Monday, March 9, 2009

Idol Pursuits : Master of the Plastic Arts - Part 3-a : Marvel / TSR R.P.G. standee

This entry is the 2nd of a two-post "linked" entry dealing with the TSR Marvel Super Heroes Role Playing Game, first released in 01984.
(Part one - HERE)

While it was only one game system, there were at least three different editions of the TSR Marvel RPG (not counting the multitudes of handbooks, game modules and character updates).

The Basic set was released in 01984.


The Advanced set was released in 01986.



and a Revised Basic Set was released in 01991.


I'll go into the RPG in depth at a later date, but for now I'm just going to focus on the standees.

This cardboard standee figure is from the 01986 Advanced Edition.


And this nearly identical version is from the 01991 Revised Edition.



Standing 1.25 inches tall, the figure is but one of dozens that were included in the boxed set.
Basically, if a character was being published (or remotely popular) at the time, they got a standee.
However, due to time constraints (and the fact that this is a Dr. Strange centric blog), we'll just stick with the Doctor.

Each figure could be cut out from the sheet that they were printed on and folded along the vertical lines (with the last tab being where glue - or tape - was applied), to thus transform the item into a 3-sided "standee".

This is what it would look like when assembled.
You'll note that it's triangular shape made it "arrow-like" so that the two front-facing images would both be looking ahead, and the back of the character was along the flat rear wall of the game-piece. That is because, it was basically a representative figure of your character(s) which you would then move along the included play-map as you made your way through the given adventure(s).
It might be a factor to know which way your character is actually facing so that the players would be able to "see" what was coming at them (or what would be able to sneak up behind them) during game-play.


Obviously, this is ANYTHING BUT an "action figure", and is even more rudimentary than the other standees that I have already showcased on the blog -
the Marvel World - & - "Rub-n-Play" standees (HERE).

However, it was the "cheap-ass", but fully functional version of a player figure if you didn't (or couldn't) get the metal figurines that I featured in the first part of this 2-fer entry (HERE).

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