Fistful of Power

What: I don't know much about Fistful of Power and don't recall ever seeing them in the stores (though I wasn't collecting much at the time they were released), but I found out through MinfiguresXD's entry that the line was produced by Australian toy company Moose and involved a gameplay element. The figures pictured above are the only two I have, and it looks like their names are Gregor (translucent guy) and Tremmor (Zeus-like guy). From what else I have found online, there were some pretty cool-looking characters in this series.

When: 2004-2005

Where: Australia, Europe, USA

Who: Moose Enterprise

Plastic dino monsters unite!

Why oh why do I like cheap-looking toys so much? These plastic dino monster things, often referred to as "Chinasaurs" by some fellow toy geeks enthusiasts, are badly-painted and just questionably produced in general, yet for some reason they will keep a permanent place in my figure collection. I did a post on them a while back, but since I recently got a new one (green dino-dog-dragon dude on the right), I decided to get a group shot of all the different plastic dino monster sculpts I own.

For more pics of these guys, check out my Chinasaurs set on Flickr.

NUKED! custom figures

Skekiltor, Clawgrugg, Oculus Viri

So far this year has brought some amazing custom mini figures. One example is NUKED!, a set of three creatures--Skekiltor, Clawgrugg, Oculus Viri--sculpted and cast in resin by Steve Patt (a.k.a. oOMoSOo). Aren't they awesome? I was late to the party on these (they were originally sold at the beginning of the year) so I when I finally got around to finding out about them last month I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get a hold of one, but Steve was able to hook me up with a set in a cool transparent icy blue color! 

I only wish the camera was able to capture more of the details of the sculpts (hard to do because of the transparency/color), but you can see more photos of different colors, plus read the fun backstory of these characters, here.

Kinnikuman kinkeshi

Bibinba, Okamaras, Queen Kinniku, Chienowa Man

What: I've been collecting M.U.S.C.L.E. figures for as long as I can remember, but it wasn't until a few months ago that I finally got a few figures from the Japanese Kinnikuman toy line from which the American figures originated. Many of the Japanese Kinnikuman figures, known as "kinkeshi" (which combines Kinnikuman with "keshi," the Japanese term for little rubber figures), were turned into M.U.S.C.L.E.s, but there were also a bunch that weren't carried over to the Western line. The strange assortment of characters above shows a few of those. There were actually some female characters in the Japanese line--see the red Bibinba and green Queen Kinniku above for a couple examples. And oh, a gay, cross-dressing monster named Okamaras (hmm, I am sure it was a completely unplanned that Mattel decided not to carry him over to the American line...). Another thing to note about these is that the material is much softer and more eraser-like than that of M.U.S.C.L.E.s.

When: According to this Kinnikuman Wiki, the kinkeshi line was launched in 1983 (two years before M.U.S.C.L.E. toys came out).

Where: Japan

Who: Released by Bandai

Musclemania: Not so squishy

When I first blogged about Musclemania figures, I put up photos of the super squishy, super stretchy, soft rubber variety (because, well, that was the only kind I had). But there is a different kind of Musclemania figure out there that is, in my opinion, much cooler. See the dudes above. Not only do they appear weirder and more monster-like than the stretchy ones, they're also made of a MUCH better, nice soft plastic that's flexible but won't melt onto your other toys (my childhood stretchy Musclemania figures melted and gunked-up some of my other figures...and of course they gunked-up cool stuff, not something lame like my C.U.T.I.E.s). From what I can tell, this was the earlier variety of Musclemania toys, sold in 1984. There are a bunch of other sculpts and colors out there as well, which I'll be trying to track down.

Cosmix

NINJA Mite & Cosmix comparison

NINJA Mite & Cosmix comparison

What: Do the shiny dudes pictured above look familiar? No, they're not M.U.S.C.L.E. and N.I.N.J.A. Mites figures--just more flamboyant imposters! They're actually Cosmix, a bootleg line of mini figures released in France in the late 1980s-early 1990s. The first series of these figures, released in 1987, "borrowed" sculpts from the then-popular M.U.S.C.L.E./Kinnikuman line, but made them in different colors such as metallic blue-green, metallic pink and black. The second series, from 1988, used sculpts from Panosh's N.I.N.J.A. Mites line of little weirdo ninjas, which was released in the U.S. in 1986. This line was also sold in Italy as "Exogini," although I believe the colors were somewhat different. For more details including a list of all the characters, see here.

When: 1987-early 1990s.

Where: France

Who: According to the line's entry on Wikipedia, "Cosmix were licensed by El Greco 'Un hellenistic crafts S.A.', a Greek manufacturer, to Action GT (Action Games & Toys Inc.), a North American company, and imported to France by Idéal Loisirs S.A., a famous French toy distributor." Whew.