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Sharkman. That name really just says it all. Without knowing anything about this toy, I knew I had to have it immediately upon finding it in some dead store stock. I need to check that impulse more often.
The Legend of Sharkman was a toy line produced by Beyond-Action Figures in the late 90s and inspired by the surfwear of Maui & Sons. I was a little surprised at how recent these were- you would have thought the toy industry learned its lesson about churning out half-cocked superhero toys by that time. The eponymous main character is based on the Sharkman mascot made famous by Maui & Sons. Per the backing card, he was created by the Goddess Hina to guard the islands of Polynesia from pollution and Green Manta, aided by his friends Maui and Iniki. Residents of Hawaii, avert your eyes. An animated series was in the works as well. Unsurprisingly, these action figures (the ones that were actually produced) went directly to clearance bins; I am pretty sure that Beyond-Action did not stick around for much long after.
Sharkman is a cool toy simply because he is a three-dimensional realization of the M&S logo. If you grew up in Hawaii during the 80s, Maui & Sons was pretty much everywhere. Sculpting is rather nice, if a bit overwrought. The figure does freak me out a bit though, because he really does look like an anthropomorphic shark- take off his surfer-dude shades and he stares back with beady little dead eyes (I've heard these were supposed to light up along with his chest logo, but the electronics were gutted to save costs). But he does own a surfboard, skateboard and snowboard (for that Hawaiian snow), so I'd wager him to be a pretty laid-back dude. You might have a problem when he gets the munchies after smoking out. There is also a variation with a yellow shirt (purple is his traditional color).
So how about those other characters?
Sharkman's right-hand man and best 'bra' is da kine local guy, Maui. Maui is the stereotypical fat local guy portrayed in nearly every series about Hawaii- but he gets a war helmet and club as accessories. Good thing none of the bad guys own guns. Maybe Maui is really the alter-ego of Sharkman (since the name of the company is, after all, Maui & Sons) but we'll never know. I can't tell if he's trying to fly the shaka or hitch a ride.
Iniki is the leading lady of this Faux-waiian freakshow. Perhaps the designers were not aware that she shares the name of the hurricane that devastated the island of Kauai just 5 years earlier. Although smitten with Sharkman, she cannot overcome her fear of him accidentally biting her head off during a moment of passion. We can only hope that she will have better luck with the cast of Baywatch.
Green Manta is the main villain. Why is he trying to pollute the islands of Polynesia? Undersea oil? Unobtanium? (Don't say spite. Don't say spite.) Spite?
If I were to peg a shelfwarmer from this line (beyond, you know, all of them) it would be Doc Toxic. No kid wants a toy with a robe. I feel pretty confident in saying that throughout action figure history, the robed characters are consistently the worst sellers. Hagar the Witch from Panosh's Voltron. The Robotech Master from Matchbox. You know the one. Eclipsed only by the unpopularity of the series itself.
"Hey guys, I don't know what to name this last guy. He's like a big lobster thing with a spiky paddle. I just can... OMG JUMBO PRAWNS AT RED LOBSTER! THE PRAWN. WE'LL CALL HIM THE PRAWN. Ok, let's go get beers."
And there were vehicles planned for this line. These all seem to have been canceled. Not unexpected, as the big ticket items would be first to go if the initial figures could not sell.
There are two spaceship toys, which I find kind of strange. The Sharkinator is probably the best designed- at least the only vehicle of the lineup that does not have an overwhelming generic toy feel. Oddly, it does not seem large enough to house any of the figures. The other ship is the Quazar Shark "The Quark." This looks like it could comfortably house one or two of the toys, so it has to be enormous. It also vibrates.
And the last vehicle is Iniki's Baywatch Barbie Beach Cruiser truck with the rather nondescript name of Free-wheeling Beach Patrol Vehicle. Ignore the irony of using a gas-guzzling monster truck to save the environment.
Sharkman was both a product and casualty of its time. Maybe a few years earlier it might have flown, however briefly. But kids were too much into their Tama-gatchas and Pokimans at that time to bat an eye at freaky action figures.
And I think you can safely say that Maui & Sons really... jumped the shark.
YEAAAAAAAAAAH.
Baltan Seijin 2 [2代目バルタン星人] is, by far, my favorite toy by M1Go [M1号]. This is an original sculpt from M1 that depicts the second form of Baltan Seijin.
Everything just feels right when you hold this guy in your hand. The vintage Marusan standard mold of Baltan 1 always seemed a bit off to me because of the weird, rounded head and gangly arms. M1Go's Baltan 2 captures the angular cicada-like head and torso of the character, while maintaining that bit of vintage chunk in the sculpt. I think it is the chunkier legs and arms that really draw me to this toy. They convey a sense of fun and durability. It is a toy that seems to say, "Pick me up!" Or maybe that's a telepathic command- it is Baltan after all.
Although probably the most common version of M1's Baltan 2, this is also the best one. It was sold as a mail-away figure for Hyper Hobby magazine a few years ago, packaged with an orange mini Baltan 2 (sadly, my figure was missing the mini). The surprisingly tropical colors are patterned after a vintage Bullmark Baltan sparker vinyl. Funnily enough, although the vintage toy was presumably intended to be Baltan 1, it ended up looking more like M1's Baltan 2 sculpt because of the modifications required to accommodate the sparking mechanic. It is an eye-catching color scheme tied into a fitting vintage toy homage.
This lottery prize from a 2005 Wonderfestival is another standout piece. It is essentially a painted version of the more common unpainted blue Baltan 2. M1 used metallic paints that give the toy a liquid, glossy look in some areas- very appropriate given the mechanical/insectile nature of the character. As you might guess, this one is tough to find- I have only seen one for sale in the past 2 years.
If you like Baltan 2, you will be happy to know that there is a low entry threshold for casual collecting; completing the lineup, however, will take massive amounts of patience. I recommend that you seek out the Hyper Hobby green sparker version (above) first. If it doesn't grab you immediately- consider yourself saved some time, money and mental anguish.
Sometimes I fear that my blog conveys the impression that I collect only stupid expensive vinyl toys. Unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth. The problem is that most of my plastic and die-cast toy collection is still in the box or heat-sealed to a cardback (vinyls are a lot easier to de-frock) I either haven't decided whether I want to crack it open, or haven't gotten around to doing so. I know, I know.
So I have a bunch of unopened toys that probably don't make for very exciting reviews. But I'm going to write about them anyway.
The Beetle, formerly known as Abner Jenkins, is an old villain from the Marvel universe that tangled frequently with such heroes as Spider-Man and the Avengers. Initially a petty criminal with a sort-of-cool suit, Jenkins has since become a hero in the Thunderbolts with his MACH armors, changed his race and dated a female wrestler supervillain. Times are good for the former airplane mechanic turned crook. (Yes, I just got that all off Wikipedia.)
Beetle was one of the first characters that I was exposed to when poring through the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe as a kid. So it's gratifying to see a few toys made from his armors- although I can understand why the toy companies weren't in a rush to make toys of a two-bit villain.
Spider-Force Beetle was a product of Toybiz in the late 90s. Marvel Legends had not been created yet, so they were still in the process of designing toys with increasingly over-the-top gimmicks. And thus we had Spider-Man Spider Force whereby Spiderman and select other insectile superbeings were given giant insects that transform into suits of armor. This was frankly not Toybiz' worst idea of the time. The toys themselves are even remarkably good- if you close your eyes to the fact that none of it makes any sense.
This toy represents the Mark II armor for Beetle. I still find this costume rather cool- sort of a mix between 80s-era Marvel and Kamen Rider- as dated as it has become. The toy reflects the character well, as Beetle is given the lean, muscled physique befitting a guy with no real super powers.
Beetle is packaged with his Spider Force companion, who seems to be a giant cockroach. (Don't worry, the missing wing is at the bottom of the card bubble.) The roach can be disassembled to create armor for the 'Dangerous Beetle.' It is pretty good for a random gimmick- this is true for all toys in the line, really- and you can tell the designers put in real effort to make an appealing armor design that also transforms into a believable insect.
I also took some photos of the "Exicting" co-sells on the cardback, since you don't see too many images of them out there.
Tarantula was another kind of crappy character who had his day with Spider-Force. His armor is one of the best in the line.
Swarm is a character with which I was not previously familiar. He is a Nazi scientist who was transformed into a swarm of hyper-intelligent bees. And his armor turns him into a bigger bee. Yeah.
Believe it or not, this is Wasp of the Avengers. I had to actually look this up because I thought it might be a different character. The orange skin and antennae are uh, a bit outside of canon, but really, WHAT is going on with her HAIR? At least it draws attention away from her enormous, muscular thighs. Erm, yes.
And here is the token Spider-Man figure. He turns into a cybernetic Spider-Man. I totally did not see that one coming.
Not the finest hour for superhero toys, but they are well-designed and still sell for around $10 a pop.
Toybiz produced several other toy lines during the Marvel Legends era that roughly matched Legends figures in scale, typically referred to as the "Classic" lines. Buzzing Beetle was included in Spider-Man Classics in 2005.
This Beetle reflects the Mark III armor design from Thunderbolts. It is an enormous toy and seems to be an excellent approximation of the armor design. Detailing is achieved through a black wash, as was done with many of the Legends figures, but it is not heavy-handed and the look is not bad overall. If I remember, the eyes light up and the wings attachments (hidden in back) flutter through an internal mechanism.
With the new Iron Man movies, there is an abundance of armored heroes in the toy aisles, but not so many armored villains (apologies to the 50 Iron Monger toys in the clearance section). Beetle is certainly a nice addition to their ranks.
One of the most unique entrants to Japanese soft vinyl this year was an enigmatic company by the name "Yamazakura." A flowery name belies, however, their dark and complex toy designs, which are heavily influenced by religious and historical themes.
The one thing we do know about Yamazakura is that their toys are produced by Mori Katsura of RealxHead. His design influences are present to an extent in their toys, particularly as they have the same 'fight figure' proportions as RxH toys. I like to think of Yamazakura's designs as primitive RxH characters. Sort of like how historic paints and sculptures depict stylized renditions of humans.
Yamazakura's first toy premiered at the Shinto After-School Club event in 2009. Its name is either Niouhone or Nioubone [仁王骨]- I'm still not quite sure how the characters read in that combination. I see a lot of people calling it Nioubone, but I think that started because of the skeleton design reference. The "Niou" portion of the name refers to the guardians of Buddha, who are often represented as a pair of great statues that stand at either side of entrance gates for certain temples. Incorporated into the Niou reference is the dual nature of the sculpt; one half is humanoid and the other half skeletal. "Hone," of course, refers to bone. I think a reasonable translation of the name is "Bone Guardian."
Yamazakura has gained notoriety for his unexpectedly bold color combinations. That's unfortunate in a way, because it ignores the strength of his sculpt. Every part has an understated elegance that suggests layers of musculature or skeletal structure beneath the visible surface, enhanced by the pooling of light and shadow on its surface. Masterfully done. This is a refreshing change from the 'crude kaiju' trend that seems to overshadow new vinyl toys.
The unpainted black Nioubone was sold originally at the San Diego Comic Convention in 2009. He seemed to have quite a few of these as they were sold at later shows in Japan as well.
A clear unpainted Nioubone with GID vinyl shards in the body was sold at Design Festa 30 in October 2009. This was sold via a blind-pull method; the other possible items were unpainted GID, unpainted clear filled with multi-colored tubing, and empty unpainted clear
Orochi-Oni, Yamazakura's second toy, reuses the body of Nioubone with a new head sculpt. "Orochi" typically refers to an eight-headed serpent from Japanese mythology; however, the characters can also be read simply as 'giant serpent.' "Oni" means 'demon.' The likely meaning of the name is "Great Serpent Demon" or something similar. Orochi-Oni seems to be more favored among U.S. collectors than Nioubone. I attribute this to the popularization of the Hannya mask imagery.
I'm not sure how the half-skeleton body relates to Orochi-Oni, but Yamazakura continues the split sculpt into the new head as well. This one is interesting because the skeletal and fleshed portions of the head are split by a straight cut, almost as if it were slashed open with a sword. A matching body would have been nice, but at least the angular head sculpt does not clash too noticeably with the smoother body.
This Orochi-Oni was a lottery prize from Yamazakura's booth at Superfestival 51, which was held in January 2010. It is unique in that it has a chrome-painted eye. I wonder how he did that.
Much as we all want to see what Yamazakura will do next, the real question is... who is he??
