Collection of the Week: Rock Lords

Back in 2010, I wrote on the blog about Tonka's Rock Lords, and my son's Joel's collection of these classic action figures. Almost four years later that collection has grown tremendously, and I wanted to feature some of the new stuff here for a collectible update.

But first a re-cap.  As you may recall, the metamorphic creatures called "Rock Lords"  are a spin-off from Bandai's and Tonka's successful GoBots line of the mid-1980s. 

In 1986, specifically, there was an animated feature film called GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords (1986) and it involved the GoBot Guardians protecting "powerful living rocks" from the likes of Cy-Kill and the leader of the evil Rocklords, a villain named Magmar (and voiced by Telly Savalas). 

Margot Kidder voiced the Rock Lord queen, Solitaire (a character made of diamonds, and boasting the power to heal), and Roddy McDowall played Nuggit, the sort of R2-D2 of this particular franchise.

Now, unlike Transformers or GoBots, these Rocklords don't actually transform into vehicles...they transform into...rocks. 

At first blush, that sounds highly uninteresting, but these figures are really beautifully-crafted. What seems indeterminate to me is what exactly these rock lords are when they aren't rocks. Are they robots? Biological organisms? Joel has settled firmly on the idea that they are robots...made of that "powerful living rock."

Anyway, here are some pics of Joel's collection:

The heroes in "rock" mode.

The heroes in robot - ? - mode.

On the side of the good guys in the Rock Lord battle are the following individuals: Boulder, Crackpot, Granite, Nuggit, Marbles, and Pulver-Eyes (above)

The Rock Lord Villains in rock mode (with the neutral Terra-roc on the far right).

And in -- ? -- robot mode.

On the side of evil is the aforementioned Magmar. His minions include Brimstone (who wields a mean battle-axe), Tombstone, and Styx-and-Stones (a two-headed monstrosity).

The neutral Swedes of this rock lord collection are the Rockasaurs, who refuse to take sides, I suppose. The one that looks like a Pterodactyl is called "Terra-Roc." (pictured with the villains.)

The fascinating thing about the Rock Lords line is that there are apparently class differences at work in the "rock" culture. There's a whole subset of these guys from the planet Quartex called Jewel Lords (with names like Solitaire, and Flamestone), and another subset of "Fossil Lords" as well. These variations are difficult to find...and really, really expensive.  But since 2010, I've gotten my hands on several for Joel's collection. 

The Jewel Lords are the most impressive figures.  They are Solitaire (Diamond), Flamestone (Ruby) and Sunstone (Amber).  These "sparkling" warriors are transparent, as you can see below.

L to R: Solitaire, Flamestone and Sunstone.

A later series of Rock lords (the third, I believe), came to include the "Shock Rocks."  Pictured below, left to right, are Rock-Roller (the chubby blue one...), Rock Shot (with a retractable boulder), and the villain, Sabrestone.

Finally, the last group of Rock Lords includes the difficult to find "Action Shot Rocks."  I finally got my hands one of these for Joel -- Stun Stone -- for Christmas.  In some way, the spherical figure seems to anticipate Bakugan toys...

In addition to action figures and vehicles, the Rock Lords were merchandised in the 1980s with other neat collectibles, which I've been featuring in separate posts today. For instance, there was a lunch box, and a coloring book from Golden.

For the curious: here's a promo of the Rock Lords movie:




And here's the movie in its entirety:




And here's a Tonka Rock Lords toy commercial from the 1980s:

Collectible of the Week Update: Interplanetary Star Fortress (Sears; 1979)

Back on November 30, 2011, I wrote here about one of my favorite StarWars knock-off toys, the fantastic “Interplanetary Star Fortress” manufactured and sold exclusively by Sears, and made to fit Kenner Star Wars figures, as well as Mego’s The Black Hole and Buck Rogers figures of the 1970s.   The playset is a quasi-cylindrical carrying-case that folds out to become an expansive asteroid surface and landing pad.

My own version of this disco-decade toy was missing several critical features, including a shuttle pod and plastic gun turret that could stand atop the cylinder.  My version was also missing the carrying strap and the box.

Well, via the wonders of E-Bay, I finally got my hands on a mint-in-box Sears Star Fortress that features all the elements I had been missing.  I only had a few of the base installations previously, but this version came with the “solar reactor building,” “headquarters,” “personnel quarters,” “1 particle accelerator tank” and “1 hydrogen storage tank.” 

Joel and I actually got to fold the light cardboard "buildings" into shape, and connect them together with tabs, which was fun.

This knock-off is a much more interesting toy with the missing shuttle pod and turret intact, as well as the previously missing base structures.  The shuttle pad actually has a door that opens, and snaps shut, and is fully decorated inside with high-tech (for the 1970s) imagery and detail.

Yesterday, Joel and I used the newly up-fitted Interplanetary Star Fortress to stage a battle between Ben Tennyson and Ghost Freak (plus minions BenWolf and BenMummy).  Not exactly the scenario I would have imagined at that age, but still a hell of a lot of fun. 

Collectible Update: The secret origins of Freddy Krueger

Last Halloween, I blogged about the Matchbox Talking Freddy Krueger doll from the 1980s that was so scary it was removed from toy store shelves (for frightening children...).

Well, the Internet can be a most amazing place, and recently, I was contacted via e-mail about this great 1980s collectible by the toy's original sculptor, Rich Roland. 

Mr. Roland wrote me to provide some new background about the toy, including photographs of his Freddy sculpt.

He writes:

"I took a few photos for you to see the original size of Freddy's head, close up and un-painted."

"It's my artist's proof casting at full scale of the polished wax sculpt super-master I created, that eventually would be burnt out of the mold, lost wax method. This way they have bunches of seamless vinyls to use as masters and go into production. Castings shrink 3.5% each time, so by the time it gets to market it's 7% smaller than my original."

"At the risk of boring you any more with this techno talk, just imagine how washed out and small Talking Freddy doll was by the time it was bought out from Matchbox and sold at Spencer Gifts by a new manufacturer years after the toy was banned from the shelves because of the AFA and conservative mentalities you mentioned. Right on. It was a first! Ha. The news even made it to Entertainment Tonight. I have the event somewhere on VHS packed in the attic somewhere..."

Mr. Roland also passes along the news that his love of monsters runs in the family.  His daughter, Tina -- who at age 5 was terrified of the Freddy Doll in her living room -- has gone on to design several interesting characters and creatures of her own.  You can check out Tina Roland's web site, here.

I want to thank Mr. Roland for sharing with me and the readers some more history behind the creation of such a memorable 1980s collectible...