#425 TURLY GANG – SNAKER (1991)

 

The “Turly Gang – Fighters for Freedom” is another bootleg line based on Masters of the Universe. Two of the most famous bootlegs lines ever were the Galaxy Fighters (Sewco) and the Galaxy Warriors (Sungold), which were quite similar lines, since they shared the casts for some heads, weapons, plus almost the entire body… the only difference was in the left hand. Even the names of the figures were similar.

The Turly Gang’s figures are made by Sungold, and marked with this name, although in Europe they were distributed by EuroPlay. Without accessories could be easily mistaken by Galaxy Warriors.

The nice thing of these ultra-rare figures is that they intend to be a crossover between MOTU and TMNT… the two main characters are Primus (or Primos) and Sekundos (not very original names… First and Second is a latin-alike language), who are completely green and have Ninja Turtles heads.

This toy line comprised at least 10 figures, 5 good guys and 5 evil-doers. Each of them was equipped with a harness, a shield and a weapon. All accessories were made in black plastic, unlike the Galaxy Warriors or the Galaxy Fighters that only had grey accessories.

There were two different models of harnesses (a “round” one or a trapezoidal one with a sticker), two different models of shield (both with sticker), and then 2 types of sword and two types of axe.

The line is quite a mess… from the 10 available figures; two of them have a slightly different cast, since they have articulated knees. This type of cast actually comes from another bootleg line, called “Lord of Insects” (also by Sungold).

Other collectors claim that there is a second type of blister card available showing even more models of the figures and also some vehicles. The figures might be mostly colour variations. As I could see in www.onlinetoyshow.com, there are two more turtle-alike characters, practically identical to Primos and Sekundos, only with an iguana head instead of a turtle. All other characters might have a second decoration, so we would reach up to 20 different figures.

Backcard by Alfi from actionfiguresca.proboards.com, although the picture was retrieved from blog.toy-sector.de

The figure you can see here is one of the two versions of Snaker. Note that in the blister card, the figure is rather yellowish, while mine is green, with orange details.

The figure is extremely cool, and today it is quite sought-after. They were cheap toys from the early 90s (the trade mark was registered in April 1991), but today each figure might reach up to 50 dollars.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: SNAKER
• Toy Line: Turly Gang Fighters for Freedom
• Year: 1991
• Company: Sungold (Hong Kong)
• Size of the figures: approx. 13 cm