Episode 016: Beast Machines

It's time to get rocked with the shell-shocked pizza kings! In our second dive into the world of the Ninja Turtles, we visit the CGI New York City of 2012-2017 and feature one of the longest-running Playmates TMNT lines since the original 1980s series. One of the best iterations of green machine was also paired with a great toyline full of colorful mutants both familiar and new. So put in a pizza order and join us! Booyakasha! 

Follow along at the TMNT toys museum: https://tmnttoys.com/figures2012.html 

It's time to return to the world of G.I. Joe with a new style of episode! This week we focus in on a single character: the G.I. Joe Team's most famous heavy machine gunner and gourmet chef, Roadblock. We start with his debut in 1984, and proceed through the 90s with each version of Roadblock seen in the classic A Real American Hero toyline. So quit messin' around and check out this sound! 

Follow along at yojoe.com or 3djoes.com. 

THIS IS NOT YOUR FATHER'S AUTOBOT! The Mutagen Men return to war-torn Cybertron to discuss the age of the neon Megatron, the talking Optimus, the chrome Bumblebee, and the birth the ball joint. Transformers Generation 2 has the reputation of a lost chapter, a quickly-cancelled failure swept aside by later, better-known revivals of the 1980s toyline. Does G2 deserve this reputation? Join us as we metamorph into big bat battlin' dudicuses and find out! 

Follow along at TFwiki: https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers:_Generation_2_(toyline) 

Where does he get all those wonderful toys? In our first exploration of toys from the DC Comics universe, we visit Gotham city by way of Tim Burton, Toy Biz, and Kenner. We start with Toy Biz's abortive attempt at Batman action figures and continue into the early Kenner era with their immortal Dark Knight Collection. So load your spring-action crime-catching claw and crank up your Batmobile to blast it through a pile of styrofoam blocks!

Follow along: 

Toy Biz Batman at Figure Realm: https://www.figurerealm.com/actionfigure?action=seriesitemlist&id=296 

Kenner Dark Knight Colleciton at Figure Realm: https://www.figurerealm.com/actionfigure?action=seriesitemlist&id=715&figures=darkknightcollection 

Galoob's Z-Bots were one of the many Micro Machine-adjacent lines that took over toy aisles in the 1990s. This line featured dozens and dozens of vibrantly colorful fighting robots that featured claws, teeth, wings, guns, missiles, and nearly everything else you could imagine. We shrink ourselves down and join the war between the Z-Bots and the Voids. Join us! 

Follow along at the Micro Machines Museum: https://www.m2museum.com/Zbots/Zbots.htm 

In 1993, the Super Sentai phenomenon teleported to the U.S.A. in the form of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, transforming the landscape of children's television, and, of course, the toy aisles, forever. In today's episode we talk about how Zordon morphed our childhood in radical ways through Bandai's localized version of its long-running tokusatsu toyline. We talk Zords, Morphers, Rangers, Evil Space Aliens, and of course, Putty Patrol. Join us! 

Follow along at the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers toy guide: https://www.grnrngr.com/toys/power-rangers/mighty-morphin

Dan Larson of Secret Galaxy joins us as we time travel back to the genesis of the 1/12 scale action figure craze and revisit Toy Biz's original Marvel Legends line. Before HasLabs, before the MCU, before build-a-figures, there was a humble toyline that dared to dream of a world where super-articulated comic book icons were standard. We explore the good, the bad, and the ugly of this era. Excelsior! 

Resources: https://marveltoys.fandom.com/wiki/Marvel_Legends 

https://www.actionfigure411.com/marvel/set-list.php 

AT LAST: LEGO Space, the episode we barely kept ourselves from recording back when we first featured LEGO in episode #08! We trace the history of our favorite LEGO theme from its origins in the early 1980s and on through the early 2000s, when the theme was gradually replaced by Star Wars. We visit the various worlds we populated with Exploriens, Spirius, M-Tron, Black Tron, Futurians, Ice Planet, and much more. And dear listeners: you will at last learn the secret of the Jazz Stick. 

Follow along with us at Brickset: https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Space 

Playmates' EXO Squad was one of the premier obscure toylines of the 1990s, featuring intensely detailed mech suits with highly articulated pilot action figures and a groundbreaking tie-in animated series. Today the Mutagen Men join the EXO Fleet, jack into our E-Frames, and dive into the epic story of the human resistance against the tyrannical Neo Sapiens...an enemy of humanity's own making. Pick your E-Frame and join us in this dive into one of our favorite lines of all time! 

For further reading: https://www.exosquadarchive.com/ 

In 2013, Super7 pioneered the ReAction figure as an homage to the classic Kenner toys of the 70s and 80s. A decade later, the series includes characters from nearly every corner of pop culture and media history. In today's episode the Mutagen Men try to unravel the mystery of why these little toys stay so popular and what about them appeals to us...and what doesn't.