Michael Jackson (Street Life)

Michael Jackson
Street Life
1995

There's good Michael Jackson dolls, and then there are these. We're really surprised that Michael Jackson would give the thumbs up for these with such a horrible likeness. Even with all the plastic surgery he had, these look nothing like the man.

It appears that this is the only line Street Life produced, and little information can be found on the company as a whole. Looks like they flew in overnight, invested all their money in one product, and lost it all in the process. While we never wish ill will on anyone, it is no surprise that this particular line tanked.

For starters, as we said above, the doll is awful. It just looks bad. More importantly, by 1995 Michael Jackson was well under fire for allegations of sexually abusing children (which began in 1993). Needless to say, he'd lost a lot of luster as a household name to many people for this - Despite being found innocent of all charges. So essentially it came down to poor quality, and awful timing on Street Life's part.

Though the dolls were the same, Street Life produced two different boxed versions. Additionally, they released a change of clothing - Jackson's famous Beat It jacket.

Because they're relatively in scale with the original LJN line of dolls, the bright side to this is that you can at least use the clothing from this line on those (should you like to). Granted that line already has a Beat It jacket, but now you can also have a Black or White outfit. Hooray!

Now, bad sculpting aside, there is a really neat aspect to this doll. On the back is a slot, and in this slot you insert little tapes that match the skin tone of the doll. On the tape that comes with the doll is a non rap version of Black or White, and with the Beat It jacket you get a tape with that respective song. When inserted and activated, it plays out of a little speaker on its back. It's not the best of quality in terms of sound, but dang that's a neat concept. Having more outfits for this doll would have been a bonus for the simple aspect of getting more mini tapes, and mind you, they played the whole song from start to finish.

Both the individual outfit and either version of the dolls can easily be found on secondary markets, and obtained for around $20.00. If you're a fan of Michael Jackson, it's worth checking out - If for nothing else those awesome mini tapes.

For what it's worth, Michael Jackson will always be the King of Pop here at The Toy Box. There will probably never be anyone like him again - At least not in our life time. That is of course unless one of his children inherited a lot of special talents that they have yet to show. Sadly, we doubt it though.

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Gorzak (Tyco)

Gorzak
Tyco
1994

Gorzak! The monster you control!...but probably have never heard of. Let's start this off by taking a look at the original trailer which aired on television for the "figure".

Good stuff! Makes us wish there was actually a cartoon based on the character. Also makes us wish that Tyco had released some of the blue "army" men to go along with Gorzak. Sadly, they never did.

Gorzak stands roughly thirteen to fifteen inches high, and comes with a beastly looking axe as well as a set of chains that bind his wrist - For a little while anyway. With the help of four C batteries, and the power of your voice commands, Gorzak swings into action, destroying everything in his path.

If you couldn't tell by the commercial, or you didn't watch it, Gorzak is definitely not portraying himself as a good guy. His sole purpose in life is to destroy and murder, but that's typically what giant beasts with equally humongous axes do.

Gorzak falls more so into the uncommon category in terms of finding him on secondary markets. However, this would be for one that is typically loose, and missing accessories. Finding a complete one is much more difficult, and finding one in the box is where you step into rare territory.

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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.