For today, I'm bringing back a feature I haven't done as much with as I expected, dedicated to the true odds and ends of my collection. This time, I have a relatively small group of figures, but it's a bit mixed simply because they were made more than 20 years apart. But first, I should go back to the beginning, which is around 1991. It was the height of the small-screen version of the Disney renaissance, the daytime syndicated package known as the Disney Afternoon. I had already been watching it as long as I had had a TV. They were good, but they didn't blow me away the way other people my age have said, I suppose because I didn't have a frame of reference for what televised cartoons were like before. Then a show came along that really changed the game for me. It was weird, it was wacky, it had no rules and it could be very dark. That was Darkwing Duck, possibly the best cartoon Disney or anyone else had done up to that point, and still unique enough to defy easy comparison with anything else.
Unfortunately, the show went never got the full treatment in terms of toys and merchandise. There was the NES game, which I still play occasionally, a short-lived action figure line even I barely noticed, and some other stuff here and there. It all dropped off the map well before the show was dropped off the air. As with many things '80s and '90s, the show got a break with Funko. In addition to their usual figurines, the company released an articulated and accurately proportioned figure in late 2017 that I picked up quickly enough. It's had a place of honor on my shelves ever since, but it was only recently that I decided to look for more. That brought me back to the original action figure line, and with further bargain hunting I found a lot that I was satisfied would be representative of the toy line and the show's rogues' gallery. Here's some more pics of the new and old Darkwings, with Bossk and IG-88 for reference.
"Suck gas, bounty hunter!"
In brief, the Darkwing Duck toy line was made by Playmates, then riding high with the original TMNT line. The single wave of 8 figures hit stores in 1991, coinciding with the debut of the show. Photos exist of prototypes and samples for a second wave, which would have included Morgana Macawber and Negaduck, but none are known to have been sold. It will be evident from the photos that the style was large and somewhat stylized, with quite limited articulation for a toy made in the 1990s. Each figure had an action feature/ gimmick, which somebody presumably thought could both justify and make up for the toys' other limitations. The gimmick for DW himself evidently involved his hat, which has gone missing in the vast majority of specimens in circulation. The next in line from the lot is Launchpad, and he's... weird.
What's obviously off about LP is the stumpy legs. This was clearly intended to keep the figure from towering over the other characters, as he actually does in both Darkwing Duck and Ducktales. Considering the proportions of the rest of the figure, this looks suspiciously like a last minute change after other elements of the design or the actual molds were in place. Overall, he feels like a figure that was made because he had to be made, but he's still interesting. For the gimmick, they settled for a little wheel that turns the head, a little too far around.
The crown jewel of the lot is Megavolt. While the character never seems to have been the most popular or menacing villain on the show, he was in fact featured in the most episodes. He was certainly memorable, helped greatly by voice work from Dan Castellaneta. What's striking in hindsight is that, while he usually came across as just "wacky", his character is truly and literally psychotic. He would go through the motions of regular antics like robbing banks and taking over the city, but any deeper motivations and long-term objectives were on a mental plane only he could access. He was like Captain Hook crossed with Heath Ledger as the Joker, and he was allowed to be threatening in his sheer unpredictability. The figure certainly remains a decent tribute, with an emphasis on the comical and hints of the madness.
The most interesting thing about the figure is that he comes with no weapons or accessories and has no apparent means to hold one. Instead, he has open and outstretched hands like a wizard casting a spell, a quite effective pose for one of his electroshock salvos. The design includes some details that didn't really stand out on the the show. The one thing definitely changed is the backpack. Instead of an actual battery, it just looks like a generic high-tech gadget. The gimmick is an old-fashioned flint sparker that lights up the socket on his chest. From casual testing, it currently works about every fifth try, which is probably still better than you would get from an actual electronic toy. Here's a couple more pics.
One more thing is that the line did include a figure of Gosalyn. I found her, usually for a higher price than other figures but not out of reach. However, the figure struck me as awkward and oddly inert, even for this line. It certainly doesn't capture what made the character interesting on the show, which I also found to be true for the handful of other representations out there. For now, I decided I would rather leave a space empty than tarnish a memory. With that, I wrap this up. As always, more to come!
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