#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

#917 UNKNOWN MANUFACTURER - PLASTIC CAVEMEN FROM THE 90s

I found this cheap figures in a flea market. I couldn´t resist! they are so cool and would be perfect to display along with my Ice Age Dino Riders or to make other nice diorama photoshoots.

The person who sold them to me had a lot of toys from the early 2000s, and nothing from the 90s or older. Later I found another figure in a big lot of figures from various decades, being the newer from the mid 90s. I also asked Hugh from Small Scale World about them, and he told me that they came in sets with plastic dinosaurs, so they were probably popular after each Jurassic Park movie in the 90s. That is why I think they were probably made in the early 90s, and reused and resold many times since then. Hugh already informed me, that they are "generic" figures, that is, figures that have been sold under many brands and in very different sets over many years, so it is difficult to trace back those casts to one manufacturer.

No matter what, these four figures may not be the complete set, they represent cavemen in different positions. One is holding a stone over his head, another one is walking with a club in his hand, another is crouching and lighting a fire with two stones, and the last one seems to be collecting something from the ground.

I took several pictures of these figures that I present now.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: UNKNOWN CAVEMEN
• Year: Around 1990?
• Company: Unknown Manufacturer (China)
• Size of the figures: 3 to 5 cm

#908 STAR TOYS - BASKETBALL PLAYERS (KELLOGG'S PROMO SPAIN) (1991)

One of the toys I cannot forget from my childhood are three sets of basketball players made by Star Toys. I never had any of them, but still, here´s the story.

In 1991, Kellogg´s, the well known brand for breakfast cereals, decided to launch a new product in Spain. This product was called Chocos, and consisted of cereal crops with chocolate flavour and, more or less, the shape of a half  sphere. I recall perfectly the package as well, all in dark green with the yellow giraffe in basketball outfit that was later replaced by a brown bear. I am not sure if the giraffe is the same giraffe called "Shorty" or if it was a new character designed specifically for launching that product.

Maybe because of the giraffe, the very first offer they had was a set of five plastic basketball players (to be chosen in one out of three colours/teams) that were made by Star Toys. Maybe this offer was only for Spain, since, I haven´t seen the plastic figures anywhere else.

The figures were standing in different positions, like throwing the ball, in defensive pose or driving the ball with one hand. Out of five figures, three had a basketball in its hands. Also interesting is that there are three white players and two black ones.

All five figures stand in a five-pointed star, with white borders and coloured inside in red, yellow or blue, and carry a sticker in its chest with the text "Kellogg´s Chocos", but this sticker very often missing. The base are marked: "(c) 1991 Kellogg Company" and "Star Toys”.

The colours available were red, yellow and blue. This three inmediatly made me think of Chicago Bulls, L.A. Lakers and Detroit Pistons, three of the biggest teams at that time, although, since there were not marked, they could also be other teams with similar colours... both from the NBA or the ACB (Spanish Pro League), or even National Teams.

I miss a green team, who at the time could have been the Boston Celtics, my favorite team of the early 90s.

Also during the early 90, Yolanda released a short series of "real" NBA players in PVC in a slightly bigger scale. This line is currently very sought-after, and difficult to find complete, since each figure came with a ball that with the time is easily detachable from the figure.

Read a longer article written by myself (in Spanish) in Figuras En Acción Nr. 18.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: BASKETBALL PLAYERS (KELOGG'S PROMO SPAIN)
• Year: 1991
• Company: Star Toys (Spain)
• Size of the figures: Around 7 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

#898 HEIMO - MAX AND MORITZ PVC FIGURES (1977)

Max und Moritz is a German illustrated story written by Wilhelm Busch in 1865. The book has 7 chapters, all of them rhymed in couplets.

I knew the book, but it wasn´t until recently that I had it in my hands and I could read it a little bit (it is difficult if you are not fluent in German). The stories and the illustrations have a lot of things in common with later comics and cartoons. Max and Morizt are two naughty boys doing nasty things. The chapters are also called "tricks", and describe one mischief of the two main characters: stealing a roasted chicken from a kitchen, sawing a wooden bridge, putting gunpowder in a smoking pipe... until they meet their fate being shredded in a backery.

As many cartoons, the stories are kind of violent, at least with today's mentality, so I think, the book is not so popular anymore in German speaking countries as it was before.

But what brought Max and Moritz to this blog today is the series of figures made by Heimo in the late 70s. The series comprises 8 figures plus one variant. Just for clarification, Max is the brunette boy, Moritz is the blonde boy. Note in this picture below that the two Max figures have different hair colour: one brown, the other black.

The original 8 figures were

• Max (hands on back)
• Max (with smoking pipe)
• Moritz (hands on back, red shirt)
• Moritz (with gunpowder flask)
• Widow Bolte
• Tailor Böck (sitting)
• Teacher Lämpel
• Meister Backer

And the variant is

• Moritz (hands on back, green shirt instead of red)

The variant is not more difficult to find than the ordinary one. Heimo figures were produced massively, and even today, they can be found on ebay at relatively low prices (considering its age).

Also note that Max and Moritz were available in two different casts, the first represents them doing nothing, with their hands in the back and smiling, as they were lovely little boys. The other two versions are taken from chapter/trick 4 (Streich 4), were they fill the pipe of teacher Lämpel with gunpowder. Max has the pipe and Moritz the flask with the gunpowder. In some catalogues this figure is referred as "with inkwell" ("mit Tintenfass"), but this must be an error, since there is no inkwell in the whole book.

Illustration taken from de.wikisource.org

Figures are marked POLYMEDIA, most probably because they came out as a merchandise for a TV series made between 1977 and 1978. The producer was Polyphon Film- und Fernseh GmbH in Hamburg, ans was directed by Hermann Leitner and John Halas. The years would match and also the style of the figures and the colours.

As menstioned before, a nice complete set of figures, not difficult to find, nor expensive. The figures are somewhat bigger than the usual Heimo from these years, and are about 6 cm high, which makes them more attractive than other figures like those made of Wickie, Heidi or Disney.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: MAX AND MORITZ
• Year: 1977
• Company: Heimo (Germany)
• Size of the figures: 6 cm

#879 UNKNOWN MANUFACTURER - BUSSI BÄR KEYRING (Around 1984)

I am interested in this character made by Rolf Kauka because I had some educational game books of him (and his dog Bello) as a kid.

When I came to Austria I realized that the character here was much more popular. It appears in books of all types, including comic books, educational, colour books and more. A magazine is still being published, aimed at children of ages 4 and above.

I wonder where this keyring comes from. It is definitely old, and I have found just one picture in the whole internet of it. I recently found the keyring in a thrift shop, and I bought it together with some plastic figures of the 80s. I have a second figure (without the keyring, just the figure, with a small hole in the head, so it also carried the keyring originally) that I found inside a Geocache. One possibility it that it is a giveaway of the Bussi Bär magazine, although it could also be a promotional giveaway for book or toy stores.

The figure is unmarked, so the manufacturer is unknown, but it is still copyrighted "R. Kauka".

Mr. Rolf Kauka´s work is very interesting. He was nicknamed the "German Walt Disney". It is worth taking a look at the Wikipedia. Rolf Kauka – Wikipedia

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: BUSSI BÄR and BELLO KEYRING SCHLÜSSELANHÄNGER
• Toy Line: BUSSI BÄR
• Year: 1984
• Company: Unknown Manufacturer (Germany?)
• Size of the figure: Around 3 cm

#864 YOLANDA – RUPERTA KEYRING (UN, DOS, TRES) (1991)

 

This is a simple keyring made by Yolanda with the Mascot of the TV show “Un, Dos, Tres”. The name of the pumpkin is Ruperta, and we already know her from a previous entry (#217).

Yolanda/Comansi probably got a license from the TV program to produce merchandising, and they made the funny pumpkin in several sizes and in several forms, and also painted or unpainted. The figures shown in the article in the link are the smallest ones, this keyring is way bigger, maybe around the size of a table tennis ball.

The metallic ring and the short chain that binds it to the plastic figure have a good quality, but I wonder how resistant the plastic ring is, in which the keychain is attached… It looks very very weak.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: RUPERTA LLAVERO
• Toy Line: Un, Dos, Tres (TV Quiz Show)
• Year: 1991
• Company: Yolanda (Spain)
• Size of the figure: Around 4 cm

#828 UNKNOWN TOYMAKER - SUMSI PVC FIGURE (Around 1985)

This bee is the mascot of the Austrian-based bank Raiffeisen-Bank. Even today, the brave and hard-working bee is still being used by the same bank in several publications for children, or in especial give-away products, like bicycle helmets or backpacks.

This figure is probably from the mid 80s, although I cannot say it accurately, as I cannot identify the maker of the figure. It is completely unmarked.

Interestingly, the figure has a ring on its back, so I assume at the time it was a keyring. I found two of these, and none had the keyring anymore, so this must also be taken as a hypothesis.

The paint work is not the best, even considering that it was made more than 30 years ago, but still a rare and nice promotional plastic/PVC figure.

UPDATE1 (Dec/2018): A different, yet very similar, model.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: SUMSI (PROMO PVC FIGURE FROM RAIFFEISEN BANK)
• Year: Around 1985
• Company: Unknown Toymaker (Austria? / Germany?)
• Size of the figures: Around 4 cm

#818 JUGUETES EURA S.A. – DON QUIJOTE and SANCHO PANZA (1979)

The cartoons directed by Cruz Delgado based on the masterpiece of Miguel de Cervantes was a major success in the Spanish Television in 1979 (when it was aired for the first time), and, of course, some merchandising items were made to make more money licensing toy figures, books and all kind of things for children.

These two figures are one example, maybe the best known toy made out of the Don Quijote cartoon. The two PVC figures were originally made by Juguetes Eura S.A., a company that also had the rights to produce Peyo’s Smurfs in PVC, although in 1980, this license was lost because Schleich had bought the rights worldwide for that same series, and they had to stop producing them. The whole story is told in The Cursed Country.

The thing is that Juguetes Eura, would later become Comics Figuras S.L. (also known as Comics Spain). Both companies have the same founders and the same address. The new company was founded in 1982, also by Ramón Magriña and Eulalia Camps, as a matter of fact, EURA is formed with the initial letters of the names of the two founders: EU (Eulalia) and RA (Ramón).

The topic with the Smurfs has been extensively studied, but the other figures are somehow forgotten. Eura did not only made these… they also had figures from La Abeja Maya (Biene Maja), Asterix, Barbapapas, several Disney characters and more… and their quality is quite interesting.

Back to Don Quijote, there were four figures made of this series. Don Quijote and Sancho Panza, plus the same two characters riding their Horse (Rocinante) and Donkey (Rucio), respectively. The riding characters could be removed from their mounts.

Don Quijote (standing) came with a very small and fragile sword that could be attached to his belt.

The same figures were later available marked with “Comics Spain”. Each figure was available with and without plastic base to improve the stability, but I cannot say if some were earlier than others, or which brand (Eura or Comics Spain) do each one have.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: DON QUIJOTE and SANCHO PANZA
• Year: 1979
• Company: Juguetes Eura S.A. (Spain)
• Size of the figures: Around 10 and 6 cm tall

#763 UNKNOWN MANUFACTURER - UNIDENTIFIED PLASTIC DINOSAUR ROBOTS (Around 1985)

MONTH OF THE UNKNOWN

I have a few interesting toys that I have been collecting over the years from which I know nothing at all. They cannot be identified since they have no manufacture marking. Despite searching the internet, I couldn´t find anything about them, so I changed my mind, and thought it may be better if I publish them now, and people reading this could help me identifying them.

There will be 11 toys (all 11 entries from January 2017), but I warn you: it is not an easy task to identify them. Are you ready for this challenge?

If I get hints and information, I´ll be updating the posts to add information about them. Thanks!

 

If you like the challenge, there are other toys in this blog waiting to be identified, click here to see all unidentified toys.

 

 

These are two small (maybe 3 centimeters long) pvc figures representing two dinosaur-robots. They could be some kind of premium to a snack or something like that. The blue one comes with a ring on top so it was probably attached to a keyring or was intended to be hang in a wristband or necklace. The green one also had this ring, but it is now broken.

 

 

The design is amazing, I love these small robo-dinosaurs.

 

Additional information: Bought in a flea market in Austria.

 

 

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: UNIDENTIFIED PLASTIC DINOSAUR ROBOTS
• Year: Around 1985
• Company: Unknown Manufacturer
• Size of the figures: Around 4 cm long

#744 UNKNOWN MANUFACTURER - BASKET FEVER PVC FIGURES (1993)

This plastic figures were made in 1992 and are marked (C) D´Ocon 1992. Interestingly, there is no manufacturer marking on the back of the figures and collectors in Spain argue if the manufacturer was Comics Spain or not. The figures are identical to these: same plastic, same paint, similar design, but the company in 1992 has some economic problems as I explained in entry #267. This would make some sense if they did this figures using a second company in order to cash the money and avoid paying other debts. One detail here is that in 1997, together with Comics Spain there were other two companies that were precincted and closed.

Curiously, that same year it would be another D'Ocon production (Delfy) that would cause the end of Comics Spain.

It will probably take a few years more until we find somebody involved in the casting or manufacturing of these figures and we know the rest of the story. No matter what, the figures  are really great and represent characters from the Spanish cartoon series "Basket Fever" or "Locos por el Basket".

This series was produced by the Public Spanish TV (TVE), the ACB League (professional basketball league) and the Spanish Basketball Federation to promote basketball and sports among children. The main character, a grasshopper was also the official mascot of the ACB league.

Charlie and Hooper

The cartoons´ script dealt with two rival gangs who instead of fighting decide to play sports for the control of the block. One of the gangs is formed by respectable, nice and kind dogs, and the other one are crook and troublemaker dogs. The grasshopper arrives and joins the first group, and will have the idea to play basketball with the rival gang.

Linda

The good guys gang is called "dinamics". Although in the original series there were more characters, these are the ones made in PVC:

-Mike (a.k.a. Boss): Gang Leader

-Linda: Gang member

-Hooper: The grasshopper, newest member of the gang

-Sargent: Trainer (I do not have the figure yet!)

The bad guys gang is called "quebrantahuesos". This name literally means "the bonecrushers", but it is also the common name in Spanish for the bearded Vulture, a bird that can be found in many places around Spain.

-Charlie (a.k.a. Kilo): Gang Leader

-Yvonne: Gang member and Charlie´s girlfriend

-Rapper: Gang member

-O'Rejas: Trainer

Boss and Ivonne

Unfortunately, there are other characters that do not got their figure. In the dinamics gang: Freddie (a.k.a. Krueger) and Plasta, and for the Quebrantahuesos team: Paccino and the Destroyer. With these figures we would have 2 five member teams and two trainers, and thus we could have played 5 on 5 basketball games.

Rapper and O'Rejas

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: HOOPER, BOSS, LINDA, CHARLIE, YVONNE, RAPPER and O'REJAS.
• Year: 1992
• Company: Unknown Manufacturer, maybe Comics Spain (Spain)
• Size of the figures: Around 7 cm (between  2’’ and 3’’)