Here we go with My next showcase before this topic gets to the spooky time of
Halloween. This series is known as...
Yes
Hardened by
N2 Toys. This generation probably knows nothing of it nor the company that made it. The company was
N2 Toys as you see their
Logos above. They a quite a very brief history. Here's My take on it so bear with Me if you want to learn it
N2 Toys was founded in
1999 by former
Kenner designer
Ron Hayes. He was really responsible for many if not most of all the great figures that
Kenner/Hasbro made in the
90s. Apparently he was getting tired of this and wanted to leave the company and start his own. Well he did with
N2 Toys in
1999, truly the last year of classic times before the start of the new millennium.
N2 Toys was really a success right from the start because the plebeians were craving the new movie
The Matrix so he nailed the license right away and the line was a complete success, it was no doubt that his company was going places. While he was aware that
McFarlane was the new kid in town and his figures were unlike any ever seen previously with his
Movie Maniacs series,
Hayes thought he'd give it his own shot with his own movie character series first starting
Hardened and while it was a very small series it too was a success. He made tremendous figure series' of
Mad Max, The Crocodile Hunter, Heavy Metal, Shi, The Tick, Frank Frazetta’s art, Bobble Heads kinda like Funko POP’s and one that I foolishly didn't get...
Big Trouble in Little China. Some of these ranged in 2 different scales,
6" & 12". Sadly in
2002 N2 Toys filed for bankruptcy and that was it, their
5th Element series and all of their upcoming items & plans were all left in limbo and nobody ever tried to help them nor resurrect their series', not even
Super7 which this all sucks so hard
McFarlane's only other competitor of the kind was
Sideshow Toys. This story sounds very similar to when
Jim Shooter left
Marvel and formed
Broadway Comics in the great year of
1995 then he went out of business in
1996 I loved his comics by the way, especially
Fatale So even though this generation probably doesn't know any of this, his figures are quite expensive on the secondary & third place markets. If I had the moolah, I would so get that entire
Big Trouble in Little China Set believe you Me
Now here's another
Logo which I really liked
N2 Toys' Logos, they were quite cool looking
I've talked about how I love action hero & martial artists on the board and that I've been such a fan since I was a youngster
When
McFarlane's Movie Maniacs debuted I was very excited and collected most of the figures and I was a big part of the
McFarlane Collectors Club as well as it's message board and even the unofficial
MovieManiacs.Net during the
early 2000s. You can see My
Spawn Collection within this very topic. So as this
N2 Toys series is called
Hardened that I'm about to present that I got in
2001 is very similar like
Movie Maniacs hence why I wanted it in the first place but what does this name mean
Well they have the definition right there on the
Front & Back of the Blister Cards to make sure you know what it means which is kinda odd that they did this
First up is
John Rambo from
1985's Rambo: First Blood Part II played by
Sylvester Stallone. You'll see that these figures aren't like the superb likenesses like
McFarlane but their close and they clearly indicate whom their supposed to be.
Rambo comes with his big
Machine Gun, Bullet Strap & Bazooka. His
Knife isn't removable as it's permanently sculpted on his side. Only his arms at the elbows & ankles are articulated which is similar like a
Movie Maniac figure. Sometimes you'd get way less articulation than that, that's one of the things that made these guys realistic to begin with
I think the face is decent. While there maybe something off about it, the sculpt definitely has his mean, aggressive expression. He has a sculpted on
Bandanna and they even sculpted on the
Necklace that his nice Vietnamese girlfriend
Co gave him
Also his torso has the
scars as well.
So next in the series is
Nico Toscani played by
Steven Seagal from
Above the Law. This movie has its
35th Anniversary this year
Ever since I first saw
Seagal in this debut film of his he became a favorite. He wasn't muscular or anything like that but he was big & tall, cool and really a new breed of action hero & martial artist. I found him really neat and he'd fight in a new style and beat people up in ways never seen before so this was the first figure ever made of him and I had to get him, in fact I was quite excited when I found out they were making him
Now the figure is really great. It has a tremendous likeness from head to toe. The plastic is way different than
McFarlane so the quality is the opposite and arguably better. He only moves at the shoulders & neck with cuts. I've always been quite pleased with this figure
The face is so spot on and way more convincing than his counterpart
John Rambo Now the
The Copyrights are very scarce, only
Nico has one on his leg which is a
2001 Warner Bros. I always said, it's so important to look for those
Copyrights John & Nico together: Now first off they made
Steve McQueen as
Det. Lt. Frank Bullit from the
1968 movie
Bullit which I opted out on not getting and I really I still don't regret it, I still feel the spot could have been filled by someone else like
Clint Eastwood , Charles Bronson or somebody like that. So these two are the only ones I have of
N2 Toys. Now If I had My way with these I would have chosen
Stallone's 1986 Cobra and
Seagal's Hatcher from
1990's Marked for Death which those are My two favorite but this is what I got and really, they look great together
Now I
The Blister Cards are cool but really lack in info from the films (dang, I'm sounding like
MWC, Captain Toy aka Michael Crawford himself so other than the series & movie titles and the definitions that's all that's here.
The
Backs show the figures and not any stills of whom the these figures are supposed to be. It would have been nice if they did this. This is one of the things that I gripe about of
McFarlane & NECA, they never put any material for you see it whether it's for the first time or you know it already and wanted to compare it. At least companies like
Sideshow and even
Hasbro gives you the movie stills of what their from. Now for people who don't care about that info nor the
Blister Cards then it's one less thing for them to be enthused about. Now I do like the look of these
Cards however, their dark & gritty like they should be
Now they do have
2001 Copyrights at the bottom of the
Cards which that is always a plus
Special Feature that I think is so Apropos!So here is a comparison of My
Hardened figures with
Kenner's Chuck Norris from his
Karate Kommandos series. It's something that
Ron Hayes was such a big part of
Kenner and then he created
N2 Toys as I had explained at the beginning. While the scale is way off, they look mighty fine together and in fact I still find
Chuck's sculpting still to be some of the best ever. Now see, with all of this lack of creativeness and senseless rebooting for this generation and making so much that's been made time & time again, they could have made a ton of stuff of
Chuck Norris and who knows
N2 Toys may have gotten to him but we'll never know now
I showcased My b]Kenner's Chuck Norris[/b] and the series long ago in
My Vintage Action Figure Topic long ago here --->
http://www.dctoyrevolution.org/general-toy-discussions/my-vintage-action-figure-collection-willow-1988-t1087-30.htmlNow here's My
Hardened with
McFarlane's Snake Plissken (John Carpenter's Scape from L.A.) from the great
Movie Maniacs 2000 Series 3. The scale is pretty good and this is My only way so far to have
Kurt Russell with these guys
Last here's My
Hardened with My
Hasbro 2001 Planet of the Apes that I greatly showcased recently within this fine topic of Mine. This is
Mark Wahlberg's Major Leo Davidson and
Estella Warren's Daena. The scale is pretty decent and these figures came out the same year during
2001 which is cool and while I have expressed about all of the very bitter-sweet moments of that year else where, some great figures did come out during that time
Well, that will do it, I hope you liked My
Hardened showcase and maybe didn't even know about them
Well that will do it for the action genre because I'm gearing up for
Halloween so a much more darker themed movie franchise will be arriving soon as a big presentation so until then I'll see you around