Mutagen Men Toycast

Welcome aboard the LMS Explorer! Today we discuss one of the most beloved Lego themes of all time: Rock Raiders! Released in 1999 as one of the last classic space themes, the line featured a team of gritty space adventurers mining for energy crystals on alien worlds. Despite being a short-lived theme with only a few sets, the line's clear vision and extensive tie-in media has granted it enduring p...

Action Masters! Perhaps the most infamous gimmick in Transformers history, the year 1990 brought a line of Transformers...that didn't transform! Preceding the cancellation of the venerable toyline in the United States, these G.I. Joe-sized Autobots and Decepticons were highly articulated and came with transforming accessories, companions, and vehicles. Action Masters' relationship with the near de...

Revelation! Revolution! New Eternia! And more! In the early 2020s Mattel launched its first-ever mass-retail collector-oriented, highly articulated line of action figures based on the beloved Masters of the Universe property. Starting out as a tie-in with the concurrent Netflix "Revelation" animated series, the line spread into many corners of the MOTU mythology, even expanding into new storylines...

In 1997, Hasbro for the first time revived their beloved 1980s reboot of G.I. Joe for its 15th anniversary...and all hell broke loose! Well, kind of. The 1997-1998 revival of the Joe team and their rambunctious rivals, Cobra, saw the O-ring figures make a brief return (and only in Toys "R" Us). Many of the choices made with this revival live in infamy to this day - from the legendary Pimp Daddy De...

It's time for more micro-playset mayhem! What if you could play with an entire planet? Well, in 1998 Trendmasters attempted to answer that question with their line of battling cosmic bodies, known north of the border and on television as Shadow Raiders. Each themed fortress planet and moon was equipped with a full regiment of tiny alien soldiers and rocket-launching military hardware, which they n...

It's 2026 and O-rings are back! After years of producing action figures that use classic Kenner-style 5 points of articulation, Super7's ReAction Figures line has evolved. No longer constrained to simple standing poses, ReAction Figures now move like G.I. Joe. We explore Super7's treatment of Hasbro's army action dolls, which has seen adaptations of characters from the original cartoon and comic,...

Is it gambling, or is it toys? Are they still Transformers if they don't transform? And what the heck is a blokee, anyway? In today's episode we unravel the mysteries of the mini-model mania gripping the world of licensed action figures in the 2020s, diving deep into the world of China's Blokees brand, from Transformers to Mega Man to...Hatsune Miku? So buy a case or a blind-box and build some cur...

Our 50th episode! Today we bring back the ever-popular Jake Setzke, the Funny Prince himself, to talk about five of our favorite toys from each of our collections. From Transformers to Masters of the Universe to Exosquad and beyond, this special extra-long episode covers nearly every corner of the action figure universe. Join us

Launch all Valkyries! In this week's episode of Mutagen Men we climb aboard the SDF-1 to face down the Zentraedi and the other marauding aliens facing the world of Robotech, which featured a mashup of three different classic mecha anime TV series. Airing in the 1980s and later on Toonami in the 90s, the show was a gateway into the wider world of mech anime and featured a landmark toyline from Matc...

Build, customize, and mobilize! In today's Mutagen Men we travel to the distant Planet Zi, a world of mechanical life-forms known as Zoids, machine-like animals modified into piloted war machines. Dating back to the 1980s, Tomy and other companies have been producing Zoids model kits near constantly in the decades between, including several forays into North America. These model kits feature intri...

Welcome back to the world of indie toys! In today's return to the boundless rabbit hole of the Glyos System Series, we explore one of its largest realms: SpyMonkey Creation's Battle Tribes, and its spin-off series, ManOrMonster Studio's Warlords of Wor. These lines feature miniature fantasy and sci-fi figures taking heavy inspiration from Masters of the Universe and pro wrestling toylines, with ev...

Mattel's Masters of the Universe toyline is full of colorful characters with fantastic powers and incredible action features. One of the oldest is Teela, the warrior goddess, sorceress, barbarian warrior, and only female figure in the first wave of toys. Teela appears in nearly every iteration of Masters of the Universe, her snake staff ready to fight back the hordes of Skeletor. In today's episod...

Micro size has the power to surprise! Today we journey to the twilight years of Hasbro's classic Transformers toyline, when Hasbro was struggling to boost a waning audience with lots of new ideas. In 1989, one of those new ideas was Micromasters: a subline of tiny Transformers scaled to compete with Galoob's Micro Machines. We explore the patrols, the squads, the battle stations, the combiner tran...

Get equipped with mutagen! It's time for another look into the history of video game tie-in toylines, now featuring everyone's favorite super fighting robot, the blue bomber himself: Mega Man. We discuss our personal histories with this long-running game series and dive into several toylines depicting Mega Man and his endless battle against Dr. Wily and his army of themed robot masters. 

Strap in and journey with us to the year 2009 when Paramount and Hasbro released the first of several barely-remembered live-action G.I. Joe films: The Rise of Cobra! While the movie is perhaps best left in 2009, the accompanying toyline remains one of the best of the property's long and storied history, and may also represent the last time G.I. Joe had relevance as a property marketed primarily t...

One of the biggest blockbusters of the 1990s, Jurassic Park was a media extravaganza, featuring tie-in comics, games, and of course, toys. The classic Kenner JP line is deservedly beloved, featuring four-inch renditions of the famous movie characters as well as a legion of articulated dinosaur figures packed with action features like DINO DAMAGE. Today we get out our trowels and dig up the bones o...

By popular demand, we're kicking off season three with one of the greatest toylines of the 1990s: MIGHTY MAX! Billed as "Polly Pocket for boys," Mighty Max featured tiny, palm-sized playsets called "DOOM ZONES" filled with all manner of monsters, robots, demons, and aliens. Highly inventive, filled with color, often imitated but never surpassed: join us to find out why Mighty Max captured our imag...

Have you ever burnt out on a hobby? Rising prices, completionism, fandom drama, and other factors can wear down the fun factor of the hobbies we love. In the final episode of Mutagen Men Season 2, we discuss times we've burnt out on our hobbies, how it happened, how we recovered, and how we take steps to avoid it. Join us!

We return to one of our earlier topics: the Uncanny X-Men! We dive back into the Toy Biz and Marvel Legends world to discuss the X-Men movies, X-Men '97, X-Force, and the many, many action figures that spun out of these beloved properties. Join us for a discussion of Marvelous proportions! Excelsior!

"Conquest is made of the ashes of one's enemies!" Who said it? That's right, Starscream, the original Decepticon air commander and one of the most famous and popular Transformers of all time. Today we explore the early history of Megatron's screechy lieutenant and several of the toys that represent him through the 1980s and 1990s. Join us and follow along at TFwiki: https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Starscr...

SEND IN THE MARINES! It's time to head back into space and explore another R-Rated film franchise with a bestselling children's toyline from the 20th century! This time, we explore Kenner's beloved Aliens toyline of the early 1990s, which featured a menagerie of xenomorph designs original to the line as well as space marine figures, playsets, vehicles, and, of course, goo. We discuss our childhood...

Mighty Robots, Mighty Vehicles! In today's episode we explore GoBots, one of the most famous competitors to Transformers in the 1980s. Though it was often treated as a knock-off of Hasbro's famous and long-lived toyline, GoBots arrived first. We discuss what gives this line its reputation and whether it really deserves while visiting many of our favorite residents of Gobotron along the way. Join u...

Today, the Mutagen Men seek strange new worlds on the edge of settled space! Welcome back to the 1990s, where toy aisles were overflowing with Kirks, Spocks, Picards, Borgs, Ferenghi, and many more 5" citizens of the galaxy, all competing for space in your toy collection. We beam ourselves up to the Captains' Couch to discuss the highs and lows of Playmates' trailblazing Star Trek series, one of t...

NEXT TIME ON DRAGON BALL Z: The Z fighters are faced with their greatest challenge yet - finding good action figures of themselves! Join us as we talk about one of the most legendary manga and anime series of all time, and its rocky road to producing articulated toys of Goku, Vegeta, Frieza, Cell, and the rest of your favorite Saiyans and their adversaries. We talk Toonami, Irwin, SH Figuarts, Dra...

Welcome to Micro-Earth! In today's episode we journey back to 1975 to explore one of the greatest Japanese toylines in history: MICROMAN. We explore the tangled, interconnected pathways of G.I. Joe, Transformers, and Micronauts as they intersect with the world of the Spy Magicians, the Acroyears, the Gunrobos, and the rest of the tiny cybernetic visitors to our planet.  Follow along at micromanfor...