Galoob

Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. was a toy company headquartered in South San Francisco, California, USA.

Lewis Galoob Toys was founded in 1957 by Lewis Galoob and his wife, Barbara Galoob, as a small distributor of toys and stationery. Galoob’s first toy success was the reintroduction of a battery-powered Jolly Chimp, a cymbal-banging monkey toy that nodded his head when activated. The company was incorporated in 1968.

In September 1998, American toy giant Hasbro purchased Galoob for $220 million. Today Galoob is a Hasbro brand name. The name began appearing on retail products starting in 2005. Hasbro has used the Galoob brand logo on its Titanium Series die-cast metal collectibles, including various items from Transformers, Star Wars, and Battlestar Galactica.

In 1985, Galoob launched a King Features Syndicate licensed toy range to coincide with the Defenders of the Earth TV animated series. An action figure of the 6 main characters were released, which included the Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, Lothar, Ming, Flash Gordon and Garax. Other toys from the animated series were also released, including the Phantom Skull Copter, Defenders Claw Copter, Flash Swordship, Garax Swordship and Mongor.

Below we see the figures which were released in USA.

The same figures were released in the United Kingdom. Note the ‘Rainbow Toys’ logo on the card, plus the Defenders of the Earth logo changes slightly from the USA version, with Lothar now added. ‘Rainbow Toys’ was the leading licensee in the UK in the 1980’s, distributing US brand name toys to the UK market.

The figures were also distributed in Italy by ‘GiG’, with the ‘Defenders of the Earth’ title translated to ‘i Difensori della Terra’. The ‘GiG’ Toy Company was founded by Gianfranco Horvat, in 1968. Son, Giocattoli Horvat based the company headquarters in Florence, Italy. During the 1980’s ‘GiG’ was the leading licensee in Italy, distributing US brand name toys to the Italian and European market.

Similar variations are seen with the Phantom Skull Copter toy as seen with the figures. Below we see the version released in USA.

The United Kingdom version can be seen below. Note the ‘Rainbow Toys’ logo on the box, plus the Defenders of the Earth logo changes slightly from the USA version, with Lothar present.

And finally the Italy version under the ‘GiG’ logo, with the ‘Defenders of the Earth’ title translated to ‘i Difensori della Terra’. We also see the ‘Phantom Skull Copter’ large wording translated to ‘L’Elicottero Degli Eroi’.