What a trip revisiting all my favorite Action Figure Females...and some that were just simply CRAZY. Still, they were part of our youth AND our collections. Enjoy this incredible disproportionate history of the First Ladies of 80s Action Figures.
Yeah man the bright yellow skin did it for me too. The ones I had the hots for were Cheetara from Thindercats and Diana and Shiela from the D&D cartoon.
As a girl/teen, I collected ONLY lady action figures and wound up with over a thousand at my collecting peak. Thank you for the trip down memory lane, a lane full of frustration of trying to find my favorite characters as figures!
YOu are awesome. The kind of viewer I love, and love to get comments from. If you have an IDEA....I want to hear it. I am ready to take a little evolutionary step with this topic.
@GENXPERIENCE Thanks for your very kind words. I'm an early GenX'er (born in '65), so any ideas I share will likely be biased toward the early-to-mid '70's. I need to think about this, but I'll come up w/ an idea and I'll be back to you.
Victor, As I promised, I'd come back with an idea, and here it is... What about a video showcasing Gen X commercials...but not just ANY commercials...instead, commercials that had a "repeating character"... As an example, Sarah Tucker was known for pitching Cool Whip served on the desserts at the Tucker Inn on the Cool Whip commercials, except Sarah Tucker was a fictional character (played by Marge Redmond of "The Flying Nun" fame) created exclusively for these commercials.
@@GENXPERIENCE There was a lot more to cover than you might expect. You did a very good job. I didn’t really think about it at the time, I was just more into having cool figures as a kid, but a lot of 80s toy lines had a pretty diverse cast of characters too. GIJOE and MASK especially, and for the most part portraying people of different races or nationalities in a heroic light. Even during the height of the Cold War, the Oktober Guard in GIJOE, and Boris Bushkin in MASK portrayed Russians characters in a pretty flattering light.
Great one man ! First female action figures I remember were from Tonka , the pilot character and earlier than that Fisher Price had Underwater People , lady was a blonde scuba diver. I don't believe either of them had a proper name. Keep it up man , you bring back the best memories !
Thank you. That sounds like the Fisher Price Adventure People. I could be wrong. I do mention them at the end with Leia again as they did help pave the way. I loved my Adventure People...did you watch my video show on that one?
I had that scuba diver set. Her husband went missing right after I got the set. The dolphin did, too, but would occasionally pop up over the years. Also, the full boat went missing (I have no idea where, but I think it turned up once only to disappear again? My sister barely played with Leia, eventually giving her OG and Bespin to me, and little sister never had them with her She-Ra, so...??)), but I managed to keep her and the skimmer(?) craft. The couple wore the yellow dive suits, and she became Breaker's wife after becoming widowed. LOL Firstborn had a handful of SW, Darth, Boba, and random others, mostly Imperials. Then a handful of Joes (OG Short Fuse, Airborne) that I eventually acquired. My missing figures were never among his toys, either. I never took them to school or grandma's, so...ghost of "Uncle Eugene"?? It was only years later and the dawn of the internet I found out where she actually came from, and that she had a "scientist" sister or whatever she was supposed to be in that pantsuit. and that there were several color variants for different sets. AND that they were used for Star Wars prototypes! LOL
Well, between the Originals and the ones I have now...Various Princess Leias, Wilma and Ardella from Buck Rogers, Ilia from Star Trek, She Ra, Teela, Evil Lyn from He-Man, Gi Joes Cover Girl, Scarlet, Lady Jaye, Zarana, and The Baroness, Vanessa and Gloria from MASK, CHeetara from Thundercats, Arcee from Transformers...so like, NO Wonder Woman, lol.
One small correction: Cover Girl was released in 1983, and Baroness came out in 1984. The Cover Girl figure was also released on a single card with a gun as "Sparta" in Europe's Action Force toy line.
I was well aware of Sparta, and being carded, but kind of makes her NOT Cover Girl, lol. However, they should really think about reusing the name Sparta for new character. I didn't think I got those years wrong, but thank you.
Even though the ladies from He Man had long slender legs in the artwork their action figure's legs still went well with the 80's "knock me out with those American thighs" vibe.
A few more female action figures from the 80s: Futura and Mysteria from Filmation's Ghostbusters and Kat from Rambo force of freedom. You also have Marion from raiders of the lost ark.
I should have done Kat for sure. And probably Marion. I had little knowledge of the toyline for Filmation's Ghostbusters though; thank you for adding to my knowledge.
@@GENXPERIENCE Yeah they got burried under the weight of the real ghost bosters. The cartoon was ok. A bit more zany than then those 4 guys from New York, but worth checking out an episode. And they did have great theme music.
@@GENXPERIENCE Exactly. That figure is 40 years old this year, and still looks modern to the point to where Hasbro itself has never been able to come up with a better version of her since then.
Funny you say that. I do think about her, but her release was right at the end of that original first incarnation of GI Joe ARAH, but sadly, right at the end of the original playtime...so I never knew her. She was just on the cusp...but I could have thrown her in. Thanks for commenting.
@@GENXPERIENCE She was a 1987 release, just the year after Zarana. The last female in the line was 1993 Ninja Force Scarlett, which had the ponytail, done with rooted hair.
I'm a millennial but I had that Catra shown towards the end. Had her and a lot of Ninja Turtles, but Barbie definitely ruled until I got those ugly Sailormoon dolls haha ETA: I got a set of Power Rangers dolls some time ago, much better than those figures.
Nice that you fit in there to still get Catra, but I love that Barbie still ruled. I have to agree that Sailormoon dolls at the time were FUGLY. Thanks for watching.
Someone else brought her up too. And you guys are right, but she was just after my Original Playtime ended, right after I stopped getting toys...so she never really clicked with me, but she's got cred.
Well, I did cover them in another show...one I hope you check out. FUGLY CELEBRITY DOLLS NO ONE ASKED FOR. I know sounds funny, but it is an homage to those celebrity dolls. Please check it out.
I always found the whole history of the Japanese show and the American filmed insert pieces FASCINATING. I did know it was a guy, and that we made the character into a 2nd female, but I just didn't want to mention as to throw off my flow in the video, lol. Thanks for watching and the comment.
I was going to ask if there were any LJN WWF ladies, but I guess we had to wait for the 90s and JAKKS? and even then, those made the Eagle Force Goldie look flat. oof. Has there ever been an Evil-Lyn Simpsons joke? Or was that too obvious? I still don't get why her figure was yellow, even made worse when Jitsu finally joined as Eternia's own Asian caricature. RE: Power Rangers - did you do ANY research on those early days? ALL of the costumed stunts were done by MEN. There's a famous clip of the Pink Ranger being unmasked and HE hides his face in shame. Not for wearing Pink, but even their Pink Ranger was meant to be female, too. OG Yellow was a guy, over there. Also, you skipped over Voltron's Princess Allura, which my sister had. A shame we had to wait until the 90s to get Princess/Jun from Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets/G-Force. IF you had PREVIEWS comic catalog. ToyBiz's Marvel didn't exactly compete with DC's Super Powers, with their Secret Wars, but it would only be after they revamped the line that we FINALLY got F4's Invisible Woman...whose pinhead and bowl bob haircut didn't fare better than the early Joes. Storm wasn't much better when the X-Men finally got their own subline. and many Tammy Faye Rogue jokes were made when they finally hit their stride in sculpting. btw, Same week you posted this, Jason "ToyOtter" Geyer revealed he was tapped to make several custom Super Powers figures by DC for special covers this summer. This adds Wonder Girl and Power Girl (post-Crisis Atlantean origin/belt buckle) to...well, Jason's shelf, at any rate. Many are salivating over them, so perhaps Todd McFarlane might add them to his SP line? I do know there was a planned Teen Titans subline back in the 80s (including WG, Starfire, and I believe Raven? plus Lois Lane and her newschopper!), but the line folded after four waves and many proposed figures (and vehicles AND PLAYSETS!! I still weep over that lost Titans Tower!) never made it past the prototype stage. :(
RESEARCH! Anyone worth their salt, ME, doesn't need to research Power Ranger. Anybody who is Anybody knows the original Japanese show had men doing all the roles. But MY SHOW, if you heard, was about Action Figures. And how the action figures were made after the US show that had 2 woman...sooooo, I think I made my point that only show American Kids saw had two females and their representation in plastic...got shafted. And I thought having Jitsu in MOTU (or Chopper as he was called in the show) was diverse. Didn't think of him as a stereotype...even if he did karate chop things, lol. Thanks for commenting.
Two of my fave Gen X toy lines never gave any love to the ladies, even though they were in the cartoons. Visionaries never had a Virulina or Galadria, and COPS never gave us Nightshade, Ms. Demeanor, Mirage or Mainframe. For shame, Hasbro!
Oh, I was growing beyond them, but I did love the Visionaries cartoon...and yeah, they were skipping the girls all together even before the Power rangers tried to make them men,lol. Thank you for sharing some of those missed opportunities.
