The wonderful world of Celestra: Queen of the Transforming Dolls

The toy world has seen a lot of strange things. It's a vast, expansive world full of legendary licenses, the mediocre, the uninspired and plenty of pretenders clawing for whatever glory they can attain. I consider myself a perpetual student of my craft, there is no one person that knows everything about toys made in modern history. Anyone who claims to be all knowing is a damn liar, I've gone toe-to-toe with the best and left them defeated and yet I've been bested in a game of wits based on toy knowledge. But enough comparing peckers, we are here to talk about the toys.

I'm a sucker for obscure toys, the only down side of obscure toys is the price tags they carry. Most of the time they are artificially inflated but there are few times where I can say the price reflects it's actual value. Now some people get terms confused when I say obscure and bootleg. A bootleg can be obscure but a bootleg is usually an unlicensed reproduction or facsimile of a popular line or character made out of usually substandard materials. An obscure figure can be anything from a licensed toy from a well done line (IE- Scratch from TMNT) or a non-licensed figure from a line made to capitalize on the success of another line (or simply put, a knock off). Knock off figures are most of the time made to play with the figures from whatever line they are trying to mimic but what happens when a figure transcends the borders a couple of genres? Well, you are left with the brilliantly half baked toy I've painstakingly built up so much in the last two paragraphs. I have a flair for dramatics and wordy expositions, those of you who have trudged through it are rewarded.

Celestra was reportedly Queen of the Kingdom of Transforming Dolls. It's a tiny soveriegn nation with a known registry of 4 known citizens; Queen Celestra, Vulcania Thrusterbottom, Saturnia Rings and Zarla Mercedes-Benz. I'm assuming Zarla is a widow as I have never met anyone else claiming citizenship of Transforming Doll Kingdom. As far as I know the nation doesn't have a spot on the UN security council which I feel is in poor taste because who else can properly save the world from the threat of WMDs if it isn't a team of women from a land where everyone transforms into some kind of mechanical conveyance? I don't see France stepping forward with a transforming Eiffel tower or croissant or anything like that.

Placo Toys made the transforming dolls. Now Placo hasn't really made much of a dent in the toy world and as far as I can tell they still exist. They found a convenient nitch by making a lot of generic toys that can be easily turned into licensed products with a well placed graphic slapped on it like ping-pong ball guns, flashlights, garbage cans and keychains. Other than Celestra their only other action figure forays seem to be 8 inch tall boxed Universal Monsters (similar to the carded or tagged Imperial ones) and some incredibly dull Youngblood figures (before McFarlane toys did them quasi-justice). One thing I can say they did well other than these Celestra figures were the die-cast and articulated Star Wars key chains and figural Mortal Kombat key chains that trumped everything Jazwares ever did with the Mortal Kombat license.

The Celestra dolls are 4 1/2 inch articulated female figures with rooted hair and a comb accessory. Not enough figures today come with combs, I literally have jars of swords and guns but very few combs. Each of the dolls are removable from their transforming cocoons but I can't verify if the cocoons are interchangeable. The idea of a transforming dolls is madness, but I guess gender ambiguous kids had a big share of the market back in the 80s. I'm not sure if a young me would have been drawn to these or not, I can't begin to think I'd choose it over a Go-Bot or a clearance Super Natural figure. It's not a Reese's Cup, these are two tastes that don't taste great together and it looks like the toy you'd see if you were stuck at a CVS or Walgreen's picking up medicine. But my appreciation of older and obscure toys makes this toys all that much cooler in my adult life.

Star Wars Storm Trooper 15 inch bootleg from Mexico

(Star Wars: Episode Dos, Attack of the Hombres)

Mexico; land of great food, awesome professional wrestling and highly sought after bootleg toys. Star Wars bootlegs range from very shoddy constructed hunks of plastic to really well made toys that rival what Hasbro makes. Often these figures are considerably bigger than the originals they are molded from or modeled after. In the toy world, bigger isn't always better. Bigger figures sometimes feel kind of plain due to lack of details or paint applications. This particular figure may be big, but it doesn't disappoint in any way. Bigger than any Storm Trooper that came before it, I give you the Taco Trooper.

(Nooooooooo!)

(Carmen Miranda meets a galaxy far, far away)

I had heard of this particular bootleg several years ago when I started getting into Jumbo Machinders (Shogun Warriors). On several of the message boards, a well known collector and forum contributor posted pictures of the same bootleg I'm talking about today in it's original packaging (a cellophane baggie with a cardboard header, fairly traditional for Mexican bootlegs) standing next to a 3 ¾ inch Storm Trooper from the vintage Kenner line. I was dead set on finding and buying this bootleg but never found it. Years passed by and even though I placed the acquisition of this bootleg very high on my list of must haves, I had never come across one. In the time it took me to find this one piece I moved, got married, bought over 25 collections, four Jumbo Shogun Warriors, a Blue Snaggletooth, 3 Dinosaucers, 3 Tiger Sharks, a whole set of Bandai Tick figures on the card, a complete set of Dune figures and fleshed out my sofubi collection from one shelf to half my living room. The day I received this piece was definitely a day for celebration.

Standing a full 3 inches taller than the 12 inch Storm Trooper, this bootleg is automatically impressive. The plastic used is a little thinner than what you'd find used in a Jumbo Shogun Warrior with a very unfinished, raw texture. The white plastic is detailed with black paint, sloppily spray painted in the right spots. The only other notable thing about the figure is the scaled reproduction blaster that comes rubber banned to the leg. Back when this figure came out, toys like the Gentle Giant large scale Kenner repros were merely a dream and now they are a reality. Was this figure the inspiration for a bigger company to come out with a superior product or was it just a great toy that was forgotten before it's time? I'm rather fond of it and if you found yourself desiring one for your own collection, I wish you lots of luck.

(the next three pics are from www.theswca.com)

Mexican bootleg Ultraman by unknown maker

Viva Mexico!

Mexican bootlegs are a branch of toy collecting I wish I could get more involved in. It's such a bizarre genre of toy collecting. There's no list of what was made, so who knows if you have a complete set or not. They are meant to be a novelty of sorts, which would drive completists absolutely mad. If you find something that catches your eye, buy it quickly because who knows if they made 10 or 10,000 of that figure. I'm not one to say something like that, one of my base rules of collecting is there's rarely only one of anything; but this isn't normal toy collecting. I have friends that own small armies of Homer from the Simpsons as every DC and Marvel character imaginable and near full sets of vintage Star Wars figures made out of lead. I own a few bizarre figures myself, from “Big Chap” from Aliens to E.T (bagged as a character known only as Space Friend) and today's topic of discussion, Ultraman.

Bought off of an eBay auction in mid December, this particular Ultraman figure has no maker's marks or indentifying symbols. This isn't a surprise since most unlicensed Mexican figures are void of such markings. The figure is molded in silver plastic, possibly blow molded like most figures just like him from south of the border. No paint applications on the toy anywhere nor any traces of paint lead me to the conclusion that this figure was meant to just be a silver hunk of plastic. The only confusing thing about the figure is the gym shorts sculpted on the figure. The ridge on the head is an Ultraman trait as well as the chest piece, but the booty shorts left me scratching my head. I know toys such as him are often sold by sidewalk vendors, especially in front of Luchador exhibitions. Maybe the figure was meant to represent a certain masked wrestler, the mystery may never be solved to be honest. Enjoy!