Do you remember...

Recently my friend gave me a box of his childhood toys.
I would say he must have been pretty good with his toys when he was a child because most of them are in very good condition and with full accessories.

Like a little kid opening his presents on Christmas eve, I found so much gems in that box.
There were M.A.S.K, Starcom, Centurions & Thundercats. These toys really brought back my childhood memories and recently initiated my interest to try and re-collect some of these toys.

While I was busy searching for toys from M.A.S.K & Centurions, I also started to rediscover toy lines which were a part of my childhood but I have forgotten. These lines were not as prominent as Star Wars, He-Man or Centurions but were just as cool for me.

Sky Commanders

Sky Commanders was an animated television series made by Hanna-Barbera Productions. It premiered in July 1987 and lasted for thirteen episodes. It also spawned an action figure line from Kenner Toys.
Love the concept of the toy line even though it was so simple. Using the concept that if one point is higher than the other, the object will naturally go downwards...or something like that (ok I did not major in Science).

Strings were attached from one point (high) to another (low) causing a "slope" and the vehicle or figure can slide down.
If I am not wrong, I only got one figure from this line.
To make up for the lack of Sky Commanders toys, my cousins and I would make our own Sky Commanders toys by attaching our clothes pegs to our Star Wars figures.
We would than tie strings all over the room and than watch Luke slide down the strings with a clothes peg attached to him! Good old days!

Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light

It was originally a range of action figures from Hasbro, released in 1987.

The toyline was not a big success, which led to both the series and the comic being cancelled after a very short run. The figures had hologram stickers on both their chests and staffs.

What I love most about these characters were the magical powers each had on their Power Staff. In order to summon that power, each Visionary had a special line to say.

My friends and I would try to memorise all of the lines and recite them during the cartoons.

We even ended up doing a spin off by creating the Stationeries: Knights that could summon the power of Stationeries! If I did not remember wrongly, they were characters that could summon the scissors to fight with another characters who would summon tape! Pretty creative I must say. Wish I had kept the scrap book in which we had spent hours drawing our Stationery Knights on!

Madballs

Madballs were a series of toy rubber balls created by AmToy, a subsidiary company of American Greetings in the mid-1980s. The toys were tennis ball-sized rubber or foam collectible bouncing balls with horrendous faces and designs

Boys being boys, we were intrigued by anything gross and this fitted the bill perfectly.

Loved the designs on them.

In early 2006, toy company Art Asylum announced that it had partnered with original rights holder American Greetings to revive the Madballs toys, with both classic characters and new designs. Toy company Basic Fun Inc. took up the task of producing/selling the Art Asylum re-designed Madballs.

As of November 2007 the toys began appearing in toy stores in the US.

They even came up with the Head-popping Madballs which comprised of a poseable figure plus ejectable/swappable head.

Rambo: The Force of Freedom

Rambo: The Force of Freedom is an animated series based on the character of John Rambo from the Rambo movies.

The cartoon ran for 65 episodes, and was produced by Ruby-Spears Enterprises and also spawned a toy line.

Did not collect this toyline but remembered playing with it...hmmmm

BraveStarr

BraveStarr is an American space Western animated television series. The original episodes aired from September 1987 to February 1988 in syndication. In 1986, a year before the TV series premiered, Mattel released an action figure line.

I will always remember the packaging. They are so big and nice as the figures were large for the time at nearly 8" tall and came in a windowed box with artwork similar to that of their Masters of the Universe contemporaries. Nowadays the toys are so small...

Unique at that time was BraveStarr and Tex Hex which were packaged with a Laser Fire Backpack which shot infra-red beams and had "space-age" sound effects.

Bionic Six

Bionic Six is an American/Japanese animated television series from 1987. The title characters of the series are a family of machine-enhanced human beings possessing unique powers after being augmented with bionic technology.

The action figures were produced by LJN in 1986.

The figures and vehicles were made up of plastic but had die-cast metal for some of the figures and parts.

When it was first released, it gained some popularity in my school but quickly wane as fast as it rose. 

Chuck Norris

A toy line in 1985 by Kenner.

The figures also had pretty cool action features...perfect and interesting to engage a kid.

The reason why I remember this so vividly was because I used my own money to buy one figure. After buying the first figure, I decided I would collect the whole line using my own pocket money.

After that one figure, I quickly lost interest...LOL

The Karate Kommandos...that one figure!

GUTS

Released in 1988 by Mattel, GUTS were 3 inch not articulated figures of the following sets:

Lazer Troopers
Ninjas
Frogmen
Jungle Fighters
Green Berets
Army

I could only remember seeing Ninjas and Jungle Fighters selling in Singapore.
When Mattel released GUTS in 1988, I was around 12 years old. It was that age when I was moving out of toys but still had some space in my heart for some toy line.

GUTS was such a toyline. I got the Ninjas and Jungle Fighters.

They were actually pretty crappy toys with no articulation, bad paint ops and sculpt. Damn I miss them!

Crossbows and Catepults

Crossbows and Catapults is a game released in 1983.

In the game there were two sides, Vikings and Barbarians.

You had to build fortifications from plastic bricks then opposing players had to attempt to destroy each other's castle with rubber-band powered crossbows and catapults firing plastic disks.

In the most recent version launched in 2007, the two sides were Orcs and Knights

I was so in love with this game!

I remembered getting the main set for Christmas or a birthday and I was hooked!

The idea and concept is great and interesting, the design wonderful and packaging art delightful.

It is no wonder this game is still as popular and was re-launched in 2007.

This game was always at the back of my mind but I never really thought about it until this post.

What a wonderful journey down memory lane.

I am truly blessed to have experienced such a
wonderful childhood.

Kabaya Fortress Maximus

Candy toys must be double bonus for kids. Besides getting a toy, you also get a candy!

A common practice in Japan, where toys are packaged together with a candy or sweets and sold in the candy section of a grocery store.

Kabaya Foods Corporation (Kabaya Syokuhin) is a Japanese confectionery company. In business at least since the 1960s, they are well known for their candy toys: a variety of figurines, model kits and other widgets that come packaged with a variety of different candies and gums. And they make a lot of them, with boy-oriented products alone ranging from plastic dinosaur kits to a broad variety of Lego properties to Transformers toys and model kits.

Kabaya's relationship with Transformers began in the Generation 1 era, when they consistently produced figures and model kits of various size from 1985 to 1990.
Latest from them is the Fort Max model kit.
Well if you can't afford the original Fortress Maximus, a candy version one might be an answer.

Fortress Maximus comes in 3 parts and are packaged in 3 separate boxes.
The good thing is that they are not blinded boxes and are labelled 1 to 3.
Box 1 you get the main body of Fort Max & Windcharger.
Box 2 comes with his right arm & leg plus Cerebros
Box 3 comes with his left arm & leg. Sword and Powerglide

The packaging is really nice and very colourful.
It is filled with beautiful graphics.
The 3 boxes are differentiated with a different design on the front and one side of the packaging.

Box 1 (Front)

Box 1 (right side) - shows the bonus Windcharger.

Design on the left side of packaging is the same for all 3 boxes

The design on the back of the packaging is also the same.

It shows the 3 transformation modes of Fortress Maximus

Box 2 (Front)

Box 2 (right side) - shows the Fort Max combined.

Box 3 (Front)

Box 3 (right side) - shows the bonus Powerglide.

As this figure is a model kit, you would need instructions to piece the figure together.
The instructions does not come as a separated piece of paper in the box but is printed on the inside of the box. Hence in order to read the instructions you would have to open up and flatten the box.
Unfortunately with that, you have to destroy the packaging.

After all this is a candy toy so it has to come with some sort of candy.

We get a small stick of gum and it is really small. It is about the same size as the WST (Worlds Smallest Transformer) Blaster. (for those who are not familiar with WST...trust me it is small.) 

Kabaya must have known that it is the toys that sell not the candy.

In box 1 you get the main body of Fort Max. The toy is pretty big and solid and will definitely withstand the wear and tear of being a kids toy. There are limited details and color but the work around is to use stickers for details and colours. The stickers stick well and do not come out easily. 

The bonus item is Windcharger. Windcharger is really small, 3/4 of a average WST figure. Due to its size, there are not much details and depends heavily on stickers for its details. A passenger figure to the overall main Fort Max. But I guess a good intention from Kabaya for it.

Box 2 is For Max's right arm, legs and ramp. Like his main body, it is solid with little details and colour.

Interesting part of this item is the ability to rotate the ramp through the small dial. It actually makes no sense but I got a kick out of rotating the ramp!

The bonus item is Cerebros. Again due to its size, the details are limited and need to depend heavily on stickers. Cerebros transforms into the head of Fort Max and the details of Fort Max's face are all stickers. 

Surprisingly, it is actually passable and do not look like stickers.

Box 3 is left arm and leg of Fort Max. Basically the same assessment like Box 1 & 2.

Box 3 does come with his sword. As an individual piece, the sword is attached to the back of the piece...I must say it looks pretty silly.

What makes Box 3 different is the launching ramp for Powerglide.

Inside the blue box there is a small spring allowing you to pull back on the small blue block.

Push the button on the top and Powerglide launches off.

As this is a model kit, you also get to put together the launching ramp. Look out for the small spring and don't lose it!

The bonus item is Powerglide. Again the lack of details mainly because of its size. However I feel that Powerglide is overall a better sculpted figure as compared to Windcharger. 

Seriously, it does not make sense to have all 3 different pieces as 3 different stand alone pieces. They look stupid and serve no purpose. However when you combine them, this is where the magic happens. You get FORTRESS MAXIMUS and boy does he looks good. He is also damn solid.

He does display well with other transformers because he stands around 6".

Fortress Maximus

What's great about this figure is that it can transform as well. Here is Fort Max in city mode.

I like to call this mode the "star destroyer" mode. It does look like a Star Destroyer!

Overall a very solid figure. Nice addition to my transformers collection.