Suckerman : a review 23 years in the making!

   





I will be the first to say that I have very few wants that go unanswered. It's the result of a lifetime having to budget myself and using my hobby to feed my hobby by selling lesser pieces for something more desirable. I often do hit walls where certain toys are just either not worth the price tag to me or just simply having eyes bigger than my wallet; sometimes you just have to let go of the desire to have a 4 foot tall Gamera in your living room. I've nearly had my hands on everything I ever wanted by having a really good working relationship with other sellers and collectors, mainly because I understand everyone needs to make money and not being afraid to put money on the table for something I really want. But there's been one piece that's eluded me for years, just because it's importance slipped further and further down my want list. I happily added him to the collection this month for $15.

Suckerman was released by Mattel in 1978 to combat the influx of space and alien themed toys brought on by the Star Wars craze. Granted Mattel was riding the wave of their imported Shogun Warriors, but was dabbling in some house brand characters to lead their sales. In this time they created unique boys toys like Grey-Gory the Vampire Bat and Krusher but they needed an alien to spearhead an outerspace line up. Aptly named Suckerman, his rubery, lanky body is covered in 26 suction cups, giving him the uncanny ability to stick to nearly any smooth surface with ease. Sadly though, Suckerman was the only character in the line. He was released in a rainbow of different colors, hardest to find in black and glow in the dark but easier to find in other colors.

(you can tell it's Mattel!)

With Mattel's history being a predominantly girl brand company they had some success in the late 60s with a little line known as Major Matt Mason, which would have been perfect for a reboot in the late 70s but Mattel opted for something fresh. It was a cool idea, the package encouraged you to throw him against the wall and watch him in action and the sculpting was really decent; you could tell they had a lot of faith in Suckerman not failing them at retail. The more I look at him, to me he screams 60s sci-fi with his scaly skin and fanged bat-like head. Suckerman's legacy at Mattel wasn't as illustrious as say He-Man but it's still a worthy footnote in toy history, he just had the rotten luck of being created in the wrong decade.

In person, Suckerman lives up to the hype I created in my head over this toy. I can imagine being much younger I would have had a ball with it. As an adult, I mostly use it to creep my wife out by sticking him to the wall in the shower or to the bedroom ceiling fan, which is equally fulfilling to my inner child. Suckerman looks great next to the toys of that era like Stretch Armstrong, Grey-Gory, Krusher, Micronauts, and assorted Mego and other 8 inch figure lines of the era. The only problem I've encounted so far is properly displaying Suckerman. He doesn't stand on his own and the suction cup gives out after a little while, so I'm stuck on how to display him.

Raging Nerdgasm: My soft spot for glow in the dark toys

I collect a lot of toys. That should be appearant when fans watch my videos, read my blogs or visit my website. Most of the time I have a list of requirements a toy has to meet before I buy it. Monsters, robots, Japanese/Import toys, DC comics, Batman's rogues gallery, Batman the animated series, bootleg, knock off, obscure, unique looking, vintage (older than 25 years), Mego, sci-fi movie, horror movie, ETC. That's just a small example of these requirements, it goes on and on and it's reflected in the diversity of my collection. Mr. Freeze standing next to Blanka from Street Fighter 2, Batman pulling the arm off of a Resident Evil zombie and Godzilla fighting Schwarzenegger from Commando is just a portion of the madness you might witness on my shelves. But there is one stipulation alone that beats all, the elusive glow-in-the-dark feature.

(green glowing gun from Toxic Crusaders)

(glowing boobs, always a fan favorite)

(mint in package, guaranteed to keep your virginity the same way) 

(a send off to the original)

(groovy green glow)

(Atomic Cornholio!)

I can't explain it, I really like toys that glow in the dark. Whether it's the full figure or just a part of it (hands, face, eyes, weapons), I'm strangely drawn to it like a moth to a flame. I've bought toys I normally would pass up and kept toys I'd normally sell or trade just because it glows. I recently picked up a Bison from the Street Fighter movie figures that I would have probably sold or traded but when I noticed his hands glowed in the dark, he found himself sitting on top of my dresser. I've bought and kept kids meal toys, blind boxed vinyl, GI Joes and other lines I'd normally pass over just because it said glow-in-the-dark on the box. I've even bought silly repaints/repackaged figures because it glowed (i.e- "Radioactive" Cornholio from the Beavis and Butthead figure series).

(one of the few MOTUC figures I kept)

(good to point out to many folks who are just as interested in GITD toys, kids meals often have them)

(reissued Marx Universal monsters set)

(Burger King Kid's Meal Kid Vid)

(glowing trolls, you can die happy)

(exposed skin and guts glow, just the right ambient light for a horror marathon)

(didn't even know that his hands glowed till I was sorting the weekend's finds)

Maybe it's slight insanity, possibly it's the pleasant green color that radiates out from the toy or it could just be a mental defect in me caused by the lead in the plastic but I enjoy my glow-in-the-dark toys. I know everyone has their toy quirks, not that I feel bad about mine. Some people like mini figure toys, some collect exclusively 1/6th scale figures; while I don't restrict myself to one genre I do enjoy hunting down GITD figures. There aren't many of them out there, so it makes it a fun challenge and I can't say I'm obsessed because I have passed up toys that glowed that I thought were less than interesting in my time. What's your toy collecting quirk? I want to know, I know every collector has one and now I'm curious what my fellow readers like.

(it must run in the family, this is in my mom's collection of dolls)

Brian Pulido's Lady Demon from Chaos! Comics by Moore Action Collectibles

The short lived Lady Death action figure series was the first venture by Moore Action Collectibles back in the late 1990's. A four figure series consisting of Lady Death, Lady Demon, Evil Ernie and Purgatory was released through comic book distributors worldwide, but that wasn't including all the paint variations released over the next 2 years. I mean, who doesn't love large breasted, scantly clad female embodiments of pure evil? Why not own one that glows in the dark? I'm sure it's guaranteed to keep your virginity mint in package as long as you own it.

I feel fortunate that my mother wasn't only cool with me buying the figures, but actually bought the whole set for me Christmas of 1998. All 4 figures, the 12 inch Lady Death figure and a glow in the dark Evil Ernie variant awaited me in a box along with assorted CD's and t-shirts. Sure, they are silly and ill proportioned mini statues (due to the serious lack of articulation by today's standards), but they represent a bound towards a more adult oriented toy collecting world.

With the success of more grown up comic book characters like Spawn, Wetworks and Lady Death; a need for a toy market was created. Granted, toy companies like Hasbro and Mattel would never touch properties like these and would never imagine that they'd one day have to share toy store shelf space with them. Independent toy companies sprung up like Moore Action Collectibles and McFarlane Toys that not only catered to a more adult market, but were created by the artists themselves who created content. These companies flourished and acquired more licenses, even some licenses that you wouldn't come close to associating with the original format of those companies ( ie- Mcfarlane Sports Picks).

I picked up this beauty at the Yancy Street Comic Con December 18^th 2011 in a 3 for $10 box. Mostly I got it for fluff because the main figure that drew me in was $5 alone. But, I've grown attached to it, you just don't see this level of detail much anymore. Clayburn Moore had been known for years sculpting statues. His name is just as well known in the sculpting world as Bowen. Considering these figures retailed around $12-$15 about eleven years ago, $3.33 1/3 is a heck of a decent price. Even if I get tired of it and sell it I'm sure someone would buy it off me for around the same price