Showing posts with label Playing Mantis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Playing Mantis. Show all posts

Army Men (Playing Mantis)



Army Men
Playing Mantis
2001

The classic army man. How can you not love that little two inch piece of green or tan plastic decked out in full military gear with a unique weapon of accessory permanently sculpted in place? So much fun I had as a kid flicking marbles at these things to simulate a war across the hallway of my parent's house. Hours of entertainment for nothing more than the cost of a bucket (or bag) of "figures" and a sack of marbles.

Playing Mantis, a company often skipped over by many toy enthusiasts, gave the ultimate nod to the army man toy in 2001. Granted these iterations were more so based on the 3DO video game, but that too in and of itself was an homage to the toys.

 Sergent Hawk*Hoover

The figures stood an impressive eight inches high and came with a unique weapon or accessory. Additionally they featured a few points of articulation - Not much, but enough to give them a little posability options. To round out each carded figure, each one also included a fun dog tag style figure stand.

 Colonel Grimm*Riff

Six figures in total were released, but in a bit of an unfair ratio. Five green soldiers (the good guys) and one tan (the bad guys). Okay, to be fair, it was actually only four green soldiers and a fully decked out female character.

Vikki Grimm*General Plastro

These figures are quite the challenge to find on secondary markets these days, and believe it or not, Vikki, the female character, is the easiest of them to find - Also the cheapest. Sergeant Hawk shows up here and there. However, the remaining characters, especially General Plastro, are incredibly difficult to find.

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Mystery Men (Playing Mantis)



Mystery Men
Playing Mantis
1999

Mystery Men is one of those movies that sadly many people missed out on.  Despite its strong cast, the film failed to draw people to theater seats, and as a result the 68 million dollar film only brought in 33 million dollars when all was said and done, making it a huge commercial flop.

The film stars the likes of Hank Azaria, Ben Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Eddie Izzard, Greg Kinnear, William H. Macy, Kel Mitchel, Paul Reubens and Geoffrey Rush, and is based along the premise of everyday ordinary people who use their "special" talents to become superheroes in a city plagued with crime.  We highly recommend you check it out if this was a film you passed on.  It's fun, it's got action, comedy, and a great story.

In 1999 Playing Mantis hoped to back the film by producing a series of action figures based on the film.  It unfortunately didn't pay off for them when the film flopped, and as a result sales of toys suffered as well.  While the series encompassed the majority of the "good guys", it sadly didn't include any villains, to and include the main protagonist of the film, Casanova Frankenstein.


The Blue Raja*The Bowler*Captain Amazing
 

Mr. Furious*The Shoveler*The Spleen

It's a shame that neither the movie or toys took off as well as those backing them hoped.  We personally think that the movie was great, and still enjoy it to this day.  The figures serve to remind us of how great the characters in the film were, and thought they don't have any villains to fight in plastic form, are still awesome figures.

Join us next time when we take a look at i0 Anniversary (AKA Image 10th Anniversary)!

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