What Toy Lines Should Have Been Made?

[Simply Sci-fi]

It's a shame. A lot of the toy lines mentioned here - Police Academy - Jase and the Wheeled Warriors - Ulysses - Tron - either did not make it to the U.K or were very much under-realised.

Blakes 7 was absolutely huge in Britain in the late 70's and early 80's (I loved it) and I think a toy line would have been really successful. The trouble is that UK toy companies were not experienced in producing action figures. Mego occasionally produced toys for the U.K market such as Dr Who and I can imagine them doing a great job with Blakes 7. There's some good customs around.

http://www.megomuseum.com/custom/cotmpaulotherdude.shtml

http://riseleycomics.deviantart.com/art/Blakes-7-Custom-Mego-Action-Figures-346039929

The other television show that I was obsessed with was Star Fleet, which I would truly loved to have seen toys for in the U.K.

 

[Clarkspie&chips]

I had no idea there were star fleet toys, I would have loved these.

At least we got Brian May's excellent star fleet project.

https://youtu.be/UqvV7L0RNmw

 

[BadMotivator]

I had no idea there were star fleet toys, I would have loved these.

At least we got Brian May's excellent star fleet project.

https://youtu.be/UqvV7L0RNmw

For ten points name the other guitarist on the album...

 

[Clarkspie&chips]

It's Eddie van Halen right with cosy powell on drums?

 

[BadMotivator]

It's Eddie van Halen right with cosy powell on drums?

Yeah! That was a dream team for me for a while

 

[bosk70]

thanks for the photo Simply sci fi off the Blake's 7 customs never seen that before but no Cally she was my fav

 

[SAVORY100]

thanks for the photo Simply sci fi off the Blake's 7 customs never seen that before but no Cally she was my fav

hmmm... I think I grew up very weird (though only saw this for the first time when working in my local video store in my late teens (17/18)), I had a bit of a thing for Servalan! :shock:

 

[bosk70]

thanks for the photo Simply sci fi off the Blake's 7 customs never seen that before but no Cally she was my fav

hmmm... I think I grew up very weird (though only saw this for the first time when working in my local video store in my late teens (17/18)), I had a bit of a thing for Servalan! :shock:

servalan completely agree jenna was nice too but don't think you could take servalan home to your mum, cannot believe this was never re-made was some talk by Sky some years ago but nothing ever came of it , watched it recently on you tube all episode's still good today

 

[Simply Sci-fi]

I was a bit too young to fancy any of the women in Blake's 7 but watching the series now, I think Cally is just my type. They should definitely bring it back.

I must admit to be pretty obsessed with Starfleet and I've always picked up items over the years. My wife Karen is a huge Queen fan and has collected stuff as well. I have a shelf in a cabinet at home dedicated to it, which includes a Dai-X toy I'm restoring and some nice miniatures. I managed to find a few other items and took a picky of them on the settee. I have a much nicer poster and a couple of T-shirts that I can't locate right now.

I made a Dai-X robot costume out of junk for the Queen fan club convention one year (I'm six feet five and I looked huge with blocks taped under my boots) and I ended up winning. I really want to make a better job of the outfit one day. Look out for cosplaying!

 

[BadMotivator]

That's an awesome StarFleet collection. Do the other toys come up very often?
I remember reading somewhere that the show flopped in Japan and the makers were really surprised when one day they were contacted by fans from Europe, they had no idea it was popular abroad. Personally I used to love it. It always inspired me to get the lego out and try to build a ship with chairs that could move around.

 

[Simply Sci-fi]

I always attempted to make a Dai-X out of Lego but never had enough parts – trust me to try to keep it in scale with the minifigs! I think the BBC made enquiries if they could commission a second series but all of the puppets, props and sets had been destroyed in a fire.

You probably know that in Japan the show was called X-Bomber. As you might imagine, the robot toys are seriously expensive but none of them make great replicas of the real thing. The biggest one splits into three but not very well. There's a fairly new toy out of Dai-X which transforms and is the business but it's very small for the money (maybe a future scratch build project there?). There's also some more cartoony type of things out there too.

I got the figures from a Japanese dealer for a good price and I don't think that they are hugely expensive now, although you're not guaranteed in getting a full set in a box. I'm missing a couple and worryingly there's a bigger scale of the characters mixed in with the small ones. I'd like to make casts of them and paint up the copies... one day.

I played an episode of Starfleet at a party once, years ago and one girl got a good laugh when she said said, "Those are the best pilots – has there been a nuclear war?!" I always remember that.

 

[BadMotivator]

I'm sure you could make a pretty awesome lego Dai-X now! I'd like to see that!

 

[Clarkspie&chips]

Thanks for sharing those pictures of your star fleet collection Craig. They're amazing.

 

[x-pack]

Starfleet is a right blast from the past! Only thing I had was a jigsaw puzzle which my mum binned in the mid 90s. Cow ]

 

[Simply Sci-fi]

You were one up on me. I didn't have a single thing from Starfleet as a lad, as my slender budget was always focused on Star Wars.

Thanks for the response to my photos. Starfleet seems to be almost completely unknown, except to the few of us who watched it at the time. Corresponding with fellow fans is a rare pleasure.

A giant Lego Dai-X has always been one of my dream projects and I will make it one day, for sure!

 

[x-pack]

You were one up on me. I didn't have a single thing from Starfleet as a lad, as my slender budget was always focused on Star Wars.

Thanks for the response to my photos. Starfleet seems to be almost completely unknown, except to the few of us who watched it at the time. Corresponding with fellow fans is a rare pleasure.

A giant Lego Dai-X has always been one of my dream projects and I will make it one day, for sure!

To be honest I don't really remember much else from the show other than the space ship/transformer thing with an X on it. That was also the subject of my jigsaw. I definitely remember it being on but it was one of those like Battle of the Planets that I wasn't really into, unlike Terrahawks which I loved. Am I right in thinking this was pre-Transformers. I kind of remember there being a transformer'ish element to it

 

[Simply Sci-fi]

I remember Terrahawks really well but I was old enough to see the show's shortcomings. I loved the ships and technology though. It recaptured some of the same spirit as Thunderbirds.

Starfleet/X-Bomber predated Transformers in the West by a couple of years but the fighting robot tradition goes back to the 50's in Japan, so there's nothing terribly original about the transforming Dai-X. Perhaps Starfleet got kid's minds fired up about transforming robots.

Battle of the Planets was a lot earlier (1979 in Britain) but it was constantly repeated by the BBC over the years. I impressed a customer in my old sci-fi shop with my knowledge of Battle of the Planets and now I'm married to her!

My first introduction to Manga on TV was Marine Boy, that I can just remember watching. It was really quite action packed and dramatic to someone under five. The twee title music seems completely out of place as things get blown up and wiped out!

 

[indianawars]

Picked these up the other day... Never knew there were Bill & Ted toys made! And made by Kenner.

 

[SAVORY100]

love them! Though they made Alex Winter a lot softer looking in the face

 

[Simply Sci-fi]

I'm still unpacking from my move and I came across a BATEE backing card. Let me know your address indianawars and I'll post it to you (PM sent).