Playmates Addams Family

[Werewolf]

In honor of Halloween I thought I'd post about one of my favorite obscure mysterious and spooky toy lines.

Addams Family by Playmates was one of those blink and you miss them toy lines. Based on the Addams Family animated series from 92. Which was actually pretty good and featured John Astin back voicing Gomez.

There have been lots of Addams Family merchandise over the years but I believe this is the only time the family got its own action figure line. There's six figures in the set. Gomez, Morticia, Fester, Grandmama, Lurch and Pugsley. Wednesday, Cousin Itt and a large version of Thing are pictured on the card back as coming soon. But unfortunately, they never did. Because, apparently, I was the only person that actually collected these.

All the figures have an action feature (Gomez swings his sword, Fester's head pops up, etc.) and an extra Thing related accessory. An obscure toy line that wasn't exactly made in great numbers but still fairly cheap when they turn up because of the very low demand, there's just no accounting for people's taste.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I remember that line. Playmates was doing some really fun, innovative stuff back then. It's a shame they didn't sneak Wednesday into the package with Pugsley. She's so tiny, it would have made sense.

It just occurred to me no one has done TV series action figures in the modern era. Seems kind of an odd omission.

Thanks for sharing!

Chris

[rche]

I love these guys. Never saw them at actual retail, but picked up Gomez and Pugsly on the clearance at TRU. I never did see any of the others on store shelves, so I ended up buying a set at auction for next to nothing several years ago. Like you said, underappreciated but very cool 90's toyline.

[PNGwynne]

I love these, although shockingly I do not own a set. The incompleteness distresses me.

I think they look great.

[Werewolf]

The incompleteness of the line is a real bummer. Especially the loss of Wednesday.

Here's some scans off the card back of the unreleased figures. Sorry about the quality. The original pictures on the card back are very small.

[JWLJN]

I'm with the above poster that just never picked these up because the family wasn't complete. I could've easily done without the oversized Thing and Cousin Itt (I have a Cousin Itt flashlight from the movie cereal that could've stood in), but no Wednesday was the exact reason that I never collected these. :-(

-J\/\/

[JWLJN]

Between the combination of this thread and receiving the complete tv series on DVD for Christmas, I decided to pick these guys up myself. Morticia seems to be the one people want the most for, but I was even able to find her rather reasonable, and she came in a lot with a set of vinyl Addams figures from the same era. That is where my Wednesday stand-in comes from, and she fits in nicely. She's actually about to hammer Pugsley who is attached to her, so by sitting the Playmates Pugsley on top, it looks great.

I'd like to make a shelf with the '66 Batman figs and these all set up, but I have to clean up the spare room first. Someday...

-J\/\/

[Werewolf]

Neat! Wednesday fits in very well and nice use of the flash light Itt that came with the Addams Family cereal.

[PNGwynne]

^I agree, oooh now I'm tempted...

[kingdom warrior]

I have Morticia still carded.....never bothered to collect the others. Morticia is all i wanted......

[JWLJN]

There's actually another Itt figure out there, too, but I'm not sure how well he'd fit in with these. He was on eBay for around $15. He looks kinda tall and has his "arms" crossed. It must be a pose he took in the cartoon, because the vinyl Lurch (from the set with the Wednesday seen above) is taking the hat off of Itt in the very same pose. I'll post a picture of the complete vinyl set when I get a chance. I actually like Lurch's look in those far better than the Playmates figure, but the Wednesday is the only one that really fits in with the Playmates set.

EDIT: The vinyl set



-J\/\/