“Mobile Army Surgeon Hospital”

The television series M*A*S*H is up there somewhere in my list of favourite TV shows of all time. The show ran for an amazing 11 seasons from 1972 to 1983 and produced a whopping 251 episodes. The M*A*S*H finale episode used to hold the record for most number of viewers for any single television program in history with 106 million viewers tuning in to see the end of this wonderful series. Only recently has this record been broken by the 44th edition of the Superbowl in early 2010.

“Surprise”

Much to my surprise I only recently discovered the existence of M*A*S*H action figures and toys by watching Chad Hucal’s documentary Collectible Spectacle on YouTube featuring super collector Mark Bellomo and part of his immense toy and action figure collection. Disregarding the apparent contradiction of producing children’s toys to what is considered as an adult oriented television series, the toyline was released in 1982 by Tristar International Ltd and consisted of action figures, a couple of vehicles and a playset.

“Many Tri Stars”

Tristar International Ltd is sometimes confused with Tri-Star Pictures, which is a totally unrelated movie and television company founded, coincidentally, also in 1982. Mark Bellomo mistakenly refers to Tristar International Ltd as the movie studio “now known as Columbia TriStar” in the above mentioned documentary. Tri-Star Pictures was actually founded in 1982 under the initial name of Nova Pictures and is currently known as Columbia TriStar, part of Sony Pictures Entertainment and has nothing to do with Tristar International Ltd, maker of the M*A*S*H toy line of 1982. To further add to the confusion, there’s another totally unrelated toy company/importer called Tri Star International, Inc., based in Newark, California, mostly known for recalls of toys due to choking and laceration hazards in 2007.

The Tristar International Ltd that made the M*A*S*H toy line has nothing to do with either of these companies and is known for having produced toys much earlier, even as far back as 1963 or so, when it released Poor Pitiful Pearl dolls, based on William Steig’s eponymous cartoon character from the 1950s. Tristar International Ltd was located at 5 200th Avenue in New York, a location still known to house several toy or toy related companies according to Google Maps.

“Cross Dressing”

Back to the toys! Tristar released a total of 7 action figures, consisting of the main cast of M*A*S*H towards the last couple of seasons of the show, being Hawkeye, B.J., Klinger, Colonel Potter, Hot Lips, Winchester and Father Mulcahy.

What’s really cool is that Klinger was actually released in two versions. The first was the regular army uniform wearing Klinger, which is the easiest to find. The second, also pictured on the back of the cards, is a cross dressing Klinger wearing a pink outfit! This one is a lot harder to find and is usually a lot more expensive! I’m not sure whether this drag queen Klinger is just a variant or a mail away figure, but it’s really cool that Tristar produced this variation. Actually, when I think about it, it’s pretty amazing they got away with producing a cross dressing action figure in 1982. How cool is that!

Moving on to the vehicles. Tristar created a total of 3 vehicles, being a jeep, an ambulance and the iconic Bell 47 helicopter. All three vehicles came with an unnamed “G.I. action figure” and look very much like their television series counterparts.

“Kick Ass Playset”

The coolest piece of all from the Tristar line, which is conspiciously absent from the back of the action figure cards and vehicle boxes, is the M*A*S*H military base playset! Featured in the afforementioned documentary on Mark Bellomo this is one kick ass playset that’s currently high on my wish list.

I currently have most of the action figures in my possession (including the cross dressing Klinger variant) and the Jeep. Still looking out for the helicopter, ambulance and ofcourse the military base playset! Check out the forthcoming individual pages of the M*A*S*H items in my collection for more photographs!

It’s quite a joyous occasion for me whenever I manage to add another Milton Bradley G1 Transformer to my collection. Recently I tracked down a shiny, minty Milton Bradley Megatron from a French vintage toy store. The box is in very good shape with just minor scuff marks and a slightly scratched window. The toy itself though, shines as if it were new. The styro insert is in extremely good condition and the unapplied stickers and MB catalog are still sealed in a plastic bag!

MB branded Transformers were the first official Transformers to appear on store shelves for most of mainland Europe and as such are very rare and highly desired by collectors. It wasn’t until somewhere around 1986 that Transformers were released in Europe under the Hasbro brand.

Of all the vintage toys I collect, the European G1 Milton Bradley Transformers are my absolute favourite! They remind me most of my childhood. I remember the exact spot where they used to be displayed in my local Intertoys store in the 1980s. It was like a shrine that I visited on a near daily basis. So yes, I’m fairly hardcore when it comes to trying to complete my MB collection. And what’s a G1 MB collection without a Megatron, ruthless leader of the Decepticons? Nothing! That’s what! :-)

I’m currently adding the last touches to a more in-depth article about the MB Megatron and the toy in general, which should be up here shortly with way more photographs. For now, I’m off to do my dance of joy! Mwoohahahahahaaaaa… “Excellent!”

During my trip to Amsterdam I also picked up this very nice MOSC (mint-on-sealed-card) Ghostbusters action figure from the original 1984 motion picture. Gozer, a.k.a. Gozer the Gozerian, Gozer the Destructor, Gozer the Traveler and many other names this genderless demon goes by is a great looking action figure released by toy maker Neca in 2004. Gozer was the main antagonist in the first Ghostbusters film, which to this day remains one of my all time favourite movies.

Ghostbusters was the first movie I ever saw in a cinema in early 1985 and it just blew my 9-year-old mind away! Not only did the cinema experience impress my young self, I also could not have been treated to a better flick for my first movie going experience!! This movie had it all. Action, comedy, suspense, great special effects and some really scary moments!

In the movie, Gozer the Gozarian (played by Yugoslav model Slavica Jovan) was the demon that our heroic Ghostbusters ended up fighting on top of an appartment building in down town New York. Gozer was part of a total of 5 action figures that Neca produced in 2004 as part of their Neca Reel Toys brand. The other released figures being Slimer, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and Terror Dogs Zuul and Vince Clortho (also known as the Gate Keeper and Keymaster respectively).

Neca did a great job and produced an action figure that very closely resembles Slavica’s portrayal of Gozer in the movie. They even included an extra head and extra hands with lightning bolts to mimick the scene from the movie, where Gozer instructs the Ghostbusters to “DIEEEE”!!!!!

I got Gozer for a modest amount of cash (17 euros) and I’d really like to complete my collection with the remaining 4 characters, although they’ll probably end up costing me a lot more money. The terror dogs Zuul and Vince Clortho especially, seem to go for very high prices, either loose or MOSC. Not in the least I suspect, because they look awesome and also have glowing eyes!

It seems there was talk of additional Ghostbusters action figures of the protagonists themselves, but this effort seems to have stranded due to likeness rights issues, which is a real shame, because I can only imagine what a fantastic job Neca would’ve done with Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler and Winston Zeddmore!

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I took the afternoon off from work and went to Space Oddity in Amsterdam, one of the very few brick-and-mortar action figure toy stores in the Netherlands. I left with 2 bags bags full of goodies. One of them contained a MOSC (mint-on-sealed-card) WWF Rowdy Roddy Piper action figure. I went inside intent on picking up some vintage Star Wars stuff (which I did), but then I started looking around and found a bunch of WWF action figures from Hasbro, including Roddy!

Roddy was just 7.50 euros, so there was no good reason I could think of not to buy him. The bubble is still firmly attached to the backing card and although there are some minor creases on the card, it still looks fantastic as does the action figure itself.

Looking at the back of the card we can see the range of WWF action figures that were available at the time Rowdy Roddie was released. Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase, Andre the Giant, Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake, Hulk Hogan, Big Boss Man, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Honky Tonk Man, Jake “The Snake” Roberts to name but a few. Damn, I remember fondly watching these wrestling “superstars” in the 1980’s on Sky Channel when I was a little kid. The old school WWF logo really takes me back.

Hasbro took over the WWF license in 1990 and Rowdy Roddy Piper is part of the 2nd series of WWF action figures, released  in 1991. Hasbro went on to release a total of 11 series of WWF action figures until they lost their license in 1994. All figures have a cartoony look to them and they all had some sort of signature move. As you can see from the photographs, Roddy’s signature move is the “Piper Punch”. If you pull back his right arm and then release it, it will swing forward punching out any unlucky wrestler standing in his way!

Judging by the sticker on the back of the card, this particular toy seems to have been released in the U.K. (“Distributed by Hasbro Bradley UK”). I initially suspected that this is simply the U.S. version of the toy with a sticker slapped on its back to qualify it as official Hasbro UK product, but it seems the U.S. version has a collector card inside, which this release doesn’t, so I’m not so sure anymore.

What a nice find. I have a sneaking feeling that this won’t be the last WWF action figure I’ll add to my collection!

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Well, this is one for the books. Last week an original prototype of Tytus was auctioned on eBay for a winning bid of $7,600 U.S. (approximately EUR 5400). Now, Tytus usually goes for a hefty sum boxed or not, but nowhere near this sum. What made this auction stand out was the fact that it was, reportedly, one of four prototypes made in Mexico. But on top of that it is the only one in the known world inside U.S. packaging.

Tytus is considered by many MOTU (Masters of the Universe) collectors to be the Holy Grail of MOTU collecting. Tytus was supposed to be released in 1987 as part of the so called “Powers of Grayskull” line that Mattel had developed as part of the Masters of the Universe toy line. For various reasons “Powers of Grayskull” was canned and only a few (if any) of the announced toys actually shipped in the U.S. In Europe, some of the announced “Powers of Grayskull” figures did end up in the shops, albeit under the regular Masters of the Universe name. Tytus being one of them.

Tytus was a pretty special MOTU figure, not in the least because he was gigantic compared to the regular figures.  An evil counterpart to Tytus was also created, the giant ogre called Megator! Megator also goes for insane prices whenever he pops up for sale or auction.

Both Tytus and Megator are pretty rare, or so it is claimed. Problem is, I’ve seen both popping up on eBay fairly often in the past few months, which begs the question…. how come they still go for insane prices? As a matter of fact, at the time I am writing this posting there are 3 auctions on eBay right now all selling Tytus either boxed or unboxed with asking prices starting at least somewhere around EUR 1500! I would expect such a rare item to turn up a lot less on eBay. But then again, there could be several explanations.

One of them is that although Tytus (and Megator) do appear on eBay from time to time, they are highly wanted posessions by MOTU collectors, which is no far stretch to the imagination. Another explanation is the fact that we’re at the end of a very rough period economically speaking. The perceived increase in supply of Tytusses (or is that Tyti? ;-) ) could be due to the fact that some of the sellers need the money. A third explanation is the whopping $7,600 paid for this very special Tytus. It will no doubt have inspired some other collectors to put their Tytus on the market. As a matter of fact one of the Tytus auctions currently on eBay is claimed to be manufactured in Mexico as well.

Still, it’s great to see these items go for such prices. Congratulations to both the seller and new, happy owner!

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