We had these and when the paint flaked off we'd use red hobby paint to repaint the area to look like blood. So we had a bunch of wounded figures looking almost zombiefied. Happy days.
@@solar-e-clips9989 basically I mean that they were purchased because they were cheaper and easier to get a hold of than the proper figure of a particular character.
Had the Chewie one. Worked at a Computer Company. We ran it over and dragged it around with a High-Lo it got pretty messed up. We used old computer chip cast offs and made him a Cyborg. It became our mascot!! Everyone loved Cybacca!
I loved these as a kid - they were so cheap that I managed to pick up two box sets for next to nothing so I basically had an entire collection immediately lol
Yes but unlike Funko pops, bendems actually did have a bit of a function which was bending, so in hindsight they did have a element of playability. Funko pops are just literally large lumps of vinyl plastic that do absolutely nothing but take a gratuitous amount of shelf space. literally the only thing they can do is change the poses of their head and that's not even fun. It Funko pops were smaller and they were articulated... And maybe not the way they were.... It would be far more interesting and I would probably have a lot more of them. But I have three at home and trust me they are probably the most worthless piece of merchandise I have am I collection.
@@MistCellaneous-5 if they were smaller and articulated then they wouldn't be funko pops. Funk pops are collectibles, not action figures which is why they aren't articulated.
Man, I remember having a bunch of these rubber-covered wire toys. I remember enjoying playing with them. Then again, I didn't have high standards when it came to toys.
I was 10 years old in 1993. I had a couple of vintage figures as a child and wanted more - I absolutely loved them. I saw these pieces of shit in the shops and I hated each and every one.
I've only watched this channel for a year but I. Try to watch as soon as it pops out on UA-cam and it just makes my day just a little bit better , thanks so much for doing what you do :)
The instant you described what a Bend-Em is, I instantly recognized them. I had a couple cheap, rather abstract figures I didn't recognize from anything like that. One was...blurry. I don't have much memory of it. The one I paid more attention to when I was 3 was some sort of very tall, thin orange thing with a snout and I think it had a tail. Later on someone made a set of car maintenance funnels that worked by a similar principle. It was a sheet of thin metal encased in thick oilproof rubber, so you could bend it into the shape of funnel you need. I'm not an interesting person.
But I like Funko Pops. I used to have some bendable toys as a kid, and the wires inside would quickly break and poke holes through the plastic and rust.
Simaginary Friend I would want funko pop versions of the team from Earthbound. It would somewhat match the clay models from the game, and please have Ness with a baseball bat!!!
Given how they've been doing both the Reactions and the He-Man style figures (and also Pez Dispensers), it wouldn't surprise me if they would try to resurrect these. It would be super lame, but they would probably use their reach in licenses to make some pretty hard collectables to turn down (which makes me both hate and respect them more).
The Han Solo in the box I'm sure is that guy from Ghostbusters that gets trapped in the statue with Sigourney Weaver. And the original one is definitely modelled on part-time absentee former PM and full-time c**t David Cameron.
I had some Toy Story 2 Woody's Roundup Bend 'Ems. They were actually pretty well made, but I took some strange glee in the weird articulation. Must hunt them out some time. I imagine they've colonised the attic by now.
Probably filmed a day or so ago, then edited it. And then put on timed. He probably uploaded it earlier today. This ensures catching the US and also that the video quality is full straight away.
I used to have some 101 Dalmatians Bend-Ems because I was obsessed with that movie and puppies in general as a kid. The first wire to break was always one of the back legs, so the dog would be in pema-pissing position.
Wasn't the only Han Solo figure that looked like Tim Allen, either. I wouldn't say that Harrison Ford looks similar to him in the flesh, but in plastic form, yeah.
I spend my youth bending wires into those figurine to replace the original ones after they brake. I had a dedicated reel of wire just for that operation. Hours of fun.
Some of the earliest toys I owned were those R2-D2 and C-3PO bend-ems, as well a second-hand Luke's land speeder. And yes, I did the same thing with R2's legs as Ashen did. Even when the Star Wars toys came back into style about a decade later, finding R2 was difficult, so the bend-em one was still my best option.
I have a set of ReBoot 'bend-ems' that came from a Skips crisps promo, three sets actually, one set is on a shop display unit I was quite pleased to add to my extensive ReBoot figure collection. Google: Haku ReBoot Museum bendable
It was officially the first 100% computer generated tv series, I have every single figure except the rarest, fullsize Captain Capacitor, a fellow collector managed to get one and was once offered $5000 for it...! Rarest I have is crew jackets and one of the guys hockey shirts with the Megabyte logo on, they had their own team. One of them is wearing one in 'Fast Forward The Making of ReBoot' video on UA-cam.
Reboot was great my best mate gas a complete dvd collection of all the episodes, every now and then we like to have a marathon. Megabyte was by far my favourite character him and hexadecimal had the best voices.
@DOCTIRWHOVIAN 04 Some of those rare things cost a pretty penny, but were completely worth it, I don't regret spending that money even today. @Simon O'Rourke56 I think I have every DVD released around the world, the ShoutFactory set from the US was really badly mastered, my Russian DVD set has a better quality image! (but dubbed audio)
Darth Vader looks like an Adventure Time character with those bendy limbs 5:47 Also does anyone else think that looks like Pastor Jeff from Young Sheldon?
"I don't know what's funnier, the fact that the church is strong arming you into helping us, or you obviously haven't seen what I did to the statue of big J!"
I used to have a bendy figure like this of a grocery store mascot. I had several of it actually. It worked well as one of these types of figures since it had long spindly arms and legs to begin with. The wires snapped all the time and paint came off easily though…
I had a skeleton bend-em as a kid and I always thought it was hilarious how bendy the bones were, I would pretend he didn't drink enough milk
C A L C I U M
Drink your milk kids! Because if you don’t I will B E N D Y O U
"I always drink plenty of...Malk?"
skeletor spent too long in his vinegar bath
Did you mean skeletor?
We had these and when the paint flaked off we'd use red hobby paint to repaint the area to look like blood. So we had a bunch of wounded figures looking almost zombiefied. Happy days.
Cool.
So, you took these things and made them superior to the originals through red paint? Most impressive.
Darts zombie
real clever actually damn
Generic 70's Guy With Necrotic Lips was the best character in the movies!
Necrotic 70´s Guy
Huh...
They were everywhere, they were made for a TON of franchises, and were mostly bought out of desperation.
Are these the funko pops of the 90's?
I thought that Tiger Handhelds were the Pop Vinyls of the 90’s?
@@K.J.S.est1994 Tiger handhelds were the smartphones of the 90's.
What do you mean bought out of desperation?
@@solar-e-clips9989 basically I mean that they were purchased because they were cheaper and easier to get a hold of than the proper figure of a particular character.
Crimson Trax RIGHT but maybe not as bad as funko but extremely close
Bendy-One Kacheapo: "If you strike me down, I shall become more flexible than you can possible imagine."
I had some pro wrestling ones. The only one that lasted was Yokozuna because there was so much rubber, you couldn't actually bend him.
CantBendEms
no blubber no blubber no blubber.
Well he was a very large chap.
@@themeanestofgenes2409 he died in his 30s of being too fat.
I had some Gumby ones and they all snapped almost instantly after getting them.
"None of these have the wires broken."
Immediately starts twisting the right arm, risking it breaking after all these years.
If Stormtroopers had those giant arms then they wouldn't need guns. They'd just have to reach over to the enemies and grab them
And yet, somehow they would still miss.
That's kind of a terrifying thought actually.
He seriously has Wookiee proportions when placed next to 3PO
I find Stormtrooper's weirdly bulging crotch quite disturbing. Porn version, maybe?
My nightmares will now be haunted by platoons of noodly, Cthulloid Stormtroopers. Well done.
Had the Chewie one. Worked at a Computer Company. We ran it over and dragged it around with a High-Lo it got pretty messed up. We used old computer chip cast offs and made him a Cyborg. It became our mascot!! Everyone loved Cybacca!
"Moulded rubber over a wire frame" , sounds like the world's crappiest terminator!
Skynet started outsourcing it’s production of terminators to China after some budget cuts. These are the result.
I bet they made C3PO so small to save money on that metallic paint.
he looks like stephen merchant, who is in a different scale to other humans
"Uncle Owen, got any tarnish remover? I gotta clean this droid up."
@@KairuHakubi Stephen Merchant is a great actor, comedian and as far as I know human, but fuck me that man looks like a glitched Oblivion character.
I just realized the “original” Han Solo one looks a lot like the Ken doll from Toy Story.
"Bib Fortuna, that's a bit obscure."
Dey wanna wonga? Nay Jabba no badda.
Is that a Steve Irwin action figure in the thumbnail?
Gavin Cooke I think he means Raprot’s Gaming2’s avatar looks like a guy with a knife in his head since it does look like it.
Gavin Cooke oh! I had no idea. I’ll shut up now.
Gavin Cooke Thank you!
Was hoping this comment would be here. Didn’t disappoint
They made a giant stingray for him to fight..
The next SW episode better have some alien dude named Bend-Ems.
And a prob include
I hope there's one named Chanticleer Hegemony.
Ben Dems
Or a droid named B3ND-EM5
Bend Obi Wan Em
I loved these as a kid - they were so cheap that I managed to pick up two box sets for next to nothing so I basically had an entire collection immediately lol
That second Han is definitely Conan O'Brien. No question about it.
Came here to say that.
It looks like Kyle Maclachlan too
So Bend-Ems were the Funko Pop of their day?
Yes but unlike Funko pops, bendems actually did have a bit of a function which was bending, so in hindsight they did have a element of playability. Funko pops are just literally large lumps of vinyl plastic that do absolutely nothing but take a gratuitous amount of shelf space. literally the only thing they can do is change the poses of their head and that's not even fun. It Funko pops were smaller and they were articulated... And maybe not the way they were.... It would be far more interesting and I would probably have a lot more of them. But I have three at home and trust me they are probably the most worthless piece of merchandise I have am I collection.
@@MistCellaneous-5 if they were smaller and articulated then they wouldn't be funko pops. Funk pops are collectibles, not action figures which is why they aren't articulated.
Except Funko Pops are even worse because at least Bend'EMS are fun to look at. Funko Pops are just boring as hell.
No. Bend Ems were for children, Funko Pops are for adults with too much money. Bend Ems were designed to be played with, Funkos aren't.
@@infiltrat0rn720 Too much money, but not enough money (or taste) to get proper figures
Before focus: "Doesn't seem *that* bad..."
After focus: "OH HOLY SKY DADDY!!!"
Man, I remember having a bunch of these rubber-covered wire toys. I remember enjoying playing with them. Then again, I didn't have high standards when it came to toys.
I love it when Ashens has Alec in videos
3PO looks like that return the slab dude from courage the cowardly dog
The man in gauze!
The man in gauze!
KING RAMSES!
To me, he looks more like The Bicentennial Man...
To me he looks similar to Axe bodyspray's chocolate guy.
Meatblaze Studios I completely forgot about the bicentennial man, that is exactly what I was thinking he looked like!
It's 4 AM, time for another ashens video, naturally.
Damn its 4 am here too
*naturally*
me too fam me too
I thought I was the only one but it's good to know I'm not alone
Half past two, time for a quiz!
it took 26 years but people finally appreciate these things - solely because we got an ashens episode out of em
I wonder how brightly they'll burn in the Drawer of Purgatory
They're made of rubber so they'll burn for years like a pile of old tires.
They’ll burn down to their wire frames like the Terminator
"Huh... C-3PO... he looks like an agonized Cyberman, right?"
"Definitely."
Nezumi hey I found you
With C-3PO I'm gonna assume they're made so cheaply that the metallic paint / rubber was slightly more expensive. But I really don't know
Bib for what? Bib for tuna.
Also, knowing that these are madd old and unbroken, watching him bend-em with reckless abandon was kinda anxiety inducing.
When you brought in Obi Wan, I thought it was Palpatine, and only realised that it was supposed to be Obi Wan when you brought it up close.
Actually I think that 'unfixed' Han Solo looks more like Chandler Bing.
Mrs. Chanandler Bong.
Could I *be* flying any more slow?
The one in the box is actually Don Knotts, if you know who that is you get a cookie
11:00 It's bendy R2 from the Holiday Special cartoon!
I had some WWF Bend-em's back in the 90's
Han looks like Bill Nye the science guy.
Edit: The carded one.
And the uncarded one looks like they somehow knew Alden Ehrenreich was going to play young Han Solo and they still messed up.
I was 10 years old in 1993. I had a couple of vintage figures as a child and wanted more - I absolutely loved them. I saw these pieces of shit in the shops and I hated each and every one.
The manufacturers hadn’t seen Harrison Ford, but apparently they had seen a lot of Bill Pullman 😂
I've only watched this channel for a year but I. Try to watch as soon as it pops out on UA-cam and it just makes my day just a little bit better , thanks so much for doing what you do :)
We need more Poundland tosh videos Ashens!! Much love
TheFreshSpam he’s reported many times that there’s less and less amusing crap and suspect food as time goes on
Obi wan is King Friday. Follows up nicely to Mr Han Rogers Solo.
I had a Bugs Life bendy figure of Flick. His antennae broke, and then his arms just T-Posed forever.
The instant you described what a Bend-Em is, I instantly recognized them. I had a couple cheap, rather abstract figures I didn't recognize from anything like that. One was...blurry. I don't have much memory of it. The one I paid more attention to when I was 3 was some sort of very tall, thin orange thing with a snout and I think it had a tail.
Later on someone made a set of car maintenance funnels that worked by a similar principle. It was a sheet of thin metal encased in thick oilproof rubber, so you could bend it into the shape of funnel you need.
I'm not an interesting person.
Obi-Wan! Super-Star!
He knows The Force and can speak Jawa.
That out of box Han Solo looks like he’s from an alternate reality where the character is portrayed by the late John Belushi.
"The lips have gone blue, or something."
It is called green, Ashens. :-D
Looked abit yellow to me
Camcorder, youtube compression, display differences
Definitely something.
I love when Alec drops by! Sure to be solid laughs.
I googled Flintstones bend-ems. They actually look pretty good
Just as I was about to fall asleep. Thank you Ashens.
you can sleep when you're dead. there's Ashens to be had
U do know videos don't go away if u sleep?
@@kruleworld IKR.
There's actually still a bendems style toy today, they're called bendyfigs by noble toys, essentially the same but with better detailed molding
7:12
Good lord is that baby-faced Franklin Roosevelt
Omg I think I had Scooby Doo bend-ems. I think I ran over the Scooby with the lawnmower at one point.
Deliberately?
@@manjackson2772 Haha no, but it cut scooby into pieces with surgical precision. Lol
Would still rather something like this than more Funko POPs haha
But I like Funko Pops. I used to have some bendable toys as a kid, and the wires inside would quickly break and poke holes through the plastic and rust.
Simaginary Friend I would want funko pop versions of the team from Earthbound. It would somewhat match the clay models from the game, and please have Ness with a baseball bat!!!
Personally I find funko pops unsettling.
Same, wish Funko would scrap the Pops and go all in on the Reaction figures, which actually look presentable
Given how they've been doing both the Reactions and the He-Man style figures (and also Pez Dispensers), it wouldn't surprise me if they would try to resurrect these. It would be super lame, but they would probably use their reach in licenses to make some pretty hard collectables to turn down (which makes me both hate and respect them more).
I'd love a video exploring the folds and underside of those cushions.
The Han Solo in the box I'm sure is that guy from Ghostbusters that gets trapped in the statue with Sigourney Weaver. And the original one is definitely modelled on part-time absentee former PM and full-time c**t David Cameron.
Rick Moranis.
@@SakuraAvalon He may never have played Han Solo, but he DID play Lord Helmet in Spaceballs.
Quirderph "You went over my helmet?!" "Well, not over it exactly, more around it"
I had some Toy Story 2 Woody's Roundup Bend 'Ems. They were actually pretty well made, but I took some strange glee in the weird articulation. Must hunt them out some time. I imagine they've colonised the attic by now.
I was bought a full set of these in the 90s as a child. I think I still have the Vader somewhere. It's the stuff of nightmares
16:10 That T-Posing Boba Fett is an instant favorite.
That Darth Vader, tho. "Please, my lord, may I have some more Rep-Med Vita Paste?"
The David Cameron one also looks like Jason Clarke from Terminator Geniyiyisyeishyhs
The bendem I remember from my childhood was a pink panhter one. Thinking back on it that one would actually be quite sensible.
Is it a late night or an early morning then mate? I love the random. Hang on a minute, why the hell am I still bloody up?
Probably filmed a day or so ago, then edited it. And then put on timed. He probably uploaded it earlier today. This ensures catching the US and also that the video quality is full straight away.
Yessss i was craving more of stu and Alec chatting about trashy figures
If they rereleased bendems style toys, but of a higher quality. They’d be really cool toys with a ton of articulation.
i think I have a Woody one as a kid. I was obsessed with it
2:20 Travis Touchdown knows how to fix that.
I used to have some 101 Dalmatians Bend-Ems because I was obsessed with that movie and puppies in general as a kid. The first wire to break was always one of the back legs, so the dog would be in pema-pissing position.
"Shit that looks like Tim Allen..."
"I'm going with bloated Tim Allen"
Always nice when you get that acknowledgement. :)
Wasn't the only Han Solo figure that looked like Tim Allen, either. I wouldn't say that Harrison Ford looks similar to him in the flesh, but in plastic form, yeah.
Had these when I was young, watching this was just hilarious...
Help me Obi Christ Kenobi. You're my only hope.
i wonder if she means old Water into Wine Kenobi.
I spend my youth bending wires into those figurine to replace the original ones after they brake.
I had a dedicated reel of wire just for that operation.
Hours of fun.
You sound like a fun kid.
@@cclyon I was already highly depressed
@@adrienfourniercom Come sit by me.
5:03 looks like he's confessing his love
"Stretch Armstrong" was the first of these things,i can remember.
9:40 I genuinely thought that figure was the Emperor until it was identified as Obi-Wan Kenobi.
GODDAMN IT STUART ASHENS WHAT HAVE YOU DONE.
TIME HAD STRUCK THESE FROM MY MEMORY.
vader looks like he jumped out of an episode of Adventure Time
EDIT: The extra shit han looks like sylvester stallone with some strange makeup choices
Some of the earliest toys I owned were those R2-D2 and C-3PO bend-ems, as well a second-hand Luke's land speeder. And yes, I did the same thing with R2's legs as Ashen did. Even when the Star Wars toys came back into style about a decade later, finding R2 was difficult, so the bend-em one was still my best option.
At my local antique store they have the full set sealed for $10. Also they have like 6 of them so...
You are one entertaining witty Brit ! Your defentitly up there in my favorite UA-camrs.
And featuring Glenn Close as Disco Leia.
The Han out of the packet is David Cameron 😂😂
I had that R2, I always wondered why he had those rubber legs.
Been waiting for this video for years~ Did not disappoint.
I learned from AvE that it's the nitrile rubber that goes sticky after a number of years
The Emperor figure looks like he's changed approach with Luke. "Come on! Give your Uncle Palpy a hug!"
I remember the wires broke and the rubber gets sweaty. They're still cool
Bryce. Friend. Chum. Salt of the earth. They're in the video. We can see that they're not cool.
@@manjackson2772 they're kinda cool, for the little fact that they are cheap as hell
@@brycevo Drawing a face on an empty toilet paper roll is cheap. And probably less toxic.
11:47 "The part of C-3PO will now be played by the robot off the cover of Queen's News of the World"
Bendem style. The crap sequel to Gangnam Style.
It stops after a minute because the wires break.
@@howeyyadoing9070 and then it becomes "Cruxified Jesus Style"
@@peucoman T-Pose of DOMINANCE!
@@SSBBPOKEFAN Alpha af.
I laughed too much throughout this video! 🤣 I still have the whole set of these abominations on their cards. Ghastly things!
The original Han looks like a brunette Conan O'Brian.
Best couch ever. Bend some epic Bendems tat.
ok but where's the acetone bath
I feel that needs to happen
Revealing their terrifying wire skeleton
This type of rubber really stinks if you burn them, I'd stick with crucifying them.
Those Obi Wan and Palpatine figures look like they were channeling the Joker - pre and post acid bath...
Stuart it’s 4am
Stu, it's 4am. Why are you reviewing toys at 4 in the morning?
So good...brought back happy childhood memories
I'm starting to think you could make a genuinely entertaining video even someone dropped you in a morgue as long as the couch would fit.
Thank you for ending this video on our new desktop background!
I have a set of ReBoot 'bend-ems' that came from a Skips crisps promo, three sets actually, one set is on a shop display unit I was quite pleased to add to my extensive ReBoot figure collection.
Google: Haku ReBoot Museum bendable
I'm surprised that some people remember ReBoot! It was such a great series! All hail Megabyte!
It was officially the first 100% computer generated tv series, I have every single figure except the rarest, fullsize Captain Capacitor, a fellow collector managed to get one and was once offered $5000 for it...!
Rarest I have is crew jackets and one of the guys hockey shirts with the Megabyte logo on, they had their own team. One of them is wearing one in 'Fast Forward The Making of ReBoot' video on UA-cam.
@@licensetodrive9930 your so lucky! The only thing I have from ReBoot is a Megabyte action figure!
Reboot was great my best mate gas a complete dvd collection of all the episodes, every now and then we like to have a marathon. Megabyte was by far my favourite character him and hexadecimal had the best voices.
@DOCTIRWHOVIAN 04 Some of those rare things cost a pretty penny, but were completely worth it, I don't regret spending that money even today.
@Simon O'Rourke56 I think I have every DVD released around the world, the ShoutFactory set from the US was really badly mastered, my Russian DVD set has a better quality image! (but dubbed audio)
I had some rescuers down under bendems when I was a kid, oh the memories.
Darth Vader looks like an Adventure Time character with those bendy limbs
5:47 Also does anyone else think that looks like Pastor Jeff from Young Sheldon?
Narmatonia You’re a braver organism than I to admit to watching that in this kind of crowd
I had a set of these, when I started thinning down my sci-fi collection they were the first items to go!
9:25 "JESUS WANTS A HUG!"
"I don't know what's funnier, the fact that the church is strong arming you into helping us, or you obviously haven't seen what I did to the statue of big J!"
I used to have a bendy figure like this of a grocery store mascot. I had several of it actually. It worked well as one of these types of figures since it had long spindly arms and legs to begin with. The wires snapped all the time and paint came off easily though…