Little Dracula (DreamWorks / Bandai)

Little Dracula
DreamWorks / Bandai
1991

Happy Halloween, all! In honor of the day, we're going to cast our sights at a relatively unknown / forgotten series from DreamWorks / Bandai. 1991's Little Dracula!

Little Dracula was a character created for UK children's books by Irish Author Martin Waddell which became a US television series...Whoa, that's a lot of countries involved with one series. The stories began being published in 1986 with the first book, "Little Dracula's First Bite". It would be followed by seven more books, unofficially ending with 1992's, "Little Dracula's Other Monstrous Poster".

In 1991, Fox Kid's picked up the rights, and developed it as an animated series. Unfortunately appeal never really took hold, and as such the series was cancelled after just one season (13 episodes). However, just because US children didn't enjoy the series didn't mean that it was a total flop. France and Germany television studios ordered an additional 13 episodes for a second season which aired throughout various European countries.

The year Little Dracula debuted on television, an action figure line was produced by DreamWorks / Bandai. Why DreamWorks and Bandai? That's easy enough to answer. DreamWorks released the figures in the US, while Bandai handled the remaining globe.

Each figure featured numerous accessories as well as an action feature which was activated by twisting arms, legs, hands, feet, or simply by pushing a button - Corresponding to each figure as denoted on the bottom left of each package. Unfortunately for the toy line, it was as short lived as the television series in the US.

With that said, nine figures did manage to make their way to retail shelves. This wasn't bad considering it covered the majority of ground of the characters from the show. In fact, the only figures that didn't make it to plastic were; Big Dracula, Granny, Millicent, Ms. Dracula and Hannah the Barbarian - Certainly enough for a second series should popularity have garnered such a release.

In addition to the figures, four vehicles were produced. While all of them were made available in Europe under the Bandia banner, only two made their way to the US via DreamWorks. What's interesting to note is that depending on which area of Europe you look for the Coffin Car will depend on what it's called. It's been found in boxes denoted as; Coffin Car (obviously), Drac-Mobile and Voiture Cercueil.

Unlike the Coffin Car, the Drac-Moto appears to have only come out entitled as such. We have not been able to locate any other versions that contain a different name, or language other than English. That's not to say they don't exist. We just haven't seen them.

Because we are mentioning the various variants for the vehicles, it's worth noting that an Italian version of the Garlic Mobile can also be found. However, you're going to want to search for Spar Agilo - Which translated apparently means Spar Garlic. Much like the Cereuil, we have no clue what Spar means. We have not been able to find any variants to the title for The Dracster despite our searching.

UPDATE

Reader Da Cu writes to tell us, "Spara Aglio means (Shots Garlic). Because the car "shots" (or better Launch) pieces of Garlic."

However, in our search we did find the awesomeness that is...

...Dracula's Dragster from Polar Lights!

No, this isn't related to Little Dracula - As we're sure many of you deduced just in looking at it. Instead, it's a re-issue of the original 1964 released version of the same name from Aurora. It's just a simple model kit that requires mad painting skills, and of course, glue. Good times for model and Dracula fans.

We digress though. Back to Little Dracula.

The last piece released for the series was the cosplay Little Dracula Scepter & Amulet. This to date is the most difficult and expensive piece to track down in the line.

Little Dracula remains popular in European countries, and had a short lived revival in book form through 2001 when a handful of the prior titles were re-issued in print. However, nothing new seems to be brewing around the character currently. Perhaps much like the resurgence of 80's cartoons and toys, in a few years demand from children of the 90's will take its toll, and we'll see a resurgence in nostalgia from that decade.

That about wraps it up, folks. Enjoy your Halloween. Keep it safe, keep it fun, keep the candy coming and scare some little kids in the good spirit of all three.

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The Toxic Avenger (Reds, Inc.)

The Toxic Avenger
Reds, Inc.
1999

They're poorly written, they've got the worst "actors" and "actresses" the studio could find, and they're some of the best of the worst films to sit through with your friends. Yes, you haven't had bad TV night until you've had a night of Troma! Featuring such classics as The Class of Nuke 'Em High, Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D., Cannibal! The Musical, Surf Nazis Must Die, and of course, The Toxic Avenger. Mind you, that list doesn't even scratch the surface of the awful, awful films this studio produced - Awful in a good way.

Out of the Troma library, The Toxic Avenger was the only character to really expand into mass media with the very short lived The Toxic Crusader cartoon which ran for thirteen episodes and spawned its own toy line. However, we're not looking at that particular series today. Nope, today we're looking at the one and done The Toxic Avenger from Reds, Inc. which was produced in 1999.

This figure had it all...If you were a fan of Toxie. The sculpt was meticulous to that of the character, and even featured his trusty mop as an accessory. Even the base that came packed in wasn't shy of detail featuring a toxic waste spill complete with drum. For such an unheard of company, this toy was quite frankly one of the best for its time.

The unfortunate side to this figure is that if you're looking for one today - Good luck. They're few and far between, and they're not cheap. You can expect to spend upwards of eighty dollars if you can track one down. That's a lot of cash for....Well, quite frankly anything Troma related. We dare say the figure costs more than Troma's average film budget - Kidding of course!

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Escape From New York (NECA)

Escape From New York
NECA
2014

You know, as we sat down to post this particular...er, post...We had to honestly take a step back, and ask, "Does Kurt Russell actually make good movies? Or are they just cult classics due in part to the iconic characters and one liner quips?" Don't get us wrong, we enjoy films such as Big Trouble in Little China, Tombstone, and yes, even Overboard (to an extent)...But, did the general public and critics?

Kurt Russell ranks number sixteen on IMDB's list of Worst and Overrated Actors. However, in general it's rather difficult to take this list serious when it includes (at the time of this writing) the likes of Michael J. Fox (#17), Sylvester Stallone (#24) and Hugh Jackman (#4) - Just to name a few. Sorry, but Back to the Future, Rocky and the X-Men films were pretty good as far as we're concerned - As were the actors who played their respective rolls in them. So again we ask, Does Kurt Russell make good movies?

UPDATE Before it's even posted...

As many of you know, we prepare posts well in advance. The particular one has been ready to go since mid August. The answer to our question above oddly enough came a few weeks after we scheduled this post, and that answer is yes. Cool and Collected host Brian loves Kurt Russell so much that he wants a life size wax figure. Brian, you answered our question, and you didn't even know at the time that we had asked it.

We may never know the answer to that question - Past our own personal opinion. However, what we do know is that in 2014 NECA produced a one and done Snake Plisskin based off of Russell's 1981 film Escape From New York (Written and Directed by Horror Icon John Carpenter). Whether you like the man or not, there's no denying that the amount of detail that went into this particular figure is spectacular! It captures the character to a "T".

Because it's a relatively new figure, Snake isn't difficult to come by. You're looking at spending about twenty-five to thirty on him - Which in reality is only about ten dollars (at the most) more than the original retail price. Of course, much like the list of Worst and Overrated Actors above, these prices were noted at the time of this writing - Which in all actuality is August of 2016. We work rather far in advance here at The Toy Box to ensure that there's a new post each and every week.

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Eek! The Cat (Marchon, Inc.)

Eek The Cat
Marchon, Inc.
1992

"It never hurts to help." It was the catch phrase of Eek the Cat that often times would lead to trouble, and the premise of each episode. The show often times featured slapstick humor, and pop culture references making it popular with many fans of 80's television and movies.

The series ran for five seasons, encompassing seventy-five episodes from 1992 to 1997. What made it stand out the most among cartoons of the period was that several seasoned actors were drawn to it to loan their voices to various characters. Actors and Actresses such as William Shatner, David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson. "Weird Al" Yankovic, Tim Curry, Dee Snider, Phil Hartman and Mr T. were just a handful of the popular names to appear on the show.

In 1992, one of the very few Eek! the Cat toys was produced and released by Marchon, Inc. The plush stands approximately fourteen inches high, but unfortunately doesn't contain any features such as a pull string voice activation or...Well, anything. It's just a plush doll.

That's not to say it's a bad plush. It's certainly Eek! the Cat - Right down to his purple fur. Considering there weren't exactly a ton of Eek! toys, it's kind of one of those take what you can get things.

You can find a few of them here and there on secondary markets, but what you're not going to do is get it for too cheap. Opened plush dolls can set you back as much as $60.00 to $70.00. Plush Eeks still in the box will set you back about twice that amount. 

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Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne (DC Direct)

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne
2011
DC Direct

Batman posts seem to always come in pairs of two around here. Not sure why that is.

The Return of Bruce Wayne was a six part story arc which took place in the various Batman related titles in  2010. The story is written by Grant Morrison, and featured six different artists (one for each book).

The story revolves around Bruce Wayne being lost in time after being deposited in the past by Darkseid in the pages of the story Final Crisis. Each story takes Wayne through a different period of time, respectively - Prehistoric, during the period of witch hunts, pirating, the wild west, noir and present time.

Since being published original, the story has been collected into an individual volume which can still be purchased from various book retailers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

In 2011, DC Direct produced four figures based on the various time frames in which Bruce Wayne visits - High Seas, Prehistoric, Wild West and Witch Hunter. No, you're not going to find your Jokers, Riddlers or Two-Faces here. Everything is Bruce Wayne related - As it should be. If we had one complaint it would be that DC Direct could have, and should have released the remaining two Bruce Wayne figures as depicted in the other two remaining books - Noir and present time.

 Batman: High Seas

 Batman: Prehistoric

 Batman: Wild West

Batman: Witch Hunt

Prices are somewhat all over the map for these figures. A lot of sellers price them for fifty dollars or more, when in reality most people are willing to pay between twenty and forty dollars a piece for them.

Additionally, if you're interested in reading the story arc, you can track down the individual issues fairly cheap. A lot of comic sellers drop these into their dollar boxes - Which is far cheaper than the $16.00 to $20.00 that you'll spend on the collected trade paperback.

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Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (DC Direct)

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
DC Direct
2004

We touched on The Dark Knight Returns in our post about the comic series by Frank Miller. In that post we pretty much covered the entire history of the story, so there's really no reason to repeat it all here.

2004 brought with it yet another Batman line from the hot, hot, hot multitude of DC Direct lines. The series features just four figures, but boy oh boy are they good ones. We of course get Batman with that iconic look as seen in the pages of the Frank Miller story. In addition we also get Carrie Kelley as Robin, Joker and Superman.

 Batman

 Robin

 Joker

Superman

Unlike a lot of DC Direct lines, this one isn't going to break the bank should you want to add it to your collection. On the low end, you can grab each figure for $25.00. High end, you can expect to pay about $40.00 each. Granted that's not too cheap, but it's still not terrible as compared to some of the other DC Direct figures which can sell for over a hundred dollars each.

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Mighty Crusaders (Remco)

Mighty Crusaders
Remco
1984

The Adventures of the Mighty Crusaders began in the pages of Archie Comics (the publisher, not the series) in 1965. Though it was intended to be an ongoing monthly title, popularity quickly waned - Or possibly never even grew. Whichever it was, the series ended after just the seventh issue in October of 1966.

The series was revitalized in the pages of The New Adventures of the Mighty Crusaders in 1983 under Archie's Red Circle Comics. After thirteen issues the series was once again cancelled (in 1985).

A third attempt to launch a comic series came in 1992 when the characters returned for The Crusaders. This time out, DC Comics licensed the rights, and produced the series under their Impact banner. Much like the prior attempts, the series was short lived, lasting for just eight issues.

In between the original and New Adventures comic series, Remco produced eight figures based on the Mighty Crusaders - In 1984 to be specific. What's interesting to note about some of the characters produced in plastic was that they didn't actually appear on the team (officially) until the 1992 comic series - I.E. 8 years after the figures were produced.

 The Comet*The Fox

 The Web*The Shield

 The Brain Emperor*The Buzzard

The Eraser*The Sting

Unlike many Remco lines, Mighty Crusaders isn't all that pricey to obtain these days. Figures can sell for as little as $8.00 each, mint on card - A far cry from the $60.00+ that you'll spend on each of Remco's Karate Kid figures. They're also not to difficult to find, so putting a set together is fairly easy to do. If you're looking for a line to pick up for little cash, this is definitely a good one.

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Portal 2 (NECA)

Portal 2
NECA
2013

Portal was designed to be a simplistic puzzle game by developer Valve, and quickly evolved into one of the biggest hits for the company when it was released in 2007. People fell in love with not only the challenging puzzles through each level, but also the quickly quipped one liners of GLaDOS, the series antagonist.

In 2011, Portal 2 brought us back to the world of Aperture Science in the roll of test subject Chell. The story follows Chell and robot Wheatley as they band together to escape the test facility, only to accidentally reactivate GLaDOS in the process. We won't spoil the whole story, nor the ending here for those who have yet to play.

In 2013, NECA developed some pretty top notch figures based on a handful of the characters in the Portal 2 world - Not that there are many of them. The two robots below, Atlus and P-Body actually come from the games fantastically developed co-op mode where each player takes on the roll of one of the robots as they run themselves through the various Aperture Science testing sites.

 Atlus

 P-Body

The last figure produced was the leading lady of the series, Chell. Much like the two above, she comes with a portal blaster and figure stand.

Chell

The figures have definitely seen a boost in price on secondary markets. The two robots will set you back about sixty to eight dollars a piece. Chell isn't much cheaper at around forty dollars.

For those looking to expand on their Portal 2 figures, NECA has also produced multiple series of mystery packs that include the likes of various turret designs and companion cubes.

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Manglors (Ideal)

Manglors
1984 - 1985
Ideal

Manglors are not a very commonly known toy from the 80's, but for those that had them they are fondly remembered. The line was produced by Ideal, and featured characters made from a material known as Sobothane - a synthetic polymer. The figures contained no joints, and were boasted as being able to be cut apart so that you could mix and match the pieces of the various figures to make your own creations.

Toys that could be cut apart and adhered to others in the line? It was a brilliant marketing scheme that would later be put to the test by Consumer Unions own Penny Power. Long story short, the tests failed, and the product was determined to be sold under false advertising as while the pieces could be cut apart, they didn't adhere to each other as advertised. The end result was a series that lasted only two years.

When the series began, three individual figures were made available as well as one playset. The figures came packed inside cardboard peg boxes that held the figures inside of plastic to ensure their sticky limbs didn't dry out.

Manglodactyle*Manglord*Manlosaurus

The highlight of the series (in general) is Manglor Mountain - The one and only playset produced during its run. It came packed with not only the volcano playset base, but also a Manglord figure, a cage to encase the figure in, and the biggest selling point for its era - Slime!

The playset worked by pouring the slime into the top of the volcano, and then placing your Manglord figure inside of the cage. Drop the cage into the volcano, and then pump it back up to the top by pressing the red button located in the mouth of the volcano - Literally. The end result was a figure that would rise out of the top of the playset covered in gooey slime. Awesome!

Manglor Mountain

A second series was released which featured the three original released ones as well as three new ones. Each figure came packed in its own window box, and encased inside of an egg. The figures were made from the same Sobothane material, and still boasted that they could be cut apart, and adhered to each other.

Manglolizard*Maglodactyle*Mangloedemon

Manglodragon*Manlord*Manglosaurus

Because many people don't know about the series, selling points are all over the map. The playset, which is the most commonly found item in the series, can sell for as little as $2.00 (loose with all components), and $100.00 (mint in the box) with price points all over the place in between for loose and sealed.

The individual figures are far more scarce, and priced so high that most people don't buy them. Sellers ask as much as $150.00 to $170.00 for each of them. With that said, Manglodragon and Manglolizard are the only ones we've seen cropping up as of late.

Because of the nature of these figures, it's not easy to find them in a condition that is desirable. Due to the material they are made from, they are prone to drying out. This could contribute to why so many sellers are asking such a high price - There honestly may not be all that many of them out there that are in good condition, or salvageable in general.

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Funko Pop Mystery Series 3 - Hot Topic Rubbing Salt In The Wound

For those of you that may recall, we wrote a piece pertaining to the Funko Pop Mystery Series 3 that Hot Topic was selling. To summarize that article, we bought twenty Pops, and didn't come up with one complete set of four. Needless to say, we were not thrilled, and called Hot Topic out on the matter.

Fast forward to the weekend of August 27th. While doing our weekly outing for new Pops, and toys in general, we stumble into the local Hot Topic. What greets us is nothing short of a slap in the face.

Hot Topic has apparently made the decision in several of their locations to open all of the Mystery Pops, and sell them directly. The reason per the store clerk - "People weren't buying them as blind boxes." Well, except for those suckers that came a few weeks back and bought twenty of them anyway...

Talk about salt in the wound.

Not only did we spend way more than we had to at the physical store, but we also ended up spending an additional forty bucks on ebay to get the chase Pop - Which they had about four of.

Some choice words come to mind - Some of which we won't write here. Others include; annoyed, angry and swindled.

The question we now have is this - For those of us who bought them blindly and kept our receipt, can we get a refund for returning them? We're certainly going to try and find out. If we get push back on the matter, we're prepared to present the argument that Hot Topic made their promotion null and void when they took the liberty of opening all the blind boxes. As such, they should honor that we're wanting to return a product with a receipt that matches identical to what they have on the shelf.

Stay tuned for that update.

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Walk the Line / Cash (State of the Art Toys)

Walk the Line / Cash
2005
State of the Art Toys

Admittedly we know very little about Johnny Cash beyond the handful of song we heard playing on our parent's 78's, and of course the 2005 movie Walk the Line staring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon...Oh, and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story staring John C. Reilly and Jenna Fischer. The man in black has songs we know, but we're not necessarily his biggest fans by any stretch.

Because our post on his history would be based on the above, we'll go ahead and spare the Cash fans out their of our impromptu history lesson, and jump right into the figure.

State of the Art Toys produced a Walk the Line / Johnny Cash figure in 2005 for Fox to distribute as a promotional item for the upcoming film. For what it's worth, this figure isn't bad. It certainly captures the look of Cash from the head sculpt to the black head to toe clothing.

If you look closely, you'll notice that the backdrop for the package is actually the poster for the 2005 film. Not a bad touch at all.

Mind you, this wouldn't be the only version of the figure. State of the Art Toys also followed up with a retail version - Or rather, specialty shops version.

The retail version, known as Cash, featured a wanted poster backdrop, but the same figure inside.

In general neither version is any more desirable than the other. Both the Fox promo and Cash versions can be found for as little as $9.00 here and there. High end sellers have been known to get as much as $30.00 for them, but more so the sales benchmark at about $16.00.

Personally, we'd rather have a Dewey Cox figure, but that's just us.

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The Archies (Mattel)

The Archies
Mattel
1977

We touched on Archie, and The Archies in our post based on Marx Toys The Archies back in December 2015. As such, we're not going to dive deep into the overall premise of the band, nor the characters in general as we've already covered that.

Instead, we'll jump right into Mattel's 1977 line of the same name. Admittedly these don't look as good as the 1975 Marx line - Both in quality and overall design. If we had to nitpick, the yellow card back is rather horrendous to look at too. Overall, it's just not the best we've seen nor come to expect from such an established company such as Mattel.

Its interesting that the artwork depicts the characters as their standard design teenager / high school appearance. The figures look more so like what the characters would have looked like when they were in elementary or middle school - I.E. very young.

The series featured four figures, and oddly enough Betty was not one of them. Rather, it was Archie, Jughead, Veronica and Sabrina. This in and of itself is a unique twist to draw in Archie fans as Sabrina wasn't typically a forefront character in the Archie comics - Unless she was headlining her own stories. So to include her in the line was actually a nice treat for fans.

The figures were mostly made out of fabric, to and include their arms and feet. The only plastic that was utilized was for their heads. For the male characters, their hair was sculpted into the plastic. For the girls, they included the traditional doll hair of the era.

These days you can find the dolls here and there, (mind you, they're not in abundance) and fortunately for not all that much money. We've seen lots of the entire set sell for as little as $36.00. However, full sets being sold are a little less common than individual dolls. When buying individually, most sellers list them for around $20.00 to $25.00 a piece - Almost makes you want to just wait for a full set to become available, even if you don't need or want all the characters. You'd almost be better off buying a full set, then offloading the extras yourself.

Now, you can't have an Archie line without his famous Jalopy. Mattel delivered probably the best piece in the line with this one and only vehicle produced for the series. It could easily hold all four dolls between the front and back seats.

Unfortunately, the Jalopy is going to be the hardest piece to track down in the series.Though it's harder to come by, it's not going to hit your wallet too hard if you do find one. Mint in the box ones have sold for as little as $41.00.

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The Venture Bros. (Bif Bang Pow)

The Venture Bros.
Bif Bang Pow
2010

Go team Venture!

As of 2016, The Venture Bros. is the longest running animated show aired on Adult Swim, and there's good reasons for that. For starters, it can be pretty funny at times. It has villains such as The Monarch that you can't help but feel sorry for, and wish he would just catch a break and win. Then of course there's the over the top violence of Brock Samson as he goes on a rampant rage of destruction in any way possible. Now that we start listing this out, really every character has a unique life of their own which comes with funny quirks. We could honestly list something about everyone.

As we've seen with prior Adult Swim related action figures, it can sometimes be a challenge to find a strong foothold in the market even when you have such a popular source material as your canvas. Bif Bang Pow started off with a hug bang (no pun intended), hitting the market with seven unique figures, and a handful of variants.

Bif Bang Pow produced both a 3 3/4 inch line as well as an 8 inch line. Today we're going to take a look at the 3 3/4 inch line.

Brock Samson* Brock Samson (Bloody / Naked Entertainment Earth Exclusive)*Brock Samson (Bloody SDCC / Entertainment Earth Exclusive)

The series launched with pretty much everyone in the main cast being present - Brock Samson, Hank and Dean Venture, Doctor Venture, Phantom Limb and of course Mr. and Mrs. The Monarch. The series also included numerous exclusives variant - Most of which were based on Brock Samson.

Dean Venture*Hank Venture*Dr. Venture

The Monarch*Dr. Mrs. Monarch*Phantom Limb

In this day and age, toy developers love giving fans something to chase after. Bif Bang Pows answer to this was the yellow unpainted test version of The Monarch. The figure was limited to just 500 pieces, and released in retail cases as a chase variant.

The Monarche Unpainted Test

The final items released to date in the 3 3/4 inch line were the G.I. Joe / retro style cards of Brock Samson variants. The black shirt version was released as a convention exclusive for Entertainment Earth, while the white shirt version was released in retail.

Brock Samson (Bloody Black Shirt Entertainment Earth)*Brock Samson (White Shirt)

The beauty of these figures is that they're all relatively cheap to obtain. If you're buying individually, you can expect to pay $15.00 to $20.00 each. However, when buying multiple figures at a time, the price can equal out to as little as $5.00 per figure when dividing the total price by how many figures you're getting. If these are figures you've been interested in getting, now is definitely a good time to jump on them.

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