JafariStew: Recreating a Toyline: BUGMEN OF INSECTA

2015-04-19

Recreating a Toyline: BUGMEN OF INSECTA

In 1983, DFC Multi-Toys Corp created a line of insect warriors called the "BUGMEN OF INSECTA." These 6 figures & 2 vehicles proceeded Coleco's (more popular and remembered insect warriors,) the"Sectaurs," and were released at popular toy outlets like Toys R Us. As a child my Aunt Leta had a way of finding us a variety of toys that my brothers and I weren't currently collecting on our own to help spark and further our adventures with playtime, & imagination. Receiving 1 figure each from her that Christmas, the BUGMEN have always had a fond place in my heart as a durable, fun, and little known figure line from my childhood. Although the figures had no media and just a brief blurb on the back of their cards, both the figures & packaging resonated with me as a 50's-70's kind of sci-fi throwback tale of giant monstrous bugs reclaiming the Earth. My brothers & I had the characters KING STINGA, CARNIVORA, & WEBSPINNER IV (the other 3, LORD GRASSA, ELEPHAS, & the lone female BLACK WIDOW were equally cool) but as with most little known toy lines of the 80's, these figures moved out of the toy infested aisles as quickly as they arrived, and have been mostly forgotten except by the savviest of today's adult collectors. Today these are near impossible to come by, as carded samples are so rare, and loose samples usually are very worn, but through the building power of the Glyos system I saw a way within THE GODBEAST'S exciting KABUTO MUSHI figure to rebuild these characters using 95% of what the Kabuto Mushi figure already came with as the aesthetic. So in a an usual attempt to recapture a small sample of my childhood, I started looking at Glyos in a new way, to homage figures & characters of my past, something the current Kabuto Mushi line is doing right now with slick paint applications. I'm proud to say that in just about a little over a year of it's original release, through the help of Marty Hansen and his investor Kaleb's kindness and inventiveness, through Kabuto Mushi I have been able to complete this project and rebuild a 2015 updated version of the 80's infamous BUGMEN OF INSECTA!