Games People Play makes a triumphant return to the airwaves Tuesday, April 7 to talk about ninjas! Tune in to WFMU at 6pm, or else!

Stream it live, or later, online, too.

Back on my Hong Kong toy bullshit! This is Warriors of the Galaxy (1983), the big box play set from Marty Toy. There is a version of this box without the electronic soundboard, which seems to have come out around the same time. There were also smaller sets in blister packs on cards, some just with dudes, some with dudes and a vehicle (“dude” is the term of art my son applies to these sorts of plastic entities, be they men, women or creatures). Marty Toy seems to have been less a real company and more a marketing shell; it pretty much vanishes right after these toys hit this market. The toys themselves live on under a number of names, mostly from Hong Kong, mostly in increasingly lower quality copies — Galaxy Knights, Superteam of the Universe, Demons & Wizards. The handful of figures I previously posted appear to have been made in Mexico. None of these, to my knowledge, have any connection to Sungold’s 1987 Masters of the Universe knock-offs, Galaxy Warriors.

Anyway, this play set is pretty great, exactly the sort of thing I would have lost my mind over as a kid (and it honestly hurt me a little to tell my son he couldn’t play with these because they are relatively rare). There is so much to love! Two factions, Golden Heroes (zzz) and Galactic Demons (yea!), both of which are designed to hold brightly colored plastic weapons (which, so far, are still on the sprues in my set). Because of this, the little guys look like they are dancing when they aren’t holding anything, which I find endlessly charming. The vehicles, a sci-fi tank and a flying saucer, are little blow-molded delights that have holes where radar dishes and guns can get mounted. There are also little missiles on stands, so you can put them on the battlefield as they fly to toward their targets.

The real star is the soundboard. My goodness! Six sounds on a console featuring an angry plastic castle — electronic scan, rocket fire, explosions, laser gun, the rumble of space tank treads and a button for the sound of the UFO taking off, flying and, when pushed a second time, landing. I kept this on my desk for a long time when this first arrived and only put it away once I killed the batteries. Imagine if I worked in shared office space. Everyone would love me.

It occurs to me that I finished a bunch of miniatures and never shared them in the newsletter. So hear they are. Mostly they are orcs and auxiliaries for my army (the ghost and the dark creeper are the exceptions). I took the bold step last week of priming the remaining units (about 20 orcs and 10 or so mercenary ogres and trolls, and the Juggernaut, eesh) which seems like I am signaling to finish off the the army this year. Will it happen? Will my determination evaporate now that I said it publicly? Will I sabotage myself by buying up the goblins and hobgoblins? Time will tell.

The main thing of note is that after I finished the really aggravating banner on the standard bearer, I tempted fate by painting a skull on it. I liked how it came out so much that it convinced me to add insignia to the shields of the lads I was working on and some of the older fellows. I like how they came out. My pal Levi says the teeth theme is vile, which delights me. My kid said they don't look like humans painted them, which, OK, I don't know how to take that but it seems like a compliment?