The Outer Space Men, LLC Outer Space Men Bluestar Astro-Nautilus Action Figure The Outer Space Men, LLC, 2019
Day #2,198: May 26, 2020
Bluestar Astro-Nautilus The Man from Neptune
Outer Space Men Bluestar Figures
Item No.: n/a Manufacturer:The Outer Space Men Includes:Staff Action Feature:Glows blue in the dark, pops apart Retail:$25.00 Availability: November 2019 Other: Brings the total to 11 Astro-Nautilus, 12 if you count weapon variants
You know the drill - The Outer Space Men are awesome. These 3 3/4-inch action figures are magical and got wildly expensive to make in recent years, so the Bluestar Astro-Nautilus is $25 today when you used to be able to get a fully-painted and carded set of four figures for about $40. That's inflation for you. This mold is one of the ones they used in 2010, and it's a gorgeous design - is it worth $25 though? ...well, I bought one.
With the same paint layout as Cosmic Radiation Astro-Nautilus [FOTD #1,682], Bluestar gives you the same basic figure cast in a magic blue plastic with non-glowing blue painted highlights. It's great. If you have all of these figures you may not want more unless the allure of blue glow calls to you, and it should. The Glyos blue glow figures tend to be incredibly strong, with a properly charged figure having a glow that's dimmer than the Solaris red or the various Greens, but it lasts hours. I've charged figures before bed and still seen a faint glow the next morning. I have a lot of glowing toys, and to date nothing matches the longevity of the blue figures.
I can't begin to tell you how excited I was in 2010 when I found out that the Four Horsemen were sculpting The Outer Space Men as Star Wars-sized Glyos action figures. They were ten bucks then - and that was considered kind of expensive compared to Star Wars figures at $8 and mega-decked-out G.I. Joes for that or even less. That's how low runs work - some of the very best toy sculptors in the business re-created the old Colorforms space aliens with jointed limbs that pop apart and can be swapped, with an amazing attention for detail that closely matches the original bendy aliens from 1969. This figure has his trident, non-bending (but jointed) tentacle arms, and loads of non-functioning tiny suction cups under the arms and the trunk on his face. I love the segments on the arms, the sculpted chambers on the head, and of course the accordion joints (that don't bend) on his sleeveless space suit.
A decade on, you can see areas that could be improved - but the nature of this kind of figure's indie roots means you'll probably never see another newly-tooled Astro-Nautilus in your lifetime. The figure can hold the trident, but it's not terribly tight - actual bending arms or some other means of grippage would be welcome, but aren't cost-effective. The market for this kind of figure is probably limited to older guys who had them as kids, or younger weirdo fans like me that read about them in toy magazines. If there was a full market to sell these for kids, it would need to be cultivated with a movie and a marketing campaign that's increasingly unlikely in the 21st century.
If you collect old Kenner Star Wars or Funko and/or Super7's ReAction figures, this series is a great compliment to it - they fit in those vehicles just fine, they could hang out in your Creature Cantina, and they look like refugees from the 1960s or 1970s. If they were a little taller they'd be great aliens to hang out with Transformers, but because they lack knee joints your Joe vehicles won't love them. Your Mini-Rigs, though, will adore this figure.
I've written so much about this mold that it's amazing to have started from a "wow I can't believe this exists" take in 2010 that has gone up and down from "wow, again, really?" to "WOW! Again!!! Really!!!!" levels of excitement from edition to edition. You don't need all the versions of these guys, but if you don't own any blue glow-in-the-dark action figures that ought to change. Inferno may be the best expression of the idea by virtue of blue flames being very hot, but Astro-Nautilus as a translucent, frosty blue figure looks amazing on its own - the fact that it glows is icing on the cake. If you're sitting on a few bucks, you could do a lot worse. With the gradual price increases I don't know when or if they'll complete the Bluestar collection of aliens like they did for White Star or Cosmic Radiation, but I'll probably begrudgingly shell out for them as they arrive. A shelf full of glowing toys is a real sight to behold.
16bit.com is best not viewed in Apple's Safari browser, we don't know why. All material on this site copyright their respective copyright holders. All materials appear hear for informative and entertainment purposes. 16bit.com is not to be held responsible for anything, ever. Photos taken by the 16bit.com staff. Site design, graphics, writing, and whatnot credited on the credits page. Be cool-- don't steal. We know where you live and we'll break your friggin' legs.
RSS 
