Tag Archives: vintage vault

May 25 2012

Vintage Vault: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Warduke by LJN

Its Friday, Its Vintage Vault, and its time for some more 80’s AD&D goodness from LJN. This time we’re checking out the Evil Fighter, Warduke.

It may surprise some to learn that I place him up there as one of the most iconic action figures of the 80’s.  It helps that I was really into the AD&D game at the time and there’s no better way to say it: For me, Warduke was the Boba Fett of the AD&D universe. I didn’t know much about who he was, but he was a mysterious masked guy and in my mind, he was an utterly evil badass. And I clearly wasn’t the only one, because Warduke enjoyed his own little line of merchandise at the time, which included everything from pencil sharpeners, stickers, and even a Halloween Costume. He even appeared in the Saturday morning cartoon and in the official TSR game canonicity.
And there he is in all his badassery. Despite being classified as a human, Warduke’s head suggests otherwise. He wears a blue helmet with a crystal in the top center and those iconic antlers on the sides. His face is blacked out, all except for his glowing red eyes that peer out menacingly from the helmet’s cutout. You know he’s a tough dude, because he fights with very little armor. His chest is mostly bare, except for some criss crossing straps, and his right leg and right arm are bare as well. He has a little magical bling around his neck and a cool demon skull motif on his gold belt. His right leg and arm feature blue textured chainmail, a silver gauntlet on his hand, and a spiked leg brace just above his boot. Its a great sculpt and like I said, totally iconic for me. The paintwork is very clean and makes for a really colorful figure.
While Warduke was originally released in a regular version, LJN re-released many of the figures with a couple different kinds of play gimmicks. You could get some with shields that shot their spring-loaded fronts, and then you could get the Battle Mattic (also sometimes known as Battle Masters) versions, like Warduke here. The only real difference between the two versions was that this guy has a lever on his back that works his sword arm, moving it in an up and down slashing motion. It doesn’t really impose on the figure much and its a cool little gimmick. One of my favorite things about the Battle Matic version is it confirmed the idea that Warduke was left handed. I’ve often seen him posed with his shield an his left hand and sword in his right, which makes no sense given his left side is armored and his right side is bare. Logically, his right side should be protected by his shield, and by putting the sword slashing gimmick in his left arm, I was vindicated in many a schoolyard debates, even if his appearance on the cartoon had it the other way around.

Despite his action feature, Warduke still has the same level of articulation as most of the LJN poseable figures. You get ball joints in the shoulders and hips and a head that turns 360-degrees. The action gimmick includes a ratcheting joint in his sword arm’s shoulder, but it doesn’t inhibit the articulation in any way.
Warduke comes wtih two accessories. You get his iconic skull shield and his magical sword, Nightwind. The shield is a very cool piece and has a handle for him to hold it. I remember my original Warduke’s shield lost the handle and so I had to put a piece of modeling clay in there and stick it onto his hand. I’ve since replaced that figure with this fresh minty, like-new Battle Mattic one. Nightwind is also a cool little accesory. The hilt is slightly ornate with a yellow paintjob and the blade is slightly leaf shaped.
If you can’t tell by now, I absolutely adore this figure. The design is great and the attention paid to the sculpt and paintwork really reflect the love that LJN often vested into this line of action figures. Its somewhat uncommon when a mere action figure becomes so popular that he creates his own lore, but that’s exactly what happened when LJN created this guy and he eventually found his way into the cartoon, and thus the rich fiction of TSR’s official canon. If you happen to just want one figure that represents this line so well, be sure to pick up Warduke. He’s surprisingly easy to find in great condition and even with his weapons, he shouldn’t set you back that much treasure.

Dungeons & Dragons cartoon image borrowed from The Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon Encyclopedia. Your one-stop source for everything and anything related to the classic Saturday morning cartoon.
May 23 2012

Vintage Vault: M.A.S.K. Piranha with Sly Rax by Kenner

Ok, so its Wednesday, but let’s all humor me and call it Monday, because we’re doing the delayed MASK thang today. This is the penultimate edition of MASK Vintage Vault, and today we’ll be covering what was one of my favorite MASK toys as a kid and also one of the ones that did not survive so well up until today. Probably because I beat the shit out of it. Its Sly Rax and his motorcycle, Piranha, which happens to double as a one-man submarine… sort of.

Sly Rax was without a doubt my favorite character on the cartoon. If they did a live-action MASK movie back in the 80’s, the great special effects gore-wizard and sometimes actor, Tom Savini could have just stepped right into the role. Even the action figure looks like he’d be right at home romping though a shopping mall chopping up zombies with a machete. With his blue jeans, leather jacket, sunglasses, and wicked mustache, he had the whole biker look down to a tee, even if what he drove was more preppy than gangish. And thanks to those shades, mustache and goatee, Sly has a lot more paint apps on his face than most MASK figures, making him stand out all that much more.
As usual, Sly Rax features seven points of articulation. You get a head that turns, rotating shoulders, legs that move forward at the hips, and hinged knees.
Sly’s mask is called Stiletto and its also one of my favorites. Its colored the same as Sly’s jacket so it really meshes well with his outfit and looks great on the figure. The silver trim is nice, although most of the trim on my figure’s mask is sadly worn off. If memory serves, Stiletto shot tiny energy knives at people.
In its regular mode, Piranha is a pretty normal looking purple motorcycle with a somewhat suspicious looking sidecar. Sadly, mine isn’t the best example of what this toy looked like brand new, as its missing all of the stickers from the front windshield piece, but the rest is all there. The sculpting on the bike is pretty solid and Rax can sit on top of it pretty well, although with his mask on it looks a little undersized for him. The translucent purple windshield piece is removable if you want, and there’s some nice chromed out details on the wheels and the engine. The sidecar fits a figure in the seat.
In its covert mode, Piranha doesn’t really convert into anything, but rather just shoots its sidecar, which converts into a one-man submarine. The sub itself is pretty cool, as the windshield slides up to enclose the capsule, fins pop out of the sides, and two guns appear in the front. I also really dig the chrome engine on the back. Its also worth noting that it shoots pretty far when you launch it. In execution, its a pretty cool little toy, but in concept? Even as a kid there were some things that bothered me about this design.
First and foremost, how many times is a motorcycle that shoots out a submarine really going to come in handy? A bike that turns into a helicopter? Sure. A bike that partly turns into a submarine? Mmm… not so much. Secondly, unless Rax has someone sitting in the sidecar, he actually needs to jump off the bike, and into the sidecar in order to make use of the sub. Lastly, the bulk of the motorcycle is left behind, so either VENOM has a whole garage full of Piranha bikes, or Rax always has to drive the sub back to the place he launched from, drag it onto land, and reattach it before he can take the whole thing back to base. I’m guessing MASK could just put an agent by the bike and capture him when he comes back. Yeah, I’m over analyzing the toy, but this is what I do.
Quibbles aside, Pirhana really is a cool little toy and I absolutely loved it when I was a kid. Its odd how two of my favorites were both motorcycles, and yet I’m pretty sure Condor and Piranha got a huge amount of attention. I’ll confess that when I was a kid, I probably used the sidecar as much as a jet as I did a submarine. While its a pretty simple toy, it tends to be tough to find in really good condition, mainly due to sticker wear on the front windshield, and the fact that the front windshield tabs break really easily. Every now and then I poke around on Ebay and try to find a new windshield with the stickers still there to improve mine, but the stickers are usually either mussed up or the tab that holds the whole piece is broken.
[And so next Monday will be the last of the MASK for a little while, and I saved one of the biggest pieces for last. We’ll be checking out the Rhino in all its glory. For now, I’m just glad I was actually able to get an update posted without the roof falling on me or my computer catching fire, since that seems to be the case lately. I’m going to try my best to be back tomorrow with the second update of the week so that I can cruise into Vintage Vault on Friday with a look at everyone’s favorite AD&D badass: Warduke! -FF]
May 18 2012

Vintage Vault: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Melf by LJN

Yes, its Friday and thank God for that, because if it weren’t for Vintage Vault, I’d be shit out of content. The stores’ toy shelves are still bare of anything new or interesting and we’re hovering in the Summer duldrums, waiting for new product to launch. So, today we’re checking out another AD&D figure by LJN and for the first time I actually have a cardback to show off!

And there it is! Today we’re looking at the Good Fighter Elf, who just so happens to be named Melf. Yes, Melf the Elf. Its unfortunate. The front of the cardback has a stripe on the top corner declaring him to be one of the good guys. There’s a nice piece of artwork showing off the character beside the bubble, and under that, there’s an informative blurb about the Elf Fighter. Its not so much a bio of the character, but more details about the race and class, which I always thought was cool. As a tie-in line, LJN really worked hard to keep these toys authentically linked to the AD&D lore, and I always appreciated that.

The back panel of the card shows a pretty cool illustration of some of the figures and beasts in action. You can see the Northlord Barbarian and Strongheart the Paladin, both figures we’ve already looked at. You can also see some guys we haven’t gotten to yet. The bottom shows some rather poor quality photos of some of the PVC monsters, although oddly enough doesn’t tell you who they are!

Moving on to the figure itself, Melf has always been a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, he is a very cool figure, with some exceptional detail for such a little guy and some very cool gear. On the other hand, his head sculpt always bothered me, because it just doesn’t seem like an Elf to me, and that’s why I always used him as a Half-Elf. His noggin is just too big and meaty and he looks like there’s some human mixed in there. Apart from that the head sculpt is very nicely detailed. You can clearly make out his pointed ears, flowing blonde hair and his headband. Unfortunately, it just looks like he got punched in the face a bunch of times. He certainly looks nothing like the face illustrated on the cardback.

The rest of the figure, on the other hand, looks pretty close to the artwork. The most important thing to know about this guy is that he is tiny. Nonetheless, LJN spared no expense on the sculpt. The chainmail on his arms and legs is all textured with a nice criss-cross pattern. His tunic features armor discs and he has a little belt with a pouch sculpted on it. Even his tiny boots feature some loving details. The paintwork is equally impressive, with light blue for the chainmail, brown for the tunic and boots, and yellow for his armor accents. The whole ensemble is finished off with a softgoods cape and high collar that attaches around his neck with a little silver string.

In addition to great detail, Melf comes with some cool weapons. He has a bow and quiver of arrows, a sword, and a shield. The sword is pretty standard with a yellow hilt and a leaf-shaped blade, all of which is as long as Melf is tall. [So, obviously, my alcohol addled mind missed it, but as an astute reader has correctly pointed out, I shot this with Warduke’s sword. I’ll have to dig through some baggies of parts to find Melf’s original sword, but I’ll get to it eventually. As always, folks, thanks for keeping me on my toes! -FF] The shield is very well done with a sculpted wood pattern on the front face, sculpted rivets, a sculpted emblem, and a yellow border. The bow and quiver are sculpted in one piece, and while he really can’t hold them in an action pose you can sling it on his shoulder or have him leaning on it.

Despite his size, Melf features the same basic articulation as nearly all the AD&D figures. You get ball joints in the shoulders and hips, and a head that turns left and right.

Melf is by no means a perfect figure. It should be really hard to get past that head of his. But everything else about this figure is executed so well, that I can be pretty forgiving. He’s always been an iconic looking figure and one that looks like he jumped right out of the pages of one of Gygax’s player manuals. His gear is well thought out and fun, and he looks great when displayed in an adventuring party with the other good guys of the bunch.

May 14 2012

Vintage Vault: M.A.S.K. Raven with Calhoun Burns by Kenner

As I hinted at in this weekend’s update, the MASK editions of Vintage Vault are headed into the home stretch. I planned this as a limited series, and while I will eventually  come back to it, we’re down to the last three installments of the initial planned run. In the last installment, we looked at Thunderhawk, today we’re going to look at one of the other flying sportscars in the series, and one which I think is overall a much better toy. Let’s check out The Raven and its driver, Calhoun Burns. And as always, we’ll start with the figure.

Calhoun’s outfit is a bit like a traditional flight suit, but the colors are totally off the wall. The bulk of his jumpsuit is dark blue with some lighter blue detailing and neon orange pads. The coloring here reminds me more of a 90’s GI JOE than a mid-80’s MASK figure. The sculpt is pretty good for a figure of this size, especially his head sculpt. Some of the MASK figures have some pretty soft face sculpts, but Calhoun’s is clear and well defined. As usual, the only paint apps on the figure’s head is the hair. His mask is called Gulliver and has the questionable power to make things appear really big or small. Ummmm… ok. Gulliver is bright orange with a blue visor and some black paint apps on the gizmos on the back. Its a cool looking mask, but it sits a bit awkwardly high on the figure’s head.
Like all the MASK figures, Calhoun features seven points of articulation. His head turns 360-degrees, his arms and legs rotate at the shoulders and hips. His legs have hinged knees.
In its civilian mode, Raven is a black Chevy Corvette. This time, there are no actual trademarks or insignias on the car, but its pretty clear from the mold that its a Corvette. The car’s body is molded entirely in black plastic with tampo’ed red, yellow, and white scrollwork on the hood, sides and spoiler. The wheels feature real rubber tires with the Good Year trademarks on them. The windshield is clear plastic, but the rear window and the side windows are all opaque black plastic.
Like Thunderhawk, Raven’s doors open as part of the car’s transformation gimmick. In this case they’re sort of reverse gull-wing doors that open down and allow you to put the Calhoun figure inside. The door design is obviously not accurate to the car model, but it works. The interior of the doors have stickers with the MASK logo and various instruments. Raven’s interior is orange with a nicely detailed cockpit and dashboard. The vehicle seats two figures, and have seatbelts to keep the figure’s in place during those rough battles.
Raven’s combat mode is a flying boat, which gives it some serious versatility over air, sea and land. The conversion is in three parts. Push the button just in front of the passenger side door and the front of the car flips upside down. You can then flip the tires up, revealing a total of four guns on the front. Next, you flip the doors down to make the wings. Lastly, you press in the rear license plate, which causes the chromed out rear engines to spring up, and then you fold in the back wheels. The result is a really cool looking jet that works a lot better for me than Matt Trakker’s Thunderhawk. There’s even a disc launcher as a hidden gimmick in the front bumper.
In case you haven’t guessed, I absolutely love this vehicle. It even has an unofficial hovercraft mode where you can fold the wheels up under it like the DeLorean’s hover-mode in Back to the Future. Raven looks great in its car mode, its fun to convert, and the attack mode really looks cool. If I were Matt Trakker, I’d give up Thunderhawk in a second and adopt Raven as my vehicle of choice.
Raven is a pretty well constructed toy and is surprisingly easy to find in good condition. Apart from scratches to the plastic, Raven doesn’t usually show a lot of wear. The tampo designs stay in place and apart from the interior doors, there aren’t a lot of exposed stickers to wear out and deface the toy. While Raven does use springs as part of its conversion, they tend to hold pretty well. I was able to pick up a complete and nice example of Raven for about $25 and while its probably one of the more unsung cars in MASK’s arsenal, I highly recommend it for any MASK collection. I’d even suggest picking it up over Thunderhawk. It may not be as iconic, but it is a much cooler toy.
May 11 2012

Vintage Vault: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dragonne by LJN

[As promised, I’m back today with a wee bit of content. I still have no idea whether I’ll be here for the weekend or not, but if I’m still kicking around at home, I’ll probably get some time to do some posting. If not, I’ll be back on Monday to try to wrangle things back to normal at the FigureFan Ranch. -FF]

Its Friday, and that means its time for some more 1980’s AD&D action figure goodness from LJN. Today we’re going to check out our first creature from the line, and no, Strongheart’s Destrier didn’t count! Most of LJN’s AD&D creatures were the non-poseable PVC kind, but there were a couple bonafide action figures based on the beastiary of Gary Gygax’s Monster Manuals. The Dragonne is one of those, so let’s see what he’s all about…

No package shot, but the Dragonne came in a large window box with a backflap on the top. My familiarity with AD&D is a bit rusty, so I had to consult the ratty, dog-eared Monster Manual. Ahem… according to the all-knowing Gygax, the Dragonne is a Neutral Aligned, desert dwelling, magical beast that looks like a cross between a Brass Dragon and a Lion. When I was a young’un I always thought this thing was supposed to be a Griffin, but I guess that’s different. He has wings, but apparently they’re only good for short trips. He can also let out a terrifying roar that renders all creatures fatigued or exhausted unless they can win a saving throw. All in all, this guy probably isn’t the worst thing you could come across while on a campaign, but you probably wouldn’t want to meet it when it was pissed off.
There’s a fair amount of differences between LJN’s toy and many of TSR’s concept drawings, but that having been said, I think LJN really did the Dragonne proud and I really can’t say enough great things about the sculpt here. The head is amazing, both ferocious and majestic with plenty of detail in the mane, the teeth, and even his little beard. Each individual scale is sculpted on the body as well as the segmented plates in his chest. His toes, claws, and even the pads on his feet are all here. The wings, sculpted in separate and detachable pieces have sculpted veins running through them. Clearly a lot of thought and love went into this toy.
As amazing as the sculpt is, the coloring on thsi figure is equally fantastic. The toy is cast in a beige plastic with loads of paint applied all around. The coppery color used for his wings and scales is just perfect. It makes the figure really stand out on the shelf and it holds up so incredibly well. Even after 30 years, this figure still looks so bright and vibrant. There’s plenty of detailed paintwork on the head, both white and copper on his fur and great crimson eyes. The coloring is finished off with a rich orange for his belly, brown for his footpads, and white for his claws.
The Dragonne isn’t one of the most articulated figures out there, but when compared to LJN’s bendy PVC statues, we’ll take what we can get. There are a whopping four points of articulation here. The head turns from side to side, the front arms (legs?) rotate at the shoulders, and the tail rotates at the base. The wings don’t move, but they are removable.
With all the iconic critters to choose from, I can’t quite understand why LJN chose the Dragonne as one of the deluxe, poseable monsters, but in retorspect I’m glad they did. Its hard to deny that this turned out to be one great looking toy. What’s more, while he often turns up for sale missing his wings, it only takes a wee bit of dedication to track down a nice, complete example. He’s a pretty rugged toy so there isn’t much breakage or wear to worry about, and its not uncommon to be able to pick up good examples at toy shows or on Ebay for under $20. There may have been a lot of creatures I would have rather seen produced in this format, but in the absence of any real evil dragons to fight (I never did own Tiamat), this is usually the beast that my noble adventurers had to slay in order to get at the treasure. Thirty years later, he’s still a great looking figure, and I’m proud to have him on my shelf.
May 7 2012

Vintage Vault: M.A.S.K. Thunderhawk with Matt Trakker by Kenner

I suppose I couldn’t go much longer looking at MASK without checking out one of the lead vehicles, so today we’re checking out what is without a doubt the most iconic vehicle of the line. Its none other then Matt Trakker’s flying Chevy Camero, Thunderhawk. Now, this may be blasphemy to some of you MASK fans out there, but as both a toy and a concept, Thunderhawk hasn’t aged well for me. Don’t get me wrong, I was in love with this toy as a kid, but while I still have an undying love for many of these clever toy designs, Thunderhawk just doesn’t impress me much anymore. Let’s see why…

But before we get to Thunderhawk, let’s check out MASK’s intrepid leader and single dad, Matt Trakker. If he looks a little familar, it might be because Hasbro gave him the action figure treatment just a few years ago as part of the GI JOE 25th Anniversary Collection. And yes, having a 3 3/4″ Matt Trakker figure on a GI JOE card almost blew my brain out the side of my head from sheer awesome and is a figure I seriously need to look at here later on in the week. It also gave me false hopes that we might see a resurgence in MASK toys and figures, but we all know how that went. Anyway, the original Matt is a fairly simple figure. He comes in a grey flight jumpsuit with a sculpted five-point harness and red armbands, gloves and knee pads. As usual for MASK figures, his hair is painted, but none of the features on his face are, making it a bit difficult to pick out the detail in the head sculpt. Matt Trakker features the same seven points of articulation as all MASK figures: A rotating neck, arms that rotate at the shoulders, legs that rotate at the hips, and hinged knees.
Matt Trakker’s mask is called Spectrum and if I remember correctly it launched some kind of sonic attack that temporarily disorientated enemies. Spectrum is one of my favorite mask designs in the whole line. Its red and silver deco goes well with Matt’s jumpsuit and the fact that it actually looks a bit like a flight mask made it look right very appropriate while Matt was flyng the Thunderhawk, especially since the cockpit was open to the air. That wind sheer had to be killer!
And so that brings us to Thunderhawk. In its covert mode, Thunderhawk is a red Chevy Camero, and I’ve got very little to complain about when it comes to this mode. The car looks fantastic, and as I’ve said before, I loved the fact that so many MASK toys actually used licensed vehicles, complete with trademarks and all. As usual, you even get real rubber tires complete with the Good Year logos. The interior of the car is very nicely detailed, complete with sculpted seats, a dashboard sticker, and seatbelts that hold the figures in place. Yes sir, the Thunderhawk is a very nice recreation of the Camero, with only one exception and that’s the gull-wing doors, which aren’t accurate, but obviously needed for the toy’s conversion gimmick.
The bulk of the car’s body is molded in red plastic and the undercarriage is in grey. The headlights are chromed silver, as are the running boards under the doors. Thunderhawk makes use of some very prominant and very large stickers, which make the toy look great, so long as they aren’t tattered and peeling. These stickers are one of the things that makes getting a really good second-hand Thunderhawk particularly difficult, but more on that later.
So far its all been gushing, so what’s the problem? The problem is in Thunderhawk’s conversion to its jet mode. Its just way too simple. You push the button on the top, the gullwing doors open to form wings and the spoiler and rear bumper lift up to reveal the thrusters. All that’s left is to pull out the wing guns, and that’s it. If you look underneath, there’s two hatches where Thunderhawk can drop its stun bombs. Yeah, one of mine is missing. I had plenty of fun with this thing as a kid, but looking back on it now, it’s just not very clever or convincing when it comes to designs.
The other problem with Thunderhawk is that it can be damn expensive to get a really good one. It is the most iconic vehicle in the line, and so that makes it one of the most desireable. There are plenty out there to be had, but getting one in really good condition is the tricky thing. I’ve already mentioned the stickers. There are two huge stickers on the hood, one on each door, three on the roof, and one that covers the entire spoiler. Years and rough play take their tole on these things, and when they’re mussed up, it really hurts the look of the toy. The other problem is in the springs. Thunderhawk’s conversion is done almost completely by the single press of a button and the catches wear over time. It takes several tries before the doors on mine will lock down, and eventually they just won’t anymore. The rear bumper won’t stay down all the way, leaving the rear jet engines peaking out all the time. I often think about getting another one in better shape, but then I reallize I’ll be spending around sixty bucks, and quite frankly there are other MASK toys that I don’t have, that I’d much rather sink that money into.
Don’t think I’m hating on Thunderhawk. Its still a cool toy, but it just isn’t one of my favorites in the line. Afterall, half of its conversion just entails opening its doors. I’m all for suspending belief at the fact that this thing doesn’t look like it could ever fly in a million years, but when you look at some of the clever designs of the other MASK vehicles, you’d think the leader could get something better. In fact, there were several flying sportscars in the MASK line, and almost all of them were better looking and more clever than poor old Thunderhawk. Next Monday, we’ll take a look at one of those.
May 4 2012

Vintage Vault: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Kelek and Ringlerun by LJN

While the dungeons and the dragons may have received top billing in TSR’s roleplaying game, AD&D was just as much about wizards and their crazy magics. Contrary to popular belief at the time, you didn’t have to be an old bearded fart in robes to be a spell-slinger, but it didn’t hurt either and LJN did their best to uphold the stereotype with their wizard figures. There were two wizards released in the 4-inch scale AD&D action figure line, one from each alignment. So you got the Good Wizard Ringlerun and the Evil Wizard Kelek. Actually, to be precise Kelek was termed a Sorcerer and Ringlerun a Wizard. They were available packaged separately, each on their own card back, but today we’re going to take a gander at the pair of them. Suffice it to say, the packaging on this pair is long gone.

Let’s start off with Kelek because, well hot damn, I love this figure. Talk about iconic? I know he made a cameo in the Saturday morning D&D cartoon, but I’d swear this figure is based on cover art from one of the TSR books, I just can’t find the proof. Anyway, much like Strongheart was the epitome of righeous knighthood, if you look up evil wizard bastard in a dictionary, this is probably what you’d see. He looks like he’d be right at home at Alestair Crowley’s Christmas party.
As far as sculpting goes, you don’t see a lot of it on Kelek, because he’s wearing a set of black softgoods robes that covers everything but his head, hands and little upturned feet. It’s a great garment for a figure in this scale, complete with a stitched red border and a high collar behind his head that looks like flames and I’m shocked that it survived the near 30 years in such great condition. I know there’s sculpting underneith the robes, but they’re stitched on good, and quite frankly, I’m not sure I want to go peeking under there.

Nonetheless, what little sculpting you can see, particularly his head, is really amazing. Stare into this guy’s crazy fucking eyes long enough at your own peril, because it just might drive you mad. The contrast between his shiny bald pate and his flowing white beard and mustache is classic, but its those friggin eyes that just creep me out and really make this figure something special. Any figure released today would be proud to have a head sculpt this expressive.

Kelek has only four points of articulation, because his bearded head is sculpted as part his body. He does have ball joints in his shoulders and hips, as is standard for all LJN’s AD&D figures.
Evil Sorcerers need their gear, and Kelek comes with two accessories. You get a long staff and a short wand. Both are molded in this delightfully ethereal neon green plastic that I immediately associate with the slime we used to get in buckets. The sculpt on both pieces is very nice, with snakes coiled around the shafts. The staff has a dragon spreading its wings and a tormented face at the top. Kelek is meant to be able to hold each accessory in each hand. Mine holds the wand just fine, but he tends to drop the staff a lot. Thankfully, I have plenty of blue tack handy.
And then there’s Ringlerun, who is the Yin to Kelek’s Yang. Or vice-versa. The two of these guys could be brothers who at some point went on their separate ways. Ringlerun has the same bald head and flowing beard, but a kinder face that doesn’t give me nightmares if I stare into his eyes. My Ringlerun’s beard has yellowed, which I presume is age and not by design because his bushy eyebrows are white. Nonetheless, the headsculpt is just as good as Kelek’s, particularly for such an old figure. Ringlerun features the same four points of articulation as Kelek. You get ball joints in the shoulers and hips. His head is sculpted as part of his body.
Much like Kelek, Ringlerun sports the softgoods robes. Ringlerun’s are predominantly white with glitter, giving them something of an ethereal quality. Unlike Kelek, Ringlerun’s robes have proper sleeves, but still cover everything except his head, hands, and feet. He has a red sash with black border running down the front and a high collar behind his head. Ringlerun also features the same upturned wizard shoes as his nemesis, Kelek.
Ringlerun gets by with just one accessory. Its a simple staff with a spherical top. Its the quinticential combination of magic staff and walking stick. I actually like the simple, understated quality of this piece a lot, and RInglerun looks great holding it.                         
Kelek and Ringlerun are both great figures, representing the two opposing sides of what is basically the same character class. If I had to choose between the pair of them, I’d say I like Kelek a little more, mainly because he just looks so thoroughly evil, but Ringlerun is no slouch either. The pair of them are still pretty easy to find without breaking the bank, but their predominant softgoods robes make them a little tougher to find in good condition. Case in point, my Kelek looks like he just came out of the package, while my Ringlerun’s robes are a bit on the shabby side.
Apr 30 2012

Vintage Vault: M.A.S.K. Condor with Brad Turner by Kenner

[Hey, folks. I’m still recovering from the weekend. Indian food and lots of alcohol is not necessarily a good combination. Nonetheless, I didn’t want to miss what’s become M.A.S.K. Monday around here, so I’m checking in with something of a quickie today. -FF]

I’m sure I mentioned in a past entry that either in 1985 or 1986, I got some of the 1st Series MASK toys for my birthday and the rest for Christmas. My parents bought them all at once, and they picked them up about a month before my birthday, so I went crazy knowing that they were all hidden in the house somewhere and that I had a month to wait for some of them and another four months for the rest. I must have managed to be enough of a pain in the ass that they relented and agreed to give me one early, and that one was Condor with Brad Turner. As a result this simplest of MASK vehicles has always had a special place near and dear to my heart. Besides it being the only one I had to play with for a whole month, I just thought the idea of a motorcycle turning into a helicopter was unbelievably cool. Here we are 25 some years later and those blasted scientists still haven’t come up with these yet.
Naturally Brad Turner was my favorite (and only) MASK figure for quite a while. He was a cool character on the show, and I like his bright yellow jumpsuit and bright red (or mauve?) accents. His outfit is as gaudy as they come, but it seems to fit a flashy dude riding a racing bike. Turner is certainly not one of the most detailed MASK figures in the line, but I still love him, right down to his cool shades. As is standard for the line, Brad features seven points of articulation. His head rotates, his arms rotate at the shoulders, his legs rotate at the hips, and his knees are hinged.
Brad Turner’s mask is Hocus Pocus. Its also bright yellow and it really accessorizes well with his whole blinding yellow ensemble. As the name suggests, the mask is designed to project holograms to deceive his enemies. It always seemed appropriate that the MASK guys had more strategic and less violent powers for their masks. You just can’t have good guys shooting people in the face with ball bearings.
And then there’s Condor. Condor is probably the simplest MASK vehicle there is, and yet its still one of my favorites. In its standard street mode, its a green sports motorcycle with some black accents. There aren’t a lot of stickers or even sculpted detail. Nonetheless, it still looks good, although there’s definitely something a little suspicious about this bike, particularly with that black bar wrapping around the back of it. The bike will stand on its own, with just a slight lean and rolls along great.
Condor is one of the few MASK toys that doesn’t rely on complex mechanisms or any automatic conversion. I was actually surprised to see that there’s even a spring in this thing. You simply lift up the black bar on the back, which causes the landing skids to simultaneously fold down. Then you just unclip each of the rotor blades, fold them out, and then swing the back wheel out. The nose gun pokes out of the front just a little bit further, and the skids reveal two more guns sculpted to them. Its simple, but effective. The helicopter mode works really well, so long as Brad doesn’t adjust his seat and pop his head up too high. From a safety standpoint, this thing is a deathtrap, but who wouldn’t want to run a motorcycle speeding off a cliff and have it turn into a helicopter?
With no complex mechanisms and not a lot of stickers, Condor is a pretty easy toy to find in good looking and good working order. About the only issue here is the stress put on the plastic of the rotor blades at the point where they flip up. Flip them up enough times and they will eventually fall off. Apart from that, Condor is a good and inexpensive way to start a new MASK collection or rekindle your lost love for this line.
Apr 27 2012

Vintage Vault: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Strongheart and Destrier by LJN

Its time for more AD&D figure fun on Vintage Vault. Last time we looked at one of the giants, so this time we’ll check out one of the more normal sized figures, Strongheart, along with his trusty steed. In keeping with the theme of the AD&D license, LJN often assigned classes and alignments to their figures and the aptly named Strongheart was a Good Paladin. And as was often the case, Strongheart here made a cameo on the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. The packages for these toys are long gone, but Strongheart came carded and Destrier came in a window box. While they were each sold separately, they were intended to go together, as we’ll soon see.

Strongheart was a pretty iconic figure for me as a kid. At the time of his release in 1983, I was still a little young to grasp all the fineries of the AD&D game, but I had some of the books and I was starting to dabble. While Strongheart probably wasn’t one for pillaging dungeons for loot, he still became the face of the common adventurer for me whenever I dabbled with the game.
And iconic indeed! Strongheart is the quinticential brave night in shining armor. He has a noble headsculpt with a bold mustache and high cheekbones. You can practically hear him spouting off words like “blaggard!” and “knave!” while pwning dragon fools and rescuing princesses. His helmet, with visor sculpted in the raised position, angled steel antlers, and a swirling white plume is the height of majesty. The sculpting on the rest of the figure’s body is equally impressive, particularly the scalloped kneeguards and the embossed discs on his chest plate. He even has a flowing, glittery blue softgoods cape to finish off the ensemble. The figure manages to pull off the iconic knightly look without being generic. Even almost 30 years later, this figure still looks great.
Strongheart has the basic five points of articulation: Head, shoulders and hips. His head rotates side to side, but his shoulders and hips all have ball joints to give his limbs a little more of a varied field of motion. He comes only with his sword, which is a standard no-nonsense implement of justice. I always thought it odd that he didn’t come with a shield as well, since many of the other figures came with at least two accessories.
Of course, every brave knight needs his trusty steed. There were only three ride-on beasts released by LJN for the AD&D figures and Strongheart got two of them. Wait, can’t the figures share? Not really. The way the ride-ons work is similar to Kenner’s old Tauntaun and Dewback mounts from the Star Wars line. The figure’s legs go into a trap door on the beast’s back and there are a set of Strongheart’s fake legs sculpted on the sides of the saddle to make it look like he’s riding it. As a result, Strongheart is the only figure that looks right on him.
Destrier is a mighty big, brown war horse with a set of intricate multipiece soft plastic armor. One piece covers his head and mane with ornamental reigns coming off of his mouth. Another piece covers his breast and is adorned with a beaked bird head with feathered wings spreading out to each side. The body armor and saddle makes up the third piece, complete with the above mentioned fake Strongheart legs and a scabbard that can hold Stronghearts sword. All the pieces fasten together with slots and straps and hold onto the horse really well.
Truth be told, Destrier isn’t much of an action figure, he’s really just a statue. The only articulation is a swivel cut in his neck which allows it to turn side to side. His legs are sculpted with one front leg up, and he can stand perfectly on his own. He makes for a really majestic display with Strongheart sitting on top of him.
These days, neither Strongheart or Destrier are particularly difficult to find, nor are they terribly expensive, if you’re content with loose examples. Strongheart even holds up pretty well, although you often find chipping on the paint of his plume and his hip joints tend to go loose. The armor’s silver paint often loses its lustre but even that tends to add to the character of the figure. Probably the biggest problem is finding him with his cape still attached. Destrier sometimes suffers some rot to the rubber straps, but otherwise, he’s a pretty hearty toy that usually just needs to be cleaned up. Either way, this pair makes a great centerpiece to any AD&D collection.

Dungeons & Dragons cartoon image borrowed from The Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon Encyclopedia. Your one-stop source for everything and anything related to the classic Saturday morning cartoon.
Apr 24 2012

Vintage Vault: M.A.S.K. Jackhammer with Cliff Dagger by Kenner

I was going to do something other than MASK for Vintage Vault this week, but since I got desperate and tacked on a second edition last week with some variety, I thought I’d keep on trucking with those crazy secret raiders who will neutralize, as soon as they arrive. Today we’re sticking with the bad guys, though, and checking out one of the more iconic of VENOM’s vehicles and drivers. Its Cliff Dagger and his killer SUV war machine, Jackhammer. This vehicle and figure was part of Series 1 and its the first MASK toy we’re looking at that I actually owned as a kid. Will it live up to my nostalgia? Let’s find out…

As always, let’s start with the figure. Cliff Dagger is your classic thug through and through. He’s just the kind of guy you would hire as muscle to come along on a cash-grab bank job. Besides being none too bright, he’s a big, burly bald guy with an eye pactch and wool skull cap, and if there’s one thing we all learned from Saturday morning cartoons its eye patch wearing bald guys spell trouble. He was prominantly featured in the 80’s cartoon as one of VENOM’s number one henchmen.
Unlike so many of the MASK figures, which feature complex flight suits and such, Dagger is just a dude in his civies. He’s a decent looking little figure, and since he didn’t have any hair to paint, Kenner splurged to paint his hat and eye patch. He’s sporting a manly purple shirt with a sculpted shoulder holster and automatic pistol.
Cliff Dagger’s mask is called Torch, and its one of my favorites both in form and function. With its slits for the eyes and mouth, it looks like some kind of robot out of Doctor Who. Its simple and looks really low-tech. As its name implies its basically a flame thrower, which just defies all reason and yet is just amazingly cool. What I wouldn’t give to be able to shoot flames out of my head.
And then there’s Jackhammer. Its regular mode is your standard black utility vehicle. A lot of MASK’s cars are actually licensed vehicles, but apart from the real rubber Goodyear tires, there’s no identifying marks on Jackhammer. I’d say its like a cross between a Ford Bronco and a Chevy Blazer.  There are huge stickers on the sides to simulate relective surfaces. The vac metal wheels and front grill really contrast nicely with the black body. The driver area is pretty detailed both in terms of sculpt and stickers, both doors open, and it can seat two figures. Jackhammer is a great looking vehicle that really doesn’t betray its alt mode much at all.
Like Hurricane, Jackhammer doesn’t so much change from one vehicle to another, but rather transforms into a battle machine. Slide the hood back and it angles up and forms an armored shield over the windshield, while the front bumper simultaneously drops down to reveal a pair of laser guns. Press the rear bumper and the top of Jackhammer’s backhalf pops up into a rotating gun turret. There’s an additional gun hidden inside, which can be taken out and plugged into the turret. Roll the Jackhammer along and the front guns recoil as if they’re firing. In battle mode, the turret offers an additional seat, allowing the vehicle to seat a total of three figures.
I really loved this toy as a kid and none of that adoration has been tarnished with the passing of time. Jackhammer may not be one of the highest concept vehicles in the MASK toyline, but its a lot more feasible and practical than many of the vehicle designs. So much so that it practically made a cameo in the GI Joe: Rise of Cobra movie and toyline. Don’t believe me? Well, I’d direct you to my look at the Steel Crusher toy, but I just realized I never did one. Looks like I’ll have to add it to the list for next week.
Due to its high profile in the cartoon, Jackhammer tends to go for a bit more money than a lot of the Series 2 toys.  Wear and curling to the prominant stickers on the sides and on the hood are sometimes an issue. There aren’t a lot of pieces to lose, although the detachable gun for the turret is often missing. I seem to recall paying around $30 for mine and its and its a really nice and fresh example of a toy that belongs in every MASK collection.