Collectible of the Week: Willow Miniatures (Tonka; 1988)

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:

Lunch Box of the Week: Rock Lords (1987)