Last year, Fresh Monkey Fiction held a very successful Kickstarter campaign to produce a line of 4.5-inch figures based on classic and modern comic and pulp characters. The eclectic character selection has made for a great first series lineup, and we are fortunate enough to bring you a look at most of the first series.

You don’t have to look far to find superhero toys these days. Heck, Marvel and DC have dominated our front page for a long time now, so it can be difficult to bring something new to market. Well, Fresh Monkey Fiction has found a way to do just that, but in a way that makes the old new again. Most of the heroes and the style in this first series of Amazing Heroes are throwbacks to a time long-gone, but fortunately, these figures help to keep these important characters in the eye of today’s collectors. Many of these guys paved the way for the characters and powers you are familiar with for your superheroes, so I am glad to be able fill in another corner of comic history.

The Black Terror, Silver Streak, and Daredevil (not that one, the other one) are definitely representative of that time, so much so that they are now considered “public domain” and do not require licensing in order to produce merchandise. Madman is, of course, the exception, but I like how the style of these figures helps to blend the very different character styles together. Sharing the same base body helps, of course, but for being a line that relies on body reuse and a basic five-point articulation scheme, there is a lot going on here.

First and foremost, diving into action figure production via Kickstarter can be a daunting, imitating, and downright scary endeavor. Trust me, I know. Funding and production are always the main concerns, and there are so many variables in play that if one part of the production process goes off the rails, the whole project can be a bust. I am VERY happy to report that this first series of Amazing Heroes is about as flawless as you can get when it comes to quality production.

As I said, the base bodies are the same for all of the figures, and if you are a fan of the old Marvel Secret Wars line from the 1980s, these figures are going to be right up your alley. Yes, the articulation is basic by today’s standards, but the five-point scheme works well for these characters, and the actual joints are nice and tight and have a great range of motion. 

The sculpting, while recalling the same 1980s-era, is also very clean and precise. As I said before, all of these characters have come together under one banner from very different sources, but the sculpting has made that translation fantastic. The paint is probably the best part of the production points from these figures; it is clean as a whistle and looks great up close and from far away.

Special care has also been given to packaging of these figures, and all of the artwork that has been used is just awesome. Mike Allred himself pitched in, as did Tim Seeley, so the card backs really are something to behold. The cool part is that the blister portions slide off and are not glued, so you will not damage the cards upon opening, and multiple cards are included so that you get character bios, as well as a short comic strip featuring each character. The packaging is really great and helps new audiences become acquitted with these characters.

That being said, I want to include some borrowed character biographies to help give more information about these guys, so please check them out below.

DAREDEVIL

Fictional Biography:

Armed with twin boomerangs, Bart Hill uses acrobatic prowess to fight crime as the swashbuckling Daredevil! Teaming up with his kid gang, The Little Wise Guys, Daredevil brings fight to everyone from gangsters to the monstrous Claw.

As a child, Bart Hill had been rendered mute by the shock of seeing his father murdered and himself being branded with a hot iron. Orphaned, he grew up to become a boomerang marksman, in homage to the boomerang-shaped scar left on his chest. Like Batman, introduced a year earlier, he took up a costume to wage vigilante vengeance.

Upon his partial revamping in the issue following his debut, only Hill’s identity, spiked belt, and the boomerang remained; the mute angle was dropped without explanation, and his original symmetrically divided bodysuit of pale yellow and dark blue was redesigned to a dark red and blue.

SILVER STREAK

Fictional Biography:

When a nameless driver is brought back from the dead with super speed, he become the adventurer Silver Streak! Using this wits and speed, Silver Streak brings swift justice to evildoers everywhere.

In 1940, a taxicab driver (name unknown) was hypnotized by a mysterious swami (name unknown) into working for him as a race car driver; all of the swami’s previous drivers had been killed by giant insects, sent by a mad scientist named Dr. Katan. The cab driver was killed as well, but the swami used his mystical powers to bring him back to life, after which he gave the resurrected driver an injection of a “secret fluid” that gave him super-speed and the power of flight. Motivated by a strong desire to make the world a better place, he donned a colorful costume and fought against crime, Nazi spies, and The Claw, calling himself “Silver Streak” after the race car he was killed in. He had changed costumes a few times over the years, but one detail that remained constant was the arrowhead-shaped emblem on his chest with the shape-fitting “SS” inside it.

The Silver Streak was created by Joe Simon.

THE BLACK TERROR

Fictional Biography:

Inhaling experimental formic ethers, meek chemist Bob Benton becomes the hard-hitting crimefighter The Black Terror! With his enhanced strength, he slams evil with his sidekick, Tim Roland.

The character first appeared in the Golden Age of comics in Exciting Comics #9, published in January 1941 by Nedor Comics. He was one of that publisher’s most popular superhero characters, continuing until 1949.

MADMAN

Madman is the only one from this first group to whom I have a strong past affiliation. I have always been a fan of the character since discovering him in college, and Mike Allred’s unique characterization and eclectic art has always been a draw. I have the previously released Legendary Comic Book Heroes Madman figure by ToyBiz, but I am definitely glad to get my mitts on a new figure.

Fictional Biography:

Frank Einstein comes back from the dead with a desire to make the most of his new life. With his courage and skill, he’s the snappiest, snazziest, ginchiest hero in Snap City!

Frank Einstein was born Zane Townsend, an agent of the Tri-Eye Agency. Townsend was killed in a car accident, then stitched back together and brought to life by two scientists, Dr. Egon Boiffard and Dr. Gillespie Flem. This resurrection left him amnesiac, and the resurrected John Doe was named after Boiffard’s artistic and scientific heroes, Frank Sinatra and Albert Einstein, respectively. The procedure left Frank with supernatural reflexes and a slight degree of precognitive and empathic power; however, he remembers nothing about his former life, but faint, troubling memories relating to his death. Madman’s costume is based on the only thing he can clearly remember: a fascination with a comic book character called Mr. Excitement.

Madman was created by Mike Allred.

I am really happy for the Fresh Monkey team because making a go of an action figure line independently is tough, and I think this will be a vital part of our community in the future. These turned out just great, so I hope to see more from them very soon.

Several of these guys are still up for sale at Fresh Monkey, so if you have not gotten your mitts on any of these yet, head on over to their STORE and grab ’em up. My favorite is, of course, Madman, but as I said above, the quality on these guys is definitely top-notch, and they are a great throw back to characters and action figures of the past. Come back later this week as we will have another feature on some of the other figures in this assortment.