#457 MADELMAN 2050 – ALACTRO LAGARD (Ref. 1606) (1989)

This is the last Madelman 2050 figure I have bought, and with it I already have all figures that were officially released in a blister pack. I am still missing some vehicles, but I am not sure if I will ever go for them… I am running out of space. And of course, I am also missing the super-rare figure prototypes that I do not think they will be available again on ebay or wherever. If you want to read more about those prototypes, I suggest you visit this old entry #191.

Alactro-Lagard is the other new figure released in the second wave (the first was Deltox-Zan), and it is again a repaint of a figure from wave 1 with new accessories: in this case, some kind of delta-wing and a cannon, both in yellow. Under the delta-wing there is some kind of sticker or paper, but I don't know what it could be.

The character, as explained in #26, is the commander of the Zarkon armies, but as in the case of Deltox-Zan, the figure is a repaint of another character… actually, the Alactro-Lagard figure is based on Reptis. Deltox-Zan was based on Darman. Why Exin did that is unknown to me, maybe the condition of these figures’s casts were better than the other, or maybe it was just a random choice.

Both Deltox-Zan and Alactro Lagard are much rarer figures that the 8 ones from wave 1, and today cost (Mint On Card) between 150 and 200 Euro each. I have never seen them loose, so I don’t know which price they could have, but surely the half of a MOC figure or less.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: ALACTRO LAGARD (Ref. 1606)
• Toy Line: Madelman 2050 (Wave 2)
• Year: 1989
• Company: Exin (Spain)
• Size of the figures: 3¾’’ or 9,5 cm

#324 MADELMAN 2050 – TARANTULA (Ref. 1705) (1988)

This vehicle was 1 of the 6 vehicles available during the first wave of Exin’s toyline: Madelman 2050. Since the second wave was only partially released, the vehicles from wave 1 were re-packed and sold in the second wave (similarly to what happened with the figures in the first wave). The new packages looked much more modern as I already explained here.

Now let’s take a look at the box of the toy, and let’s see which other vehicles were available during wave 2.

These illustrations can be found on the back of the box of the Tarantula. It shows the complete assortment of figures and vehicles that were planned to be sold in the second wave of M2050. It was already commented in an older entry, that not all the figures were actually manufactured, but in the case of the vehicles, they were all available in extremely limited releases. I have seen all of them except the Skytron and the Phantox, but the existence of these two has also been confirmed by ex-workers from Exin.

HOMBRES C.O.T.A.
Sentinel (Ref. 1700)
Tarantula (Ref. 1701)
Clonstar (Ref. 1702) - NEW
Skytron (Ref. 1703) - NEW
Defender (Ref. 1750)
Transcom (Ref. 1650) - NEW

ZARKONS
Batrus (Ref. 1726)
Falcon (Ref. 1727)
Montrax (Ref. 1728) - NEW
Scorpion (Ref. 1751)
Dragotrak/Anfitron (Ref. 1760) - NEW
Phantox (Ref. 1670) – NEW

Clonstar and Dragotrak/Anfitron are the most common from the new vehicles, and also the most surprising and innovative ones.
The Clonstar is the first and only vehicle in the toyline to include drivers, but also the first one to include many chromed parts, including the chromed body. The ball has four practicable parts that can be separated: two parts are attached to the backs of the figures, and the other two houses two recon-vehicles.
Dragotrak/Anfitron are two vehicles in one, and it the only one that can be controlled remotely. The vehicle has a quite impressive size.

The other 4 vehicles are much rarer. It is quite interesting that two reference numbers are slightly different from the rest: there are two 16xx references (Transcom and Phantox), which correspond to the smallest vehicles in the range. Maybe Exin had planned a low cost line of vehicles.
Montrax is also a very small vehicle, while the Skytron has a medium size, and reuses parts of the first 6 vehicles. From all new six, is the most likely to have belonged to the first wave.

But back to the Tarantula, this vehicle takes its name from the famous spider. The vehicle, as the spider, has a central body, with two claws and 4 legs (the spiders have 2 fangs and 8 legs). It also has many cables and antennas, similarly to the other vehicle already presented in this blog: Batrus.

These are the claws of the vehicle.

 The body has place for one figure and a small place to store weapons.

 On the rear part of the body, the "spider" has a spring loaded hook, what adds great playability to the toy.
 

This image shows the lower part of the vehicle. Note that the feet are actually (almost) flat pads. The hole in the middle is to fix the toy to the box with the plastic tab below.

This last picture show the contents of the box: additional cables, antennas, unapplied stickers, the quality control sheet and the mini-comic (keep reading).

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: TARANTULA (Ref. 1701)
• Toy Line: Madelman 2050 (Wave 1)
• Year: 1988
• Company: Exin (Spain)
• Size: Around 24 cm long from claws to hook

As an annex, I include here all pages from mini-comic "¡Combate!", second mini-comic out of 5 released. The titles for the comics are:

• LA INVASIÓN DE LOS ZARKON
• ¡COMBATE!
• LA PUERTA DEL VOLCÁN
• BASERTRON 2050 
• EL CUARTEL INFERNAL

#191 MADELMAN 2050 – DELTOX-ZAN (Ref. 1506) (1989)

M2050’s SECOND WAVE

The second wave of Madelman 2050’s was already mentioned when I first introduced this great line of action figures. The first wave had relatively bad sales, but it seems that the plans to develop and manufacture a second wave were done earlier than usual. Maybe the company expected better results and decided to work directly in a second wave without waiting at the sales. The thing is that a complete second wave was designed, including prototypes, packaging and bringing some innovation to the toy-line, like for example, remote controlled vehicles.

Blister design for Gornak "Assault Megacaptor"

After the bad sales of the first wave, Exin decided to launch the second wave: not as initially planned, but in a reduced form. All vehicles (or almost all) were marketed together with two new figures (if we do not consider the two pilots of the “Clonstar” as figures, but as “vehicle”): Deltox-Zan and Alactro-Lagard. These two figures were the only two in the new wave that were repaints of the figures in the first wave. The unproduced figures (they were only produced as prototypes) were new and exciting designs that, unfortunately, never did it to the toystore shelves. Those toys that were sold are nowadays very hard to find and very expensive to buy.

The two repainted figures are the same characters that were already available in the first wave: Zan and Lagard, who, if you revise the old entry, are the commanders of both factions.

Different close-ups of Deltox-Zan and accesories

Deltox-Zan in a repaint of Bran

The gun is the same that was available with Bran

the helmet was also available with Bran, only in blue instead of red

Unexpectedly, the “v2”s of these characters were made using the bodies of other figures: Bran was recoloured in red as Deltox-Zan and Reptis in black as Alactro-Lagard, but we don’t know why did they took those casts and not others.

This figure came with the same weapons as Bran except the backpack, that was replaced by a bigger three-pieced backpack that resembles a delta-wing, or some kind of flying backpack.. Alactro Lagard came with a similar backpack and a new casted gun.

M2050 second wave's backcard

Specially interesting are the new designs of the blisters. Personally, I like them less than those from the first wave, with the great drawings by Rafael López Espí, but these blisters might have looked more modern at the time. Note the scrollbars and some symbols used in computers. In 1989 the symbols might have been a complete mystery for 99% of the population...

In this wave, the figure and accesories were placed over a big plastic "M" (symbol from Madelman 2050) with the comic behind. Unlike the first wave blisters, second wave blisters have the bubble glued to the card. That's why I cannot put pictures of the comic book this time. It should be one of the 4 comics books ever released. The first one can be seen here.

COTA Men - This picture belongs to a vehicle box, is the same picture above, but with higher resolution

Zarkons - This picture belongs to a vehicle box, is the same picture above, but with higher resolution

The other 4 figures that were never produced were: Nork (ref. 1504), Dron (1505), Cranax (1604) and Gornak (1605). A lot of prototypes was once sold at ebay.es for around 300 Euros (375 US$), and the buyer was somebody most figure collectors may know. I took this screenshots as a “souvenir”. 

If you analyze the pictures thoroughly, you might recognise:

• the two drivers of the clonstar, plus a figure based in the same cast, but repainted.
• Dron, one of the unreleased figures
• Two (same) soldiers in green camo uniforms (prev. unreleased)
• A mixture of Serpion and Reptis repainted.
• Two comics (“Basertron 2050” and “¡Combate!”), both previously released
• Stickers sheets (unidentified, since they are similar for all vehicles)
• A bunch of weapons, most of them already released. Specially intereting are the “boots” of Dron, the weapons of the Clonstar pilots, and the weapon that should have belonged to Cranax. Among this pieces are also some parts of vehicles, and two green backpacks that I don’t know where do they belong.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: DELTOX-ZAN (Ref. 1506)
• Toy Line: Madelman 2050 (Wave 2)
• Year: 1989
• Company: Exin (Spain)
• Size of the figures: 3¾’’ or 9,5 cm

#84 MADELMAN 2050 – BATRUS (1988)

Here is one of the vehicles from the first M2050 wave. Batrus is some kind of flying robot which can carry one figure in its chest. It is aligned with the evil Zarkons, and as indicated in the box, Batrus is the “Robot Insignia del terrible ejército de Zarkon” (Flagrobot of the terrible army of Zarkon).

The first wave of vehicles consisted of 6 different units, 3 for each faction. The COTA men had Sentinel, Tarantula and Defender, Zarkons had Batrus, Falcon and Scorpion, as it can be seen in this figure backcard. If you pay enough attention, you’ll probably observe, that many parts are reused from one vehicle to another one: Batrus and Sentinel are very similar; the cockpits of Tarantula and Defender are the same, and so they are Scorpion and Falcon; the legs of Defender and Falcon are also the same, and the same happens with the legs of tarantula and Scorpion, not to mention minor details, like the missiles, cables, cannons, wings, hands/claws, and so on.

Even considering that some parts are reused, this toy has an excellent quality, and looks really awesome. The pictures show my actual robot, to which I haven’t applied any stickers, but with the stickers it looks even better. The vehicle also has an interaction feature with the figures. As I told in older entries, the Zarkon figures had two faces, well, when a Zarkon figure sits inside Batrus, his face changes automatically to its “reptilian” mode, as it doesn’t need to hide its identity. Additionally, it has two missile launchers that actually shoot (similar to the ones included with G.I.Joe: ARAH figures in the 90s), and grappling claws… personally I think this robot as a toy is much better than any G.I.Joe vehicle made on these years.

If that was not enough, each vehicle was packed with a figure inside, which unfortunately wasn’t an exclusive one, but one of the 8 ordinary ones in its original blister, and a comic book. In the photograph above are depicted two comic books: one belongs to the figure, and the one named “¡Combate!” is the one that came with those first wave vehicles (there were three more comics made). The green card is just the quality control inspection of the toy. You could send it to Exin, if something was missing or broke.

 

Also amazing is the illustration in the box’s flap, made in the same style and by the same artist who did the artwork for the figures, Rafael López Espí. You can visit his website, and enjoy his great creations for M2050, Masters of the Universe, Comic covers for 26 different series, and much more.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: BATRUS (Ref. 1726)
• Toy Line: Madelman 2050 (Wave 1)
• Year: 1988
• Company: Exin (Spain)
• Size: Approx. 24 cm