It's amazing how well a family theme can work in a superhero genre. The Fantastic Four and Power Pack have proven that it's a recipe that can work, yet somehow it's rarely ever explored. The Bionic Six is yet another of the great 1980's toy-centric cartoon properties. The general premise is that the Bennett family (Mom Helen, Dad Jack, Biological kids Meg and Eric, Adopted son J.D., and foster kid Bunjiro) are all exposed to dangerous alien radiation and must undergo bionic enhancements to save their lives. This treatment gives them each unique super-powers and inspires them to form a superhero team, the Bionic Six. The main villain, Dr. Scarab is the brother to Professor Amadeus (who had infused the Bennett family with their bionic enhancements). LJN is a company that had some of the coolest licenses in the mid-80s: ThunderCats, TigerSharks, Photon, Dungeons & Dragons, etc, etc. They definitely did a fantastic job with their Bionic Six line. Let's check out the figures below!
There are three women in the Bionic Six cartoon and they were all made into action figures: Helen Bennett (aka Mother-1), Meg Bennett (aka Rock-1), and Dr. Scarab's mysterious henchwoman, Madame-O.
We'll start the review with Meg.
MEG
Wikipedia Bio: Meg Bennett, aka Rock-1 is Jack and Helen's daughter and is Eric's younger sister. Meg is an excitable and somewhat ditzy teen who loves music. She is prone to habitual use of the future-slang phrase "So-LAR!" (comparable to "awesome"), as well as the prefixes "Mega-!" (as befitting her first name) and "Ultra-!" At Albert Einstein High School, Meg is a member of the debate team and in a number of episodes is seen dating a classmate named Bim. As Rock-1, she can emit sonic beams from blaster units mounted on her shoulders – the blaster units are only visible when she assumes "bionic mode". She can also run at blinding speeds, faster than other members of the team (who can all run at superhuman speeds in their own right). Meg and Eric are Jack and Helen's sole biological offspring. Meg was voiced by Bobbi Block
These figures are awesome because they use a very standard O-Ring construction (aka GI Joe style), but with real die-cast parts and cool translucent pieces. There's no reason for any pieces to be translucent, but it does add a very "bionic" feel to the figures.
HELEN
Wikipedia Bio: Helen Bennett, aka Mother-1, is Jack's wife. She is an oceanographer and an accomplished marine biologist. Mother-1 possesses various ESP powers that allow her to occasionally see glimpses of the future, telepathically communicate with other sentient and non-sentient beings, determine the function and operation of mechanical devices by mentally "tracing" their internal workings, and can mentally project hologram-like optical illusions. She was voiced by Carol Bilger.
My figure has some kind of plastic defect on her neck.
MADAME-O
Wikipedia Bio: Madame-O is an enigmatic blue-skinned femme fatale who wears a full face mask and uses a harp-like weapon to fire sonic blasts. She has a verbal tick of ending many of her statements with the word "...darling." While possessing super strength, she is not as strong as many of the other characters; Mother-1 was able to defeat her in physical struggles in various occasions. Before her transformation, she actually appeared to be an elderly woman. She was voiced by Jennifer Darling.
Madame-O comes with a black rifle that I unfortunately do not have. She should have come with her harp weapon anyway.
I love the translucent green scarab on her chest.
Here are an assortment of images from the cartoon.
One of the catchiest, and "Eighties-est" theme songs ever!
Time for some Comparison Pics!
Cheers!
Wow, they are all really cool! Good head sculpts & nice paint work.
ReplyDeleteMight have to hunt these down one day.
They're super nice figures. I wish we could have seem similar girls from properties like Bravestarr and Tigersharks.
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