Retro

RETRO REVIEW – HASBRO/TAKARA THE TRANSFORMERS – SLIVERBOLT

Posted by Mighty Mike on April 22, 2026
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Sliverbolt is the leader of the Autobot Aerialbots team and transforms into a Concorde SST jetliner. He is also afraid of heights and tries his best to overcome this fear. As commander of the Aerialbots he is a mature and responsible leader and can reach speeds of Mach 1.9 and forms the main torso and head for Superion.

Name: Sliverbolt
Line: The Transformers (G1)
Manufacturer: Hasbro/Takara
Released: 1986
Price: Then – $11.99 USD Now – $30 – $300 USD
Scale: 20.3 cm in height in robot mode.
Accessories: Gun and multiple parts to make Superion
Motto: “Don’t look down, look straight ahead.”

I was fortunate enough to have Sliverbolt when I was a kid; most of transformers I had were from the European Classics line. My brother and I were lucky to have all the original “Scramble City” combiner teams when we were young, as well as a few Autobots and Decepticons between us. I definitely remember having a lot of fun playing with the combiner team toys. They are definitely some of my favourite toys put out by Takara, and I’m glad they found a home after the Diaclone line finished because the concept of putting together teams of robots that combine to make a larger robot that you can swap the limbs of with each team is a very fun one, in my opinion. 

SCULPTING

Sliverbolt has excellent sculpting details as a robot; he has plenty of panels, vents and line work. As a plane, he looks great and is fairly proportional, too. He’s very detailed and visually interesting, too, and he’s got a pretty unique face sculpt, too. He’s a great-looking toy.

PAINT

Not a lot of paint on Silverbolt. I guess you could count the vac metal as paint, perhaps? Sliverbolts’ details are made up with stickers mostly. If you are buying a used condition piece, make sure to check the chrome condition of its arms and legs.

ARTICULATION

Like most transformers any articulation with these first transformers toys are going to be part of the transformation process. His arms move about 90 degrees, and his head can look down. That’s about it. He is definitely a brick with questionable legs to stand on. The legs have always been a bit weak and flimsy – even when brand new as I remember the one I had as a child having loose legs right out of the box.

His transformation is quite easy, as you are mainly flipping and folding parts of his plane mode around onto his back, and a little bit tricky leg transformation can be annoying, but it does seem fairly unique. 

ACCESSORIES

Sliverbolt comes with his electrostatic discharger rifle, a ramp and all the parts to help you build Superion (head, chest pieces and two hands and feet) all are nicely detailed and well-made. Obviously, the parts are great because they enable you to assemble a larger robot if you have the other Aerialbots.

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS

Sliverbolt can have a fair few problems even when it’s almost brand new. The biggest problem being you can break his legs if you are really unlucky. This was the fate of the first Sliverbolt my brother and I received as kids. Other than normal wear, yellowing of the off-white plastic can be a big problem, too. I would say he definitely feels delicate and best to handle him with care. But, also be aware of misplaced or wrongly placed stickers as well!

PRICE

I was happy with the price I paid, but I did pay collector’s prices. You can find Sliverbolt in various conditions, which will affect the price. Just pay what you are comfortable with.

OVERALL

Sliverbolt has its fair share of problems and design flaws. However, I still think he’s a great addition to anyone’s G1 transformer collection. He looks great as a robot, transforms into a neat-looking plane and combines with his fellow Aerialbots to form a larger robot. There’s definitely a lot to like about the amount of play value you get with this toy. Just make sure you handle him carefully.

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RETRO REVIEW – KENNER LT. RIPLEY

Posted by Mighty Mike on April 18, 2026
Posted in: Retro. Tagged: , , . Leave a Comment

Please note: Originally posted back in April 2014, but I’ve gone back and retaken the photos so it matches the most recent Kenner Aliens figures photo sets!

Kenner’s line of ‘Aliens’ Space Marine toys were fairly short-lived. After only 1 & 1/2 series of figures, the Marines were dumped in favor of Predators instead to do battle with the Aliens. What marines we did get, however, were quite cool and in most cases had action features to add more play value. Ripley, the main character in the Aliens film franchise, also received a figure in this toyline.

Name: Ripley
Line: Aliens
Manufacturer: Kenner
Released: 1992
Price: Then: $10-$15.  Now: $15-$25  mint on card,  less if loose
Scale: 4 -5  Inches in height
Accessories: Flamethrower, Small gun, set of stickers and comic

I really can’t remember why my brother and I decided to collect the Kenner Aliens toys when we were kids – being a toyline based off an MA 15+ series of movies – but they did look cool. The Alien designs were nice, and there was a variety of figures. But you can’t just have Aliens… You need Marines as well! Regardless of what collectors at the time and collectors now think of this toy line, I still like what Kenner did with about 90% of the figures they made.

SCULPTING

Kenner’s sculpting has always been pretty solid. There other lines of figures like Jurassic Park or Star Wars featured good, if not great, sculpting. The Aliens line and Ripley figure is no different. What I like the most about this sculpt is that, even though it’s not a very good likeness to actress Sigourney Weaver, I believe it still captures the feel of the character. Also, this is one of my favourite female head sculpts for a small-sized figure.  The rest of the figure is also well done, albeit that she’s stuck in the one pose. But this is mainly due to the action feature the toy has.

PAINT

Not too much paint here. It’s mainly used for detailing on the figure, and that’s about it. The paint application is fairly crisp; minimal to no slop on this figure. One thing to look out for is the placement of the eyes. They seem to be a bit of hit and miss, and in some cases, really aren’t applied very well at all.

ARTICULATION

Here, we have fairly standard Kenner – and to an extent, most 1990s articulation – swivel head, arms, waist and legs. Due to the figure needing to hold a two-handed weapon, most of the articulation suffers due to the need to cater for this function. The action feature is quite neat and works well. On the flamethrower there is a small red peg, which is placed into the yellow pouch on Ripley’s leg, when you turn Ripley’s upper body, the flame “shoots” out of the end of the flamethrower. I always liked the action feature. It does its job flawlessly by adding more than enough extra play value to this figure.  Below is a scan of the instructions that came with the figure, showing you how to use the action feature.

ACCESSORIES

Ripley comes with a small number of accessories. The big ticket item is of course, the flamethrower. It’s slightly oversized and not really a good representation from the movie. But, It looks great in its own right. The other accessories are a small gun and a comic (the comics weren’t very good, but did help establish the characters a little bit as there was no TV show tie-in for these toys). There are also stickers included, but my problem with these are they don’t tend to stick very well.

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS

I can’t see there being too many problems with this figure, beyond getting one with a bad paint application. It’s well-made and durable, nothing really too fragile here.

PRICE

I was happy with $10 + shipping costs; however, I wouldn’t pay too much for this figure, as she is not worth a large amount of money.

OVERALL

I have fond memories of playing with this figure and the other marines/aliens/predators from this line. I feel the figure itself, although limited in some aspects, still stands up fairly well today for children’s toy standards. From a collector’s point of view, this is only worth picking up if you want to reclaim your childhood or like having a variety of Aliens collectibles, both old and new, in your collection.

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This post was originally published on April 24, 2014.

RETRO REVIEW – TAKARA TRANSFORMERS GOD MASTERFORCE RANGER

Posted by Mighty Mike on April 16, 2020
Posted in: Retro. Tagged: , , , , .

After the original Transformers US cartoon series ended in 1987, A Japanese exclusive series The Headmasters continued the story and was followed up in 1988 with Super Godmasters. The series had a very human-centric story where humans connected with Transector bodies to become the power source and personality of the Transformer and also included the more traditional Transformer characters as pretenders.

Name: Ranger C-305
Line: Super-God Masterforce
Manufacturer: Takara
Released: 1988
Price: Then: 1,980 YEN.  Now: 45,000 YEN more or less.
Scale: 5 1/2 Inches in height
Accessories: Godmaster Transtector, Napalm Blaster

Variations:  Joyride (The powder blue plastic is replaced with green)

When it comes to G1 Transformers there are a lot of toys to be collected if you want to go all in, then you have a choice of if you want to collect the Japanese exclusive repaints of the tail end of G1 (basically recolours of toys released by Hasbro in the US and in my opinion the Japanese versions got the better colour scheme too)

The only problem in doing that is not only are they harder to come by, but the price increases quite a lot too! (Especially if you are looking to buy Minerva or Grand Maximus among others)

I’ve been lucky enough to acquire most of these toys over the years and decided I’d at least cover one in my blog seeing I’m sure lacking a lot of Transformer based reviews, for being such a big fan. Tonight I’m looking at Ranger from the Godmaster series of Transformers first released back in 1988!

SCULPTING

Most G1 Transformers are quite blocky looking toys and Ranger is no exception. He’s quite square and chunky. His dune buggy car mode has a lot of nice details, like his suspension etc. Plenty of smooth surfaces too. Not too much detail in robot mode, these later toys relied more on their stickers for the details than anything else. He has a pretty nice face sculpt too.

PAINT

The only paint on Ranger I can see is on his face. it’s neatly applied and a yellowy brown colour. other than that he’s got plenty of stickers to make up the details on him. and everything else has been cast in the colour it’s meant to be. His body is a really nice powder blue, with red arms and legs and a bit of grey here and there. Really nice colour choice I have to say pretty much screams Autobot.

ARTICULATION

As with most G1 Transformers, his articulation is due to his transformation which is just his arms have any real movement. he can bend his elbows and partly swivel his arms at the shoulder and that’s about it! pretty much the definition of a ‘brick Transformer’. His Transector has more articulation then Ranger does.

ACCESSORIES

Ranger comes with his ‘Napalm blaster’ and his Transector and that’s all he really needs right? A gun and his engine (not necessary required to transform the toy, however.)

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS

He’s a pretty rock solid toy, if you are taking the plunge, I would make sure you are buying one that hasn’t yellowed (if you look at mine, in the pictures one of his mirrors and his suspension are slightly discoloured.) Other than that be prepared to potentially pay through the nose.

“I have the POWER!!!”

PRICE

Ranger commands decent prices on the secondary market I picked up mine for about $450 AUD about 5 years ago, he was pretty much unused and in great condition. I would expect you would be paying more if you happen to find one Mint in sealed box after all.

OVERALL

I like the colour scheme of Ranger a lot more then Joyride, I can appreciate this toy a lot more than I would if I had just bought Joyride instead. Also, it helped that I watched the original Godmaster cartoon series as well so at least I was familiar with his character too. It’s really up to you if you want to buy him or not, just be happy with the decision as you can pay quite a lot for a simple repaint, but in my opinion, the colour scheme is far superior and makes the toy look a hundred times better.

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RETRO REVIEW – KENNER CORP. HICKS

Posted by Mighty Mike on April 12, 2020
Posted in: Retro. Tagged: , , .

Kenner’s line of ‘Aliens’ Space Marine toys was fairly short-lived. After only 1 & 1/2 series of figures, the Marines were dumped in favour of Predators instead to do battle with the Aliens. What marines we did get, however, were quite cool and in most cases had action features to add more play value. Corporal Hicks, a fan favourite character that appeared in the Aliens film franchise, also received a figure in this toy line.

Name: Corporal Hicks
Line: Aliens
Manufacturer: Kenner
Released: 1992
Price: Then: $10-$16.  Now: $10 – $26 MOSC or less if loose
Scale: 4 -5 Inches in height
Accessories: Rocket Launcher, Claw, Two Alienator Missiles  

I really can’t remember why my brother and I decided to collect the Kenner Aliens toys when we were kids – being a toyline based off an MA 15+ series of movies – but they did look cool. The Alien designs were nice and there were a variety of figures.

But you can’t just have Aliens… You need Marines as well! Regardless of what collectors at the time and collectors now think of this toyline, I still like what Kenner did with about 90% of the figures they made.

Hicks was the one figure we would never see at the store, besides the Panther Alien, maybe they were short-packed? So neither I nor my brother owned him when the toyline was originally released.

It wasn’t until later in life where my brother finally picked one up. (He is the bigger fan of Corporal Hicks out of the two of us, even if I think he’s pretty cool in general, I always preferred Hudson over Hicks.)

SCULPTING

For the most part, I’d like to think Kenner did a good job of taking the source material and putting their own spin on it. Apparently, there was going to be a cartoon to tie in with the toys so that would make sense changing the characters a bit. I think Corporal Hicks looks pretty good, It’s a passing likeness and he’s not an accurate match to the Aliens movie, but ticks a lot of the boxes of what you’d expect from a Corporal Hicks figure in my opinion for the time period.

PAINT

Generally, the paint on Kenner’s products was always to a fairly high standard. The paint application on this particular Hicks is quite good, no bleed, no slop. The quality of the older toys sometimes puts a lot of newer companies to shame. Plenty of greens and blacks make up Hick’s uniform the tan looks a little out of place but the gold/silver mixture looks excellent.

ARTICULATION

Hicks has the typical amount of articulation for a toy of this time period, Swivel everything! Swivel head, swivel shoulders, swivel waist, and swivel hips. You can move his joints but you can’t really do a lot with him besides simple poses. It’s decent articulation, but nothing to write home about.

ACCESSORIES

Hicks comes with a rocket launcher, Some kind of Claw/gun arm weapon and two missiles for the rocket launcher. The firing action on the rocket launcher is quite good the claw/gun arm is a bit miss-placed it just clips on his arm and that’s it. It would have been cooler if he came with a Pulse Rifle like Vazquez did, as I think that would be a more appropriate weapon for the character.

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS

None that I can think of;  Corporal Hicks is rock solid. What would you expect from an early 1990’s toy?  Just make sure your one has a good paint job before you buy it.

PRICE

I was happy with the $10 + shipping costs; however, I wouldn’t pay too much for this figure, as he is not worth any large amount of money.

OVERALL

The Corporal Hicks figure lacks the fun action feature many of the other Aliens Space Marines have, but it’s made up for with a missile-firing rocket launcher, this doesn’t make the figure as great to play with as Ripley or Drake, for example. Hicks is still an important character in the Aliens universe and this is his first real toy/collectible figure made of him, it’s worth picking him up, if you are a Kenner completist of their Aliens line or if you like Corporal Hicks in general.

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RETRO REVIEW – TYCO DINO RIDERS ANKYLOSAURS WITH STING

Posted by Mighty Mike on April 11, 2020
Posted in: Retro. Tagged: , .

RETRO REVIEW – TYCO DINO RIDERS ANKYLOSAURS WITH STING

Dino Riders was a short lived toy line by Tyco started in the late 1980s; it also had an accompanying cartoon series and combined very detailed dinosaur models with futuristic weaponry. Each dinosaur came with its own unique armour which, depended on the size of the Dinosaur included 1-3 small humanoid figures, in scale with the dinosaur.

The Ankylosaurs’ role for its Rulon masters, was to be used as infantry support weapon with a crossbow mounted on its back which fired a ‘high explosive projectile’. Being a small toy, it didn’t have any action feature or motorised walking action. 

Name: Ankylosaurus with Sting
Line: Dino Riders
Manufacturer: Tyco
Released: 1988
Price: Then: $7.00 – $ $17.00 MIB Now: At least $20.00 Loose
Scale: 1:24
Accessories: One Rulon mini figure, one mini figure weapon set.

The Ankylosaurus was one of those toys I vividly remember receiving as a child. The closest toy store my parents would take me and my brother to was the Big W in Chullora. (which is still open today) we were bought all manner of toys from there, Lego, Transformers, Toy Biz wrestling figures and even Dino Riders.

I remember seeing the shelves stacked with the many Dino Rider toys, my brother and I came away with an Ankylosaurus each and did end up receiving a few larger ones for Christmas and Birthday gifts. That memory for whatever reason has stuck with me all these years. So, of course I plan to review most of the Dino Rider toys that were made. (Even if it takes a while to do so)
Also this Ankylosaurus is one of the many of Tyco’s Dino Rider toys that fall under the “Colours may vary” label as the prototype shown in the toy box art and catalogue is orange as opposed to the released figure which is grey.

LIST OF PARTS

Inside the box you get the following items:

One Ankylosaurus dinosaur

One Sting Rulon mini figure

One Brain box and harness

One crossbow

One mini figure weapons set

PACKAGING

The artwork on the front of the box features a very colourful battle scene portraying the Ankylosaurus engaged in battle the Dino Riders. Upon lifting the flap, you are able to view the toy inside the box as well as a number of pictures listing the highlights of the product.  A cropped section of this artwork is displayed on both sides of the box, with the back of the box showing all products from the current series engaged in battle with each other.

The excellent graphics do a great job of attracting you towards the box. (This was one thing I loved about Dino Riders when I was a child.)

SCULPTING

Tyco have done a great job with the amount of detail on not only the dinosaurs in this series but the mini figures too. There are lots and lots of great details all over the Ankylosaurus’ body, it looks great!

The Rulon mini figure looks excellent too and has the same body as the other standard Rulons; he also has the same head type as Antor. For a small scale figure, it is very detailed and has many creases in the clothing as well as smooth armour sections.

PAINT

Besides paint on the Ankylosaurus, the paint applications have been kept to a minimum. I really think Tyco tried very hard to get the best application possible on all the Dinosaur toys. The end result is wonderfully blended multi-toned grey colours for the Dinosaur. The colours work really well to contrast with the plastic grey and purple of the armour and weapons!

Sting has a little bit of paint application – mainly just for extra details on his costume or on the toys head. It’s all nice and neat. The rest of the figures parts are cast in the colour they are meant to be, which is perfectly fine as this works really well for the toy.

ARTICULATION

The Ankylosaurus has very limited articulation being his four legs with are all swivel joints, it’s not much, but this is a basic figure after all and it still helps to add plenty of play value to the toy.

Sting has the same amount of articulation that all the other Rulon figures have: swivel head, swivel arms – where the arm meets the body, swivel legs – where the legs meet the body and hinge joints at the knees.

For an older figure, this is more than enough for it to not only work well with the accessories but be put into a number of poses too.

Obviously, articulation has come a long way since then, but you still get quite a lot with Sting.

ACCESSORIES

All the Rulon toys in the first series came with the same weapons: one crossbow, one binocular, one shield, one bazooka, one electronic whip or ball and chain and one ladder. You get a good number of weapons for each Rulon and I really like the red colour it’s been cast in, it really pops!

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS

I would be careful with the brain box/harness when you are taking it off as you can potentially create plastic stress marks on parts of it due to the age of the plastic. Otherwise just avoid samples that have been yellowed.

Series 1 Mini Comic

PRICE

Depending weather, it’s MIB, MISB or loose will affect the price you pay. However, from time to time you can grab a bargain on eBay.

OVERALL

This is one of the more basic figures that Tyco released in their Dino Riders line, obviously the cheaper price point for children whose parents wouldn’t buy them the larger toys, I have fond memories of not only receiving the Ankylosaurus, but plenty of hours playing with it and the other Dino Rider toys my brother and I were lucky to get as children. It makes for a great army builder, I actually have about four of these myself and in a group, they look pretty impressive. Worth picking up if you really want to have a complete Dino Riders Collection.

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RETRO REVIEW – KENNER SGT. DRAKE

Posted by Mighty Mike on April 5, 2020
Posted in: Retro. Tagged: , , .

Kenner’s line of ‘Aliens’ Space Marine toys was fairly short-lived. After only 1 & 1/2 series of figures, the Marines were dumped in favor of Predators instead to do battle with the Aliens. What marines we did get, however, were quite cool and in most cases had action features to add more play value. Drake, a character that appeared in the Aliens film franchise, also received a figure in this toy line.

Name: Drake
Line: Aliens
Manufacturer: Kenner
Released: 1992
Price: Then: $10-$16.  Now: $10 – $26 MOSC or less if loose
Scale: 4 -5 Inches in height
Accessories: Smart Gun, Bayonet

I really can’t remember why my brother and I decided to collect the Kenner Aliens toys when we were kids – being a toyline based off an MA 15+ series of movies – but they did look cool. The Alien designs were nice and there were a variety of figures.

But you can’t just have Aliens… You need Marines as well! Regardless of what collectors at the time and collectors now think of this toyline, I still like what Kenner did with about 90% of the figures they made.

When my brother and I first saw these figures, normally each one of us would choose which ones we liked best, my brother owned Drake so from a nostalgia point of view, I don’t really have that same connection as say Ripley or Hudson figures which I personally owned.

SCULPTING

For the most part, I’d like to think Kenner did a good job of taking the source material and putting their own spin on it. Apparently, there was going to be a cartoon to tie in with the toys so that would make sense changing the characters a bit. Drake has all the key elements: blonde hair, tank top and camo pants. All things the character had in the movie, even if it looks nothing like actor Mark Rolston. Still, overall I think it’s a great looking figure.

PAINT

The paint on most of Kenner’s toys and figures tend to be quite neat. Drake is a pretty good example of this, but there is a little slop around his hairline. Otherwise, it’s all very neat and expertly applied, as always, if you are able to get a good look at what you are buying you can pick one with a good paint job.

ARTICULATION

Drake technically has about six points of articulation, swivel head, arms, legs and waist, however besides the arms and legs the rest will all move when using Drake’s action feature, where you rotate his waist, it moves his upper torso with the head staying in place, so it looks like he’s maneuvering his Smart Gun around at different targets. (You can still move his head independently if desired.)

This is a pretty cool action feature and really captures the action from the movie quite faithfully, however, it does limit Drake as he’s essentially stuck in the one, unchanging pose.

ACCESSORIES

Drake only comes with a bayonet which can be attached  to the end of his Smart Gun, it makes sense that you would want to keep aliens as far away from your person as possible and this would help to do that, but just the Smart Gun by itself would be enough, I’d like to think. I guess it’s just thrown in there for extra play value.

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS

None that I can think of;  Drake is rock solid. What would you expect from an early 1990’s toy?  Just make sure your one has a good paint job before you buy it.

PRICE

I was happy with the $10 + shipping costs; however, I wouldn’t pay too much for this figure, as he is not worth any large amount of money.

OVERALL

Drake is a pretty solid figure, even if he is sculpted in the one pose. His action feature is fun and really adds a great amount of play value to the figure. He may not be the most important character in the Aliens franchise, but memorable nonetheless. If you are looking to complete your Kenner Aliens collection, Drake definitely needs to in there.

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RETRO REVIEW – KENNER JURASSIC PARK YOUNG T-REX

Posted by Mighty Mike on March 21, 2011
Posted in: Retro. Tagged: , , .

The Young T-Rex was one of the many dinosaurs released for Kenner’s original Jurassic Park line of toys, based on the hit movie. Even although the young T-Rex never appeared in the first movie, it did appear in the novel and was sort of a cheaper alternative to the full sized T-Rex from the same line, but never the less, still cool in it’s own right.

Name: Young T-Rex
Line: Jurassic Park
Manufacturer: Kenner
Released: 1993
Price: First released – $30 AUD (guestimate). Now – varies $200-$450 MIB
Scale: 6 Inches in height
Accessories: JP Collector card #1.

I have a little bit of a long story about my original Young T-Rex (it’s not this one in the photos) that I owned as a kid (so I’ll try and keep it short). One night one of our family cats decided to have a fight with my Young T-Rex and rip up most of his face, needless to say I wasn’t very happy about this, but kept the toy anyway.

But you can bet what was at the top of my Christmas wish list that year – yes, that’s right a Jurassic Park Young T-Rex.

Unfortunately what I ended up receiving was the Triceratops from the series instead, although happy with it, it wasn’t what I wanted so badly. (The surprise of also receiving a G2 Megatron took away some of that let down, however)

Skip to years later and I decided I wanted to re-claim that part of my childhood and purchase a new Young T-Rex for myself, which is what I went and did, although this was a few years ago now. I decided I may as well review him now, in all his mid-1990s glory.


SCULPTING
This T-Rex has always had one of the more amazing sculpts out of the plethora of dinosaur toys my brother and I had as children. I’ve always loved how cool it looked and how much it evoked the look of the movie T-rex, even if on a smaller scale then the larger version (owned by my brother). There are a lot of great details here – skin folds, scales, claws, every little bit of detail looks great. Whoever sculpted this for Kenner went above and beyond in my book, kudos to them!

PAINT
The paint on the Young T-Rex is kept to a minimum, mainly skin pattern and things like the claws or the white underbelly of the dinosaur. That’s fine with me, I feel the base colour of the figure works great, it doesn’t even need a wash to bring it up either. All the paint apps are nice and neat, no problems there, just watch out for paint rub on the figure.

ARTICULATION
The Young T-Rex doesn’t have much of anything in the way of articulation, only his little arms, which are swivel joints and can be rotated 360 degrees without any problem. the T-Rex’s whole body is bendable, due to the rubber, but it doesn’t hold any poses, unfortunately.

The Young T-Rex also has a “Dino Damage” feature where a section of the side of the dinosaur can be removed to show internal organs, its cool, but never something I bothered too much with.

ACCESSORIES
None. Unless you are counting that collector card and I wouldn’t count that.

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
There isn’t too much to watch out for here, besides paint rub and perhaps tears in the rubber body, discoloration maybe?

Dino Damage!

PRICE
I paid a decent price for a new mint in box, even although I can’t remember how much I know it wasn’t over $250. This figure was important to me, so I was happy to pay a bit more for one that was going to be in excellent condition and this one did not disappoint.

Don’t forget kids, if your dinosaur has the JP logo on it, then it’s a genuine Jurassic Park dinosaur!

OVERALL
I think the Young T-Rex toy is great, it has really excellent sculpting, nice paint application, even if it’s limited in actual play value. I’d still take this over anything Hasbro has put out for the most recent movie any day of the week. If you are a fan of Kenner’s Jurassic Park line (and who wouldn’t be?) or just dinosaurs in general, I’m sure you’ll be able to find a spot for this guy in your collection, if you already haven’t.

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RETRO REVIEW – McDONALD’S CHANGEABLES

Posted by Mighty Mike on March 6, 2011
Posted in: Retro. Tagged: , , , .

McDonalds Changeables were Happy Meal toys, first available in the United States during the 1980’s and then Australia during 1990. The Australian version consisted of a set of four transformer type toys, which changed from McDonald’s products to robots. The set varied from the US releases as it contained less toys and slight re-molding as well as colour changes.


Name: Changeables
Line: McDonald’s Happy Meal toy
Manufacturer: McDonalds
Released: 1990
Price: Then: comes free with a happy meal. Now: $30-$60 for a set, depending on condition
Scale: 2 -3.5  Inches in height
Accessories: instructions

You would be pretty hard pressed to find a kid from the 1980s up until now that has never gotten a toy from a happy meal. As a kid I remember every now and then my brother and I would get a happy meal toy, sometimes the whole set if we were lucky. But thankfully my parents never took us to McDonalds all the time! (It’s just not healthy eating after all.) One such McDonald’s toy I do remember were the Changeables, Being a big transformer fan as a kid, it’s hard to not to get excited about getting more transformer type toys. These toys weren’t too bad either; they were made well and looked fairly cool.

One thing I found interesting after doing some research was that between American and Australian Happy meal toys there are some differences, Firstly we tended to get less toys per series in most cases, like the Changeables and Fry-Kids sets. (In the Fry-Kids case the toys were even smaller then the US release.) Also, with the Changeables we not only got different colours for some of the toys, (Big Mac and cheese burger) but a re-moulded toy as well (Shake/soft drink cup) which has a friendlier face, that seems exclusive to Australia. It has been hard to find much info on the Australian release of Happy Meal toys, than it was for the American line.

This review is for the full set of the Changeables.

SCULPTING

The sculpting for the toys is great. They look very close to the products they are meant to represent and have a very professional look to them, considering they are  “cheap Happy Meal toys”. They have lots of smooth surfaces, with little bits of detail here and there. For the food mode there is no mistaking what each toy is meant to be, it’s very clear that we have a Big Mac, Cheese burger, Shake and large Fries. For the robot mode each toy has an overall cute and friendly look to them, with only the Big Mac and fries looking somewhat unhappy. No evil robots to be had here.

The Big Mac, fires and cheeseburger are all the same sculpting seen in the American release; the shake however, is different. I’m fairly certain that a shake was released with the same transformation in America, but a less friendly face. This one, on the other hand, has a much more welcoming appearance, and I like it more. One thing these robots are lacking are legs. Besides the fries, the rest only have arms, a head and the suggestion of legs, if anything. The Big Mac and cheeseburger in particular don’t have really anything.

PAINT

What paint there is, is crisp and well applied. In most cases the part is cast in the colour its meant to be. The paint is mainly used for detailing the cheese or burger patty in food mode and for adding some contrast in robot mode. The colour selections are nice and better then their US counter-parts, in my opinion. Far more detail and care went into the painting of the Australian versions. For example, on the cheeseburger there is a brown spray on top for the burger, where as the American version is just plain boring orange plastic.


TRANSFORMATION

McDonald’s version of transformers aren’t going to be very difficult to transform. You don’t even need the instructions for them. Even as a kid it was always very easy to change them from robot to food and back again. In most cases it’s only three steps and you’re done. Sixshot these toys are not. No challenge here, even for kids.

ARTICULATION

These toys don’t really have articulation so to speak, as it’s mostly part of the transformation sequence that gives them articulation. For example, the cheeseburgers’ arms can be moved, but only because of his transformation that they have that option. Regardless in most cases, the arms are the only articulation you are going to get with these toys. They are intended for small children after all.

ACCESSORIES

None.  Come on, did you really expect guns and firing missiles coming out of these things? It would have been a nice addition if they did.

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS

Nothing that I can think of besides paint chips due to play wear

PRICE

I paid $40 AUD for the set and I am happy with that, seeing this set was only available in Australia. It is hard to find these toys in good condition, as most have been played with and there’s no point in wasting your money on it.

OVERALL

One thing about McDonald’s Happy Meal toys is that they won’t ever really go up in value too much. Another thing is that they won’t be for everyone either. But I’m sure there are plenty of collectors out there that like these toys and enjoy having them in their collection, like me. I quite enjoy the simplicity of the toys and the designs are quite good. Not to mention that nostalgia hit I get from looking at them. It takes me back to a time when McDonald’s wasn’t all “healthy focused” and still tasted “good”, a taste I’ve only found similar to what I remembered from McDonald’s bought in Japan.

This page copyright 2013 Mike’s Toy Blog. All rights reversed.

RETRO REVIEW – PLAYMATES TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES – Movie Star Turtles

Posted by Mighty Mike on March 3, 2011
Posted in: Retro. Tagged: , , .

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a group of crime fighting mutant turtles lead by their sensei, Splinter and are named after four Renaissance artists’. They battle anything from small-time criminals to megalomaniacs. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles began as a comic series before being turned into a cartoon series on TV with a number of movies made as well. The toy line to accompany the cartoon series was very popular and successful lasting about ten years or more.
The Movie Star Turtles toys are based primarily on the second movie, The Secret of the Ooze and feature accessories used by the turtles from this movie.


Name: Movie Star Leo, Movie Star Don, Movie Star Raph and Movie Star Mike
Manufacturer: Playmates
Released:1991
Price: Then $5 to $12, Now – $50 to $100 MOC
Scale:4.5-5 inch figure
Accessories: Various weapons/props for each Turtle and ooze canister

Packaging

The Packaging for each turtle consists of clear plastic cover with tray, to hold the turtle and it’s accessories which are mounted on a sturdy backing card which features stills from the movie on a film negative roll and turtles logo on the front. On the back of the card there is a large still from the movie as well as product picture of all four turtles and accessories with a bio for the turtle at the bottom of the card. Each card is mostly the same with slight differences being the name of each turtle and “Mutant Movie Moment” picture on the back of each card and the bio. I quite like this packaging as it is very bright and colourful and features stills from the movie; I would say it would blend in fairly well with the previous turtle packaging, but still stand out on its own as well.

Sculpting

The sculpting for each turtle is done really well. I feel these are accurate to the source material and in my eyes capture the look of the turtles as they appeared on film.  They have nice sculpted details on the skin to give them a realistic appearance. There might appear to be re-use for each body, But it seems that all four turtles arms, legs and torsos are all different sculpts with subtle differences to each arm and leg as well as torso, for example there are scratches placed differently on each turtle’s stomach shell. Each head also has a different facial expression ranging from plain (Mike) to just down right crazy! (Leo)  The Arms, Legs and Head are all cast in a rubbery material used to mimic the look of the turtles in the movie, it works very well, however it can sometimes affect how well each turtle will stand in certain poses. The accessories for each turtle are also sculpted quite nicely and tend to be cast in either grey or brown plastic where applicable. In a lot of ways this keeps in step with the original turtles and weapons.

Paint

There is very little paint on each turtle – it is mainly kept to just on the bandanas, arm and knee pads, wrist covers and shell for each turtle. The paint application tends to be fairly clean, but there is still some slop here and there on each turtle, but it’s nothing to really affect the overall appearance. The eyes on each turtle are also nicely painted. For whatever reason, there are also dots or marks varying on each turtle painted on, with Leo having the worst of these, I’m assuming they are meant to add more detail, but do tend to look a little odd. There is no paint on the accessories the detailing on these are stickers applied to various items, such as the ooze canister.

Articulation

The turtles have the following articulation: Ball-jointed neck, ball-jointed arms and ball-jointed legs, giving them a grand total of five points of articulation. It’s not much and less than the original figures. This is largely due to the rubbery material the parts are cast in making things like wrist articulation a little hard to do. You can still get the turtles into a number of nice poses, but, not as many as I would like.

Accessories

Each turtle comes with a fair amount of accessories, besides their own personal weapons, they share the same ninja stars and ooze canister, but also come with additional movie or character themes items, such as Mike with the sausage nunchuku as used in the Secret of the Ooze movie or Don with the fire extinguisher. These accessories are quite fun and work well with each turtle and in most cases can be swapped between them. I understand Raph is a rough and ready dude, however I’m a little puzzled as to why he would want a turtle shell shield and turtle shell yuk-yuk yo-yo.


Potential Problems

The only real problem besides losing those damn ninja stars would be having the turtles fall over on you due to their rubbery legs, current count Raph – 2.These are well made toys so there are very little problems to be had


Price

Mint on Card prices can vary, but it seems the going rate is about $50 per turtle. Not too bad, but they will be cheaper to buy loose. Ebay is the place to go, as usual.


Overall

I really like these figures, I never had the movie versions when I was a child, only the original four, but I did enjoy the movies, they were fun for what they were and in a lot of ways so are these the figures. They aren’t prefect, but only have a few minor faults. There is a lot of play value and they sure do look good posed together. They have many nice accessories and very detailed sculpts and do look quite cool. Highly recommended for teenage mutant ninja turtles fans.  

 Please note. This post has been republished due to issues with the original post. First Published March 15, 2011.

This page copyright 2011 Mike’s Toy Blog. All rights reversed.

RETRO REVIEW – TYCO DINORIDERS TRICERATOPS WITH HAMMERHEAD AND SIDEWINDER

Posted by Mighty Mike on March 1, 2011
Posted in: Retro. Tagged: , .

Dino Riders was a short-lived toy line by Tyco started in the late 1980s; it also had an accompanying cartoon series and combined very detailed dinosaur models with futuristic weaponry. Each dinosaur came with its own unique armour, which, depending on the size of the dinosaur, included 1-3 small humanoid figures, in scale with the original dinosaur.

The Triceratops’ role for its Rulon masters was to be used as a heavily armoured tank, with a number of weapons as well as a radar dish, and it featured a motorised walking action.

Name: Triceratops with Hammerhead and Sidewinder
Line: Dino Riders
Manufacturer: Tyco
Released: 1988
Price: Then- $20 to $40MIB,Now – $60 to $100 MIB
Scale: 1:24
Accessories: Two Rulon mini figures, two mini figure weapon sets

List of Parts

Inside the box you get the following items:

One Triceratops

One Rulon Hammerhead Figure

One Rulon Sidewinder Figure

Two Top Guns

Two Rear Guns

Two Side Swivel Guns

Two Seats

Two Seat Inserts

One Harness

One Radar Dish support

Two Gun Shields

One Radar Dish

One Brain Box

One Rear Seat Platform

One Harness Strap (rubber band)

Four Gun Tips

Two Sets of Rulon Weapons

One Instruction Book

One Comic Book

 Packaging

The artwork on the front of the box features a very colourful battle scene portraying the Triceratops battling various other Dino Riders. Upon lifting the flap, you are able to view the toy inside the box as well as a number of pictures listing the highlights of the product.  A cropped section of this artwork is displayed on both sides of the box, with the back of the box showing all products from the current series engaged in battle with each other.

This is a very solid box and appears to be a pretty standard design with larger toys during this time period; it has a styrofoam insert to protect the toy and its parts from damage; the dinosaur and the small figures have sections in the styrofoam cut out for them.

The accessories and armour are contained in sealed plastic bags behind the Styrofoam.

The box was always a standout for me, beautiful artwork featured on the front of the box – This was something I always loved about Dino Riders.

Sculpting

The Triceratops is highly detailed with a very nice scale effect all over the dinosaur, the head is made from a soft plastic material to make it easier to fit the brain box on. The animal’s face features what appears to be a sad expression, which is made more prominent when the brain box is placed on the head – apparently this is one dinosaur not happy to be a Rulon slave!  The eyes are a separate piece, they are glossy and appear very realistic, as they are not painted, but done in a way to mimic real eyes.

 The body is a hard plastic, which houses the electronics for the walking feature; underneath where the dinosaur’s belly is, there is a rectangular section cut into it which can be removed to place the battery inside the beast.  Also on the back there is a slightly raised spine which acts as a holder for the purple harness to help it sit correctly on the dinosaur.

 All four legs are made from the same hard plastic as the body and are very solid and sturdy

The two Rulon figures included both have the same body – only painted in different colour schemes with different heads.  For small scale figures they are very detailed and have many creases in their clothing as well as smooth armour sections. The work on both heads is also excellent with many nice details sculpted on them. I’ve always liked the mini figure sculpting on both Dino-Riders and Rulons, Tyco really put a lot of effort in, while still re-using parts where they could.

 The armour is very nicely sculpted as well, featuring many smooth surfaces with a number of ridges, panelling and tubing sculpted into them.  You are given a good number of guns and armour plating as well as two seats, a harness and radar dish – all of this fits nice and snugly in its place and is not loose-fitting at all.

Paint

The Triceratops has a nicely blended combination of teal/grey/green over the top of the body and green on the underside, with green for the three horns on its face – this is a very clean and crisp application, with no slop what-so-ever. These colours really push that depressed vibe that the sculpting on the head suggested IMO. Also, in order to tell an original Triceratops from a Smithsonian version release, the eye colour of the original will be yellow, not green.

Paint for the armour is used sparingly, mainly on the tips of the side mounted guns and on the two Rulon figures, only the eyes and small sections of armour or clothes have been painted, otherwise the plastic has been cast in the colour it’s meant to be. The paint work here is also very crisp with no slop. Also as a side note, there is slight variation with Sidewinder’s armour colour where the pink/purple/maroon on some figures it’s a brighter colour then others, but that could just be from discolouration on some figures.  

Articulation

As far as articulation goes for the Triceratops, he’s pretty limited; this is mainly because of the walking feature; technically you can pose the head and legs to your pleasing but most of the time he will be just standing in the usual pose, of all four legs on the ground, which is just fine as I don’t see this Triceratops having the need to be doing any flying punches or kicks anytime soon – for a dinosaur and a toy from the 80s the amount of articulation is just fine.

The two Rulons figures on the other hand, have plenty of opportunity to be put in many different poses. The articulation for each of these small figures is as follows:  swivel head, swivel arms – where the arm meets the body, swivel legs – where the leg meets the body and hinge joints at the knees. For an older figure this is more than enough for it to not only work well with the accessories but be seated with the armour as well. Obviously, articulation has come a long way since then, but you still get quite a lot with these two figures –  this was standard articulation for most of the mini figures released in this line at the time. 

Accessories

There are two weapon sets with the Triceratops, one for each Rulon: one crossbow, one set of binoculars, one shield, one bazooka, one electronic whip (ball and chain) and one ladder. they are quite detailed and cast in red plastic; they easily clip on to the Rulon’s arms.

Potential Problems

Besides losing some of the parts or having gun tips break, the only main problem with second hand Dino Riders is that you have to watch out for grey plastic that has yellowed, besides the colour change, it causes the plastic to become brittle as well! – It is quite a common problem.

Price

Depending weather it’s MIB, MISB or loose will affect the price you pay. However, from time to time you can grab a bargain on eBay. Just make sure you are happy with the condition the figure is in when you buy it for the price you are going to pay.

Overall 

I’m sure any child who received this figure back when it was originally released would have had a lot of fun with it as there are plenty of play options. It’s a very cool looking figure and it’s quite hard to beat the combination of dinosaurs and futuristic weapons, together with the walking feature, you have a winner. As a collector it’s quite easy to get sucked into buying a few of these and having a small army as they look quite impressive lined up together – not to mention that you can always race them!

This is a repost of a review originally posted by Mighty Mike on January 19th, 2011.