10 Monster Toys That Need to Make a Return!
MADBALLS
Around the same time My Pet Monster was unleashed, Amtoy hit another monster-sized home run with the Madballs, little squishy balls with attitude. Each ball was given its own personality and name, and the original cast of characters ranged from a giant eyeball, named Oculus Orbus, to a particularly vile creature with his brain fully exposed, who originally went under the name Crack Head but was later re-named Bash Brain. Because even gross-out 80s toys have to be somewhat PC.
The Madballs line quickly expanded beyond the original foam balls, including the official Madballs vehicle, the Rollercycle, and even action figure bodies for the balls. There was also a video game, a cartoon series and a line of comic books, making Madballs one of the many 80s toy lines that spawned other forms of media, rather than vice versa. Ah, the good old days. When toys ruled the world.
After an extended period of time without the Madballs in our lives, they returned for a brief revival in 2006, which included re-releases of the original balls as well as the brand new ‘SICK Series’ – modern-day upgrades of the original characters that had gooey slimy grossness encased inside each ball, which would pop out when the balls were squeezed. Just typing that line makes my man parts hurt.
Though no official announcement has been made about the Madballs making another return, the past has taught us that you can never keep a good ball down, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see them rolling around on toy shelves again someday. In fact, from what I’ve been told by sources I cannot reveal, their return may be sooner than we think!
MAXx FX
The idea for the MAXx FX line was a brilliant one, one that unfortunately Matchbox didn’t quite appreciate. The brainchild of master toymaker Mel Birnkrant, the concept for the line was to allow budding makeup effects artists to get their Tom Savini on in their own home by turning an ordinary looking human toy into a monster, just like their heroes were doing in the pages of Fangoria magazine at the time. Max Miracle was the actor underneath the rubber suit, if you will, a GI Joe-looking doll that came packaged with different appliances, which could be placed onto his body to turn him into horror icons like Freddy, Jason and even a Xenomorph.
Matchbox loved Birnkrant’s idea but ultimately ended up doing away with the line, only releasing the Freddy MAXx FX doll – a cheaply produced toy that was a sort of half-assed version of Birnkrant’s original idea. Shame, because Birnkrant was really on to something with the line; he even sketched out prototypes for a ‘Special FX Theater’ playset, which would allow kids to make their own movies with their handmade monsters. Yea, you were totally right, Matchbox. No kid of the 80s would’ve wanted that! Sigh.
Would absolutely love to see Birnkrant given the chance to bring Max back to life in all his glory, even if he nowadays would probably come packaged with one of those motion capture suits, rather than actual monster appliances. The times they have a’changed!
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