Super 7 Serves Up Retro Action Figures For Terminator, Back To The Future, And More
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Here at GFR we’re all in favor of continuing to play with toys well beyond the age of respectability. After all, what’s the point of getting older and getting a job if not to buy all the cool shit your parents wouldn’t get you when you were a kid? So the idea of new action figures for SF favorites such as Alien, Terminator, and Back to the Future? Sign us up. If you’re similarly enthused, Super 7 and Funko’s line of “ReAction Figures” has you in its laser sights. Well, as long as you don’t mind your action figures being “the proper level of shitty.”
Hey, that’s not me throwing that word out there. Although, admittedly, we were less than impressed by Funko’s Firefly figures when we first saw them last February. In a world where action figures have become ridiculously intricate and detailed collectibles, the Funko Firefly figures didn’t look all that much like the show’s cast, and just generally looked…well, since the word is already out there, kind of shitty. But it turns out we may not have given them a fair shake, as the ReAction Figures are intended to be, according to Super 7 owner/creator Brian Flynn, a case of calculated shittiness.
“We make stuff we wish we’d had,” Flynn recently told Wired. “Like we didn’t know these existed, then pulled them from under the rafters.” The toys were originally inspired by the infamous 1979 Kenner Toys prototypes based on Ridley Scott’s Alien. These days toys based on R-rated movies are no rare thing, but this was a time when toys were still considered to be purely kid stuff, so the prototype figures become a weird pop culture footnote…until Super 7 actually released a limited-edition version of the Alien toys at Comic-Con.
The ReAction figures are also designed to be reminiscent of the early Kenner Star Wars figures, but with a slightly higher bar of quality. That brings us back to Flynn’s description of the toys as being the proper level of shitty. “That’s not derogatory,” he says. “It’s endearing.”
I guess your interest in the ReAction Figures will depend on whether you agree. If so, you’ve got plenty of options to choose from, as the line is tackling every sci-fi staple it can get its unarticulated plastic hands on, including James Cameron’s Terminator. You can choose between pre-chinups/pre-loony bin Sarah Connor, future warrior Kyle Reese, and the T-800 — with or without fleshy Arnold Schwarzenegger covering.
If you prefer your ’80s time travel a bit more light-hearted, the ReAction Back to the Future toys include Doc Brown, Marty & George McFly, and 1955-era Biff Tannen. (Manure truck not included.)
Maybe you’ve always wondered how long a T-800 would last up against science fiction’s most unforgettable one-eyed badass, Escape from New York‘s Snake Plisskin? Now you can make it happen. So long as by “make it happen,” you mean “Play with the action figures in your office when your wife goes out for her book club meeting.”
You can check out the Super 7 store, or peruse their wares on Amazon, including figures from sources ranging from The Rocketeer to The Goonies to The Nightmare Before Christmas.
