Glo-Bones head has the most interesting bit of articulation because it’s almost a ball-joint. The head was made to be removable from the neck, and the nub it sets on is round, but the neck is just a bit too wide so you don’t get that upward motion. Technically you could call this a swivel joint I guess, but it’s not really one of those either.
As for the rest of his body, Glo-Bones shoulders and hips are swivel hinges. His elbows, knees, ankles, and jaw are hinge joints. Plus he has swivel cuts in his thighs. With very few exceptions, like GI Joe and COPS, most toylines in 1988 had very basic articulation. Sure, they could move, but there wasn’t a lot of dynamic posing going on. But Glo-Bones, the single action figure in a very random line, has articulation you’d expect to see in today’s standard toy line.
Glo-Bones can’t terrorize your shelves with only his spooky glowing powers, so they gave him plenty of accessories: There’s a horned helmet with tiny sculpted rivets and a band running down the middle, a short sword with a sculpted skull head on the end of the hilt, a shield with a design sculpted on the front and rivets around the edges, and a halberd with a mace on the bottom end. How badass is that?
But the awesome doesn’t stop with the figure, because they even made the black case interesting. There are two tabs on the bottom of the case that flip out, allowing you to display Glo-Bones and his accessories right side up. This mode always made me think of Han in carbonite.
The case also has a small black button beneath his crotch. When you press the button in, it raises a peg on the back, allowing you to turn the case over and use it as a base.
Glo-Bones was never really in scale with anything, but it didn’t seem to matter to me. This figure was always a favorite of mine as a kid, and I still love him today. The articulation itself was way ahead of its time, while the entire figure has this great charm to him. When I was younger I used to wish there were more monster and creature toys like him, and I still can’t help but wish this was its own toyline and not just very interesting figure in a line of novelties.
To all the people who made this figure possible, thank you for the fond childhood memories and one of the greatest toys ever made.
If you’d like to learn more about the Pocket Power line, check out Powet Toys!
COOL! I was just about to leave a comment on the Revoltech Skeleton review because I saw this guy in the last pic and remembered having one when I was little and couldn’t remember the toyline. I recall back in the day that even though he was so small he was a very cool toy! The base, weapons and poseability made for a figure I used to take everywhere! I never remember getting any other items in that line but I know I had a lot of figures like that. Back then you weren’t interested in the whole collection of anything, just the ones you liked! Thanks for the bit of nostalgia!
You’re welcome, glad you enjoyed it.
It’s kind of funny. When you get older and become a “collector”, it almost becomes more important to buy the entirety of a line rather than a bunch of figures that are awesome but come from different lines. I’ve been trying to focus on the later more recently, which is why my reviews are all over the place. But I’ve found myself enjoying the majority of my collection more.
Another excellent review, Vault! I enjoy things like this because they’re personal, and there’s heart, not just a discussion of how the ‘resale’ value works out or some other purely mechanical, cold attempt to…I don’t know quite what I’m groping for here but I think you understand. Toy Love is a good thing.
Have you tried using a UV bulb or ‘black light’ to make your glow stuff pop for photos? Yes, it may seem dishonest but the desire is to give the impression what a glow toy looks like in person, right? Spencer Gifts, maybe a run to a building supply store for a reflector socket with a clamp on it, call it $10 and your glow figures will SHINE!
Also does AMAZING things with light-pipe eyes and the translucent plastic of the Hasbro Star Wars figures lightsabers. Give it a shot! 🙂
Thanks Steve. Yeah, I know what you mean. The entire point of this article was to celebrate a great toy we had as a kid, even though he didn’t really belong to a line of figures and we had no idea who sculpted him.
I’ll have to try the black light idea. I don’t have to normally take pictures of glow-in-the-dark toys, but when I do it’s pretty challenging. The black light might help out quite a bit.
I used to cover mine with silly putty, sculpt a crude face on him, and then have him get hit by imaginary toxic waste, or something and slowly “melt” into a glowing skeleton.. needless to say, I loved this sucker too… and I just KNOW he is deep in the bottom of a bin in storage, and that kills me, because, thanks to you… I want to stick him in my back pocket and take him on vacation with my glyos figures..
OH MY GOD, SO DID I! Instead of toxic waste, I used to give him battle damage so the bones would stick out. It’s really funny, I can’t believe someone else did the silly putty thing.
You should dig him out and display him proudly. Or take him with you on vacation again, I’m sure he’d enjoy it. lol
one of those strange things about figs of yesteryear was that scale was less important because there all kinds of toy varities out there that made play across line a blast. for example, i found a caveman from the bone age series at a garage sale when i was VERY young… i had to have him, so i ponied up the nickel and got him, and he and questar of the dino riders co-piloted a tonka truck i have that i can’t prove exists. but it was easy to mix and match these lines, because the tonka truck was huge, but required small pilots… so they became kind of rubber duck and spider mike and this vehicle was their weapon in the world.
the tonka truck is a fun story i’ll save for the boards…
Yeah, it’s interesting how much scale has become a dominant topic now that we’re older.
A Tonka Truck that doesn’t exist, sounds interesting. I’ll have to check that thread out.
I used to have this bad boy when I was a kid- man I miss that thing.
Yeah, I’m glad I found mine. You might want to track another one down. He’s still worth owning.
Blast from the past. Of course, I had this one too. Something else to add to the archives.
Definitely belongs in the archives. 🙂
BTW, your Inhumanoids pic also hit me with some hard nostalgia. That toyline would look so good updated.
I was thrilled to see my little buddy from the 80’s getting a review. I managed to find 4 of him when I was a kid, I also have the race car, motorcycle and the ufo looking thing. These were a great toy line and so easy to bring along on those long boring car trips. I loved all toys that could GITD, I even picked up the Duke Nukem figure from the Captain Planet series. I don’t know of any kids that could pass up figures like these…Thanks for the flashbacks.
You’re welcome, glad you liked it. Having four of these guys would be awesome. Your own little skeleton army to terrorize the toy shelves.
just reread the review and it dawned on me that when me and my cousin each got these he’d gotten the helicopter and I the skeleton. cool coincidence
That is cool. So you knew exactly what I was talking about, lol.