Mongrel Man kills a potentially cool toy line...
Workshop Toys' GLADIUS
2003
8.5" x 13"
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While rare in the toy industry, occasionally an action figure line is announced, prototypes are shown and then suddenly the series gets canceled and is never released. Workshop Toys' GLADIUS is a very similar story, except that ONE action figure did see the light of day. Presenting Mongrel Man, a character from the video game Gladius developed and published by LucasArts and Activision.
I never played the game, but anything featuring gladiators is alright with me. The problem with the toy line, or in this case action figure, is the very poor choice for a debut figure. A glance at the back of the card below shows off two cool characters in figure form - Valens and Galverg - a hero and villain that both represent the game infinitely better than... Mongrel Man. Seriously? It's like they wanted the toy line to fail right out of the gate. The ironic thing is that Mongrel Man is actually an extremely well-made toy - in sculpt, paint and articulation. A shame we never got to see all those great features on a Galverg action figure...