#668 KAÏDO - MOLLOCH and TETRARK (1990)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

 

There seems to be a great interest nowadays in this small bootleg figures made for (not "by") the Belgian company Bikin. I guess many collectors of G.I.Joe: ARAH are also interested in similar figures that were contemporary to Snake Eyes, Duke and Cobra Commander. The Corps! by Lanard are probably the most successful bootleg, but there were many others that also had great designs and were quality toys.

The interest is there (my previous entries about these figures receive many visits) but the sources of information are very scarce. Something most people do not know about these figures is that they also had at least two vehicles and one playset. These were not referenced in the packaging of the figures or in the "secret book" that each figure included. Since there are no known catalogues or any other promotional printed items, nobody really knows about them.

I haven´t got any of these vehicles, and I don´t think I will ever buy them, but neither would I like to ignore them in my blog. Here is a short review.

The first vehicle I know of, and the only one I once saw boxed at a department store is this jet (or jets). I don´t know what is the name of the toy, I just know the plane is undersized and you cannot place any figure in it. The pack included some kind of launcher seat (you can see it on the back of the illustration) and from there you could activate 4 battle sounds (they are indicated in the box).
Since the illustration depicts two jets I think both were included in the box... it is unclear since the box says "Caza Sónicas", were the name is singular and the adjective, plural. Note as well that the inscription seems to be a direct translation from another language, that doesn't really make sense in Spanish, not to talk about several grammar errors: "Electrónico Fuerza del Cielo con Caza Sónicas".

The second vehicle I know of is a small jet, this time with enough space to carry one or two figures. From the picture it is not clear. Note that the plane has been pictured over a desktop printer, so it should be around 30 cm long. The plane has 3 action sounds that can be activated from the three buttons on the rear part. Note the stickers under the cockpit "Kaïdo Air Force".

And finally, the third toy I know of is this headquarters playset. I found it in an ebay shop called "Hallelujah Toys". Since Kaïdo and M-P.A.C.T. share casts, at least this playset from M-P.A.C.T. was actually “recycled” for Kaïdo. The importer or whoever brought these figures to Europe, simply placed a sticker with the Kaïdo logo over the M-P.A.C.T. logo in the appropriate language. I saw this in the command center/base, which is quite big for such a small toyline.  

Here you can see the contents of the box. Remeber to visit "Hallelujah Toys" if you are interested in this item!

Note the M P.A.C.T. logo on one side and the Kaïdo logo on the other side. As you can see on the pictures, the headquarters has three levels plus a crane and a radar station, again with sounds and voices. Both Kaïdo and M P.A.C.T. main feature are battey operated backpacks with battle sounds and commands.

For the M P.A.C.T. toyline there were at least other two vehicles made: a fancy helicopter for the Shatter Force (the bad guys) and an even cooler Ferrari (kind of a F40 cabrio) for the Global Force (the good guys). These two were depicted in the back card of every figure, but they haven´t been spotted so far with Kaïdo stickers, so we cannot really certify that these were also available for the line we are talking about today. It wouldn´t surprise me though.

Considering the facts above, it surprises me that M-P.A.C.T. came later to market (1991) than Kaïdo (1990).



Pic found at: http://www.geocities.ws/mkbip/webpages/Mpact.htm

And now time to show two new figures of this collection, both belong to the "New Order", the criminal and terrorist organization of Emperor Orx.

MOLLOCH (KS009) - Explosive Specialist
I don't like this figure very much, it is quite generic with those camo trousers and black vest...

TETRARK (KS012) - Weapons Specialist
I have this one in an open box, so I can show the actual figure with more detail. I like it more than the previous one, but it is also quite dull. The uniform is very generic and only the patch in the eye brings something unusual to the figure.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: MOLLOCH and TETRARK (Ref.KS009 and KS012)
• Toy Line: Kaïdo
• Year: 1990
• Company: Bikin (Belgium)
• Size of the figures: 11 cm. or 3,75’’

#667 SIMBA/ WENTOYS – WRESTLING CHAMPS (1993)

Catching Tiger

Simba is a German toy manufacturer and also a toy importer. Currently Simba is the 4th biggest toy manufacturer in Germany. From the beginning, in 1982, the company has imported many toys from China and other Asian countries. These figures are some examples of imported toys made by third companies in China.

The Wrestling Champs use casts which are copies of Hasbro’s Official WWF. There are 2 waves, but today I will only talk about the first one, which is far more common than the second. It comprised 6 figures, whose names were:

• Catching Tiger
• Pit Hammer
• Fighting Bull
• Earl of Power
• Punching Paul
• Knock Out Joe

Earl of Power

As you can see, all figures are based in only 2 body parts, two types of arms, and two types of legs, only the heads are different. Additionally, there are only two action features available: punch or waist twist. The colours are also quite simple.

Pit Hammer

Figures came originally attached to a card by means of two wires. The card was printed in several languages, as Simba intended to import them as a cheap alternative to Hasbro’s. From the card we know that there was also a small ring available, much smaller´s than the “official” one from the WWF.

Fighting Bull

Simba is still active, although now it is part of the Simba-Dickie group, a entreprise holding that also owns Majorette, Schuco, Märklin, Smoby, BIG, Noris… Not so long ago I saw a Transformers knock-off that looked really great. Bootlegs are not what they were 20 or 30 years ago!

Knock-Out Joe

These figures were also sold under the band "Wentoys", in a blister pack with text in German, French and English.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: Catching Tiger, Pit Hammer, Fighting Bull, Earl of Power and Knock Out Joe
• Toy Line: Wrestling Champs
• Year: 1993
• Company: Simba (Germany) / Wentoys (Germany)
• Size of the figures: 12 cm

#666 NINJA MAESTRO DEL COMBATE (Around 1993)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AND THE KNOCK-OFF AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!
 

Maybe you know or remember the Ninja Warriors, that great and short line by Child´s Play and Hasbro from the mid to late 80s. In Spain these were renamed "Guerreros Yakse" and had a relatively big popularity among children. As a result, this toyline had several bootlegs, some of which were already mentioned in the first entry dedicated to Ninja Warriors (#335).

 

In this case the Ninja that you can see in the pictures is a PVC figure with a hole on the bottom that fits in a pencil or pen. Nothing more, nothing less. The figure has a relatively bad quality, it is not done or painted very well, you can see its many defects. It is interesting mostly for its cardback, which is obviously an attempt to popularize a series of figures in the wake of a more popular toy.

The figure comes from Hong-Kong, although in Spain it was imported by González Sanz fom Madrid.

The figure has no name, and the packaging was common to the several figures that were available. Unfortunately, I don’t know how many these were.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: Has no name
• Toy Line: Ninja Maestro del Combate
• Year: Around 1993
• Company: Unknown (Hong Kong)
• Size of the figures: Around 7 cm

#665 GLOBO ITALY (VR) – SEVERAL CARS IN THE MICRO MACHINES SCALE (Around 1997)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AND THE KNOCK-OFF AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

 

 

This series of cars in the Micro Machines scale (or slightly bigger) were really common at fleamarkets the beginning of the 2000s. I guess they were made by the mid 90s and could be found in cheap stores, otherwise I cannot explain why are they so common.

 

There are several different models, mostly race and 4x4 cars, each of them in two colours, although there are also minor variations. I had much more of these, but I only kept one of each type including variants. I left the rest in different geocaches around Europe.

 

Note that some are marked: "TURBO", "DESERT DEMON", "TYPHOON" and some also carry race numbers.

 

If you have any information about these models, I´d love to hear it! Please leave a comment to this entry.

UPDATE: I found a blister pack with sme of these cars marked "GLOBO ITALY (VR)" (VR is for the region Verona, since they are located in Illasi). I think this company still exists and it is now called GLOBO (see www.globo.it). Probably they started importing knock-off toys (according to the web in 1982), like Transformers Micro Masters (called Micro Metamorphs) and they grew from that point on to be one of the most important Italian toy importers today.

Even though these cars are probably older than 1997, I will leave the 1997 estimation. It is suspicious that they were still so easy to find around 2010.

 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: SEVERAL CARS IN THE MICRO MACHINES SCALE
• Scale of the cars: 1:150 aprox.
• Year: Around 1997
• Company: Globo Italy (VR) (Italy/ China)
• Size: approx. 2,5 cm

#664 CF HONG-KONG - FIAT X1-9 (TOMICA KNOCK-OFF) (Around 1995)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AND THE KNOCK-OFF AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

Here is a die-cast car copied from a Tomica cast. Although the detail level is not that high, the manufacturer, CF, decided to put a pull-back motor inside, so the toy is more interesting for children. The wheels are bigger and come with chromed hubcaps. This makes the car a bit higher and less realistic, but it has to be like that because of the pull-back motor.

Nothing is know about CF, I could only found a few notes and a few pictures in the internet. All models available (which are 6) are Tomica copies:

• Audi 5000 in dark blue (#301)
• Nissan Bluebird in dark red (#302)
• Porsche 930 in bright red (#303)
• Jaguar XJS in green (#304)
• Fiat X1-9 in light blue (#305)
• Toyota Corolla Levins in bright yellow (#306)

Some of this notes (found in gogotomica.blogspot.com or gasolinealleyantiques.com) argue that these cars are probably made by Faie, maybe because Faie made other Tomica copies before.

CF cars were available in cheap blistercards. I don´t know when were these released, but I would say the style of the blister card is around 1995 o 1996, not so old, but a very interesting a rare sample.

This two pictures are taken from eBay - Seller: tresorduweb

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: FIAT X1-9 (#305)
• Scale: 1:64
• Year: Around 1995
• Company: CF (Hong Kong) / Maybe Faie (Hong Kong)
• Size: 8 cm

#663 GALAXY FIGHTERS – MACE APE and MAGOON (1983)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AND THE KNOCK-OFF AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

 

The Galaxy Warriors is probably the top-knockoff line of Masters of the Universe in terms of sales, characters (and vehicles/creatures) and also because it was the first MOTU bootleg that reached a certain peak of popularity. They were produced starting in 1983 by Sungold in Hong-Kong.

 

Galaxy Warriors have the “honor” to be a knock-off that has been knocked-off itself, and that’s what I wanted to tell you today. Galaxy Fighters is actually a bootleg of Galaxy Warriors. But that wouldn’t be all. In later years, there were very low quality bootlegs made of them, in figures that were poorly articulated and painted.

 

 

Galaxy Fighters were copyrighted in 1984 by Sewco, and sold during many years, as many as the Mattel franchise lived, and maybe even more. Sewco produced their figures in Hong-Kong as well.

 

The connections between Sungold and Sewco are unknown, but Sewco produced up to 3 identical figures to those made by Sungold, copied the design of the logo, the style of the blíster, and evensome of the names, with small spelling differences. Why? We will never know. In any case, the cast used for these warriors is identical except for the left hand, which is slightly closed, while the GW have it more open. Heads are made of soft plastic, which is cheaper than hard plastic.

 

In the US these figures were distributed by Madison and East West, but outside of the US, there were other distributors, which led to different kinds of artwork and packaging art.

 

 

The figures came with two accesories each: a bladed weapon and a shield. The available weapons were two types of sword (one straight, one curved), an axe and a halberd. The shields were two different ones. The weapons were added to each figure randomly, at least outside the US. The shields had a sticker on the front, either a small round one or a big one, and the only thing that was not random was the sticker on the shield. The good guys had an eagle on their shields, while the bad ones had a skull.

 

 

The two characters in the pictures are Magoon and Mace Ape. Mace Ape is, of course, the one that resembles more like an ape. Magoon is the human one. Great figures! I totally understand that they were so successful back then, and that people still look for and collect them.

 

 

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: MACE APE and MAGOON
• Toy Line: Galaxy Fighters
• Year: 1984
• Company: Sewco (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 8 to 9 cm long