Remix Culture, how Asian designers changed the game, part 9

In the previous blog on this series I talked about biting the bullet and ordering my first non-Michael Lau set of vinyl figures. I longed to have my own Lau-style of basketball players, seeing as he would never release a 1/6 scale version of his iconic Jordon gardener. Around 2002 I scored a set of highly stylized 12-inch basketball players called Super-X from the company Dragon Models. I also got the mini action figure set that day. I checked eBay recently and the only person selling both sets together was asking for $1600. Needless to say when I originally got the figures I didn’t even pay a fraction of that. As I said before I was at the right place, at the right time when a trend was first starting to take off.

The thing that I enjoyed about Lau’s work was that his gardeners represented a culture, rather than a specific person. Something similar could be argued for the Super-X starting five. They were inspired by the greatest to ever play the game, but whereas the actual players were at different stages of their careers this set would forever be them in their prime. I’m glad that four of the five that inspired this set were still with us. Although I wasn’t always a fan of Kobe I could not deny his work ethic, and his mastery of the game. Sadly Kobe, his daughter, and their friends died in a tragic helicopter crash in 2020.

The “Black Mamba” had changed the game, and could be one of the few to be considered a legitimate challenger to the title of G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time) against even Michael Jordan. Allen Iverson’s tribute to Kobe Bryant helped put perspective on what his rivals, and friends really thought about him. The figure based on Bryant had a vinyl sculpted afro. His Super-X figure name translated from Chinese to “Hair-to-hair ratio.” I have no context for the meaning behind this name.

As for Iverson, his figure might have been the coolest in the lot. Number 3 on the team was named Lightning Son. His sculpted cornrows oozed personality. Each of the figures not only came in a game uniform, but they all came with a change of clothes, basketball, and sticker set. As someone that longed for the street style featured on the Michael Lau gardeners this was easily the next best thing.

Number 15 was called Tyrannosaurus. This character was based on Vince Carter, who at the time was playing for the Toronto Raptors. The character had a red tyrannosaurus tattoo on his head, and a purple sweatshirt with a tag phrase “raft raft.” I’m not sure what the Chinese meaning was behind those words. The Michael Jordan character was called Fei Ren Dun, again I had no idea if that meant something special in Chinese. The nice detail about the street outfits that each had was that they were in the team colors for the players they were based on. In this case of number 23 the navy blue, and black mirrored the colors of the Washington Wizards.

The largest of the crew was number 34 aka Dakou. I couldn’t find a meaning for Dakou, but I did learn that daku meant to cry loudly in Mandarin. Maybe the character inspired by Shaq was a crybaby? I certainly wouldn’t say that to his face. Each of the characters had a slightly different height, reflecting the size differences in the actual NBA players. Sadly for Dakou his body was rail thin. The designers at Dragon Models didn’t realize that he needed a much broader frame to keep him from looking strange. His massive head needed a custom body to make him proportional to the character art. But that was a minor gripe on an otherwise amazing set of figures.

The only thing that was missing with my new figures was a backboard, and hoop to display the set with. Unfortunately Enterbay wouldn’t have a 1/6 scale backboard for a few more years. When it did come out it would cost hundreds, which would be more than I paid for the entire Super-X lineup. I couldn’t justify that purchase. The other backboards featured in toy lines were either too small, or unrealistic. I never thought that I would find something to display them with. Then one day my mom got her hands on an Avon catalog from a co-worker. She said there was a doll in there that I would want to order. I didn’t know what she was talking about until I turned to that page. It was exactly what I needed.

Get Real Girls was an action sports response to Barbie. The dolls were released in toy stores in 1999, and Avon Kids had a few that they made available in their catalogs. There was Corey the surfer, Nakia the basketball player, Gabi the soccer player, Nini the hiker, Claire the scuba diver, and Skyler the snowboarder. Nakia was from Washington D.C., and was obsessed with playing basketball in New York. She was wearing a basketball jersey, and shorts. Plus her hair was braided, as an actual Black girl might have had while playing. Her figure set included a basketball, hoop, and backboard, gym bag, sports bottle, cell phone, sunglasses, necklace which doubled as a bracelet with a silver basketball charm. Needless to say that once I assembled the backboard I had something that I could proudly display my Super-X figures with.

Nakia had tons of 1/6 scale items that weren’t even included in the future Enterbay releases. The figure set also included a passport with her story, post card, and sticker stamp. I guessed that each doll in the series also share their own story as well. Barbie might have been a general role model for all women, but she didn’t capture the love for action sports like these figures. The Get Real Girls line was rebooted in 2016 as a Kickstarter project. I finally had a basketball vinyl collection that I didn’t think any creator in the US would ever top. That was until four years later when one of the largest trading card companies in the world did just that. I will talk about it on the next blog. For now I’d like to know if you followed the NBA in the early 2000’s or if you had another favorite era, or group of players? Did you collect any 12" figures? Let me know in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!