Out of the Toybox (3): Bone of My Bone

 

“In 1996, the toy manufacturer Resaurus released Series One of a Bone action figure line, featuring: Fone Bone with Rat Cub, Thorn, Smiley Bone, and Rat Creature. Five years later, a second line was released with Gran'ma Ben, Phoney Bone, The Hooded One, and a deluxe boxed set of Kingdok. Two exclusive figures were released through the toy and comic magazine Previews: Hooded One (glow in the dark), and Phoney Bone as Ahab.” – Wikipedia.

My dealings with the Bone action figure line make a long and somewhat convoluted tale. I think I became of aware of them at the San Antonio collectible store Heroes and Fantasies when the toys first came out.  I was intrigued with them (they had a good sculpt and some interesting grooblies) but being unfamiliar with the story or the characters I had no skin in the game, as it were. And I thought the figures of the Bone brothers themselves too simplistic. I had other lines that I was more interested in (Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Simpsons) and a limited budget. I passed them by.

I had other run-ins with them over the years, most noticeably at Busey’s (a huge flea market located in Schertz), where I saw a whole rack of them, blister cards yellowing in the sun. I was sorely tempted, but Mike hurried me along on other business. At the prices they are going for at this date, what an investment they would have made!

Finally, years later, I laid down some money at the Heroes and Fantasies  in Universal City for a Gran’ma Ben figure. It was on sale, there was nothing else I was even vaguely interested in, and I had money burning a hole in my pocket. On her scale, compared to my 3 and ¾ inch main collection, I thought she would make a kindly giantess. She came with Smiley Bone’s cow outfit (I suppose because she was the heroine of The Great Cow Race) and a small cartoon pamphlet telling that story. I, at last, had a taste of what the storytelling and artwork were like. The Bone comics had since been collected, colorized, and famous (no longer a tenuous indie comic that might never had been finished), so I at last felt intrigued enough to give the first volume, Out of Boneville, a chance. I read it, and then all chocks were off.

I got all the books, and started collecting the action figures wherever I could find them. I combed collectibles stores, toy shows, and eBay. I ended up with most of them, except for a Rat Creature (I think there might have been two variants, one with red and one with purple eyes) and Kingdok, a simply enormous figure, the lord of the rat creatures, boxed, not carded. Excelsior!

Kingdok Unpackaged, with Fone Bone for Scale