I posted this on Action Figure Archive but nobody seems to care, maybe you guys will find this interesting.
Very few collectors have ever seen any of these figures or know about them outside of Brazil. So I present to you the Brazilian adaptation of the Japanese Metal Hero ‘Jiban’
This toyline from Glasslite utilized a mixture of the original Japanese toys from Bandai and the re-used bodies of Monkian (for exclusive figure ‘Morfus’) and Vultureman ( for exclusive figure ‘Abumaru’) from LJN’s Thundercats line. These were released in 1990 when Jiban was very popular and aired on Brazil Television! Anyone else ever find them?[LEFT] http://s24.postimg.org/b3phutvo5/morfusoncard.jpg
Morfus MOC uses repainted Monkian body with exclusive(?) head mold.
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Even though created for Jiban, I feel these figures fit in well with the original LJN Thundercats (The characters never actually appeared in the Jiban TV show) and are very, very rare to come by! Most of the diehard T-Cats collectors Ive spoken with, including some top dog everything T Cats & prototype collectors have never even seen or heard of these before!
A brief background explanation - ‘Mobile Cop Jiban’ was an excellent Japanese Metal Hero show which ran from 1989-1990. Outside of Japan the show was aired in Brazil where it became a smash hit, so GLASSLITE decided to release a toyline using original Japanese Bandai figures (dont know if these were legally licensed or casts of the production Japanese figures…they seem to be of much lower quality compared to the Bandai originals), All original vehicle designs not released in Japan, and of course the two exclusive LJN Thundercats repainted bodies with new head sculpts pictured above. The character Abamaru (Rhino headed guy with Vultureman’s repainted body) was also released through the rare ‘Spielvan’ toyline from Glasslite (not 100% positive but the figure is shown in a rare Glasslite commercial for this series: http://youtu.be/PmOkIoRSQRI ). These two Thundercats repaints/hybrids are the rarest of these Brazilian ‘Jiban’ toys and to date I have only found/seen 3 Morfus (2 loose, one on card) and only a single Abamaru loose which is pictured above, this is after about three years of constantly searching mercadolivre and having Brazilian contacts hunt for them. Some of the rarest and possibly the only Thundercats foreign variations (extremely different…I know about silver hammer Ben Gali, etc.) in existence. Anyone else know about this line or happen to own one or both of these figures?
[LEFT]
You are welcome. I wish you luck, these two guys are some of the rarest out there and they have never appeared on any western auction or retail toy sites and most Brazilians don’t even know about them. Other than prototypes Id go as far as to say these are the rarest Thundercats related action figures ever made, they are very high quality although the head of Abamaru is a semi-soft rubber. mercado livre is your best bet to find them, one will pop up every so often!
These Figures were produced in 1990-91. I believe Glasslite received the molds from Playful Toys in Argentina, or it was vice versa. Anyway chances are these molds, if not in collectors hands are still lost or destroyed in South America somewhere. So these two figures may very well be the last use of Monkian and Vultureman’s original body molds (But Who knows what Venezuela might hold, all sorts of new and different figures for various toy lines have been coming from there recently as more people in the country are getting internet in their homes)
Its what happened with a bunch of the vintage MOTU figures, when Mattel went to produce the classic anniversary line they realized important molds were lost in South America and India and actually had to make new molds off of vintage production figures!
Those are very awesome figures that I really want
To get in my collection. Do you have any pics of any other figures in the line or know who else from from the thundercats molds were used. Thanks for the share
only these molds were used and supposedly a figure made from Tygra as well, but Ive never seen it.
All other figures in this line are from original Bandai molds or repaints/remolds of old ‘Galaxy Rangers’ figures. No other T-Cats molds were used.
Good luck in the search, these are rarer than anything T-Cats related, other than prototypes. Think Thunderwings Lion-O and Luna Lasher Mumm-Ra are rare? They dont even come close to how rare these Brazilian repaints/remolds are. Like I said Ive only seen 1 loose Abumaru (in my collection), 3 Morfus, and never the supposed Tygra repaint over 3 years of constant searching…
This kinda stuff is so interesting and cool! I have been trying to get my hands on some stuff from Brazil if anyone is willing to help me I would be very appreciative!
