M.A.S.K. Boulder Hill (1985)

While the M.A.S.K. line focused on the transforming vehicles, there was also their awesome base as well. And Kenner did not disappoint with the Boulder Hill play set. I had wanted it for a long time to go with my MASK cars and finally managed to get one for a good price last month.

First off, this thing is MASSIVE. For some size, that's it on my bed there. And since its so big, it is in scale with the vehicles and figures.

Boulder Hill's "conventional mode" is a gas station, complete with a "Boulder Hill Gas" sign, gas pumps, and a giant boulder on top (hence the name). But with the movement of a couple levers, it becomes an awesome fortress.

There's a lever that connects to both gas pumps up front, and when you move it both pop up and can move from side to side like you're firing at an enemy. There's also a lever that can move on the back of the sign that causes the front to pop down, revealing two guns there as well. The front of the window area on the gas station folds down to reveal an armored wall, complete with spikes, a gun that pops over the top, and the MASK logo. The whole door area under the mountain folds out to form another part of the bunker. There are two doors that can open up once it is transformed that vehicles can drive through.

Beside is a broken-up Switchblade that came
with it… hoping to get some parts to fix it up!

And, for one last gimmick… the boulder at the top can come off and tumble down the mountain, revealing a rotating turrent gun that a figure can sit in (I have an extra Dusty Hayes from Gator for this pic).

The only thing mine is missing is a jail cell that goes at the back of the bunker. There's a trap door on the roof above so VENOM agents can get caught. The roof also serves as a helipad (perfect size of Condor!).

Boulder Hill comes with two figures as well - Alex Sector and Buddie Hawks (neither of which I have).

Boulder Hill is an awesome piece. If you are a MASK collector, it is something you definitely need in your collection. It may be pricy at times but it is worth it.

M.A.S.K. Split Seconds - V.E.N.O.M. Barracuda (AKA Jackal) (1988)

It's been a while since I've posted anything on this blog, so here's something pretty cool.

I recently got the M.A.S.K. Barracuda. This vehicle is from the "Split Seconds" line of M.A.S.K. toys. Anyone who knows stuff about that will know that the Split Seconds were the last line and are the rarest of the M.A.S.K. toys.

Barracuda in motorcycle mode

The Barracuda is a yellow motorcycle that is driven by Bruno Sheppard of V.E.N.O.M., who also comes with the Stinger vehicle. In the SS line, each figure came with their "splitting image," or another of the same figure but made out of a one-color, translucent mold. The Barracuda I have, however, only came with one Bruno figure, and without his mask.

Another thing to note about this one is that in Europe, Barracuda is called "Jackal."

Being a SS toy, the Barracuda motorcycle splits into two vehicles when it transforms. There is a black button on the rear of the motorcycle seat that activates the main part of the transformation - the sides of the motorcycle flip up and the yellow body becomes a glider of some sort. A gun also flips up on the front. Two bombs can be dropped out of the wings as well.

The second part is really only the skeleton of the motorcycle. There are two panels on the side that flip down to reveal the "VENOM" stickers and some laser guns. The figure can still sit on the "jet cycle" mode and the other figure can sit on the glider.

Barracuda isn't the best M.A.S.K. toy out there but it isn't the worst I've seen either. Some people complain that the Split Seconds line isn't that good, but I have three out of it and I think they are still pretty good toys even though they deviated a little bit from the original M.A.S.K. concept. And since it is the last line of M.A.S.K. they are quite hard to get for a good price.

Transformers: G1 Skalor (Seacon 1988)

Today I received a generation 1 Skalor in the mail. Skalor is part of the Seacons which came out in 1988. The Seacons are a group of Decepticons (6 total) who can combine and form Piranacon. 5 Seacons can form him and the sixth can be used as a Targetmaster gun.

As you can probably tell from the name, all the Seacons turn into some sort of sea creature, except Snaptrap who turns into a tortoise. Skalor is a coelacanth, a fish from prehistoric times that was thought to be extinct for about 70 million years until they were found alive in the 1930s. He has a nice mold with a recognizable coelacanth tail and head and a movable fin on his back. He does have, however, arms and legs as well. But he still looks cool. You can even open and close his little fish mouth. Most of his body is blue, while the head and feet are a light pink and the mouth, arms and dorsal fin are a darker pink. He has a large Decepticon symbol on his fish forehead and some stickers on his legs. He should also have a Decepticon symbol on his robot chest, though mine is missing that.

Don't let this guy punch you!

To transform Skalor, you fold down the fin on his back and then flip back his tail to reveal his head. Next you pull down and rotate the fish head to form the legs and feet. Lastly, you move the "fish legs" down and flip out hands to make the arms. And while I don't particularly like all of the Seacons' robot modes, I do like this one.

Skalor is also supposed to have two guns that can connect together to be used in any of his three modes, though mine did not come with those.

All in all, Skalor is a good little figure to add to a Transformers collection, especially if you have the other Seacons to for Piranacon.

Transformers: Combiner Bruticus (1986)

Yesterday I was at the Kent Paranormal Weekend in Kent, Ohio. A friend of mine who lives in the area was also there, and while we were talking this blog was brought up and he mentioned to me that there was a vintage toy store in Revenna, only about 15 minutes away. So when there was a long break in between speakers I wanted to see, we went down to that toy store, called Your Toy Connection.

Every time I'm somewhere that has a toy shop I stop in to see if they have any vintage things I may be interested in, but I have never found one that had them, until this store. While they do have modern figures as well, they have shelves and shelves of vintage stuff, like G.I Joe, Thundercats, He Man, Voltron, Transformers, etc.

And in their Transformers display there, I spotted a complete generation 1 Bruticus, the combined form of the five Combaticons, Onslaught, Vortex, Blast Off, Brawl, and Swindle.

As Bruticus is my favorite of the Transformers combiners, I picked him up, and now he towers over the other Autobots and Decepticons on my Transformers shelf…

Stompers (Rough Riders) Tank

Stompers were little motorized vehicles produced by Schaper in the early '80s. They were battery powered vehicles meant to be "off-road" toys. There was also a line called "Rough Riders" which were basically these under a different name (I'm don't know all of this 100% yet because I just found out these existed a month or two ago). I'm pretty sure this tank came out during that time since some other military vehicles in the line are referred to as Rough Riders.

Anyway, as I said above, I found out about these a month or two ago when my uncle found some that must've been in a box somewhere. I was looking through some different boxes last week (and also found the spare time for the M.A.S.K. Hurricane, one of my favorites from that line) and found some other parts from Stompers cars (they were battery powered so you could take the tops off of the main frame with the tires), and one was this tank, which I thought was pretty cool. And, as I already mentioned, there were some other military vehicles that went with this one, such as a German tank, half-tracks, etc. Also found both treads that go on it. This one doesn't work (I tried it), but still looks cool on my shelf of other miscellaneous things…

M.A.S.K. Calhoun Burns

Got this today… Calhoun Burns figure from M.A.S.K. that goes with the Raven vehicle that I reviewed a while back…

Garfield, Trucks and Small Soldier Guy

Going through some boxes of my uncle's old cars and other toys, found an old '80s Garfield toy, a couple cool old trucks, and a little soldier guy (as well as a little gun!) that I brought and put on my shelf...

"I surrender!"

Also found an old Stompers tank which is pretty cool! I'll probably have some more posts on Stompers in the future.