Months ago, I discovered the awesome Charles Bronson lookalike figure.
Alright, maybe he’s not a Charles Bronson figure, but what’s not to love about this guy’s dated, 70s-style suit, big-ass tie, bling-rings and pompadour hair style.
I’m tellin’ ya. It totally reminds me of the guy.
Once I started playing with the figure, I immediately discovered he had a little trick up his sleeve… er… necktie.
You squeeze his legs, and he raises his arms in surrender. But watch out!
A hidden gun flips out from underneath his necktie.
Now that’s a pretty funny gag. The cops tell him to “freeze” so he does… all while gunning them down. Pretty comical.
(Actually, it’s pretty harsh. Gunning people down was always a Charles Bronson thing. Maybe this is a Bronson figure.)
Since I bought the figure loose, I didn’t know it at the time. This figure is Mr. Sleaze. He’s from the Police Academy toy series that was released in 1989 by Kenner.
As a youngster, I was a fan of the movies, but I recall seeing commercials and things for the show and remember thinking it looked really, really awful.
The live-action Rated-R movie was bad enough, but now they made a kid-friendly version (reminds me of the Toxic Crusaders toy from a while back)?
Police Academy went from this…
… to this.
Pretty goofy.
Well, just recently, I found Mr. Sleaze on card (for those who don’t know, that means he was still sealed in his package) and didn’t know it was possible, but the accessory he comes packaged with makes him an even better figure.
He comes with a poodle.!
A freakin’ poodle? Ha!
Yep. This evil, sleazy bad guy may have a soft spot for cute, lil’ fluffy poodles… or not.
You see, Mr. Sleaze isn’t the only one with something to hide. FooFoo Dog here is one ugly son of a bitch (literally).
FooFoo acts like a delicate, pretty dog, but when you least expect it, he rears his ugly head to bite you, eat your sandwich or pee on your leg.
This dog definitely looks disturbed. He kinda reminds me of a sad, old man.
Other than the googly-eyed, goofy face, I think my favorite part of FooFoo is his hairstyle. Look at that thing. He’s got the same pompadour haircut of his master.
That’s such a great detail. I’m thinking this haircut is funnier than anything in the cartoon ever was (Just an FYI – I’m judging the hell out of the cartoon without ever seeing it.).
Also, after buying the figure on card, I actually discovered Mr. Sleaze isn’t as sleazy as I’d hoped.
The gun under his necktie is actually just a “gasser gun,” so I’m sure it was used in the cartoon to knock out the good guys or make them laugh w/ laughing gas or some crap like that.
Wuss.
The cartoony drawings on the package are fun and goofy, but they seem a bit underdeveloped and sloppy (kinda like the whole cartoon series. ZING!)
The toys also seem a bit lame. These are all basically cutesified versions of the dysfunctional characters from the movies. They don’t seem too interesting in exaggerated cartoon form.
I never played “cops and robbers” as a kid, so maybe that’s why I never cared about this series (plus I was 12, so I’m sure that had something to do with it). Looking back at them all, I think the villains interest me the most, but that’s probably true with every toy series.
That’s the closest thing to a Bronson action figure we’ll ever see in our lifetimes.
numbskull looks pretty great actually. i think it’s funny that the cutesy dog just ends up being an ugly scared woosy looking dog. the gag would have made a lot more sense if the dog actually looked ferocious instead of pathetic.
The thing that i find most amusing is that if youve seen the movie pulp fiction the rapist in that movie name is Zed and hes a cop. If you look on the card for this figure theres a cop named zed with no freaking pants on!!
I remember these!!! hey… do you remember Food Fighters and Wild West Cowboys of Moo Mesa from the early 90’s? Maybe I’ll scour e Bay for those.
OMG that figure really creeps me out, and the hands up shooting motion makes it even worse. I love this site. So many crazy stuff. Haha.
I am wondering how you get all these weirdo toys. They are awesome…
I never had any of these toys as a kid (although my sister had the Zed with the Police Skateboard figure), but I knew what they were thanks to Kennr’s wonderful “Action Toy Guide” books included inside any boxed Kenner products from that time. I used to always flip through those books while on class trips. Out of all the 1st series bad guys, I thought Numbskull looked kinda cool.
Looks like Jerry Stiller to me.