Legions Of Power (Tonka)

Legions of Power
Tonka
1986

Legions of Power! The good Star Legions versus the evil Tech Dynasty. The toys were a mix mash of part action figure, part knock off Erector sets. Most kids didn't know about them, want them or smile when they got them under the tree for the 1986 Christmas season.

To this day, they remain one of the most obscure toy lines from the era, with many kids now adults still having no clue they even existed. No surprise considering there was little advertising from Tonka, and of course the all important missing aspect, no cartoon. Sure, it didn't help either that it was 1986, and kids were big into the likes of Masters of the Universe, Transformers and G.I. Joe - All of which were backed by animated series.

However, as I give this line a nod now in 2019, I can't help but appreciate it more. The look and feel certainly could have fit in with the likes of Air Raiders or Sky Commanders. Not necessarily their stories, but definitely the overall design.

An interesting tactic on behalf of Tonka was their decision to include a mini comic with each toy. This was obviously an attempt to mimic the marketing style of Masters of the Universe. One came packed in with each of the fourteen vehicle assortments. What's odd though is there appears to only be four individual issues.

Star Legions In-Flight Command Vehicles featuring Lt. P.C.

 Star Legions Land Rovers featuring Lt. Rob-Bart

 Star Legions Prolon Pro-Techtors featuring Lt. Sadrick

 Star Legions Space Fighters featuring Lt. Marker

What's up with all the Lieutenants?

 Star Legions Strategic Enforcers featuring Commander Jeffron

 Star Legions Strike Jet

 Star Legions Swivel Tank

The fact that you had to construct each vehicle wouldn't have necessarily been a plus for me as I've never really been a fan of Legos. Building toys isn't something I have the patience for - Let alone ones which are flimsy and delicate once constructed. As such, it's no surprise this particular line didn't interest me one bit as a kid. Again though, I can appreciate it these days.

Even now, information on the line is severely limited in terms of Google searches. You'll find someone here and there throwing out a "Hey, I remember those," kind of post, but finding an actual checklist, or the toys themselves is a little bit of a challenge. I personally started digging into this line all the way back in September of 2018, so that there should give you an idea of how difficult it has been.

 Tech Dynasty Commandos of Konn featuring Lt. Douglar

 Tech Dynasty Bandit Bomber

 Tech Dynasty Ground Terrors featuring Lt. Reighnor

 Tech Dynasty Planetary Control Vehicles featuring Lt. Jondice

 Tech Dynasty Power Masters featuring Commander Wartech

 Tech Dynasty Space Attackers featuring Lt. Nimrod

 Tech Dynasty Z-Tank

It was interesting to find out the series had a tie in with Nestle Quik which offered the mail away Space Capsule Set. This piece is relatively impossible to find these days, and I dare say it's because many weren't ever redeemed.

Nestle Quik Mail Away Space Capsule

If / when you find them, you can expect pieces to run anywhere from twenty to one hundred dollars mint in the box. Unfortunately, because the line is so obscure, they don't sell well, if at all. Sellers seem to have too high of a value for these toys than those few on the hunt for them seem willing to pay.

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The Fall Guy (Tonka)

The Fall Guy
Tonka
1983

Lee Majors was Colt Seavers. Hollywood film stunt driver by day, and bounty hunter by night. This is the type of stuff that TV show fans of the 80's ate up! TV shows stuffed with explosions, wrecked cars, and over the top leading men who oozed just as much sex appeal as their female co-stars.

The Fall Guy ran for five seasons over the course of 1981 to 1986, and never deviated from its main premise. Each episode would start with a stunt being performed on a Hollywood set, where shortly after Seavers would receive his next assignment. Of course no assignment ever involved just going to the suspects house, knocking on the door and taking him in. Nope, instead each time it unraveled into a deeper mystery with these would be criminals turning out to be mastermind criminals or simply one step ahead of our hero.

In 1983, Tonka produced one of the very few toys based on the series. The Stunt Plane with Colt Seavers figure. The toy itself is a great design, but for its time wasn't a big seller. These days, we can certainly appreciate it more, and absolutely love the plastic streamer you can attach to the back of the plane which reads "Fall Guy Air Show".

Find in a mint in package plane these days is pretty hard to do. They show up occasionally, but typically don't sell because the sellers are asking too much for them. Most of the buyers we've seen are willing to spend about twenty bucks on a mint in package version - About half of what most people are asking for them. Loose planes sell for as low as $5.00, but this typically doesn't include the figure or plane accessories such as the streamer.

Join us next time when we take a look at G.I. Joe!

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Willow (Tonka)

Willow
Tonka
1988

Not all toys back in the 80's were winners. In fact if you were to ask me (and I'll concede that nobody has), Willow will go down in my book as the worst one ever produced.

More like miniatures without a game to call a home, the Willow figures were tiny plastic molds depicting characters from the movie. I don't know what possessed Lucasfilm to give Tonka the rights to produce such an awful toy line, but regardless of the reasoning, they did.

The toys were non posable, unmovable, and came permanently attached to a resin stand making them not even what I would consider to be an action figure. Like I said above, more like miniatures to a roleplaying game that never saw the light of day.

The series saw a total of 14 basic figures, three of which were variations of Willow himself (the third being a Nestle mail away exclusive). The series also included five horseback figures which were essentially a horse with a remolded character from the film. Like the basic figures, the horseback characters were unyielding plastic, leaving not much room to actually play with them, but rather simply as display pieces. But what kid wants to do that with their toys?

In addition to the single packed figures, Tonka released collector sets which each included two figures and one figure with a horse.  Two Hero packs, and one Evil pack have been found by collectors, while a second Evil pack has been noted on several other collectible sites, yet no photos seem to exist, and no physical set has been found on sites such as eBay for purchase.

Unlike the awful figures, the vehicles (if you could even call them that) which were released with the series had a little more going for them. The three vehicles were originally intended to be Sears exclusives, but somehow got released to retail stores across the U.S., much to the dislike of a disgruntle group of Sears C.E.O.'s. Oddly enough, since the series tanked hard, Sears never made a big stink about it. Probably because of the amount of money they stood to loose had they sold them exclusively.

A large version of the Eborsisk creature from the film was also released with the series. If you were to ask Lucasfilm, their representatives would swear up and down that this toy never hit shelves. This however would be a huge contradiction to the folk who have documented across websites that they do indeed have one, and that they have had it since their parents bought it for them from their local store. So somewhere, someone goofed.

Probably the saddest thing about the Willow action figure line is that unlike the toys themselves, the cards were really cool. I'm talking one fine piece of eye candy. They had wonderful photos of the characters from the movie on the back, and each back also had an in depth blurb about the individual. The fronts of each card varied in color depending on whether or not the character was a good guy or bad guy. The tag line on the front of the package read, "The Magic Lies Within".

Within what? Certainly not inside the plastic with these terrible toys!

Sorry about that. I get a little sensitive sometimes.

Though the series was short lived, Willow fans across the world still look for the missing pieces to their collection. It may have been one of the 80's worst toy lines, but it's still managed to make it's way into several collector's homes where it remains a cherished part of their collection.

In 2004 Warwick Davis created a limited hand numbered and signed edition (literally - he paid for it out of his own pocket) of the Willow Figure. This figure was only available via Coolwaters Productions' website, and was limited to only 300 pieces.

Check back next time when we take a look at another good or bad toy line from the 80's.

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GoBots (Tonka)

GoBots
Tonka
1984 - 1987

If your family didn't necessarily have a lot of money in the 80's it didn't exclude you from the "Transformers" crazy that hit in 1984. GoBots were the only true rival to the Transformers, and remained so throughout the 80's.

What ended up hurting GoBots the most was the while both they and Transformers had their own animated series, the Hannah-Barbara produced GoBots often came off as less "mature" than the Transformers. Granted kids were watching the series, but facts were that Transformers was just a little more stimulating to the brain.






The GoBots toy line originally began in Japan. The series creator Popy Planning was actually a division of Bandai, which is the well known company behind the infamous Power Rangers. Rather than being called GoBots, the series was called Machine Robo. The story lines and animation were far superior to the U.S. versions, but then again, they usually are.

When Machine Robo finally aired in the U.S., kids went ravenous for the "in" toy line of the 80's. Toys that transformed from robots to cars, planes and other various machinery were like crack cocaine. The series became so popular that like Transformers, a movie for the theaters was eventually released. This springboard gave Tonka the opening that they were looking for, and several other sub series were released under the GoBot logo.

However, we're going to only look at those related to the TV show.

Seventy three standard GoBots were released between 1984 to 1987. Unlike Transformers, the series remained one size, and one size only. Being the equivilant of the smaller Transformer, Tonka somehow managed to not only make the figures more durable, but also managed to include great detail, something sorely missing in it's competator's line.




On top of the 73 standard "figures", Tonka released two vehicles, and two playsets. This was by far impressive when compared to the amount of "figures" that were released, but it kept the series relatively affordable for most lower income families.

As the years pressed on, several sub series hit shelves. This would lead to the eventual downfall of GoBots as oversaturation in the market would eventually catch up. It didn't help that all these additional lines had no show or movie to back them up, thus leaving kids unsure of what they were. The series included; Super GoBots, Combiners, Dread Launchers, Secret Riders, Boomers, Power Marchers and Arco Bots.





GoBots eventually fizzled out in 1987. Tonka pulled the plug on the toy line when the show was cancelled. What's great about this series is that while it was ending once the bug like creatures began hitting the market, you can definitly see where this design style stayed with later Bandai products.

For whatever it was worth, GoBots put up a good fight against the Transformers, but due to marketing strategies and the intelligence level of the show, the series just couldn't hold on.

But, that's our look at GoBots. I hope you enjoyed it. Check back next time for a look at another great toy series from the 80's!

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