Action Figures From the 70s Through the 90s
The Earthworm Jim franchise started as a video game on the Sega Genesis and Nintendo SNES platforms in 1994. A television cartoon followed shortly thereafter. The following year, Playmates Toys, along with Shiny Entertainment, released an action figure line based on the game and cartoon. The action figures were more closely related to the cartoon characters than the video game characters. The cartoon itself ran for two seasons. The game …
“Come to Middle-earth, A world beyond the furthest reaches of your imagination” In 1978, Ralph Bakshi released The Lord of the Rings, an animated film that covered books one and two of the legendary J.R.R. Tolkein trilogy. While the story and characters were well developed the quality of the animation was poor. Toy maker Knickerbocker purchased the rights to develop an action figure line to try and ride the coattails …
With the success of He-Man, and the associated cartoon and action figures, Mattel decided in 1985 to introduce a new line of action figures based on Filmation’s animated series Princess of Power. It was a strategic decision to try and lure more young females into the action figure market and thereby increase Mattel’s action figure customer base. It was a good idea and was, for the most part, successful. The …
A Journey That Begins Where Everything Ends. That was the tag line for Disney’s 1979 production of The Black Hole. The movie itself wasn’t bad but it was nowhere near the success that Star Wars was. That didn’t stop Mego from jumping at the chance to license the action figures for the movie though. They’d been beaten by Kenner for the Star Wars figures and they weren’t going to let …
The Zeroid robot action figure line was introduced by Ideal in 1967 and remained in production for nearly a decade. They were touted as Moving across the landscape, overrunning all obstacles as inexorably as the Future itself, these amazing, efficient and powerful automatons have but one purpose – to serve their masters at work and play! Initially the Zeroids consisted of three robots, Zerak, Zintar and Zobor. The robots were …
The Clash of the Titans was a pretty good commercial success when it was released in 1981. It was Ray Harryhausen’s, the master of stop motion effects, last special effects gig and he didn’t let his audience down. While the character development and storyline perhaps left a little to be desired the creature special effects were awesome for their time. The Kraken, Medusa, Charon and Calibos were all very creepy. …
The Lords of Light was a 3 1/2 inch short lived action figure line from the mind of Joe Ruzzi and PAC toys. PAC (Packaging and Assembly Corporation) developed the line using the Micronaut molds from the former Mego Corp which PAC had essentially bought out during their bankrupcty in 1982. PAC’s marketing showed the Lords of Light as Izzurians who were in constant battle with the Evilites. Note that …
The Major Matt Mason toy line is a fascinating set of well-crafted and artistically-rich novel items. While not nearly as popular as GI Joe or Archie comics at the time, it’s place in American culture is a fascinating view of mankind’s idea of life in the space. This concept lives on and has even influenced Tom Hanks, who plans to co-write a Major Matt Mason movie, with a hundred million …
