I'm introducing annother feature, and it's what this blog has been about all along: Identifying mysterious toys. I have bought a lot of things without knowing what they are, but I am also usually good at figuring out what they are. Therefore, this will focus on the ones that gave me real trouble, and I will be starting with my greatest challenge of all (at least after the Spiff ship), a figure I had for 30 years before figuring out what he was. Here's a few more pics of the guy:
I first picked up this guy sometime in the late 1980s. To my recollection, I payed 50 cents for him at the comic book store, and didn't think to ask what he was. He looks something like a cross between a stormtrooper and a Cylon with a touch of wrestler, and is just a little taller than a Star Wars figure. I noticed early on that he had an asymmetrical head and strange articulation in the arms. As with many figures, I kept him around as generic bad guy, sometimes the lead villain and at other times a robot minion/ henchman. As far as I remember, he came looking about as roughed up as he does now. There's a couple places that may look scratched in the pics that are actually cracks in the apparently hollow body. I'm sure I never did anything that could have put them there.
Even as a kid, I gave thought to investigating what he was. It was clear he was neither GI Joe nor Star Wars, and even I didn't think he could be Robotech. On inspection, I found a copyright that said "W.E.P." and gave a year 1984. And that was where the trail ended for a very, very long time. As the age of the internet went on, I tried now and then to enter search terms for 1980s action figures, with no luck whatsoever (though I think that may have been how I identified T-Bob from MASK). A few times, I thought I might have lost him, but he always turned up. Then one day in maybe 2018, I watched a video on 1980s toys nearly at random, and... Eureka.
After such a long search, the reality was quite anticlimactic. My mystery bot had been a Voltron figure, made by one of several companies to license the franchise. I wasn't that surprised to find that it was widely regarded as one of the worst not only of the Voltron line but of all 1980s action figures. It was one of two figures released to represent the Robeasts of the show, the other being Scorpious (by my reckoning worse by far). By all accounts, neither was specifically based on a character from the series, but may (as suggested with the Robotech red guy) have been composites of multiple creatures. Their infamy was surely sealed by the fact that the actual Robeasts were kaiju-type creatures that fought Voltron. I previously theorized that the Generic Godzilla was made and marketed as an adversary for Voltron and other giant-robot toys, whereas this guy would have been the right size to get kicked into orbit by accident.
This doesn't mean I'm not happy to know who this guy is, or to still have him. The whole point of playtime is to make your own story, and not knowing much (or anything) about who a figure is just makes him more versatile. I will always remember this guy as a veteran of many a campaign. That's enough for me. Before I wrap this up, here's a few more pics with some old playmates.
"Come on, boss, just call it even, that's Sidekick Carl we're up against."
"Okay, let's talk this out."
That's all for now, as always, more to come!
For links, the image credit goes to FigureRealm. You can also see (terrible) reviews of this and Robeast Scorpious at CollectionDX.
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