The Outer Space Men, LLC Outer Space Men Bluestar Orbitron Action Figure The Outer Space Men, LLC, 2022
Day #2,740: August 8, 2024
Bluestar Orbitron The Man from the Uranus
Outer Space Men Bluestar Figures
Item No.: n/a Manufacturer:The Outer Space Men Includes:Ray gun, star weapon Action Feature:Glows blue in the dark, pops apart Retail:$30.00 Availability: ca. November 2022 Other: That's at least 9 production Orbitron figures
With the line's 50th anniversary having come and gone, we didn't get a heck of a lot of exciting new surprises and that's kind of a shame. Since then, there was a very expensive vinyl figure, some glock parts, and a series NFTs, but I'm toy people and Bluestar Orbitron is more my speed. I missed out on the original toys by virtue of my parents not meeting and getting it on faster, and these weren't really a kid thing in my lifetime - I read about them in Tomart's Action Figure Digest when I was pretty young, and thought "these are amazing!" I'm happy the line keeps pumping out the occasional new release, although there are few wild recolors and when there's a set like Cosmic Radiation, White Star, or Bluestar, it got to be pretty overwhelming. They didn't do one or two or four figures, they did every single mold - and for that reason many of them are still available. Some of the figures had their prices go up since being issued originally, but there are also occasional 50% off sales.
Orbitron has had at least three fully-painted versions to date, three clear versions, and also three opaque versions - the aforementioned White Star, Bluestar, and Cosmic Radiation [FOTD #1,615]. This one glows in a nice blue color, and if properly charged it can last for hours. I don't mean "three or four hours," I mean "you can charge it, go to bed, and it's still glowing in the morning." Blue Glyos plastic is magic.
The 3 3/4-inch scale alien is compatible with Glyos figures - that is, Onell Design, Healey Made, that sort of thing - so you can swap limbs between toys. This is a larger character, with a huge head and long legs bringing it to 4 1/4-inches tall. He looks a lot like one of your Earth ants, or the Metaluna Mutant from This Island Earth - but somehow less hokey. This toy sculpt retains the accordion bendy joints, as the original 1960s figure was a Gumby-esque bendable toy compatible with Mattel's Major Matt Mason line. This one is nicely articulated, with actual action figure joints in 12 places. Each one can be popped apart and you can swap elements with other Orbitron figures.
Sculpted detail is era-appropriate, with some nice deep grooves for the joints and brain matter. The belly has a nice star design on it, and the claws look cool. His hand can grip his painted accessories nicely, but his hip articulation is slightly hindered by his torso. Most of these figures have joints that swing forward all the way, but he can only go most of the way. You can still get him in a number of 3 3/4-inch vehicles, but this is probably all moot since you likely will buy it and forget to open it, or open it and put it on a shelf of other glowing toys, never to be played with.
The only design flaw I can identify is that the waist is kind of weak - when swinging the legs forward, the figure may separate at that joint. On the other hand, these joints can lead to fun play possibilities - the brain is jointed, too, and you can remove it.
Many of these figures had incredibly clever features, or a removable helmet, or a rotating face. Orbitron's removable brain is his most distinctive feature - he doesn't have alternate hands or bent elbows, he is as you see it. His claws have no difficulty gripping a blue star accessory and a really cool retro ray gun, which I appreciate because I hate it when I have to keep track of extra parts and pieces.
They got some decent mileage out of these molds, and rightly so, because they're good. While this isn't necessarily my favorite Obritron - the three painted ones are - it's still very good. The blue plastic is painted in spots that show most of the sculpted detail, the ghostly clear quality of the toy looks sufficiently "alien," and it's big. Given the lack of cool monsters and creatures in most sci-fi toy lines these days, it's easy to get nostalgic about this series given it's mostly all aliens all the time. I wish we could get some more new ones, but I wager that ship has sailed. If you can pick this one up at a price you can live with, or any of this line, I'd still recommend giving them a try. They're sized right to go with your other 3 3/4-inch retro action figures, which you may not have unless you're old enough to have back pain or a colonoscopy scheduled for next week.
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