#936 SECRET WARS – DAREDEVIL (1985)

Despite being a short collection, Secret Wars have a few hard to find figures, mostly if you want to have your figures 100% complete. Some accesories are very difficult to find, and the shield images are also often missing. I would like to get all figures with their original accesories, but the shield images could be repro, that doesn´t bother me.

Daredevil is one of the "difficult" figures because it came with his baton, which is small and quite simple (might be mistaken for something else). In loose figures it is almost always missing. Another usual flaw is a paint loss in the face, but because this figure was on card, the face was perfect, so I was lucky to find this opened (American) blister card with the figure and everything else.

Or I thought I was lucky. The price was not so low, and when I received the figure, the limbs came with some kind of red powder that I had to clean up with a humid piece of cloth (that got tainted red in the process). The plastic is maybe deteriorating and I do not know how it will evolve during the next months. I left it perfectly clean last December and by June it was still clean, I wonder if it will keep being clean, or if the plastic will deteriorate further. The chest of the figure is perfect, I would say it is made of a different harder plastic. While the limbs are more flexible.

It is the only figure I have with its blister card, so maybe it is a great opportunity to take a closer look to it.

The front of the cards are all the same, a blue background with the big logo on top, and the name of the figure in rather small letters between the collection logo and the bubble. It is noted that the figure includes a holographic shield, which is, so to speak, the main attraction and sales argument. The bubble is huge because it covers the figure, the shield and the lenticular images in its little plastic bag and, if present, additional accessories like little guns.

The back of the card is more interesting because it shows a very short filecard (name, height, weight, super powers and weapons) an a mini comic with some action scene starring the figure attached to the card. A backcard catalogue is always available. In this case, it shows the figures from wave 2. And finally in the lower part of the back card, there are some graphic instructions on how to use the holographic shield plus the content and the copyright notice.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: DAREDEVIL
• Toy Line: Secret Wars (Wave 2)
• Year: 1985
• Company: Mattel (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 12 cms

#880 SECRET WARS - CAPTAIN AMERICA and FALCON (1984 and 1985)

It has been a long time since I didn´t write about Secret Wars. I didn´t buy any in a long time, mostly because it is difficult to find complete figures at good prices in Europe. And since eBay introduced the Global Shipping Programme, I do not buy in the US anymore (I did once, and never more).

When I saw these two figures (in a lot) I had to buy it. Obviously the most interesting figure here is Falcon. It is complete with its two wings and the falcon accesories, which are very hard to find. The figures also included shields and its paper images, as depicted in the picture.

The figures are in great shape, and are basically the same as every other figure in the row. Same cast (except the head and the modification at the back for the wings), no action feature, same accesories (shields)... not much to say about the figures. The colouring scheme is very accurate (as in the comic books).

I am not very much into Marvel comics, but both characters were originally part of the same universe. The Secret Wars series mixed characters from different universes.

I am currently missing only 3 figures and 2 accessories… (and they are not the most difficult ones) let’s see if I can get them in the next months to close this toyline. I am not so interested in the vehicles for space reasons.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: CAPTAIN AMERICA and FALCON
• Toy Line: Secret Wars (Wave 1 and 2, respectively)
• Year: 1984 and 1985
• Company: Mattel (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 12 cms

#304 SECRET WARS – TOWER OF DOOM (1984)

The Secret Wars toy-line had among its references two big playsets: the “Tower of Doom” (this one) plus the “Freedom Fighter”. The first of these two was the villains fortress, while the second one was a platform for the Turbocopter with two big cannons for the good guys.

Both are relatively big and take a lot of space, but since it was offered to me at such a low price (20 Eur) I couldn’t say no. I’m glad I have it, because it is a toy I played as a kid with. A friend of mine had it, although he didn’t have any figures from the Secret Wars toy-line. We used it with Masters of the Universe, although these are much bigger.

Well, the Tower of Doom fortress is mint on box, and I didn’t applied stickers yet. I will show the whole contents of the box, and then I will try to review the building with its nice features Without assembling all parts, this review will be rather bad, but I’ll prefer that to opening vintage toys which are still in their original packages.

Needless to say, it is quite an impressive playset, I hope the pictures can give you an idea of it.

Ok, this is the box of the playset. This box was intended for the Spanish market. Internet search reveals that the American box is a bit different, since the back of it is made of white cardboard and depicts the toy with all its features. This version of the box is decorated with the same picture in both front and back sides. This picture is very appealing since it depicts a bunch of well known characters: Kang, Dr. Octopus, Dr. Doom and Captain America. The tower is shown over a stormy sky with a bit of fog, it’s a great picture.  In a smaller square the tower is shown from backwards in a picture with a child playing with the figures, so you can realize the real size of the toy.

The sides of the box highlight 6 features of the tower in independent frames:

1. Observation turret
2. 3 levels (floors) of action
3. Secret compartment
4. Trap in door turns to prison
5. Platform lift
6. Gliding seat over control panel

I will came back to these features later, now, let’s go with the contents of the box.

• First and biggest part is the fortress itself. It cannot be disassembled, nor can be removed the lift of the doors to the prison. The walls of the fortress are hollow.

• Second part is the turret that can be placed over the fortress, it came already mounted, with seat, side cannons and internal mechanism. By pushing a button on the frontal shield, the seat falls down, and with it, the figure sitting there.

• Third: a bag that includes the gliding seat. I didn’t opened it, but it seems to be the best feature in the playset. Quite impressive that seat, and very fragile too. The seat part, by the way is the same than in the previous turret.

• Fourth: A small bag including a grey shield plus some lenticular images. Unfortunately, European releases came with the images of one of the figures that were available apart. In America, each playset and vehicle had it’s own images, that you couldn’t get anywhere else. In this case, I got Dr. Octopus’. Each box included a shield in red in the case of the heroes or in grey if the vehicle or playset is intended for the villains. Every shield has a peg (red shield: round, grey shield: rectangular) that activates some mechanism, or reveals some hidden feature. In this case, the shield opens a secret compartment in one of the walls of the fortress.

• Fifth: Instructions sheet. Nice that not every feature was described in the box… in the instructions we read about the secret passage/door to the lab, that can be opened from the inside as an emergency wayout.

• Sixth: Stickers sheet, still unused.

• Seventh: Mattel Spain's quality control sheet (virtually indistinguishable from those included in She-Ra: Princess of Power, Masters of the Universe, and other Mattel toylines).

Here’s a view of the fortress from the outside

And here’s from the inside.

Of course the Tower of Doom doesn’t look that well without the stickers and the gliding seat, but it is still quite impressive as is. A few more pictures with some figures over it, can be found in other Secret Wars entries.

To finish the article, I'll just go through the instructions leaflet:

Contents:

How to place stickers:

Assembly of the gliding seat:

How to activate the feature of the observation turret:
How to open doors or keep them open:
How to open the secret compartment:
How to open the secret passage:

And finally, how to use the secret shield:

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: TOWER OF DOOM
• Alternate Names: TORRE ACORAZADA (Spanish)
• Toy Line: Secret Wars (Wave 1)
• Year: 1984
• Company: Mattel (U.S.A.)
• Size of the playset: Around 40 cms high

#245 SECRET WARS – BLACK COSTUME SPIDER-MAN vs. BARON ZEMO (1985)

SECRET WARS TOYS

As said in the previous entry, this time we will just focus on the toy line. There were three waves made, each of them with two factions, heroes and villains. One of the “new” things in this toy-line were that lenticular shields that came with each figure. These shield could be opened so you could insert on them one of the 4 double-sided images that came with each figure. Each of these 8 images was double, so moving the shield, you could see either one or the other. I guess the idea came from superheroes that must hide their identity; for example Peter Parker/Spider-Man. One of the images (often referred as “main image”) shows exactly this transformation, while the other 7 show the character in action. Shields for heroes are round and red. Shields for villains are square and grey.

Apart from the shield, some figures came with weapons. In the first wave, the most common weapon is a double-barrel gun. This weapon came with many figures, although there were other accessories made, for example a second type of rifle (for Dr. Doom), wolverine’s claws, and a few removable harnesses, belts and armours for different figures.

In the second and third waves, figure came with more specific accessories, like a falcon for Falcon, the glider for Hobgoblin, Daredevil’s whip and Constrictor’s whip.

Figures were sold carded, and on the backcard, a few comic scenes were depicted, in which the figure could be seen “in action”.

Here's the list of released figures and playsets:

WAVE 1:

Captain America

Iron Man

Spider-Man

Wolverine

Dr. Doom

Dr. Octopus

Kang the Conqueror

Magneto

WAVE 2:

Daredevil

Falcon

Spider-Man (black costume)

Baron Zemo

Hobgoblin

WAVE 3

Iceman

Constrictor

Elektro

Apart from the figures, there were two playsets and 7 vehicles released. As usual, playsets and vehicles bring additional playability to a toy line, as bring higher revenues to the toy manufacturers since they’re more expensive than single figures. In this case, there were two big playsets made, one for each faction. The 7 vehicles were actually 4 different vehicles, 3 of them recoloured for one or the other faction, plus the Doom Roller, which was exclusive for the villains.

Those three vehicles are: an helicopter, a motorbike with sidecar and a glider. The gliders are much rarer than the rest.

VEHICLES AND PLAYSETS:

Freedom Fighter Playset

Turbo Copter

Turbo Cycle

Star Dart Glider (with Black Costume Spider-Man)

Tower of Doom Playset

Doom Copter

Doom Cycle

Doom Roller

Doom Star Glider (with Kang)

And to finish this article, let’s go to the figures:

Black Costume Spider-Man is well known, but this black costume is really a symbiote of alien origin, that Spider-Man finds in planet Battleworld. 

He came with his shield only. I have to mention that paint is very likely to disappear in some figures of this collection. This version of Spider-Man is usually seen in a very bad shape. Mine is quite good, although the spider on the back is almost gone.

Baron Zemo, or Dr. Heinrich Zemo, 12th Baron Zemo, was one of the top nazi scientists during World War II. His son also used the same (or a very similar costume), so this figure could also represent Helmut J. Zemo, 13^th Baron Zemo.

The figure came with a grey shield (with it corresponding images), a gun and a yellow belt.

It is interesting to mention, that although all figures seem identical, there are some differences in the casts, that give additional quality to these toys. Note for example, that Spider-Man’s right foot is barely set on the ground (a sign of its agility), and Baron Zemo’s left hand is opened, as simulating it’s telekinetic powers.

In future entries, I will talk further about this line.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: BLACK COSTUME SPIDER-MAN and BARON ZEMO
• Toy Line: Secret Wars (Wave 2)
• Year: 1985
• Company: Mattel (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 12 cms

#244 SECRET WARS – IRON MAN vs. KANG THE CONQUEROR (1984)

ORIGIN OF SECRET WARS

Most of the times, a movie, a tv series or a comic book inspires a line of toys. In this case, it was the opposite. Mattel had in mind a series of Marvel’s superheroes, and committed Marvel to publish a new comic series using its most famous characters within the same stories (this is called “crossover”). Jim Shooter wrote the stories and Mike Zeck and Bob Layton drew 12 issues of “Secret Wars”.

These twelve issues were released between May 1984 and April 1985, and featured well known superheroes and supervillains: Spiderman, Captain America, Daredevil, Iron Man, Wolverine and Dr. Doom, Octopus, Magneto…

#1 Cover (source: Wikipedia)

That was exactly was Mattel wanted to have; in words of Jim Shooter: “One big story with all the heroes and villains in it”, so the toyline would be very attractive to kids. The name “Secret Wars” is just a mixture of two words that, after Mattel’s research, caused a positive reaction in kids. Mattel had interest in superheroes after Kenner acquired the rights to produce DC superheroes and just in case superheroes became the new trend after Masters of the Universe (what didn't happen).

The toy line had two waves worldwide plus another one released outside North America. The first one was released in 1984 (8 figures), the second one in 1985 (5 figures), and the third in 1986 (3 figures). Because toys have a “longer” life than comic books, the comic series were extended for an additional year in “Secret Wars II” (9 issues), released between July 1985 and March 1986. These comic books were also written by Jim Shooter, but the artist was Al Milgrom.

Secret Wars’ action happens in a fictional planet named “Battleworld”. The Superheroes are teleported there by “the Beyonder”, and in Secret Wars II, the action is located on Earth, when “the Beyonder” comes for a visit.

We’ll talk further about toys in the next entry (#245), but right now, let’s see the two figures I am presenting today. They belong to the first wave of this toy line (released 1984) and are: Iron Man and Kang.

Iron Man is probably well-known because of the recent movie and comic books. Iron Man is Tony Stark, who paradoxically is not a super-heroe, but a billionaire engineer. He just owns a hi-tech armor that gives him superpowers. Although there are several versions of this armor, the one depicted by the toy figure is the classical armour that can be seen in the comic books.

The figure came with a gun and a round red shield with 4 double-sided lenticular images to insert in the shield.

Kang the Conqueror is a supervillain, a time-traveller from the 30^th century. He is passionate about history and started time travelling back and forth in time. One of his ancestors is Dr. Doom, and he, himself has several aliases, like Iron Lad, Pharao Rama-Tut, Victor Timely, Scarlet Centurion or Immortus.

The figure came with a gun (same as Iron Man), a square grey shield and 4 double-sided lenticular images to insert in the shield. The figure wears some kind of removable harness over its chest.

The gun is common to many Secret Wars figures, and the shields came with each figure and each vehicle or playset, identifying the characters as heroes (round red shield) or villains (square grey shield), as we’ll explain in the next article.

Thanks for the figures, Fernando!

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: IRON MAN and KANG
• Toy Line: Secret Wars (Wave 1)
• Year: 1984
• Company: Mattel (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 12 cms