The other day Benty posted a fantastic article about Mongrol, the Action Portable, 1/12, 6-inch release of the 2000 AD character. One of the robotic ABC Warriors, this was the first release of a 2000 AD figure from ThreeA Toys. But it isn’t the first 2000 AD toy to appear in 6-inch. Marvel Toys released Judge Dredd and Judge Death as a part of the Legendary Comic Book Heroes line. They even had a prototype for Mean Machine readied before the line was cancelled. Go further back to 1999 and you’ll find a company called Re-action Figures releasing 6-inch versions of Judge Death, Judge Dread, Judge Anderson, Jonny Alpha, Slain and Ukko, and Durham Red. In other words, there have been attempts.
The Re-action figures weren’t great — they were OK at best. At the time, companies were trying to capitalize on the success of 6-inch Spawn toys, which were the best-sculpted toys on the market, and the highly successful Toy Biz 5″ well-articulated superhero lines. Re-action made an attempt to capitalize on this using 2000 AD as the base. But they missed the mark. The sculpts were OK and the articulation wasn’t enough to draw in the new articulation junkies. But it was the best at the time.
Fast forward to 2007 and Marvel Toys released Legendary Comic Book Heroes, which featured a number of non-Marvel/DC comic characters. Judge Dredd and Judge Death were released and were fantastic figures. With super articulated and featuring amazing sculpts, this looked to be the dawn of a new line of 2000 AD figures. Mean Machine was sculpted and for sure we were on the way. But the line ended a sad early death, and once again 2000 AD characters disappeared from toy stores.
In 2010 ThreeA Toys released their first 2000 AD figure, Tharg in 1/6 scale. This was followed by a 1/6 version of Mongrol and then Ro-JAWS. Mongrol was available for purchase as a 1/12 figure last year, and Hammerstein has been announced as the next 1/6 figure. There was mention of Dredd this year, and some time ago there was mention about Dredd being release in 1/12 with the Lawmaster. Nothing more has surfaced. To date, ThreeA Toys has done a fantastic job with their 6-inch lines and their treatment of Mongrol is simply fantastic. This is coffee-table goodness at its best.
With such a rich history and long-running comics (first printed in 1977), these comics deserve more 6-inch action figure goodness.
Keep your eyes peeled on Amazon.com for Re-action Figures: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=reaction+figures+2000+ad&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Areaction+figures+2000+ad
And for Legendary Comic Book Heroes:
As always, you can talk about this further on the Fwoosh forums: https://thefwoosh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=91&t=85354
