GUTS! is for a Massacred Abbreviation!

Ground Troops . . . it's awful isn't it! But the strangulated MUSCLE and CUTIES weren't much better, however, Mattel obviously thought they'd found the magical formula for flogging polymer tat to kids via-TV advertising; with abbreviated group-names! These Guts being issued in 1986, so now sliding into a true 'vintage', they are nevertheless still quite 'modern' and easy enough to find.

Although you may recall I had one 'unknown' and someone had to ID it for me, but I've now tracked down the full set of Laser Fighters, so let's have a look . . .

. . . at what are a fun set of figures. We looked at a couple - which turned-out to be smaller piracies, a while ago from one of Chris's parcels, and - as I said - someone at the time told me they were Mattel GUTS!, but I can't find the comment, so it might have been a private eMail, meaning I can't credit them unless they remind me, but thank you however you were!

Each of the ten sculpts gets a name, they were clearly thought-up in a coffee break before the artwork was "OK'd" back to the printers/art-room and are consequently less than memorable, but they are nice figures, albeit with a real 1980's vibe as far as space-figures go.

They are rocking Cylon Warriors and straight-to-video, post-apocalypse B-movies, imagine some scrambler-bikes with rusty armour and fishing nets, the [Nevada] sky always behind a salmon-pink filter and an old crone with a broken-back who turns into a sexy space-babe after a camera-wobble and flash of white screen, only to seduce our intrepid laser-fighters and suck their brains out!

The weirdest thing is that not one of them is identically uniformed, with every helmet slightly different, every weapon very different and varying paint details are applied - half have painted boots (in three colours) half don't.

Two have black visors, but only the one black helmet - normally you would expect the sculptor to make a matching head or two and reproduce them first; for use on all ten masters, but here; each was separately done.

Packaging of the larger set; poorer kids could save-up for sets of five and as we saw in the above link, someone copied them and issued them undecorated as metallic PVC's, the same material as these originals.

Full set here in a slightly crushed box; not that pricey, for N. America, but if in the UK, you can get them cheaper on feeBay, to account for the postage, if you're patient!