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Some of the toys I find myself wanting most aren\u2019t your random characters that a beloved toy line has so far left out of a series, or in a modern update on old line. I tend to daydream for lost causes of much greater magnitude. Sometimes I get my wish, like the incredible Mezco Captain Nemo figure, but most of the time I don’t.<\/p>\n
When Toygiant posted this suggestion on our forums<\/a>, Noisy and I knew that John Carter of Mars had to get a spot in our Most Requested Column.<\/p>\n In 1866, John Carter sought refuge in a cave. Inside, he met an elderly Indian woman and was overcome by a mysterious smoke she had conjured. Upon waking, he found himself in a strange and savage land. Carter would eventually discover he was on Mars, or Barsoom, to the locals. He would go on to battle aliens, rescue princesses, and even save the planet from annihilation a time or two. Inevitably, he became the classic warrior\/savior of his new adopted home.<\/p>\n In July of 2011, John Carter will be a century old, but he doesn\u2019t look a day over thirty. He won’t have gone a century without a toy. Over the last few years, there have been a handful of attempts at turning various Barsoomian characters into toys. In 1995, Trendmasters released a line of action figures mostly based on Tarzanfigures, but a few other Burroughs\u2019 characters were slipped in. John Carter, Dejah Thoris, and a couple different Martians were sold in both as singles and in two-packs. With very limited articulation, they relied mostly on sculpt, but that wasn\u2019t that great either. The one bright side to the Trendmasters\u2019 license is the inclusion of a micro playset that ended being fun despite the limitations. And last year, Triad Toys released a twelve inch Dejah Thoris<\/a> doll. I\u2019m not a big fan of dolls in general, but I have to admit it looks pretty good. As far as I know, these are the only attempts at a John Carter toy line. Not that impressive for 99 years.<\/p>\n So, what would I like to see? If I could get everything I wanted, it’d be a MOTU Classics style of action figures based on Edgar Rice Burroughs\u2019 entire Martian series. With eleven books, there are plenty of characters to keep a line healthy. John Carter and, his wife, Dejah Thoris, Tars Tarkas, the four armed warrior Thark, a myriad of colored Martians ranging from green to yellow to black, artificial men called Hormads, or the spider-like Kaldanes that command headless bodies, and countless more. There really is no lack of interesting and even disturbing designs that would be perfect for first class sculptors like the 4 Horsemen (yeah, it\u2019s a long shot to get them, but, at this point, aren’t they everyone\u2019s first choice?).<\/p>\n You may think this is a crazy idea. After all, who would want action figures of a character that\u2019s going to be a century old? Well, I might normally agree with you and go back to daydreaming about these figures. But there\u2019s one thing that gives me hope. Pixar\/Disney owns the current rights to make a movie of the first novel: A Princess of Mars. Scheduled for release in 2012, the film has been cast and has started shooting. That sounds like good news for us Barsoom fans. And there\u2019s no way a Disney Pixar movie can be made without a toy line, right? And after looking at the various companies Toy Story 3 offerings, I pulling for Thinkway Toys.<\/p>\n -Vault<\/p>\n![](\"requests\/2010\/johncarter.png\")
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