14 Times Toy Companies Reused Vehicles Pt.1

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Growing up and getting an action figure vehicle for your birthday or for Christmas was one of the best things in the world. Those vehicles would bring so much action to your imagination and play, and we used them with all of our toy lines. But when those toy lines came and went, toy companies didn't necessarily want to spend the money and make new vehicles. But sometimes they would reuse and recycle those older action figure vehicles and package it up into a newer toy line. That's what we're talking about on this episode are 14 times toy companies reused an action figure vehicle for a completely different line. Welcome back guys, it's Thomas. And today we are talking about reused vehicles. Modern toy collectors, we complain all the time when a figure is reused from the same buck and they use that mold over and over again. But we have to remember that was kinda part of the course for toy companies to do. Now some things will get a pass. We know companies like Hasbro reused different vehicle molds like the Hiss Tank, which later became the Septic Tank. We are specifically going to talk about action figure vehicles that were used for one toy line and then were repackaged, recolored, and used for an entirely different one. So let's kick off this list of 14 action figure vehicles that were reused and recycled. In 1985, the Kenner Star Wars line was winding down, but we did get some gems in terms of action figures, play sets, and vehicles. Now we have talked about the Ewok village that was later repurposed for a different line, but that wasn't the only thing that was reused for that future line. First, looking at the Ewok Battle Wagon, I think this one is so cool. It has a battering ram, it's on wheels, you can take the side pieces off and make a fort, but probably one of the coolest things is that it comes with a Bantha skull on top. This was so awesome, and when it was made a couple years later, I think it took away some of those special things that made it Star Wars, but it was repackaged for the Robin Hood Prince of Thieves action figure line. A whole six years later, Kenner released the Robin Hood Prince of Thieves Battle Wagon in 1991. In 1991, I was four, so I missed out on the Ewok Battle Wagon. I didn't even know it existed until years later, but this was my version of the Battle Wagon, and while it did not have the Bantha skull on top, it did come with an awesome catapult that you can launch boulders from. But when you think about it, six years later, those same kids that were probably playing with those early Star Wars figures, they're probably not playing with toys anymore. So the toy company, they just said, let's repackage this and repurpose it. It made a lot of sense. And in hindsight, if I'm looking at both next to each other, even though I had the Robin Hood Battle Wagon, looking at the Ewok one, that one probably would have been way cooler to have. In 1994, a company called Toy Island was making Robocop figures in line with the new series, and they released two Hummer-style vehicles for that Robocop toy line. There was the standard gray tactical command vehicle, then there was also a tactical field ambulance. So there was some reuse within the line, and the ambulance was a little different. It had a part that covered the back, but Toy Island reused this vehicle at least two more times. We've discussed the Mortal Kombat line by Toy Island previously, but bringing it up again in context to reuse vehicles, that H1 tactical command vehicle was also used for Mortal Kombat. And why did Mortal Kombat get a Hummer? I don't know, but it actually was pretty cool. This one was decoed out with flames and it was remote control, but it also came with an exclusive figure of Jack, so that would have been pretty awesome to mix in with your other figures. And of course it had the Mortal Kombat logo on the side. But in 1997, Toy Island used this Hummer mold at least one more time, and that was for a Rambo toy line. Now the strange thing about this one, Rambo, the force of freedom that came out in the 80s, those toys were long gone, and there was actually no media, no cartoon, no movie coming out, but they just released a line of Rambo figures, and we got a Hummer. This is the same exact Hummer vehicle that you got with Robocop and with Mortal Kombat. This one had more of a camo style painted on it, it had some noises and sounds. Of the three, which one would have been my favorite? While I think the Mortal Kombat one with the flames was a little more appealing to kids, I think it would have been really cool just to have a standard Hummer vehicle from the Rambo or Robocop line, but I'd mix in the remote control part from the Mortal Kombat release. To coincide with the movie, in 1994, Kenner released a line of toys for the Shadow. I only had two Shadow figures. I had him in his normal costume, and then I had the one in disguise, where it was him unmasked. That would double as my James Bond figure, but they made awesome vehicles for this toy line. The Mirage SX100 was this really cool classic car. It was really long, like a DeVille, and it shot missiles from where the hood ornament would be. And then they released a different version of that, the Thunder Cab, which didn't look completely the same. It had a really unique paint job, but they did share some parts. Fast forward to 1996, Kenner was working on Disney's Gargoyle toy line, and they reused the Mirage SX100. The XI-44 Roadster was the vehicle for Xanatos, and the vehicle actually came packaged with a figure of Xanatos. I know you got one of him in his Gargoyle disguise, but this was just him dressed down, and he fit inside this vehicle. Now, it's the same exact vehicle, however, it's painted this candy apple red. It is a really sleek, pretty-looking vehicle, but of the three, the Mirage, the Thunder Cab, or the Roadster for Gargoyle, I'm going to pick the Mirage as my favorite. Just anything black and old-school looking like that Mirage vehicle looks super awesome. Going back to RoboCop, with the original Ultra Police toy line, there was the RoboCycle. Kenner released this in 1988, and it fit your standard five-point-of-articulation figure. I always thought it was funny because all those figures had straight legs, so instead of having their legs bent like on a normal motorcycle, they would all have their legs kick back, so it was all kind of goofy. This motorcycle was fun. It had vac metal blue and some white paint on it, some red missiles, but this was not the version of the motorcycle that I had. But in 1989, Toy Biz released a version of this motorcycle for Batman. Now, this was the one I had, and I'll admit, this one is my favorite. Just the all black. It had bat wings that popped up. It was so much fun. It still had that same goofy type of feature because the figures were similar. They were straight legs, so they just kind of looked like they were gliding off the motorcycle. Kenner did release their own bat cycle in 1990. However, this one did look a little different, so there's a little more uniqueness to that one. But the Toy Biz bat cycle, that's my favorite of the ones released, and it just happened to be the one that I had. In 1988, Kenner released a toy line for the Silverhawks. Now, I didn't have any of these figures, but I remember seeing them at my cousin's house, and I always wondered what were those cool vac metal action figures. And they did make some pretty sweet vehicles for these guys. Now, the Sprint Hawk was a smaller aerial vehicle, and it was super cool. It had retractable wings. It had a red cockpit. I always thought that was super awesome. And then it had a missile that shot up from the front. I don't know if this was in the cartoon, so it might have been more accurate to Silverhawks, but it was used just a couple of years later in a different toy line. In 1991, Kenner repurposed the Sprint Hawk for their Batman line, calling it the Bat Jet. Pretty much the same vehicle, except it was all black. It had a tinted canopy. It shot stuff from the front, and it had two Batman logos on the side. I think this is pretty similar to Star Wars vehicles when they would do the mini rigs. I guess in the Batman universe, you always saw them with the Batwing, and this Bat Jet was just a version of the Batwing, but smaller. So parents on a budget probably would have bought that over the Batwing. But it was recycled from the Sprint Hawk, and if I had to pick a favorite from the two, even though I didn't have it, I'm going to say the Sprint Hawk beats out the Bat Jet. And the last of the reused vehicles goes to 1988's Playmates Pizza Thrower for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We had the Pizza Thrower. This might have been our second favorite vehicle, aside from the party wagon. It was motorized. It shot out the little pizza disc. We had so much fun with this. This came out in 1988, so you can imagine a lot of those kids playing with the Pizza Thrower. You know, they're already in high school. They're not playing with toys anymore. So Sneaky Playmates went and repackaged this for a different toy line. And a weird toy line at that. It was released for the 2000s movie Chicken Run, which I'm not sure how many kids wanted Chicken Run action figures. The only thing I remember about that movie is Burger King did a promotion. But this was released as Mr. Tweety's Chicken Pie Thrower. It's virtually the same exact vehicle. Instead of painted green, it's painted silver, blue, and red. And Mr. Tweety sat on top and you can shoot pies at the chickens. But Playmates did want to reuse this before the Chicken Run movie. And that is with the 1995 Earthworm Jim line. An unreleased version of the Worm Thrower would have come out for the Earthworm Jim action figure line. Unfortunately, it never made it to market. You can see it in catalog pages today. But it was still the same exact thing as the Pizza Thrower, except it shot Worm Discs. It had a different color scheme. It had different sticker packages. So again, if you were a kid playing with that 1988 Pizza Thrower and collecting Earthworm Jim figures, you might have noticed it. But it was probably for a different generation that wouldn't have known anything about the Pizza Thrower. So of the three, which one is my favorite bias? I'm going to have to say the TMNT Pizza Thrower. However, the Earthworm Jim one would have been pretty cool to have. All right, guys, that does it for this list of 14 action figure vehicles that were reused and recycled. Before you say I forgot some, there's more coming next week. We're going to continue this topic because there's at least 13 more that I have on a list. However, it's not all of them. So we'll get to more next week and hope you enjoyed looking back at some of these action figure vehicles. Did you have any of them? Did you have both versions of some of these action figure vehicles? Let me know down in the comments. If you enjoyed, don't forget to hit like and subscribe. I truly appreciate it. Until the next episode, we'll catch you next time. [00:11:09] Speaker ?: We'll see you next time.