1984 Fleetwood Toys Catalog – Manimal – Secret Wars – Sword & the Sorcerer

Mantooth — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 16:36:00 +0000

1984 Fleetwood Toys Catalog

Even though Fleetwood began in the 1970s by grabbing such high-brow licenses as Charlie’s Angels and the Marvel Comics Superheroes for Rack Toys, the 1980s seemed to be the company’s high point with them retaining many high ticket licenses from TV and movies.

1984 is a good example of how Fleetwood was doing with some of the most popular TV faces like the A-Team and TJ Hooker, alongside riskier brands like Sword and the Sorcerer and Manimal. The Marvel Superheroes were back under the Secret Wars brand and they even dabbled in a little Hardcastle and McCormick.

1984 Fleetwood Toys Catalog Cover

TJ Hooker was Fleetwoods vehicle to sell toy guns, handcuffs, and police cars that year. If you asked me, they totally missed the boat not having a car with a Shatner figure on the hood.

The A-Team was huge with kids and it gave Fleetwood the excuse to slap a label on a bunch of Rack Toy standards. In this case, even the toolset makes sense!

That Mr T Flashlight is absolutely inspired.

Daydreams and Cuddles were two in-house lines for Fleetwood to capture the girl’s market. They didn’t seem to have any female-centric licenses this year.

Sword and the Sorcerer was an R-rated affair that came out in 1982 (although a lot of us discovered it on cable). It’s very odd to see toys for children based on a film with nudity and gore. Also, are these the only toys based on an Albert Pyun film? I think so.

Manimal was a short-lived NBC TV series famous for its very strange premise. Some of the Manimal “figures” ended up in Sword and the Sorcerer sets. This should surprise no one.

Fleetwood had a long-running relationship with Marvel Comics which continued when the line rebranded under the Secret Wars banner. Instead of parachuting superheroes, they became balloonists, which is even sillier.
Hardcastle and McCormick was an ABC series about an ex-judge and ex-con teaming up blah, blah, blah, everyone remembers the car.

Order Rack Toys 2.0 Here►https://amzn.to/3Bkm9z1

Our magazine Toy-Ventures is available to order right now
PS Store: https://plaidstallions.com/reboot/shop/
Follow PlaidStallions on Social Media:
Twitter ► https://bit.ly/2UzxQ5q
Facebook ► https://bit.ly/3mfY73R
Instagram ►https://bit.ly/3yZ3kAV
Website ► https://bit.ly/3yZ3kAV

Toy-Ventures Magazine is our newest creation, an old-school print magazine about vintage toys! Professionally laid out and written, each issue is brimming with obscure and rare toys from companies such as Mego, Kenner, Remco, AHI, and much more. Monsters, Superheroes, Adventurers, Knock Offs, Apes, and so much more, it’s in Toy-Ventures.

Toy-Ventures Issue 5 is available now:
Ebay: https://ebay.us/XSS1X7
Plaid Stallions Store: https://plaidstallions.com/reboot/shop/
Amazon:https://amzn.to/3d9Q0AS

FACEBOOK GROUPS FROM PLAIDSTALLIONS

Pod Stallions is one of the most fun groups on Facebook. Toys, Comics, Movies, TV, it’s all up for grabs and remember, you keep the glass!

Mego Knock Off Headquarters– The leading group discussing 70s Dime store knock-offs of Mego action figures, we talk vintage toys, not others. It’s a fun group where we talk about Lincoln International, AHI, Tomland, and all those companies that never thought to put their name on things because….lawyers.

The post 1984 Fleetwood Toys Catalog – Manimal – Secret Wars – Sword & the Sorcerer appeared first on PS.

Seriously, there were Manimal toys

Mantooth — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 04:30:00 +0000

I don’t think this would be headline news anywhere else but here.
If you recall NBC’s “Manimal”, the TV show that kind of made a laughing stock
of the network for a period in the 1980s. The show revolved around a crime
fighter who just happened to be able to turn into animals.

So it was a lot like that video Yes did for “Owner of a lonely heart” but slightly
longer. Each week, our hero would save the day by turning into a snake, panther
or eagle. He could turn into other animals but the budget only let you see the aforementioned
snake, panther or eagle transformations, which were well done but I digress.

The series got crushed in the ratings and only aired 8 episodes, so merchandise was out of the question, or so I’d thought. I’d heard rumors
that a toy company did have the license but only recently came across them in
person

More after the jump.

The biggest problem with merchandising Manimal other than it
was quickly removed from airwaves wasthat the premise isn’t very “Toyetic”. He’s a guy and
then he turns into an animal. So you’d either have to make a figure of a guy or
a toy of a snake. Children could likely reenact the show just by reaching into
their toy box and using their (dreaded by toymakers) imagination.

However rack toy legend Fleetwood Toys didn’t let cancellation deter them and came up with a novel concept.

Make figures of him in mid transformation! Before you ask, this really is officially licensed stuff, that’s the series logo and the packaging bears the 20th Century Fox copyright.

Of course, that’s just a scan of a catalog, did the toys actually get released?Feast your eyes below:

It’s my first Manimal inaction figure! I’m sure in the past I’ve seen these loose at toy shows and completely ignored them, not realizing their inherent greatness.

There is two reasons this brings me joy, 1) it’s something that if I’d found out about after my Rack Toys book was published would have upset me and 2) after six years I finally have a “Manimal” tag for the blog. I’m sure to use that plenty.

The post Seriously, there were Manimal toys appeared first on PS.

manimal Archives - PS

1984 Fleetwood Toys Catalog – Manimal – Secret Wars – Sword & the Sorcerer

Seriously, there were Manimal toys