These showed up on eBay recently. LOVE that knock-0ff illo of karate champ Joe Lewis (Jaguar Lives, Force Five) on the package. Oh for the days of He-Man recast bodies on figures so vaguely and poorly designed they could be … Continued
A follow-up to this post on what was quietly one of, if not the best, ninja figures of the 80s. Bought myself a Christmas present this year, a mint-on-card Eagle Force Savitar! What I adore most about this shadowy saboteur … Continued
…German collectible figurine experts Schleich! Their newly released 3.5″ “Mysterious Ninja” from their Heroes line is a major throwback to the 80s, looking like the bastard love child of Sho Kosugi in Revenge of the Ninja and Tadashi Yamashita in … Continued
Milton Bradley’s early 80s board game Axis and Allies was a big hit for them, so sequels followed, including the feudal-Japan-set Shogun in 1986. Shogun (later renamed Samurai Swords in ’95 and Ikusa just this year) was like playing Risk against … Continued
During the 80s craze, there were tons of generic ninja toys positively INFESTING grocery stores, souvenir shacks, flea markets, blanket vendors outside subway stations, etc. You had to rake the stuff off your lawn in the Fall it was so … Continued
A reader sent me these pics – an assortment of vintage Henshin Ninja Arashi vinyls. Have no clue where they originated, but I’d love to give credit where credit is due, so if they’re yours, lemme know… Damn this thing … Continued
Picked there up in an anime/manga shop in NYC back int he early 90s, had no idea what they were from or who they were, but I guess I recognized coolness when I saw it. 15+ years later I finally … Continued
The art is surprisingly good on this mid-to-late 80s sliding puzzle. Although why he’s holding that tanto backwards is beyond me. Check out the others in the assortment, not missing a genre, and getting progressively… stranger. 70s porn Rambo I … Continued
This line of rather poorly sculpted and often more poorly painted porcelain statues was EVERYWHERE during the 80s craze – Chinatown video shops, flea market vendors, martial arts supply stores, the Smithsonian’s souvenir stand, ball park peanut vendors, the Automat … Continued
…over at the excellent Toypedia blog: