TOY TREASURES: ‘THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES’ ACTION FIGURES
As a toy collector, there’s nothing like that “pure discovery” moment when you come across a choice vintage item that you never knew existed. That’s what happened to me when I discovered these figures from a toy dealer at San Diego Comic-Con in the early 2000s. I had NO idea at the time that these were even made!
These are very rare figures based on characters from the three-part sci-fi TV mini-series broadcast on NBC in 1980. The ambitious program was based on a collection of acclaimed short stories written by author RAY BRADBURY. The mini-series reworked the concept into a single plot/narrative that takes place over the course of several years, featuring numerous characters. It was a star-studded production that included Rock Hudson, Roddy McDowall, Jon Finch, Bernadette Peters, and others.
The mini-series was NOT very successful, and was famously hated by Bradbury himself (!) The storytelling was pretty muddled and laborious, and the production also suffered from woefully inferior miniature effects. BUT – it featured some STRIKING ALIEN DESIGNS.
And amazingly, a set of three official Martian Chronicles figures was released by the toy company LARAMI. They were the first action figures put out by the company, which was primarily known for cheap rack toys. It’s odd that such toys were released for a mini-series, but this was 1980, when the toy market was still in the midst of STAR WARS mania. So pretty much any alien or sci-fi related items were marketable…
These Martian Chronicles toys are cheaply made, Mego-style figures. They depict humanoid Martian characters wearing ceremonial masks, each with a different colored robe (blue, orange and pink). But despite their cheapness, I love the bizarre look of these; they’re surreal and kind of creepy, and are very good likenesses of the Martian masks featured in the actual film.
The figures are not individually named on the packaging and only distinguishable by the different mask designs and the robes. (And in fact, the robes themselves are very close copies of the outfit from Mego’s STAR TREK alien figure, The Keeper.) The packaging artwork on these figures is beautiful… but interestingly, the back of the card is completely blank. Usually the backs of such action figure cards tout the other items in the toy line, with bios on the characters, and “Collect ‘Em All!” style ballyhoo…
From what I’ve learned, Larami most likely sold these figures in department stores and even grocery stores. I can only imagine little kids seeing these toys at the time and thinking they’re really cool, but having no idea of their origin!
I bought my three figures at Comic-Con for what I would later find out was quite a steal: $150! And because the toys are so scarce, these are figures I decided to KEEP IN THEIR PACKAGING. I have rarely seen these available on eBay, and even then they are usually loose or incomplete, and never all three in an unopened set. Doing some recent research, I did see that in 2013 there was an auction for a complete set of three like mine, that went for over TWO GRAND! So, these are indeed some of the rarest vintage action figures I own.
Click on the photos below to check out images of these beauties… along with some original poster/ad art for the mini-series.
What hard-to-find collectible discoveries do YOU treasure? Send me a message and let me know!
Shawn Sheridan
Mars Ambassador
