Ultraman Clash & Thrash City (Bandai, 1992)

 

Today we look at a special, dying breed of toy:  the GIANT PLAYSET.  The GP was the staple of many a stellar toy line for decades, but has become so "expensive" to produce that they are nearly extinct, and in some cases these days, laughable and made of cardstock. 

A bit of history first: in 1989, Tsuburaya decided to have another go at an English-language version of Ultraman, and entered into a co-production with a studio in Australia to film one "Down Under" the following year.  It took until 1992 to get the show into the United States via syndication, under the unwieldy title ULTRAMAN TOWARDS THE FUTURE, where its 13 episodes quickly came and went.

Nobody seemed to know what to do with this series (in Japan they simply put it out "straight to video," and moved on to the next thing). America blinked, and missed it.  We could talk about this all day, but just one of the problems with the show was that they kinda sorta pretended it was the original Ultraman (remember, this was also done for the entirety of the third original show too in Japan...after all it was called THE RETURN OF ULTRAMAN...and they didn't name that character "Jack" until much later).  In Japan they gave him his own name of "Ultraman Great" just to keep it all straight.

So anyhow, an interesting thing happened.  Tsuburaya decided on a whole blitz of products.  There would be a comic book, a Super Nintendo title (called simply ULTRAMAN; it unfortunately sucked), and an entire toy line.  There weren't lots of syndicated shows back then getting action figure lines, but this was accomplished by Bandai teaming up with a small manufacturer called Dreamworks.  It didn't exactly make the big splash that anyone was hoping for, either, but it's from this line that we get:  the CLASH & THRASH CITY.

I maintain that CRASH AND TRASH CITY would've been an even more "90's" title, because in the end CLASH & THRASH just doesn't roll off the tongue, and as soon as you say it, you think you've said it wrong.  Anyhow, a giant cityscape playset for kaiju to smash may seem obvious to you and me, but it's actually a rarity in the toy world.  When this particular one came out, it had been 13 years since TRICEPHALON, and the Trendmasters GODZILLA ATTACKS NEW YORK was still a couple of years away...which makes you wonder if this was a particular inspiration! Anyhow, let's jump in, at last:

This is the [sold-separately] Ultraman action figure that the playset is intended for.  (It's kind of shocking they just made one figure of him; if it had been just a few years later, we would've had 25 variants in every color imaginable).  For some reason, Dreamworks produced him in 8-inch scale, which isn't the main problem.  The main problem is that he is poorly articulated, and doesn't stand well at all.  He includes his alter-ego Jack Shindo, who was available in a red-uniformed variant (see, it was just beginning).  If it helps any, the human figures are the size of Kenner M.A.S.K. figures.

A really weird thing about this playset is that it includes three dummy figures of the humans in the line.  They are the same size as Jack Shindo (in fact that IS him, in the middle), but made of olive green plastic and are completely non-articulated.  To my eye, they read as "army men," and if you look at the artwork on the front of the box, they are there, shooting giant discs at kaiju, where they really read as army men.  But they aren't!  To make matters worse, the figure on the left (the female lead) never even got released on her own.  I suppose a kid could use these as pod people versions of the heroes, or say that the bad guys had turned them into statues, maybe...either way it was a strange "board game" kind of a thing to include, and it continues to be baffling.

Speaking of board games, the foundation of the playset is a huge playmat, measuring a whopping 33 by 23 inches in size! It is unfortunately made of a thick cardstock in the posterboard family, and held together on the back with a binding material allowing it to fold.  It would've been much better if this were heavy like most board games, and as such wouldn't hold up to heavy play very well.  It's really one of the areas where Bandai cheaped out. (By the way, Dreamworks' name is nowhere on this playset or packaging.  It appears Bandai took this one over.) The TOXIC AREA takes up more than its share of room...if you think the playset is starting to look like a 1990's day-glo mess of colors, you haven't seen anything yet!

A little Bandai in-joke, there.

Here is the required-by-law shooting feature that all 1990's playsets had.  This disc shooter (the box and instructions refer to it as "Secret Weapon") works very well, but it has nowhere to go on the actual map.  The artwork shows it atop a building, but that is impossible, as you will soon see.  The back of the box shows it off to the side, along with the useless clones and the three sets of power lines (which are cool, but also have no intended location on the board).

The starring features of the city are the three buildings, made of individual pieces that can be smashed (two sit on launchers that help you accomplish this).  They are really puzzles in themselves, and you need to look at the instructions to assemble them correctly the first time (included at the end of this post).  An airport control tower works the same way.  A generous amount of vehicles are included:  a large airplane, a train of four cars, and two trucks! I nearly forgot to mention the 4-piece train bridge that breaks apart.  I have already mentioned the three sets of power lines, which you can connect of course...it's just that when you do, they go off-board.  You definitely get accessories for the money, though.

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for.  Let's see this playset in action:

"Good afternoon, this is a KRAP News traffic report.  It's a slow news day in the big city...wait, I'm wrong! Eleking and Metron are attacking the city! How did we not see this?!!"

"Wait! I just noticed that ULTRAMAN has arrived! Surely he will save us!"

"After Eleking threw a truck full of old milk at him, Ultraman punched him right through a freakin' building!!! Victory tastes sweet, my friends, but it sure smells terrible."

"Uh oh! Metron is zeroing in on Uma Thurman's house! Ultraman is running over at top speed!"

"The fighting is fierce, my friends! I'm going to say OH, THE HUMANITY here because I've always wanted to say that on the air...but you should see the fighting!" 

[Wrestling Announcer voice] "He's got Metron on the ropes, but what's this?! Metron's got a plane! He's got a metal plane!!!"

"Whew! Ultraman's thingy was blinking, but he smashed Metron with an electrical tower, and then karate-chopped him! The battle is now over! The city is SAVED!! My nerves could stand no more, friends!"

"And now, Ultraman has flown away, my friends.  I am sitting here surveying what's left of our once-great city, and I just want to say, thank you, Ultraman! Thank you for........totally trashing everything, you big lummox! What are we supposed to do now??!!!!"

The instruction sheet, as promised!