Greatest Action Figures Based On Cartoons. The toy industry is by far the most lucrative when it comes to children’s products. Every single show, movie, or book series aimed at kids is quickly followed by a line of toys in order to make a quick buck with the merchandising rights. Toys like the original G. I. Joe and the Star Wars action figures had been around for awhile, but it was in the ’8. It hasn’t stopped yet; nowadays people who were children in those decades are targeted with “Legacy” and “Retro” lines that are basically higher quality redesigns of classic figures from their childhood, while companies still continue their lower quality lines for modern kids. It’s easy to see why action figure collecting is still so popular – there were some really freaking cool toys that came out back in the day! Not gonna lie, we totally want a Black Series Darth Vader and the Legacy Dragonzord. The nostalgic wave that hits us just from thinking about some of the great toy lines back in the day is enough to send us scrambling to Ebay to see how much it would cost to rebuild our childhood! Here are the 1. 5 Greatest Cartoon- Based Action Figure Lines. The Real Ghostbusters“Who ya gonna call?” You all know the answer. The first film had a unique mix of supernatural horror, dry humor, and relatable “average joe” characters.
Although they never quite lived up to their predecessor, a sequel, a comic book series, a cartoon, and a 2. Surprisingly the best thing to come out of all these spinoffs was The Real Ghostbusters, a cartoon that followed the original team as they busted their way through all the creepy inhabitants of NYC. The show was a huge hit and ran for seven seasons before its cancellation in 1. The Real Ghostbusters toys were about as good as you can get. They were created by the legendary company Kenner (which you’ll see quite often on this list) and consisted of a ton of different characters, gadgets, and vehicles from the show. Right off the bat these things were a hit; the first wave was made up of the show’s main characters (Venkman, Winston, Egon, Stantz, Slimer, and Stay Puft) but eventually spun off to include just about every single ghost that appeared on the show! Perhaps the most awesome things to come out of this line were the Ecto- Plazm (a colored goop that could be used with many of the line’s playsets and figures) and the life- sized Proton Pack. Cartoon Network. 27,984,671 likes · 73,762 talking about this. Welcome to the official home of Cartoon Network on Facebook! Transformers, GI Joe, TMNT - some of the best cartoons were created to sell action figures. These are the toy lines that lived up to the TV shows. Just the fact that we could create our own adventures using the Ecto 1 and Stay Puft outside of the Ghostbusters Fire House was cool enough! Super Powers Collection. When it comes to children and superheroes, it’s hard to go wrong. DC Comics has been around since the ’3. Super Powers Collection in 1. However, this was the first real “action figure” line the company had ever produced. Previous toys had been more doll- like and gimmicky in nature. After seeing the success of other action figure sets DC asked (who else?) Kenner to help them create a line based on their greatest heroes and villains. The Super Powers Collection of toys gave us some of the best DC figures to date. Sure, you can grab a decent Hawkman or Green Lantern or Aquaman figure nowadays. But for the longest time the creations of this series were the cream of the crop when it came to non- Batman or non- Superman toys. Every figure in the Super Powers Collection came with their own “action” they could perform by squeezing together their legs and a miniature comic book based on the respective character in the packaging. The designs were loosely based on the Super Friends TV show that was airing at the same time, but it also brought in characters that were unknown to the general public at the time. Where else could you get a figure of Doctor Fate or Steppenwolf in the ’8. Dino Riders. If you want to know why this toy line was so awesome just take a look at that picture and bask in all its glory. Kids love dinosaurs. Kids love futuristic vehicles. Somebody at Tyco got the genius idea to combine the two, and Dino Riders was born. Unfortunately the show was more of an afterthought; it was created primarily to act as a toy commercial and not much more. Unlike similar shows like Transformers or TMNT, this series never took off and was cancelled after fourteen episodes. The plot followed two groups of characters from the future who were transported back to Prehistoric Earth and used dinosaurs to do battle. But who cares about the plot? There are dinosaurs with lasers! The toy line for Dino Riders lasted way longer than the show (three more years, to be exact). The appeal of this toy line was massive; the heroes were humans with futuristic armor and the villains were mutant animal- humanoid hybrids. You could buy the characters as a set (one hero and villain each) or individually with their own accessories. These individual figures were fairly low- quality, but that didn’t matter because the dinosaurs were the bread and butter of the line! Dinosaur “playsets” featured creatures that were about as high- quality as you could get in the late ’8. Unsurprisingly there have been recent talks to bring Dino Riders to the big screen in all of its glory. Marvel Toybiz Series. Much like the Super Powers Collection, the Toy Biz line of Marvel action figures was the quintessential series to fans for the longest time. In the ’9. 0s the publisher attempted to launch its own animated universe with varying success. The Spider- Man and X- Men cartoons took off like wildfire, while others, like The Incredible Hulk, The Fantastic Four, and Iron Man, never quite caught on. There were even plans for an animated Captain America series that even had its pilot finished before it was scrapped. In 1. 99. 4 the company Toy Biz made a deal with Marvel to create and distribute the toys for the publisher’s upcoming animated series. This turned out to be a great decision, as Toy Biz would produce Marvel lines all the way until 2. The biggest seller of this line during the ’9. X- Men: The sheer number of characters involved with the mutant superhero title alone presented opportunity for endless new figures and variants. Their Spider- Man toys were pretty awesome, too; the tie- in line to the animated series was somewhat lame but the company more than made up for this with their incredible early 2. Spidey villain. 1. Pokemon (Burger King)Oh boy, were these things popular. The Burger King line of Pokemon toys is the stuff of legends to Millenials. Nothing could touch the popularity of Pokemon in the late ’9. It was easily the most profitable franchise of the time and, though it has since dropped off some in popularity, is still a massive cash cow today. To coincide with the release of Pokemon 2. Burger King added a massive line of toys to their kids meals in hopes that people would return to the restaurant repeatedly to “catch ’em all.”The legendary main toy line had 5. Pokemon that each came packaged in their own individual Pokeball and had unique variations; some were bean- bag plushes, some acted as tops, some could squirt water, some would light up, and some were key chains. On top of this, parents could purchase collectible golden Pokemon cards that came in a special “shiny” Pokeball. Naturally, children of the time went crazy for this toy line! However, there was a dark side to this toy line as well. The small Pokeball packaging poied a choking hazard for children and Burger King had to issue a massive recall on the packaging. Batman: The Animated Series. Another entry for Kenner? What a shocker! After their hit Super Powers Collection line, DC pegged the toy company to produce a series for their upcoming show Batman: The Animated Series. We all remember what happened next: Batman: TAS went on to become many peoples’ favorite incarnation of the Dark Knight, launching the voice acting careers of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, and creating Harley Quinn. Despite being made primarily for children, the TV show offered many deep and adult themes and wasn’t afraid to give us character- driven plots. To many, this show is the greatest thing to ever come out of the DC Universe. It’s only fitting that such an epic show had such an epic line of toys. Kenner’s Batman: TAS line gave fans action figures of the well- designed and noir- like characters of the series. One of the coolest things about this toy series was the dozens of variations on the Caped Crusader himself; there was a Batman that came with a parachute, a Batman that would change color when placed underwater, a Batman that had a detachable glider, and too many other versions to count! Each of these variations gave the Dark Knight a different- colored costume, meaning that no matter how many you had you were unlikely to have any duplicates. Let’s also not forget the incredible Batcave Playset it gave us, which allowed you to “transform” your Bruce Wayne toy into Batman! Incredible Crash Dummies. Try as you might, you could never keep these little guys together! The Incredible Crash Dummies were the stars of an insanely popular PSA campaign about the importance of wearing your seat belt while driving. Shorts would typically show two dummies named Larry and Vince as they got into slapstick antics that usually resulted in their destruction (due to not wearing their safety belts). The ad would then end with the phrase “You could learn a lot from a Dummy.” The characters returned in 1. CGI animated short and then reemerged once more with some PSAs in 2. Somehow, the people over at Tyco Toys thought that these characters would make excellent action figures. The insane part is that they were right! The Incredible Crash Dummies toy line was very popular, mostly because of its subject matter. Each one of the figures and accessories was meant to be destroyed! The dummies themselves were modeled so that their head, arms, and legs would go flying off in different directions whenever the little insignia on their chest was impacted. Likewise the vehicles in the toy line were made to shatter into pieces when they were put under any sort of collision.
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