Mattel Clash of the Titans

Clash of the Titans was intended to be the next Star Wars style of blockbuster, it was also the return of movie magician Ray Harryhausen.

Harryhausen had an impressive track record at this point what with wonderful films such as "Jason and the Argonauts" and the Sinbad series being the things that captured childrens imaginations for year.

Mattel swooped in to captiliaze on the film launching a series of action figures and proposed toys based on Bubo, the "R2D2 like" owl (although Harryhausen contended he created Bubo before Star Wars) added to the mythos. Clash of the Titans was a box office success but like a lot of movies, once it left theatres the toys dangled on shelves. Mattel cancelled any plans for a second wave of action figures but still, what we got wasn't half bad.

The initial line up of figures included Calibos, Thallo, Charon and lead hero Perseus, Mattel never added females to their 3 3/4" lines. A second line up would have included Zeus but it was quickly cancelled. The Kraken was the higher price point toy for this line and is very desirable on the collector market.

Mattel proposed merchandising based on Bubo and even an underworld play set for the figures, sadly these items got the axe as Mattel didn't see much interest in the line after the film left theatres. This is pretty common actually, Star Wars and Planet of the Apes are the exception in movie licensing, not the norm.

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