Matchbox 8.5″ Fighting Furies: PIRATES

I just wanted to point out that this picture is the ORIGINAL one I put in 1998 on the megolike.com webpage. Funny how after all of these years the pictures still circulate! The boxed figured to the left was mine and the one on the right came out of the box. I used to put them on a flatbed scanner with a paper towel behind figures I scanned to give it a lighter background…the old days of the Internet! The middle pic came from Mark Hannah who I have not heard from in years..does he still collect?

These figures were produced from early to mid-1970s by Matchbox/Lesney Products (however, traces of them for sale (clearance bins included) went for years after). The two main characters, Cap’n Hook & Cap’n Pegleg, were produced and sold in stores in the USA and in Europe. The glow-in-the-dark Ghost of Cap’n Kidd figure was sold exclusively by Sears catalogs in the US, but in stores in Europe. Each figure had a button on the inner left side of their body which allowed for a sword slashing/knife throwing feature in the pirate series, and a gun-drawing action in the lesser-known Western series. The pirates had a molded plastic hand with a finger offset to maintain the holding of their various weapons. Tons of posability and a slew of accessories and two playsets made sailing the Seven Seas a real pleasure with these toys! In addition these figures came in the retail colorful windows boxes and the mail order Sears only versions which were black and white boxes with no window.

Each boxed Adventure Set or blister Action Pack contained a great variety of accessories including swords, knives, coins, treasure, hast, coats, guns, etc., etc… Each boxed adventure set also came with a small comic/instruction sheet inside. They are orange and white in color and are the size of a small brochure for all except the Ghost of Cap’n Kidd who had a grreen/white/black glow like print. These pamphlets gave a brief description of the adventures of Cap’n Pegleg and Cap’n Hook and how these accessories fit into their adventures. The neatest accessory by far for the pirates was the hollow Pegleg on Cpt. Pegleg’s right side. He had a treasure map which actually was rolled up and hidden inside his leg! This in turn was capped off by a small “plug” to contain the map. This map, made of paper, and plastic “plug” are probably the two of three of the most hard to find items in loose figures because they generally are lost. (The other is the “golden ring”…a tiny yellow ring found on the right hand of new figures to help hold the sword in their hand). The map itself usually deteriorates in time. If you are lucky, you hopefully will find Cap’n Pegleg with his map still hidden inside of his hollow leg. It usually looks like nothing more than a wad of paper up there, and was difficult to get out without destroying it once it was in there. You must patiently and CAREFULLY pry the map out with tweezers or something not very sharp or you will damage the fragile map. I have 3 and learned the hard way. In addition to all of this, it should be noted that these sets came in European boxes which were similar to the US editions, but had multiple languages on the box (English, German, French and Spanish). Other than that, the colors and accessories were the same.

There were 2 playsets that these pirates could have their adventures on. They were both called the Sea Fury, but were quite different. The standard version was sold in stores and was nothing more than a vinyl covered cardboard ship playset that doubled as a carrying case. The Sea Fury playset which we see also in the Sears mail order catalog however was an ENTIRE sailing vessel with sail, above and below deck, and more. All put together it was approximately 4 feet long! It is worth considerably more, and thus harder to find. These ships came with sticker sets to apply to these playsets with areas clearly marked by dotted lines to make sure kids put them in the correct locations.

The strength of these figure was in their accessories. They came with TONS! Their weakness however was Matchbox’s attempt to enter an action figure market already dominated by Hasbro’s GI Joe and Mego’s various action figure lines. Thus, the overabundance of accessory sets led to multiple packaged accessory kits with the famous “Cap’n Patch” as we call him figure. He was no more than a cheap knock-off of Mego’s Cpt. Patch figure, but his patch is on the other side of his face, and his body is that of a cheap Captain Eagle with a backed stamped solely “Made in Hong Kong”. He is much different then the more articulated and mobile Cap’n Pegleg, Cap’n Hook, and Ghost of Cap’n Kidd figures who were stamped “Lesney Products” and dated. He is however a neat variation to obtain and is usually quite expensive. He is sometimes mistaken for Mego’s Capt. Patch figure. Just check his patch (should be on the right eye) and his back, as stated before will be marked solely “Made in Hong Kong”. There will be no date and it will also NOT say “Mego”.

A little update! Recently discovered that in the US and Canada, the figures were “Cap’n Pegleg” and “Hook”. In Europe and overseas they were “Cap’n Pegleg” and “Cap’n Hook”! The boxes and pamplets denote the differences.

The Crew (Store Shelf Versions):

Cap’n Pegleg and (Cap’n) Hook were the only two characters initially released until the Ghost of Cap’n Kidd came along..

The Crew (Sears Catalog Versions)

Something to note: Here, “The Ghost of Cap’n Kidd” sold in Europe is known through the Sears Catalog as “Capt. Kidd”. Although it’s the same character, the labeling on these versions is technically quite different.

Accessory Sets & Disguise Packs (Store Shelf Versions)

Accessory Sets (Sears Catalog Versions)

Super Value Deluxe Sets

When Matchbox began to lose steam, they began to package multiple accessory sets with a knockoff pirate that mimicked Mego’s Captain Patch figure in the 1970s. The main difference if you pay careful attention is that the patch is over the opposite eye. The body itself is a very cheap knockoff body similar to that of Captain Eagle seen here: https://mymegolike.com/8-captain-eagle/