From The Toy Museum Of Cool

I have spoke about my toy collection before but seeing the Complete History of GI Joe pages that he posted at his toy blog, Action Figs & Things reminded me of a truth - I have few 3 3/4 inch figures in my collection.


For those of you not in the know, that scale is the smallest commercial scale of figures that you can get. It was the same size that GI JOE was reduced to in the late 70s. It broke my heart when they stopped making the larger 12 inch figures (kung fu grip). Compared to all the great stuff you could get for your original JOES, the smaller figures seemed like a joke.


Then of course the 'Super Powers' (DC) and the 'Secret Wars' (Marvel) figures came out. They were very well made and colorful to look at. Most importantly they were the first time we had seen many of the characters as action figures because they had been created before the action figure craze took off in the 90s.





I got back into collecting when the Animated Spider-Man cartoon spawned so many mainstream Marvel characters like Dr. Strange here. He was already one of my favs and to have that cape that gave him the illusion of levitation was too cool not to have on my desk. I loved that figure so much that it got me back into toy collecting in a big way.



Marvel now makes it's UNIVERSE figures with extremely fantastic detailing. They already are into series 16 or something. There are so many characters in their fictional universe that the final total (with variants) could end up numbering in the 100s.


I hate that I like these figures so much but they go against my edict to not get into this scale of figure collecting. Oh I see a character here and there and I have to have it (like the Magneto above). I just wish they also made them at twice their current size also so that people like me who appreciate the sculpting and paint jobs and details of these cool figures, could buy into them as well.

I do have this set however. I couldn't resist. It had a H.E.R.B.I.E. in it!


Now, I know what you’re wondering: who’s H.E.R.B.I.E. and where’s the Human Torch? You see, during the late 70s, Universal Studios bought exclusive rights to the Human Torch in order to make a TV series. The series never came to fruition and the character’s license was held hostage for quite some time. So when Marvel released the Fantastic Four cartoon in ‘78, the studio created H.E.R.B.I.E. to take his place. An urban legend claims however that another reason behind his omission was because they feared that children would light themselves on fire when pretending to play the Human Torch.

I also have it bad for this guy. All the effort to make a Star Trek Character. Why not put a little effort into his name and not make it sound so stupid. I love knock-offs like these.


The only little figure I have near me is this Superboy from Bugerking's set of Young Justice figures. He lights up like people do when I leave the room.