FW Presents: Those Wonderful Toys Ep.10

With Avengers: Infinity War in theaters, Chris takes a look at a forgotten line of Marvel toys, PPC’s Activated Super Heroes! Plus, thoughts on the impending demise of Toys R’ Us.

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Clip credits:

Avengers theme by Alan Silvestri

Marvel Super Heroes opening theme by Jack Urbont

Audio clip from Spaceballs

15 responses to “FW Presents: Those Wonderful Toys Ep.10

  1. For some reason, these managed to stay out of my brain as far as pop culture ephemera goes. Hopefully, it’s not because I had a stroke.

  2. I am transfixed by that “action”. I wish you still had them, too.

    Did you have those PVC Marvel figurines by Applause that came out around 1989/1990? They were mainly in gift shops/card shops alongside the Batman stuff.

  3. I remember this ad but never saw a single one of the figures. When you started talking about them on the show, I was thinking to myself, “What in the holy hell is Chris talking about?”

    While this line’s uber-simplicity seems a bit out of date in age of Star Wars and Super Powers, these figures definitely have a very low-fi charm, and their character choices are interesting. Thanks for doing a show on them, it was as always a ton of fun.

    Re: the Toys R Us segment–I had a very similar experience ALMOST buying remaindered Megos. Yours was Spidey, mine were the FF. They had dozens of all four for, like, 39 cents each. If I had been smart I would have bought the whole endcap and then be the owner of tens of thousands of dollars worth of MOC FF Megos! Arrrrrrgggggghhhhh!

    1. Had we bought those Megos, we could have retired early and devoted our time to full-time podcasting! 😉

      If I had seen the FF, I would have bought them. I never had ANY of those, and the Mego card fronts and backs taunted me.

  4. I’ll be honest, I listened to this episode mostly for the Toys R Us bit. The closure of TRU has been felt deeply. I do agree with your comments about how they wouldn’t clearance things properly. I especially remembered how the Transformers G1 reissues of about a decade ago never sold (TRU prices were WAY more than those reissues were worth!), and they took so long to clearance them that, by the time they finally DID do so (I picked up a $6 Grapple, for example. A GREAT price!), they STILL wouldn’t move. I would often comment that those toys “had the stench of shelfwarmer on them” by that time.

    Honestly, I feel like the post-leveraged buy-out owners WANTED TRU to fail. I suppose I should be surprised it took so long….

  5. Yeah, TRU’s in-store policies didn’t do them any favors, certainly. Just a few months back, when Last Jedi merch was hitting stores, I asked an employee about the standees in the store, and what app I needed to download to get them to work with my phone camera. He had no idea what I was talking about, and he worked in the action figure department.

    That’s not the employee’s fault, that management’s fault, or maybe top management’s fault, but either way, it rolls down hill, and it hurts the store.

    I was in the Lexington TRU two days ago (after recording this) and all the store closing and liquidation signs really bummed me out.

    Chris

    1. Dude, TRU can’t even conduct a go-out-of-business sale properly! 20% off on most stuff? That’s not even close to Amazon!

  6. Chris – I wasn’t familiar with these toys at all, but your recap and recollections were wildly entertaining!! Interesting products. Your descriptions were quite good, as the image gallery was pretty much what I imagine from your description. Did DC ever do anything in an Army man format? I have a solid Aquaman about that size that I got years ago, but looks like he’s swimming. I think it’s a bath toy. Were there more DC figs like that? Would love to hear your thoughts!
    https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c6/37/9d/c6379d1da8a81138e7d2c22091b4dd6e.jpg

    I listened to your episode shortly before watching INFINITY WAR and it was the perfect warm up. THANK YOU!!

    1. Thanks Shag! I have seen that Aquaman before, but I honestly don’t know his origins. I think I heard he was a bubble gum machine premium, but he seems a bit large for that. Maybe that guy that runs the Aquaman Shrine knows?

      As for other DC “army men”, there’s the Ideal Justice League of America/Batman figures from the 60s, where the heroes usually came painted, and the villains in one color like these Marvel figures. They are a bit shorter than the Activated Heroes. The JLA playset is perhaps the Holy Grail of all Super Hero toys as it’s extremely rare. https://www.hakes.com/Image/MediumRes/38151/1/image.jpg

      And the Gulliver line of figures from Latin America come in several sizes. Some are in color, and they are a bit on the “bootleg” looking side sometimes:
      https://i.pinimg.com/originals/25/bc/56/25bc56539f8ad537918d43985d973b99.jpg

      But the small color ones are very nice! I have several of those myself.

      https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images1/1/0313/24/gulliver-batman-joker-jla-dc-comics_1_b017aa2379544be28b61bf008bb4961c.jpg

      Chris

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