So I’ve written numerous times about how much I want to rebuild the toy collection I had as a child and how difficult that is for me because I’m not all that fond of buying loose used toys. I have a mental block against buying another kid’s memories if that makes sense. So my stance has been to patiently wait until I find min on card (or mint in box) versions of the stuff I want. Again, this comes with its own set of hurdles, mainly monetary in nature. As much as I want to re-collect these treasures, I find it next to impossible to fork over much money to procure them. Same story told a million times by other toy collectors and nostalgia buffs. Lately my tactic has been to ignore the really popular toy lines, the Transformers, G.I. Joe, Masters of the Universe, Star Wars and M.A.S.K. in lieu of searching out the more obscure stuff. Depending, the prices can be much cheaper and there aren’t quite as many 30-somethings clamoring for them so they’re easier to snag without getting into bidding wars on eBay.
I was pretty excited this past weekend when I stumbled upon one of these slightly more obscure toys at the local vintage toy shop I’ve been frequenting. Sitting there in a glass display case was a single carded Tonto action figure from The Legend of the Lone Ranger line by Gabriel from 1980…
Sure, the card was pretty beat up with a huge crease across the top, but this is exactly the kind of thing I’m looking for on my vintage toy hunt. The intention isn’t to keep the figure hermetically sealed on the card anyway; I want to open it up and hold it again. So for $10 how could I pass this up?
I originally had both Tonto and the Lone Ranger from this Gabriel line based on the 1980 film. I honestly don’t think I ever saw the movie but I did catch the old black and white series on reruns and loved the Filmation cartoon, so at some point I must have begged my parents for these. I must have been 3 or 4 at the time. Though I’d love to reacquire both figures, Tonto was always my favorite because he came with both a pistol and a really neat buck knife. I wrote about this action figure line awhile back as well…
I also vividly remember loving his purple belt/sash. Even as a kid I appreciated fun color matching in my action figures. With both of the figures I had, my favorite aspect was that you could actually holster their pistols and sheath Tonto’s buck knife. This was pretty advanced for action figures this early in the 80s. I mean aside from some removable helmets and the lightsaber action on the early Star Wars figures most toys weren’t that intricate. These also had knee-joint articulation as opposed to the Kenner figures, a stepping stone that would lead to the broader range of joints that Hasbro would use with G.I. Joe.
I love the card art for these toys as well, working in the tone and style of the movie’s poster art, but instead of just cloning the painting they did a new piece just for the toys…
I also love the Silver Bullet on the back of the card. I’m not positive, but I wonder if the idea was to treat the bullets like the Kenner Star Wars points (or the later Robot and Flag points that Hasbro offered with Transformers and G.I. Joe) so that kids could save them up and use them to mail away for special promotional figures or sets. There was actually a mail-away cardboard playset for these Gabriel figures, but weirdly enough the form requested that kids cut out the character names from the cards to act as the proof of purchase?!? Check out this ad my good friend Paxton posted on his site The Cavalcade of Awesome when he was taking about the similar Kenner Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid toy line from the same year…
Total missed opportunity to use the Silver Bullet Points! Just another example that I was born too late to make awesome branding decisions for these companies. Gotta work on that time machine…
Anyway, over the past couple of months I managed to pick up some more slightly obscure action figures I had when I was a kid. I thought this would be a fun time to share those as well. My parents took some chances on odd toy lines and I’m curious whether they thought that I wasn’t interested in them or if they just bought them as a fluke? I had a bunch of figures in which I only owned one or two of the toys like the ThunderCats (just had Mumm-Ra and Slithe), Silverhawks (just had a Quicksilver), or Tonto and the Lone Ranger. In this same camp were Warduke (from the LJN Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) and some miscellaneous Blackstar villain figure (which I must have quickly rejected or lost) because I had one of the little included neon green demon PVC figures…
I’m really loving picking up this miscellaneous figures since they’re basically one and done. They really feel a lot like a true missing piece to my past being put back in place. I will say that I broke my normal loose figure buying rules with these. I saw the Galoob Blackstar Demon at a toy show up in Baltimore and I couldn’t beat the price. Besides, it’s not like I want to shell out the moolah for a mint Blackstar villain on the card when I’m not even sure which one I had.
As for Warduke here, well, I recently won a D&D Dwarf figure from this same line from The Garage Sale of Awesome and it felt weird owning that and not my long lost Warduke. I had some Amazon cash burning a hole in my pocket so I picked one up blindly from a third party seller for a couple bucks. He’s not in the best shape (mostly some gauntlet paint wear and he’s missing his rad shield and ice sword, but I’ve researched MOC prices for this little guy and man, that is just never going to happen on my budget!
All in all these guys make for one awesomely Awkward Toy Family Photo!
They also look great in my collection that adorns (read: is taking over) my entertainment center…
Now, if I can just find a cheap Quicksilver figure from the Silverhawks line…