Mutagen Men Toycast

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...

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 m...

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 bla...

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 M...

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 Spa...

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...

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,...

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...

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.

COME WITH US IF YOU WANT TO LIVE! Kenner's Terminator 2 toyline was one of many toylines released in the 80s and 90s based on an R-rated film property and it was easily one of the best. Join us as we fight off an army of endoskeletons, T-1000s, and other strange beings from the mad minds at Kenner!  Figure Realm's Terminator 2 Checklist  Punching Day: Kenner's Terminator 2 Toyline

We are...transformed! For our second look into the vast world of Transformers we visit Cybertron after Megatron's cyber-plague decimated the planet. The streets crawl with his army of mindless Vehicons. Can the confused and disorganized Maximals break Megatron's iron grip on their homeworld? Beast Machines was the controversial sequel to Beast Wars, featuring a strange toyline and a strange TV ser...

In 2002, Hasbro reinvented the classic G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero line for the new millennium, re-introducing classic 1980s characters like Duke, Snake Eyes, and Cobra Commander with brand-new designs. The figures of what became known as the "new sculpt era" featured awkward proportions and bizarre gimmicks but nevertheless found popularity amongst both kids and adults. In today's episode we d...

Step into the ring with the Mutagen Men for our first (and likely only) coverage of the wild world of pro wrestling toys! Mattel's Masters of the WWE Universe was one of our favorite toylines of the last several years, mashing up WWE wrestlers with the theme and style of Masters of the Universe. This line also served as a prelude to the massively popular Masters of the Universe Origins toyline. Pu...

In 2003 Hasbro unleashed XEVOZ, a mix-and-match action figure line featuring skeletons, androids, ninjas, insects, werewolves, elementals, and much more. Toy collectors raved about the line's endless creativity. It barely managed to last four waves. In this week's episode we explore the many amazing designs featured in the line, talk about our own creations, and ponder why XEVOZ didn't become the...

Star Wars has been a staple of the toy aisles since 1978 but it may surprise that there were some years since where the presence of Luke, Vader, Han, Leia, and the rest of the inhabitants of the galaxy far, far away were absent in plastic form. Those years cross with the childhoods of the Mutagen Men and in today's episode we talk about what it was like when Star Wars first exploded back into toy...

Gundam Wing first hit U.S. airwaves just behind the other titans of the late 90s anime boom and with it came an onslaught of plastic merchandise, not the least of which were the imports of Bandai's 4.5-inch scale Mobile Suit in Action!! figures. Two out of three Mutagen Men collected this line extensively as it appeared in import shops and later American toy retailers, and the third enjoys recolle...

G.I. Joe Sigma Six was a controversial toyline that sized up Hasbro's popular military action figures and outfitted them with huge multifunction loadouts, cloth clothes, and buckets of style. Many fans ignored it at the time for its massive overhaul of the classic Joe look. This week we celebrate the weirdness and the creativity of one of the best and most overlooked eras of the Real American Hero...

For our first-ever episode on Hasbro's long-lived toyline starring a race of autonomous robotic organisms, we start with one of the least-loved and most overlooked lines of all its history. Transformers Energon featured gimmicks pulled willy-nilly from all over Transformers' timeline. It was a kitchen sink of ideas, and not all of them worked. We pick out our favorite powerlinxing Autobots, hyper...

Our first foray into Lego begins with the venerable Castle theme, a theme full of dragons, wizards, skeletons, ghosts, knights, and even the occasional vampire. We start with the pre-minifigure Castle sets and traverse its history from a 1970s Weetabix promotional item through to the extreme 90s and beyond. Grab your chrome gold chalice and join us at the Guarded Inn for an hour of jousting, quest...

This week we explore the tip of the superhero toyline iceberg with Toy Biz's sprawling X-Men line from the mid-1990s. It's easy to forget the world before the MCU and other big-budget summer superhero pictures ruled pop culture, but in the 90s, the Fox Kids X-Men cartoon and its associated action figure line were among the bigger influences in the realm of superheroes. Join us as we scour the Kay-...

This week, a toyline we don't need to introduce: the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The heroes in a half-shell have enjoyed countless revivals, redefinitions, and reissues over the decades since they debuted in the 80s, so for our first foray into the mutant-filled sewers of Manhattan, we discuss the early years of the original Playmates toyline, the origins of the turtles themselves, and our time...

In the 2020s, video game toys are everywhere: major video game series often get multiple toylines aimed at all age groups. But during video games' humble teenage years, the landscape was very different. Only a few game series were lucky enough to see representation on toy shelves. The Mutagen Men talk about growing up obsessed with Mario, Sonic, and Mega Man but having very few options to bring th...

Glyos is one of the longest running and most successful independent, artist-run toylines in existence - but it's not just one toyline, it's many, all with their own individual themes and styles. We start with Onell Design's original modular fit function concept and spiral out into many of the other members of the Glyos System family. Interested in exploring more? Here are some places to visit next...

In 2023, He-Man and Skeletor are more present than ever in the toy aisles, and are enjoying a mass retail revival the likes of which hasn't been seen since the 80s. But this wasn't the first time Mattel tried reviving the venerable Masters of the Universe property. In this episode we talk about the promising beginning, frustrating middle, and bitter end of the first big MOTU revival, and all our m...

Much more than just the predecessor to Transformers, Diaclone was a toyline brimming with creativity and transforming robots, many of which were never reassigned as Autobots or Decepticons. We follow this line from its genesis in the 80s through its revival in the 2010s, talking about robots, bases, robot bases, Waruders, Dianauts, Gats Blockers, and much more. Looking for high-resolution photos o...