| RAMBO |
| 1985 Coleco |
| All I knew about Rambo when his movies were being released almost as fast as he could kill foreign enemies was that he was big, mean, and FAKE! Even as a child, I knew that those arrows Rambo would hurl at people never killed anyone. I knew his knife never saw real blood on it. I knew that it was a waste of my time to watch his movies, BUT I did anyway because I've always wanted to stand against a muddy wall and disappear! But anyway, props go out to "Aaron C." who made it known to me (a long time ago in fact) that there was an action figure of Rambo's Asian cohort in one of his movies. |
| K.A.T. | Click here for image | K.A.T., whose name was Co Bao in the movie, was played by Julia Nickson, who was born in Singapore in 1959. Her figure is tall, standing at a cool 6˝", and she has ball-jointed legs for leg-split kicking action! Her Let me just say that I feel all the movies that have been made and are being made that deal with past wars or even future wars against people of color are having a lot of indierect detrimental affects on our society. How many of you remember watching WWII films about the Pacific Theater, and watching all those "J*PS" be killed? What about Vietnam films that show all the brutality (often times toned way down!) that was done to Southe East Asian soldiers AND civilians alike? Now, of course they would show enough harm ebing done to our soldiers in the beginning, but this served only to invoke more hostility towards the enemy so that when it was their turn to be killed, we would all cheer. In any case, I'm not a fan of war movies whatsoever. They are too innaccurate, stylistic, and unncessary for our society. I once had the honor of meeting Nobuko Miyamoto when she came to my school for our Asian American Awareness Month. One of the songs that she, Chirs Kando Iijima, and Charlie Chin performed included a lyric that said "Secretly rooting for the other side" as they watched old American WWII movies. This is a powerful statement in that the "enemies" who were being killed were her own ancestors. Fortunately enough, the U.S. has never gone to war with Taiwan, (although Bill Clinton SLAPPED the Taiwanese in their face when he TRIED to change official U.S. policies towards the "Taiwan - China Issue" during the summer of 1998. But anyway, my point is that we don't have to be related to people in order for us to be offended and disgusted by America's racism when it comes to fighting people of color. Heck, you don't even have to be Asian to be mortified at some of the things I've seen in movies such as Platoon, and Full Metal Jacket. Basically, it's just far too easy for us, as a society, to begin hating an entire group of people just because their government decided to cause conflict with the U.S. Lest we forget, this whole nation was on a man-hunt for Middle Eastern terrorists for two days after the Oklahoma City Bombing in March of 1995. But when the profile for John Doe #1 came out, did anyone see 6" tall red headed men be beaten senseless on the streets, or the stores of medium build, clean shaven, red crew-cut men be torched and vandalized? What about the children of red headed men, were any of them verbally harrassed and abused in schools because their father's just happened to fit the profile of the killer? Think about what we do as a society sometime, and just try to tell me it's not sickening! |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III |
| 1995 Playmates |
| Although I did not get to watch this movie all the way through, it did seem a whole lot better than the other TMNT movies, at least the ones I've seen. The Turtles get stuck in ancient Japan, while some ancient Japanese warriors get stuck in Manhattan, New York during the 1990's. What a plot! |
| Princess Mitsu | Click here for image | This is an interesting figure. She is played by Vivian Wu, and comes with some cool accessories, but the figure it self has some weird leg articulations (some sort of ball joint), which make it difficult for her to look normal when she stands. She actually looks like she needs to go to the restroom, but anyway, another problem is that she looks NOTHING like Vivian Wu. She has some really cool long hair, but I can't even tell if she is Asian or not from the head sculpt. Her outfit does seem authentic, although I did not live in ancient Japan, so I cannot verify this. 8-) |
| Kenshin | images coming soon | This figure is kind of cool, it's too bad I cannot find it anywhere, and thus have never seen what it looks like. 8-( I think it comes with some cool accessories though. Check it out sometime, and if you do, please let me know! 8-) |
| The Shadow (1994) |
| 1995 Kenner |
| I've never watched this movie, and I've heard mixed reviews on it. Apparently, the Shadow, from Walter Gibson, was the predecessor to Batman. The only difference being that he beats up mostly Asian bad guys, where as Batman beats up mostly mutated bad guys. |
| Shiwan Khan | Click here for image | Shiwan Khan was played by John Lone, born in Hong Kong in 1952. He comes in two different versions: Battle and Normal. There actually is quite a lot of difference between these two versions. First of all, the outfits are completely different, right down to the molding. As far as the clothing style, however, I'd venture to say that it looks more like Aladdin and the Arabian Knights than anything else, but a fashion designer not am I. His head is the same sculpt on both versions, but he's got this long locke of free flowing hair on his normal piece, and his hair is braided on his battle piece. His hair goes down to the floor! I have NEVER seen someone with hair this long, Asian OR otherwise. But anyway, his face looks more like William Riker of Star Trek: TNG fame than anything else. Judging by John Lone's picture though, this may not be that far out of a sculpt. |
| Star Wars: Return of the Jedi |
| 1983, 1997 Kenner |
| You all remember the old Star Wars toys, don't you? They were so cool, and I still have many of mine, albeit they are rather decrepit, but anyway, Kenner has been re-releasing them in the Power of the Force Line, and they are doing wonders with the sculpting and accessories and everything else. The new Star Wars toys are really great, but you may be wondering where any Asian Americans appeared in the movie. In the original series, the only Asian was the A-Wing pilot who got blown out of the sky (along with ALL of the other multicultural Rebel pilots) in Return of the Jedi. Alas, Kenner does not see fit to create a figure of him. 8-( But I did fudge the rules a bit and came up with an alien who has always reminded me of an Asian, and the new digitally enhanced ROTJ included a dancer in Jabba the Hutt's palace who was clearly Asian. Overall, I'm really interested to see if George Lucas will be incorporating any Asian brothers or sisters in the new Prequel series. |
| Nien Nunb | Click here for image | As I previously mentioned, this is fudging the rules a little bit. My father got really angry with me when I kept asking him to translate what this alien Rebel pilot was saying to Lando Calrission in the Millennium Falcon during the battle with the Second Death Star. As it turns out, George Lucas modified a Kenyan Dialect to feign this Sullustan's native language, but ever since my brother took me to see ROTJ when it first came out, I thought this guy was Asian. Perhaps it is his big black eyes, but I know it's not his double-jowl. In any case, he was released in 1983 and in 1997, and since it's my collection, I choose to consider him an alien Asian. 8-) |
| Lyn-Me | Click here for images | For those of you who have not seen the newest ROTJ that is computer enhanced, you will have no idea who this character is. She did not appear in the original ROTJ, but thanks to the magic of computer animation (another Asian American contribution BTW), she appears as one of the three dancers during the new music number in Jabba the Hutt's palace. She is played by Dalyn Chew, a dancer for a SFO-based dance troupe. She plays a Twi'lek, the race of aliens with two tentacle-like protrusions coming out of her head. Check this one out She comes in a three pack Cinema Scenes with her singing/dancing partners, two other alien girls. This set has been seen in various places, and I'm certain it will be a hard one to find. 8-) |
| Rystáll | Click here for images | In my tiring search to find out who Lyn Me was, I stumbled across the fact that one of other two dancers, Rystáll, was also played by an Asian American, of Vietnamese descent. Her name is Mercedes Melinda Ngoh, and I don't yet know a whole lot about her, but she's the one that Boba Fett is obviously interested in if you check out the images. |
| A-Wing Pilot | images coming soon | Props go out to "Thomas G. Atkinson" for this information. He told me that the original (1983) A-Wing Pilot looked VERY similar to the Asian pilot seen in ROTJ, who unfortunately was blown out of the sky. But anyway, the cheapest after market price I've found for this guy was $75, so it doesn't look like I'll be doing any analysis of him myself. But if any of y'all know what this figure looks like, then let me know. 8-) |
| Warriors of Virtue |
| 1997 Play'em LLC |
| This was not a popular movie, and I didn't even hear about it until just I saw the action figures in a big clearance toy store. I just saw the movie the other day, or at least the last 30 minutes of it, when I caught it on Showtime. It's actually a pretty decent movie. It was produced by five brothers from Hong Kong who are Medical Doctors. The crew is comprised mostly of Asian people, but the film had, in all, about two Asian actors. Before I saw this film, I really thought that many of the roles played by white people were actually Asian roles. I mean, the main bad guy's name is Komodo, but he's played by a white guy. This caused me to write a brief commentary about what I think about ethnic-specific roles being played by the wrong ethnicity, but after I saw the movie, it made be alter my mood about it as a whole. In either case, I still wish to share with you my commentary, which begins just... about... NOW... I mean really, this was common in the 40's, 50's, 60's, and 70's too. Can you honestly tell me that with Asians comprising more than HALF of the entire world's population, no Asians could be found to play Charlie Chan, Madame Butterfly, or the King of Siam (in the King and I)?! But anyway, the toys from this film are really cool. They are detailed, stand about 6" tall (accept for the little troll and the kid), and come with amazing accesories. As a side note, I chose NOT to get any of the Kangaroo characters because they scared me. They had cool names like Tsun and Lai, but Kangaroos are an Australian thing, not an Asian thing. 8-) |
| Master Chung | Click here for image | Master Chung is played by Chao-Li Chi, a popular actor who plays old wise men. You may have seen him in Big Trouble in Little China and Joy Luck Club (are there any popular Asian American actors who did NOT have a role in this film?) He comes with a bead bracelet and a long staff. In the film, he is the wise sage of the Roos (Kangaroo Warriors). He teaches them the five forces of nature: Benevolence, Loyalty, Order, Righteousness, and Order. (funny, I always thought it was Earth, Wind, Fire, and water, perhaps I was just riding "high on a ship fantasy?!") |
| Barbarocious | Click here for image | Barbarocius is the most mysterious and deadly assassin in evil Komodo's army. Perhaps she would have been less mysterious if the writers gave her a BIGGER PART! She was played by Chinese actress Qu Ying. Part of what makes her deadly is that she has a dark, hypnotic beauty that ensnares her victim, leaving them helpless in her grasp. I guess she's just drop-dead gorgeous. Her figure has a LOT of makeup, especially black eye shadow. Of course. this is how she looked in the movie, but it's really kind of scary! |
____________________________________________________________________________________________
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Copyright © 1998
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from their respective creators.
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Revised: February 20, 1999
