This Battle Troll was sort of the 'one that got away' and the irony of that being a fish reference on a toy that is a scuba diver is not lost on me. It was back in 1993-94 when Kay-Bee Toys was clearing house of their Battle Trolls stock. As I was still somewhat invested in the line, Series 3 being seen was exciting for me. However, I only had so much money and even though Jack CousTroll here was pretty awesome looking with a great color palette, I went with the very cool Wolfman Troll. My guess is so he could hang out with FrankenTroll and try to form a Universal Monsters Troll coalition. Contents! What do you get??
The standard fare with all Battle Trolls is 2 weapons: 1 is typically an 'action weapon' with a finger-flick operated projectile launcher of some kind, usually one that fits the theme of the troll in question. The second one is a solid PVC accessory either in the form of a melee or ranged weapon. There are a few exceptions to this rule, but today's review sample is not one of them. Jack CousTroll comes with a really nice little black knife with a serrated edge and a totally awesome (and incredibly neon...) harpoon launcher.
"*Glub glub glub!*" (Translation: "Don't do anything fishy!")
Nothing says bad-ass like a harpoon with a face on it.
Perfect for filleting your foes!
Okay cool, tell us about 'em!
Jack CousTroll, a parody of the famous ocean explorer, Jacque Cousteau is your standard scuba diver but with a Battle Troll twist. I don't know what it is about this guy, but all the colors and the design just really looks awesome to me. They really nailed the design of this guy 100% and by far he's one of, if not my favorite to date from the line. The green hair, blue skin, dark blue wet suit, bright orange flippers, goggles, belt, breathing tank and wrist watch just work together so perfectly. Articulation is extremely limited here as it is on all Battle Troll figures. With only a single waist swivel, Jack here can't pull off a lot of poses but they sculpted his arms in a good position and cut the waist at a great angle. The angle of the waist cut and the position of the arms really affects what your battle troll can do with it's weapons, some have useless articulation where others are near perfect so you really need to check out every toy if you are a stickler for articulation.
Jack CousTroll (Left Side)
Jack CousTroll (Front)
Jack CousTroll (Angled Front View)
Jack CousTroll (Rear View)
The sculpting detail on this guy, despite not looking as busy as other toys, has a lot of nice easter eggs hidden all over him. From a knife sculpted as if it were strapped to his left arm, a sea horse chillin' out on his right thigh and a pretty nice orange deep-sea wrist watch, the sculptor did their best to make it seem like this Battle Troll would be ready for some ocean diving.
Arm knife
It's a Sea Horse!!
Stylish AND functional up to 500 feet!
And then there is this thing. Apparently it's supposed to be an octopus, but it was hit with a 'troll ray' and is now the stuff of nightmares. It's a nice touch but good God is it freaky looking.
It..just keeps staring at me....
GAHH!! Stop it! STOP IT!!!
Okay, moving on to his Bio Card. Another cool thing about this line is Hasbro really went all out despite the concept being so incredibly goofy, so each Battle Troll has a information card right on the back of the packaging. I took an extra nice shot of it so if any of you guys at home have this toy but are missing the bio card, feel free to save a copy for your own enjoyment.
(Clip & Collect!)
Should I try to get this brand new?:
Oh of course! Especially since the pink harpoon is very thin and if not handled gently by previous owners, I could see that getting snapped in half without even trying. Plus, his black knife is kinda small and easily lost so I don't foresee loose samples of this toy easily being complete. The condition of the hair will also be better if it is carded as the oils in human hands can muck with the faux fur used to create that troll hair look. So what do you really think about it?:
This is easily one of my favorite Battle Troll toys to date. The sculpting, the color, the accessories really makes this a home run for me. Plus his hands are are a good angle allowing him to hold his weapons well and point them at enemies, which is more then I can say for other battle trolls in this line. Totally worth it, if you see it for a price & condition you like, buy it.
If you don't like reading reviews and want to see and hear me blather on about Jack CousTroll, check out the video below:
Battle Troll month continues next Wednesday, so be sure to come back here & check the YouTube channel for more pictures and videos.
Ah Battle Trolls...I remember this line well. It was 1992, I was 12 years old and still enjoyed buying and playing with toys. Between my sister and I the Troll Doll fad (specifically the ones made by RUSS) had gripped us tightly and we really seemed to enjoy collecting them. We had Trolls for Halloween, Christmas, Easter, Knight Trolls, Scuba Diver trolls, baby trolls: the works. We by no means had HUNDREDS of Trolls, maybe 10-to-15 between the two of us, but as my sister was 7 and a girl (naturally) I really couldn't go out on our block and play with troll dolls and the other kids. You couldn't do much with them anyway, except comb their hair and change their clothes which can get boring very quickly. This is all we had though so I enjoyed them but knew there were no trolls aimed at older boy kids to play with.
Enter: Hasbro.
The main big 'lie' about this artwork? That the toys can actually aim their weapons in a useful way.
Now, at this point in our childhood my mom had gotten a part time job so once the summer rolled around we'd be home by ourselves for a good portion of the daytime. When it was too hot to go outside, we'd watch TV and I distinctly remember seeing the Battle Trolls commercial and being blown away by it. These were trolls just for boys, and they looked REALLY cool. I don't recall when I bought my first, but I remember going to Kay-Bee Toys in the mall and buying them there as well as the nearby Toys 'R' Us were they were less expensive. Back then, Kay-Bee always seemed to charge $2.00 more then TRU did. For example, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures at TRU- $3.99, KB- $5.99. But when KB toys discounted stuff, it was toy buying bliss (I was a particular fan of their 3-For-$10 or 3-For-$5 stickered items) and I cleaned up there on many a toy line over the years.
*sigh* I miss Kay-Bee Toys...
Out of the 24 different Battle Trolls made between 1992-and-1993 and spread out over 3 different Series, I owned a mere seven of them (8 if you count the Trollasaurus battle mount as a Battle Troll), which compared to other lines I collected at the time was not very much. These were moderately articulated much like the standard action figures of the day (which had at least 5 points of articulation) but here they only turned at the waist. So they were less articulated then a TMNT figure, but more articulated then the standard Troll dolls...so I guess it was a good thing? Personally I'd have been happier with arm articulation as the majority of the ones I owned had their arms permanently posed in such a way that it made aiming or using their accessories impossible. What's the point of making action figure trolls that are VERY limited on the 'action'?? I think my childhood brain knew this and I never really sought out any more Battle Trolls once I had my small collection.
I do have a few memories playing with them, one time with my sister and cousin at my Grandparent's house (as there was very little to do there anyway), in my yard, in my room and anywhere I could lug them around. As they are pretty chunky figures coming it at about 4 & 3/4" tall (not including their hair) it was not easy to carry them around like a TMNT or GI Joe figure was. I remember using the boxes for both the Trollasaurus & the Capture Net accessories as storage for my Battle Trolls collection and the last ones I have are still packed into that old box to this day.
Last survivors of the great Troll Wars of 1994...so many cut down in their prime..
The line did well enough as there was enough interest to keep it going for a few assortments until the line died and hit the clearance bins. I remember walking into Toys 'R' Us a good 2-to-3 years after Battle Trolls went belly-up and found Sgt. Troll and The Trollminator for their 'New Lower Price' of $0.98. As I did not own these two, I could not pass them up for such a low price especially as this was one of the very few times were Toys 'R' Us actually had something on clearance that was cheaper then KB. Series 3 was less common by that time as I presume Hasbro looked at the numbers and stopped pumping money into the line. KB was the only store I found that carried Series 3 and I can remember walking in there with my mom and picking Wolfman Troll out of all the other eight Series 3 guys they had (he was in a close tie with Jack CousTroll, but I guess a wolfman beats a scuba diver to a 12 year old).
Now even as a collector I never owned the entire line, as due to the passage of time and through numerous 'Toy Purges' I whittled away at my moderate Battle Trolls collection until three or so remain. I have added 2 new ones I never owned as a child too my collection and I will be reviewing them along with the other remaining toys throughout the month of August. Be sure to come back here every Wednesday to see pictures and read my reviews and check out the Youtube channel to see video of the toys 'in action'.
Oh the 1980's...how I love the strange and weird things you contributed to the toy world.. What never ceases to amaze me is just how many different random toy lines exist out there that I am continually discovering every day. I grew up during the big fad of Madballs, but as they were gross toys I never could have any of them. The one concession I had was the Madballs Head Popping Action Figure version of Skull Face as he was just a skeleton and not anything gross like Slobulus or Bash Brain. What's funny is there was an entire line of similarly sized crazy ball toys out there that I could have gotten instead, had my mother or my 8 year old self known about them.
This line I only discovered back in 2013 while a friend of mine & I were in a local retro toy store. Inside a bin of random crap I found one of these Spit Balls called Sgt. Spitz and I had no clue what it was from. Only "1988 LJN Toys" stamped on it's reverse side was the only clue I had. My friend said "Oh! That's a Spit Ball! I had those when I was a kid." and then the game was afoot. After a few quick eBay searches I found a few MOC sets and quickly bid on three of them. One was snagged out from under me, the cooler set as it had a Jack-O'lantern & Shark Spit Ball in it (what an awesome pairing that was!), but the other two I acquired and am now reviewing for you today.
So, without further blathering, let's jump right into Spit Balls!
These guys are great, why did no one want to buy these back in 1998???
Contents! What do you get??
Two Spit Balls per pack and that's it! There were a total of 12 produced and divided between 3 different teams or factions which I will get into below. The two 2-packs I'm reviewing contained Shades (a beach ball)& Spitz-Skull while the other contained Frank N-Spitz and Kicker (a soccer ball). They come carded on small blister cards with FIVE whole Spit Balls Points!
5 Spit Balls Points...my ship has finally come in!
Why? Because every toy line back then had to do this so you would feverishly stock-pile them like a squirrel in a blizzard only to find out the line was cancelled and these were as useful as wet toilet paper. As far as I know, there were never any promotions or mail-aways so these are really just nice to look at if not anything else.
Okay cool, tell us about 'em!
There is no story or world for the Spit Balls like there was for Madballs, and maybe that was the reason why the line was not a smash success? Each of the 12 Spit Balls are divided up into three different groups:
The Wacko's!
The Beasts!
The Jocks!
And that was the most we had to work with. Are they all on the same side and these were just classifications OR was each group against the other? The world may never know...
My favorites right off the bat had to be Jack O: Spitz and Lockjaw so I was most annoyed when I lost the bid for them. I love Halloween and a shark-shaped ball creature is just an added bonus. Next time eBay...next time...
Okay, so let's look at the actual toys now: the sculpts all all of these are great but you can see how they cut corners here & there to save on sculpting costs. The backs of every single Spit Ball are exactly the same with a little square sculpted on the bottom. Why? So you can stand them up on the table. This blew my mind. Where as my Madballs roll all over the place, here LJN solved the problem with a little flat square for them to balance on. Brilliance in it's simplicity.
Kicker (Front View)
Kicker (Side View)
Kicker: Just a soccer ball that appears to have taken one to many kicks to the head...ball? The sculpt is really fun and they even incorporated one of the black Pentagons of the soccer ball design to give him a nose. It's a clever touch that really adds a a lot of character. Only downsides are I think the red paint from his tongue started to leech into the right side of his face leaving a little pink hue and the rear of him does not have the soccer ball design painted on. These totally ruins the illusion that this is a soccer ball and I really wish they had a larger budget for paint applications.
Shades (Front View)
Shades (Side View)
Shades (Rear View)
Shades: Out of the 4 here, this one is my favorite. So much character and expression on his face. Plus his sunglasses show his eyes by use of clever paint applications. This was a great touch and really gives the illusion that they are real plastic or glass lenses, especially as they easily could have just left them blank. The attention to detail was very present in some of these Spit Balls, the sculptors definitely had fun on this line. Unlike Kicker, LJN chose to paint the 2 large orange sections of his ball on the rear of the sculpt, so this does look more like a complete toy and less like one they sent out half-painted.
Spitz-Skull (Front)
Spitz-Skull (Right Side)
Spitz-Skull: Part of the "Wacko's" group of Spit Balls, this is your typical skull type of sculpt. Again, like all Spit Balls only the front is sculpted but it was done in such a way that it appears the rounded rear of the ball is just the back of the skull, so it somewhat blends together nicely. Spitz-Skull has tiny purple dots for eyes with gray surrounding it to make them look either hollow or sunken-in and it works well. His mouth is sculpted in a sort of 'grin' making him look rather insane...or just really giddy. They painted him a gold tooth (because why not?) and he squirts his spit not out of his mouth, but out of his nose-socket. That was clever, they did this again with Sgt. Spitz who squirts his spit out of the tip of his cigar. Gotta love ingenuity!
Frank N-Spitz (Front)
Frank N-Spitz (Left Side)
Frank N-Spitz: An interesting take on Frankenstein's Monster, this one is your stereotypical green color with bolts on his....neck? Since Spit Balls are basically disembodied heads, the sculptor still tried to give him his signature neck bolts, and this actually works. I just wish they were painted and thus stood out a bit more. Frank here has black eyes with tiny red pupils and an expression on his face that is more of...sadness then anger or rage. He seems rather placid, just living his un-life and minding his business. His hair is painted gray with a very high and tidy cut to it typical of most Frankenstein's Monsters.
Unfortunately he also succumbs to the 'rear-ball-look" all these Spit Balls have. What really distracts from the design is that the change is so abrupt leaving the hair to sort of pitch towards the center of his head and then vanish into a large, green sphere. Out of the five I own, this one ruins the illusion the most, and really does not compliment the sculpt at all. Sgt. Spitz has his green helmet painted all the way to the back, Shades has all his orange quarters painted, but by leaving it blank here makes it seem like he's emerging from a ball instead of being a ball. The real saving grace of this sculpt is the placement of his spit squirt hole: the center of his forehead. Designed to look like the stitches along his forehead have begun to separate, the water squirts from here instead of his mouth and it's a perfect hiding spot if you just want to display this as a Frankenstein's Monster head and not use it as a Spit Ball. Touche' LJN.
How to work a Spit Ball really was very simple, as is depicted in this drawing from the back of the card:
It's amazing they had to go so far as to explain this...
...I think we could have figured it out.
Oh what ever would I have done without this. I Should I try to get this brand new?:
Absolutely, if you can find them that is. These show up far less frequently then the licensed Horror & Ghostbusters sets but keep hunting for them to see if they turn up, they are worth the wait. On card their price can fluctuate based upon the seller and how much they want or need to make on the sale. I believe my carded samples cost me $15 each which was not too bad given how rarely they show up. Finding them loose is not a bad idea either as the paint they used is very durable since it needed to flex with the squishing of the Spit Ball. My Sgt. Spitz toy still had a very decent amount of paint coverage for a toy that probably had been bouncing around a toy box for the better part of 2 & a half decades, so if you see some loose snatch'em up! So what do you really think about it?:
These guys are fun, and if the price was right back in the day I may have bought these up like crazy. They're small, squishy, they fit in your pocket AND they squirt water. With amazingly fun sculpts that have a lot of character, I think these really could have found a nice little niche for themselves up near the front of stores by the cash registers. I guess people were just not into the whole idea by 1988 especially as Madballs was already gone. Good line that did not get nearly enough attention.
Check out me de-carding Frank N-Spitz and Kicker as well as showing off Spitz-Skull and Shades in the video below!
I never ever heard of this toy line growing up. I may have passed them on clearance at Toys 'R' Us or Kay-Bee Toys dozens of times over the years, but I have no active memories of seeing or holding them.
"Hey there! Need us to chop down some wood??"
From what I can gather, Kenner tried making a boys toy equivalent to their popular Sea Wees line of mermaid dolls and instead gave little boys different lumberjacks to collect. As I was three years old at the time, I may have missed the memo that lumberjacks were an 'in' thing. As the line faded into obscurity during the past 33 years since it came out (WOW I feel old...), apparently no one else thought they were cool either.
Who can blame kids though? In 1983 we had Masters of the Universe G.I. Joe and Transformers was showing up a year later in 1984. What chance did a line of water-squirting lumberjacks have against those toys??
That being said, this is a goofy fun little line that has some pretty decent toys in it. The sculpting is on par with toys of the decade (the little animal pals and the lumberjack head sculpts are very well done, very full of character) and goes to show that you didn't need hyper realistic detail to make a toy.
Contents! What do you get??
The pair of Lil' Loggers I grabbed are Ranger Rob and his beaver companion Chops. You also get a sponge log for the two of them to ride on while in the bathtub, sink, kiddie pool, lake or pond. That is all the accessories they have, even the saw that Ranger Rob is clutching in his right hand is apart of his arm and is non removable. That works out fine with me, as I know something that small would have gotten sucked down the drain quickly as a kid, so this was a smart move on Kenner's part back then.
Ranger Rob & Chops the Beaver MOC (Front)
Ranger Rob & Chops the Beaver MOC (Back)
Okay cool, tell us about 'em!
They each have matching hats, a theme amongst all the Lil' Loggers and their Pet Pals, with squishy heads or bodies so they can absorb and squirt water. Each Logger has 3 points of articulation with simple rotation points at their shoulders & head. The little animals are non articulated and are really just companion pieces. Aside from doing that and floating in their sponge logs, these guys don't do much else.
Ranger Rob & Chops Front View
Ranger Rob & Chops Right Side View
Ranger Rob & Chops Back View
Ranger Rob.....or Yukon Cornelius with blonde hair: YOU decide!
Chops the Beaver: a born killer
Close-Up of Chops' Unpainted Beaver Tail
They stand up well too, although Ranger Rob is at bit of an angle so on un-even surfaces he will take a header very quickly. Chops is solid though and will stand or sit fine. Only nitpick I have is Chops' tail. I know the extra paint applications probably didn't cost out, but for a beaver I feel it is important that his tail be shown prominently. Here, it just blends in with the rest of the sculpt. Other then that it's fine, I'd even go as far as to paint it but I'd rather leave it as it is; how else would I play with it in the sink??
Just a Lumberjack and his Beaver floating downstream...waitaminute..
The line had a three other figures in it, Jumper Joe & Rocky Raccoon, Trapper Tom & Paddles Bear and Woody Warren & Buzzy Beaver.
(Cross-Sell Picture from the card back)
(Cross-Sell Picture from the card back)
Ranger Rob was originally named "Ranger Rick" but apparently Kenner did not know about the magazine of the same name and shortly after his name was changed to Ranger Rob. Some card backs show the original name, but the later releases featured the change PLUS a glimpse of an un-produced new figure...
Bluster Bear & Dither Duck were shown in I believe a Kenner Toy Fair Catalog for 1983, but for whatever reason (I guess the line not selling well should qualify as a reason...) it never saw production. This was part of the reason why I wanted this particular carded version of Ranger Rob so much, it actually showed this un-made toy on the back. This line is obscure enough, I don't even want to think how hard this toy is to find even if it was made. Hell, for all I know it could have been made- there is simply not enough known about this line.
Should I try to get this brand new?
That's hard to answer. If you want them in the most pristine condition possible so when you yank them off of the card so they will be in great shape, look for them carded. If you don't care about that & just want the toys, look for them loose. Prices on these on eBay vary greatly so you may see one seller with just one of the Pet Pals loose for $25.00 OR a carded sample for the same price. I paid $21.50 for this but I've seen some sellers list these at $200+, and this line does not have the collector drive to warrant that price. Sure they are old and obscure as hell, but I doubt there are more then 10 people on the internet actively hunting for them- myself included.
So what do you really think about it?
This is a fun toy. As a kid I love playing with my toys in the water, so if I was given this as a gift I'd totally have had fun playing with it in the tub. I doubt I would have sought them out on my own as I loved monster toys and a lumberjack with a pet animal might not have struck the fancy of my 3 year old younger self. As a grown up toy lover, they are cool and I will definitely be hunting them down to at least round out the set if possible.
If you come across one during your own toy hunts and are into lumberjacks, toys with animal companions, toys that squirt water OR weird odd-ball things from the 1980's- pick it up, you won't be disappointed.
Ranger Rob & Chops in their Sponge Log
Oh! Be sure to check out the video I made below for this as well. I try not to talk about the same things here in the blog and there, but if you want to see the toy IN ACTION, check out the link below to our YouTube account. It's kinda bare-bones right now, but the videos work and you can see everything clearly, the snazzy stuff comes out later on.
Ah Smooshees....this one takes me way back, all the way to 1988. This line was from my younger childhood, and I did not have many of them (only 3 or so) but my sister, my good friend Alison (aka 'Alison Up the Block') and I would play with these often. I still have the Squish Fish she gave me, minus his cool fish bowl accessory though.
So what do you DO with Smooshees you may ask? Why, SMOOSH them of course!
Thats basically it.
The whole line revolved around the concept of taking small, plush animals & humans and cramming them into their hard plastic, under-sized accessories. Damn, when I say that outloud it sounds kinda morbid....but hey they're only toys so it's alright! Squish their brains! Whoopie!! :-D
*ehem*
The Smooshees Smugglers sub-theme of the Smooshees (I'm driving my auto-correct with that word btw, it keeps trying to change it to 'smooches') line revolved around a secondary play pattern: taking your toys with you in secret. Want to bring them to class in school but would get in trouble? NO PROBLEM! Fisher-Price makes a pen with a Smooshee to cram inside! Don't want a pen? How about a Note pad? A Diary? Purse??? With this line, Fisher-Price had your back.
This assortment though, didn't really do much to hide the Smooshees...more or less you just would wear them and people would look at you oddly whilst you walked around with small, 1980's obnoxiously colored animals all over your clothing.
I'd say the 1980's called and they want their colors back, BUT this was in the 1980's so I'll just sit here quietly..
Dottie Kitten is by far the most neon of the bunch; bright neon yellow hair, AND pink? Put your sun glasses on folks, this kitten has a bright future. Anyone? No? Alright fine, moving on...
Contents! What do you get??
This is part of the basic (aka cheaper) Smooshees Smugglers assortment so you don't get much. Just the Scooter Pup Smooshee and a yellow-orange clip to tote him around with.
Scooter Pup, his Clip & Packaging
Okay cool, tell us about 'em!
The colors on this guy are crazy. The normal Smooshees line was mostly lighter pastels, but the Smugglers are that crazy loud 1980's color combinations we all loved back then..and shuddered at today. I love it though, the over the topness of it all just makes it loads of fun. All the Smugglers also had rooted hair, something not seen on any other Smooshee so that adds a lot of character to them too.
Scooter Pup in his clip (Front)
Scooter Pup in his clip (Left Side)
"Um...help, I got stuck in this thing..guys? Little help...?"
Should I try to get this brand new?:
If you can afford it and its not outrageously priced, go for it. Lots of kids smooshed the every lovin' crap out of these toys so after almost 30 years loose samples not in the best of care could probably be very gnarly. I made the mistake of storing all my Smooshees inside their little accessories which made them all rather....deflated. I won't have that problem with Scooter though so that's a good thing. I paid $10 for this on an open card but never used and that was a great price. I saw one or two listed for $25.00 and that's not too bad, especially considering the larger sets with the cooler smugglers items are at $80+ on eBay. That's just nutty, but to each their own I guess. So what do you really think about it?:
This was a fun part of my childhood and I don't foresee myself buying these in droves unless I can get them for a steal. They are fun toys and can really add a splash of 1980's madness to any display in your house.
Check out the video below for Scooter Pup in action although not getting smooshed into anything aside from his hang tag.
