Bottom of the Toy Box: Forgotten Relics of the '80s-'90s [Archive]

Zbu Manowar

Feb 5th, 2003, 02:00 PM

Hell yeah! Boglins I remember quite fondly.....I actually brought the 'Drool' one for about $20 and it was quite awesome with that cage box and such.....

As for Sectaurs, they were robbed popularity wise. They had a neat design and their toys were actually very well built and could take a hell of a beating. What I wouldn't give to get my paws on some of those cartoons.

And Wheeled Warriors? AWESOME as ever.

Now, how about Army Ants? :)

Bennett

Feb 5th, 2003, 02:44 PM

When I think of army ants, I automatically think of both Battle Beasts and Food Fighters.

Sectaurs were awesome! They were very detailed and articulated. Just neat-as-hell looking.

I don't remember the name of my boglins... I had a smaller one, and one of the larger ones. They (the larger) were very articulate as well, you could get some great facial contortions out of them. Reminded me of something out of the movie "Labyrinth." My friend got a camcorder for his birthday and wanted to make a mini-movie of my boglin raping a girl. He was pretty disturbed, and no, the movie was never made.

I was a big fan of Battle Beasts.

Blackjack

Feb 12th, 2003, 06:47 AM

Food Fighters. Rock on.

Supernaturals, man.

McClain

Feb 12th, 2003, 09:30 PM

Madballs.

Protoclown

Feb 12th, 2003, 09:56 PM

Yes!! I had totally forgotten about those!

Zbu Manowar

Feb 13th, 2003, 12:52 AM

Shit, Madballs? Didn't they have that eyeball guy as well?

And speaking of forgotten, one of the last cool toys to come out during the '80s was Barnyard Commandos. For some damn reason they were cheaply made pigs and sheeps that had flamethrowers and rockets and shit and were twisted as hell. As an added bonus they had these weird booklets that either had Pig Latin or some weird ass Sheep code. They just caught my attention.

And Battle Beasts? Wood, Fire, or Water....I remember wanting those for Easter one year and getting shafted. Anybody have a page where they have the whole run of those?

Bennett

Feb 13th, 2003, 01:02 PM

Did anyone actually have any of the Captain Power merchandise?
It seemed like such a good idea and yet so lame at the same time.
Why would you want to shoot a stupid thing at the Tv, when you could just play nintendo instead?

Zbu Manowar

Feb 13th, 2003, 01:04 PM

If you think that's sad, I found a tape at a video store once. Someone actually thought this would rent.

Bennett

Feb 14th, 2003, 11:57 AM

Okay, these are some of the older ones I remeber:
Crystar: A lot of them were made out of a translucent plastic.... making them look like crystals, hence the name. For some reason they came with a kind of magnifying glass/prism type of thing?
And one of my all time faves were the Dungeons and Dragon toys:
Tiamat, Carrion Crawler, etc. etc.
To this day, Warduke is probably one of my favorite Action Figures.
the limited Articulation sucked, but he was pretty badass.

Zbu Manowar

Feb 15th, 2003, 04:44 PM

Voltron. Lions or cars, it still rocked.

McClain

Feb 15th, 2003, 07:22 PM

Boglins.

Zbu Manowar

Feb 15th, 2003, 08:20 PM

Does anybody remember those cheesy planes that came out around the mid-'80s where they designed these three foot long stryofoam airplanes that had these neat designs and supposedly do all these sort of neat tricks with just a kite handle? I bought one for ten bucks and it lasted about two days before I nosedived it into the ground and shattered the whole body.

Much like those really cheap ones you could get for a buck and always folded up. Damn marketing.

McClain

Feb 16th, 2003, 12:45 PM

Yeah. If I'm not mistaken, those were around well before the eighties and are still around now. I bought one a couple years ago just for the fun of it. It was fun. Then it broke. Like, five minutes after I got it.

Ninjavenom

Feb 16th, 2003, 01:16 PM

Little Ceasar's toys. "pizza pizza".

Zbu Manowar

Feb 16th, 2003, 02:49 PM

God, I was such a tool to buy those fucking planes. At least I didn't buy one of those damn lawn slides....I can't understand anybody didn't break their rib cages jumping up like a dork and landing on a wet piece of plastic.

And I've got one: ROCK LORDS. The Gobots offshoots, you know.

Feb 17th, 2003, 05:17 PM

Are those the planes that come in flat paper envelopes, basically exist of two parts (wings and body), with plastic propellor?

God, those are a fantastic invention. They never last long (with me, it's usually that the nose breaks off so that the propellor doesn't fit anymore), but I went through hundreds of them everytime the fair was in town.

Aside from Battle Beasts and Boglins (I had one that could shift its eyes), I used to collect things called Monsters In My Pocket. They were little yellow, red, green or purple rubber figures of mythical monsters. Each had a point counter on them (5, 10, 15, 20 or 25), but there wasn't any game to be played with them - it was just the intention that when you swapped figures, you gave each other a fair deal in points. Once a kid in my class stole one from me and claimed he'd found it around his house, and it split the entire class in two between people who believed me and people who believed him. :)

MrAdventure

Feb 17th, 2003, 05:50 PM

You mean those cute balsa wood planes and the very pretty envelopes? :love

I'd always beg to pick up one every time we went to the Circle K, though I usually wound up with a single popsicle that wasn't labeled for individual sale. :(

I had some Monsters in My Pocket up until a few years ago, I think I got a little too eager with my hobby knife. >:

I was actually pretty fond of collecting Rock Lords, though when something transforms into a rock it's not hard to imagine how fast it was broken. :(

whoreable

Feb 17th, 2003, 06:13 PM

actually those planes are made of styrofoam if they are the ones i think they are. and they are still around i think.

are these it?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2912262003&category=1468
________
Lovely Wendie (http://www.lovelywendie99.com/)

MrAdventure

Feb 17th, 2003, 06:22 PM

I'm sure the ones I bought were balsa wood, I don't think I ever played with any foam ones that pretty. :(

That was about a fourteen years ago though. :(

whoreable

Feb 17th, 2003, 06:27 PM

i always used to get those foam ones at birthday parties and shit. they were awesome.
________
Loan Protection Insurance Advice (http://www.insurance-forums.org/loan-protection-insurance/)

Zbu Manowar

Feb 17th, 2003, 06:33 PM

No, the ones I'm talking about where about three to four feet long and basically the same thing only the stryofoam was a bit thicker and in theory you could use it as a kite, complete with handle. They were about $15 and they were cheap motherfuckers.

But those ones that cost about a buck fucking rocked. I remember telling my friends I was going to get one of the certain ones on the back like the Lockheed and shit. They were all the same...through in my case, the futelage usually hit the wall too hard and bent, making it fly stupid and basically ruined it. The best balsa wood glider I ever had was one I got another Easter which had this wind-up propeller that, when you let it go, actually flew. Those fucking rocked!!

Feb 18th, 2003, 06:50 AM

Yeah, the ones one that eBay page are the ones I was talking about, at least. God they were fun. Kinda like a cheap alternative for paper planes, that can actually fly.

I hope someone gives me a barrel of those for my 50th birthday :tear

Zbu Manowar

Feb 18th, 2003, 10:45 AM

Why don't you just buy those? Hell, with shipping it was under $5.

Bennett

Feb 18th, 2003, 01:40 PM

Anybody remember/know the name of those action figures that were a plastic back, but the front was kind of flat with a hologram on it? I remember there was a mummy, and a ghost, and maybe a knight or something.

I never had any, but they sure looked pretty shitty.

Ninjavenom

Feb 18th, 2003, 01:52 PM

I had the mummy one too.

Zbu Manowar

Feb 18th, 2003, 02:02 PM

Those were Supernaturals. And honestly, they had their moments...through it was like trying to play with lithographs. One angle off and your Knight is some puss.

Bennett

Feb 18th, 2003, 02:24 PM

okay, here's another one, when I was really little, like pre-school age, I had these Superhero toys. They weren't the big 8'' or 7'' ones with removable clothes, they were about the size of the star wars figures. I had a Spider-Man and Green Goblin (which were kick ass) But I also had some D.C. characters like Batman and Robin. One thing I remember is that Batman had a rubber head/cape it was all one piece, and for some reason they made it detachable... you could pop his head of and there was a little peg on top of his torso. I used to love those damn things when I was like 4. Could just be some cheap woolworths toy or something.

It wasn't the Secret Wars toys either, although those were pretty cool in and of themselves. If you happen to have a copy of Better of Dead, go to the scene where Layne is opening all of his Tv dinners... Badger is playing with a Secret Wars vehicle in the background.

Feb 18th, 2003, 07:01 PM

Why don't you just buy those? Hell, with shipping it was under $5.

Nah, as much as I loved them, I wouldn't buy them now... unless I have a son some day.

Zbu Manowar

Feb 19th, 2003, 01:01 AM

Understood. Even then you might want to wait, these were the days when a child could kill himself with a Bobo Fett toy. ;)

Cybernetico

Feb 20th, 2003, 02:43 AM

They should release a 9-11 toyset

NEVAR FORGAT

Rygo

Feb 20th, 2003, 09:26 PM

Centurions - those niggaz that would turn into robotic shit, one dude had like an airbackpack, one went under the water, one drilled into the ground to find fossilized dinosaur feces. i always wanted one of the figures, but i lived in canada :(

Rock Lords - so fucking own! own own own own own! I had the purple dino guy

Battle Beasts - awesomely awesome. one x-mas my mom got me the like 100 set, oh man that owned. They were so expensive, 2 in a package for like $8.

Food Fighters - we passed these out as party favors at a birthday of mine (when I was like 12 hah). I had the pizza (the best one) and lost the fucking red machine gun behind my bed. I was so damn bummed.

Army Ants - I totally forgot about these. They were pretty cool. Didn't they do something special? Like light up or something.

Remember that umm bionic family group? And they had a bionic ape that lived with them. Those figures were so goddamn badass, I always wanted one.

Mad Balls were cool.. didn't really make a lot of sense nor were they fun to play with. FUCK BALLS

Barnard Commandos - I remember these, they were cool, but by the time I found them I was too old for toys and disinterested.

Hahaha boglins!! i had one of these guys. He was like really squishy, and smelled like funny rubber.

Rygo

Feb 20th, 2003, 10:21 PM

anyone remember mighty max and/or mummies alive and/or ghostbusters: the next generation with the cripple ghostbuster? i used to watch those in the morning before i caught the bus for high school

Bennett

Feb 21st, 2003, 09:39 AM

C.O.P.S.
"Fighting Crime in a Future Time."

These guys always seemed kinda lame, but I always ended up watching the TV show.
In case you need a refresher, here's what I remember:
The main villain was a big fat guy named, quite originally: the Big Boss. His look was a cross between the Kingpin and Boss Hog, and his voice was a cross between James Cagney and W.C. Fields.
There was an evil scientist with a glass jar for the top of his head, through which you could see his brain.
I'm not too sure about the heroes
I think the main guy was a black dude with a trench coat, who had these giant machine guns pop out of his chest.
Anybody else remeber these guys?

also:
Silver Hawks
a.k.a. Thundercats in Space
Although these guys weren't nearly as cool as the thundercats, I always liked the villains in this serious more. I thought Mumbo Jumbo and the Buzzsaw dude were tops, and the fact that you could switch MonStar's head on the action figure was pretty cool too, although if I saw it now I would probably laugh.

Zbu Manowar

Feb 22nd, 2003, 01:10 PM

Sir, you have humbled me! I loved COPS. Especially when Bulletproof entered the series, got crushed during a car chase, then had his brain popped into an indestructable facsimile of his body that somehow was just this badass robot. And they have a few more familiar guys like the guy with the robotic dog, Longarm...and a few others that slip my mind.

The criminals sucked, however. I couldn't honestly find it in my heart to even remember some of them.

Silverhawks on the other hand ruled. Nuff said. :)

Feb 22nd, 2003, 03:30 PM

Central Organisation of Police Specialists! Rollcall: Highway! Mainframe! Longarm! Bowser and Blitz! Sundown! Hardtop! Mirage! Bullseye! Mace! Barricade! And they call me... Bulletproof.

It's imprinted on my brain. The criminals: Berserko! Rock Crusher! Miss Demeanor! Turbo Tu-Tone! Doctor Badvibes! Nightshade! And this one guy that never made it into the credits, called Boom Boom, who had guns in his chest. I watched the show a lot, but later on I started liking it less. As far as I know, there weren't any toys of it though.

I remembered another toy that was based on a cartoon about guys in mechanical bodysuits, who each had an animal emblem they could turn into. In the first episode they went into some kind of temple or something and were awarded animal powers for their bravery. I remember there being an eagle, a bear, and one guy becoming a cockroach or something for being cowardly. The toys were basically tall GI Joes, with holograms on their chest and a staff with a big hologram of an animal mask on it. Can't remember the name.

Zbu Manowar

Feb 22nd, 2003, 05:39 PM

Yup, they did. (http://www.virtualtoychest.com/copncrooks/copncrooks.html)

Through the bad guys don't really look like anything more than either '80s punk stereotypes or Dick Tracy villains that someone smushed.

Milkman Dan

Feb 27th, 2003, 10:18 PM

How about Muscle Men, those little pink plastic guys. Man, my brotherr and I used to beg my mom to buy us some every time we went to Wal Mart.

And does anyone remember Air Warriors? "The power is in the air!" There were the orange guys and the purple guys. I had some kind of plane that sorta resembled a cloud car from Empire Strikes Back with a big air bladder in the center that shot two missles when you squeezed it.

Zbu Manowar

Feb 27th, 2003, 10:40 PM

Odd this is the place you mention if anybody remembers MUSCLE. Haven't you checked the main page where Mockery renames all the little guys?

As for Air Warriors....now that strikes a memory, but I can't place it.

Milkman Dan

Feb 27th, 2003, 10:56 PM

I havent seen that thread but then I did just stumble across I-mockery yesterday while looking for info on Metal Slug 4. But I will try to be more atentive in the future.

As for Air Warriors you can find some pics on ebay.

Also Iremember some toys that I think were called Skyraiders.
All the vehicles could be atached to chairs or tables and they had strings and ribons that came out of the backs and atached to another chair or table. And they had motorized things that would crawl across the ropes. All the action figures had strings comming out of their backs with hooks.

Skulhedface

Mar 2nd, 2003, 05:00 AM

Wow, someone else remembered the Captain Power toys (If you look in the gaming post, you'll notice I pointed out how Captain Power resembles the box art for the original Mega Man)

I will mention two VERY pale imitations here:

Go-Bots and the Ghostbusters.

Go-Bots PISSED ME OFF. Blatant rip-off in the good name of Transformers, JUST TO MARKET SOME FUCKING ACTION FIGURES? But I can't talk about that, I loved He-Man :)

And the Ghostbusters. Not the ones we all know and love, but the "other" Ghostbusters. Who decided making a gorilla a Ghostbuster was a good fucking idea? What made it even worse is that the other series had to resort to calling itself "The REAL Ghostbusters" after that. Kinda lackluster, eh?

The Ghostbusters movies always owned, though.

And, unless lack of sleep has caused me to miss it otherwise, I'm damn surprised no one else mentioned the GARBAGE PAIL KIDS.

Bennett

Mar 3rd, 2003, 10:56 AM

Man, Go-bots were not a relic...
The Ghostbusters w/gorilla... I'll give you that.
Garbage Pail Kids not a toy OR a relic.

get it together, man.

Bennett

Mar 3rd, 2003, 10:58 AM

oh yeah, and that "other" ghostbusters show had a top-notch theme song:

"let's go, ghostbusters...
let's go,
let's go, let's go.

let's go, ghostbusters...
let's go,
let's go, let's go!"

Very inventive.

Skulhedface

Mar 3rd, 2003, 01:44 PM

Garbage Pail Kids not a toy OR a relic.

To each their own. I consider it a relic because well, I'm stretching the definition to mean any toy or collectible, basically anything entertainment oriented geared towards children in the 80s. By that definition you can at least partially forgive me for that.

But man, I still have a whole shoebox of that stuff. Rotting in storage now, of course...

And thinking of that theme song brought back some memories. Very inventive they were, indeed.

Loki

Mar 3rd, 2003, 11:51 PM

Bucky O'Hare....specifically the Frog Spaceschip thing.

Oh yeah how bout Toxic Crusaders?

Jeanette X

Mar 4th, 2003, 01:58 PM

She-Ra, Princess of Power!
"For the honor of Greyskull, I am SHE-RA!"

Even cooler than Xena.

Bennett

Mar 4th, 2003, 02:29 PM

Oh Jesus God Mary Sweet Bastard.
The name of the thread is "Bottom of the Toy Box: Forgotten Relics of the 80's-90's"
There is nothing Forgotten about She-Ra, There is nothing Toy Box about Garbage Pail Kids. Sweet A-pook the Destroyer, get it straight people.

Loki, Bucky O'Hare rocks the space jocks.

Jeanette X

Mar 4th, 2003, 05:53 PM

What about Jem dolls? Anyone remember those? (Hopefully Jem will be obscure enough to qualify for this thread)

Zbu Manowar

Mar 19th, 2003, 08:41 PM

I actually remember Jem because she had that cartoon that was fairly realistic...until you realized that hologram technology basically meant you could stick a hand through that mass of pink hair she had and realize it was some sort chick that, oddly, looked a lot like Jem but not as glittery.

But the thing I'll always remember about Jem is how they squeezed in those videos which were really really bad half-rock tunes and had the balls to put a video caption in the corner of the screen just to con some sucker into thinking that it was REALLY a video that you would want to watch outside of the show!! Oh yeah, the Misfits are really a band! It was really produced!! Right.

Ah, the pristine days when MTV would air just videos and be done with it.

-Gor

Aug 1st, 2003, 08:55 AM

i really want a SNISH boglin.

Bennett

Aug 1st, 2003, 10:58 AM

I really want you to run you genitals through a meat grinder very slowly.

-Gor

Aug 1st, 2003, 12:55 PM

eat battery ACId! slime!--quote IT

LeChuck

Aug 2nd, 2003, 12:12 AM

Kudos to whoever mentioned Crystar figures. Looking at a Crystar figure site, I think we had every single one, although they were just strewn about in our football-shaped toy chest so I never really knew what they were.

Not sure if they were from the 80's, but I do recall having a shitload of the "GERMS" test tube figures. And almost every figure/playset for the "other" Ghostbusters show (incl. Tracy the gorilla, the yellow skeleton, the 'Sir Lancelot' type guy, etc). I don't know if they are considered "forgotten" or "relics", but the M.A.S.K. toys were pretty cool.

To answer someone's question, Army Ants didn't really do anything (although they did have rubber asses that you could pull off).

Here's something I've been trying to remember for the longest time. There used to be these figures you could buy that were made of something like rubbery play-doh. You could kind of stretch them out and rip their limbs off, and stick them back on (or atleast try to). They had a funny smell too, similar to play-doh or something. I remember having one man that was all dark green, and some other creature (a bird or pterodactyl?) that was all dark red. This was likely from 1981 - 1982. Anyone remember these???

LeChuck

p.s. there's two TOMY wind-up toys I'm also trying to identify in a separate thread. One is a walking blue camera with a magnifying glass; the other is a walking set of red binoculars wearing blue glasses. I seem to recall them from a movie or tv show. If you have any idea what these are from, please reply in the other thread!! It's driving me insane!!

Miss Modular

Aug 2nd, 2003, 12:56 AM

Two words:

Slap. Bracelets.

Bennett

Aug 4th, 2003, 12:38 PM

Miss Mod:

http://www.i-mockery.net/viewtopic.php?t=1171

I'm feelin' you on the bracelets.

LeChuck,

I think you are thinking of MANGLORs... although I could be mistaken.

LeChuck

Aug 4th, 2003, 11:13 PM

I think you are thinking of MANGLORs... although I could be mistaken.

Thanks for the tip. The thing I'm talking about is very, very close to the same thing as the Manglors. I looked up a Manglor guide, but didn't see the two figures I remember (the dark green man and dark red bird-creature), so I guess it's not the same thing.

My older brother says he remembers the dark green man being a Swamp Thing figure. Was there any kind of Swamp Thing figure that was basically just like the Manglors?

LeChuck

p.s. I stumbled across the "Rocks & Bugs & Things" toys when looking up Manglors guides .. we definitely had a ton of those in the bottom of our (football-shaped) toy box

The Retro Kat

Aug 5th, 2003, 12:09 AM

Let me tell you...

POGO!

Bennett

Aug 5th, 2003, 08:34 AM

LeChuck,

not to push the subject, but:

http://theimaginaryworld.com/manglor3.jpg

and

http://theimaginaryworld.com/manglor5.jpg

LeChuck

Aug 5th, 2003, 10:26 PM

Thanks a bunch, I must not have been looking at a complete guide. I've been trying to remember for years what those were ..

Say, you don't happen to also know what these are, do you?
http://www.i-mockery.net/viewtopic.php?t=5121

I believe that's the last of my childhook toys I'm trying to identify (for now ..)

LeChuck

agroskaterik

Aug 14th, 2003, 12:42 AM

Let me tell you...

POGO!

POGO!

i can do tricks

HyperDingo

Aug 19th, 2003, 03:23 PM

Computer warriors..they had like everyday objects that turned into bases and stuff like soda cans and clocks. And cant forget ARMY Gear, i still have the canteen/Air craft carrier.

Sam

Aug 19th, 2003, 08:30 PM

I saw Starcom mentioned earlier. I think I almost had the whole set of those guys. Everything had magnets and either shrunk or grew. They were my favorite things ever. I remember making them have brawls on the refrigerator. Every now and then when I pick up some crap in my room I find one of those little guys. The guys who all looked the same, with different repaints and stickers. The only one who I think never had a repaint was the robot one who was on the bad guys side. I accidentally broke the leg off one of the guys, and made him "The angry cripple who doesn't need help from anyone and flies the fighter ship."

I found some Army Ants in my garage, and they all had the asses pulled off. I had a really cool tank one too. :(

Skjay

Sep 22nd, 2010, 12:42 AM

Jump ahead a few years here... The best shit of the 90s included

Those fuckin pens that did a whole bunch of shit
POGS
Yak-Bak
Those things where you pull the strings and it sends the ball back and forth between two people
Slip and Slides
Sockem Boppers
Annnd, the true reason I made this post:
Does anyone remember those things were like a collapsable plastic cup with some sort of electronical bullshit to make your voice sound distorted? What the fuck were those called?

Shadowdancer21b

Sep 22nd, 2010, 12:54 AM

I have a Dungeons and Dragons Fire Elemental toy kicking around somewhere. I also remember these toys that had glow-in-the-dark hands and swords. There were good guys and bad guys and they were basically these rubber robes with arms that were put over these hologram images. Anyone remember what those were called? Like, there would be there normal appearance and then they had a transformation. Like, a werewolf, a rabbit-man, a ghost, so on.