Scandalous Honey (Prince)

Prince
Scandalous Honey
1989 

Musician. Actor. Bee keeper?

Back in 1988, Prince took on the task of creating the soundtrack for the up and coming Batman film from Tim Burton. To get an understanding of the movie, he would make visits to the set, and it would be here that he would meet actress Kim Basinger.

Prince being Prince, soon began a relationship with the actress, leading to her joining him in the studio for vocals on the song, Scandalous. It was during this session that a story would unfold about the two being left alone for the evening, just as Prince was opening a jar of honey. When the engineer returned the next day, he found honey all over the mixing board. I'm sure your imaginations can fill in the rest. If not, you can find more on that story "HERE".

The alleged encounter led to one of the most bizarre promotional tie-ins. To promote the release of the single, which Prince named The Scandalous Sex Suite, Prince created a jar of honey, which had a simplistic label on it which read, "Prince The Scandalous Sex Suite Featuring Kim Basinger".

While it's not commonly found these days, considering honey doesn't expire if stored properly, it supposedly could be just as fresh today as it was back in 1989. However, you're not usually going to find one cheap. I've only seen two, and while the first sold for $25 in 2010, the one I found in 2025 was priced at $300!

If you're a big Prince fan, and looking for unique, or frankly, weird merchandise from him, this one would definitely fit that bill.

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Superman The Movie (Madelman AKA Madel)

Superman The Movie
Madelman (AKA Madel)
1979

Madelman was a toy manufacturer in Spain that produced numerous six inch action figures between 1968 and 1980. Their style was much like those of the classic USA Mego produced toys. However, unlike Mego's Superman figure, Madelman, also known as  Madel, centered their packaging around the newly released Superman The Movie - A classic unto itself that could envelop an entire post just discussing the film itself.

Admittedly our knowledge of toys doesn't extend far beyond the USA shores. However, from what we've been able to find, there appear to be two different packaging versions for the figure. Both feature a backdrop of the Fortress of Solitude, just with very slight painting variations. The figures are also posed slightly different inside the box.

Superman features quite a bit of articulation, bending at the knees, feet and elbows. He also features the standard bend in the legs for sitting down positions, and typical 360 degree arm rotations at the shoulder. Last, his head is on a swivel joint, allowing for 360 degree turning. All and all, it's a fairly good quality figure akin to the time period it was developed in.

Though we get, and love the helicopter, or as it's respectively titled on the package, "Helicoptero", we admittedly are confused by the dune buggy. We'll admit that in terms of Superman we really don't have the most vast knowledge beyond the basics, but even in our circles we've never heard stories of the time that Superman was tooling around the beach in his buggy - Not that it didn't happen. There were a lot of zany stories written in the 60's and 70's.

Back to the helicopter, this is a great piece for recreating the scene from the film where we first see Superman in full action as he swoops up the side of the Daily Planet to catch the falling helicopter hovering over the edge of the building with a dangling Lois Lane clutching on the seat belt for dear life. Granted you won't find a Lois Lane in the series - Or anyone else beyond Superman for that matter.

Here's where things go South for fans looking to add these pieces to their collection. For starters, they're rare - Really rare. The figures can be found easier (not easy, just easier) than the vehicles, but not in abundance. Next up, because they're rare, they're expensive. A mint in the package figure can set you back between $300.00 and $450.00. Loose figures will still set you back between $200.00 to $250.00 - However those are even more scarce than sealed one.

We've yet to see someone selling a buggy on secondary markets, so we have no price point to share in regards to that item. We have seen a few helicopters, both open and sealed, and this is where it gets uglier. The last sale for one of the helicopters was an opened piece with a box that not only was torn up, but looked like it had mold / mildew on it. The vehicle itself was fairly banged up, with the seat belts broken. This item still sold for around $400.00. We can only imagine what a mint in the box one would set you back these days. As we said above, the vehicles are more so scarce than the figure, so don't except to find many of them out there.

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The Iron Giant (Trendmasters)

The Iron Giant
Trendmasters
1999

We love the Iron Giant movie. It was fabulous! Of course it didn't start as an animated film. Rather, the Iron Giant's roots can be traced back to 1968 when he was created by writer Ted Hughes for the novel The Iron Man.

In the book, the Iron Man comes to England where he rains destruction down on farm equipment. Later in the story he befriends a young boy, and eventually saves the world from an attacking monster from outer space.

Though part of this premise is used in the film, the animated adaptation opts out of the monster invasion plot, and instead brings into focus our own destructive nature as human beings. As a result, the story is a little more easier to get engrossed in, and also leaves a deeper impact of how violent a society we are that we would destroy ourselves to eliminate out of fear a potential threat that we don't understand. Deep, huh?

Unfortunately for fans of the film, Iron Giant toys weren't necessarily easy to come by. Granted Trendmasters did a descent job of putting some items out there, but we never got the action figure and vehicle line that one would have expected with such a franchise.

The end result is a product line that's all over the map - Much like LJN used to do with their movie based products. Nothing really fits in correlation with each other. Not only that, but all of it is strictly based on the Iron Giant character, leaving no other characters available. This is where an action figure line would have been spectacular - Think figures, military vehicles, etc.

That's not to say that what we did get was poor or inferior, it was just awkward when compiled. On one hand you have a six inch figure of the Iron Giant, but on the other you have an electronic bank. See how these two items don't work together? It was as if the advertising hook was, "Get your Iron Giant toys, and...I don't know, incorporate it with your G.I. Joes or something?" Which now that we say that would have been AWESOME with the 22 inch Ultimate Iron Giant figure.

Build & Battle Iron Giant

 

Iron Giant Animated Bank

 

Power Hero Iron Giant

 

Remote Control Iron Giant

 

Super Plush Iron Giant

 

Transforming Iron Giant

 

Ultimate Iron Giant

If you're looking for these items these days, be ready to drop some cash. Typically they're expensive. Most items will set you back around $125.00 to $150.00 each. True mint condition in the package items have also been known to sell for close to $400.00 each. However, there are occasions where you can pick up loose items, and stay under the $100.00 range - That is if other buyers aren't scoping out the same items as you. Patience is key if you are looking to invest as little as possible.

Join us next time when we take a look at Spider-Man: Web Force!

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