“Forgotten Lore” is my Raven-inspired title for a feature in which I examine some unreleased action figure. Pictures are from Raving Toy Maniac.

One of my favorite PC games ever is Rune, a Viking-themed, 3D 3rd-person action game that came out long before 3rd-person action games like God of War were in vogue. In Rune the player takes on the role of Ragnar, a Viking whose village is slaughtered by Conrack, another Viking who serves the evil Loki.

In the course of the game you go on a tour of the Nordic underworld of legend, encountering trolls, dwarves (who are much truer to their original mythological origins, being small, dark, ugly gnome-creatures) and other beasts.

Naturally, I wanted action figures from the game. And in one of the more frustrating moments in my collecting career, I came very close to getting one. The short-lived toy company “Radioactive Clown” had plans to make a Ragnar figure, and even got to the prototype stage with both Ragnar and Conrack in all his anachronistic plate mail glory.

But Radioactive Clown (whose eponymous mascot’s “wicked awesome” persona prefigured our own Matty) decided to produce Unreal figures first, then went out of business (I assume) and the Rune figures never saw the light of day.

If you have any more suggestions for potential Forgotten Lore features, let me know! Next time: Ra from Stargods.