Spiral Zone was a mid 1980’s toyline from Bandai featuring 1/12 scaled clothed figures, vehicles, and add on accessories. This long lost line needs to be revisted, especially with companies like ThreeA toys producing similar toys in 1/12 scale.
Recently ThreeA toys started producing 1/12 or 6 inch action figures as part of their portfolio of products. Starting first with the WWRP line or World War Robot portable line based off Ashley Wood’s comic art and progressing with his Tomorrow Kings, Popbots and hopefully Advernture Kartel in the future. ThreeA recently announced 1/12 Judge Dredd figures, Microman (not Micronauts) and even did some mock ups of 1/12 scale Star Wars figures.
ThreeA breaks convention by taking the 1/6 or 12 inch model and transferring that to the 1/12 scale. Most 12 inch action figure lines are based off blank bucks/naked figures that are dressed with scaled clothes. Barbie would be the instant recognizable example, GIJoe the other; these days there are dozens of companies making 12 inch goods, Sideshow Toys, Hot Toys, BBI, Dragon, Bandia, Takara and ThreeA Toys.
ThreeA is doing something that hasn’t been seen since the mid 80’s they are taking the 12 inch clothed figure to 6 inches and they are doing it superbly. Back in the mid to late 80’s Bandai (and then Tonka) produced a line called Spiral Zone including figures and vehicles a predecessor by decades to the ThreeA.
For the time these figures were way ahead of anything being produced, featuring super poseable bodies with double jointed knees and elbows, ab crunches etc etc. They were a predecessor to the super articulated figures seen in many figures today, like Marvel Legends, DCUC, Fantastic Exclusive, etc. The feature that sets these figures apart from most action figures is that they had removeable clothes and armor. Bandai even produced blank bucks/bodies and stand alone suits that you could buy to swap/add more characters.
One of the sweet aspects of the line were the vehicles and armor add-ons. Beautifully fabricated and painted these items were one of a kind. The Monoseed or one wheeled motorcycle stands out as grail item for me, and one day will end up on a display shelf.
I remember the first time I saw pictures of the line in the back of some catalog that I ordered out of the classified ads in Starlog, it was love at first site. I never had the wallet at that age to purchase the figures and I regret to this day never picking them up. Finding them on ebay these days can quickly land you in bankruptcy; maybe one day I’ll save up and drop a small fortune on them.
Tonka tried to bring the concept to the States and I think it was met with some success, but Tonka made changes to the figure design eliminating much of the articulation and changing the costume colors from military to bright primary and secondary colors.
The recent rise and popularity of ThreeA Toys brought back memories of this fantastic and overlooked toyline from Bandai. It would be a perfect time for Bandai to revisit this line.
Sadly I don’t have any of the figures, but you can grab some fantastic pictures and reviews from CollectionDX:
http://www.collectiondx.com/toy_line/spiral_zone
You can read more about Spiral Zone by following these links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_Zone#Japanese_Spiral_Zone
http://spiral-zone.com/bandai/
Discuss it further at the fwoosh forums:
http://www.thefwoosh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=91&t=69646&start=0
