The Home for Odd, Ugly and Neglected Toys

Kong King by Imperial Toy

Kong King by Imperial Toy

A gorilla.

(Click to enlarge)
Gorilla toy by Imperial

People like gorillas, right?

No? Too scary?

(Click to enlarge)
Gorilla toy by Imperial

Well, I like this gorilla. He just called to me. He looks more like a man in a suit than a true gorilla.

This big, black, angry primate is by Imperial Toy. I’m not sure what year this toy was released. Probably the 70s or 80s from the looks of him.

I have a feeling it’s supposed to be reminiscent of King Kong. See the resemblance?

King Kong

(Actually, this shot of King Kong reminds me of Danny Glover.)

I don’t see any marking giving rights to a movie studio or anything, so this is probably just a generic giant gorilla. I’ll call him “Kong King.” He’s supposed to fight some of those dinosaur toys Imperial made in the 80s.

You remember those dinosaurs? I actually had this dinosaur as a kid.

Dinosaur toy by Imperial
Dinosaur image courtesy of Cretaceous Central. Thanks!

I remember dropping those little green army men into his mouth, filling its hollow plastic torso with unlucky soldiers. (It was always hell to get the dinosaur to regurgitate them though.) I would even squeeze his mouth shut repeatedly to make the act of eating that much more convincing.

(Click to enlarge)
Gorilla toy by Imperial

Kong King is plasticy, goofy-looking, has minimal paint applications and has very obvious construction seams. He has two points of articulation at the shoulders. The rest of him is just a hunk of hollow, flexible plastic.

Notice his smooth, polished bare ass…

(Click to enlarge)
Gorilla toy by Imperial

… and what’s with coconut bra?

(See. I told you’d I’d post another York Show toy this week. I’ll try to do another.)

Buy King Kong toys on eBay!


18 Responses

  1. Patrick says:

    i actually JUST bought that same exact dino for 75 cents at a peddler’s mall in kentucky

  2. Justin says:

    Wow. Good find.

    I hadn’t even thought about that dinosaur until I started writing this blog entry.

  3. Mistuh_thye says:

    I have a very similar Gorilla figure except it has two red led lights for eyes and a button on his chest. When you push the button he kind of makes a weird snoring/growling/moaning noise and his eyes flash on and off for a few seconds. It’s made of hard plastic too. but the sculpt looks to be the same.

  4. Justin says:

    Man, your toy sounds so much cooler. I wish I’d found a roaring, laser-eyed gorilla toy instead.

  5. BubbaShelby says:

    I got that same Kong last year. It is an officially licensed King Kong, and I think it was released in ’85 or thereabouts.

    Check out my post: http://toyriffic.blogspot.com/2008/06/da-da-da-daaaaimperial.html

  6. Justin says:

    Thanks for the tip Bubba Shelby.

    The car in Kong’s hand was a nice touch. Too bad I don’t have any small cars lying around.

  7. SIMON says:

    Hey Justin!
    I just have to say WOW! All you’ve done on this site is so AWESOME!

    best,
    Simon

  8. Spok-spok says:

    I had a gorilla like that when I was a kid.

  9. Fae Cthulhu says:

    I totally had one of those dinosaurs when I was a kid, back in the eighties. I would attack the Star Wars figures with it for some reason, and the simulated chewing mouth movement was a must for me too.

  10. AsianFan says:

    Amazingly, in Asia KING KONG is called KONG KING. Kong actually means King in Korean whereas King has no meaning.

    The more you know!

  11. Justin says:

    Wow, thanks for the insight AsianFan. Good to know. That’s pretty funny and coincidental. (I’m taking your word for it by the way.)

  12. Justin says:

    @ Simon – Thanks for the support, Glad you like the site.

    @ Fae Cthulu – Funny that we both did the mouth chewing thing. A modern dinosaur toy would growl, animate and have a chewing action all activated by the press of a button. Also, it wouldn’t be hollow, because it’d be filled with electronics.

  13. Puppatoons says:

    OH! I still have this very same dinosaur–I got him at McCrory’s when I was a kid, and I remember him seeming so HUGE in my little hands. Even the display box he was in advertised them all as GIANT DINOSAURS.
    His name is Thor, and for a while he sat on my desk at work…when I had a job.:(

  14. ferret says:

    I had one of those as a kid. I always thought it was creepy, but I didn’t expect to find it here.

  15. pocket says:

    The king kong figure was part of a Sears catalog collection “Classic movie monsters”. Others in the set included Frankenstein, Dracula, Werewolf and possibly one other that escapes me.

  16. Hawanja says:

    Fyi this is for sure a figure of King Kong, it had a tag when it was sold. I got mine in the mid-80s (probably released to cash in on the King Kong Lives movie.)

  17. Oldboy says:

    I have this Toy too. It is a king Kong Toy that I got in the 90’s.

  18. Chris says:

    I’m not sure when it was released, but I can say for sure that I bought mine new at a Toys R Us in the early 90’s, probably ’92. I also bought this with a Godzilla toy that was in the same bin and made in a similar fashion…I still have both!

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