20th Century Toy Collector

The Silver Mirage Motorcycle was part of the first series of G.I. Joe toys that were released in Europe in 1987. In the USA it was released in 1985 as part of the fourth series and was based on the first series RAM (Rapid Fire Motorcycle), which never saw a release in Europe.

The motorcycle design is based on a Honda CB450T Hawk and features a sidespan, a silver finish and room for a total of 3 action figures! It’s definitely one of the coolest toys from the first series of Joe toys that were available in Europe.

I recently added a very nice Silver Mirage Motorcycle to my collection. It comes in Belgian packaging, with French and Dutch on the box and two sets of instructions, both in French and Dutch. The parts are all unassembled and still attached to their trees and there’s an unused sticker sheet included. This specific release was available in Dutch exclusive packaging as well and I’m still looking out for that one, because I prefer the Dutch releases, but until then, this will certainly do!

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“Insanity is just a state of mind”. One of the gazillion of razor sharp quotes from M*A*S*H series lead character Captain Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce, played by none other than the inimitable Alan Alda. Hawkeye is the only character that stuck with the series from the very beginning to the very end over its impressive 11 year run.

No surprise there that Tristar International included Hawkeye as one of the seven action figures (well, eight action figures if you count the drag queen Klinger variant) that were created as part of its M*A*S*H toyline in 1982. Tristar did a fair job with Hawkeye. The action figure resembles Alda close enough for a 1982 action figure, but is not as accurate as e.g. B.J. Hunnicutt’s action figure is to Mike Farrell. The Tristar M*A*S*H figures have 10 articulation points and look like precursors to Hasbro’s 3.3/4-inch G.I. Joe line.

I picked up this MOSC (mint-on-sealed-card) Hawkeye together with a MOSC B.J. Hunnicutt and MOSC Klinger somewhere in 2009. These M*A*S*H action figures are great collectibles for any fan of the M*A*S*H series or aficionados of 20th century pop culture in general. I’ve enjoyed the television series myself for a long time and will probably keep doing so for a long time to come as it’s a great series to keep coming back to. I thoroughly enjoy all the M*A*S*H items in my collection, because they remind me so much of the series every time I see them.

Besides the action figures Tristar also released some vehicles and a kick-ass playset. You can read more about the series and the Tristar toyline in general here.

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Phew! A slew of goodies have been added to the collection. There’s a hint of alliteration in the air with the culprits being Majokit sets, a Mobile Suit Gundam model kit and a dedicated page for my recently acquired MIB (mint-in-box) Milton Bradley Megatron!

Majokit was created around 1983 by well-known French die-cast car toy manufacturer Majorette. It was basically a kit playset that allowed you to build a traffic environment with street crossings, street signs, traffic lights and much more. It was more or less intended as an add-on to their popular die-cast car toys, although it wasn’t exactly up to scale with their own toy cars! However that may be, the Majokit system was a delight to play with. I had loads of Majorette cars when I was a little kid and I went nuts when I first saw the Majokit sets in my local toy store. I recently added a couple of Majokit sets to my collection, most of which still MISB (mint-in-sealed-box). Look out for an in-depth article on Majokit in the near future!

A couple of weeks ago I took up watching the first Japanese series of Mobile Suit Gundam. It’s a cartoon with giant battling robots in it and that is the only justification I need. Ofcourse I could not reject the temptation to part with even more of my hard earned money this month in exchange for a nice, special edition Mobile Suit Gundam RX-78-2 model kit. It was made for Gundam’s 30th anniversary last year and has special 7-Eleven colours. Now only to find the time to put the model together in the next couple of decennia…

And as you can see from the picture above, the Milton Bradley (MB) Megatron that I recently reported on obtaining has found its way into my collection room. I took the time to add a dedicated collection page on Megatron, which you can find on the Collection menu to the right or simply by clicking here. You’re welcome. But that’s not the only Milton Bradley madness, because I also added a whopping total of four other MB Transformers to my collection recently with one more to follow shortly. Stay tuned!!

Last weekend my girlfriend and me visited the Spring 2010 Collectors’ Convention in Utrecht, the Netherlands (a.k.a. Verzamelaarsjaarbeurs). It’s arguably the biggest collectors convention of the Benelux countries and is held twice a year. One of the many halls occupied by this convention is dedicated to vintage toys and is a real treat to peruse. This was my second visit to the Verzamelaarsjaarbeurs and I walked away with lots of goodies for a relatively low sum. I have already spent way more on my vintage toy collection this month than I had planned to, so I went in with a modest budget. I was pleased to have walked away with a very nice haul.

So what did I get? Well, I managed to expand my Hasbro WWF action figure collection with 2 new action figures, being Yokozuna and the Big Boss Man! I also got a MISB (mint-in-sealed-box) Skullwalker for my BraveStarr collection, a Blackstar action figure, a Mr. Freeze action figure from the Batman: Animated Series toy line and a Rambo action figure! I got most of this stuff dirt cheap, which is really nice.

Besides all the action figures, I also got myself a big stack of European comic strips; a host of Robert & Bertrand strips from Belgian master Willy Vandersteen and a couple of Paling & Ko strips (Dutch translations of the Spanish Mortadelo y Filemon strip by Francisco Ibanez). All in all a very nice haul. Stay tuned for more photographs, because I added lots of Transformers to my collection this month!!

This week another rather special item was added to my collection. It’s the Joustra Diaclone version of Optimus Prime, simply called ‘Diaclone Truck’. As most Transformers G1 collectors will know, most of the early G1 Transformers are actually based on an earlier Japanese toyline called Diaclone. Although Diaclone toys never achieved the same level of popularity as Transformers, they were succesfully exported out of Japan before the Transformers onslaught of the second half of the 1980s. In most parts of Europe, a company called Ceji Joustra was responsible for the European import of Diaclone toys. What sets the Joustra Diaclones apart from all the other Diaclone toys is the custom packaging artwork. Where as companies like the Italian GiG  mostly copied the packaging from the original Japanese releases, Joustra totally redesigned the packaging and added a mini comic book. This truely eyecatching box art is what sets these Joustra Diaclone releases apart and makes them highly sought pre-Transformers collection items!

Although they’re pretty rare, Joustra Diaclones do pop up on the collector’s market every now and again. The (pre-Optimus Prime) Diaclone Truck, though, is so hard to find it’s unreal! Lucky for me I finally managed to find one for sale from a private collector whom I bought from before in the past and always got great deals from. I bought this Diaclone Truck together with a Joustra Diaclone F-15 (pre-Starscream) for a very good price. The box is in very nice condition for its age with some wear, but still displays beautifully. The toy itself though is in pristine condition. Stickers are unapplied and the joints are nice and tight. Even the smoke stacks move stiffly as though this toy was just recently bought from a toy store! Good times!

I now have nearly all of the first series of Joustra Diaclone releases in my collection and will be adding special Joustra Diaclone pages to this website soon. There was a second wave of Joustra Diaclone toys planned and some of those seem to have been released, but they’re virtually impossible to find, most likely due to the bankruptcy of Joustra’s parent company Ceji in 1985. A collector’s work is never done… :-)

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