Thundercats! Hoooooooooo!
Back in November I was out shopping for Christmas gifts and found several of the rebooted Thundercats toys from Bandai on clearance at Giant Tiger, a discount chain which has now gone out of business. My oldest nephew is just about the right age for them I thought, so I picked up four figures and a Thundertank for a modest $20. A few weeks later he was happily helping the Thundercats put the run on Mumm-Ra amidst the detritus of Christmas wrapping paper, boxes and relatives recovering from turkey dinner. I was simply amazed at how much he loved these toys. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, because I really loved Thundercats as a kid too.
The younger of the two was also enamoured with them, most notably Snarf and the sidecar launching feature of the Thundertank. Grandpa couldn't reconnect the sidecars quickly enough!
A few weeks later I had largely forgotten about the toys, until walking through a London Drugs in search of an eye dropper for my painting table. I happened upon a little box of chibi-style T-Cats figs that I thought would make a nice little gift for my younger nephew, so that he could have his own set to play with. I grabbed those and continued on my search for the eye-dropper, until I rounded a corner and happened upon the Christmas clearance toys.
They had a nearly-full assortment of the 4" basic figures, as well as the Tower of Omens play set on sale for $1 and $5 each, respectively. There were two towers there, so I bought one for the boys and I simply couldn't resist and had to pick up some for myself. I've saved the Tower play set for the next time the kids visit. Six figures and a massive play set for myself though, all for $11, score!
Now that I had the start of a collection I had to finish it off. I picked up a 6" Lion-O and Mumm-Ra a few days later, because $3 each was too damn cheap not to. Sadly, I couldn't track down much of the rest of the 4" line locally and had to resort to higher online prices (and shipping) in order to complete my set. Apparently $1 toys sell rather quickly, who would have thought!?
Mumm-Ra in mummy form, Panthro and the Thundertank cost me another $50 from Big Bad Toy Store, with about 40% of that being shipping costs. I found Mumm-Ra's Storm Charger locally at Winners for $5. Don't worry, the kids got one to share too, along with the chibi-cats I mentioned earlier (I still have the Tower, but plan on giving it to them soon). Wilykat was obtained via eBay for $9, and Grune the Warrior and the Lizard Cannon w/ Lizard figure cost another $55, including the shipping from ToyWiz (great store, but ridiculous shipping costs). I had briefly considered buying the Armor of Omens as well, but with no nostalgic-appeal, I passed on that.
In retrospect I wish I had bought all of these back at Giant Tiger back in November because they were almost all available and the whole batch would have been much cheaper. Of course I was thinking gifts for the kids not toys for myself, as I have largely given up collecting toys and been concentrating more on 28~32mm miniatures. I guess those are just small toys for big people though! However, now that I've acquired all of these, I do feel it's rather a shame that the line and new show was cancelled after only a single season. The cartoon was quite fun, and I'd have liked to see a second season.
I have been unable to find a deluxe Slithe figure so far, as apparently that one was extremely difficult to come by in retail at the end of the toy line.
Back in November I was out shopping for Christmas gifts and found several of the rebooted Thundercats toys from Bandai on clearance at Giant Tiger, a discount chain which has now gone out of business. My oldest nephew is just about the right age for them I thought, so I picked up four figures and a Thundertank for a modest $20. A few weeks later he was happily helping the Thundercats put the run on Mumm-Ra amidst the detritus of Christmas wrapping paper, boxes and relatives recovering from turkey dinner. I was simply amazed at how much he loved these toys. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, because I really loved Thundercats as a kid too.
The younger of the two was also enamoured with them, most notably Snarf and the sidecar launching feature of the Thundertank. Grandpa couldn't reconnect the sidecars quickly enough!
A few weeks later I had largely forgotten about the toys, until walking through a London Drugs in search of an eye dropper for my painting table. I happened upon a little box of chibi-style T-Cats figs that I thought would make a nice little gift for my younger nephew, so that he could have his own set to play with. I grabbed those and continued on my search for the eye-dropper, until I rounded a corner and happened upon the Christmas clearance toys.
They had a nearly-full assortment of the 4" basic figures, as well as the Tower of Omens play set on sale for $1 and $5 each, respectively. There were two towers there, so I bought one for the boys and I simply couldn't resist and had to pick up some for myself. I've saved the Tower play set for the next time the kids visit. Six figures and a massive play set for myself though, all for $11, score!
Now that I had the start of a collection I had to finish it off. I picked up a 6" Lion-O and Mumm-Ra a few days later, because $3 each was too damn cheap not to. Sadly, I couldn't track down much of the rest of the 4" line locally and had to resort to higher online prices (and shipping) in order to complete my set. Apparently $1 toys sell rather quickly, who would have thought!?
Mumm-Ra in mummy form, Panthro and the Thundertank cost me another $50 from Big Bad Toy Store, with about 40% of that being shipping costs. I found Mumm-Ra's Storm Charger locally at Winners for $5. Don't worry, the kids got one to share too, along with the chibi-cats I mentioned earlier (I still have the Tower, but plan on giving it to them soon). Wilykat was obtained via eBay for $9, and Grune the Warrior and the Lizard Cannon w/ Lizard figure cost another $55, including the shipping from ToyWiz (great store, but ridiculous shipping costs). I had briefly considered buying the Armor of Omens as well, but with no nostalgic-appeal, I passed on that.
I have been unable to find a deluxe Slithe figure so far, as apparently that one was extremely difficult to come by in retail at the end of the toy line.
Comments
Very Envious mate!
The cartoon was a reason to race home after school too! It was a sad day when the local station decided not to air season two :(