Underworld Warriors Origins, Pt. III: By the Force of Buddha’s Palm!

It’s crazy, but it’s true. Remember me babbling about how that caped “Underworld Warrior” on Tung Sing’s packaging art was cashing in on the wrestling, the ninja, and the Japanese superhero genre at once? Well, I probably missed to mention another important link. A link that for some reason didn’t come to my mind before I saw a bunch of comic book scans from fellow collector Lawrence Conti (@kiddkyodo on Instagram). It’s almost a shame that I haven’t mentioned The Crimson Ghost (1946) as a possible blueprint for our “Ultra Tumba Luchador” before. The character’s striking appearance is much, much closer to that UW design than any Golden Bat reference that I was seeing when I put together those first two articles on the Underworld Warriors origins

But let’s talk about those scans that Lawrence sent me. My theory has been that the UW artwork was kitbashed from various pieces, and styles. That it might be aping 60s & 70s English pulp horror comic book covers, I said. What I didn’t know until yesterday is that our infamous Underworld Warrior is actually a villain, coming straight from a Hong Kong comic book series called The Force of Buddha’s Palm! We can even find that UW coffin in one of its issues! The series was published by Jademan comics, created by no other than “the Godfather of Hong Kong comics” Tony Wong. At least that’s what I have learned! The villain is called the “White Skeleton”, and the particular edition where he’s shown in that typical UW pose was published somewhere between 1982, and 1984. So a few years prior to Tung Sing’s Underworld Warriors, which were released around 1986/87. The first English editions of Force of Buddha’s Palm were published in 1988, btw.

The fact that the identity of our mysterious “Ultra Tumba Luchador” is finally solved keeps blowing my mind. Thanks for that, Lawrence! Our “Warrior” is a shameless, straight copy of a Jademan character. A bootleg, not a knock-off! The question in fact is, if we can call Wong’s “White Skeleton” a knock-off of Republic’s Crimson Ghost. Maybe. Maybe his design was even influenced by Japanese superhero Golden Bat, or Mexican wrestlers in skeleton suits. But maybe “White Skeleton” is nothing but a popcultural, Chinese interpretation of the classic depiction of the Grim Reaper. So would the Crimson Ghost be.

What can I say? The deeper I get myself into the tangled web of KO history, the harder it is to tell who’s the “ripper”, and who’s the “ripped”. Concepts, ideas, and designs aren’t moving on a one way street. Ideas interact, and influence each other forth, and back. All the time, knowingly or unknowingly. That’s how knock-off action figure culture in particular, and human culture in general seem to work.

Tung Sing Toys Manufactory LTD. Specialists “in Top-Quality PVC Action Figures”!

It’s been a while again, my garbage KOllecting friends. I’m currently buried under diapers, resin, and paper work. So much stuff that hasn’t been highlighted on here yet, and so little time! I just gotta keep it coming sporadically, I guess. Like today, when @the_old_force (an active member of the 5.5 KOllector scene, check out his IG channel if you haven’t already!) posted another vintage Tung Sing advert, that I haven’t seen before.

We have already learned that the infamous Muscle Warriors came from the same manufacturer as Underworld Warriors. Now this ad from 1987 adds even more infamous MotU-KO bootleg lines to the stack! Wrestling Champs (or Wrestling Champions, or Wrestlers Champion, or Champion Wrestlers or...), The Boxer, Ninja Warrior (or Ninja And His Combat Master, depending on which cards they came out on) Galaxy Heroine, and Adventure Man! All of this stuff came from one and the same Hong Kong toymaker. What can I say?! Tung Sing Toys Manufactory LTD.’s gotta be one of my favorite toymakers of all time. If not the one, hands down!

(Two last pics are off Pinterest. Yours? Don’t want me to use them? Hit me up, we’ll find a solution!)

Guerreros del Mañana: An Emigrated Species from Another Planet

Collector and film maker Pablo Pares has recently graced the world with quality shots of his carded Guerreros del Mañana (GdM) collection. GdM is a 5.5″ MotU-KO bootleg line that originated in Argentina in the mid 80s. The figures are extremely hard to find, even in their country of origin. The GdM collector scene is a more or less genuine Argentinian thing, isolated from the international market. This is what makes this line so interesting! Isolation is possibly what gave the figures their exceptional, and unique look. Although the GdM creators used to recycle parts of classic 5.5 toylines such as Warrior Beasts, Thundercats, and MotU, GdM’s artful execution and wild combination sticks out from usual KO figures. They’re like an emigrated species from another planet. They share a common heritage with other MotU-KOs, but have been out of touch for decades. 

Guerreros del Mañana is Spanish, and means “Warriors of Tomorrow” btw. Nomen est omen. To me they look like contemporary, kitbashed art toys, not like mass made figures from the factory. The number of figure variants seems to be endless, too. Which makes the line even harder to collect. GdM also had vehicles! And guess what, it just got a retro comic release! There’s a facebook page that you should follow if you want to keep updated on this.

I’d really love to collect this line myself, if it wouldn’t be that hard for an “outsider” like me to get stuff out of Argentina. Stupid politics! All I can do for now is looking at Pablo’s pictures in awe, and guess all the parts right that they used for making these pieces of art!

MONSTER KING

DIOPSHAK

ANDROS KAN

KALAVER

BICEFALUS

BLACKBIRD

WARRIOR

LAGARTH

HORAKIS

ABHORRENS

CIBERTRHON

CARCANET

DR KWYZAN

All pictures courtesy of Pablo Pares, and used with the owner’s permission.

Eco’s Monster Castle: One Kid's Trash. A Grown-Up Man's Treasure...

If Speclatron’s Dethlor is the holy grail figure of MotU-KOs, then one particular playset is its castle. Eco’s Monster Castle! Probably the ultimate, and most delicate Castle Grayskull knock-off that you will find. Every MotU-KOllector knows what it is, but only a few have ever seen one in the flesh. Fewer have ever touched one, and only the fewest can call an Eco Monster Castle playset their own. From all MotU-KO playsets that verifiably exist, this one is the rarest, and most expensive one. 

Boxed Monster Castle sample, courtesy of fellow KOllector Mario “Spida” Garay.

I can remember the time when I bought my first Monster Castle (MC) as a collector about six years ago, for around 40 Euro. Shipped! I thougt 40 Euro was relatively expensive for what I got. I can also remember how I passed on a boxed sample at the Grayskull Convention in Germany one year later, in 2012. The seller was asking 100 Euro, which I thought was overpriced. I had no clue what was coming next! Three years ago, you could pick up a complete castle for 150 to 250 Euro, loose. Nowadays you need deeper pockets. 400 Euro for a loose, complete one can be considered a “steal”. I’ve seen loose ones selling for 700 and more. Boxed ones almost never show up. But the last one I know of sold for 1.200 USD in the Knock-Off Collectors Trading Outpost group on Facebook. It’s crazy what people are willing to pay for the “German” interpretation of Castle Grayskull. 

Wait, did I just say “German”? Yes! MC was manufactured by Eberlein & Co., abbreviated Eco, in Nuremberg, West-Germany. Not China, or Hong Kong, as you would probably think. The company was founded in 1938, and focused on plastic thermoforming in the 60s. They produced all kinds of plasticly things you need or don’t need in life. Store displays (!), blister packs, roof luggage racks, and also toys. Other famous items among KOllectors are their Moon, and Volcano Plates. Eberlein & Co. still exist, but they seem to have moved out of the toy business years ago. 

MC is often considered the official Sungold Galaxy Warriors playset. Mostly because the castle was advertised along with Galaxy Warriors figures on the original box it came in. I was actually trying to get more background info on this subject from Eco. But for some reason they’re not answering my emails. Probably because they’ve been flooded with inquiries from nerds like me already, ha! (“Ach! Schon wieder einer von diesen Spinnern!” *delete message*.) Anyway, let’s assume the obvious. Very likely Eco showed Sungold figures on their packaging because they needed a safe way to advertise MC as a 5.5" fantasy action figure compatible playset, and as a cheap alternative to the MotU originals. Simple as that! Other than Mattel, Sungold were unlikely to give Eco any trouble regarding copyright. Using MotU knock-off figures on their packaging was a safe alternative to the “real thing”! Maybe Eco even had a deal with Sungold. Maybe it was sort of an “official” third-party playset for the Galaxy Warriors line. We’ll probably never know for sure.

Monster Castle with unassembled hand, from my private KOllection.

Both Monster Castle versions (regular to the left, lite-up version to the right), on display with Eco’s Volcano Plates. From my private collection.

If you look close at the MC box, where the Galaxy Warriors figures are pictured, there’s one particularly striking detail. One figure (Ygg) is holding the hellbard from the Castle Grayskull playset in its hand. How did it get there? Like John Coats has mentioned on his Galaxy Warriors blog, a possible explanation is that Eco (or whoever designed MC, and snapped the promo pic) had purchased a Grayskull for inspirational reasons. Its weapon lot eventually got mixed up with the bunch of Galaxy Warriors. 

I’ve also been wondering where Eco got the inspiration for that distinctive giant monster hand from. Also that nightmarish lovedoll-face keeps fascinating me. The combination is just too brilliant. What instantly came to my mind were classic 60s toys from Japan and Hong Kong, like the Creeping Crawling Hand, Frankenstein’s Hand, or the Coffin Bank. 

“Frankenstein’s Hand” coin bank, made by Normura Toys (Japan) in the 1960s. Pic courtesy of http://vintageToyz.com.

The Coffin Bank, first made by Yonezawa Toys (Japan) in the 1950s. Pic courtesy of http://horrorpedia.com.

And that MC face? Well, a couple of months back I watched some classic Japanese kaiju flicks from my bucket list, and there it was! Daimajin, the Monster of Terror! A  trilogy of Japanese cult movies from the 1960s, about a giant stone samurai monster, “protecting” a small village and its residents against an evil warlord. Daimajin’s face bears alot of resemblance to the MC face indeed. Also the colors are similar. I assume the blinking eye and o-shaped mouth were added for two reasons. 1.) to add the popular image of the hungry ghost, and 2.) to conceal the obvious. It’s quite possible that the designer of Monster Castle was intentionally mimicking Daimajin, but didn’t want it to look exactly the same, to once more avoid copyright issues for Eco. I don’t think that the designer was German by the way. The fabrication of the castle took place in Germany, yes. But the true creator must have been from Asia. Not directly from Japan, but from a neighboring culture area that was more familiar with the concept of Japanese horror toys, and the Daimajin movies. I’d say the design of Monster Castle originated in the same area where those numerous Coffin Bank knock-offs and bootlegs were coming from. Hong Kong, the knock-off Mekka!

A MotU-KO playset, designed by some cheap hired artist in Hong Kong, and eventually produced in Germany, that’s definitely uncommon. But despite the design’s possible origin, MC was distributed within the German market and its neighboring countries only. It was never released overseas. This also explains the playset’s rarity. Besides its limited, local distribution, the castle’s fragility is another explanation. Simply not many units have survived the 80s. Not to speak of boxed ones. To be honest with you guys that have never seen, and don’t own a Monster Castle in the flesh, it’s actually the thinnest piece of plastic junk that you can imagine. Sad but true, the quality of this gem is complete shit! It looks, and feels like a vacuum pulled store display, but certainly not like a real 5.5 playset. But think about it, maybe it was intended as a third-party store display in the beginning, to promote Galaxy Warriors and other 5.5 action figures in toy stores! Probably designed, and sculpted by the same guy(s) in Hong Kong who also had created Sungold’s Galaxy Warriors! Then Eco decided to give it a real packaging, and turn it into a buyable consumer product. 

My first Monster Castle, purchased back in 2011, insta-buy on eBay for 40€ shipped!

Well, a thin piece of vacuumed plastic “Made in West-Germany” seems to be one thing. A playable alternative to Castle Grayskull made in the same country is another. Monster Castle is what it is, because the costs of a real 5.5 playset “Made in Germany” would have been way too high. It seems like in this case the much praised German quality did not prevail!

Both Monster Castle versions on display with Underworld Warriors and Combo figures. Pic from my private collection.

Due to its poor quality, and strange look, I can imagine that back in the 80s Eco’s Monster Castle wasn’t a hit at all. Which might explain why the even rarer lite-up eye version of the castle exists. Eco were simply trying to pimp up a bad selling product with as less effort as possible. There’s also rumors that some castles came with a movable monster hand. A hand that’s not just hanging there, but that could be moved from the back. None of the castles that I’ve owned (it’s  been four so far), and none of the ones that I’ve seen had this gadget, though. Even not the boxed ones. 

As much as I’m digging the design and concept of Eco’s creation, its quality is just disappointing. But only if you see it as what it not really is, a playset. If you look at it as what it really looks and feels like, a rare and fragile store display, it’s actually cool. Extremely cool. This still doesn’t justify the crazy prices it’s going for, but hey - that’s just my opinion, dude. Eco’s Monster Castle looks sick, super weird, and otherworldish. It’s a great addition to every MotU-KOllection, and every MotU-KOllector wants, and should have one. The only problem is that it’s extremely hard to find. I’d say even harder than all Speclatron figures combined. In a situation like this it’s worth every penny that KOllectors are willing to pay for it. Period. 

But still, if Eco would just answer my emails, and see what the market is like today. Oh boy! They wouldn’t believe how one kid’s trash from 30 years ago can turn into a grown-up man’s treasure.

Underworld Warriors Origins, Pt. II: Skeleton Monster Ninja Wrestlers from the Tomb!

As we have seen in my previous article, Underworld Warriors (UW) show all kinds of possible incluences. They were exploiting the 80s MotU craze, and were particularly knocking off  MTC’s Nightmare Warriors and Universal Monster figures. So far we have only talked about the UW figures out of their packaging, though. What we haven’t been looking at yet is that weird UW card. 

None of the Underworld Warriors figures does really look like that hooded creature in a skeleton suit, that we find on the packaging. It appears that the artwork is contributing something else to the Underworld Warriors origins. 

First of all: Packaging art is essential to every toyline, even (or especially) to knock-off action figures. It makes them sell. The artwork plays a major part in the figures’ marketing. The cardback literally is the background, the story telling behind the toys. The question is, what were the UW creators ripping off or cashing in on with their design?

I’d like to point out four genres that Tung Sing, the makers of UW, were mimicking with their packaging art. That’d be cult horror comics, lucha libre, ninjas, and Japanese superheroes.

Indeed, the style of the UW artwork reminds me of old horror comic book covers. This may count for the entire UW figure designs, by the way. During my extended search on the web for vintage pulp cover art, I came across a mindblowing Tales from the Tomb  artwork by Bill Alexander from 1973. The “Fleshless Corpse” kinda looks like the UW vamp. But apart from that, if you take a look at those skulls, and bones in the right corner of the piece, the symmetry, how everything is arranged, you probably have to admit that this might be the style of drawing the artist of the UW artwork had in mind. At least when he worked on that coffin and its surroundings.

Tales from the Tomb was one of many cult horror comic books that were popular during the 60s and 70s. There’s loads of other examples, such as Tales of Voodoo, Horror Tales, and Vampire Tales. A pretty good archive of these magazines can be found at https://comicvine.gamespot.com/, or http://comicbookplus.com/. I’m quite sure that the UW artwork is partially mimicking, if not even bootlegging this particular wave of horror art.

Let’s get back to that caped guy on the UW card. He’s not looking like any of the UW figures. He rather looks like a Mexican (or maybe Japanese) wrestler in a Los Hermanos Muerte suit. I guess Underworld Warriors were called Ultra Tumba Luchadores in Spanish speaking countries for a reason! If you ask me, Tung Sing knew exactly what they were doing, and set to exploit wrestling or lucha libre popculture in the best possible way, too. It’s safe to assume that legendary luchador and Mexican folk hero El Santo († 1984), and his legacy of weird monster movies and comics, had some impact on the UW esthetics, as well.

Another thing that strikes me about our apparent UW luchador is his ninja-like chain weapon. It’s not just the weapon, though. It’s the whole body language that looks suspicious. Isn’t our caped guy executing some sort of ninja-move?! A ninja-wrestler in a skeleton suit, what crazy combination is that! Right, the 70s and 80s experienced a massive martial arts hype, reaching a peak in the mid-80s with countless Ninjaploitation movies, video games, and action figures. To list them all would fill an entire book on its own. I’m only naming Remco’s five inch action figure line Secret of the Ninja from 1984, the unbranded Ghost Warriors from 1985, and Select's Ninja Assassin from 1985, to give an idea of what kind of martial arts themed toys were around when UW eventually came out in 1986.

Classic Hong Kong Ninjaploitation VHS cover art, Silver Dragon Ninja (1986).

Ninja / Ninja Mission Video Game (1986).

Advertisement of Remco’s Secret of the Ninja (1984).

I’m particular naming Ghost Warriors and Ninja Assassin because zombies in samurai gear, and monsters in ninja suits certainly share a common theme with our beloved mythic fighters from the underworld. This simply seems to be the kind of stuff that kids were digging back in the days!

Ghost Warriors pic courtesy of Jason Pi.

As a Hong Kong based company, Tung Sing had the sets of many exploitation flicks right at their door step. Hong Kong – the Mekka of 70s and 80s knock-off culture! They knew what was going on. Monsters were an all time classic, wrestling boomed, ninjas boomed, so why not mixing it all up? Last but not least, concerning our silver colored monster ninja luchador on the UW packaging, there’s one iconic Japanese superhero I’d like to mention in particular. It seems like the skull faced, and red caped Golden Bat or Japanese Ogon Bat could have served as a blueprint for the UW artwork! I’d even go this far and call our UW ninja “Silver Bat” a Golden Bat knock-off! 

Golden Bat’s first appearances date back to the early 1930s, but it gained wider recognition due to three tokusatsu movies released between 1955 and 1972. It’s often referred to as the first Japanese superhero.

It seems weird that one of the first superheroes of popculture bears a skull face. Anyhow, it’s this very weird idea that Tung Sing were adopting for their creations. As the name suggests, “Underworld Warriors” were supposed to be warriors, not villains. They were supposed to be the good guys! 

Let’s draw a conclusion, before we get lost in the depths of contemplation of the relativity of good and evil. With their packaging artwork Tung Sing were extremely smart in adding more popular, and international franchises and genres to their figures. Monsters, wrestlers, ninjas, and Japanese superheroes - it’s all there. Mashed up, knocked off, and exploited in the best possible way. “Skeleton Monster Ninja Wrestlers from the Tomb“ would possibly be the perfect description for an UW figure in its packaging. The best of all worlds combined! I’d buy that for the dollar the Underworld Warriors were retailing at back in the days… or the hundreds of bucks they’re going for today.

Underworld Warriors Origins, Pt. I: MotU KOusins of Foreign Ancestry

From all the stuff that I’ve been collecting Underworld Warriors is one of the toylines that keep fascinating me the most. Maybe because its origins are still sort of a mystery. After they’ve been (re-)discovered by Justin Gammon of @weirdotoys they were anticipated as knock-off toys, or MotU KOs in particular.

Pic courtesy of Steve Seeley.

Is this true? If you look at the Underworld Warriors (UW) figures you keep wondering, what exactly are they knocking off? If they’re KOs, they should be exploiting the idea of another, probably more popular brand or franchise of the same time. Which at first sight certainly isn’t Mattel’s Masters of the Universe. 

We know that UW was released in 1986. What other spooky, weird, horror & folklore themed toys were around at that time? What instantly comes to my mind is Filmation Ghostbusters by Schaper, and The Real Ghostbusters by Kenner. Both were released in 1986. Especially the Real Ghostbusters Monsters Series, and figures like Bad-to-the-Bone Ghost, or Schaper’s Scared Stiff & Prime Evil could have had some impact. The bright, fancy colors of the UW figures were maybe inspired by the Ghostbusters designs, too.

Pic courtesy of http://www.retromagicblog.net.

Pic courtesy of http://www.horrormoviebbq.com.

Figure H, Bad-to-the-Bone Ghost. Pic courtesy of http://uzicopter.tumblr.com/

What’s that MotU “KOnnection” about? As we have seen, the same company that made the Underworld Warriors also seems responsible for those gnarly Muscle Warriors figures, a real bad Sungold Galaxy Warriors bootleg line from the 80s. Galaxy Warriors definitely was a MotU KO. Which precisely makes Tung Sing’s Muscle Warriors a bootleg of a knock-off. Does this make UW a MotU KO, as well? Just because they were manufactured by the same company?

The infamous Tung Sing Muscle Warriors ad. Pic courtesy of http://plaidstallions.com.

In 1986 the market was swamped with all kinds of 5.5″ toylines that have been labeled as MotU KOs, rightfully or not. If we look at one of them in particular we find another possible connection to the MotU KO genre. Remco’s Pirates of the Galaxseas (PotG) from 1983 included two skeleton figures, Ribs and Bones. Could it have been their design the UW creators had in mind?

Pirates of the Galaxseas Ribs, and Bones. Pic courtesy of Steve Seeley.

From the same year come the Nightmare Warriors by Multi Toys Corp (MTC). The line featured six skeletons figures depicting historic warriors. The Roman (Spartacus), the WWII US soldier (Major Bones), the native American (Geronimo), the medieval knight (Sir Lancelot), the pirate (Captain Kidd), and the Mexican general (Pancho Villa). The bodies are pretty similar to the Remco design. Because both lines were released in 1983 it’s hard to tell which of them was first. Anyway, “Underworld Warriors” definitely sounds like a straight knock-off of “Nightmare Warriors”.

Pic courtesy of http://weirdotoys.com.

Pic courtesy of Andrew Williams.

Iconic heads on skeleton bodies, could this be the idea UW was knocking off? Where Nightmare Warriors refer to historic figures of the “real” world, Tung Sing’s creations are depicting historic monsters of the underworld! Devil, Witch, Krampus, Vampire, Snake, and Reaper are icons of folklore and modern popculture, just like the classic characters of the Nightmare Warriors line-up.

As I mentioned in the beginning, Ghostbusters toys might have affected the UW designs, too. Although (licensed or unlicensed) classic monster toys and action figures have been around for years. The 70s were full of that stuff. The best known lines are maybe Mego’s Mad Monsters, and AHI’s World Famous Super Monsters.  

Spanish Mad Monsters ad, pic courtesy of http://www.megomuseum.com.

Pic courtesy of http://plaidstallions.com.

Even Remco relaunched an official line of 3.75″ and 9″ Universal Monsters in 1980/81. Imperial put out their licensed but very bootleggish looking Classic Movie Monsters in 1986, in the same year when UW came out.

Pic courtesy of http://plaidstallions.com.

Pic courtesy of http://weirdotoys.com.

Another name you come across all the time when searching for “classic” or “vintage monster toys” is Ben Cooper, Inc. The New York based company made a variety of cheap looking horror figures during the 60s, and 70s. Most notably rubber jigglers like their infamous House Haunters, which were KOs of AHI’s Super Monsters. Ben Cooper was followed by numerous other KOmpanies and bootleggers, cashing in on the enduring classic monsters franchise.  

Pic courtesy of http://universalmonsterarmy.com.

Ben Cooper’s House Haunters included three figures. A witch, a devil, and a skeleton. You can tell by the looks that these monster jigglers and Tung Sing’s UW share a certain style. They look like prizes from a sleazy, horror themed shooting gallery in the US or European backlands, somewhere between 1969 and 1989.

Pic courtesy of the Internet.

Let’s sum this up, and come back to the initial question. If they’re KOs, what exactly were Underworld Warriors knocking off? What Tung Sing was directly going after is the idea of MTC’s Nightmare Warriors. One of the many 5.5″ lines of the 80s that have been described as MotU KOs. The MTC designs remind us of the two PotG figures Ribs and Bones. As the name already suggests, Remco’s Pirates of the Galaxseas can be considered a Masters of the Universe knock-off. Although the skeletons are unique designs and stick out from the rest of the line. 

PotG ad from the 1985 Remco toy catalog. Pic courtesy of http://plaidstallions.com

Like I said, it’s hard to tell for sure if Ribs and Bones are either pre or post Nightmare Warriors. One of the designs is apparently ripping off the other, though. What I can also see is that especially Multi Toys were aping Mattel’s bent legs & arms, and body symmetry. But you don’t see much of this in the UW designs any longer. Slightly bent arms, and the 5.5 scale is all that remains.

I conclude, Underworld Warriors are possible, far related “KOusins” of Prince Adam, with a good amount of bastardly hybridized blood in their rotten veins. They’re MotU KO related, but at the same time descending from a strange, foreign ancestry. They’re also horrible cheap, “classic” monster rip-offs, following the haunted house aesthetics of Imperial, Ben Cooper, and Co.

I still wonder where those amazingly creepy head sculpts are coming from, if they’re “originals” or bootlegs of something yet unknown. The answer at the end of either of these two ways is gonna be a mindblower, that’s for sure.

KNOCK OFF WARS - First MotU-KOmic Book Ever Made Gets Released March 1st 2017

Do you know what MotU knock-off action figures were lacking? The twist waist action feature? Ha! Who actually needs that if you’re getting a crazy glitter dome-chest instead?! With real liquid inside! Hell no, it’s not the action feature, it’s the comics that were lacking! Lines like Turly Gang, Troll Fighter, or Goddess of the Ultra Cosmos had amazing background stories. Unfortunately turning them into real comics, or at least mini-comics didn’t seem to be in the budget. Time to make up for that!

After more than a year in the making, @lukaszkowalczuk​ and @toywalker​ of @underworldmuscle​ proudly present KNOCK OFF WARS - the first full length MotU-KOmic book ever made! A homage to the 5.5″ knock-off action figure genre, starring the coolest guys from your dusted KOllection shelves. 

The comic is about a hero called Primor, leader of the Turley Clan, who is going on a journey to find a mystic castle. According to an old legend, the castle holds the key to save his world from total destruction. On his perilous journey the hero is making new friends, who join him in battle against dreadful creatures and monsters. When the fellowship reaches the castle, destiny reveals itself, and nothing is what it seems.

The A5 sized, fully colored, and 36 pages strong comic book will have its release on March 1st. Priced $6.50 plus shipping, and limited to 200 copies just, it’ll be available exclusively through www.underworldmuscle.storenvy.com. Underworld Muscle will also be offering package deals with figures, t-shirts, and stuff. The “Spectaculor” and “Primor” resin action figures will be available exclusively along with the comic.

KNOCK OFF WARS is a 100% independent, and 100% independently funded project. 100% passion, 100% DIY! Please, show it all the support you can give! 

For more updates make sure to follow Underworld Muscle on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter! 

Keep it underworld! Keep it muscle! Keep it Underworld Muscle!

Black Tub Bootlegs Combo Review

Black Tub Bootlegs takes on the next level with this recent Combo review. Make sure to check out the Black Tub Bootlegs channel on YouTube, if you haven’t already! Loads of great KO and bootlegs reviews for your garbage KOllecting pleasures!

Muscle Warriors: Galaxy Warriors Bootlegs from the Trash Hole

There’s one particular MotU-KO line that lead to generations of knock-offs and bootlegs on its own. The Galaxy Warriors! Made by Sungold in 1983. 

Galaxy Warriors (GW) are the MotU-KO prototype. No other knock-off line was ripped off, recycled, and expanded as much as them. Covering the whole GW universe would be like writing a book on “The Universe’s Complete History of Uncertainty”. There’s simply no end to it with new lines popping up all the time. It’s the never ending story. And all that can save us KOllecting KOsmonauts from the big nothing - or how the Phealous put it: the Galaxy hole - is to stick to the part of the Galaxy we already know. 

The original Sungold Galaxy Warriors from 1983. 

Today I wanna focus on probably the gnarliest GW bootleg line of them all. The Muscle Warriors, or Les Super Monstres.

Not long ago we weren’t even able to tell when or by whom they were made. Packaging and figures don’t tell much in this aspect. But thanks to the revelations of Brian Heiler we learned that they were produced by a company named Tung Sing Toys in 1986, located in Hong Kong just like Sungold. Tung Sing happens to be the same company that also made the infamous Underworld Warriors btw.

I recently got my hands on a few carded Muscle Warriors from Peru. So let’s get right into it.

When I look at my carded “Anubi” sample, the first thing that hits the eye is the completely messed up spout, and the underworldish paint job. The real Anubi IMO is still the coolest looking Galaxy Warrior. I might change my mind about his Muscle Warriors (MW) counterfeit, though. This guy is just completely over the edge. He certainly has quite a story to tell though, about the horrors he’s been through.

The card art looks like it either comes from a very untalented and/or underpaid artist, or a genius child. It depicts some sort of barbarian with an axe in his hand, and a horned helmet on his head, fighting against what appears to be minotaurs? 

The barbarian’s axe looks alot like the one from the “original” GW artwork. When we put the GW and the MW artwork next to each other it’s obvious that the MW artist was knocking off the GW Frazetta bootleg*, where “Thor” is fighting against a hairy, horned creature. (*Further reading on the Frazetta Connection here -> http://galaxywarriorsbysungold.blogspot.de/p/artwork.html.) 

The original Sungold cardback.

Muscle Warriors cardback.

When we look at the MW cardback we can see the old familiar Galaxy Warriors drawings, showing the range of 12 GW figures and accessories. For some reason the figure names were left out, but not the name of the line. If the figure names were left out due to legal reasons why didn’t Tung Sing write Muscle Warriors on the back, too? They even took the effort to add a French description both on front and back of the card.

Let’s now take a closer look at what I’m guessing is the regular “whole range of [MW] figures and accessories” in direct comparison to the Sungold originals.

The whole range of Muscle Warriors.

Anubi

Spikes

Ygg

Dragoon

Thor

Sahak

Tiger Man

Huk

Baltard

Dino Man

Magnon

Triton

It seems like the “regular” MW line consists of 12 figures, just like the original GW line-up (without Raah and Deevil, which were carded as Swords & Sorcerers, and aren’t shown on the GW cardback). Except for some (not all!) accessory, Muscle Warriors aren’t straight bootlegs though. If you look at them closer you can see that they’re actually poorly made resculpts. Poor resculpts with a paint job done by blind child labourers that were using a piece of wood instead of a brush. (This is probably closer to reality than one is willing to admit. The face of “Anubi” is also telling the story of a completely fucked up economy, where the poorest of the poor were painting bootleg figures for “rich” western kids’ guilty pleasures.)

Most likely to save money on rubber bands (and to speed up production) waist and legs have been worked into one single lower MW body part. Which reduces the original GW points of articulation from six to just four. Like the GW torso, the MW one is made of two parts, allowing for shoulder and neck articulation. 

There’s (at least?) three different versions of chest plates, four different versions of weapons, and two different versions of shields. Quality and color of the accessories vary. Unlike the GW originals, MW shields don’t have stickers. Tung Sing was smart enough to invert the heraldic eagle shown on GW shield stickers, and directly sculpt it on front. The other MW shield is a straight Sungold bootleg, just like all MW weapons. AlI chest plates are resculpts. Version 1 shows some sort of inverted version of the sun, shown on the original GW armor. Version 2 is knocking off the other GW version, but with something like a castle, an eagle, or an angel on it. Hard to tell. And last but not least there’s MW version 3 that again shows the inverted GW eagle on front.

This wouldn’t be about KO’s if it wasn’t for all sorts of variations, re-boots, and weird combinations. Telling from the “Anubi” figures that I have (and their varying accessory) there must have been at least three different generations (and molds?) of Muscle Warriors.

I have a long-legged, black headed Anubi, marked “Made in China” on the back, with his snout still (?) intact. A short-legged, grey headed guy without any markings, and with his snout screwed up. And last but nut least a “middle-legged” dude, also grey headed, without markings, and with his snout completely screwed up. The grey on this guy isn’t even dyed, it’s sprayed on. I also have two MW variants of Sahak. 

For some reason Muscle Warriors were also sold as Galaxy Heroes in some places of the world. Or as Les Combattants De La Galaxie (LCdlA), which apparently consisted of only 6 instead 12 figures. I wouldn’t wonder if the back of the card was again showing the old familiar range of GW figures and accessories, though. Including the wrong name!

Pic courtesy of eBay.

There must be an explanation why both the original MW card and the LCdlA version are in French. Probably because Muscle Warriors were mainly sold in English and/or French speaking countries. Like France, Belgium, Canada… Although they were available in Middle- and South-American countries, as well. Peru f.ex., where I got my carded MW samples from. From a seller who told me that he had had the figures in storage for like 30 years. But wouldn’t make a Spanish card make more sense then? Didn’t Tung Sing had Spanish Underworld Warriors called  “Ultra Tumba Luchadores", as well?

Maybe they sold the English-French MW’s to South-American distributors simply because they still had a shit load of stock laying around? It was cheaper not to get another version of cards printed. End of story. The language thing isn’t the most interesting question anyway. It’s rather how on earth those Combo Hero / Warrior heads did end up on the other three Muscle Warriors samples that I got.

What can I say? The Galaxy Hole strikes again. Yes, it’s probably “correct” to assume that the Combo versions weren’t “official” part of the “original” MW line. Especially because they aren’t pictured on the card they were sealed on. But you know, we’re talking about Masters of the Universe knock-offs here. Leaving us with an infinite number of possible worlds, galaxies, and specimens in the Galaxy Hole’s orbit. We can never know what comes next. Another carded sample maybe, telling a completely different story of how the known universe doesn’t make any sense at all.

Skullworld Warriors: Underworld Warriors Re-Boot(-legg)ed

When I first heard the rumors, I couldn’t believe it. A Hong Kong based vinyl toy company named @skullmark was about to release a giant 10″ Underworld Warriors bootleg line?! This sounded too good to be true. I started working on my Underworld Muscle resin bootlegs about the same time, when I first heard of Skullworld Warriors. I thought it couldn’t hurt to reach out to the guys behind the project, who confirmed the rumors to be true. About a year later, I am now among the lucky ones who can call a complete set of Skullworld Warriors their own.

The original Underworld Warriors (or Ultra Tumba Luchadores, as they were called in Spanish) were made by Hong Kong based Tung Sing Toys in 1986. It’s certainly one of my favorite KO lines of all time. It featured six figures with skeleton bodies in bright colors. 

A witch, a bone head, a vamp, a snake face, a devil, and a krampus. These are also the characters that Skullmark included in their Skullworld Warriors line-up, introduced as…

Skullface

Witch

Venom

Vampire

Demon

and Krampus

After the prices for the original Underworld Warriors figures went through the roof (especially when considering that these were $1 toys back in the days!), it was probably just about time to give them the upgrade they deserve (and actually make them worth their money). 

Skullworld Warriors are upgraded Underworld Warriors in terms of size, sculpt, paint, articulation, and - last but not least - art(work)! They’re twice as big as their predecessors, and have been all new sculpted as close to the originals as you can probably get. Underworld Warriors had five points of articulation (neck, shoulders, legs). Skullworld Warriors have ten (neck, shoulders, hands, waist, legs, and feet). While Underworld Warriors look like they’ve been painted by 3-year-olds, Skullmark’s paint apps came out super clean. I’m a big fan of the original UW artwork, so this was probably the toughest part to improve. But Skullmark got no other than @lamoursupreme to do the header artwork.

All in all Skullmark did an outstanding job on their Skullworld Warriors. They certainly lack the garbage feel you get when looking at your original Underworld Warriors (you probably paid way too much money for). Skullworld Warriors are no garbage. They’re passionately crafted pieces of art, and ironically with just $80 a pop even more affordable than their older but smaller brothers. Go grab one if you want to convince yourself! 

Pirate & Simba Pirates Serie 1: Captain Terror and “Knock-Off Joe” on the Dead Man’s Chest

I know, right. The world is a bad place. Where people are killing each other for belief, lust, and greed. But it also offers such delights as toys. It just might be the other side of the coin, but… Whatever man! Let’s simply get to the good things in life, alright?

I got hands on a complete set of “Pirate” figures some weeks ago. I did come across them naked a couple of times (I mean the figures were naked, like without accessory and stuff), but never really knew what they are. I must confess, that I wasn’t a big fan of them either. But seing them all together, mint and complete in their packagings, convinced me eventually that the figures aren’t too bad after all.

Pirate figures are around 5.5″ tall, have four points of articulation (waist, neck, arms - legs are stiff), and originally came with a lot of stuff on them. Clothes, swords, glued down hats, and bubble gum vending machine wristbands! The wristbands don’t seem to make any sense at all. They’re composed of small plastic cars, animals, and telephones. Yes, sea stars, elephants, and f*** telephones! Are these pirates supposed to come from the future? 

Well, the old German zip-code on the packaging is telling us, that they must have been released before 1993. When German zip-codes were changed from a four- to a five-digit system. The packaging still has the four-digit system. Precisely, it’s the small “Alme” distribution sticker on the packaging, showing the old zip-code. It’s possible that the figures were released earlier in other places of the world. But if we think about what “Pirate” is possibly knocking off, the answer can only be Steven Spielberg’s Hook from 1991. Mattel released a movie tie-in toyline in the same year. The pirates definitely were the best part of the movie, and the toys.

If we take a look at the individual “Pirate” figures, they even show some likeness to the Hook movie characters. Or let’s rather say, we have three different versions of Smee…

and three different versions of Captain Hook making the line.

Unfortunately the back of the “Pirate” card is blank. So once again, we don’t get any names. During my research, I came across the Simba release of the same figures, though. Simba always did a good, extremely hilarious job on names. Check them out!

(Source: eBay)

Pat Bonebreaker! Blacky the Hook! Captain Terror! Crazy Woodleg! Hawk Ace, and Knify Jones! I’m curious what the names of Pirates Serie[s] 2 would have been like! Captain Bootleg, Pete Ripoff, and Knock-Off Joe? I don’t think it ever came to a Series 2, though. As far as I know, Mattel’s Hook line sold poorly. The second wave of figures is super hard to find today, because only a few toy stores in a few (European) countries carried them. Nobody seemed to care about Hook action figures really. What did the real 4″ tall Captain James Hook have on his taller 5.5″ counterfeit Captain Terror anyway? Probably nothing, except style.

The Devil Warriors: Toxic Crusaders Without Budget

Imagine Lucio Fulci did Troma’s Toxic Crusaders back in the days, but worse, with even less budget. A little Naziploitation added, and the Devil Warriors would have been the outcome! Oh boy, my brain goes pop inside when I’m thinking about it. It would have turned out as one of the coolest TV shows ever! Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be. The Devil Warriors ended up as shitty 99 cents toys - sold at gas stations, drug stores, and low-end retail markets. 

The line (most likely) featured six nameless characters: A skull dude, two melted face dudes (one with a helmet, and one with a bandana), a punk rocker, an exposed brain dude, and a werewolf. The sculpts are truly underworldish, bad in the best possible way! All figures feature the same body, which looks pretty much like a WW2 Wehrmacht uniform to me (hence the Naziploitation link). The body was also put to use for “Amicable Herculean”, another shitty 90s KO-wabunga toy line, that was probably made by the same company. (”Satyr Masters from Abyss” belong to the same family. But we’ll look into these later.)

Devil Warriors were only marked “China” or “Made in China”. The packagings don’t tell us much either. No. 618 “Made in China” is all we get. The back of the card is blank. We can’t even be sure about the year they were made in. We either can’t tell if there weren’t more figures in the line than just the confirmed six. (As if 80s / 90s KO manufacturers would have ever given a shit about what’s on the card, on what figures you were able to get, HAHA!) There are also rumors that Devil Warriors were sold as “P.O.W. - Prisoners of War” in the 90s, featuring the same artwork. I’ve never seen a carded sample of it though. But this would sorta place the figures in the “Vietploitation” genre, as well. That’s also where the artwork is heading.

Retrospectively, it’s hard to tell what particularly the Devil Warriors were knocking off. It’s a toxic, mind-blowing cocktail of all sorts of things. Zombieploitation, Naziploitation, Vietploitation, TMNT, Toxic Crusaders... You name it! Since we don’t have a company or year on the figures, we can only rely on the oral history-telling going on in the toy KOmmunity. Toys have a “zeitgeist”, too. Which means you can never seperate a toy from the historical period it was made in. If we sum things up (figure style, esthetics etc.), and take an additional look at the circumstances in Western politics throughout the 90s in particular, the Devil Warriors must have been released between the Gulf War in 1991 and Operation Desert Fox in 1998. With a new war emerging, it seems like these toys catched kids’ and people’s nightmares of that time right on point. That’s how another great, and also frightening piece of toy history has been made.

(References: Collection pics are courtesy of Milad K., Steve Seeley, hycinthsomber, and myself.)

Two-Face Monster: One Green Dot to Rule Them All

It’s been four years since my posts on OverTop Man and the Mannix Connection. The personal KOllection’s been growing over the years. So did the KOmmunity, and the knowledge. After the splitting of Rocklord’s old Mannix KOllection, it seemed that the world’s biggest Mannix archive was lost forever. But thanks to the dedicated effort of KOllectors like Billy DeWitt aka waywardmonk, some sort of order came back into the completely clusterfucked Mannix thing. Billy put together a very good overview of Mannix related releases. In this post I want to focus on a particular one, called Two-Face Monster, of which I recently got four figures MOC in a trade.

Two-Face Monster figures basically are fantasy themed, recycled Mannix bodies, sporting weird two-faced heads with a monster, and a human face. The line consisted of four characters. 

It seems their makers didn’t have enough time to come up with any names. That’s why I’ll call them Owl, Boneface, Dragon, and Boar. Now guess who’s who!

What I like about the packaging is the Yin-Yan themed piece in the top right corner, showing a dragon and a knight circling around a green orb. That’s actually the whole backing story you need. The man and the beast, finally fused as one? Unfortunately what the packaging isn’t telling us, is when Two-Face Monster was made. It must have been after the initial Mannix Wrestlers release, though. Probably around ‘93 or ‘94. What we do have, is a company logo.

Although I’m not sure if this represents a real toy company, or just some fake brand. The packaging also tells us, that the figures were distributed in Europe. As you can see on the European CE and the Green Dot recycling symbol... Wait. A Green Dot recycling symbol? Didn’t I just say Two-Face Monster was probably made around ‘94? Actually this particular Green Dot symbol hasn’t been created before 1999. Which means, Two-Face Monster is infact a very late 90s or rather even an early 2000s release! Which would place them right in the era of the first Lord of the Rings movie (2001). Makes sense, huh? I’d say that’s exactly what the fantasy styled Yin-Yan symbol is knocking off. The everlasting battle of good and evil, and the ring (or the eye of Sauron?) in the middle.

This wouldn’t be about Mannix styled figs though, if there wasn’t also altered, smaller Two-Face Monsters around. And their creators didn’t stick to the same paint scheme all the time, either.

The smaller Two-Face Monsters are around 5″. They’re in scale with previous MCT releases (OverTop Man, Monster Warriors). Unlike the MCT figures, they don’t bear the “MCT Made in China 1993 UK USA China” stamp. Unfortunately I’ve never seen any of the smaller figures carded, but it makes perfect sense to place them in the same era as their taller counterparts. But since we’re talking KO’s, you can never be sure until a carded sample shows up. Maybe they belong to another line, from another year, and Two-Face Monster is just a bootleg in the vein of the emerging LotR mania? According to my theory, they were just smaller editions though, just like we had bigger and smaller OverTop Man figures (going under slightly altered names such as Top Man, and Top Warrior).

The head sculpts of the taller Two-Face Monsters differ slightly from the smaller ones. But I’d still say that they have the same handwriting. They’re not as smooth as the MCT figures, but you can clearly see how the modeler was influenced by previous Mannix styled figures. 

Splendid! you think, order restored, Middlearth is saved? Haha, foolishness! Never forget that we’re talking KO’s, which mystically sounds pretty much like Chaos. Amor fati! Just when you think order has prevailed, stuff like this

keeps happening. All the time. Oh well, screw you Sauron and your cursed brute!

Knocking Off the Universe! The Insane MotU-KOllection of Ben David Krete

“Knocking Off the Universe” isn’t just the title of a book that I’m dreaming of - a book focussing on the endless subject of MotU-KOs. These’re also the words that describe the feelings that I had in the best way, after my KOllecting friend Ben sent me recent pictures of his man cave. Ben’s been in the KO game for about 5 years. I got to know him through trades, and endless online chats concerning our hobby. Within a handful of years, he put together one of the most definite MotU-KOllections out there. It covers pieces of pretty much everything that has been exploiting the 5.5 muscle action figure genre in the 80s, 90s and probably early 00s. From “common” stuff like Galaxy Warriors and Combo, to uncommon specimen like Defenders of the Planets, End of Time and Turly Gang, to rarities like Speclatron, Space Patrol II, and Sun Man - it’s all there! Prepare to get blown away.

Quite an archive, huh?

Keeping it Underworld (Muscle): New Indie 5.5″ Neo-Vintage Toyline and KOmic Book Underway!

The cat’s out of the bag. After @lukaszkowalczuk came up with his artworks for the article I (@toywalker) wrote for Zlam Magazine, it became clear to me, that this needs to be turned into something bigger. So I sat down over the holidays, and put together a script, which Lukasz will be turning into a “Knock Off Wars” KOmic book. It’s gonna be fun. Alot of fun, and we can’t wait to get this thing out. But, first of all... since we both have our small families to support, we need a way to get this project funded.

I had this idea of a brand new bootleg series of 5.5 action figures locked up in my brain for some time. And after that Muscle Warriors ad from Brian Heiler’s collection turned up, I knew I had to make this idea become reality, rather sooner than later. The name: Underworld Muscle! A mash-up of the legendary Underworld Warriors head sculpts and the Muscle Warriors body.

Originally, my intention was to find a way to get this line mass produced. But after some investigation, I figured that this would be too much of a big project on its own, with alot of money involved. Money, that I don’t have. Crowdfunding is not an option really. I’ve seen happening too many shit with toy stuff on Kickstarter, that I don’t really wanna jump on that bandwagon. 

At the end of the day, both Lukasz and me are kids of the DIY era. And we want to keep it that way. Underground! Or rather, Underworld! We decided to get the project financed on our own. The idea is to get the KOmic project funded with the money from the sales of the Underworld Muscle figures, made of resin in my very own lab. Upcoming Knock Off Wars shirts will add a few more bucks to the stack of cash as well, that we will need to get the KOmic book done.

In order to make the look of the line as authentic as possible, I got my KOllecting friend and artist Steve Seeley on board, to do the packaging art. Lukasz did a fantastic job on the UWM logo design, too!

The first series of Underworld Muscle figures will go up on sale next Friday, January 16th, over at http://underworldmuscle.storenvy.com. Both loose and carded versions will be available. The shirts should be following in February.

So, please! If you like what you see, support us! Buy the Underworld Muscle figures! Help us to get the Knock Off Wars KOmic book out!

“Bronc, der Superfighter”. Turly Gang 2 Reveals Itself!

Another KO mystery is solved! KOllecting brethren Steve Seeley was right all the time. The legend of Turly Gang 2 is true! 

The figure shown on the following pictures was auctioned on eBay on November 11th, 2015. The mysterious Lazer Force / Machine Force repaint that has been lurking unidentified in some KOllections for so many years, is actually part of the infamous Turly Gang. It’s called “Bronc, [the] Superfighter”. 

Oddly enough, the bio on front of the German packaging says: “Nobody really knows where he’s coming from, this lonesome Superfighter who supports the Turly-Gang as a tough [combatant] for justice.”

Bronc’s bio implicates, that there should be just one of his kind. Although other variants are known, that have the same Turly-Gangish color scheme. We know of a pink “Superfighter” with Galaxy Warriors Magnon head in a blue suit, and another green guy in an also green suit featuring Galaxy Warriors Triton head. There’s different sets of accessory around, as well. The back of Bronc’s packaging shows just him with helmet (next to the same old Turly Gang backing story), in a different armor than the figure eventually came with. Note the colors! On the back of the box, we see a pink, purple, dark-green, and light-green mech-suit. The figure actually seems to be a brown Machine Force buck. The gun is different, as well.

Pic courtesy of motu_kollector on Instagram.

Apparently, Euro-Play did a similar cluster-fuck like with their regular Turly Gang cardback. Instead of picturing a real production sample, a slightly customized, kit-bashed Machine Force / Lazer Force figure was put to use. I wouldn’t wonder, if the Triton- and the Magnon headed guys actually have been boxed as Broncs, too. Just like Euro-Play gave us two versions of Primus and Sekundos.

Pic courtesy of Steve Seeley.

So far, so good. One mystery solved, many others remain. Probably the most tickling question is, who the hell that crazy TMNT Leonardo bootleg on Bronc’s packaging is supposed to be.