Action Super Heroes, Heroines, Rappers, Athletes, Political Icons and More

So Many Collectibles, So Little Time And Money!

Being the Geeks that we are about collecting and archiving Black popular culture, it might be surprising to learn that we have not added many Black action figures to our collection.

While we do have collectible figures of Pam Grier as Coffy and Foxy Brown, President Barack Obama, Chef and Afro Samurai in our archive, we clearly have a lot of work to do. The Museum Of UnCut Funk has visited several Comic Cons and noticed there are not many Black action figures in their display cases. As the majority of superheroes and action figures being marketed these days are white males, we decided to put this exhibition together to pay homage to Black action figures for the fans who love them.

Olmec Toys

Back in the day, in the 80’s, there was a company called Olmec Toys. They were the creators of Black action figures like Sun Man and The Bronze Bombers. Sun-Man was created by Yla Eason after hearing her son say he couldn’t grow up to be He-Man because he wasn’t white.

After acquiring a loan, Yla started Olmec toys and produced a diverse line of action figures that included Black, Latino, Asian and White heroes.

Sun Man: Olmec Toys

Olmec Toys developed another line of action heroes called The Bronze Bombers in the late 80’s. This was Olmec’s answer to G.I. Joe. The main character in this line name was named Cool Breeze…how Blaxploitation is that! These toys represented iconic historical soldiers who were Black.

The back of Cool Breeze package states:

“They stand for justice and they never lose!”
They are bold, they are men of the sun, they are brilliant warriors – The Bronze Bombers™!

Fearlessly, the mighty U.S. 369th Infantry led the nation’s greatest Black Army into battle. They fought in WWI and WWII and they never lost. There have been no warriors their equal until today! Today, we have the Bronze Bombers™! Today they defend the country against P.S.B. enemy squad. These highly skilled combatants stand for justice and they never lose!

Other Black Action Figures

Some of our favorite action figures include Nubia…Wonder Woman’s Super Foe!!!, Black Goliath, Benjamin Banneker, Bessie Colman and Matthew Alexander Henson ( the History Makers in Action Series by the Black owned company History In Action ) and Black GI Joe…with Life Like Hair…REALLY!

Black Lightning, Storm, Obama by Alex Ross, Black Panther, Green Lantern John Stewart, Mister Terrific, Vixen…

Steel2, Steel3, Bishop, Obama as jedi, Mace Windu, Mister-T, Sentinel, Cyborg, Patriot…

Mayweather from Enterprise, Uhura, Spawn, Capt Tyrell from STII:tWoK, Firestorm, Geordi Laforge, Falcon and Redwing, Cloak, Cmdr Sisko and Jake…

While we have barley scratched the surface when it comes to identifying all known Black Action figures ever produced, we have located a great collection owned by Darryl Jefferson which we found on our favorite collector’s website Collectors Quest. Darryl’s collection includes Black action figures from film, television, music, sports and so much more. Enjoy!