10 Monster Toys That Need to Make a Return!
John Squires
|
We now return to the 80s, already in progress…
THE SUPER NATURALS
No doubt the least appreciated toy I’ve mentioned in this post, The Super Naturals were released in 1987 by a company mostly known for its toy trucks: Tonka. Comprised of only fourteen figures, the concept of The Super Naturals was that the characters were ghosts, with half of them forming The Forces of Good and the other half The Forces of Evil. Story goes that the ghosts were unleashed from the Tomb of Doom, where they were contained for centuries, and now they want to fight and stuff. Six of the fourteen figures were characters like a Native American and a Snake Man, while the other eight were straight-up ghosts, all looking very much the same, aside from different colored cloaks.
One of the more original toy concepts to come out of the 80s, each figure was essentially a plastic shell, with a hologram inside the chest that brought the various characters to life. As if that wasn’t awesome enough, each character’s hologram changed when turned into the light, a human ghost becoming a full-on monster, for example.
Even by today’s standards, The Super Naturals are still highly impressive and incredibly cool, and with supernatural creatures being so popular and hip at the moment, I can think of no better time for these holographic ghosts to return.
MONSTER IN MY POCKET
Of all the toys on the list, the ones I have the fondest childhood memories of are these tiny rubber monsters based on mythical creatures that fit nicely right inside your pocket. Thus the name, Monster in My Pocket. Singular. Not plural.
Originally released by Matchbox in 1990, the Monster in My Pocket line included over 200 figures in total, as well as a whole host of product tie-ins, including everything from a board game to trading cards. Brightly colored and impressively detailed, each character was assigned a point value. I still have no idea what the point of those points were, but for me, none of that mattered. I just enjoyed carrying around my little monster friends and, when I got older, using them as diving toys in the little above-ground pool I begged for until my dad finally caved in. I’m pretty sure you’ll still find a few of the little guys out there in my parents’ yard, a result of many a behind-the-back toss that didn’t quite make it into the water. I threw like a girl back then. Still do, in fact.
The Monster in My Pocket line returned once in 2003 and again in 2006, but though a pretty cool little official website still stands tall on the internet, the pocket monsters are at the moment not being produced. Like I mentioned earlier, kids seem to be getting back into monsters like the kids from the 80s were, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the line make yet another return sometime in the near future. The mythical creature concept is totally timeless, and I think the kids of today could use the fun history lesson that Monster in My Pocket provided. Because a kid who’s not familiar with the ins and outs of Baba Yaga is a kid who’s surely not going far in life.
So… what horror-themed toys from the past do YOU miss most? Leave a comment below and let us know!
Categorized:Last Toys on the Left Lists News
