Galaxy Laser Team :: New and SUPER-SIZED! :: by Tim Mee

This may look like your average Galaxy Laser Team (aka Star Patrol) line-up. But look closer...

These are the JUMBO Galaxy Laser Team figures! And they're BRAND NEW and available now on Amazon from Tim Mee!*

Galaxy Laser Team figures have quite a history with my generation. A rag-tag group of little plastic also-rans tossed in a baggie in order to cash in on the Star Wars fervor of the late seventies and early eighties, these simple 'little green army men' figures now enjoy their own legendary status with 'men of a certain age.'

They were released in various sets under various names, and they hung on the generic/cheap toy aisles of grocery and dollar stores everywhere. You probably had some. I sure did!

But it was only within the past few years that I learned they had also made jumbo versions of these goof(space)balls too. I'd never seen the jumbo figures in person, they are rather hard to come by in the wild, and I certainly never expected them to be re-issued (lost molds, defunct factories, etc etc) when incredibly I did find an original jumbo Lobstrocity a few months back.

And now they're back in print. Move over Alanis Morriset, THAT'S ironic!

This laser toting space cowboy is clearly the hero of our team. Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Buck Rogers. He filled in for all of them when the Director yelled 'CUT! Bring in the double!'

"One small step for little plastic men, one giant leap for little plastic mankind!"

The star of the Galaxy Laser Team in my opinion, and the only one not based on any pre-existing pop culture icon, is the guy I have dubbed The Lobstrocity. I just love this guy, and now I have TWO jumbo versions! Life is good.

Not until I got this jumbo astronaut did I realize he was probably originally from a set that included a lunar lander/ladder, which he was obviously designed to grip on to. Or perhaps he came with a flag originally, in order to claim this planet in the name of Earth. Isn't that lovely?

The 'R2' of the Team is this guy. Oh wait, he's not round, he's square. No resemblance. The larger version has an antenna, because more room for detail!

This baddie is clearly based on Darth Vader. I'll call him 'Ralph Nader.' His TIE-Fighter is unsafe at any speed!

Finally there's the mom-jean-clad wonky Wookie: 'ChoMama.'

The Jumbo Galaxy Laser Team figure set doesn't include the entire original sized character selection (missing is another astronaut and the girl with the computer panel.) But they are all sorts of nostalgic awesome, and it's really cool seeing them in super-sized mode! Especially the Lobstrocity. Man I love that weirdo!


*Toyriffic was sent this set for review from the manufacturer. You can get yours at Amazon.

Return of the Galaxy Laser Team Strikes Back!

Boasting a supernova lineup that included Darth Vader in go-go boots, Chewbacca in cutoff jeans, a Luke slash Han slash Buck Rogers character, a not quite Lieutenant Uhura, a kinda sorta R2-D2, an X-F-16-Wing Fighter Jet-Spaceship, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong respectively, and last but certainly not least the most famous Lobster Turtle Alien of all, these little plastic figures ala Green Army Men, released under the banner 'Galaxy Laser Team' and 'Star Patrol,' are arguably the most well known, well remembered and well loved Star Wars knockoff toys of all time.

Manufactured by Tim Mee and reported to have first hit the scene in 1978 (according to an article in 'Playset Magazine' issue 52), these simple little packaged space adventurers were available through the early eighties, were released in 5" jumbo size in 1979, saw print in a comic called 'El Pueblo Perdido del Espacio' in an Argentinian publication called Ekaton in 1980, were ripped off by Screamin' Yellow Zonkers in the mid eighties, and even saw a re-release sometime in the nineties...and now in 2012, just in time for the end of the world...they're back!

If you were a kid in the late seventies or early eighties, chances are you had some of these guys in your toy box. Like the ubiquitous plastic Army Men, dinosaurs and Cowboys and Indians, these things seemed to just appear (and disappear) from kids' collections all through the eighties, as if some Galaxy Laser Fairy was shuffling them around the world. And if you, like me, somehow lost track of yours over the years then rejoice, because now you can get a brand new pack made from the original molds by the original manufacturer right here in the good old US of A!

And this time you don't have to deal with gaudy neon pink and green, because the reissues are made in awesome manly black and grey!

Manly!

Toy moments like these are rare indeed, and we can all thank Jeff Imell of Victorybuy.com:

"I've offered various plastic army men for sale online since about 2002. A few years ago, I purchased some of the final production run soldiers from the folks that bought Tim Mee. I was frustrated by the lack of US made figures and declining quality of many of the less expensive imported figures, so I kept in touch with the company and was eventually able to get a small production run of the classic Tim Mee Vietnam Era soldiers manufactured in the fall of 2011. During this process, I found out they still had some other figure molds, but wasn't offered much info as to what they had, other than some tiny catalog pics of bagged figures with generic descriptions. I began doing research on figures Tim Mee had produced in the past, so I could get a better idea about what molds they might still have. While doing research on the Internet, I found a couple of blogs about the space figures and was immediately hooked. I knew that the Galaxy Laser Team had to be the next set of Tim Mee figures to resurrect, and was finally able to get them manufactured this spring."

As for these figures themselves, they are as great as I remember them. The figures are crisply detailed and the plastic is high quality. They'll easily stand up to kids play and your own play for years to come. If you owned these in the past you owe it to yourself to buy a new pack (especially since the old figures tend to be a little pricey on eBay etc.) If you've never owned them, you should! If your kids don't know the awesomeness that is simple monochromatic plastic figurines, then they need to put down the X-Box controller and take a pile of these out to the lawn.

They come in a package of 48 (six of each character, three in each color) with two X-F-16-Wing fighters.

Thanks Jeff, your efforts are truly appreciated by this old toy collector!

If you want your own: Buy your Galaxy Laser Team reissues now at Amazon!

Karma Chameleon

I call it "Toy Karma," and I've got it good.

Just the other day I stumbled onto a Flickr album belonging to a collector calling himself Astronit. He appears to specialize in space themes, vending machine toys and cereal premiums (pull up a chair and give yourself an hour or two to look at all his goodies. I'll still be here when you're done.)

While looking through his photostream I saw this picture and a flood of memories came back to me about a toy alien I had as a kid that came in a box of Screaming Yellow Zonkers. The odd alien was modeled after another toy I had at the time that came in a bag of Star Wars-esque little plastic space men. (UPDATE: Through a completely different toy search I found a pic online - Outer Space Fighters and Galaxy Laser Team manufactured by Tim Mee)

In fact, I chased after the Screaming Yellow Zonkers specifically for this one alien. I don't know how many boxes I had my mom buy before I got him, but I'm pretty sure I got lucky early. My Toy Karma is nothing new.

So today I went to the swap meet and, you guessed it, I found him. And he was free (I bet you didn't guess that.)

"I come in Peace."

Some kind of cross between a turtle, a crab, and a snail, this guy is a pretty unique and fun creature, reminiscent of fifties sci-fi B movies.

The toy has no markings, but according to the Screaming Yellow Zonkers packaging, his name is Zip.
The space set these were based on was originally released in the early eighties, and re-released in the nineties (I recall buying a bag of them when I discovered them at a Mom and Pop type toy store.) It included "inspired by" figures of Luke, Darth, Chewbacca, and R2-D2 among a couple others in all sorts of funky neon colors. I don't still have any of mine, but I'm sure one day my toy Karma will find them for me if I focus my powers on them.

In the meantime, I have Zip, and that's good enough for now.