Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Retro Toy Week: Night Man!

I'm pretty sure, before they were bought up by Marvel, Malibu Comics managed to get Ultraforce made into a cartoon and on the air, then the Night Man got a live-action TV series that lasted two seasons. And in 1995, Night Man got an action figure.

It's from the middle of the nineties, and aesthetically, yeah, it's shows: his hair looks like a lot of long-haired figures from that decade, kind of a big plastic blob. His articulation is of the time, neck, shoulders, elbows, knees, and hips. That was good enough for then. The paint's, eh, not super crisp; and Johnny Domino's accessories were a ratty cape and a gigantic grappling hook. Which is slightly ironic, maybe: in his show, Night Man gets a suit that lets him fly, because setting up those effects shots for a grappling hook gun and swinging around and whatnot would've been murder for a cheap syndicated show. Flying suit, blue-screen, done.

Even though I'm the one guy that liked the character and the comic (with art by Darick Robertson and Kyle Hotz in early issues) poor Night Man doesn't fit in with any toys I have on display right now. That, and his costume is a bit generic; so he's bound for storage as soon as he's done here. He'll be there for next time...

3 comments:

Wes Grogan said...

Wasn't he a hero by night and a jazz saxophone player by.. er.. night? I think I remember that horrible, horrible cheap show. I think I'd rather rewatch old episodes of Mantis! This figure isn't a terrible rendition of the character, though.. just a shame he was doomed from the start to never survive the 90s.

plainwater said...

I remember him, but I don't think I owned him. I did have Prime.

googum said...

Y'know, he had a pirate radio station, too. In case he wasn't nineties enough...and he was playing his sax on air, which seems bad for the secret identity.

I know there was an Alien-looking robot in the Ultraverse toys, too. N-ME. That may have been the most toyetic villain they had...