The Claude Rains Spoopy Hour
Toy and Action Figure Thread
- Thread starter Noideaforaname
- Start date
The Boris Karloff Spoopy Hour
It looks lke they're jackin' it.
Which could be a reference to the power-up scene in "Sonic Adventure 2" no matter how unintentional.
I didn't really give much thought to posing. I just put it in front of the camera...tried to make sure it was standing on its own, and snapped the picture .
A new age of gods and monsters!
Original Flavour vs Spicy
"I don't understand, cousin Skeletor said he would meet us here!"
"You don't think he stood us up, do you?"
If you know, you know.
If you know, you know.
I feel like I'm missing one critical piece to understand what this is getting at...
WB did Prince of Thieves and wanted to partner with Kenner again, hoping to replicate the success they both saw with Batman '89, which was just two years prior by this point.
Kenner was never one to turn down a movie tie-in, but wasn't confident in a Robin Hood movie succeeding. So they did the toyline very cheap, relying on heavy reuse. Will Scarlet was made off of the Super Powers Robin body, Robin Hood was made off of the Super Powers Green Arrow body, Little John and the Dark Warrior were both Super Powers Hawk Man reuses. Alan Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham was a Super Powers Lex Luther with a random Robo Cop villain bead. And Friar Tuck was a RotJ Gamorrean Guard. All of the vehicles and play sets were Ewok sets from RotJ.
New tooling was minimal, usually just for a new head (and the Sheriff didn't even get that much) and weapons. They invested heavily in soft goods to cover up most of the sculpting that wouldn't fit the characters.
Thing is, the movie did very well and the toyline was very successful. And Kenner stumbled into a huge hit, due to how little they actually invested into it.
Actually, Kenner had only had Batman for a year prior to Robin Hood. Toy Biz actually snapped up a DC license for 1989, and did a completely serviceable product line in 1989. I think Kenner ended up poaching the Batman license from Toy Biz by managing to convince WB that the brand was more lucrative than what Toy Biz was supporting (And was proved correct, The Dark Knight Collection was planned to run into 1992 until the sequel came out and Kenner rejiggered their product range to support the film that year).
I've always heard that WB took the DC licence back from ToyBiz because they found their initial offerings to be far below a standard in quality they were happy with.
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Eh, who knows anymore. Either way, Kenner got Batman in 1990 and leveraged the man and his wonderful toys into a goldmine and a relationship that would last the rest of the decade.
Clearly, but ToyBiz's DC/Batman offerings were such a flash in the pan I have to think that there was more going on there than Kenner just putting together a better pitch. Clearly someone at WB wasn't happy with ToyBiz's output. That ToyBiz's DC stuff ranges from "I guess it's about on par with Super Powers" to "this looks like the Super Powers version melted," I'm inclined to believe that story.
As far as Prince of Thieves goes though, it's just a very funny confluence of events. While that toyline probably didn't do Batman numbers, it was successful enough. And Kenner probably made more than they would have normally due to how much reuse they relied on. Falling ass backwards into cash.
And there's a certain charm in all the soft goods in the line, IMO. It's only recently that we've started to see anything close to that level of soft goods coming back to the action figure space. Mostly though imports, but Mattel's various MotU and WWE lines have used soft goods effectively, and McFarlane and NECA have really embraced them on certain releases.
Hasbro, which inherited all of that Kenner legacy, is ironically holding out the firmest. They won't give a superhero figure a cloth cape unless it's behind a $50+ premium label like Maximum.
Yep...
(Don't mind me, just rolling along until I find the missing piece of the puzzle for me...)
Mm-hmm...
Okay, so I think my problem here is the context of the picture itself, minus the logos.
Though, I guess from what's said here, I can surmise well enough that maybe it doesn't matter. RHPoT is confident, Kenner not so much.
Come to think of it, I don't know if I ever knew they lacked faith. I thought they were just being cheap.
Yeah, okay, I get it now.
Somehow, KB Toys has returned?
www.toyark.com
There really isn’t enough information on who or what has actually got around to some sort of KB Toys revival.
Edit: Apparently it’s Icon Heroes
www.iconheroes.com
SDCC 2026 Skeletron at the KB Toys Booth - The Toyark - News
www.toyark.com
There really isn’t enough information on who or what has actually got around to some sort of KB Toys revival.
Edit: Apparently it’s Icon Heroes
San Diego Comic Con 2026
SDCC Exclusives Now Available! San Diego Comic-Con 2026 may be over, but you can still bring home our convention exclusives while supplies last. If you weren't able to visit our booth—or want to add more to your collection—now's your chance. Our SDCC lineup includes the Ringmassster Action...
www.iconheroes.com