Reader AG writes in with his Most Wanted. If you can help him out in any way, let me know and I’ll pass your information along.
Remember a cartoon that ran from 1993 – 1995 called “ExoSquad”? It was an animated space-opera produced by Universal that chronicled a future war between humans and their advanced creations, the Neo-Sapiens. In 93′, Playmates Toys introduced a line that ran until 1996, with the primary gimmick being the super-detailed mechanical “E-Frames” (mech suits) piloted by the characters from the show. I owned a good few of them, but eventually sold a couple of the larger toys to make more space for the other lines I collected. A couple of years ago I realized how much I liked one of the pieces I’d discarded, but I haven’t had much luck tracking down a complete one at a reasonable price.
The item I’m looking for is the Field Repair E-Frame with Lt. Maggie Weston. It’s one of the bigger pieces in the line and was retail-priced at $25-30 when it was released in the fall of ’94. The thing was roughly a foot tall and molded mostly in yellow plastic. It had electronic light & sound features triggered by firing the projectile launcher on the E-Frame’s top or by moving its right arm into a firing position. It also had a working claw on the left arm, a fold-out towing hitch, and a hidden repair station that opened from the back. A kind of bumper was located on the front of the cockpit that caused the canopy to pop off when pressed (simulating battle damage).
The Maggie figure was about 3″ tall, fairly detailed, and had a seafoam-green outfit with sculpted yellow armor. (As I recall, there were two versions of the figure: one with navy blue kneepads–which I had–and one with more cartoon-accurate yellow kneepads, released later.)
The biggest problem I’ve had in trying to re-acquire this toy is finding one that’s complete. Aside from the E-Frame and its pilot, it also included two launching projectiles (one red, one yellow), a removeable translucent red canopy, a clear red fusion pack (labelled a “power cell” on the box), and Maggie had two of her own accessories: a pistol, and a non-articulated claw, both cast in yellow plastic. The E-frame also had several other pieces that were prone to breaking off or getting lost: two black, shoulder-mounted headlamps, a fuel hose that pulled out from its lower torso, an articulated robotic arm stored in the E-Frame’s repair station, and a black “cyber-jack” in the cockpit that connected Maggie to her mech. On top of all these goodies, the Field Repair E-Frame also came with two sheets of decals, one of which allowed kids to customize their toys with “battle damage” such as bullet holes and cracked glass. I’ve found a few listings for Maggie and her E-Frame on eBay, but most were missing a lot of the smaller pieces.
I’ve included a couple of images of the toy (one in-package, one out) that I found online. I don’t particularly care whether I can find this brand-new and sealed in the box, but I must insist that it is in good condition and COMPLETE, which I think may be very hard to come by loose. I’d be thrilled if you or one of your readers could help me out.
