Back when I was a kid, something fun that smaller toy companies did (and maybe still do) was produce action figures (Marvel / DC, etc) connected to a cheap plastic parachute. You'd toss 'em up in the air and then watch 'em glide back down, and ahhh yes, fun for about 5 minutes, or until the cheap ass parachute tore or got tangled in a power line. My favorites were the goofy looking "Poopa Troopers" of which I had dozens in every rubbery color under the sun-- and many of them met a fate just as fiery whilst tied to a bottle rocket on the fourth of July! But today I was digging around a box of bargain toys and unearthed a Dr. Zaius Planet of the Apes Parachutist made by AHI. He looks like he's rockin' a guitar more than brandishing an AK, --which is totally fine by me-- unfortunately, he's missing some paint as well as the parachute, and after looking these up on eBay he is unfortunately no longer mint in his original packaging because OMG these go for hundreds of dollars if you can actually still find 'em like that! Great looking card art too (see below.)
6 comments:
I hated Planet of the Apes, but these days I see a figure like this and all I want to do is repaint it to look even better than the original!
I like the way the paint looks here even better. It's got that groovy lava lamp and black light posterization effect in spades--which totally resonates with that M-16 key-tar. This guy looks like he just stepped out of a Phantom of the Paradise / Apes mash-up. And that's a fantasy I can live with.
One of my biggest regrets in life was allowing my mom to sell all my 70's MEGO Apes stuff (including the POTA treehouse) at one of her garage sales when I was a little kid...
I don't think I ever got a parachute toy like this to work even once. And I agree that the acid-trip look of the figure here is a plus... Never had that treehouse but I did have a couple of POTA figures and some other Mego playsets, the remnants of which still languish in storage.
"Realistic Floating Action?" The marketing department went all out on this one!
I hate when gun toting, futuristic, floating ape men aren’t realistic, so this toy really spoke to me as a kid
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