Toy Review: Ghost Battalion

05/1/10

Ghost Battalion

It’s funny how things work. This week has been all about Iron Man 2. The movie’s out here, and Playkit just brought in limited quantities of 10 new 3.75″ figures, and the two Walmart Exclusive 6″ers. My last two days have been spent running around Ortigas Center from toy store to toy store looking for them, and now I find that the toy find that’s giving me the most happiness right now isn’t the Hulkbuster or the War Machine, or the Titanium Man figures I found at Podium for Php 450.00 eacn, but these totally unknown skeleton astronauts I found on sale in unmarked plastic bags for Php 30.00.

Meet the Ghost Battalion.

Or the Bone Brigade. It really depends on the site you find it at. It took all my considerable skill at wiki-jutsu and copious amounts of google-fu to find out what these figures were called. The baggie that Toy Kingdom has them in is completely without labels or anything and there isn’t anything inside that can be used to identify them. All there is really is the price tag. That sweet Php 30.00 price tag. When was the last time you got a toy for less than a dollar?

Here’s what they looked like in the original packages:

If you got to FigureRealm.com You’ll find some nice information on these figures that came out in 1995. Our little skeletal astronauts were made in 1995 by a comany called Jasman, a Hong Kong toy manufacturer that started in 1991. In 2007 they had the Halo license, but it looks like they may have already gone out of business as their website (www.jasmantoys.com) is no longer functioning.

From what I can find, they look like a company that worked on proprietary product lines until they started expanding into the American markets when they won the Bungie Halo license. Chap Mei is another Hong Kong company that creates it’s own toys rather than buy licenses from the big names like Disney and Marvel. These Ghost Batallion figures are very much like the Police vs. Bad Guyz figures in that they are about the same height and have the basic 5 points of articulation and an assortment of accessories that don’t fit particularly well.

They are hella fun though.

This is what you get in one of these packages:

That’s four figures; Comet Kazi, Deep Fry, Cooker, and Asteroid. Don’t ask me which is which. According to blurbs on the packages, “It was their final mission… now they’re back looking for more!”

There are a bunch of sprue trees with two sets of 3 weapons and 2 different projectiles, as well as 2 stands and 2 weapons platforms (a cannon with shield and a jet pack). That’s a lot of stuff, and it’s way more than they can actually use all at once. There’s also a missle/rocket pack or something that doesn’t seem to fit anywhere I try it.

Sadly, they figures can’t seem to hold on to the pistols and rifles properly. I may need to do some shaving or something to get them to fit properly. No biggie. I’ll forgive just about anything for Php 30.00.

All together, they look like a great team and personally, I think they are excellent even if they’re an off-brand toy. Like I said, I’ve been playing with these a lot more than the new Neo Classic Iron Man I bought the other day. I haven’t even OPENED Hulkbuster yet.

They’re pretty small though, topping out at about 3.5″, smaller than a Marvel Universe figure like Piledriver there. The great thing though is, you can use the stands they come with for your Marvel Universe figures! That is a pretty good bonus since the old figures don’t come with stands and are a pain to try and pose.

I’ve already got 8 sets of these at the time of this writing. In about an hour, I’m on my way to the toy store to pick up as many more as I can carry. They’re just so striking I can’t resist army building them.

My first thought was that I could give them away as cheap gifts to my relatives and kids of friends, but skeletons in spacesuits doesn’t seem like an appropriate gift for a 4 year old. If you’ve seen the Dr. Who episode, “Silence in the Library”, you’ve got some idea how creepy they look, despite their cartoony proportions.

Did I meantion they glow in the dark? It’s been forever since I had a toy that glowed in the dark.

And all for only Php 30.00. Php 30.00!