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A CTI O N F I G U R E S I remember Battlestar Galactica from when I was a kid. to shelf it until after Star Wars revitalized the Sci-Fi I used to love watching this on a Saturday evening (in genre in 1977. the UK). The first episode aired on September 17, 1978 but was It is a story of betrayal, heroism, love interrupted by an hour long broadcast announcing the signing of the Israeli-Egyptian peace accord at Camp and courage. David. During its short live 17 original episodes of the It is the story of survival against all odds. series were aired (five of them two-part shows), totaling 24 hours of broadcasting. It is the story of one species fight for survival But in April, 1979 ABC cancelled the show, despite from the merciless onslaught of another. its winning the 6th Annual People’s Choice Awards In a distant part of the universe there are a series of for Best New TV Drama Series, quoting poor viewing planets known as the 12 Colonies which are the home figures and high costs as the reasons. Strangely of a civilization of humans. enough I have clearer and fonder memories of this than I do of Star Wars and I used to eagerly await The Colonies had been at war with the Cylon Empire, each episode. a cybernetic race, in the past. But the colonies are ambushed by the Cylons, helped by a human named After a couple of years hiatus a poorly budgeted and ill Baltar, in a surprise attack that lays waste to all the conceived sequel titled Galactica was aired in 1980 but What Was planets and all but wipes out their population. Fleeing this was a quick failure. the colonies in any spacecraft they can find the few The original series, however, continued to gain a cult human survivors to refuge in space. following and Glen A. Larson, Richard Hatch, and Bryan Battlestar Galactica? Of all the Colonial Fleet, the Battlestar Galactica seems to Singer (independently of one another) remained faithful be the the only military ship to have survived the attack. to the original series, trying to revive it. Led by the famed military leader Commander Adama, Several other projects, including demonstration the Battlestar Galactica and its crew take up the task of videos and a miniseries, were planned or started but leading the small fugitive fleet of survivors into space in never came to fruition due to a lack of funding or search of a fabled refuge known as Earth. commitment. “THERE ARE THOSE WHO BELIEVE... The original concept for the program was conceived in As a result it wasn’t until 2003 that a new re-imagined the late 1960’s by Glen A.Larson and was called Adam’s Battlestar Galactic was made. THAT LIFE HERE... Ark, but unable to find backing for the project he had BEGAN OUT THERE. FAR ACROSS THE UNIVERSE. WITH TRIBES OF HUMANS... WHO MAY HAVE BEEN THE FOREFATHERS OF THE EGYPTIANS... OR THE TOLTECS... OR THE MAYANS... THAT THEY MAY HAVE BEEN THE ARCHITECTS OF THE GREAT PYRAMIDS... OR THE LOST CIVILIZATIONS OF LEMURIA... COMMANDER DAGGIT IMPERIOUS LUCIFER OVION OR ATLANTIS... ADAMA LEADER SOME BELIEVE THAT THERE MAY YET BE BROTHERS OF MAN... WHO EVEN NOW FIGHT TO SURVIVE... SOMEWHERE BEYOND THE HEAVENS.”

COMMAND SHIP Th e Reimagin e d S eries Why are th ey So

With Ronald D. Moore and David Eick as the creative Rather than being a poor re-make it is an excellent Hard to Find? forces behind the Reimagined Battlestar Galactica tribute to the original and as such I am looking forward Universal Television made a miniseries which premiering to the Sci-Fi channel’s re-imagined “V” series (anybody on Sky1 in the UK and Ireland in October 2004, and on the else remember that one?). Sci-Fi channel in the U.S. in January 2005. So... Also, despite some character changes, it remains close I was about ten when Battlestar Galactica first premiered This miniseries was so successful that Sci-Fi opted to to the original concept and still “feels” like “Battlestar on British television and I was completely mesmerized What figures are there? develop this new version of Galactica into a television Galactica”. and transfixed by it. series. Who released them? Unlike most science fiction series, the re-imagined In fact, the very next day I dragged my old man (father) The new re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, like its series doesn’t feature aliens and intentionally avoids How old are they? down to the local Toys R Us store to get me some of the predessor, went on to receive television awards and techie phrases or lingo in order for the mainstream much critical acclaim from the TV critics and several audience to fully appreciate the show’s storylines new Mattel Battlestar Galactica action figures. What are the rarest? short webisodes as well as TV Movies, comics and which are well thought out and developed, as are the However in the 1970’s, unlike today, toys like these were entertainment console games have been made. characters. made to be played with, not collected, so most ended up I shied away from watching the re-imagined Battlestar In fact there is surprisingly little violence despite the being trashed after months play. Galactica for a long time, mainly because of my fond subject matter and instead the storylines generally This is the main reason why they are becoming memories of the original Battlestar Galactica series and explore the conflicts, relationships and friendships that because, living in Thailand, it wasn’t readily available, develop within the Battlestar itself and the apocalyptic increasingly difficult to find, coupled with the fact that however after a friend of mine lent me his DVDs I have fall-out of the destruction of mankind’s twelve colonies there are more and more collectors, like myself, who are became hooked. and of the remaining survivors as well as the moral trying to replace their vintage Battlestar Galactica action choices they must make in dealing with the continued figures from their childhood. They have also become more existence of the human race. popular recently due to the new re-booted TV sries, which I also loved. Even the newer DST (Diamond Select Toys) seem to be THE REIMAGINED SERIES becoming increasingly difficult to find, which is probably due to the fact that even though these were mass produced there was generally only one production run for each series. VINTAGE VINTAGE MATTEL CYLON COMMANDER STARBUCK Also the series has been finished for for a while now, so DST have stopped releasing figures, yet at the same time demand has been steadily increasing. Despite all this values seem to be fairly reasonable and stable at the moment which I think is due to this being a small niche and the fact that although demand is gradually increasing there is still and adequate, although decreasing, supply of the figures. It is my firm believe therefore, that over the coming years we are likely to see these continue to rise in value, especially for the vintage Mattel figures, as more STARBUCK RAZOR CYCLON NUMBER SIX APOLLO DUALA collectors try to back track on their collections and replace the figures they lost in their childhood. JOYRIDE STUDIOS MAJESTIC CYLON COMMANDER CYLON COMMANDER Mattel Battlestar Galactica Figures

Mattel’s original line of Battlestar Galactica action figures In 1979 Mattel released two 12-inch figures, a Colonial was released in 1978 and consisted of Starbuck, Adama, Warrior figure and Cylon Centurion Figure. Daggit (the robot dog), two Cylons (silver and gold), Lucifer, Boltar, Boray (a pig headed creature), Ovion (a The Colonial Warrior was based on the original mold from Mattel’s Major Matt Mason’s Captain Laser figure and fly-like alien) and the Imperious Leader (a rather dull pink VIPER LAUNCH STATION alien). came with a laser beam, scanner device and Arial and the Cylon had the added bonus of a manually operated These figures weren’t up to the standard and quality of moving red eye and glowing chest. the Kenner Star Wars figures, however over the course of time, and particularly since the start of the new “re- Both these figures have become extremely hard to find imagined” series has resulted in a resurgence of interest in mint condition with their boxes intact, so are worth in new Battlestar Galactica figures and merchandising as keeping a look out for. well as stimulating the market in the old vintage Mattel Later, in 1980, Mattel also introduced a limited edition figures, which can still be found at very reasonable prices. mail away Gold Cylon offer, in which you had to send in The first series of Battlestar Galactica figures was sold four proofs of purchase from any of the four figures in the in 6 and 4 figure gift sets as well as the regular individual series to get. blister packs. Mattel also produced five Battlestar Galactica ships, three The second series was released in 1979 and included the which were based on ships featured in the show, and two original figures from series one as well as four new figures: made up ones. These were a Colonial Viper, Cylon Raider, Colonial Landram, Stellar Probe, and Scarab. Sidenote: With these figures, as is often the case with Initially each of these came with missiles that could be older figures, it is the weapons and accessories that fired but after a child died from swallowing one they were prove to be the most difficult to find, although the replaced, so the earlier figures have become somewhat of COMAND SHIP figures themselves are relatively easy to acquire. a rarity.

The Colonial Viper was one of the best models that Mattel with the Scarab there are two variations of this vehicle MATTEL SERIES released and looked exactly like it did in the show and available, a grey version with firing missiles and a non came with a small 2” viper pilot figure. firing version. The Scarab was one of Mattel’s “made up” vehicles and Artwork on the box also contained a picture of an early was never actually featured in the series. It came in 3 main prototype Colonial figure with white arms and a red body parts, the command module, drive section and rocket rather than the final all red version which was released. launcher. The instruction sheet also wrongly labeled the figure that came with these vehicles as a Cylon. The Colonial Landram is probably the hardest Battlestar Galactica toy to find, with the exception of the Battlestar Another vehicle released by Mattel that had nothing to Galactica itself, of course. do with the show was the Colonial Stellar Probe 30 which was based very loosely on the Colonial viper. The Colonial Landram was released in 1979 and was the last of the Mattel ships to be released and then only in The Stellar Probe, like the Scarab, had nothing to do with Canada. It was was built to the same scale as the other the show and consisted of the command module, main ships and, as with the others, was available in both a non body, wing unit, tail, thrusters, adapter, nose cone, and missile firing and a missile firing version. lift-off assembly. There were two types of wheels available for the Landram, IMPERIOUS LEADER COMANDER ADAMA CYLON COMMANDER COLONIAL WARRIOR The nice part with this figure is that by interchanging the caterpillar tracks and plain wheels, in the same style as parts you could make up to eight different vehicles. As the Scarab, it also came with two small warrior figures that sat inside the cockpit. One of these sold on Ebay for Galactica Command Ship. This “ship” was to feature $2,025.00 in 2006. electronic sounds, launching vipers and was a massive 22 inches in length! It was, however, never released as it The Viper Launch Station came with the runway, two was deemed to be too expensive to produce and sell and launch-able vipers, two laser turrets, solar sensors, hence why you will probably never see one for sale. catapult grip, and two raider targets. This is one of the more difficult items to find, particularly in mint condition However, at least one prototype DOES exist and sold on with all the pieces intact and often sell more than $60 Ebay for $5,100.00 in 2006. Trendmasters Then we have the Holy Grail of Battlestar Galactica collectibles, the one that everyone wants, The Battlestar Battlestar Galactica

MATTEL SERIES Figures

After the Mattel figures nothing new was released until These figures remain reasonably collectable but had some 1996, when a company called Trendmaster released a major flaws, for example Starbuck and Imperious Leader new series of 12-inch Battlestar Galactica action figures. were unable to hold their weapons, and the Imperious Leader’s mask kept falling off. The initial series included four figures, a Cylon Centurian, Cylon Commander, Imperious Leader, Starbuck and later a limited edition Stealth Cylon figure (which was just a normal cylon in black). Each of these figures was also available as a talking version and was based on the comic book, rather than the TV series, that was produced by Richard Hatch and his friend in the late 90’s. The Imperious Leader looked as he does because the comic featured Glen Larson’s original concept of the Cylons being a lizard race that had become cybernetic warriors. (In the TV series they were all turned into robots because they were not allowed to have the heroes killing live beings on a show that kids would watch.) 4 FIGURE PACK COLONIAL STELLAR PROBE

TRENDMASTERS SERIES

RAIDER COLONIAL SCARAB IMPERIOUS LEADER SILVER CYCLON STEALTH CYLON STARBUCK Joyride Studios Konami Battlestar Battlestar Galactica Galactica Figures Figures Konami of Japan released a set of miniature Battlestar Cylon Commander, Cylon Basestar, Cylon Raider, Viper, Galactica figures in 2005. These “trading figures”, as they Galactica, Atlantia, and Pegasus. In 2005 Joyride Studios released a set of six 6-inch only represented by a blob of red paint rather than a are often referred to, are very popular in Japan. Battlestar Galactica figures in two series: Cylon Centurion, plastic red eye. The Atlantia, Pegasus and Cylon Commander figures Cylon Raider, and Colonial Viper, in the first series and Each figure is packaged in a “blind” box so it is impossible were much harder to come by than the other figures as Apollo, Starbuck and a Cylon Commander in series two. The series two figures suffered from the same fate as the to tell which one you are getting until you open it, much they were produced in much smaller numbers and have Centurion in series one. All three of these figures are great like a pack of trading cards or collectible card game. become more collectible and valuable. Although the Cylon figures in series one had really nice sculpts with good paint jobs but are again more a kin to sculpts they were more like a statue than true action statues than action figures. These Battlestar Galactica trading figures were based Each of these miniature plastic figures were from 2” to 5” figures, as it only looked good in its base pose, although on the original show and featured a Cylon Warrior, long. some of its’ limbs are articulated. Also the “red eye” is Each of these figures came with a removable helmet and gun which could be fitted in the leg holster.

TRENDMASTERS SERIES JOYRIDE STUDIOS SERIES

CYCLON BASESTAR GALACTICA CYCLON RIDER

APOLLO CYCLON

CYCLON WARRIOR CYCLON COMMANDER STARBUCK Majestic Studios Battlestar Galactica Figures

2005 also saw the release of Majestic Studio’s highly packaging and therefore the figures featured on the box detailed Limited Edition Battlestar Galactica figure which often didn’t match the figure inside. featured a Cylon Centurion, a Cylon Commander, Apollo, Starbuck, and Adama. Later, in 2006, Majestic released a Space Toys exclusive Apollo and Starbuck figure set. This special edition boxed These figures have become highly collectible and are set of 12” collectible figures, based on the “Experiment in considered to be among the best Battlestar Galactic Terra” episode from the original series, was limited to only figures to have been produced over the years with their 500 sets. In this episode, the characters’ uniforms and APOLLO COMMANDER ADAMA excellent sculpting and careful attention to detail as accessories, from their Viper helmets down to their boots, well as 7 to 12 points of articulation, each figure stood miraculously turn white when in the presence of this approximately 7” high and included accessories. protecting white aura. The figures in the boxed set display an amazing attention to detail with each uniform, including The Cylon Centurion figure had detachable armor as well guns and accessories, reproduced in pure white. as a nice fabric body suit and came complete with a rifle, gun, sword, and stand, the only minor fault with this figure The deluxe packaging featured a unique white flapped was that it was missing the “skirt”. window box in a clear acetate sleeve, each set was also APOLLO CYCLON individually numbered and came with a ‘Certificate of A an identical gold version of the Cylon Commander was Authenticity’ that was personally autographed by actor also produce as a Tower Records exclusive in the USA. Richard Hatch, who portrayed the lead central character, One of the few faults with these figures is that Majestic Captain Apollo. possibly tried to cut corners to save money on the

MAJESTIC STUDIOS SERIES

STARBUCK CYCLON DIAMOND SELECT TOYS SERIES 2 Diamond S elect Toys Battlestar Galactica Figures CYCLON CENTURION HELO KAT STARBUCK

Diamond Select Toys announced a licensing agreement with Universal Studios in January 2007 based on the new SERIES 1 re-imagined series. DIAMOND SELECT TOYS SERIES 3 There were three series of figures released between DIAMOND SELECT TOYS 2007-2009 with a fourth series scheduled to be released in 2009 but it was put back several times before finally being cancelled in 2011, much to the disappointment of its many fans. There were also numerous Comic-Con exclusives, store exclusives, special editions and two- packs released. Most of the main characters were produced during the brief tome these figures were produced as well as many of the minor characters, with the exception of Guis Balter APOLLO CAPRICA SIX CHIEF TYROL and President Roslin. GINA INVIERE CYCLON GUARDIAN HUSKER SHAW

HELO HOT DOG SIX

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