Denys Fisher Monster Factory

Sometimes I buy Monster toys and then totally forget about them in October, case in point this set. A wonderful "do it yourself" craft set from the UK that includes Frankenstein, the Wolfman and Dracula (the Chocolate, Vanilla and Strawberry of the monster world).

What's that you ask? Can we look inside Brain? Your wish is granted after the jump!

The Skull Machine

The Skull Machine sounds more like a Ted V Mikels film than it does a toy but it's actually quite a neat concept from Deny Fisher UK (inventors of the Spirograph).

Basically it's a child's first look at rotational molding, as the machine allows kids to make three different kinds of heads they can then paint. There were several variations on this theme but seeing as this is October, I chose the horror themed one to spotlight.

Super Size Bionic Woman

In 1977, the British Distributor of Kenner toys Denys Fisher, produced an 18" tall version of Jaime Sommers and marketed more like a fashion doll. Pity they didn't do a Steve as well.

These little foreign variants are what drew me into toy collecting in the first place, I loved discovering what's out there and what i missed as kid, so to speak. Even though my collection is "Bionic Woman Free" for the most part, I can really dig and appreciate cool grail pieces like this.

War of the Daleks

TOTALLY TRUE STORY: When i was 15 years old I found a copy of this game at a "Toys and Wheels" store at the mall in Canada. I don't know how it got there but this store used to buy a lot of close out stock like Action Jackson uniforms and the like so maybe it was a sample.

All i can say is, as a 15 year Doctor Who fan, I thought I was dreaming.

The game is lost to time (and to the fact that I moved like 20 times from the age of 19 to 28) but I still have one of the chubby l'il daleks on my desk.

Denys Fisher Cyborg

Not enough props can go out to what I think is the UK's better kept secrets, originally a Japanese line called "Henshin Cyborg", the clever monkeys at Denys Fisher took it, made it smaller and added a keen back story.

I didn't grow up in the UK, had no inkling it existed when I was 7 but when I look at this stuff I swear I feel nostalgia, it's that cool.

Check out the 1977 Denys Fisher Cyborg Archive

Bionic Bubble Bath

From the "Stuff I hadn't seen before but now can't live without" department comes this Six Million Dollar man bubble bath container from the UK. I guess in the 60s they called these "soakies", I just call this thing awesome. Many thanks to Ebay Seller RetroToyBoy for the photo submission.

More after the (Slow Motion) jump

Cyborg VS Muton

Another excuse for me to extoll the virtue of the Denys Fisher Cyborg line, there's just something so appealing about see through action figures, wish I could elaborate on that further. This is one of those figure lines that never made it to North America, lucky brits...

For more drooling, check out the 1977 Denys Fisher Cyborg Catalog and Toy Gallery:

1977 Denys Fisher Cyborg Catalog

"On a doom laden day 2250 the Trembling Earth came face to face with the holocaust! The pernicious plan of direful destruction launched by the MUTON- an alien master- from the death black reachs of space!"

In the mid seventies, UK Toy Maker (and the inventor of Spiro-Graph) Denys Fisher took a Japanese Toy called Henshin Cyborg (which was an off shoot of Captain Action and the father of the Micronauts) and transformed it into a compelling series of 9" figures.

The infusion of a western story line into Japanese toy creativity resulted in only thing, toy magic. The Denys Fisher Cyborg line may be the best toy that you've never heard of before. One word of caution, it may cause ebay searchs...

Thanks to Bill Frost, I also have a gallery of awesome boxed and carded Cyborg goodies to coincide with this.

Click Here to view the catalog and toy gallery

More Cyborgs and see through heroes

Buy, Sell or look for vintage Henshin Cyborg Toys at our trading post

Doctor Who Trading Card

Card #24 is the Densy Fisher Doctor Who line, it may seem weird to do a Mego line here considering the Megomuseum cards but I'm not sure when we're ever going to get around to this line and me being a monster fan, just had to do it. I consider it a foreign mego subset.

Growing up in Ontario in the 70s, Doctor Who was a big thing, it aired on TVO and was hosted by a guy called "Doctor Dator". I remember being destroyed when Jon Pertwee died and turned into Tom Baker thinking "this new guy sucks!".

While these Denys Fisher Mego figures were sold in the UK, Italy and Australia, I really think the Canadian Mego Distributor dropped the ball in not releasing them here. I think they would have sold fantastic, I don't know anybody that grew up in Ontario that doesn't know who Doctor Who is.