Griffin, Monster in My Pocket, Series 1, by Matchbox

The griffin is a monster that most is commonly depicted with the body of a lion and the head, wings, and sometimes front claws of an eagle. (Variations do exist, however, with simply winged lions often being considered griffins, or other kinds of birds being combined with other kinds of cats.) The griffin is one of the most widespread and oldest mythical creatures. They appear in art and myth as far back as ancient Mesopotamia and are commonly depicted in lots of other Middle-eastern, Mediterranian, and even Egyptian imagery. That being said, they are likely most famously associated with ancient Greece. Griffins would later become extremely prominent in European Heraldry as well. Whether or not they all came from the same root myth, or if multiple cultures came up with roughly the same creature independently is still a mystery. That being said, it doesn’t seem so outlandish for multiple people to combine lions and eagles, two powerful and charismatic animals, into one creature more than once in history.

One interesting thing about griffins is, unlike most greek monsters, they don’t have a specific story associated with them. Rather they are an ever present species of monster, not one legendary individual, in the universe of Greek Myths. They are known to guard mount Olympus and are sometimes referred to the “hounds of Zeus” because of it. They are also, according to stories, said to roost on huge cliffs near the Gobi Desert, and line their nests with gold. Griffin eggshells were said to be made of agates (semi precious stones).

The griffin is featured in the first Monster in my Pocket line, with the honor of being worth 25 points, considered one of the most powerful at the time. (Monster in my Pocket figures each have a point value molded into the back of the toy, implying how powerful they’d be in a matchup against another monster.) This figure originally came in two colors, olive green and purple. It would later be released again in neon green and neon purple, as well as the more rare blue and dark green for the board game and cereal box promotion respectively. Outside of the United States it came in a few more colors, including red and yellow.

The Monster in my Pocket Griffin is in a sitting pose with its wings majestically raised and its head turned to the side. You almost cannot see the lion half viewing the front of the figure except for the lion tail that’s curling out to the side. It is one of the less heavily detailed of the earlier Monster in my Pocket figures, with simple textures implying feathers on the head, neck, and upper arms. The wrists have this segmented pattern to them, which was extremely common for lots of bird legs portrayed in media during the 80s and 90s I feel. (Bigbird from Sesame Street’s legs are a clear example of this if you need an example of what I mean.)

Overall this is an extremely charming little figure, like all the Monster in my Pocket from series 1 and 2 tend to be, despite not being especially detailed. It tends to always be available on ebay at reasonable prices, especially in the more common colors.