So here we are: few days before Halloween! What's more October than Halloween itself? How about GLOW IN THE DARK STUFF?! Eh?? October? Glowing stuff? Make sense? Yeah?
Just get in here.
It ain't a long stretch to connect October and glowing stuff. A glow-in-the-dark skull may be the most standard Halloween thing you could find! Match that with my October birthday, and you get a guy that ends up liking skeletons, glowing things, and ridiculous amounts of candy.
Candy's beside the point, though. Sort of. I mean, I'm totally eating candy right now (and I just had a root canal!) but it isn't central to the post.
I'ma keep eating it, though.
Alright, alright - if we're gona talk glow-in-the-dark, we gotta start at my early days. One of the earliest (as far as I can tell) is the guy with the glowing sword. That's from a toyline called Super Naturals. They had large ones and small ones - this is one of the small ones. They all shared holographic chests with some sorta monster depicted on the sticker. Mine showcased the Invisible Man...but the hologram was somehow destroyed over time. I mean, it's still there....but you can't see it. I don't know what happened. Also: His hands are goopy as heck. Maybe it was the kind of plastic?
They were pretty fantastic toys, all told. I wouldn't mind tracking down a couple even nowadays! It seems a little strange, at first, having only glowing hands and a glowing weapon. But think of ghostly floating hands slashing around with a sword - pretty neat idea! I mean, ya know, aside from the hologram also being awesome.
Next should be familiar: The Lego ghost! The one on the left is the original, and I threw in the new one on the right for the heck of it. Turns out being a ghost isn't as happy of a job as it was back when I was a kid. What's wrong, man?
They do glow-in-the-dark different, nowadays. The original ghost is glowing plastic, whereas the new one seems to be either sprayed with glowing stuff, or the white plastic is mixed with flecks of glowing plastic. Hard to say, but it does make a difference: You can see the newer one is brighter, but it also holds the glow a LOT longer. Conversely, it takes more light to power him up to a bright glow. I mean you really gotta have him SOAK in the rays to get him like that. But it stays!
Same goes for the horse on this newer set from the Monster Hunters line of Legos. They glow bright, but you really have to turn on the light juice. The Mummy guy has a harder time glowing, though.
Next one is DUH - when I think glow-in-the-dark, I think Scare Glow! Words straight out of my mom's mouth: When I first got Scare Glow, back in the day, I took it and ran into the closet. I can't remember who got it for me, but the person in question was confused until my mom explained that it GLOWED. Where else am I supposed to try that out?
I'll be honest: I still run off to find a darker place to try out new glowing stuff, but now I bring a little blacklight with me to give it a super-charge. Blacklights work great for that, but it's a give and take: You super-charge the glowing, but it lasts WAY less time than if you charge it with normal light.
Anyway, Scare Glow! If you didn't know: I like skeletons. Glowing ones are a bonus. I also like robots. Glowing ones are also a bonus!
This is Robocop! He's from the old toyline that went along with the animated series (proudly following the standards of the time, which was to make kids cartoons out of super violent movies). I LOVED this guy! Still do!
This was one of those all-around great figures that worked in so many ways. He was Robocop, he could be used as a random hero, and he worked well as a standard robot guard of some sort as well! (...plus I took his helmet and some boots from a Spiral Zone figure and put them on Spider-Man to make a space suit? You know, standard stuff).
You get all the action they could possibly muster back then: Glow times, gun times, and BAM - caps! His back opens up and you can load in paper caps and shoot like you're in futuristic Detroit where it's comically terrible instead of just pockets of real-life terrible.
So lets see...skeletons...robots.....AH! What about a robot skeleton?
I know I've shown this guy before, but I can't leave him out of a glow post! This is the Endoglow Skeleton from the Terminator 2 toyline (like I said: violent movies, toyline for kids. I'm surprised there wasn't a cartoon show). The Terminator 2 line was the BOSS, like the Aliens and Predator (and Aliens VS Predator) toylines. Even if you weren't allowed to see these movies at the time, you couldn't deny the desire for awesome toys like this.
I'm still waiting for NECA to recreate this one! They're on a roll making new versions of classic Predator toys, so I hope it's only a matter of time before they hit some of the Terminator 2 stuff.
One final guy from the old days: This is a ghost from the Ghostbusters toyline. A red version came with some version of Ray, but this glowing one came with the role-play ghost trap. I mean, you need something to put in the trap, right? I certainly can't say no to glowing ghosts, but I can't help but feel like the old role-play trap could have had some sorta larger squishy ghost that could pop out and in the trap.
Alright, lets move on to some newer stuff, shall we?
When it comes to glowing stuff, my periphery is always on the watch. I'll be walkin' swifty by the same quarter machines by the exit of the grocery store that I've walked by a million times, but when the corner of my eye catches that slightly off-white color, my head turns like a meerkat sensing danger. Except it's not danger. It's....it's glowing stuff. Come on, are you paying attention?
These little things are, um...scary stuff? It was a quarter machine full of tombstones, gargoyles, and scary junk like the pile of skulls in the middle. They were colored in sepia tones, but some were glow in the dark!
They're great for a GITD display, since it's kinda cool having little glowing tombstones and stuff around their feet. Plus: Pile of skulls, man! What, were they just givin' skulls away? SKULLDUGGERY DEALS! BAG 'O SKULLS, JUST A QUARTER! WHERE DO THEY COME FROM? WHO CARES! WE GOT SKULLS, YOU BUY SKULLS! WE DON'T ASK QUESTIONS SO YOU DON'T HAVE THE ANSWERS YOU DON'T HONESTLY WANA KNOW!!
Okay now, what's this? If you can't tell; they're dinosaurs.
These guys spent a few years on the window sill in my room at my dad's, back in the day. As you can see: The Sun Ruins All Toys. They don't glow so well anymore, and there's that orange tint to some of them (they glow the worst). Keep that in mind, folks! As for their origin: They might be quarter machine things, or they may have some in a pack all together. Can't remember!
Here's a similar weakness to the quarter machines: Blind boxed designer figures! Especially if one of them glows. Ugh. I usually buy a couple to see if I can snag the glowing one. Got lucky on this one, though I wasn't JUST buying them to get him - my wife liked the whole line in general, so we didn't get anything we didn't like. This guy is the best, though! If it glows, it can only be a bonus for it to be screaming in terror. For some reason.
It's supposed to be a spider, by the way.
You've seen this from the last After Dark post, but here it is again. As stated in said post: I got this guy at the Field Museum in Chicago. I knew I needed SOMETHING dinosaur related, and I saw a glowing T-Rex skull and OF COURSE.
Back to building-block figures, for a sec. This is from a Scooby Doo blind bagged series - I felt them up until I found a skeleton (which is something you shouldn't to do people, I've tried. They don't like it). He's another one like the newer Lego guys, in that he needs a LOT of light to get a good glow on. He glows for a good while afterward, but you really gotta get that guy jacked, first. JACKED WITH LIGHT, BRO.
And UGH, same deal here. These guys need so much light that I just could not get them to glow properly on camera.
It's a Mega Bloks Halo set of "zombies." So to speak. I'm not sure what makes them zombies. Radioactive zombies, perhaps? I love 'em, but I wish they lit up a bit easier. I'm not sure why it's so hard to get them to glow well.
Now THIS is how you glow! These are some custom figures from the Glyos toyline. I grabbed some glowing ones and swapped out the parts with some other junk that I thought would look good with glowing stuff.
So yeah, glowing parts and clear parts look AWESOME together, as you can see. And the guy doing Glyos picked some rad friggin' plastic that glows SUPERGREAT. Good on ya, buddy.
And in the same vein, we have a Callgrim guy in flesh. FLESH THAT GLOWS RED.
This is one of the few I've been able to snag that uses this red glowing plastic. It's not perfect, since red never glows very well, but if you charge it enough it'll get pretty bright. The blacklight isn't the best option, though.
Lets see...what else in this area? OH, Playmobil has some cool stuff in this size!
Playmobil is constantly making affordable and cool toys 'n playsets 'n blind bags and MAN they got a lot of cool stuff! The two on the left are blind bagged guys, and the one on the right is from one of their single boxed sets.
The ghost glows as you might expect. The robot only has a glowing head, but it's still cool.
The final guy is as terrifying as he looks.
Look at that face! It's a face that only a mother could---------
AH GOD SORRY DON'T LOOK AT THE FACE BACK UP BACK UP AHHHHHHHHHHH
I'm just waiting to wake up one night to go to the bathroom and find that thing standing at the other end of the hallway. Alone. Glowing. Just....staring.
Pallet cleanser! This is a Hot Wheels. It's got a clear body and glowing insides. That's mondo cool, dude!
Alright, what else, what else....
Ah, Zecora! If you've been asleep or dead since the show came out: This is a pony! From My Little Pony: Frien---oh hell, you know what it is. I liked the show (though I haven't been keeping up) and they made a glow-in-the-dark Zecora, so I had to get her. She's the only zebra on the show, so it's all unique 'n stuff.
She's also got a freakin' mohawk. METAL.
You've seen this guy in the After Dark post as well! This is the King of the Dead from the Lord of the Rings toyline. They got pretty dang good and well articulated near the end. This guy is no exception! VERY well articulated and just all around a great figure. If you like glow-in-the-dark stuff, then you should hunt this one down.
He glows really well too, regardless of my inability to capture it perfectly. The black wash on him really makes him nice 'n creepy!
Man, I wish I could show ya ALL my glowing stuff. I'm sure there's a bunch of stuff locked away in storage - all junk from my childhood. The really cool stuff is still here with me, obviously. Including one special item that I really, REALLY wanted when I was a kid. I remembered seeing a commercial for it, but never actually saw it in a store.
This is the Pocket Power Skeleton, Glo-Bones! By Sega, for some reason.
Pocket Power was a toyline of card-sized items that fit in your pocket! They did ALL sorts of things. Seriously, check 'em out. They turned into little dart launchers, cars, helicopters, they were little games, and, of course, action figures! The skeleton was arguably THE BEST thing ever in the history of toys. Period. Scratch the "arguably" part. In fact, this was given to me by my buddy Heli, and I wouldn't hesitate to say that giving me this was his greatest achievement. Never mind his wife, kids, career. He was destined to keep track of this and take good care of it to eventually hand it over to it's rightful owner: ME.
Thanks Heli, but I know you were only doing your sacred duty, and I could count on you, even before I knew you.
I carried a lot of toys around, when I was a kid. This thing is meant to be in your pocket, is a skeleton, and glows in the dark. MY GOD, MAN. Who made this? Did they talk to me first? 'Cause I don't remember, and this was made for me.
The amazing thing about this particular figure is that I could NOT remember what it was. For years I only knew that I had seen a commercial for a glowing skeleton on a card-like thing. I searched it up, but never found out what it was. It wasn't long before I met Heli that I FINALLY found out what it was (by running into a review), excitedly told him about it, and then found out that by some crazy random chance, HE HAD THAT FIGURE. In perfect condition. And he didn't mind letting it go.
Seriously, how does that work out? It's too perfect.
Everyone needs to own this.
Wait, forget that. It's like, 100$ in package, 60$ for a good one, and friggin' 40$ for one missing a leg. It's a travesty that nothing like this exists today. It's the best idea, people. THE BEST. Someone needs to recreate this.
Well friends, with that GLOWING review, I do believe we've reached an end to our glow-tour of Alexx's collection of Glow-in-the-Dark Toys. We've seen Playglowbil, Leglows, Meglow Bloks, Skeglowtons, and even a My Little Glowny! Heck, I've even got my own name in glowing letters that transform into robots!
That came from my buddy Zach, because he knows how much I love myself and things regarding me.
Well, did you folks enjoy yourselves? Questions comments? Letters to the editor?
Just kidding; I don't edit these things!
Happy Halloween in a few days, folks! May your toys ever glow!
So lets see...skeletons...robots.....AH! What about a robot skeleton?
I know I've shown this guy before, but I can't leave him out of a glow post! This is the Endoglow Skeleton from the Terminator 2 toyline (like I said: violent movies, toyline for kids. I'm surprised there wasn't a cartoon show). The Terminator 2 line was the BOSS, like the Aliens and Predator (and Aliens VS Predator) toylines. Even if you weren't allowed to see these movies at the time, you couldn't deny the desire for awesome toys like this.
I'm still waiting for NECA to recreate this one! They're on a roll making new versions of classic Predator toys, so I hope it's only a matter of time before they hit some of the Terminator 2 stuff.
One final guy from the old days: This is a ghost from the Ghostbusters toyline. A red version came with some version of Ray, but this glowing one came with the role-play ghost trap. I mean, you need something to put in the trap, right? I certainly can't say no to glowing ghosts, but I can't help but feel like the old role-play trap could have had some sorta larger squishy ghost that could pop out and in the trap.
Alright, lets move on to some newer stuff, shall we?
When it comes to glowing stuff, my periphery is always on the watch. I'll be walkin' swifty by the same quarter machines by the exit of the grocery store that I've walked by a million times, but when the corner of my eye catches that slightly off-white color, my head turns like a meerkat sensing danger. Except it's not danger. It's....it's glowing stuff. Come on, are you paying attention?
These little things are, um...scary stuff? It was a quarter machine full of tombstones, gargoyles, and scary junk like the pile of skulls in the middle. They were colored in sepia tones, but some were glow in the dark!
They're great for a GITD display, since it's kinda cool having little glowing tombstones and stuff around their feet. Plus: Pile of skulls, man! What, were they just givin' skulls away? SKULLDUGGERY DEALS! BAG 'O SKULLS, JUST A QUARTER! WHERE DO THEY COME FROM? WHO CARES! WE GOT SKULLS, YOU BUY SKULLS! WE DON'T ASK QUESTIONS SO YOU DON'T HAVE THE ANSWERS YOU DON'T HONESTLY WANA KNOW!!
Okay now, what's this? If you can't tell; they're dinosaurs.
These guys spent a few years on the window sill in my room at my dad's, back in the day. As you can see: The Sun Ruins All Toys. They don't glow so well anymore, and there's that orange tint to some of them (they glow the worst). Keep that in mind, folks! As for their origin: They might be quarter machine things, or they may have some in a pack all together. Can't remember!
Here's a similar weakness to the quarter machines: Blind boxed designer figures! Especially if one of them glows. Ugh. I usually buy a couple to see if I can snag the glowing one. Got lucky on this one, though I wasn't JUST buying them to get him - my wife liked the whole line in general, so we didn't get anything we didn't like. This guy is the best, though! If it glows, it can only be a bonus for it to be screaming in terror. For some reason.
It's supposed to be a spider, by the way.
You've seen this from the last After Dark post, but here it is again. As stated in said post: I got this guy at the Field Museum in Chicago. I knew I needed SOMETHING dinosaur related, and I saw a glowing T-Rex skull and OF COURSE.
Back to building-block figures, for a sec. This is from a Scooby Doo blind bagged series - I felt them up until I found a skeleton (which is something you shouldn't to do people, I've tried. They don't like it). He's another one like the newer Lego guys, in that he needs a LOT of light to get a good glow on. He glows for a good while afterward, but you really gotta get that guy jacked, first. JACKED WITH LIGHT, BRO.
And UGH, same deal here. These guys need so much light that I just could not get them to glow properly on camera.
It's a Mega Bloks Halo set of "zombies." So to speak. I'm not sure what makes them zombies. Radioactive zombies, perhaps? I love 'em, but I wish they lit up a bit easier. I'm not sure why it's so hard to get them to glow well.
Now THIS is how you glow! These are some custom figures from the Glyos toyline. I grabbed some glowing ones and swapped out the parts with some other junk that I thought would look good with glowing stuff.
So yeah, glowing parts and clear parts look AWESOME together, as you can see. And the guy doing Glyos picked some rad friggin' plastic that glows SUPERGREAT. Good on ya, buddy.
And in the same vein, we have a Callgrim guy in flesh. FLESH THAT GLOWS RED.
This is one of the few I've been able to snag that uses this red glowing plastic. It's not perfect, since red never glows very well, but if you charge it enough it'll get pretty bright. The blacklight isn't the best option, though.
Lets see...what else in this area? OH, Playmobil has some cool stuff in this size!
Playmobil is constantly making affordable and cool toys 'n playsets 'n blind bags and MAN they got a lot of cool stuff! The two on the left are blind bagged guys, and the one on the right is from one of their single boxed sets.
The ghost glows as you might expect. The robot only has a glowing head, but it's still cool.
The final guy is as terrifying as he looks.
Look at that face! It's a face that only a mother could---------
AH GOD SORRY DON'T LOOK AT THE FACE BACK UP BACK UP AHHHHHHHHHHH
I'm just waiting to wake up one night to go to the bathroom and find that thing standing at the other end of the hallway. Alone. Glowing. Just....staring.
Pallet cleanser! This is a Hot Wheels. It's got a clear body and glowing insides. That's mondo cool, dude!
Alright, what else, what else....
Ah, Zecora! If you've been asleep or dead since the show came out: This is a pony! From My Little Pony: Frien---oh hell, you know what it is. I liked the show (though I haven't been keeping up) and they made a glow-in-the-dark Zecora, so I had to get her. She's the only zebra on the show, so it's all unique 'n stuff.
She's also got a freakin' mohawk. METAL.
You've seen this guy in the After Dark post as well! This is the King of the Dead from the Lord of the Rings toyline. They got pretty dang good and well articulated near the end. This guy is no exception! VERY well articulated and just all around a great figure. If you like glow-in-the-dark stuff, then you should hunt this one down.
He glows really well too, regardless of my inability to capture it perfectly. The black wash on him really makes him nice 'n creepy!
Man, I wish I could show ya ALL my glowing stuff. I'm sure there's a bunch of stuff locked away in storage - all junk from my childhood. The really cool stuff is still here with me, obviously. Including one special item that I really, REALLY wanted when I was a kid. I remembered seeing a commercial for it, but never actually saw it in a store.
This is the Pocket Power Skeleton, Glo-Bones! By Sega, for some reason.
Pocket Power was a toyline of card-sized items that fit in your pocket! They did ALL sorts of things. Seriously, check 'em out. They turned into little dart launchers, cars, helicopters, they were little games, and, of course, action figures! The skeleton was arguably THE BEST thing ever in the history of toys. Period. Scratch the "arguably" part. In fact, this was given to me by my buddy Heli, and I wouldn't hesitate to say that giving me this was his greatest achievement. Never mind his wife, kids, career. He was destined to keep track of this and take good care of it to eventually hand it over to it's rightful owner: ME.
Thanks Heli, but I know you were only doing your sacred duty, and I could count on you, even before I knew you.
I carried a lot of toys around, when I was a kid. This thing is meant to be in your pocket, is a skeleton, and glows in the dark. MY GOD, MAN. Who made this? Did they talk to me first? 'Cause I don't remember, and this was made for me.
The amazing thing about this particular figure is that I could NOT remember what it was. For years I only knew that I had seen a commercial for a glowing skeleton on a card-like thing. I searched it up, but never found out what it was. It wasn't long before I met Heli that I FINALLY found out what it was (by running into a review), excitedly told him about it, and then found out that by some crazy random chance, HE HAD THAT FIGURE. In perfect condition. And he didn't mind letting it go.
Seriously, how does that work out? It's too perfect.
Everyone needs to own this.
Wait, forget that. It's like, 100$ in package, 60$ for a good one, and friggin' 40$ for one missing a leg. It's a travesty that nothing like this exists today. It's the best idea, people. THE BEST. Someone needs to recreate this.
Well friends, with that GLOWING review, I do believe we've reached an end to our glow-tour of Alexx's collection of Glow-in-the-Dark Toys. We've seen Playglowbil, Leglows, Meglow Bloks, Skeglowtons, and even a My Little Glowny! Heck, I've even got my own name in glowing letters that transform into robots!
That came from my buddy Zach, because he knows how much I love myself and things regarding me.
Well, did you folks enjoy yourselves? Questions comments? Letters to the editor?
Just kidding; I don't edit these things!
Happy Halloween in a few days, folks! May your toys ever glow!
All in all, I gotta say, you did a pretty glowing review!!
ReplyDeleteIn my defense, I wrote this comment before I finished the review, just to make sure I could before someone else did. Then it turns out you already used it. Honestly, I should have expected that. Ah well.
DeleteAnd what about all the cool things I leave at your house and don't bother to reclaim? Or was that just the stuff that takes up space?
Wait, you leave cool things at my house?! Man, seriously...I can't think of anything. Maybe the DBZ DVDs. And like, one disc from Gundam X. Also, countless pennies. Oh yeah, Nichijou is still here!
DeleteBut no, whatever else there is; it ain't the stuff that takes up space. That's...that's, well, everything. All the things.
I think there was a GI Joe helicopter thing. I bought it because I thought it was cool, then left it at your house because it takes up space. At least, I remember that happening. Think you still have my gundam fix figuration, too. Not that, you know, you can do anything with it.
DeleteGet your glow on son.
ReplyDeleteAlso Pocket Power Skeleton is best toy.