Galaxy Laser Team comic #1 (Ekatón) - English translation

If you know your GLT, you'll probably notice that I'm missing the turtle-crab...

Happy Holidays all!  I hope your season has been amazing so far and that you ring in the new year exactly as you most enjoy.

Tomorrow will mark 10 years since I published my first post on this blog.  I kind of can't believe that...while I've had my lapses...it's something that's still a part of what I do and think about.  It probably helps that many of the people I've met through blogging (even my meager and sporadic output) are some of the folks I'm happiest to know in this world of ours.

I've been giving a fair amount of thought recently to directions I might try steering things in 2026 in an effort to streamline my blogging focus....and maybe stumble into more completed projects along the way.  So...we'll see how that goes, I guess...but in the meantime, I wanted to go ahead and share something else I've put a little time into lately.  (I'd like to think of this as my "Christmas gift to the world"...or the first part of it, at least...but I do realize that its weight doesn't really merit that kind of lofty description...!)

To cut to the chase, these links will take you to an English translation of the first issue of Ekatón: El Pueblo Perdido del Espacio, a comic series included in the Argentine children's magazine Anteojito beginning (I believe) in 1980.

Ekatón #1 in English (A5)

Ekatón #1 in English (A5, in an order to print and fold into a booklet)

The longer explanation goes something like this:

The picture at the top of this post shows a selection of characters from a reasonably well-known set of cheap plastic space figures initially released in the late 1970s.  While I'm not even sure if all of the names under which they were sold have ever been gathered together, they are now most often called the Galaxy Laser Team, or occasionally the Star Patrol.  At this point, there's been quite a bit written (and filmed) about these toys, so I'm not going to dive into their history right now.  If you're interested, you can find some great blog posts about them here and here, and plugging "Galaxy Laser Team" into your favorite search engine or video site search bar is sure to give you a number of informative results.

Another look at not-Chewbacca and one of the astronauts (to show a bit more detail than what can be seen above due to their color)

Now, they may not look like much, but something about the sculpts and the coloration (some of my actual childhood figures are pictured here) made these toys pretty freaking memorable for those of us who played with them way back when.  They're even being manufactured again (in loads of new colors) by Tim Mee Toy!  The thing was, while they were obviously made to cash in on a specific cultural phenomenon of the late 1970s (one that still earns new fans today), there was never a background story to accompany the figures.  Well...so I thought...until a few(?) years back when I found out that a children's magazine in Argentina, Anteojito, included a five-issue comic insert in the early '80s that featured characters based on the figures.  (Or...maybe the figures were based on the characters...?  I'm not sure if anyone knows for certain the order that everything took effect, but my guess is that the figures came first...)

While this comic series, Ekatón: El Pueblo Perdido del Espacio, has been widely available on the web for a while now and has even been reprinted fairly recently, I had never seen it translated into English.  So, I've tried to correct that.

The "cover" of the English translation

Some caveats(!!)

1)  I do not speak Spanish very well, so this translation is mostly from ChatGPT.  I did make some edits for syntax and flow, but nothing substantial was changed.  This seemed to me like a reasonable use of AI, since the creative nature of the task is minimal, BUT I recognize that others may take issue with that choice.  I hope you won't hold it against me too much.

2)  It is, admittedly, kind of sloppy...especially the "starburst" word balloons.  I made it in PowerPoint, and my efforts only roughened the already rough edges of the files I started with.  It is meant to be more utilitarian than ornamental, though.  And fwiw, I think the PDFs I have located of later issues are in better shape than the one I used for this installment, so as I continue this project, future editions may be a bit prettier.

3)  On that note:  I do not own any of this material.  I got this PDF from Scribd, and scans of all the original comics can be found pretty easily with a web search.  However, as noted above, this story has recently been reprinted in a deadtree form, and so it is possible there will be concerns about my posting it here.  I hope that adding the English translation will give others reason to believe this is a worthwhile thing to make available, BUT...well, please let me know if you believe it's a problem!

Some figures near the characters they presumably inspired

One final thing...not really a caveat, but a note...if you get some value out of this, please let me know!  I will eventually make my way through all five issues simply because I want to know the whole story and be able to page through it like I would any other comic.  However, if I know there are others who have enjoyed or are enjoying the project, it will certainly encourage me to work on those sooner rather than later.  (And perhaps it goes without saying that I would welcome anyone else who wants to join the effort...or even take it over, since I'm sure there are others much more qualified than I to tackle the translation and layout challenges...!)

I'm hoping the Cosmic Spark will play more of a role in future episodes.

With all of that said, I hope you enjoy!  Those links again (and please let me know if they're broken...):

Ekatón #1 in English (A5)

Ekatón #1 in English (A5, in an order to print and fold into a booklet)

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Happy New Year, everyone!

Gnawgahyde (G.I. Joe) - Level 2 Expert

No fancy intros for this one.  I'm just getting down to business: cooking up stats for another figure from my shelf of random nostalgia...

Let's go with...Gnawgahyde, the Dreadnok poacher.  And maybe his pet boar Clyde as well...

Working for now with the basic building blocks of Warrior, Expert, and Adept, Gnawgahyde seems fine for an Expert.  If I get classes filled out nicely at some point, and I have a good Hunter/Ranger type, I guess he matches that archetype pretty well, but for now...Expert will do.

Here's his old file card...

From YoJoe.com

I'm not sure why we don't get any information on where he's from...unless it's just supposed to be so freaking obvious from his appearance.  This was before any of us knew of Steve Irwin, so Crocodile Dundee was America's greatest cultural reference point for Australia...and Gnawgahyde here certainly has an aura of 'villainous Crocodile Dundee' about him.  I think you can also argue that Gnawgahyde has Bayou Billy vibes, so I'll admit that I did have to do a quick search to confirm that his accent and dialogue also point to an Australian origin (vs. the rural American South).  And also...isn't it a little odd that his real name is so hard to come by?  From what I've seen, the only notable reference to it is on the file card accompanying his 2011 figure...

Also from YoJoe.com

Clyde "Gnaw" Hyde.  Hmm.  Okay.  Maybe because Naugahyde is a registered trademark?  (Side note: there's definitely something gameable in the Nauga, the creature whose 'hyde' is used in its production...)

Image from Wikipedia

And, isn't his warthog named Clyde?  Did he name a pet after himself...?  His figure from the newer Classified series has a warthog named Porkbelly (plus a macaque named Yobbo), so maybe there's a retcon at work here...

...

Well darn, what was it I was saying about getting down to business...?  Time to do that for real.  Then maybe I'll look around to find a replacement hat for my Gnaw figure.  (I'll get to Clyde a little later, too...)

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Gnawgahyde

Clyde "Gnaw" Hyde

Promo image from Amazon

Expert, Level 2

Human

Born: Australia, 1950

Occupation: Poacher

Affiliation: Dreadnoks

STR       DEX        CON      INT       WIS      CHA

16 (+2)  13 (+1)    14 (+1)   9 (--)   12 (--)  5 (-2)

HP 10   Move 30 ft.

Attack Bonuses: melee +4/+2, ranged +3/+1 (+6 w/two-handed small arms)

Proficiencies (Expertise***)

Saves: Dexterity, Intelligence

Weapons: All simple weapons, two-handed small arms***

Armor: Light armor

Languages: English, French, Swahili

Skills: Stealth, Nature***, Animal Handling***, Insight, Perception, Survival

Tools/Talents: Traps***

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Rehashing a 5e-ish Soldier class...to get me rolling...

Man...I had a nice little blogging rhythm going for a brief span...which I guess was easy enough when I was just doing irregular work from home.  Now that I'm back to "the grind," I'm a bit disappointed in how easily I've let the million and one blog posts I want to write get repeatedly pushed off to another tomorrow.  (I do have kind of a cool job though...where I scan my fingerprint to get into the lab and have to unironically say, "I can't tell you that," when folks ask about some of the details of my work.  It's honestly nothing all that exciting, but it's fun to play important government contractor sometimes...maybe I'll work that into a post at some point...)

Image from Joepedia

So, I need to do something to give me a nudge back into action, to help me maintain my delusion that I'm getting closer and closer to finishing some of the projects I've started over the years, then left to barely keep a heartbeat through a trickle of attention here on Monstrous Matters.  I'm finding that, sometimes, I want to post about something specific, but then I think, "Wait, that'd be better if I ALSO posted this character with it..."  Which then leads to, "Oh, if I'm gonna post that character, I need to outline this class first..."  Which quickly devolves into "How can I write up this class without first finishing that other class I need to compare it to?"  And by that time, I'm well past thinking about whatever post idea prompted the whole chain of events, and the cycle gets to start all over again when I read a science article or see an action figure I want to pick up.

This is (hopefully) a post that's going to make it easier to write down the stuff I want to, when I want to, IF I actually have the will to.  Now that I've posted some thoughts on classes for my fantasy heartbreaker, I want to revisit the Soldier class that I scribbled down a couple years back (with action figures in mind) so that it'll fit the simplified, OSR-inspired, 5e-ish form of Monstrous Heartbreaker classes.  The basic fighting class for the game is The Warrior, which is essentially just a simple set of rules that boost a character's effectiveness in combat in different ways.  I think The Soldier should be similar but give a bit more of an impression of formal training in things besides dealing and taking damage.

As for balance...?  I definitely don't want to end up with comparisons that make one class better than another in every reasonably conceivable RPG scenario.  BUT...I'm also a believer that anything different about two similar components of a game is an opportunity for scenarios where either one can outshine the other.  So let's see where that puts me with...

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Image from Joepedia

The Soldier

Hit Points: [5 + CON] per level  (Hit Die: d10)

Proficiencies

Armor: All armor, shields

Weapons: All simple and martial weapons

Saving Throws: Strength, Dexterity

Skills: Athletics, Survival

All characters have had a life leading up to becoming a 1st-level adventurer, and many have hobbies and interests outside of their main profession.  Decide on some of these details for your character, and select one additional Skill (from the Skill list) and two Tools and/or Talents to represent the proficiencies gained from these activities.

Equipment

Begin with a set of campaign-appropriate equipment (per DM).

Tireless

Beginning at 1st level, you treat the effects of exhaustion as one level lower than usual.

Military Specialty

You have trained for one specific role above others. At 2nd level, choose one or two of the specialties from the following list of items in bold. You gain the underlined items (skills, talents, tools, weapons, and/or languages) as proficiencies. If you already have the proficiency from another source, you gain expertise.

Asterisks (**) indicate the "cost" of each specialty. You may choose one ** specialty, two * specialties, or one * specialty taken at the level of expertise (does not stack with expertise otherwise gained).

Airborne (Athletics, Parachutes) **

Artillery *

Chaplain's Assistant (Perception, Persuasion) **

Cook *

Communications (equipment) *

Diving *

Dog Handler (Animal Handling, Dog Training) **

Electronics *

Hand-to-Hand Combat Instructor (Unarmed Combat, Perception) **

Heavy Weapons *

Intelligence (Perception, Deception) **

Interpreter (Choose four languages) **

[Biome] (Arctic, Desert, Jungle, etc.) Warfare (Nature, Survival) **

Medic (Medicine) *

Pilot (aircraft) (Flying, Aircraft Repair) **

PT Instructor (Athletics, Perception) **

Radar *

Rifle Instructor (Two-handed Small Arms, Perception) **

Sabotage (Insight, Demolitions) **

Small Arms Armorer *

Transportation (Driving, Ground Vehicle Repair) **

Action Surge

Starting at 3rd level, you can push yourself beyond your normal limits for a moment. On your turn, you can take one additional action on top of your regular action and a possible bonus action.

Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again. Starting at 17th level (seriously? good luck to you...), you can use it twice before a rest, but only once on the same turn.

Ability Score Increase

When you reach 4th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1.

Extra Attack

Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

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Image from Marvel.com

The idea with this class is definitely to have the skills of a "typical" member of an infantry as the core (so that many members of the Joe team fit the model, and to feed the mechanics of action figure campaign play), but I wouldn't mind having it flexible enough to also cover similar roles like those taken on by the drivers of the Wheeled Warriors' Lightning League, or MCU Sam Wilson's work in the Air Force. The list of options is definitely a work in progress...as I tried to get the ball rolling by looking through some early G.I. Joe file cards and adapting what I found there, but it's surely an effort that could use a deeper dive into that source material, and maybe even a little more reasoning around the balance of specialties (yeah, even after scoffing at the idea of balance up above).

But now that I'm "free" to stat up Soldiers to my heart's content, I suppose I'll see how that all works out...

Thanks for reading!

Holy..... How did I miss these 3.75" Ghostbusters that are on the way?

I mean...I guess the obvious explanation is that I don't do daily checks for important Ghostbusters or action figure news...but I still felt behind the times when I finally saw this announcement!

Thankfully, I caught an article on preorders starting for the upcoming 1:18 scale Ecto-1.  The phrase "alongside the upcoming 3.75″ o-ring action figures" made me do a double take.  I know I'm easily impressed by new and shiny things...but would it be too much to say that these are the toys I've been waiting my entire life for?

From HERE

One thing I'm still a little confused by: the newer article mentions a 1:18 scale Ghostbusters: Afterlife Ecto-1, and the older one refers to the upcoming release as "a retro-style take on the previously released Plasma Series Ecto-1."  Because the Plasma Series figures are larger than 3.75"/1:18, I had assumed that the accompanying ghostbusting vehicle was the same...but sure enough, according to this video, the old Ecto-1 is much smaller than the figures.  Has there been a 1:18 Ecto-1 out there for me to drool over this whole time?

Monster Man contest entry: Aetherwurm!

I've been meaning to post this all month, and it looks like I might get it in just in time...!  James over at the Gonzo History: Gaming Edition blog (and of the Monster Man podcast) is hosting what looks to be a pretty awesome monster contest.

Inspired by early D&D's use of cheap plastic beasties for what would become iconic creatures of the game, James wants to see monsters based on...well, cheap toys!  Here are the bullet points of the rules from his announcement:

1. Find a cheap toy
2. Let your imagination work
3. Write up your monster
4. Submit your entry
5. Vote for the finalists!
6. Finalists go to the judges
7. Win fabulous prizes!

Oh, and the deadline for entries is today, November 30.  I have a feeling the flood of emails he gets after people read this blog post will encourage him to extend it (again), though... ;)

Now, around my house, the most common cheap toys to be found are those belonging to my dogs.  I've been wanting to use some of them in (human) gaming for a long time, so here's my contest entry (statted for generic OSR gaming)!

Aetherwurm

HD 9 (36 HP), AC 14 (base 10, ascending), Attack: 1 Bite (3d6 damage)

Special:  The Aetherwurm is immune to damage from fire, electricity, and lasers, and actually absorbs their energy.  For every 5 damage the Aetherwurm would endure from these sources, whether from attacks, spells, or other means, it gains 1 HD.

Aetherwurms are spacefaring creatures known to many inhabitants of the outer worlds.  They are typically around 30 feet long and covered with fuzzy nubbins (that's what the astrozoologists call them, anyway) that seem to both guide their movement (through space and on solid ground) and enable them to drain power from energy-rich objects and locations.  These may include sources of both conventional energy and that of a magical nature.

An Aetherwurm seeking a meal.

Feeding on a power station.

Aetherwurms are generally quite docile but are known to be stubborn.  Once they are set on their "prey," they usually are not deterred without force.  They are also fiercely protective of one another on the rare occasion that a group is encountered.

May want to think twice about using that raygun...

Skilled mechanics have been known to use the bodies of slain Aetherwurms as batteries for spacecraft.  Aetherwurm corpses may maintain harnessable energy within them for up to six weeks after death.

Oh, and they have one natural predator, the Megacolossal Spacepup:

Now...you still have a few hours...head over to the Monster Man contest and see what you can do to get an entry in...!

Wasteland Wednesday: Steel Monsters - The Secret Society

If you're anywhere around my age, you may remember Tonka's Steel Monsters toys...a line of 3 3/4" figures and vehicles which pretty blatantly copied the themes of The Road Warrior (although to be fair, there was a lot of that in the '80s).  When I was in the fourth grade, there was a period of time during which I was somewhat obsessed.

If you'd like to check out some of the toys, you can see them in collector extraoirdinaire Kevin Lentz's archives here.  And you really should check them out, as they're pretty awesome.

Anyway, I realized recently that the first comic included with the toys could be found at a Tonka site, but I couldn't locate the second comic anywhere.  I correct that oversight of the interwebs HERE, where you can download a PDF of the Steel Monsters' second adventure, The Secret Society:

Google Drive link

I hope you enjoy it!  (Also, if anyone knows of a third comic in the series, please let me know!)