Hellboy!

I likes me some Hellboy! With the Dark Knight going on and Batman / Joker week here on the blog I neglected to talk about Hellboy!



I was introduced to Hellboy through a toy, not this one, but the first one that looks like it stepped out of Batman the Animated Series. I knew he had his own comic, but I was drawn to the toy first. That attraction carried over into the comics, cartoons, movies, and these comic based toys from Mezco Toys. I immediately loved the look and feel of these things. They really look like they stepped out of one of Mike Mignola's pages.



This version of our big, red hero is a special edition that was sold online at Mezco's site and I believe one of the Comic Conns. Even though it was sold online it was hard to get. So one day I'm talking to our factory rep in China and we are talking about what we collect and it turns out we both had some Hellboy figures! Well months pass and I get an e-mail that one of his buddies works for the factory that produces these and he gave him a few samples, would I be interested. I said yes and in a few weeks the special edition Hellboy and a couple of others from the BPRD arrive on my desk at work!



Did I mention getting toys at work is just as cool as getting them at home? Hellboy came packaged with his usual Big Ass Gun, trench coat, and six disembodied vampire heads. Disembodied Japanese vampire heads to be exact. Straight form the funny pages!

Needless to say I was thrilled, I was expecting a regular Hellboy, but to open the package and find this guy, wow! So what were we talking about? Oh the movie. I saw the movie before Dark Knight and loved it, Hellboy never seems to take itself too seriously, and it was a steady moving story. It was a great Saturday afternoon flick.

So with this expect to see a few Hellboy posts here and there!

ONE!

During a trip to China back in 2000 a friend and I were visiting a factory and as we were taking the usual tour of the facilities we saw a prototype of this actual toy. I say prototype because they were still in the process of fitting parts and electronics, and testing some of the features. I made a comment that I loved that show when I was a kid, but we didn't have toys like this when I was a kid. The lead engineer on the project told me they would send me a sample when they went into production and a few months later this bad boy showed up on my doorstep.



So to end Thunderbird Week on a bang and have a Freebie Friday Feature I couldn't think of a better item. This is from Carlton Toys and was released in 2000 - 2001. Standing at about 15", Thunderbird 1 is full of awesome detail for a child's plaything. Besides hosting sound F/X and phrases from the show, Thunderbird 1 has working wings and landing gear, opening canopy and cockpit side hatch, plus an opening equipment storage bay. Included with this "playset" is Thunderbird 1's pilot, Scott Tracey, his hover bike and on location Mission Control Computer (remember laptops were not exactly around at this time).


If you are or were a fan of the show you will appreciate the little detail of the pilot seat that rotates as the craft assumes it's standard flight attitude. Thunderbird 1 takes of like a rocket and once in the air it levels out to fly like a plane. Words can't describe the effort that went into this toy, so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.



Could you imagine getting this as a child? Carlton also released a Thunderbird 3 and Thunderbird 2 playset! How cool is that?!?