I’m doing a bit of toy archaeology these days – Trying to remember what toys I had back in the day, identify them, and maybe get some carded examples. Obviously the well known toys, like G.I. Joe, Masters of the Universe, Transformers, are very popular, but I’m talking those obscure toy lines. Those that people will go “huh?” when you talk about them.
A toy line I had as a kid that’s slightly under the radar these days is Battle Beasts. They were these tiny animal/robot guys with a rub symbol on their chest (much like Transformers). Battle Beasts had the whole “fire beats wood beats water beats fire” thing going on. And I believe they came packed in pairs. I had a lion and a rabbit at least. I have yet to look further into this line, but it’s on my list to do. I always liked the compact feel of these toys.
Diamond Select Toys/Art Asylum actually has the license for Battle Beasts. They’ve released a couple so far as
, but have no plans yet for a retail release because they ‘want to make sure we do it right’. They had some samples on display at SDCC 2010 and they looked pretty great.
Among toy collectors, it’s not really unknown, but it’s definitely not well known either. And they have yet to re-make them, like so many other 80s toys.
I had a Super Naturals figure growing up, and no one else I knew had any. I picked up three more at a toy show a few months ago. Not my favorite, but one of the more obscure. I have tons of Battle Beast, MUSCLE and a bunch of others, but just had the one Super Naturals until recently. I was also a huge fan of Z-Bots when I was a kid.
What are your hidden toy gems?