Friday, April 5, 2013

Dragon Flyz NOCTURNA!

The Evil Dreadwing's Femme Fatale, Nocturna - Dragon Flyz - Galoob 1996

Who doesn't love a good mystery?  It's especially exciting when a mystery centers around an "unknown" toy.  I've been searching high and low for some kind of proof that this figure exists, but beyond the fact that I am holding her in my hands, I'm coming up at a complete loss.  Dragon Flyz (and their girly counterpart, the Sky Dancers) were produced by Galoob from 1995-1996.  They had a cool playable gimmick of being able to launch into the sky with the aid of dragon-shaped launchers that hide a ripcord schematic in their tails.  The toys all have raised necks that allow room for a rotating, hinged set of foam wings that extend from centrifugal force and send the figures soaring.  There was a corresponding cartoon that was actually pretty cool.  I kind of wish the toys had ditched the flying gimmick and had more stationary back-mounted wings like in the cartoon.  But alas, the toys were popular and you can still see the gimmick being used in toys today (current Disney Tinkerbell toys come to mind).


So let's get back to this mysterious lady.  I've always been aware of the two females in the Dragon Flyz line: Apex and Vega (who were the same character in different colors).  I knew of the wicked reptilian villainess from the cartoon, but was unaware they had ever made a toy of her...  until I stumbled across her a few months ago that is.  Honestly though, I can't even be sure this is Nocturna.  The coloring and costume are way off (but that was the case for almost all the characters).  She has the same LGTI (Lewis Galoob Toys Inc) stamp as all my other Dragon Flyz figures, but she has a "96" where all my others are stamped "95." 

Anyway, she's a mystery to me.  If anyone has any info on her, please let me know.  In the meantime, check her out below.










She is articulated at the arms, legs, and neck, and then has a spinning wing apparatus with two hinges.  Her body is made of a softer-than-usual plastic, but it's still pretty rigid.  Her head is rubber (like a he-man head) - presumably because the head would smack into things really hard.












Her sculpted details are really cool.  There are little knives and daggers tucked all over her outfit, she has a cool dragon-like webbing on the backs of her arms, and she had guns sculpted right onto her hands.








I held her upside-down to get this picture.





I didn't take a picture of it, but she has a cylindrical connector under her skirt that joins to her wing apparatus and can connect into the ripcord device on the launcher.




Here are some screenshots I made of Nocturna from the cartoon.  You can see she's obviosuly green-skinned and more scantilly dressed, but she is the only reptilian female on the cartoon and the fins on the head are a very unique trademark.







Time for some Comparison Shots!
Here she is with Apex.  You can see she's significantly taller.





Cheers!

4 comments:

  1. You are correct. This is a later Dragon Flyz figure. I am, like you an avid collector of female action figures (more so what I call "vintage" 80s or 90s. I have both Apex/Vega and have been patrolling online for this one. Coming up empty. But I can tell you I saw this figure on the back of the box of the later set of these.

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    1. Very interesting news! I was hunting down box images when I first got this figure to see if she would be shown on the cardbacks. I was specifically trying to look for foreign releases since my Nocturna came from Canada. But I didn't have any luck and eventually my passion for the hunt petered out. I'll have to renew that hunt now, if for nothing else than to add a few more reference images to this post. If you ever get your hands on her in packaging, please take some pics for me! Thanks for the message!

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  2. I saw her on the back of the box to what I assume is a later set of these at an antique store an hour and a half from my house. She is in a big group shot of the newer figures mixed in with the older ones, so her name is not on back of the box. I've been wanting to go back and buy that one if it's still there. If you happen to get a line on another one of these let me know. I'll keep you posted.

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  3. Weellll she looks barely like the show model, which was super gorgeous...

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