My Favorite Dragons of the 1980s

The 1980s were the decade when fantasy toys really took off.  Most of the playsets and figures on this site were made in the 80s.  Most of my favorite old school, unpainted, take 'em outside and play in the dirt with 'em, fantasy toy soldiers are from the 80s.  Most of the playsets come with dragons that are cool enough, but are really a little small to look right with toy soldiers.  So, in the 80s you had to take your full size dragons from wherever you could find them. There were a few lines of just dragons and other monsters from companies like Imperial and Chitech, but the dragons from action figure lines fit the bill as well.  Really outstanding dragons did not come along until the 1990s and after.  In my opinion, the toys from the movie Dragonheart started a whole new standard for toy dragons that has grown and improved to the point that you can now find dragons in toy stores that look like they belong on the covers of fantasy novels.  The 80s dragons still have there charm.  Here are my favorites.

Blackstar  Warlock dragon mount.

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My very favorite dragon of the 1980s is Chitech's three headed dragon.  

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Chitech's other dragon is not as cool.  

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These are the only Imperial monsters that I really like. 

From Arco's The Other World.

These are the lava and ice dragons from Remco's Crystar line.  The ice dragon is missing his wings.  

This the Dragonne from TSR/JLN's Dungeons & Dragons line.

This is Tiamat from the Dungeons & Dragons line.  Photo is from an ebay auction.

MARTY TOY: Warriors of the Galaxy

Marty Toy produced a line of 12 original fantasy/sci fi figures that came in playsets, blister cards and bags under the name Warriors of the Galaxy.  The good guys are called Golden Heroes and the bad guys are Galactic Demons.  They have interchangeable weapons and shields.  The original figures are marked "Marty Toy 1983."  Later copies are unmarked or just marked "Hong Kong,"  Marty Toy vanished shortly after these came out, but a bunch of other companies put out copies including some good quality copies from Mexico. 

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These are the three basic color variations for the Golden Heroes.

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These are the three stock color variations of the demons.

Several companies released these slightly modified copies of 5 of the 6 Demons.

These copies also come with the same weapons.

I have only found these three poses in black, so far. 

These copies are from Mexico, called Heroes g Villanos de la Galaxia.

In Mexico they copied the heroes and all six of the villains.

Most of the Mexico copies are higher quality than the Hong Kong copies.

Some of the Mexico copies remove the skeleton's horns and make him look even creeper.

These are glow-in-the-dark boolegs that came from vending machines.  Very rare. I believe these five are a complete set as they seem to be bootlegs of the common monster bootleg set that does not include the lizard guy.  Bootlegs of bootlegs = poor quality, but cool colors.  

The vending machine copies are about 15% smaller.

I'm not sure where these copies are from.  They are about the same size as the vending figures.

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These are the vehicles from the playsets.

These copies of Tootsie Toy Flash Gordon space ships come with the Mexico copies.

This weird little piece also comes with some of the Mexico copies.

The electronic playset is the more common of the two,

This rare carry case style playset has everything other than the electronic mountain and is much harder to find.

This very rare card came from England.

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Gordy released these Hong Kong copies in 1985.

Original Demons Bag.

Original Heroes Bag.

Not sure who released these copies.

These Ja Ru Figures are marked "Marty Toy 1983."

Ja Ru must have bought or had some deal with Marty Toy to release original figures.  Or not.

These Hong Kong copies were distributed by A-OK.

The Mexico figures are better than the bag suggests.

Photo from an ebay auction.

Photo frm an ebay auction.  I just missed this auction.  

Photo from an ebay auction.