Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Wishlist 2022: Everything Else

While the entirety of my toy collection can be basically broken down into three major lines that I am actively collecting, namely Star Wars Black series, Marvel Legends and Transformers, there are still other smaller properties that I find myself dipping my toes into from time to time. While none of them are thankfully on the scale of the aforementioned big three, there are still a good number of “other” toys that I am hoping to see released or at least announced in 2022. So here is my wish list for everything else.

Action Toys Gyro Robo (Cop-Tur)

Action Toys’ Machine Robo line is one of the most puzzling lines around. One moment you think the line is dead and then all of a sudden they surprise us with a new toy. So no matter how long it takes between their releases, I am not ready to completely count them out. Anyway if they do eventually make another comeback, I hope it’s with MR-04 Gyro Robo.


Aside from the fact that this was one of the very first Machine Robos I actually got as a kid, on western shores, he is better known as Cop-Tur, one of the main Renegades from the Gobots cartoon. So aside from getting a major nostalgia trip like when I got Buggy Robo last year, getting Gyro Robo would bring me one step closer to completing the main six Gobots from the 80’s cartoon series.

Plasma Series Janine Melnitz

Just when I thought I was done with Ghostbusters, Hasbro reeled me back in with their impressive 6” Plasma Series line. Anyway after two waves I feel that they’ve gotten to pretty much every major character from the original movie…except one; Janine Melnitz. I know this wouldn’t really make much for an exciting action figure and will probably peg warm before heading straight off to clearance but I’m a completist dammit…so yeah I’d love to get a Janine for my collection. It also wouldn’t hurt if they threw in a Slimer. I know he didn’t play a big role in the live action movie as compared to the cartoon but I’m pretty sure his inclusion would help sell Janine.


Mini Masters Tri Klops / Man-E-Faces

Aside from the original vintage line, MOTU Classics is probably the ultimate He-Man toy line. So when it sort of ended a few years ago, I basically stopped actively collecting He-Man toys. Not even Mattel’s new Origins or Masterverse lines have managed to bring me back in. But I would be lying if I said I have quit cold turkey. For years, I have been low key building up a sizable Mini Masters collection on the side.


While I’ve been basically cherry picking this line, I have managed to get most of the major characters that have been released. While I wouldn’t mind a whole lot more, there are a couple characters which I feel I really still need; Man-E-Faces and Tri-Klops. Given their similar rotational “gimmicks” I can see why they have not yet been released, but really, I don’t need any gimmicks in this mostly static line. So hopefully, Mini Masters will continue through the year and we can get these guys at some point.


Ok so for the next entries I decided to take a slightly different approach. These past years, toy company Super 7 have announced a number of Ultimates lines based on some of my other favorite cartoons from the 80’s, and predictably I have fallen for a number of them hook line and sinker. So instead of going on a per character basis, I decided to tackle each property that I have decided to collect and speculate on what I hope to see announced in the next wave of 3-4 characters. For almost all lines, Super 7 has taken a fairly balanced approach of 2 heroes and 2 villains in each wave, so that’s what I’ll do here.

Silverhawks

While not quite on the level as Transformers, G.I.Joe or He-Man, I was a huge fan of the cartoon featuring these partly metal, partly real heroes. For the good guys, the choices are pretty obvious. I’d like to finish up the main team with Copper Kid and Commander Stargazer. Although I doubt that Super 7 would place both these main characters in one wave so if that is the case, I would swap out Stargazer for the more obscure Silverhawk from the future, Flashback, who was a favorite of mine from the original cartoon.


What I am more excited for though is further building out Mon-Star’s crew. Visually I find their variety more interesting than a complete Silverhawks line up. So for the bad guys, I’d love to see laser-keytar wielding Melodia or the massive Mumbo Jumbo.


Thundercats

At this point, given what has already been announced so far, I am almost ready to call it a day with Thundercats. I don’t even have enough wanted characters to fill out another wave as I couldn’t really care less for most of the 3rd tier characters from the show. So I’ll just give you two. I would first and foremost want the villain Ratar-O. Despite not being a character I am dying to have, his addition would at least complete the evil mutants team. And for the good guys, all I really need is Snarf. I understand that he barely constitutes a full figure so you can pack him in with his nephew Snarfer and a Berbill and I would stick a fork in it and call this line done.


G.I.Joe

When Hasbro announced their new 6” G.I.Joe Classified line, it took all my self control to not get started on yet another new toy line. After going in big time with my 25th Anniversary 3.75” collection for years, it felt redundant and financially irresponsible to restart from scratch on a whole new scale. So as extremely difficult as it was, I completely passed on G.I.Joe Classified (so far). But when Super 7 announced their own Ultimates G.I.Joe line I bit without any hesitation. So why Ultimates and not Classified? Well two reasons, first was this line was completely based on the simpler G.I.Joe cartoon designs so it was both nostalgic and unique in that sense. More importantly though, like all the other Super 7 Ultimates lines, this would most likely be a slow burn with a financially manageable 1-2 waves of figures released a year.

So yeah, G.I.Joe Ultimates it is. And unlike the 25th Anniversary line, I don’t need an expansive line up of Joes and Cobras, just the main ones heavily featured in the cartoon. Number one on my list of course would be Scarlett, who alongside Filmation Teela were my two major crushes when I was a kid. What is it with me and redheads?

Anyway, next to Scarlett I would love to have Stalker, whom I have always seen as Duke’s #2 (sorry Flint).


As for Cobra, I would love to get a Major Bludd and the Master of Disguise, Zartan. And they’ll get plus points if they manage to recreate that whole skin change gimmick from the original toy.


Masters of the Universe

OK yes, Masters of the Universe Classics is done, finito….but this is a wishlist so let me dream. So the last official “Classics” were released by Super 7 in 2020, afterwhich they lost the license to produce any more. Now while it really is a long shot, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Super 7 regains said license to produce a few more characters further down the line. But another more realistic possibility in my opinion would be for Mattel’s Masterverse line, which is supposed to be an all encompassing line, to release some Classics styled figures at some point.

Anyway if either scenario happens, what I would like are a few more Filmation styled characters that were missed out in both Mattel’s original Club Grayskull line and the Super 7’s short continuation. For the bad guys, I definitely want a Filmation styled Whiplash which has a very distinct toon look. I would also love to have a Filmation styled Leech to finish up the original Horde lineup.


The good guys are a little bit more challenging as not many of them had very distinct and unique Filmation looks. While I wouldn’t mind a Ram Man, I already have a nicely customized Origins Ram Man that fills that space nicely. If I had to choose though, I guess I would go with a Filmation Buzz Off and or Mekanek.


Well this whole exercise took longer than expected. Despite already having hundreds of pieces already in my collection, there apparently are still a lot more toys yet to be made. So with all of my wish lists done, all that is left to do is wait, hope, pray…no manifest as many of these wishes into existence. And hopefully by this time next year, we will have a majority of these guys on our shelves!