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scythemantis — Action figure concept
Published: 2009-02-28 18:59:52 +0000 UTC; Views: 3835; Favourites: 46; Downloads: 58
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After doing an article on my site about the 90's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy line [link] and seeing a lot of Peter Laird's original action figure concepts, ( [link] [link] [link] ) I couldn't help but imagine how I'd pitch one of my own.You'll notice Laird's designs were usually realistic in tone, but during the late 80's and early 90's, Playmates applied its own colorful, crazy cartoon style to almost all of its action figure lines. "Toxic Crusaders" were another done up almost exactly like the turtles figures: [link]
Other companies simply imitated this scale and style, with figure lins like the Cowboys of Moo Mesa [link] (though to be fair, this was designed by an associate of the TMNT team) and the short lived but pretty freaking awesome "Creepy Crawlers" figure tie in [link]
I've always missed this style of toy. I'd love to see a resurgence of stuff this outrageous, but most toys and cartoons take themselves too seriously these days.
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Comments: 41
This would definitely fit the Playmates toy lines of the 80's and 90's.
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Aha his tongues reminds me of the dog from toxic crusaders, still got all those toys.
This is brilliant, id buy this if i seen it in a shop.
Great stuff
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That is insainely awesome! I would defenetely buy that
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I have a toxie and a radiation ranger, but with no accessories (the latter looks way better with hoses)...in the cartoon show, Dr. Killemoff is a giant alien insect under a human mask! Too bad the figure didn't give him a transforming head, or something.
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That annoyed me about the cartoon when I was a kid (I had his figure before the show premiered). I didn't think there was any point for him to have an ugly alien face and wear a mask that's also an ugly alien face. He also took his breath mask off when he revealed his face, which made it look like that didn't serve a purpose either. Maybe the makers didn't think it was a good idea either, since after the pilot his true face was never seen or mentioned. Wow, I'm such a nerd.
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I do seem to recall, however, that one of the final eps featured some other members of his race visiting
I saw it on someone's DVD copy a couple years ago, having missed out on it when I was a kid. Lots of Troma's typical weird humor leaks through, and the DVD has a pretty funny into by their president.
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Interesting. I don't remember seeing any Smogulans besides Killemoff and that hologram he talked to. But then I haven't seen the show since 1992 (not counting the opening credits on YouTube).
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They had thin skeleton-like bodies if I remember, with cockroach wings. They would've made great figures
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Awesome!
You really should do more designs like this, maybe creating a toyline concept out of it.
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I might, though so far the other characters I tried to come up with have wound up as future Mortasheen ideas instead, lol.
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Well, I thought that maybe a mutant almaglam of all thsoe deep-sea fangly fishes you mentioned on your website would be a perfect idea for a figure. I also had an idea for a salmander, constantly covered in fire and a jellyfish-mutant (Like Sting Of Death, only less retarded and more jellyfish-like).
Ya think those ideas are good?
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Nice idea, it fits in well with the early 90's vibe. The doghouse hat is easily my favorite bit but the skeleton club is a nice feature too.
Also that bionic snake looks sweet.
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Cool figure, and definitely in the spirit of the toys! The accessories and sidekick are creative and also go alone with the conventions of the real toys.
I was surprised to see this here, since I remember you saying you weren't very into the Ninja Turtles figures.
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Really? I was totally one of the "turtle kids," as into them as anyone else during that era. First it was Ghostbusters, then Turtles, then Power Rangers. I was just more interested in the villains and monsters than any of the heroes
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Okay, what you said was "Yep, those four (well, five) plus Baxter and Scumbug were probably all I was into Turtles for as a kid." I interpreted that as meaning you didn't really like the show/franchise but bought the toys of those villains because they looked cool.
B.T.W. it was like that with me, only with Toxic Crusaders, Batman, and X-Men between Turtles and Power Rangers.
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Well, hence the "probably"...they were what attracted me to it, and I watched religiously more to see what Krang or possibly Baxter would be up to next
Of course, I also had a thing for April and Irma...
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Oh. I see now.
I always felt Baxter got a bum rap. I mean, he was a pretty sympathetic antagonist, but he was always getting the short end of the stick.
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Yeah, as a human he wasn't even evil. As a fly he was just insane. In his last couple episodes he started losing his human memories and just craving sugar
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I love this concept-- if I ever saw anything like this in a store, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
Man, this is how toys should be. You're right about cartoon shows taking themselves too seriously, and these days it seems like there's no middle ground between "fun to play with" and "cool to look at".
My favorite part here is the "action tongue"-- I used to have a plastic frog with one of those, and I still remember just how much fun it was to flick repeatedly into someone else's face.
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I'd buy this action figure if it ever became real 
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Okay, that dead dog made me laugh a lot harder than a dead dog really should make ANYONE laugh.
The 'disguise' makes me think of this old cartoon about a dog who always wore a tiny doghouse on his head because he was so ugly his face made things explode. Really. Can't remember the name.
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Mighty Man & Yukk!!! I couldn't believe that concept actually made a show. I only watched it because it was part of the Plastic Man Hour, and Plastic Man was badass.
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I was always partial to Sectars and Rock & Bug & Thing.
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That's because cartoons are SERIOUS BUSINESS.
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hahah awesome toy, it has a story of its own.
wow creepy crawlers, i still have my oven for that, i cant seem to find the molds though
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That snake design is awesome! Thanks for sharing!~
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It's such a shame it was rejected. The world NEEDS an action figure of a snake with a robot suit!
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Remember Klang from Tale Spin?
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Okay, so at least 3 people immediately associated that snake guy with the guy from Tailspin. We may have an explanation for why the figure wasn't produced: they didn't want it to look like they were ripping off Disney.
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I hadn't even noticed that someone beat me to it!
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Yeah.
I think the closest I have seen to something similar in a cartoon would be the snake character in the "Tail Spin" cartoon, but I don't know if they ever made a toy of that character.
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I remember him! He was called Klang. I thought he was incredibly cool. And now I see he was voiced by Tim Curry.
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I thought he was cool too. I thought he was a lizard at first but when I realized he was a snake, little-kid-me was like, "that's f***ing cool!"
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Yeah, he was probably the neatest character that show had, and they never brought him back. Of course it was a Disney Afternoon cartoon about a bear bush pilot, so having badass characters probably wasn't a high priority.
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