In the 1980s, there were a ton of figure that fell under the banner of "little rubber guys" in America. Some were imports, some were exports, and the format continued to do well overseas - but the likes of slug figures similar to Army Ants came and went pretty quickly. Matchbox had Monster in my Pocket, Mattel cranked out C.U.T.I.E. and M.U.S.C.L.E., Hasbro had these guys, Transformers decoys, Battle Beasts, Panosh Place had Dino-Mites, and there were way more in Japan. It was a real trend - and for some reason the trend came and went over a couple of years. Snailiens didn't have a chance, the sun had already set on the likes of Razor Beak, Snarl, and Crossfire - and these guys were fancier than some of their unpainted peers. They had little molded weapons or accessories, plus painted eyes, and some of their gear got a deco hit too. For under three bucks they weren't bad, but Mattel's M.U.S.C.L.E. line got you four figures for a dollar - and that's hard to beat.
Like a lot of toys from 1986-1989, they weren't widely collected as packaged specimens. A lot got marked down, opened, and destroyed/loved by kids. Carded samples are rare and expensive for a toy line that, arguably, very few people remember - heck, I never had these as kids. I found this trio at a thrift store and it's my first real interaction with them other than passively seeing other kids' figures when I was a child. I definitely don't like the line as much as the various monsters or Japanese imports, but they aren't without their charms.
Given the ubiquitous nature of ants in backyards (and The Ant and the Aardvark cartoon reruns) I can't help but assume the coloring and general deco were inspired by that cartoon - the blue matches the aardvark, and the minimal deco is right on point. But this might be a stretch - mass media meant people were seeing a lot of the same stuff, so it's not like the designers at Hasbro were being nudged by some Turkish knock-off of Antz or something.
When it comes to older toys, there are a lot of lines I never particularly felt I "missed." I was given (or somehow got) odds and ends from a few lines, which is not a bad way to have gone about it - you scratched the Dino-Riders itch, you may not necessarily feel the need to collect them all. I certainly was never left pining for the TV-advertised (but not with a full cartoon) Crossfire. This little guy has a horn on his head, a cap, and I assume some sort of improvised exploding vest. Military toys are less in vogue today than they were back in the end of the Cold War, so I don't think something like this might come back - it's a thing of its time. Well, it's a bug of its time, the things came in the form of Mordles. His "guts" are a semi-squishy (and less so with age) green bit on his bottom that add color and help identify which figures came in which sets, as they varied from pack to pack. His chest has orange highlights and white eyes, with pretty decent paint - there's just not much of it.
The bulk of the figure is molded in blue, which is an odd color for an ant - brown, red, or black makes sense - but blue does show off a lot of detail without paint. You don't have to squint to see fingers, antenna, sleeves, teeth, or boots. The place to mount the pistol is obvious - his right hand has a hole in it, and it pegs right in. Also interestingly, the copyright 87 Hasbro marks are right over his groin.
This figure stands, but not terribly well. Mine lurched forward a bit and needed his legs pinched together to not topple forward. It's a clever, charming design that probably wouldn't pass a modern child's scrutiny, but I assume would make an adult happy as some sort of weird, oversized designer figure. And that goes for the other two figures.
Next up is Snarl, one of many names Hasbro frequently used across many of its lines. He may be most famous as the stegosaurus in Transformers, but there were more, and undoubtedly will continue to be used elsewhere. This one has a pistol molded to his hand and painted yellow, with white eyes, a green belt, and a removable jet pack. This one is red, there are other colors with other figures. You can see little buttons on his shirt, but being all blue, they don't stand out. One of his eyes is covered by his helmet, but his antennae both stick out of the top. The level of detail is pretty good for ther era, and this is the tallest figure in the pack at about a hair under two inches tall.
He stands well, and doesn't do much else. You can pretend he can fly, and on the sample I picked up, the jetpack doesn't set fully in the figure's back holes. They did a good job making this one, he stands well and his stinger region serves as a handy support for the rest of him.
Rounding out the set is the much more dynamic Razor Beak, which isn't a Transformers name but it's close. We had Lazorbeak, Laserbeak, Razorbeast, Razorclaw, and others - and this one shares the power of flight with a couple of those. The figure has a flight helmet, a red parachute pack on his chest, orange goggles, a sculpted gun, and a removable silver set of wings. The figure is both plane and pilot, complete with a microphone to radio HQ that he's about to drop something on the enemy. The little antennae pop out of the helmet, and there are a lot of other nice details too. You can see little bug symbols on his helmet and flight suit in addition to the boots, the sculpted grip, and of course, those removable silver wings. Even after more than three decades, they fit like a glove.
This figure is clearly the centerpiece of the set, with a lunging figure complete with the largest accessory. Today, just the accessory is going to cost you a few bucks on eBay - which makes sense, kids lost and destroyed these things. They went on clearance, and they probably weren't anybody's favorite despite getting appearances in some late IDW-era G.I. Joe comic books.
I really miss Hasbro's experimental phases. We still get weird swings like this on occasion, Lost Kitties comes to mind, but this sort of low-cost high-concept collectible animal with accessories is increasingly rare. Now that I've got my hands on these, I can honestly say they're not something I wish I had as a childhood plaything - I'm much happier with the ones I actually had, but as an adult I'm very impressed by what Hasbro did here. Using limited paint and molded in color accessories, this collection of toys looks better than it actually is - and kids figured that out pretty quickly. Much like S.L.U.G. Zombies, it's a format I'd love to see them revive every few years because they're fun, they're cheap, and clearly they made an impact on some kids of the 1980s. I'm still crossing my fingers for a US Monster in my Pocket revival.
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