Only the richest kids had the complete set of anything. So, in my house, Lion-O from thundercats always went to battle with Cheetara, Wily-Kit, and B.A. Baracus, who drove the thundertank, of course. He sat just right in there. And he pitied a great number of fools on Third Earth, I can tell you that. Any other wierd team-ups from your mismatched childhood collections?
Autobots, those little magnetic-footed spacemen (that I can’t remember the name of, but were way insanely popular when I was a kid), and Lego-men very often teamed up to save Lego World. from the attacks of the Decepticons and the evil magnetic-spacemen.
GI Joe and Cobra bases were made by Fisher Price or K-Nex and the teams were supplimented by MASK and VENOM.
Well, here’s my age showing again – don’t they make a pill for that or something?
Anyway, we never thought of them as odd mixups, but all our action figures would play together: GI JOE (when there was only one basic Joe), Johnny West, Captain Action, (all 12" figures BTW) would regularly engage in stories that involved Maj. Matt Mason and Col. Doug Davis and Callisto, and Capt. Laser, along with Hot Wheel Cars. Sometimes, Mr. Machine would make an appearance (18") and our 27" box fan would sometimes be a focal point of action. (We had a childhood rich in imagination).
StarCom.
Plastic Dinosaurs fought Green Army Men, with the help of toy elephants.
In the bathtub.
Star Wars figured, hit by a SHRINK RAY (I just couldn’t deal with scale differences) would ally with HE MAN figures to battle plastic dinos in huge fortresses made of wooden blocks and hot wheels tracks. They would all then be shrunk -more- so they could be the ones driving said hot wheels cars in chases. Yes. Even the dinosaurs drove. Whomever I wanted to win got the little silver gremlin car, because it was always the fastest. ALWAYS, I tells ya!
Has a fun little kid-play flashback
From the Marx Best of the West action figure line I had Johnny West, Geronimo, Custer and Sam Cobra. I’d inherited Jane West from my sister as well as a broken horse, and also her original first issue Barbies.
Since Geronimo was always outnumbered I made the Barbies honorary Indians. It was easy for Ken because I’d tarred and feathered him with a glue gun and some bright feathers from a stuffed parrot during the Bicentennial so he already had something like a headdress. Midge was harder because I’d shaved her head at some point (she had real nylon hair), and one of them (I forget which) had been burned at the stake for witchcraft. It wasn’t a fair match though because the Best of the West guys were all poseable and jointed while the Barbies were stiff and wouldn’t even stand unless you stood them in the dirt.
The strangest “plotline” was when I had them all invaded by a race of pioneer gnomes who were “portrayed” by the little 1 inch plastic “Fort Apache” cowboys and Indians- sort of a Lilliputian House on the Prairie, but the numbers and cannons of the little guys (the Indians and cowboys made an alliance against the giants) managed to let them know they’d been fought. Unfortunately the 9 inch GI Joes were just completely out altogether, though one made a decent Jesus during my Shroud of Turin demonstration in Bible Class.
The strangest casting I ever did was in a 6th grade History Project when I reenacted the hanging of the Lincoln Conspirators using a big cardboard box and a gallows rigged with scrap poles and a yardstick. Jane West had already been used as the actress Laura Keene (the front of the cardboard box was Ford’s Theater) so I used Geronimo as Mary Surratt by putting him in a black dress my mother had sewn and a hood over his head, so other than his dark hands you couldn’t really tell he was Apache. Ken was Lewis Paine while Johnny West and Sam Cobra completed the tableau. Ken had to be propped up using the noose until the door was sprung because he couldn’t stand on an uneven surface. (Dropping the trap door cut into the top of the box was one of my favorite moments of childhood, and they all hanged perfectly.)
Ah, I see I wasn’t the only to include Lego men! My Lego space men fought and ultimately defeated a rag-tag outfit of Star Wars & Tron action figures. Most of the action figures were then “executed” by leaving them in the middle of the street to be run over by cars. The violently detatched head of Bespin Luke Skywalker remained as a “trophy” in the basement Lego Base until it had to be dismantled when we moved. Ah…innocent childhood ethnic cleansing!
I was really anal about scale (still am), I did not mix lines that were of different sizes.
I think He-man did team up with BA Barracus and Murdock at some point.
And since I didn’t have a Han Solo figure as a kid… Lone Ranger was Han wearing a mask.
I did constanly reenact Predator using GI JOES and DC SUPERPOWERS Martian Mahunter.
Battle Beasts and Swamp Thing and all the GI Joes I liked vs. the Un-Men and the GI Joes I didn’t like.
Usually battling it out over Castle Greyskull or a tree in my backyard.
My daughter has some sort of recue operation going on in the bathtub last night involving a large plastic replica of a grey whale and a green plastic caterpillar named “Poozie.” If we’re going by the scale of the whale, the caterpillar must have been about 10 feet long.
Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Later on, I got a bunch of Star Trek: TNG action figures. I think by that time I’d lost my Batman figures, otherwise I could settle the long running debate: Batman vs. Picard.
The first one to mention preparedness gets to see the business end of a phaser set to kill.
When I was a kid, Yoda, Donatello, and Worf would fight Q, Bobba Fettand a T.Rex. Somehow, that seems like a cross over comic book premise to me.
Oh yeah, I forgot that Captain Planet got in on the action alot, too. One time he was frozen in ice (I’d filled a big plastic cup with water, put him in it, and stuck it in the freezer for a few days), and someone had to rescue him. I don’t remember who though.
When I was real little, and my brother was in school, Johnny and Jamie West (that one was mine) would team up with Big Jim. I had to be sure to put them back before my brother would get home from school, or there would be some hurtin’.
When I got older and didn’t have to steal from my brother, the Micronaughts and Star Wars people would team up a lot. The spaceships were made out of Legos and the bases were made from Lincoln Logs.
That’s the ones. I actually remembered it just before opening the thread, but thanks.
Same here. I had TOS Star Trek dolls, Planet of the Apes dolls, and I think I had a GI Joe, possibly some Marvel comics dolls, and a Ken doll, misappropriated from Sis’.
Can’t remember for sure, but I think the Ken doll was larger than the others. Not sure about the GI Joe doll. So most of my adventures involved the Star Trek & Ape dolls. Kirk & Spock got the most use. They were inseperable both from each other, and from me.
God I was gay.
…what are these “dolls” of which you speak? 
It’s taken years, but I’m now man enough to call them what they were. 
I’ve only admitted this out loud a few times, so now I’ll post it for all the world to see – When I was six or seven, I found these little plastic cases, like an individual pill case and inside were these rubbery long balloon like things.
Yes, strangest toy crossover of all time Maj. Matt Mason Vs. Condoms – my father nearly plotzed when he came home and found my little brother and me playing in the front yard with our action figures and his action wear.
They were a wonderful trap though; difficult for a hero to break through and yet pliable enough to encase the largest of action heroes.
True story.