Over the past few decades, I’ve been blessed to have rubbed elbows and met some extremely awesome people that I’m lucky to call my friends. Some of these folks were creators I admired from afar, and some of them were aspiring nostalgic writers like myself, just starting in the mire of blogs and podcasts. A few were extremely awesome collectors and pop culture historians that were super gracious with their time and knowledge, helping to both inspire and act as sounding boards for projects I was working on. Jason Liebig is one of these few, someone whose tireless and exhaustive work preserving food, beverage, and candy packaging and ephemera is very likely unrivaled. Not only has he shared thousands of high-quality images of his collection of food packaging with the online community through his website, social media, and photo-sharing accounts, but he’s been working in television and film supplying period-accurate imagery and props, as well as popping up as either a host or guest in several food culture shows. As a part of this quest to document and preserve this often-neglected section of pop culture history, Jason has also gone a step further with one brand by acquiring the rights to the Mr. Bones brand of candy originally produced by Fleer back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
®Jason Liebig
As soon as I learned that Jason was looking to usher the brand into the modern era (back in 2017 when I picked up a very cool enamel pin he issued) I was stoked to see where it might lead. One of the coolest projects he’s worked on so far is a collaboration with Super7 on a series of retro-inspired ReAction figures of the titular candy icon. As soon as the pre-order for the first couple of variations went live (glow-in-the-dark and the standard colorway) I snagged both, and just recently a third florescent edition was released. Though I plunked down my own money for a couple of the figures, for full disclosure, Super7 recently sent me a set of the three colorways for review purposes.
I’m already pretty “plugged in” to the ReAction figure toy line as I’m a sucker for the vintage Kenner Star Wars line and I adore the five points of articulation aesthetic. Though some of their licenses for the line don’t make a whole lot of sense (I’m looking at you Masters of the Universe and G.I. Joe) I’ve picked up a fair number of figures from brands like Jem & the Holograms, Transformers, Red Dawn, Robocop and Back to the Future. The idea of adding a spooky candy icon to this mix was pretty cool. As it stands, I usually have around 20 to 25 action figures set up around my office computer, and throwing Mr. Bones into the mix is perfect.
I’m clearly a fan of the brand and I enjoy supporting my bud Jason, but how well did Super7 do in bringing the fruity Mr. Bones into an action figure form? Well, it’s pretty dang exquisite. First of all, I have to imagine the nerdy discussions during the design phase revolving around whether or not to adapt the candy skeleton itself or to hew closer to the packaging artwork on the rack display boxes. Ultimately, they chose the look of the box art. Both are iconic, but the candy skeleton itself is a bit blockier and flat whereas the packaging illustration is more rounded with a lot more details. The candy version also has shorter arms, only utilizing one bone segment between the hand piece and ribcage half, while the artwork works in both a humerus section as well as the radius & ulna. The way the segments are sculpted looks great, though there is a slight concession in that the shoulder ends of the humerus bones are sculpted into the ribcage sections and thus don’t match the color of the arm bones. Granted, this is a detail that no one probably notices or likely cares about, but it’s just the one tiny bit that keeps the figure from being perfect.
On the standard colorway, Super7 took pains to make sure that the specific bone colors matched the packaging artwork as well, which is a very nice touch. The only exception is the included “He’s So Real” gravestone accessory which is presented in a neon orange and pink finish while the packaging artwork is grey and green. Speaking of packaging, the cardback and bubble on these Super7 figures are pretty rad. The plastic bubble is in the shape of a coffin mimicking the candy’s original plastic container, a motif that is carried through to the artwork on the card that showcases the candy coffin. From what I can tell, the original rack display box artwork is utilized on the cardback as well, which is a very nice touch. The cardback features similar artwork of the full skeleton and the component parts that looks vintage, though I’ve never seen the exact imagery. I’m curious if Jason has more in his collection than he’s shared online like sell sheets, catalogs, or press kits for the brand.
As I mentioned above, there are two variant colorways, one a translucent glow-in-the-dark version and the other a fluorescent one that flips the colors of the original Mr. Bones on the vertical axis. The glowing version is very vibrant when given a good charging with a strong light. All the little details in the sculpt pop extremely well when it glows too, which is really cool. Though I don’t have a blacklight handy to confirm, I’ll bet that the fluorescent version would look amazing under one. The paint is super bright and vivid. Both of these variations have cardbacks identical in design to the standard, though they are updated to reflect the colors of the variant figures.
The main drawback for all three figures is the absence of an actual Mr. Bones plastic coffin outfitted to the size of the figure. Granted, I completely understand why it’s not included as it would surely make the bulk of the figure and accessories a bit much for a cardback and the already steep price point ($20 per figure) would probably have to jump up another ten bucks or so making it less of a nostalgic impulse buy and more of an investment. That said, Super7 is known to do limited-run editions of ReAction figures in special packaging, and I hope there is a Mr. Bones complete with his coffin as a seasonal or convention-exclusive release. While we’re on the subject of wish-fulfillment ideas, how about a three-way collaboration between Jason, Super7, and Onell Design to mage a Glyos variation that has joints that can pop apart? I mean, it’d be pretty dang rad if you ask me.
Overall, I love these Mr. Bones figures and am very stoked to have all three in the collection. At $20 each your mileage may vary (understandably) on the variant colorways, but for fans of the brand who remember what it was like to crack open one of the small plastic coffins, to compose and then rapidly scarf down the tart and fruity candy pieces, the standard colorway figure is a must-have. You can still snag all three from the Super7 shop.
