Monday, April 18, 2016

#668 KAÏDO - MOLLOCH and TETRARK (1990)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!
 

There seems to be a great interest nowadays in this small bootleg figures made for (not "by") the Belgian company Bikin. I guess many collectors of G.I.Joe: ARAH are also interested in similar figures that were contemporary to Snake Eyes, Duke and Cobra Commander. The Corps! by Lanard are probably the most successful bootleg, but there were many others that also had great designs and were quality toys.

The interest is there (my previous entries about these figures receive many visits) but the sources of information are very scarce. Something most people do not know about these figures is that they also had at least two vehicles and one playset. These were not referenced in the packaging of the figures or in the "secret book" that each figure included. Since there are no known catalogues or any other promotional printed items, nobody really knows about them.

I haven´t got any of these vehicles, and I don´t think I will ever buy them, but neither would I like to ignore them in my blog. Here is a short review.

The first vehicle I know of, and the only one I once saw boxed at a department store is this jet (or jets). I don´t know what is the name of the toy, I just know the plane is undersized and you cannot place any figure in it. The pack included some kind of launcher seat (you can see it on the back of the illustration) and from there you could activate 4 battle sounds (they are indicated in the box).
Since the illustration depicts two jets I think both were included in the box... it is unclear since the box says "Caza Sónicas", were the name is singular and the adjective, plural. Note as well that the inscription seems to be a direct translation from another language, that doesn't really make sense in Spanish, not to talk about several grammar errors: "Electrónico Fuerza del Cielo con Caza Sónicas".


The second vehicle I know of is a small jet, this time with enough space to carry one or two figures. From the picture it is not clear. Note that the plane has been pictured over a desktop printer, so it should be around 30 cm long. The plane has 3 action sounds that can be activated from the three buttons on the rear part. Note the stickers under the cockpit "Kaïdo Air Force".



And finally, the third toy I know of is this headquarters playset. I found it in an ebay shop called "Hallelujah Toys". Since Kaïdo and M-P.A.C.T. share casts, at least this playset from M-P.A.C.T. was actually “recycled” for Kaïdo. The importer or whoever brought these figures to Europe, simply placed a sticker with the Kaïdo logo over the M-P.A.C.T. logo in the appropriate language. I saw this in the command center/base, which is quite big for such a small toyline.  



Here you can see the contents of the box. Remeber to visit "Hallelujah Toys" if you are interested in this item!







Note the M P.A.C.T. logo on one side and the Kaïdo logo on the other side. As you can see on the pictures, the headquarters has three levels plus a crane and a radar station, again with sounds and voices. Both Kaïdo and M P.A.C.T. main feature are battey operated backpacks with battle sounds and commands.

For the M P.A.C.T. toyline there were at least other two vehicles made: a fancy helicopter for the Shatter Force (the bad guys) and an even cooler Ferrari (kind of a F40 cabrio) for the Global Force (the good guys). These two were depicted in the back card of every figure, but they haven´t been spotted so far with Kaïdo stickers, so we cannot really certify that these were also available for the line we are talking about today. It wouldn´t surprise me though.

Considering the facts above, it surprises me that M-P.A.C.T. came later to market (1991) than Kaïdo (1990).


Pic found at: http://www.geocities.ws/mkbip/webpages/Mpact.htm

And now time to show two new figures of this collection, both belong to the "New Order", the criminal and terrorist organization of Emperor Orx.

MOLLOCH (KS009) - Explosive Specialist
I don't like this figure very much, it is quite generic with those camo trousers and black vest...


TETRARK (KS012) - Weapons Specialist
I have this one in an open box, so I can show the actual figure with more detail. I like it more than the previous one, but it is also quite dull. The uniform is very generic and only the patch in the eye brings something unusual to the figure.






FACTS AND FIGURES:
  • Name: MOLLOCH and TETRARK (Ref.KS009 and KS012)
  • Toy Line: Kaïdo
  • Year: 1990
  • Company: Bikin (Belgium)
  • Size of the figures: 11 cm. or 3,75’’

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