What were the best action figures of the nineties?

[EmergencyIan]

Those KISS figures.


- Ian

[kingdom warrior]

Batman TAS
McFarlane's Spawn were great....

[torgospizza]

stra wars 12 inch(the best for me is darth vader electronic)

That's in my Top Five All-Time Favorites, for sure. Good call!

[samurainoir]

It was Kenner's Aliens that got me into Toy Collecting.

Yeah, some of them were pretty goofy, particularly animal-Aliens like the Bull Alien, but prior to MacFarlane's revolution in sculpting, Kenner really pulled out the stops on this line.

I couldn't believe how detailed the Queen was. BIG as well for a figure at that time next to all the other five inch scale stuff surrounding it.





I wasn't too fond of the Marines, particularly since they weren't as movie-accurate as I would have liked. Although I thought the Alien disguise armour was pretty inspired fun.


Plus Alien vs Predator! Way before the movies (based on the comic series from Dark Horse).

[Sandman9580]

The 90's was a pretty lousy decade for action figures.

Huh?? The 90s was a great decade for action figures!

That was when companies really started embracing the adult collector, which - for better or for worse - led directly to the explosion of toys we're all enjoying right now. There were definitely hiccups along the way (like the Playmates 1701 fiasco) and some terrible-looking stuff (Exclusive Premier ), but we also had the return of Star Wars and the meteoric rise of McFarlane. Both of those injected a lot of energy into the hobby (and got me collecting again). Then you had "classic" toys like Playing Mantis' stuff and lines like G.I. Joe 12-inch and Famous Covers. I think those first tentative steps into "retro" act as a kind of prologue to the current reMego renaissance.

And, there were some great mainstream kid's lines in the early part of the decade, too, like the oft-mentioned Batman: TAS, the not-so-oft-mentioned Batman movie toys, and the very imaginative and (in my opinion) hugely underrated TMNT figures. Some of my favorites from that time are the Dick Tracy, Addams Family, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves lines. (Which, disparage it as people may, managed to greatly improve Star War's Endor playset by adding green foliage to the tree tops.) Also, the first two series of McFarlane's Monster playsets, which is actually one of my favorite toy lines of all time. I didn't get into Spawn all that much, but the thought of seeing new Movie Maniacs would actually compel me to walk faster toward the action figure aisles. It seemed like every few weeks there was something cool coming out, from some company or other....

So, yeah, thumbs up to the 90s!

[thoriron]

stra wars 12 inch(the best for me is darth vader electronic)
famous covers (the best is iron man)
toy biz 12 inch marvel collector (the best is dr octopus)
medicom 12 inch cap harlock (albator) and batman return

[BlackKnight]

BTAS
The Re-launch of Star Wars
& Spawn for me.

[LonnieFisher]

Famous Covers and Spawn!!

[toys2cool]

way too many
Dick Tracy
WWF hasbro
WCW Galoob
TMNT
Star wars
Star trek playmates
X-men
SLU
Batman animated

[jimsmegos]

Wow, I can't believe I'm the first to mention this one (maybe I shouldn't), but for me the Star Wars revamp lit the fires for me. The hunt was a ton of fun trying to track down the illusive "next wave" before the greedy toy mongers gobbled 'em up. Plus it seemed that with the Star Wars revamp more and more dealers were coming out of the woodwork at flea markets and "giant" flea market shows. Mind you this is before ebay and seeing most of the stuff that dealers were unearthing was a blast for me.

[acrovader]

The 90's was a pretty lousy decade for action figures.

[weatherwizard-Corey]

BTAS

I only collected BTAS and some Playmate Star Trek-Picard, Kirk.

[torgospizza]

spawn- the 90s was dominated by mcfarlane toys for me...

I'm not even a Spawn fan, but McFarlane changed the game, so to speak. He totally changed the approach to sculpting. His early stuff looks quaint now, but was mind-blowing for it's time.

[megocrazy]

The Toybiz X-men line went about as deep on characters as any superhero line I can remember and they were readily available for quite a while at a reasonable price. The FF, Spidey animated, and Ironman Animated were also done the same way. Ironman may have been the best. Even Fin Fang Foom the Dragon was made. BTAS was a favorite and the characters were definitely dead on the the show. They were quality made too. Good paint lines and very durable. As much as I like the JLU line the paint lines on many of the ones I saw were horrible.

[ScottA]

I too collected B:TAS and Playmates Trek figures. All I have left are 12" Treks MIB and a lot of loose B:TAS figures (I think I was trying to put together a loose set for display).