When you’re a kid you don’t care who is making the cool toys, you just play with them and love them. As I am older now I can’t believe how much I loved Kenner. They sold the best stuff! They were a small Cincinnati company that made Play Doh and Easy Bake Ovens. They came into popularity when they claimed the license to make toys based on a little sci fi movie in 1977 that no one else wanted. But we’ll get back to that. I had tons of there stuff. For instance one of my favorite toys ever (that I wish I still had) was a talking Knight Rider car. Guess who made that?
But that’s not all, here are the five best toy lines from Kenner that I loved as a kid.
#5.M.A.S.K.
Last year I mentioned the TV show and how it was pretty cool, even if it’s been forgotten these days. Usually its the show that get us into the toys but here it was the opposite. The vehicles were the best, being combination vehicles, two in one. For instance my favorite was Condor, a motorcycle which could also be a helicopter. Or Thunderhawk which was a red Chevrolet Camaro, which can transform into a gull-winged fighter jet. And while I never really understood what the Mask’s were supposed to do, they made the otherwise boring action figures look pretty darn cool.
#4.Real Ghostbusters
I said before I wasn’t sure if I had these toys, and I’m still not, but that doesn’t mean I can’t admire the work put into them. Kenner really knew how to make their toys creative enough to stand out, even if the cartoon didn’t. Fortunately unlike MASK, the Real Ghostbusters cartoon was successful so the toys were an even bigger hit. They had some very creative ghost designs and of course, Ecto 1! Since there was only one movie designers had to be really creative to take full advantage of the toy line. And they did! Why didn’t I have a proton pack growing up?
#3.Care Bears
I have a deep dark secret to reveal. And I am sorry to say this, but the truth is I loved care bears. I never really watched the shows or the cartoons but I had a soft spot for the stuffed animals. They were cute! I especially loved the cousins. No I didn’t really have them myself or anything, but thanks to my baby sister I was exposed to a few of them. But I didn’t hate them because they were “girlie toys”. I had “My Little Pony”, “Jem”, and “Strawberry Shortcake” for that. They were lovable little stuffed toys and I had no issue with them. There were also opposable figures and I am not sure if I had those or not. Care Bears rule.
#2.Super Powers
I adored these. These figures, and the Superfriends cartoon, is what got me into comic books. These figures were so well done! For the time anyway. The gimmick with these was that if pressed one part of the figure something would happen. For instance, push Flash arms together his feet moved. Push Superman’s feet together he actually punched. Green Lantern’s ring hand would extend, etc etc. Kenner was smart in giving figures gimmicks like that. I loved them and yes even had a Hall of Justice play set. And a Super Mobile which was a lame idea from the comics, but they made it a toy anyway. The other awesome was thing they took the idea from He-Man figures and every figure had a mini comic inside. Which were pretty good! Yes there was a Marvel line called “Secret Wars” but that’s another story. Except for the fact the capes would come off and vanish off he caped heroes, these figures were a lot of fun.
#1.Star Wars
Yep, the reason these other toys exist is because Kenner got the license to Star Wars and ran with it. Can you believe no one else wanted it?? To this day when I see the movies I am reminded of the toys I had, and they made a toy out of EVERYTHING. Seriously anyone or anything that appeared on screen got a toy! I totally had little red droid from the first movie (did it have a name?), a Jabba the Hut set, Millennium Falcon, and a Cloud City vehicle with its own “Han Solo frozen in Carbonite” figure. Yep. And I’ve told the story a hundred tines about how after Empire came out they created a C3PO where the limbs could be removed (and how they come off involuntarily and i can still hear that clanging noise they made when they hit the table),. In fact a lot of toys I owned I had no clue who they were until I went back and saw the movie. For instance who is this guy…
Oh, that’s right. That Bounty Hinter in Empire who appears for a second and has NO LINES. What was his name? IDK but I totally had the figure! I even had a TaunTaun (I never did figure out what the opening was for). I had a Chewbacca I lost, and you better believe I had the Vader carry case. My favorite I think was the die cast X-Wing Fighter, man did I love playing with that! Even if the Luke inside was so small they couldn’t even bother to color him. I didn’t care I loved it! I was never the biggest fan of the Star Wars movies as a kid, but man the toys sure do have a special place in my heart.
There have been more toy lines of course including RoboCop, Aliens, Jurassic Park and a ton from the 90’s Burton Batman movies but I wasn’t buying action figures by that point. And after Hasbro acquired them Kenner pretty much vanished. But I loved the figures, vehicles, and playsets I did buy (or should I say, were bought for me). Even if I didn’t know it until I was an adult, Kenner was a big part of my childhood.
Did I miss your favorite? Comment and let me know. For more information NETFLIX has a wonderful series about where the toys we grew up with came from. I highly recommend it.
No comments:
Post a Comment