looks rather snazzy. You also get the same two blast effect pieces that we got with The Phantom, both cast in the same transparent blue plastic. As I noted above, you do only get a left hand for the gun, and I really would have liked to get a right one too. He can hold the gun in the sword hand, but it’s not quite the same.

Aside from some issues with Flash’s boots, these figures turned out great and it’s really cool to see this old cartoon getting some love from NECA. As I mentioned earlier, it’s a stand out series to me because it’s one of the last cartoons I watched as a kid, and while I was aware of the toys released for it, I was drifting away from toys by that age and never actually had any. Coming back to it as a collector is like a satisfying shot of nostalgia and I’m eager to start digging into the rest of these releases! And while these figures were released a little while ago, they do seem to still be readily available at most online NECA retailers, and if you hunt around you may even find some pretty good discounts.