Socket Poppers/Con-nec-tors "Swamp Monster, Mutant, and Cyclops" Vintage Action Figures - Ertl/Matchbox (1990)

Are you ready for a bonus Saturday edition of Vintage Fridays?  This week's theme is "BEYOND THE STARS AND BENEATH THE WAVES: A Week of Space Monsters and Sea Creatures!"  And we've got that covered and then some in this post!  Today I'll be looking at three vintage monsters from the Socket Poppers/Con-Nec-Tors toylines.  Grumo the Swamp Monster, Alantide the Mutant, and Trilor the Cyclops.  In addition to the toy review, I also made a scary (or maybe just a kind of weird) Halloween photocomic starring these figures, along with a few vintage action figure guest stars.  Let's check it out after the break...

Hey, guys, you're facing the wrong direction!

I reviewed my first Socket Poppers/Con-Nec-Tors figure, Garza the Mummy a few weeks ago.  Click here to check out that post.  Now I'm going to take a look at 3 more of these toys.  Socket Poppers were action figures designed with detachable heads and limbs that could be swapped between the figures to make crazy combinations.  There were a total of 16 figures in these toy lines.  I currently own 8 of them.  When I collect the whole set, I'll be making a special post about them, where I try out lots of wacky combinations.  For this post, I'm focusing on them as straight up action figures.

That's better... hey, wait a minute!

The figures are all molded in one color of plastic, and then have some airbrushing and paint apps added on top of that.  The sculpts are highly detailed and kind of cartoony, plus just a little bit gross, in a Garbage Pail Kids kind of way.  They have vintage Kenner style 5 points of articulation at the legs, arms and head.

Alantide the Mutant

Alantide the Mutant is a sea creature and space monster rolled into one!  He looks to me like a cross between The Creature from the Black Lagoon and the Metaluna Mutant from This Island Earth.

Tr

Trilor the Cyclops!  This space alien is pretty clearly a riff on The One Eyed One Horned Flying Purple People Eater, albeit with two horns instead of one.  And he doesn't have wings, but he does have wing-like ears, so maybe he can flap those and fly, Dumbo-style!

Grumo the Swamp Monster is like a cross between Swamp Thing and the Toxic Avenger.  If you examine his sculpt, you'll find weird bits of trash mixed in with his muck, like an old tire and a shoe!

I think these guys make great looking action figures on their own, even without the body parts swapping, how about you?

And now, let's enjoy my scary and/or weird photocomic!

The "Ultimate Evil" Strikes Again!  ...THE END.