Lex and I, we have the same tailor.

I don't usually make custom toys, but this one kind of just fell together.

I salvaged some pieces of a DC Direct Pocket Heroes Batman that my nephew destroyed years ago. All that was salvageable was the body and head. I couldn't rebuild him, but I figured I'd do something with the figure someday. I have trouble throwing toys away, even if broken. Too many viewings of Rudolph as a child. That island of misfit toys really hit me, you know?

A couple years later I picked up a Lex figurine w/ power suit from Jack in the Box.

One day, for whatever reason, I put the torso/head of Batman into the armor. Perfect fit, and a cool concept figure. I can see Batman donning Lex's power suit just to be a jerk before smacking him around a bit.

Silly Batman...and people say you don't have a sense of humor.

I Have The Pow... I Mean Wonderbread He-Man!!!!!!!!!

Okay kids, here's what's likely to be to this point the most extensive look at a Wonder Bread He-Man online. In my online search, I was only able to find a few fuzzy images, so I tried to take some nice close-ups and comparison views for this entry.

First up is a close-up of Wonder Bread, or Savage, He-Man. He has the soft rubber head of the early releases of He-Man, and his features are well defined. As a Hot Wheels collector, I know that the dies and molds wear out, and one indication of age on a figure or toy car is how well defined the details are. This may be a hint that Wonder Bread He-Man was one of the first releases out of the mold.



Next up is a full body shot. This figure was clearly used as intended - as a toy - and has some minor play wear. The kid who had him played with him, but didn't beat the living heck out of him. He has loose hips and doesn't stand up well on his own, which can be common for old Masters of the Universe figures.

The kid who owned him did, however, take a sharpie to his wrist guards. No big deal, and the wear on the sharpie indicates further that this figure has been around a while. He was also wearing this armor when I found him. Maybe it was added later in the figure's life, but I find it interesting that this is not the only Wonder Bread figure found in this fashion (according to scant online reports) - could it be that he was in fact released with this armor at some point, or a case of great minds thinking alike in playing with this figure? We may never know.


Here's a comparison shot of all the He-Men I own at this point.

Top Row: an original Thunder-Punch He-Man, the mysterious Wonder Bread He-Man, aka Savage He-Man in some circles, and an original Battle Armor He-Man.
Bottom Row: Commemorative re-release He-Man, Commemorative re-release Faker, and an original Faker.


Here are some head shots for comparison. All shown but the Commemorative version have soft heads, and the Wonder Bread He-Man has the sharpest sculpt of the three with rubber heads. Again, hinting that he was molded before the other two, and before the mold had much wear.


Here he is from the back. The kid he belonged to put his initials on his back: "D.R." in sharpie. Again, no big deal, easily removed if I wanted to, but it helps add context to the figure. Heck, maybe "D.R." himself will pop up someday to share his story about where this guy came from!

Or maybe henceforth we can have a new name for this He-Man: "Dr. He-Man!" Okay maybe not, but you have to admit it has a nicer ring than "Wonder Bread He-Man" ;)



Here he is from the top. You can see the minor wear on his hair color, and the detail of the sculpt in the hair.



Here is a close-up of his boots. You can see they have minor wear and were not re-painted as the plastic shows under the boot paint.


Here's a very interesting observation. Apart from the fact that I should probably not have been looking so closely at this area ;)
As you can see, there is a slight gap where there is no design/sculpting between the belt and the fur of the shorts. For comparison I added a pic of the original Faker's shorts to show the fur/sculpt goes all the way to the beltline. I don't know what that may mean, but I found it to be interesting and it may hold a clue as to the date of this figure's release.




(Don't stare too long)

__________________________________________________________

UPDATE:

Wonderbread He-Man has been sold and no longer resides in my collection.

Before selling him, I cleaned off the sharpie on his wrists and back. It came off very easily - just required a little heavy rubbing. He-Man didn't seem to mind ;)






ANOTHER UPDATE: I consider the mystery of Wonderbread or Savage He-Man solved with this first hand account from a pair of brothers over at Flashlights are Something you Eat.
________________________________________________________________________________

Buy stuff by me at Zazzle!

King Randor and Scare Glow

Two gems from my recent flea market haul.



It was actually Randor that caught my eye when I saw the box. I had never seen him in person before and knew I had to have him. He's in unbelievable minty condition, whoever he belonged to must have gotten him near the end of their interest in the line, or they just didn't like playing with him. Scare Glow is almost as minty, and is another amazing find, as both of these guys are pretty hard to come by.

Randor is He-Man's father, and Scare Glow is the "Evil Ghost of Skeletor" (Redundant enough for you? You mean he isn't the kind, loving ghost of Skeletor? Or the ghost of bad, bad Leroy Brown?)

Anyways, I am excited to add these guys to my collection.

Go Go Godzilla!

Another find at the flea market today was this spiffy retro old-school Godzilla.

UPDATE: He's clearly a knockoff, as attested by the fact that he has no manufacturer's name or date on him, only a circle on his foot that says "Made in China."

I am most curious about a date/timeframe for his release. I haven't found a similar one on eBay or online anywhere, so if anyone has seen this exact "Fakezilla" and/or has any more info or can point me towards a good Godzilla resource I'd really appreciate it!



Is that a Light Brown Apple Moth? They really ought to spray for those pesky things!

UPDATE #2: I contacted J.D. of G-Fan magazine looking for info on this guy, and he said he has the same one which he got it in Japan in 1987. He added that when he got him "Godzilla" was wearing a wedding dress and holding a flower bouquet! He believes it was released that way but also said it may have just been something added by the toy shop owner. He has since gotten rid of the dress and bouquet so sadly he had no pics.

Wonder Bread He-Man - The Holy Grail of He-Man-dom!

I'll cut to the chase first, then give my long winded account afterwards -

TA-DAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!



Yes folks, that is in fact the elusive, mythical, legendary, Holy Grail "Wonderbread He-Man."

There is a lot of speculation, and little real, corroborative info on this figure. Assumptions range from it being a mail away promo from Wonder Bread to it being an initial-run figure that got dumped on the foreign market: He-Man may have started life as to be Conan, before Mattel shifted the character and series to the in-house idea of "He-Man" (due to licensing or violence or what-not.)

He may have come with a couple red accessories (axe and sword) and he may have come with this black chestpiece.

Whatever the case may be, he's as elusive as the facts surrounding him.

And he was in the bottom of a five dollar box of MOTU stuff at the flea market today! I didn't even know it until I got the box home, I was just excited to hear the box was five bucks - with a BUNCH of figures and accessories, Snake Mountain, and both "Cats" - all in very good to excellent shape!!!



"Amazing" is an understatement. I'm still in shock! There's a lot here, so I'll be adding more posts soon of the highlights.

UPDATE: I've added more on Wonder Bread He-Man HERE