Rik

LEGO Aquazone Aquacessories pack - a box featuring a shark, octopus, seaweed, chrome crystals and two semi/futuristic aquanauts - one good, one evil. The original price was £4.99 but it was reduced to £1.70

The back of the box showing off more scenes of the contents

Side of the box

Other side of the box showing good guy fighting the octopus and bad guy fighting the shark

In an octopus’s garden with you… and a shark. And some aquanauts - It’s the LEGO Aquazone “Aquacessories” pack! Awesome name, awesome contents. Aquazone was such a fun theme and this was a great way to top up on all the important bits (octopus, chrome harpoons, translucent yellow hook-handed dude)

…& here’s a loose Masters of the Universe Cliff Climber! Well, most of one anyway, I’m missing a few parts (although as I also have sealed one I guess I do have them, they’re just trapped FOREVER). As noted it goes REALLY well with Man-At-Arms. The motorised drill is BADASS & climbing action is fun

They called it out too

The white plastic on Karnock’s brain does glow. Not well, mind, though it will.

Same. I’ve been living a lie 😕

Fear it

Possibly, though when you think about it pretending something stinks isn’t much different to pretending it flies and shoots lasers

It’s for pushing into a hole in the Stenchoid’s backside (…). Seriously!

Basically the “stench” was green playdoh that was extruded from the Stenchoid’s various weapons & orifices and you pretended that it turned the healthy Manta Men into the decomposed versions. It didn’t really smell like anything other than playdoh

M.A.N.T.A. Force Stenchoids - three carded examples, each with a different colour beast and different decomposed Manta Man

This pack has a blue-bodied rhino/squid creature and man with his front rotted off

This set has a red rhino/squid and a man with all but on limb removed

This set has the cobra torso/seal-legged creature

M.A.N.T.A. Force Stenchoids! The two Stenchoid creatures here (a rhino-like thing & one with a cobra torso & weird pinniped for legs) were exclusive to these carded packs & each came in a few different colours. Inside the Stench Eggs is a small ball of (now mouldy) green playdoh to kill the men with

LEGO 6251 Pirate Mini Figures - a box of five minifigs (Captain Redbeard, Anne, generic pirate, Imperial officer & Imperial soldier) plus a parrot and a treasure chest full of booty!

Some scenes with the figs on the back of the box

Everyone looking friendly on the side of the box

LEGO Pirate Mini Figures! A motley crew of criminals cutthroats vs some Imperial plunderers. Even the parrot is morally questionable (you don’t even want to know what he did). Easy to forget that Minifigs were once fairly hard to come by outside of big sets so these boxes were quite exciting

It’s basically anti-Webstor tech so maybe they’ve been hiding it from you!

…and here’s a Tower Tools set in the wild! Like the other gear in this range it doesn’t particularly feel like it belongs in the Masters of the Universe world though it’s still pretty fun. The saw blades are motorised & the motor can also power the top pulley allowing the TT to zip along a string

M.A.N.T.A. Force B.A.T. box - an image of the B.A.T. rolling into battle as t fires balls

The incredibly handsome purple & black vehicle laden with explosive cannon balls

The B.A.T. (as in baseball bat, cos it launches balls - good pun!) knocks down walls with balls. As noted they never work now. As you can’t open them up I’m not sure what part of the mechanism breaks inside. I suspect it’s a rubber band that perishes though I’m not 100%

Hitting the red panel on the front of the tank causes the command deck to collapse and the crew to be ejected which is very satisfying if you manage to hit it with a missile

M.A.N.T.A. Force B.A.T. - Ballistic Attack Tank! An unusual yet cool vehicle which is supposed to rapidly “bat” balls as it rolls though they never work now as the mechanism perishes & you can’t open it to fix. A direct missile strike to the red panel destroys the command deck & ejects the crew 💥

LEGO System Witch’s Fireplace - a small LEGO box showing Willa the Witch/Hubble Bubble (USA vs UK name) looking into her crystal ball in front of a fireplace (an outside fireplace 🤷). A price sticker shows this set cost £1.60 which was INSANE value for for money

The witch plays with her pets. Animal pieces were still quite new so this was quite exciting in 1997

Back of the box, much the same as the front except with a flap

Side flap. I love the yellow skies of the castle theme, very atmospheric

LEGO System Witch’s Fireplace! A witch, a kitty, a bat, a fireplace AND a crystal ball all for £1.60? Such good value that I suspect witchcraft! These small boxed sets were always fun lil builds & a good way to stock up on Minifigs before the days of the blindbags

Good job really, a correctly coloured Prowl looking up at the shuttle where his dead body currently resides would be a bit much for his logic circuits

The scene he shares with Mexican IGA Prowl!

(Or Prowl’s animation model coloured in Bluestreak’s deco with too much black and no red, take your pick)

Raffle time! Let’s do a raffle for Transformers 40th Studio Series Hound! Just make sure you’re following me, like and repost this, and for fun, comment your favorite frame of the 86 movie hes in.. lol

Let’s do the drawing at 3/12 8pm. Shipping worldwide. Good luck!

… oh I wasn’t kidding when I said it had shattered into bits! First time I touched it it just kept snapping like a dry twig, was horrible. As far as I’m aware Scubattacks being fragile isn’t a widely known issue so this one might have just gone funny. Very thankful it glued nicely (thanks Locktite!)

Troops help to load The Scythe, ready to return fire!

The Yellow Wolves vehicles (sold separately) move out from the vehicle maintenance garage at the rear of the Fortress

I really like that there’s stuff to do at the back of Fortress. Bluebird really put the effort in

The Yellow Wolves swarm the disc thrower (also unusual that the Viper disc thrower doesn’t have a cool name)

4/4 🧵 naught as Major Vex’s first disc salvo demolishes the blast walls, hitting the target zone & destroying the helipad & a Red Hawk. Enraged, Captain Hunt, commander of the Manta Wolves terrain force, scrambles the Yellow Wolves unit from the maintenance area to make short work of the Viper Squad

The Viper Squad disc thrower is unusual as it doesn’t have a visible method of propulsion. Bluebird normally made everything part of the “world” so this play feature going without a method of moving it is unusual though I guess you could imagine it hovers or has lil wheels

Calm before…

… the storm! The walls have been breached…

… and the target hit! Red Hawk down! (Why exactly M.A.N.T.A. Force would build explosive targets into their walls is a bit of a headscratcher in-universe, maybe they’ve been taking tips from Starfleet?)

3/4 🧵 the approach of Major Vex & the Viper Squad as they launch a sneak attack with their lethal disc thrower! M.A.N.T.A. Force mobilises, loading The Cyclops twin-barrelled cannon, Zip Gun saturation shelling emplacement & The Scythe, MF’s own devastating disc thrower. All for…

A fully crewed Battle Fortress stands ready to repel an assault from Major Vex and the Viper Squad

Defensive brick walls block the sensitive target areas from enemy discs as the crane loads M.A.N.T.A. Force’s own Scythe disc thrower

The Zip Gun cannon stands ready to unleash a hail of red plastic BBs

The Red Hawks vehicles all sit on explosive pads that “blow up” when the targets are hit with projectiles

2/4 🧵 Let’s explore! The search for Earth’s twin planet gets a new frontier as M.A.N.T.A. Force establish their headquarters - the impenetrable Battle Fortress! It’s a beautiful day & the Red Hawks squadron has landed on the helipads for maintenance. In all the commotion the lookouts have missed…

The box for the M.A.N.T.A. Force Battle Fortress. It shows a rather lovely painting of the Fortress under attack by the Viper Squad

The back of the box goes into great detail about all the various features of the playset. Bluebird really liked to sell their stuff!

A different painting of the Fortress from the side of the box

Some more features are advertised on the side of the box. Of note is the included walkway to connect the Fortress to the Manta Ship

1/4 🧵 M.A.N.T.A. Force Battle Fortress! In typical Bluebird fashion this playset was rammed with play features including 3 different types of firing weapons, exploding launchpads for the M.A.N.T.A. Hawks, and even a walkway to allow personnel to transfer from the Fortress to the Manta Ship…

… & here’s my loose Masters of the Universe Scubattack! It had shattered into bits but much to my surprise it glued together quite nicely. It’s fun & the swimming action works surprisingly well but it is very, very generic & non-MOTU-looking. It would easily slot into just about any other line

Yo! Stupid from Yo! Street Feet (happily hasn’t been dipped)

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And if you need that one…

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Masters of the Universe Crocobite - a semi-mechanical rock-odile. The green stripe along back gives away that this is actually a bootleg rather than a genuine Crocobite though it is actually a bit nicer due to the extra paint

Emerging from the swamp

Getting scritches from Mer-Man (who is pretty thrilled to have an aquatic minion)

Taking down Teela!

Masters of the Universe Crocobite! Rock you later alligator! The scaly texture helps sell rock mode. Eagle-eyed readers may notice that this isn’t actually Crocobite, it’s a near-indistinguishable high quality vintage bootleg named Crocosaurus that I should replace (the extra green paint is a tell)

M.A.N.T.A. Force Stingray! The Stingray is a smaller, sleeker & more heavily armed relative of the big Manta Ship & that is both top-tier design AND fish-themed naming work right there. A battery of 10 (!) laser cannons & a flip-out stinging hook give Stingray a nasty bite beyond its small size

The Stingray is awesome, one of the very best

🎶 The beasts call him brother, the GHOOOOOOSSST WHO WAAAAAAAALLLLLLKKKKS - Phantom! 🎶