Maximo (Toycom)

Maximo
Toycom
2001

Maximo is a video game character created by Capcom for the Playstation 2. What many people don't know is that the game is based in the Ghost N' Goblins universe. Yes, the very same Ghost N' Goblins that punished gamers on the original NES for having the nerve to try and play it. To say that the original NES game is brutally hard is an understatement.

But we digress. Maximo: Ghost to Glory as it was known on the Playstation 2, is not as difficult to play. As such, it was met with fairly high praise from fans and review sites. It even spawned a sequel, and there were rumblings in the gaming world a third installment (that to date has not been released).

Toycom released six figures in 2001 to coincide with the game's release. The figures were sculpted meticulously to that of their video game counterparts. Each also featured highly detailed accessories, also precisely sclupted to match the look of the game. Toycom truly did an amazing job with the line.

Captain Cadaver*King Achilles*Lord Glutterscum

Maximo*Queen Sophia*Zombie

With the success of the above figures, Toycom quickly put into production a second run. With this came two additional figures - Bako la Bas and Ghastly Gus. This time around, the entire package was encased in a plastic clamshell.

 Captain Cadaver*King Achilles*Lord Glutterscum

Maximo*Queen Sophia*Zombie

Bako la Bas*Ghastly Gus

These figures are fairly common on secondary markets, and as such they don't sell for that much. The average sale price is around $8.00 to $10.00 each. This is a far cry from the hundreds of dollars it can set you back to collect other video game related action figures that have come and gone in the past.

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Apollo Moon Exploring Series (Imperial)

Apollo Moon Exploring Series
Imperial
1970

The Apollo Program was launched (no pun intended) in 1963 where America saw the tragic loss of three astronauts intended for the Apollo 1 flight. The program was designed with the intentions of landing humans on the moon, and bringing them safely home. Six of these missions achieved that goal.

The first of these was Apollo 11, which landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. The second was Apollo 12 on November 19, 1969. This lead to the most popular space mission to date in the program, thanks in part to the 1995 Ron Howard / Tom Hanks movie, Apollo 13 which launched on April 11, 1970. Their mission was to land on the moon, but unfortunately due to equipment malfunctions and failures the mission was aborted, and the pilots almost lost.

The Apollo missions continued until December 7, 1972 with the launch of Apollo 17. The program was discontinued with their return to Earth on December 19, 1972.

There's no denying that the Apollo program's greats achievement was indeed landing and bringing humans home. However, in addition to this it turned an entire generation of children to the stars. Now kids were focusing their eyes on the skies, but not in a science fiction adventure sort of way. In a reality of prospect for the future.

In 1970, Imperial launched a great line of space themed toys to help fuel the imagination of children. Each pack featured numerous vehicles and accessories, all centered around a reality of space travel and exploration.

There were twelve sets in total released, and oddly enough none of them have a signifying name. They can only be depicted by their colored packages, and contents inside.

Unfortunately the sets are very difficult to track down. They can be found here and there on secondary markets, but putting together a complete set can prove challenging. When found, the sets sell for about $25.00 a piece.  
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Announcement - Tomorrow Is Take Your Action Figure To Work Day

Tomorrow is the fourth annual Take Your Action Figure To Work Day. For those of you celebrating this obscure day known to tens of millions of people, grab your favorite figure, and throw him / her / it into your briefcase or pocket to join you for your eight hour grind.

Participating is simple. If you have a camera, action figure and some form of social media site, you're all set. Photograph your figure joining you in your day of work "fun", and then post it on your site.

The idea here is all about fun, and breaking up that monotonous period that many of us go through on a day to day bases just so we can have the pleasure of buying more action figures.

So grab your most covetous one, and show it what tortures you went through to add it to your shelf. More importantly, make it do some of the work for you, and capture it on camera for your site.

Doctor Dolittle (Mattel)

Doctor Dolittle
Mattel
1967

Doctor Dolittle began his fictional career in the 1920 "The Story of Doctor Dolittle" by Hugh Lofting. His love for animals results in a menagerie of household pets that scare off his human clientele. This leads to his inevitable loss of wealth. However, after learning to speak to animals from his parrot, he takes up a veterinary practice.

Since then, Dolittle has had many adventures in the pages of books, and on the small and big screen. One of his most famous iterations was the 1967 live action film which featured Rex Harrison as Dolittle.

It would be this iteration that the 1967 Mattel line would be based on. Unfortunately for fans, it was short lived. The series features just one character - Doctor Doolittle, and one creature, his Pushmi-Pullyu.

Doctor Dolittle

For those looking to purchase this figure mint in the package, be sure it has its cellophane wrap. The wrap is incredibly fragile, and as such, finding one in true mint condition can prove difficult, but not impossible.

There were two versions of the Pushmi-Pullyu. One features a pack in of the Doctor Dolittle figure, while the other is just the animal.

For its age, it's surprising that the figure of Doctor Dolittle is neither rare nor valuable. Sealed in the box versions have sold for as little as $15.00, with the highest being no more than $30.00. The Pushmi-Pullyu is a little harder to come by, and sealed with the figure can sell for as much as $150.00. The individual creature sells for around $30.00.

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The Spectacular Spider-Man: Techno-Wars (Toy Biz)

The Spectacular Spider-Man: Techno-Wars
Toy Biz
1996

There are a lot of Spider-Man lines out there - The majority of which were produced under the Toy Biz banner. However, there are few that are developed under The Spectacular Spider-Man guise. That's what makes the Techno-Wars line so unique, and special to fans of that particular comic book series. Granted, you're not going to see any of these iterations of the characters in the pages of the comic.

As typical of Toy Biz in the mid 1990's, the line is confined to just a handful of characters. It's no secret that Toy Biz was big on gimmicks to sell Marvel related figures, and this is definitely another one of those attempts. Each figure featured bulky / colorful accessories that would scream to passing children, "Buy me!" It wasn't the first time Toy Biz did this, and it certainly wouldn't be the last.

Anti-Symbiote Spidey*Hyper Tech Spider-Man

Radioactive Spider Armor

Ultimate Octopus*Vault Guardsman

The Spectacular Spider-Man
Marvel Comics
1976 - 2011

 Because we're taking a look at a Spectacular Spider-Man toy line, we thought we'd incorporate the entire run of comics into the mix. The series started in 1976, making it the second Spider-Man comic book series to be produced (The Amazing Spider-Man was the first, and Spectacular was followed by Web of Spider-Man which began in 1985).

The series initially started its run as Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man. However, by issue number 134 the series title was shortened, dropping the "Peter Parker" portion.

Though The Spectacular Spider-Man isn't the most popular Spidey title in existence, it's not without its note worthy moments. Some of the best include;

The first appearance of Carrion - Issue 25
The first appearance of Cloak and Dagger - Issue 64
Death of Jean DeWolff - Issues 107 - 110
Kraven's last hunt crossover arc- Issues 131 and 132
Spidey gets cosmic powers - Issue 158
Death of Harry Osbourne - Issue 200

Then thereafter the series gets muddled with the whole Spidey clone nonsense.

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Terminator 2: Future War (Kenner)

Terminator 2: Future War
Kenner
1993

This particular 1993 Kenner line falls in between the original 1991 to 1992 Terminator 2 line, and the latter produced 1997 Terminator 2 3D (AKA Battle Across Time). Kenner was finding a fair amount of success in toy isles due to the massive momentum of James Cameron's highly anticipated sequel, and the company hoped to continue raking in cash by expanding into further lines based on the characters.

Future War featured eight new figures, but sadly stopped there. No vehicles or playsets got incorporated into the line, leaving it rather hollow for those who didn't have the predecessor line. The series also focused heavily on variants of the Terminator - A whopping six of them out of the eight total figures available. Furthermore, the two villains in the series, Cyber-Grip and Kromium were 100% Kenner created for the line.

3-Strike Terminator*Battle Ready Terminator*Cyber-Grip

Hidden Power Terminator*Hot Blast Terminator*Kromium

Metal-Mash Terminator*Rapid Repair Terminator

If you look closely at the cardback above, you can see that Kenner definitely planned for this series to be a continuation from their prior line. It depicts the eight figures from this series, and then encourages children to collect the rest of the Terminator figures available - I.E. the prior series.

It's probably no surprise to anyone that there is little value in these figures on secondary markets. They are readily available, and can be obtained for as little as $3.00 each, mint on card. If you're in to the Terminator, and wanting to add some figures to your collection, the time is now to jump on these. They're cheap, and easy to find.

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Doctor Who (Denys Fisher)

Wow, who would have thought that Patriots would come back in the 4th quarter to take the Superbowl into overtime, and then win the game? It's unheard of what they did. Tom Brady's salary just went up immensely!

Doctor Who
Denys Fisher
1976

For a character that goes all the way back to 1963, and has numerous iterations in books, toys and television, we sadly know little to nothing about the character. We've never seen any of the shows, never read any books. I guess you could safely say that in general we have little to no interest.

What we do know about the show is that the "original series" ran from 1963 all the way through 1989. Since then there have been numerous attempts to relaunch the series, but with mild success until the 2014 iteration.

One of the most note worthy aspects of the show is that when a particular actor would leave his respective roll as the Doctor, the next actor hired would be given the next consecutive number. Thus the numerous versions of Doctors from First through the now current twelfth. Throughout the various shows it was common that prior Doctors would reprise their roles in a cameo appearance. As such, Doctor Who could be considered one of the longest running consecutive shows in history. "From a certain point of view" - Ben Kenobi.

Despite our lack of knowledge of the series, we do enjoy a classic eight inch action figure line, and these from Denys Fisher fit in perfectly with any of your standard Megos - Right down to their packaging.

Because this particular line was produced in 1976, it falls in line with the Tom Baker iteration of the Doctor - AKA Fourth Doctor. A great choice considering that in a recent poll his portrayal is considered the most popular iteration to date.

There were six figures produced, and one "accessory", the Tardis. Each one was sculpted with meticulous detail for its time, and featured that classic hand stitched clothing that was common place with any good quality eight inch line.

Doctor Who

Cyberman

Dalek

Giant Robot

Leela

K-9*Tardis

Now for the bad news. If you're looking at adding these to your collection, start saving now. Complete figures with the box (new or used) can set you back upwards of $500.00 a piece. This is not a line for the faintest of collectors. Additionally, the majority of these figures are not common. While you can find the Doctor and Dalek here and there, the rest are incredibly scarce.

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