Now we're into part 8 of My recent findings of stuff that I found in My boxes down the basement that had been down there for many, many years. In this update we shall check out
Fisher-Price's Adventure People and
Tonka's Play People! Long ago when I was a very young doobie I played with these guys a lot and think I had a lot more than what I'm about to present but at the moment I cannot be one-hundred percent certain of that question. I used to play with them with large vehicles that have misplaced that I cannot recall what series they were in and I'd cross them over with other lines that I had. They were real fun back in the old days
So here is the info. The series was released in 1975, about 6 years or so before I was brought into this world:shock: It was still going strong until 1985 when
Fisher-Price or rather
Mattel decided to cancel it
It really was a revolutionary series and it was the first of it's kind thus introducing action figures into 3.75" scale
This even predated
Kenner's Star Wars Original Trilogy figures and as matter of a fact,
Kenner actually asked for guidance to
Fisher-Price as to how to make them
Surprisingly it's so dang true! I was a rather simple concept where the children (or collectors) could get an arsenal of real life type people such are pilots and emergency personal to fantasy characters such as androids & aliens
One fascinating aspect of the situation is throughout the 80s it was a constant battle of
Tonka/Kenner vs.
Hasbro (as you know
Tonka/Kenner was My fave) with consumers & the companies themselves alike until
Hasbro ultimately took them over like they did most of everything else yet it isn't the case here because during this time it was sometimes a fatal 3-way with them and
Mattle but they always seemed like they were safe and destined to stay in the postilion they still are today as I speak this very moment but this time they did collide with
Tonka on a few occasions and this was one of them
I do not recall how I got them, I believe My Grandma got them for Me when I was such a youngster. She probably got them for Me at either
Venture, Woolworth's or Ben Franklin's while it is possible she picked them up at
Target or even K-Mart however there was times when
Famous-Barr had action figures cause she got Me some
MOTU from there so while it is questionable as which one of the fine stores it really was, it was very likely one of them without a single doubt
The sculpting is fairly decent. These designs are what I'm used too since I was born in the very early 80s, I could relate to the 70s/early 80s designs and their styles are pretty cool to behold.
Robot Clawtron, Alpha Pilot & Alien Robot Brainoid:
Clawtron is really rad and has a really ideal sci-fi appearance to him such as Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica or even The Black Hole and I love his color scheme!
The Pilot looks like a really old school astronaut from many movies during and before this series came out and his head gear is not removable. Now the
Brainoid looks really sci-fi too. As you can see in the pics, these guys share the same body parts but just painted differently. I believe this series was also the first series that
Fisher-Price/Mattel used the same templates & palettes technique seen in countless action figures used in the future by them as well as other companies would make this a trend that was fast and easy for them and good looking yet somewhat boring for many collectors. Their POA are cut at the shoulders & hips but
Clawtron has a ball-jointed neck
Copyright: Look at that,
Fisher-Price 1974
and 1981...they year I was born
So remarkable indeed
If you wanna know more about them and all the figures
then please GO HERE for all of the history as I believe its the only web page of it's kind
If it goes down then a lot of history of this superbly fun vintage series will be unfortunately in limbo and lost
--------------------------------------------------------------------Now here we go with
Tonka's Play People! Now these guys were almost from around the same time their line began in the late 70s particularly 1979. These were meant for the same purpose like the aforementioned & seen
Adventure People but they also had some really cool vehicles. There was a terrific variety of characters as well. I believe it wasn't as vast as
AP but it was fairly large and like its counterpart line rather competition series it had both genders while
AP had the upper hand as they delved into fantasy while
Play People was more into the realistic realm of concepts. While
AP has the site I provided above and only a handful of YT vids, there really isn't a ton of info about them in the long run. It get's even worse for
Play People because there is hardly any web pages that is dedicated to them, no YT vids, just Etsy & eBay pages which is so darn beyond pathetic
In fact, IMO this is actually more distressing than other vintage figures I have and yet to showcased because
Tonka's Play People has been such a forgotten bijou of a series one would think with 8 billion people + on this planet's horizon you'd think it would be much different than this but so sadly that isn't the case and this is one of the reasons why I am showcasing all of My this and much, much more seen within My great topics because if it ain't documented, displayed, commentated upon and evoked then it's gonna be forgotten about and lost like so much of this Earth's history
Now almost everything remains the same as to how I got these guys as with the
AP however I believe we got them from K-Mart as I I'm leaning towards that way because it's the most likely store as I recall seeing them there more and more. I only found 2 of them so far to showcase here unfortunately. I think I had more of them elsewhere back in the day. So here they are!
Cowboy & Flight Squadron: The
Cowboy looks so classic and what you'd expect one to look from the 60s to the 80s. His sculpting is good but as you see he is kinda worn as his paint is wearing off due to years of play. Now the same deal goes for the
Flight Squadron as well but he has a cool feature above his left pocket and that is the
Tonka logo
Though it's worn, you can clearly see it's still there
Now the
AP have the same amount of movements even with ball-jointed necks but the
Cowboy's legs move consistently with each other at the same time so he can ride a steed.
Copyright: yep, 1979, LOOK AT THAT
We're All Together Now Size Comparison: Here is the
Adventure People & Play People with My previously seen
MOTU Prince Adam & DCSP Superman SUPER SPECIAL FEATURE:HERE IT IS! I have been talking about it and giving hints about this for many, many months
What we have here is
AP's Robot Clawtron and
PP's Cowboy with
Nein Nunb of
Kenner's Star Wars ROTJ which I have always considered the entire vintage line to be
Power of the Force and just not a series that was it's final one as it is officially known. As you can see the sculpting on him his really good and he is in scale with the
Adventure People and Play People! It was so fun crossing over these lines with one another back in these great times of yesteryears. Now, I will feature My
Kenner SW vintage series but it will be a while before I do as there is much more obscure among other figures to be seen as I had planned but to give you another hint I have many of them and I even have a number of the steel mini figures too so it's gonna be a huge update that I will get to them and so much more in time
Well, that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed this special showcase of My
Adventure People and Play People Its gonna be a different yet good update next which will be soon, until then I'll see you around