Open Your Toys Cast – Episode 065 Show Notes
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Introduction
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About the podcast and site
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About Us
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Contact Us
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What are we drinking?
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- Photos
- 2″ anthropomorphized animal with body armor and a unique weapon
- Produced by Takara and distributed by Hasbro in 1987
- 3 series for a total of 76
- 4th series, Laser Beasts, had 36
- Some clear promo figures
- 3 vehicles and bases
- Rub symbols (fire beat wood, wood beat water, water beat fire, later a sunburst would beat all)
- Weapons were unique and correspond via a number
- Appeared in the Headmasters cartoon “Rebellion on Planet Beast”
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- Photos
- Created in 1978 by art student Xavier Roberts, originally were cloth dolls sold at craft shows
- Brand became one of the most popular toy fads of the 80’s
- Longest running doll franchises in America.
- 1982-1988 Coleco was the original manufacturer and gave them their signature vinyl heads.
- 1988 Coleco went bankrupt and Hasbro bought the rights
- 1988-1994 Hasbro continued the brand bringing in more gimmicks to the dolls (Birthday Kids and Splash n Tan Kids)
- My all-time favorite is the “Pretty Crimp and Curl” line. (Monica Ruth)
- 1994-2003 Hasbro bought the rights to brand and production.
- Mattel’s biggest line was the 1996 OlymiKids released to coincide with the Olymics.
- 2003 Toys “R” Us snatched the line from Mattel. They produced 20” Kids that closely resembled the original 1980’s dolls in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the line.
- 2004 Play Along Kids bought the exclusive rights to the brand and released a line on QVC.
- Play Along Kids still holds the license to the brand.
- In 1999 Danbury Mint released a line of porcelain CPK.
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- Photos
- 3.75” Action Figures
- Action features when you squeezed the arms or the legs
- 3 series were released between 1984-1986
- First 2 series were packaged with a mini-comic
- Tons of tie-ins
- Tower of Darkness playset featuring the likeness of Darkseid was never produced although it was shown at Toy Fair
- Unreleased series
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- Photos
- Created in 1981 by Those Characters From Cleveland (TCFC), a division of American Greetings Corp.
- 1982 the line was launched in NYC, and was touted as the “biggest character launch in the history of retailing”.
- 1983 they made an appearance at NYC’s Toy Fair, 26 licensees were involved in the launch.
- General Mills and Parker Bros were part of that list
- 1984 the Care Bear cousins were launched
- The line contained not only the stuffed animals, but books, movies, TV series and soundtracks to name a few.
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- Photos
- Approximately 5″ robots with interchangeable parts
- Produced by Tomy in 1984 in conjunction with Marvel
- Originally based on Zoids
- Each was packaged with 1 of 4 mini-comics
- 2 new mini-comics were written but sporadically include with the 2nd and final wave
- Three classes Protectors, Destructors and Guardians
- Little drivers were actually “control circuits” made in the human image
- Wind up action features
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M.A.S.K. (Mobile Armored Strike Kommand)
- Photos
- 1/24 scale vehicles with drivers that “transformed” into more battle appropriate configurations
- Produced by Kenner in 4 series from 1985 to 1988
- M.A.S.K. battled V.E.N.O.M. (Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem)
- 1st series is what most of are familiar with
- 2nd series focused on second season vehicles and characters
- 3rd series were based around a race theme
- 4th series was call “Split Seconds” in which every vehicle split into two vehicles
- If they are complete and fully functional they command pretty high prices on the secondary market
- Cartoon had 75 episodes over two seasons
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- 1985 toy line from Kenner and Hallmark Cards
- Plush dolls that “loved to hug”
- The toys inspired the “Hugga Bunch Movie”
- In the film, a girl travels through her mirror into HuggaLand to find a way to keep her grandmother—the only one who knows how to hug—young.
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Runner-Ups
- Honorable Mention
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Peace
