Hi*5 Sports Stars (Olmec Toys)

Hi*5 Sports Stars
Olmec Toys
1987

For those of you not familiar, Olmec Toys was a multi million dollar toy company that focused strictly on characters of African descent - Some fictional, others of actual people. The company is most noted for its lines; Bronze Bombers (a G.I. Joe sort of figure), Sun-Man (in the scale / design of your typical He-Man figure), Butterfly Woman (a counterpart to Sun-Man in the style of She-Ra figures), as well as many others.

The company began in 1985 by founder and chief executive Yla Eason, and is noted as the first company to produce toys to meet the demand of ethnically correct figures and dolls for African and Hispanic decedents. In fact, Eason is noted as entering the toy business in a rather unconventional way. It happened when her son made the comment that he could never be a superhero because all superheroes were white.

Side Note - Obviously Mrs. Eason didn't let her child(ren) read such influential comics which included characters such as Black Panther (first appearing in Fantastic Four number 52 in July of 1966), Black Lightning (who debuted in his own comic in 1977), Amazing Man (who has seen numerous iterations of an African decedent man in the role since 1983), not to mention the many others. Just saying.

Though it shut down in the late 90's, Eason and her company received numerous awards during its 10+ years of operation, and rightly so. The figures produced were top notch for their time in both design and quality.

Today we look at one of Olmec Toys not so know properties; Hi*5. The line supposedly consists of six figures, but we've only ever seen five of them (never seen Mr. Basketball). Each one is designed with a specific sports theme in mind.

Admittedly the artwork on the packages is rather cheesy. The cardbacks look like they were drawn by a high school art student during their first year of art class. However, in conjunction with the color scheme, it actually works well. Your eye isn't really drawn towards the character on the package, but more so to the bright blue and pink banner at the top.

 Baseball*Champ

 Mr. Football*Track & Field

Wrestler

These figures are pretty much non-existent on secondary markets, so value at this point is very difficult to gauge.

If anyone has a photo of the Mr. Basketball that they'd like to share, please drop us your e-mail address in the comment section so we can reach out to you. We won't post your comment with your e-mail address.

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Meteor Man (Olmec Toys)

Meteor Man
Olmec Toys
1993

It would take a super hero to clean up the inner city gang problems - Or at least that's what the message of the film Meteor Man was panned as sending. Written, directed and starring Robert Townsend, the 1993 superhero comedy seems to have mostly poor reviews surrounding it. Not necessarily for its misconstrued message, but more so because it's just not considered to be all that good in general. Roger Ebert may possibly have summed it up best, "The movie contains big laughs and moments of genuine feeling, but it seems to be put together out of assorted inspirations that were never assembled into one coherent story line."

Olmec Toys produced a one and done bendable figure based on the character. Much like the film itself, the figure didn't fare to well, and was soon tossed in clearance isle bins.

Aesthetics wise, it's not a bad figure. Olmec captured all the bumps and ridges in the Meteor Man suit fairly well - Perfect in fact. If we had to nitpick, then sure the cape is too long, and the head sculpt is certainly lacking in accuracy to the actor. Nitpicks aside though, again, it's not a bad figure. It's certainly a conversation piece to have in one's collection alongside the likes of Batman, Superman, and all those other well known iconic characters.

The average going price these days for a mint in the package figure is around ten bucks. However, there are a lot of sellers out there that seem to think that the asking price should be around $25.00 to $35.00. Those sellers naturally still own their Meteor Man figures.

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Bronze Bombers (Olmec Toys)

Bronze Bombers
Olmec Toys
1988

"They stand for justice, and they never lose!" That was the tagline of Olmec Toy's Bronze Bombers line in 1988.

The figures had a clear distinction to Hasbro's G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero line, and should have - A lot of them were produced using the same molds of certain figures, and art work for the cardbacks. However, unlike G.I. Joe, Bronze Bombers failed to find a foothold in toy isles, and disappeared after just twelve figures and two vehicles.

Shaka Johnson*Charles "Chilly Pop" Battle*Arrow Hawk

 

The Baron P.S.B. Enemy*A.J. Moon*Agent Telepathy

 

Though the card backs were done in black and white, they mimicked the style of Joes right down to a file card for the figure inside.

Cool Breeze*Hi Tech*Wayne Golden Alexander

 

Mapman Jackson*Sure Fire*Marc Kaboom Walters

 

The series was rounded out with two vehicles that came packed with one of the previously released figures above. An orange ATV style vehicle was planned and advertised on the back, but doesn't appear to have ever been released.

Battle Hovercraft with Wayne Golden Alexander

Battle Copter with A.J. Moon

 

***BONUS***

 

Bronze Bombers: The Enforcers of Justice

Olmec Toys

1997

 

In 1997, Olmec Toys made a much more popular comeback with the twelve pack of Bronze Bombers figures they released. Granted it still wasn't the likes of popularity that Hasbro had found with their G.I. Joe line.

 



Twelve Pack

Join us next time when we take a look at Jay and Silent Bob!

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