Arco industries made several blister carded "Fantasy Action Sets" based on the 1982 movie The Sword and the Sorcerer. These sets were distributed by a company called Fleetwood. The cards also list a company called BLC Services, Inc., which is probably the copyright for the movie. The cards are dated 1983 and 1984. The figures are unmarked. There are 2 60mm barbarians, 2 60mm monsters and 2 smaller mounted figures. There are also 5 larger rubber monsters and a mini castle front. The 60mm figures have interchangeable glow in the dark weapons. The mounted barbarian warrior has the three bladed sword from the movie.
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| The guy on the left's face looks a little off because he has a beard that they didn't bother to paint. |
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| These are rare unpainted versions of the monsters. |
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| These are very rare bootleg barbarians. I have no idea who made these. I got them in an ebay lot from Canada. |
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| When you put them side by side, the original guy looks suspicious and the bootleg looks sad. |
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| The painted dragons are bootlegs or some later production. |
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| The three on the left are original, the three on the right are bootlegs. |
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| The two headed dragon has a bootleg version. I have not seen any bootlegs of the other monsters. |
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| These are from Fleetwood's Manimal line, which came out at the same time. They mix in well. |
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| The bottom of this Italian card shows Arco and Fleetwood trademarks. |
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| This came out around 2011. I like the yellow version of the dragon. |
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I have noticed the two smaller dragons in this line appear to come in the color variations you have listed, whereas the bootlegs always seem to have some paint added to the wings or the back spine. Some of these bootlegs however are from the 80's still or early 90's, whereas others are even newer. I have also seen these included in chinasaur sets, during various years of production. I see the painted ones pop up on ebay quite often, but I never know if it is an older bootleg or a newer one. In your opinion is there any pattern, or specific color set that would be associated with the older bootlegs vs the newer?
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ReplyDeleteNo pattern I have seen. Some bootlegs even come from Mexico. As far as I know, the painted versions came in tub playsets from Assume Kids.
ReplyDeleteI bought several boxes of those bootlegs/reissues from the last picture. I got them at rite-aid pharmacy as recently as last year. They are additionally noteworthy because they contain some of the original Dungeons & Dragons monsters used by the creators in their home games. The top left fig is a Disenchanter beast, far right is a Rok bird, below it is a Bulette, and in the middle left is a Su monster. All of them have depictions in the first edition Monster Manual and the drawings look very much like the Chinese figs that inspired them. Love your blog!
ReplyDeleteI agree completely. I put the same picture at the bottom of my Chinasaurs post.
DeleteHey Shaun, what would you estimate a value is on the carded set with the castle? There is someone offering one up on facebook, but they don't know what to charge, and they threw out what I consider to be a ridiculous number...275.
ReplyDelete$150 tops, and then only if it is in perfect condition.
DeleteHey there! Your web site is amazing. I refer to it quite a bit. FYI, a couple of your pics in this section are not loading. Thanks so much for making this web site.
ReplyDeleteWhich ones? they all load up for me.
Delete#22 and #29. I also checked the page on my phone. The same pics do not load.
Deletethe picture of the carded two headed snake dragon monster (the only one missing in that group) and whatever carded picture above the carded cobraman was (possibly the small winged dragon with figures set? or the paired carded good and evil riders?) are indeed broken and not showing.
ReplyDeleteLOVE your website!! I now have been collecting because of it!! I finally found the castle front for Sword and the Sorcerer and at $20 on Ebay it was a bargain lol.. Love this site! You did a great job! I'm building www.mymegolike.com if you are ever interested to look...
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