Tarzan

Above: Panel from Marvel Comics, Vol.1, No.2

Although I have been a fan of Tarzan for some time, I have only started to seriously collect Tarzan figures since the Disney film was in the theatres. My goal was to get one version of every type of Tarzan figure that was made for the Disney character. Today, I've become more interested in the many incarnations of Tarzan that have been created over the past several decades, and enjoy finding these other versions of the character. This page will highlight the many different Tarzans and related items that I've collected.

I have also been keeping track of other jungle heroes which are all very similar to Tarzan.

Below are most of my Disney Tarzan figures with three of the non-Disney figures from the "Epic Adventures" series.

Tarzan of the Apes

The first Tarzan novel, Tarzan of the Apes, was written by Edgar Rice Burroughs and published in 1912. The history of this character is quite elaborate. For almost 100 years, artists around the world have created illustrations and paintings of Tarzan that have appeared in a wide range of novels and comic books. Tarzan has also had an extensive run on both the silver screen and the TV screen in numerous live action and animated productions. With the popularity of Tarzan and the many reoccurrences of the character over the past century, collectors now have an endless array of Tarzan merchandise to choose from.

I'm mainly interested in the comics or action figures, and have just recently begun to collect the books. Action figures in general were not very common before the mid 1900s, therefore action figures of Tarzan represent only a portion of the character's history. Below is a Tarzan of the Apes book from 1964, published by Whitman. The artwork shows two very different interpretations of Tarzan.

Tarzan Books

I'm still not 100% certain how many original Tarzan stories Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote, but belive there to be about 24 in all. Here is a list of the books that I know of:

1 Tarzan of the Apes
2 The Return of Tarzan
3 The Beasts of Tarzan
4 The Son of Tarzan
5 Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar
6 Jungle Tales of Tarzan
7 Tarzan the Untamed
8 Tarzan the Terrible
9 Tarzan and the Golden Lion
10 Tarzan and the Ant Men
11 Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle
12 Tarzan and the Lost Empire
13 Tarzan at the Earth's Core
14 Tarzan the Invincible
15 Tarzan Triumphant
16 Tarzan and the City of Gold
17 Tarzan and the Lion Man
18 Tarzan and the Leopard Men
19 Tarzan's Quest
20 Tarzan and the Forbidden City
21 Tarzan the Magnificent
22 Tarzan and the Foreign Legion
23 Tarzan and the Madman
24 Tarzan and the Castaways

One of my books also lists two juvenile Tarzan books by Burroughs "The Tarzan Twins" and "Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins" which I suspect the Burroughs estate would like us to forget about.

Below is the Ballantine Books publication of "Tarzan and the Ant Men", Third printing Oct. 1969, and "Tarzan Lord of the Jungle" from New English Library, Jan 1976. I think the artist for the cover of the latter book may have mixed up Tarzan with Mowgli of "The Jungle Book"!

Here is an excellent hard cover graphic novel of "Tarzan of the Apes" that was published in 1972. It was illustrated by Burne Hogarth who did the Tarzan syndicated comic strip from 1936 through to the 1950s.

The Disney version of Tarzan is quite different from the original Burroughs story. There are already many different versions of Disney's Tarzan storybooks available. Here are two of them.

Here is a classic Disney item, the read along book and tape.

Tarzan Comics

Here is the Tarzan of the Apes comic published by Gold Key in April 1970 (No.191). He looks like he's fighting Greek warriors, and later in this issue he goes scuba diving in full suba gear! Very campy...its great!

Here is the 8" Mego version of Tarzan from the early 1970s. This is my first Tarzan figure which I've had since I was about seven years old. He is also one of my first Mego action figure dolls. This figure is based on the DC Comics version of Tarzan. Actually, to be more specific, the head sculpt is based on the DC Tarzan, the costume I'm not too sure about! It seems like its based on one of the early Tarzan films. In 2007 I added the Mego Bendy figure of Tarzan to the collection. It is 4 3/4" tall. (To see my Mego page click HERE.)

Here are some DC Tarzan comics from Sept 1972 (Vol.25, No.212) and Dec 1976 (Vol.13, No.66). The second cover shows several of the characters from the Burroughs universe. It's one of my favourite Tarzan covers because it's so cheesy! Next to this is a Tarzan PVC figure from France that was produced in 1995. Notice the same outfit was used for the PVC figure even though it was made 20 years after the comic.

Here is the "Tarzan Yelling" figure from the France PVC collection, with the same one shown above. There are three PVC figures in the collection, the third one is Tarzan in a riding position which I think was sold with a separate PVC figure of an elephant.

Marvel Comics acquired the rights to Tarzan after DC comics. Here is a Marvel comic from July 1977 (Vol.1, No.2).

Epic Adventures

This is the "Epic Adventures" 12 inch Tarzan figure made in 1995. There were a few versions of this figure available, one of which has a red cape instead of green. All of the armour is removable. The basic figure is the same for each version as it was simply repackaged with different outfits. These figures also have a motion sensor that activates the Tarzan yell. There is a switch on the figures back which allows the yell function to be turned on and off.

There were also three different lines of smaller action figures made, including bendy figures, action figures with a button that activated a recording of the Tarzan yell, and smaller action figures that only had moveable arms. Various other characters were made in each of these sets along with Tarzan.

The Epic Adventures series combined Tarzan and the characters from Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter Warlord of Mars novels. Here is the cover of a Marvel comic book from Sept. 1978 (Vol.1, No.15) and May 1979 (Vol.1, No.24) to show the John Carter characters.

Disney's version of Tarzan

In 1999 Mattel produced the first action figures for Disney's animated film. Below are the Tarzan PVC figures. The Sabor figure looks great, but it doesn't stay standing up on its own. It is odd that Mattel did not include a detachable base for the figure, as this would have been very easy to do.

Here is the back of the package for the above PVC figures which shows the entire collection.

Mattel also produced this nice bendy figure of Tarzan.

In 1999 when the Disney movie premiered, Mattel produced the first action figures of the Disney Tarzan character. There were three basic Tarzan figure sculpts made, and two of each were included in the series. These were simply painted differently and packaged with different accessories, making a total of six Tarzans. Mattel took this a step further and created two packaging variations for all six Tarzans in hopes that collectors would buy 12 figures! The only three that I bought are shown below, and are examples of the three different figure types. The collection also had other characters from the film.

Here is the entire collection of the above action figures as pictured on the back of the box for the 12 inch figure (shown below).

This is Mattel's "Rad Repeatin' Tarzan" 12 inch figure. It has buttons on the back that record and play back audio. There is also a button for operating Tarzan's arm as he lifts it to his mouth while audio of the Tarzan yell plays. This figure was not made to look exactly like the Disney character, and only vaguely resembles the actual design.

This is an electronic animated talking bank that was released in 1999 with the first wave of merchandise for the Disney movie, and was only available through the Disney Store. It is my favourite figure of Disney's Tarzan that has been made to date and looks exactly like the animated character. When the leaf button is pressed, the 9 inch Tarzan figure moves up and down and turns at the waist while a different recording of dialogue is played. This specific one is broken so the figure no longer moves, but luckily the sound still plays.

Here are some other views of the Tarzan bank.

Two Die-Cast Tarzan figures were also available in 1999. They show Tarzan after he defeated Sabor, and Tarzan fighting a snake. The figures were mounted on a base that has a dial on the back to make the figure spin. Tarzan and the rock section of the base are made of metal while Sabor and the snake are PVC plastic.

Here is the original packaging for the Die-Cast figure.

Disney Adventurers

Sometime between 2001 to 2004 Tarzan was included in a line of Disney hero action figures that was available exclusively through Disney Store outlets. The smaller figures were stylized with very large hands and feet.

The larger 12 inch figures were not stylized, and instead were modeled following the original character designs. The figures are also very poseable. The back of the box is identical to the smaller action figure packaging above. I've shown the Adventurers 12 inch figure next to the Mattel 12 Tarzan as they are both quite different.

Here is one of those "what were they thinking" items. Its an action figure and vehicle set that includes Tarzan and... his glider!?! The ship has a button on the top that pops open the glider "wings" and there is a holder on the side for Tarzan's spear. The figure just fits into the seat (Tarzan's head is touching the roof). The vehicle also has wheels on the bottom. This set was realeased as part of the Adventurers line.

McDonalds

Here are a few of the Tarzan toys that have been sold at McDonald's restaurants over the years. There are many others that I don't have.

Other Disney Tarzan Collectables

Here is an excellently sculpted PVC figure, this time made by Applause between 2000 and 2004. The pose is similar to the electronic bank shown above.

This is a unique PVC figure that is part of a Spin Pop candy dispenser. Originally there was a lollypop attached to the top that would spin when the button is pressed.

Here is a 9 inch Tarzan figure that was available exclusively at the Disney On Ice touring show.

I don't recall where these cups are from, possibly the corner store or a subway type resaurant. I have shown both sides of the cup, with Tarzan on one side and Kerchak on the other (I have two of the same cup). It would be interesting if Disney did a Tarzan animation using this "realistic" style of artwork.

This toy spear was sold at the Disney Store during the Halloween season sometime between 2000 and 2004. (Who would let their kid go trick or treating dressed as Tarzan!?!) The spear fired sponge missles using air compression.

These cookies were sold at dollar stores and came with one of four collectable stickers. I've included the side panel from the box that shows what the cookies looked like (they were yummy!).

If you thought the cookies were silly, this is even better! Here is Tarzan from a series of mini Disney Hero and villain figures that were sold inside chocolate eggs. Each box has three eggs and the figures are inserted randomly. Tarzan is the scarce figure of the series and is very difficult to find. Alas, when the lucky egg eventually turns up (thanks Marcus!), collectors find that the illusive Tarzan figure is not the same as the one pictured on the box! Someone at the Disney head office is laughing about this, I'm sure!

Below left, the mini Tarzan figure shown on the box (Tarzan is taking a step forward, no spear), and right, the figure that is found in the egg (Tarzan is standing evenly with spear).

The Future of Tarzan

Today, the name Edgar Rice Burroughs remains as well known as the jungle man he created. Every few years a new Tarzan project emerges, so it likely won't be long until his next adventure!

Above: Panel from Marvel Comics, Vol.1, No.2

Questions, please e-mail Mike Artelle at