Re: Anyone here collect \'88 Willow toys by Tonka?
They're currently boxed from my most recent move, but I can get them out and take some shots if there's sufficient interest.
Probably the pride of my collection is the Eborsisk, the two-headed dragon (named for movie critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel). I always like to set the swashbuckling Madmartigan in front of that, in that moment just before he realizes that the Nockmaar army is NOT frightened of him, but rather the huge monster behind him.
I think I resisted these toys in '88 because they were pre-posed, like tin soldiers. I didn't grow to appreciate them for some time.
Sorsha and Bavmorda were probably the last two main characters that I bought. Bavmorda eluded me for many years, the worst instance being a vacation in Indiana when I'd already spent my allotted collectible money, just before being shown a GREAT toy store by Jamie Follis of Wook's Workshop. I rounded a corner, and there on the wall were all these MOC Willow figures, Bavmorda mocking me on the front of the nearest peg.
Finding the 'Elora Danan' variant of Willow took a while, too, the one which includes a removable baby in papoose. It's interesting, once you actually have the baby, you realize that the odd poses of some of the figures may have been chosen so the baby could also be attached to them if need be. For instance, Madmartigan has his arm straight out in front of him, and Elora Danan will hook right over that.
Once I had the various versions of Willow, I allowed one of them to hang out in Mos Espa for a while. Can you guess where? Yep, watching the Pod Race from Watto's Box... right where Warwick Davis sits in Phantom Menace.
And then there's General Kael (also named after a movie critic, Pauline Kael-sp?)... I have a few duplicates of this Vaderish villain with the skull helmet. I think I even have two of him on horseback, because I bought one loose collection just to get duplicate horses to help fill out my shelf.
Speaking of horses, the Sears-exclusive that I really want to find is the Chase Chariot. I can't remember offhand what the other two sets were. I know one is the Mangonel (sp?) but the name of the other eludes me, and I'm not sure which one of the two I have. If memory serves, it works like a catapult, though. I just knew they were few and far between, and pounced on the auction when I saw it.
I also found a great generic toy mountain to pose them around, it was probably made for little plastic army soldiers. I saw it in the garage of one of my wife's cousins, and inquired about it. He sold it to me for $5, and its numerous levels of cliffs and caves really made the collection come to life, since no playsets were made for it. I contemplated buying a Helm's Deep playset from LOTR so they'd have a castle environment as well, but never got around to it. I think I was afraid it would lead me to trying to track down the rest of the LOTR toys in future years!
Alex
