Why was the 12" Battlestar Galactica Colonial Warrior such a rotten figure ?

[Mikey]

If this was already discussed, I apologize

Why was the 12" Colonial Warrior figure made with a generic sculpt ?

Also, am I wrong in assuming his uniform never appeared in the show ?

[Megotu]

Because he is a reused Matt Mason Captain Laser or some such figure. And Mattel was never terribly concerned about SciFi show uniforms. Look at their Space 1999 dolls. That's right I said DOLLS!

[palitoy]

Mattel recycles everything, they just retooled Captain Lazer.

[drquest]

They main reason it was rotten was because they wanted money and reusing an existing (crappy mold) was cheaper and easier to do.

[Gorn Captain]

All of the above!
Cheap, was the main concern.

[mikeoz]

I never had the figure As a kid, but I remember seeing it in catalogs and thought it was poorly done. I wasn't even impressed with the 12" Cylon.

[Mikey]

Thanks for the info guys, I never knew it was an existing sculpt

[cjefferys]

And it was a good way for Mattel to get something to market fast. I think there was more of a delay for the release of the smaller figures and spaceships, because they had to be designed from scratch.

Personally, I like the 12" Galactica figures, I'm happy to have them in my collection. But the Colonial Warrior did confuse me when I saw him in stores when I was a kid.

[cjefferys]

Look at their Space 1999 dolls. That's right I said DOLLS!

Just because they used Sunshine Family bodies doesn't mean that they're.......ok, I have no valid defense.

[SpaceCrawler]

Yeah, like was said they just reused the late 1960s Major Matt Mason "Captain Laser" body molds to produce something fast in order to take advantage of the sudden fad of space toys that popped up in the late 70s that, seemingly, no toy company was prepared for. The same way Ideal resurrected the name Star Team (from an earlier line of kid sized astronaut gear), reused old Zeroids robot and spaceship molds, Evel Knievel molds, and Captain Action molds to quickly create a Star Wars rip off line after the movie was released.

Sean

[megoat]

I dunno, I sorta liked it when toy companies went the cheap route-- the charm of vintage toys if you ask me.

[UnderdogDJLSW]

I remember that those were the first toys out for the show during the summer. Our Montgomery Wards had a big display with the ships and the 12 inch figures with a huge sign "Battlestar Galactica" you could see halfway across the store this must have been July 1978 and I remember wondering what the heck was that going to be.

[cjefferys]

I still remember seeing an endcap full of them at Kmart. I really wanted the Cylon, I thought that it was cool that you could move his "eye" just like it did on TV.

[palitoy]

I can remember telling my dad I didn't think the Cylon was "realistic" and he turned to me and said "It's a space robot, what could be realistic about it?". What I meant to say was accurate.

I dunno, I sorta liked it when toy companies went the cheap route-- the charm of vintage toys if you ask me.

Totally agree, Hot toys are pretty as heck but without that bit of "clunk" they're just not toys to me.

[MightyMegs]

My brother and I kept waiting for COLONIAL WARRIOR to appear on the show, backpack and all. Because, if they made a toy of it, it had to be in the show...