Friday, September 04, 2015

Lords of Light Prototype Figure Found


I'm really happy to showcase this neat discovery of this lost Lords of Light toy. I've been smitten with these figures since the mid 1990s when I first found out this hidden treasure.

A bit of a background on Lords of Light: After Mego Toys folded, a company known as PAC packaging (who light assembled many of your childhood favourites) got into the manufacturing game and produced several Toy lines in the early 1980s.





Lords of Light were produced using retooled Micronauts molds, with the added gimmick of having a glow stick in their chest cavity. It was all the brain child of PAC toys founder Joe Ruzzi (you can read my interview with him here)




The line had all the trappings, a comic book insert telling the story of the brave Izzurians (get it) fighting the dark evilites. There was even a big budget TV spot set to air, which thanks to my pal AcroRay I have a beautiful print of to show you below:





Unfortunately, the Lords of Light were cut short in mid launch due to company legal issues, so only the four villain figures ever saw (limited) release into the market and without the TV promotion, they simply faded away.....




The series of good guys, vehicles and even ride on vehicles just never happened and were thought lost to time, that is until Joe Ruzzi himself recently found this figure in a box:




This is Leborio and he's described as the Izzurian battle computer, he is designed to walk and according to Ruzzi, he was meant to have a slight limp.


Leborio has a removable head in order to place a glow stick in his chest cavity. I am tempted to pop one in.


The most notable element that is from the Micronauts is his head, which comes from one of my favourite characters ever produced in the line:


REPTO! I'm sure you can see the family resemblance. Hopefully more Lords of Light will finally surface!


3 comments:

Shlomo Ben Hungstien said...

looks like that Laborio figure also used parts from those wind up mech. toys called Zoids. i had one Lords of Light figure back in the day which i asked my dad to buy me out of desperation for some Micronauts nostalgia.

J_D_La_Rue_67 said...

Really, REALLY interesting. Repto's head and Membros' legs. or arms. Whatever. And a touch of Zoids, yes.
A knockoff even odder than the "Cavalieri Stellari" by Litardi.

http://www.giocattolivecchi.com/Forum_detail.aspx?t=0&id_d=657552&p=1

I wasn't so thrilled since I saw Chromantron for the first time.

Anonymous said...

Amazing stuff, indeed! What a toy revelation!


Peace,
David Schumacker

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