My Old Toys

For this Sunday’s post we have another McFarlane figure, this time it’s Manga Freak from the 1998 Spawn manga series.

I don’t know anything about this character. I’ve written in this blog before that I own about three Spawn comics that I bought during the speculator boom of the early 90s, and Freak wasn’t in any of those issues. 

So why is he in the box? Well, he’s another lost toy that my stepmother brought me from her classroom. Some kid lost the Freak, and now he’s part of my collection.

That kid must have been five or six years old, is that too young to be playing with Spawn toys? Maybe I’m getting old. 

I do like this figure, he’s got all the arms with the blades and the saw and all that. The only arm that’s not working for me is the one with the super long cables. I don’t even know what that’s all about. 

Oh Spawn, I’ll never look back at you without thinking of that awful movie.

From the early days of McFarlane Toys comes the very first Spawn figure. He’s the guy with a melted face and a cape that does all sorts of amazing tricks.

Seriously, this cape is too much. I don’t even want it. Obviously it was too much for the people who made that movie because the character didn’t even wear it half the time.

This was either a Christmas or birthday gift from my dear friend Vandenbergh D. Hofferstein, who thought Spawn and I would get along.

Since then, McFarlane Toys has produced about 400 versions of the figure and lord knows how many different statues and busts. 

A lot of people dig Spawn, but I never got into it. I own issues No. 4 and No. 6, which I remember buying during the speculator boom in the early 90s.

That was a ridiculous period, I’ll never forget reading Wizard every month and seeing these supposedly “hot” comics in demand. But they were always Valiant Comics characters I’d never heard of, like X-O Manowar and Harbinger.

Thanks goodness I never really fell for any of it. Except for the two Spawn issues and Predator vs. Magnus Robot Fighter.

Magnus Robot Fighter. What a stupid name. Plus, why does the guy wear a skirt and knee-high boots?

Anyway, back to Spawn. Yeah, so I never got into the character or Image Comics (Make mine Marvel!) and that movie was just about the worst thing I’d ever seen. Until I saw Green Lantern. 

McFarlane Toys did get my business, however, when they started making their awesome Movie Maniacs and Major League Baseball figures. A few years ago I even stopped at their store while I was in Phoenix. That was great, wish I had pictures.