GUTS! by Mattel

[drbo]

GUTS from Mattel, made around 1986 – 1987.
Small, inarticulate (thus indestructible) painted plastic soldier (around 2,5” – 3”).
Came in 2, 5 or 10 pack.
Dispatched in 6 different themed squad of 10 men each, which were:

Green Berets: Military unit with grey uniform and namesake colored berets. Had a german Shepard in their pack.
Lazer troopers: Spacemen in white costume sporting rayguns
Ground Troops: Modern army men with khaki / camo uniform
Aikido Force: Martial art team with ninja, samurai and Mongol style fighter dressed in black
Frogmen: Commando in Blue frogman suit
Jungle Fighter: Bare-chested tough military guy ala Rambo / Missing in action




from www.x-entertainment.com review

Stumbled on one from my childhood (a Green Beret trooper) in my old boxes at home. I like green army men and these are some of the few that have a bit more personality (they had name and tagline on their card and boxes) and the feel of 1980’s action flick (except maybe the scuba and lazer guy, and still). I thus look around to found the boxed version and loose ones.
Any one collects these?

[madmartigan37]

I used to have a few of these as a kid, I definetly remember the Green Berets set with the German shepard. It was one of my favorite toys for a while.

[daltron]

I liked chopper stopper.

[drbo]

So I'm not alone digging these plastic tough guys!

Just won a awesome lot of loose figure, think I got myself the whole batch of ninjas, commandos guys, frogmen and lazer dudes (and the dog):



The lone Green Beret guy I still have from my youth (badass codename The Destroyer) will be happy!

[80s Action Figures]

I remember when these came out, I was sold on them by the comercials.......then I worked extra hard to get 20 bucks one weekend and went to buy a multi pack of each (8 or so of each figure?) I played with them for about 10 minutes before I was feeling ripped off (no offense) but they sucked...paint was bad, cost was high. I returned them and bought some Joes instead.................

I felt that way about alot of toys back then, but now the reminiscing prods me to collect alot of lines I would never have touched as a kid...................and the photos you show have made me think these are not so bad....?!?!?!

[drbo]

spillspleen said:

I remember when these came out, I was sold on them by the comercials.......then I worked extra hard to get 20 bucks one weekend and went to buy a multi pack of each (8 or so of each figure?) I played with them for about 10 minutes before I was feeling ripped off (no offense) but they sucked...paint was bad, cost was high. I returned them and bought some Joes instead.................

I felt that way about alot of toys back then, but now the reminiscing prods me to collect alot of lines I would never have touched as a kid...................and the photos you show have made me think these are not so bad....?!?!?!

The cool thing about collecting these is that they invariably come complete if they're not broken. The paint is very tough, and so even most loose ones are still in great shape beside some that have some troubles standing up. They pretty cheap to find as well, the only thing is that they don't pop that often.
And as I said, I love army men, but most are WW2 era and somehow historically related. These are just in the vein of old 1980's action flick with explosion, ninjas and guy with big biceps and bigger machine guns. In retrospect I think they're more fun today, in a certain way.

As a kid I do liked these, sure they were not as playable per say as Joes, but you could have a handful of guys for about the price of one figure and they made good mercenary to patrol around the Smurf village against ogres-like Masters of the Universe baddies

As for the pack, they came in 2, 5 or 10 pack, the 10 pack including a whole unit.
I did find some 5 pack last year at fair price. The big window box with the squad illustration and one-line bio are pretty neat.

I recently found out the Swingfire Hummer vehicle for the GUTS! soldier. Neat truck with removable canopy to put a lot of combat dudes in the trunk with some clip-on guns for the turrets. Found it still MIB, but the sticker aged rather badly and the truck tire rubber are sticky, gooey as hell.
At least I can still count of the GUTS! guys, they didn't let me down!

[toyboxraider]

Great set. Thought these were really cool when I was little!

[neoviper76]

Is there any site where you can get pics of all the soldiers made?? Ive tried virtual toy chest...but they have nothing on these.

[drbo]

neoviper76 said:

Is there any site where you can get pics of all the soldiers made?? Ive tried virtual toy chest...but they have nothing on these.

I have all figure loose (missing some accessories for the vehicule do), I'll try to come up with pics when I have a second.

[toyboxraider]

I would love to see these Doc, these were great when I was a kid, in fact they were the first present I ever bought for someone. The birthday party was at Showbiz Pizza in Lexington KY (I believe Chucky Cheese bought them out) for my cousin Jeremy and he opened them and kind of said thanks and tossed them asside. Granted I loved them and had wished I had kept them and stayed home, he was a bit of a twit and stuck up as I came from the other side of the tracks. Alas, I maybe owned two or three of these figures when young and hopefully once my thousand other lines are collected I will hunt these down too.

[drbo]

Finally here some pic of my collection:

Green Berets with Python tank


Ground Troops


Jungle Fighters with Swingfire Truck


Undersea sabotage team (don't have the exact name, don't have any MOC or MIB)


Aikido Force


Lazer troopers

[toyboxraider]

Hey Doc my 5 year old daughter definately wants these. She says they are for rescuing people lol.

I love them and she wants to keep looking at them; great she has a new obsession. LOL

[drbo]

toyboxraider said:

Hey Doc my 5 year old daughter definately wants these. She says they are for rescuing people lol.

I love them and she wants to keep looking at them; great she has a new obsession. LOL

That's how it starts! Well, they could make cool rescue guys.
The Lazer Tropper loook like a bunch of ROM Spaceknights, so I guess her gun looking thing are scary looking translator and stuff like that !

[80s Action Figures]

I have the dog...if you need him let me know!!

[lastchance2ownit]

Hey! Does anyone know anything about these figures? Not sure what they are or what line they are from.

Attachments:

[lastchance2ownit]

Grizz, do you know the names of the GUTS guy with the Bow and the one with the Mohawk. I think they had the names on the back of the packages.

[defzombie]

Does anyone know where these space figures came from? They also have divers and army guys from the same company.
I got these years ago at a thrift store

Attachments:

[defzombie]

they say C M.I. 1987 China on the legs

[rocklord74]

Those are from a line called G.U.T.S. from the 80's. You got the laser fighters and an underwater diver.

[defzombie]

Thank you so much!! Ive been looking and wondering for while now. I want to collect the rest of the laser fighters, I have most of the divers as well

[toy tracker]

GUTS was the toy I remember being in stores in the 80s that no one ever bought.

Oodly, just last month I was out vacationing in Oregon and stopped at an antique market and picked up a 4 or 5 package of sealed GUTS guys (The one with the dog) for $5). i honestly think that was the same price back when they were first out.

[rocklord74]

Jul 7, 2010 11:21:26 GMT -6 defzombie said:

Thank you so much!! Ive been looking and wondering for while now. I want to collect the rest of the laser fighters, I have most of the divers as well

Your welcome, glad I could help. I still have my 2 five pack ninja fighters. I bought them at the 1/2 price store when I was around 10 I think. Price tag is still on them, paid $1.49, lol.

[kashyyyk]

Does anyone have images of the backs of the cards of the Jungle Fighters and Laser Fighters figures? I'm looking to id some loose figures I have and using the backs of the cards would be the easiest I think.

Dan

[toy tracker]

Well it is not what you asked for, but maybe seeing some will kick others into helping

[defzombie]

my mom bought them for me at a thrift store when I was probably 11 or 12, I remember finding them in a grab bag but I cant remember how much. I do remember it was raining that day. lol Me and my buddy would play with the little green army men and use the G.U.T.S. figures as super soldiers or something. They were my favorites back in the day and I still have them and they still are some of my favorites.

[defzombie]

GUTS! is one of my favorite figure lines. Heres my almost complete collection, with a few other great shots.
Just missing 2 underwater demo team figures.

[drbo]

Apr 23, 2014 13:50:18 GMT -6 defzombie said:

GUTS! is one of my favorite figure lines. Heres my almost complete collection, with a few other great shots.
Just missing 2 underwater demo team figures.

Nice sets Defzombie!
I used to have a few Green beret and Jungle Fighter that I got from Woolco, a defunct Canadian retail store (later eaten by Walmart). I now have a complete set that I store in a old, rusty RAMBO lunchbox, plus a decent amout of 5-pack.
I noticed some of my Aikido fighter guys got sticky due to their plastic breaking down - I'll have to find replacement someday...

[defzombie]

I found most of these at a collectible show. This guy had a large ziploc bag full of them. He asked $20 for the bag. I hesitated and then realized I wouldn't get another chance at getting so many. So glad I grabbed it when I did. I sold doubles and that paid for the whole bag.

[defzombie]

I also have a carded lazer fighter 2 pack too