Hello and welcome back to the Wednesday Mash-up! It’s a new theme! Yes it is! New Theme Rocks! New Theme Rocks! New Theme Rocks! (Wrestling fans will recognize the reference).
I was born in 1974 so I was right there for all the great toy lines of the 80’s. I’ve already featured my absolute favorites, G.I.Joe and Masters of the Universe, as full-fledged mash-up themes. Now I’m going back to look at some other toy lines that I thought would be fun to draw. To be picked, the characters in the line couldn’t have their faces fully covered (sorry M.A.S.K.) and there had to be good reference pictures of the figures that I could use (sorry Air Raiders and StarCom). It helped if I liked the line, but it wasn’t required.
The action figures in the Sky Commanders line were underwhelming. They were smaller than the industry standard, the colors were simple and the detail was only so-so. You weren’t buying the line for the figures though. It was all about the vehicles. Each one came with a nylon line (or in some cases a plastic roll) that you could hang across your room so that the vehicles could zip across. Each vehicle also had some kind of action feature that differentiated it from the others in the line. Each figure also had an elastic spool on their arm that you could use to make them swing from. I thought the whole line was pretty nifty and I picked up three or four of them while they were available in stores. There was a cartoon (every toy line in the 80’s seemed to have one) but I never watched it.
The whole flying theme of this toy line made it an obvious pick for Zoë. Here she is, zipping along on the Ascender. Click on the picture for an enlarged view.
That’s all for next week. Will you favorite toy line be featured in this theme? Come back each Wednesday to find out!
