Galaxy Laser Team Lobstrosity

Another 'Holy Grail' enters my collection today as I am now the proud owner of an oversized Galaxy Laser Team Lobster Alien (aka The Lobstrosity!)

I have been a fan of The Lobstrosity ever since owning the original Galaxy Laser Team set released in the late seventies/early eighties. I no longer have any of my originals, but the figure on the right is a modern re-issue of those same figures I had as a kid. Tim Mee has been reissuing the Galaxy Laser Team in multiple colors over the past few years, and if you don't already have some I highly recommend them. The figure on the left is Zip - a freebie figure released in boxes of Screamin' Yellow Zonkers sometime in the mid eighties. I remember begging my Mom to get Screamin' Yellow Zonkers (of which I could have cared less for - except for the toys) in the hope that I would get Zip. I would have eaten fifty boxes of thast crap to get him, but thankfully he was in the first (and only) box we got! This Zip is not my original but one I found at the Flea Market a couple years ago.

And of course the silver figure in the center is the newest addition to my collection, a toy I did not even know existed when I was a kid! And of course he was found at the Flea Market this weekend for only a dollar!

A few years back I learned that the Galaxy Laser Team figures were bootlegged (in a larger format) in Mexico - maybe in the late eighties? - and ever since I have longed to add a large Lobstrosity to my collection. He was definitely a 'Holy Grail' on my wishlist, and a toy I had secretly hoped the Flea Market would eventually yield. Patience pays off, as I not only found him, but he is in miraculously great shape, and he's a spiffy silver and not some other boring color.

I not only love having so many Lobstrosities, but I love having three different versions of the same obscure no-name random alien creature. Just the fact that three versions of this character exist makes me happy. Because - WTF?!?! I mean there are still mainstream superheroes that have less than three versions of themselves in toy form, yet here's some random plastic alien creature who somehow beat the odds to rise from nothingness to stardom. The inclusion of Zip in the Screamin' Yellow Zonkers has always had me scratching my head, as there is no reason this alien design should exist in two separate toy lines (if you can even call a snack pack-in a 'toy line.') He's also a bit 'chibi' in his design, while the oversized Lobstrosity is just the original version scaled up.

While shooting these pics, my intern insisted we take the Lobstrosities outside so she could blow bubbles for them.

She is as enamored by these quirky aliens as I am!

I also have the re-releases in grey and black, but they were not within arms' reach when I started this photo shoot.

'I am King of the Lobster People! Take us to your leader.'

'They call me 'stumpy.'

'It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A!'

I tried to get some shot of the Lostrosities engulfed in bubbles, but Lawrence Welk my Intern is not.

Here she is counting them and naming off their different colors. I'd be lost without her.

'Izzat so? Well then howzabout a raise?'

'Wait, what? Interns don't get paid?!?!'

'Well then, I'm leaving with these nice alien folk. Good thing I'm already wearing my moon boots.'

LOEB :: For Screaming (Yellow Zonkers) Out Loud...WHY?!?!

This week's League of Extraordinary Bloggers assignment is simply 'Why? No really. WHY?'

My 'why' is a legitimate question, one that as yet has no resolution, but one that carries the weight of a million, nay a billion cries of 'WHY?!?!?!'. In fact, my 'why' brings forth a toy mystery so deep and wide that it may someday rival the legend of Wonderbread He-Man himself.

To wit: Why did Screaming Yellow Zonkers make their own version of the Galaxy Laser Team Lobstrosity? 

I will go so far as to say the Galaxy Laser Team Lobster/Turtle hybrid alien monster is one of the coolest unsung aliens of our generation. First appearing in the late seventies or early eighties, this turtle lobster alien has taken on legendary status with toy collectors, being the only original (read: not Star Wars or Star Trek knock-off) character to appear in Tim Mee's Galaxy Laser Team - a set of cheap monochromatic plastic figures who all had very obvious Star Wars (or in the case of the lady, Star Trek) analogues.

That alone would be enough to give the Lobstrosity legendary status for kids who grew up in the height of the original trilogy madness, but it didn't end there. Somehow the design also made it's way into a line of freebies released in the mid eighties inside the Cracker Jack wannabe Screaming Yellow Zonkers - in the form of an alien named 'Zip.'

(For those not saavy, the Galaxy Laser Team Lobstrocities are on the left and right, and the Screaming Yellow Zonkers' Zip is in the middle.)

I don't know how or why this design made it from GLT to SYZ, but I would really love to find out. Was the same toy designer involved in both productions? Was the Screaming Yellow Zonkers designer a closet fan of Galaxy Laser Team? Or was he a rip-off artist who had a deadline to meet and no fresh ideas? My money is on the same designer being involved in both, and figuring no one would ever notice or care that he used the same design twice. Well he was wrong, I CARE!

I wouldn't even know where to begin if I thought I could solve this mystery myself, but I would sure love to someday know why the GLT Lobstrocity ended up chibi-ized in the Screamin' Yellow Zonkers' line-up as a critter named 'Zip.'

At least he finally got a name.

Other LOEBers ask why? Why? WHY?!?!?!

Karma Chameleon

I call it "Toy Karma," and I've got it good.

Just the other day I stumbled onto a Flickr album belonging to a collector calling himself Astronit. He appears to specialize in space themes, vending machine toys and cereal premiums (pull up a chair and give yourself an hour or two to look at all his goodies. I'll still be here when you're done.)

While looking through his photostream I saw this picture and a flood of memories came back to me about a toy alien I had as a kid that came in a box of Screaming Yellow Zonkers. The odd alien was modeled after another toy I had at the time that came in a bag of Star Wars-esque little plastic space men. (UPDATE: Through a completely different toy search I found a pic online - Outer Space Fighters and Galaxy Laser Team manufactured by Tim Mee)

In fact, I chased after the Screaming Yellow Zonkers specifically for this one alien. I don't know how many boxes I had my mom buy before I got him, but I'm pretty sure I got lucky early. My Toy Karma is nothing new.

So today I went to the swap meet and, you guessed it, I found him. And he was free (I bet you didn't guess that.)

"I come in Peace."

Some kind of cross between a turtle, a crab, and a snail, this guy is a pretty unique and fun creature, reminiscent of fifties sci-fi B movies.

The toy has no markings, but according to the Screaming Yellow Zonkers packaging, his name is Zip.
The space set these were based on was originally released in the early eighties, and re-released in the nineties (I recall buying a bag of them when I discovered them at a Mom and Pop type toy store.) It included "inspired by" figures of Luke, Darth, Chewbacca, and R2-D2 among a couple others in all sorts of funky neon colors. I don't still have any of mine, but I'm sure one day my toy Karma will find them for me if I focus my powers on them.

In the meantime, I have Zip, and that's good enough for now.