Toys are a massive part of everyone’s youth. But, there were so many toy lines, that once we grew up we forget some of them even existed. It is just the way life goes, we are easy to forget things that made our childhoods great. Luckily there are dedicated individuals such as us all over the net who are willing to serve as a reminder to everyone. While we have many toys that spanned games, movies, and TV shows, today we’re going to talk about the ones that came our way the other way around. It is interesting how we might remember some of these films, but at the same time totally neglect the toys that followed. But, worry not, now you’ll remember both and in a package. So, not to waste any more of your time on the introduction, let us take you down memory lane.
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
This is one of the films that tell the never-ending tale between the good and the evil of this world through the prism of one Robin Hood. The movie from the 90s was a good one in its own right with an amazing cast and soundtrack. When you combine Bryan Adams with Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman you get a recipe for success. The success was so massive that a toy line followed. While you still re-watch this film and listen to Bryan’s album from 1991 you probably forgot that there were toys made after this movie became a worldwide success. The figurines of Robin Hood, Will Scarlett, and Sheriff of Nottingham were all available.
RoboCop and the Ultra Police
In his own right, this movie was dark and intended for adults as the main audience. But, in 1987 we had different standards, and no one sees an issue of making a toy line based on the characters from this dead serious film. They were manufactured by Kenner and in the 80s you could get your kids an action figure of RoboCop and the members of Ultra Police. The rights for RoboCop merchandise were owned by Orion Pictures but Kenner wasted no time in obtaining the rights to make toys. The case might be that none of us want to remember these figures due to the nature of the film, now that we know how it played out.
Gladiators
It was so easy to be a child back in the day. Just remember the Gladiators. This TV Show tied us all to the TV screens each Saturday. By watching it, we only wished for one thing to have action figures and pint them against each other in Gladiator fashion. There were so many characters to pick from, but those that stand out were of course Jet, Wolf, and Hunter. Of course, many people went with Shadow, but that’s just a matter of taste.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
While we spoke about forgetting a thing or two we doubt anyone forgot that Star Trek spanned millions of action figures due to their very successful TV runs, and sequential movies. For many people in the world this is, if not the best, then the favorite Sci-Fi TV show. Of course, the creators and the marketing department of Star Trek knew this and took advantage of our fans. Just kidding, no one took advantage of anyone, we loved to have these action figures of our favorite space travelers. Star Trek: The Next Generation spanned most of them as it was one of the show’s most popular iterations. The figurines were very well made and thus appealing to fans of the TV show. And let us not kid ourselves, everyone wanted to continue the adventure on your own in imagination once the episode was over. All of us know that these figures get mentioned over in many other unrelated TV shows such as the Big Bang Theory.
The Karate Kid
Oh my God! The Karate Kid was an inspiration to generations. The first film in the series was released back in 1984 and it became one of the cult films every child needs to see. Admit it, how many times have you watched since the first time you did? Action Figures based on the film were as popular as the film itself. If you can recall now the action figures in question were Daniel LaRusso with the ability to go through an ice block and Johnny Lawrence who was more than able to break down a wall.
Jurassic Park
Well, we all know that this one is going to be a massive hit at the box office. Of course, it was. When you combine Steven Spielberg with dinosaurs it’s what you get. Back in the 90s, this one was one of the premium blockbusters. In its own right, it was a masterpiece of cinematography and a trendsetter of its days. As one could guess it spanned tons of various merchandise tied to the movie itself. The action figures and various other toys were made to commemorate the films. It’s not only that you could play with the figures of main characters Alan, Ellie, or Ian, but you had various other animals who could make any game more fun. We are talking about you T-Rex.
Terminator 2: Future War
As you can see on our list, the 80s and 90s spanned blockbusters like any decade before. In addition to Jurassic Park, we also have the Terminator franchise which has proven rather popular and made James Cameroon’s household name in Hollywood if he wasn’t one before terminator: Judgment Day. With Terminator the situation is rather similar to RoboCop, where we have Kenner attaining the rights to work on the action figures tied to this movie. As you could guess they were dedicated to making various figures with the face of Arnold Schwarzenegger who helped to make this franchise and Hollywood what they are today. You can admit that you owned at least one Arnold action figure back in the day. In my case, it was the Commando.
Nina Smith