The Many Sides of Fangar the Conspirator

My good buddy Steve is a master archivist of old toy sale ads.
Years ago, he found the one above (I assume in the Maryland area due to the city names at the bottom). Notice anything funny about it?
We've had quite the talks about the appearance of Fangar over the years in this ad. Does anyone out there reading this have a copy of the Ideal 1985 Line Art Catalog? I have scans of two pages from years and years ago - but only of the RBT pages. I need to see the Robo Force pages, for obvious reasons.
Thanks for letting me share this on the blog, Steve! 

Also, there's this:

Independent toy manufacturing is incredibly challenging from a financial standpoint, which is why anyone who loves the independent scene should be following the work of people working in 3-D printing. One notable artist working in the medium today is David White AKA Mechazone.
What he does with ABS plastic in his garage is truly inspiring...as the costs to manufacture in China increase, the idea that we may one day be able to have completely original, professionally produced figures made on printers here in the US is a tantalizing prospect. It's very close now - check out the link! I have two of David's figures and they need to be seen to be believed.
One of the only weaknesses of home 3D printing currently is a loss of detail only currently possible with more traditional molds - but if you get one of these figures in-hand, it feels like a standard ABS action figure.

So, the drawing above...I challenged David to do a redesign on Fangar the Conspirator (one of the unproduced second series Robo Force characters) in his style. I'm super happy with the results!
I'd love to see this figure in plastic someday.
To see more work from David, follow him on Instagram at username mechazone.

The human factor

Had Robo Force continued into its second year, we would have seen the introduction of multiple new characters, including the human who "designed and built the Robo Force" - Mark Fury, and his fellow freedom fighter Deena Strong.
Conceptually, was a line all about a planet of robots too strange for kids to really get into in 1984? Transformers and Gobots would tell us no. Adding the humans was just part of the story that Ideal would have told...it is also worth noting that these would not have specifically been Earth humans, as the entire story takes place on planet Zeton. Unless Zeton would have turned out to have been an Earth colony or something along those lines...

So what do you think? Is Mark Fury an integral part of the Robo Force mythos, or something best left in 1985? Should Deena Strong finally see production as part of the Toyfinity range?

MURPHY'S LAW

Art is an incredibly subjective thing.

What one person sees as art, another could see as blasphemy.
In this case, though, I was amused to find that the above drawing had been done by an artist named Doyle a few years back before Toyfinity owned the rights to Robo Force.
I had to order one for my own collection. Prints are still available from Nakatomi.

So, RoboCop being Man and Machine is closer to the gods of Machines because of his duality of existence?
I LOVE IT.