#923 MEIPY - HÉROES DE LA GALAXIA - ANDROR and TARA (1985)

Last month I joined many other Masters of the Universe fans worldwide to celebrate the 35th anniversary of this great toyline in Spain. A friend of mine with a few other colleagues is writing a book about this topic that will be published soon. The title is "Yo Tengo el Poder: La Historia de los Masters del Universo en España", haven't you heard about it yet? Visit their Facebook site for all information regarding this topic, and don't miss the release!

 

Note that the book "Yo Tengo el Poder" does not only talk about Mattel's Masters, but also about other figures that bootlegged or were inspired by them, I am quite sure they will extensively cover this toyline we are going to talk about today, so if you are interested, you will be able to read more there.

I will start this time with the blister pack, reminiscent of the Star Wars movies, with a Tie-Fighter on the right side and another spaceship on the left, both in front of some unknown planets. The logo of the collection is clearly made after Masters of the Universe. The backcard shows the first 4 figures, although there is a second type of cardback that shows 8 figures, the complete collection.

Note that the figures are clearly inspired by He-Man, Skeletor, Beast Man, Teela, plus other characters that share characteristics with other Masters or characters of other movies. I own two figures, both in their blisterpacks:

Andror (Servidor del Imperio Oscuro) (Ref. 113)

Andror, the server of the Dark Empire is a remarkable character for having a fire sword and some metal armour and mask that gives him a rather menacing look. Among the first four, is the only character that does not have a clear counterpart in the Masters of the Universe world.

Tara (Reina de los Guerreros Zarka) (Ref. 114)

Tara is the only woman in the collection and comes with a sword and is wearing some kind of bikini. Interestingly, this amazon warrior does not appear in its own backcard

All figures come with exchangeable weapons and the blister is fixed to the card with staples.

These figures are very interesting, like all bootlegs are, and not much is currently known about the company. Meipy also made some other plastic figures (like the Meipy-Ñecos) and also other novelty products for kiosks like hairspins. There is an interview with the company owners in the Coleccionismo de Juguetes magazine nr. 13, but I haven't read it. Surely very interesting.

The second type of blister is this one that shows eight figures instead of four. Here we can observe the characters Zarkan (He-Man with longer hair), Serpidor (Skeletor with a reptilian twist) and Lioman (pretty much Beast Man).

Also present are Tara and three more characters. The first of this triplet is Icaron, a winged warrior the reminds me strongly of Pygar, a character in Barbarella (Roger Vadim, 1968). This character is the only one using a firearm.

Finally there are Volcam and Gladiator, two figures very similar to each other that look like a crossing between Man-At-Arms and a Roman gladiator. Volcam has a club as a weapon and Gladiator an axe.

Picture taken from coleccionismo80-90.blogspot.com

I wish I had more of these figures. If you want to see all of them, you can also visit coleccionismo80-90.blogspot.com, where Pablo has collected all blisters except one (but has this figure loose).

In my backcard somebody wrote with a pencil the price of the figure: 200 pesetas (that is 1,20 Euro). I think the price is original (I mean, it was written back in the mid or late 80s). I would say the price is quite high for such a toy, what maybe explains why they were not sold massively and are difficult to find nowadays.

Although I never saw them for sale in the 80s, they were widely available until somebody (or maybe some people) decided to take all of them from the popular auction site where they were available. Now there is none (or at least none complete with its accesory). Maybe they become valuable collectables in the next years, who knows?

Read more about Masters of the Universe in these links!

All Masters of the Universe stuff

Masters of the Universe (vintage collection)

He-Man: New Adventures

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: ANDROR and TARA (Ref. 113 and 114)
• Toy Line: HÉROES DE LA GALAXIA
• Year: 1985
• Company: Meipy (Spain)
• Size of the figures: Around 9 cm

#899 WWF – DEMOLITION MINI FIGURE (Around 1991)

Since April was “traditionally” a month in which I only showed bootleg and knock-off toys, I will continue doing so in this entry and the next one.

This figure is extremely rare. I am quite certain is one of those little toys sold inside plastic balls in vending machines on streets. For 1 Euro (or 100 pesetas at the time), you get one surprise toy.

Those toys are mostly crap, but since recently I have been observing how big the attraction that these machines have over children is. The slot-machines are kind of mesmerizing to children, and I guess I was no exception when I was younger. I recall looking from below to check if I could see which ball would come next.

I think I found this figure in Spain. It is made of plastic (it is made of some soft PVC, without points of articulation), and could represent any Demolition member, that is, Ax, Smash or Crush. Since the face is so poorly detailed, I don’t dare saying it is one or the other.

As you can see, also the cast, thepaintwork and the finishing are poor, but despite all these negative aspects, it is a great collectable item, that very few people have (or may have). I wonder if it was already a China import or if it was finished somewhere in Spain, what would make it even more interesting.

I cannot say anything else about it. Manufacturer? Year? Country of origin? Anybody?

For the purpose of this entry, I photographed it together with a Hasbro figure and it’s “bigger size” knock-off figure presented in entry #537.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: DEMOLITION MINI FIGURE
• Toy Line: Unknown
• Year: Around 1991
• Company: Unknown Manufacturer
• Size of the figures: 5-6 cm

#804 JUNIORS – HARROD’S SCENES OF LONDON - DOUBLE DECKER BUS and LONDON TAXI (P334 and K510) (Around 2010)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

Honestly I don’t know if these two qualify as a bootleg or a knock-off. I found them at a flea market not so long ago, and I bought them because I had never seen this brand before. Later, when searching information, I found out they were very recent (around 2010) and that they were sold together in some kind of souvenir pack, I guess at Harrod´s (London).

The London taxi is identical to the one made by FEVA (see #456) and the bus is also identical to the one made by Playart, and which is at the same time a scaled copy of a Matchbox Super Kings bus.

I know this is a great souvenir for children, and it probably sells very well even today in tourist spots in London and other cities, as similar sets have since decades. It doesn’t matter if the bus and the taxi are already a bit off (there are newer models in the streets since many years ago), but this is a minor detail. Apparently this set is exclusively sold in Harrod’s, although I would have expected something better from this famous department stores in London. Note the stickers on the bus.

I was observing the blister pack in which these two toys were sold and I noticed that on the back card that this same set is made exclusively for Harrod’s by Juniors, but in older blisterpacks, I notice that instead of Juniors, it says FEVA, and both blisters share the same address, so we could affirm that Juniors is the same company FEVA after 2008, when it had to close. The two following pictures have been taken from eBay.

And I say they may not qualify as knock-offs because the cast were acquired legally from Playart (or from themselves, after the closing of FEVA in 2008). Probably the Taxi shown in the referred entry is part of a similar set.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: DOUBLE DECKER BUS and LONDON TAXI (P334 and K510)
• Scale: Around 1:100 and 1:64
• Year: Around 2010
• Company: Juniors/FEVA(Great Britain/China)
• Size: approx. 7 cm

#801 BLUE BOX – MORRIS MINOR (Ref. 7434) (Around 1960)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

This is a plastic car with a size smaller than three inches, it could actually be confused with an H0 1:87 model, although I guess it is just small because the original Morris Minor was a very small car.

The car is marked “Nº 434 Hong Kong” and it took me a bit to find out which manufacturer is behind this Matchbox knock-off. The answer is Blue Box, a company that has already appeared once in my blog, and whose story is kind of paradigmatic for a Hong-Kong company that started copying toys from England, and later became a great and powerful toy company.

Compared to the Matchbox car, I would say this one is based in its own cast, since there are many big differences to come from a cloned cast. The toy is quite fragile (note the broken window frame on one side, and the missing part in the chassis), so it is quite surprising to have found this item still in such a good shape. Its previous owner was surely a very careful guy. It is a nice substitute for the
Machbox model, since this is one of the hardest to find.

This last picture shows the Bue Box model among others in a very nice blisterpack with the characteristic blue label. The car was also available in single boxes, and other multi-packs including 8 or 6 cars.


Picture from Vectis.co.uk

 

Picture from planetdiecast.com

 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: MORRIS MINOR (ref. 7434)
• Scale: Around 1:64
• Year: 1960
• Company: Blue Box (Hong-Kong)
• Size: approx. 6 cm

#800 GUIDED LAUNCHING BASE – 2 IN 1 POWER PLAN (TRANSFORMERS ACTION MASTER PROWL with TURBO-CYCLE KNOCK-OFF) (Around 1991)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

This box contains a Transformers Action Masters knock-off (KO, as the Transformers collectors like to call them).

The Action Masters is not one of the most popular sub-series of Transformers, so one Action Master KO is maybe not the first choice for collectors, that's why this toy is kind of surprising.

The figure is Action Master Prowl. The original Hasbro figure was released in 1990, although this one has a different colour scheme. The Hasbro figure was sold in a box including exactly the same content. The box of this KO is made of very low quality cardboard and the inlay is made of very thin plastic, as you can see in the pictures.

The figure comes with a motorbike called Turbo-Cycle that transforms into a missile base called, according to this KO box, "Guided Launching Base". As you know, the Action Masters characters do not transform, but their accesories do. I didn't want to open the bag with the small bits and additionally, the motorbike and the robot have very stiff joints that I fear may damage if I move them somehow. That's why the pictures are only the pieces as they came in the box, without transforming or moving anything.

The Hasbro toy is actually based in the same cast, so if you are curious about the transformation, you can find many pictures of it on the internet.

And about the name… well, the guy who made the box had no idea what to write and probably copied things from here and there in different sizes and places. I just titled this entry with the words written in the biggest font size I could find. The “Power Plan” is actually a picture of the Action Master displayed in the box/blister of the Hasbro original transformers that indicates some fictitional features of the robot.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: GUIDED LAUNCHING BASE – 2 IN 1 POWER PLAN (TRANSFORMERS ACTION MASTER PROWL with TURBO-CYCLE KNOCK-OFF)
• Toy Line: Unknown
• Year: Around 1991
• Company: Unknown Manufacturer (China)
• Size of the figures: Around 10 cm

#799 GALAXY ROBOTS - SPACE FIGHTERS (Around 1988)

 

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

This is an interesting Masters of the Universe bootleg (for me, all MotU bootlegs are interesting!) based in a cast which we already know from other toylines, but with remarkable differences and singularities that we will check in this entry today.

The name of the toyline is "Galaxy Robots", and as far as I could find on the internet, there are only two pictures in Google Images that show the exact figure that I own. No other (different) figure with the same card has been spotted so far. One of the pictures belongs to an eBay auction that ended without a buyer (150 Euro, although it was relisted and retired, so the seller probably got an offer outside eBay) and the second one is a picture of a collection of X-Changers with this blistercard in the back.

The character that is depicted in the card is somehow different from the one that actual figure, maybe there were more figures made? Note that the guy seems to have no clothes below the armour and that the helmet and chest armour look somewhat different. It is a mistery if there are more figures from the same series somewhere out there.

The figure is a bootleg of a Sungold toyline called “Lazer Force” (not to be mistaken with Lanard’s 3.75’’ Lazer Force), a toyline whose main feature was the use of LEDs in weapons and armour parts. The figures I could find of Lazer Force are similar to mine, only with knee and elbow articulations. To my knowledge there are at least two Sungold figure casts, but several variants of each figure.

This figure also comes with several armour parts, as you can see in the picture (it could actually be mistaken with an X-Changers). The armour parts are: an oversized helmet (that makes the figure look a bit odd when carded, I don´t know how does it look like when the helmet is not on), a chest harness/armour, thight and leg armours (2 parts each leg) and arm armours. Additionally, there is a big part on the lower left corner, that could actuall be a backpack, or some kind of briefcase.

Of course I am not willing to open the blister to find it out, this small treasure must remain in its original box.

I also found that the rare (and long forgotten) wave of the Turly Gang also had at least three figures that came with these same accessories, as you can read in the Knock-off collector blog.

The toy is made in China but was imported to Spain probably in the late 80s. This is the kind of toy found in popular events like fairs, and sold by street vendors in their caravans. These toys were mostly low quality items that were opened immediately and destroyed in a few days while playing.

This figure seem to be rare, so it was probably a very short number of items that were imported to Spain. By the way, the other two blisterpacks seem to have the same sticker in the upper left corner than mine.

The back of the card is plain, has no text or images at all.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: GALAXY ROBOTS (No. 8836)
• Toy Line: GALAXY ROBOTS SPACE FIGHTERS
• Year: Around 1988
• Company: Unknown Manufacturer (China)
• Size of the figures: Around 16 cm

#798 UNKNOWN MANUFACTURER - SEVERAL CARS IN MICRO MACHINES SCALE (Around 1995)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

This is an unknown series of Micro Machines copies. I do not even know if they belong together (I mean, if they were originally sold together), but in any case, I bought all of them to the same guy.

Despite I do not usually buy MM bootlegs, I thought these were nice models that really resemble real MM. I later realized they are probably knock-offs, but I didn’t compare them to other real MM in my collection yet.

 

The cars are made of a worse plastic than the real MM and the colours and paintwork are also clearly inferior. However the selection of models is in my opinion great. The models are (left to right):

• BMW 635 (very similar to the one in #577)
• Mercedes SLC
• Ferrari F40
• Porsche 911 Carrera
• Land Rover

 

I don´t know what the manufacturer was, so I could have also published this entry in January, as part of the "month of the unknown". If anyone has more information, I´d love to know more.

 

 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: SEVERAL CARS IN THE MICRO MACHINE SCALE (KNOCK-OFF)
• Scale of the cars: 1:150 aprox.
• Year: Around 1995
• Company: Unknown Manufacturer
• Size: approx. 2 cm

#797 PILEN – COCHE FANTÁSTICO KITT (KNIGHT RIDER) (Ref. 343) (1986)

 

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

If the last entry dealt with a knock-off of the Knight Rider, why not continue with another bootleg of this same TV icon? This one is completely different: the car is a die-cast model, but its scale is also 1:43 and it was also made in Spain.

The cast of this car may be familiar to people who have been reading my blog since the beginning, because I already mentioned this toy a long time ago. Visit entry #45 now or at the end of this article.

I presented a Indra by Pilen made in the 70s. The cast by 1986 was probably completely outdated and probably kept in some dark room somewhere in the factory, but the airing of Knight Rider in the Spanish television gave it a second life. In order to create a new toy that more or less resembles the car that appeared in the TV series, Pilen recovered this cast and with some modifications, they were able to market a new reference which would be a potential best-seller.

Note the differences between both the old Indra and the new KITT: in the front, that angle to put the red lights that gave kind of “personality” to the car, on both sides, the rear windows have been covered, and also a spoiler has been added at the back. The rest of the cast (except for the base) remains unchanged to my eyes. I would say the guy who modified the cast to create K.I.T.T. did an excellent job, obviously considering the limitations of faking a Pontiac Firebird with an Indra. The rear part is especially different.

UPDATE: Thanks Steve for pointing out the different engine cover, which in the Indra is flat, and in K.I.T.T. it has some kind of bulge. Quite cool!

The base is marked “Coche Fantástico KITT” (Coche Fantástico or lit. Fantastic Car was the name of the TV series in Spain), then “Pilen - Ref 343 - Made in Spain” and finally “Escala 1/43”. Rear lights are painted red from factory.

Although this car is not especially expensive or difficult to find, it is a small treasure for me.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: COCHE FANTÁSTICO KITT (Ref. 343)
• Scale: 1:43
• Year: 1986
• Company: Pilen (Spain)
• Size: approx. 8-9 cm

#796 JUYBA - FERRARI BB 512 “FANTÁSTICO” (KNIGHT RIDER) (1986)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

This model shares its cast with the BB 512 by Guisval, released in the Furia series (see #223). Globetoys and Guisval are actually the same company, as I explained only a few entries ago (see #672), so why should Globetoys copy Guisval?

Thanks to Salvador López for correctng this entry. The Ferrari inthe pictures is actually a Juyba model, that at some point released two cars from the Furia Series (this one and the Toyota Celica), only in plastic and with friction motors. The casts are the same usedby Guisval, only unmarked. It is unclear at this point what is the relation between Guisval and Juyba, although I would say, they are different companies. Probably Juyba bought some tooling and casts from Guisval to produce their own toys.

The two cars referred about were produced in several plain colours and were decorated with rally stickers, this Fantástico seems to have been made in a shorter run.

In my opinion, Guisval wanted to avoid any legal problems when copying or bootlegging other toys. In this case, the toy is its own design, but the decoration as K.I.T.T., the Knight Rider is not legal.

Juyba obviously had no license to reproduce Knight Rider. The TV series was launched in Spain in 1985, and many companies tried to make toys based on the black Pontiac Firebird named K.I.T.T.

Unfortunately the model in the pictures is missing some stickers, but it still looks quite impressive in black with red hubcaps.

The base is completely unmarked, but I could identify it thanks to catalogues and comparing it to other Guisval models.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: FERRARI BB 512 "FANTÁSTICO"
• Scale: Approx. 1:43
• Year: 1986
• Company: Juyba (Spain)
• Size: approx. 8 cm

#795 GISIMA - BMW M1 and BMW TURBO (Around 1984)

 

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

 

Here are two cars from the early 80s made by Gisima in Spain. I recall having the BMW Turbo as a kid and how it broke into pieces. I think the remains of the car should still be in some "spare" box. My car was exactly like the one in the pictures: yellow/orange with black doors and the same stickers, probably the only ones made for this model ever.

The BMW M1 instead is a car I didn´t know it existed by Gisima, I took both around two years ago from the same seller.

They are copies of Matchbox and Majorette respectively. The Turbo model is practically 1:1 the Majorette model, but the M1 has a nice add-on to the rare Matchbox model: a practicable plastic trunk at the front (the real model has rear engine).

The stickers are made of paper, so they are quite fragile, as the construction in general. The plastic base could break easily (note the plastic rivets), or, as in the car I had during my childhood, the base may detach from the body of the car.

They are very rare to find in this condition, although they were produced in relatively high numbers, most of them were damaged while playing.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: BMW M1 and BMW TURBO
• Scale: 1:64
• Year: 1984
• Company: Gisima (Spain)
• Size: approx. 7 cm

#794 KAIDO – SLANDERS, ZARGONE and TARKHAN (1990)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

In this entry I would like to make a list of which figures goes with which accessories, that is some kind of Yojoe’s WHOBIT, but for Kaido. It is a much easier work, since there are only 12 figures in this toyline.

As mentioned in the first Kaido entry, most weapons are copied from G.I.Joe figures other from Lanard's Corps, while the backpacks were their own designs and could actually talk. In this toyline, all accesories are made of BLACK plastic, except the backpacks, that are available in black, orange, blue, red and grey.

There are 6 types of backpacks, almost each of them in two colours. All of them had different voices -that is, different electronics- so, make sure the voice command is exactly the one from that figure. There are othercollections that also have these backpacks, and sometimes, they could be mixed up.

Bikin produced 12 figures for this toyline. They are actually numbered KS001 to KS012. These figures and their accessories are:

• KS001 – Charkkaff

• KS002 – Kanats

• KS003 – Kapawach

• KS004 – Daïman

• KS005 – Zorgev (backpack same cast as Slanders, but orange)

• KS006 – Slanders

• KS007 – Zargone (backpack same cast as Orx, but red)

• KS008 – Tarkhan (backpack same cast as Charkaff, and also in black)

• KS009 – Molloch (backpack same cast as Daïman, but red)

• KS010 – Orx

• KS011 – Alpacko (backpack same cast as Kapawach, also in black)

• KS012 – Tetrark

Because I like presenting new toys in every entry, I will now introduce three more figures from this toyline. Still four more to go.

SLANDERS (KS006) is one of the good guys, the underwater specialist fom the KAIDO team.

ZARGONE (KS007) the mad scientist from the NEW ORDER, is an expert in genetics, biochemistry and robotics.

TARKHAN (KS008) is a Mongolian circus artist recruited by the NEW ORDER for his mastery is horseriding, falcon training and snake charmer.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: SLANDERS, ZARGONE and TARKHAN (Ref.KS006, KS007 and KS008)
• Toy Line: Kaïdo
• Year: 1990
• Company: Bikin (Belgium)
• Size of the figures: 11 cm. or 3,75’’