Looking back on the 90’s, seeing all these hyper violent films from the 80’s getting kids TV shows and toys is quite something.

[Lightning Count]

Let's start with the prime example of this, RoboCop a brutal satire directed by Paul Verhoeven, the original film satirises cut throat corporate culture and how turning a human being into a literal Frankenstein's monster can be so easily normalised. It is many ways a criticism of America itself.

It's 100% not a kid friendly film. But a few years later a cartoon got made of it, which was heavily sanitised, lasers replaced bullets, the setting was shifted much more into the sci-fi genre, the villains were more like supervillains from comics and often heavy handed analogues to the likes of the KKK.

Naturally kid friendly toys soon followed, I myself owned a few, included a replica of Robo's detachable arm cannon as seen in RoboCop 3. I also had a toy car version of the police cruiser based on the Ford Taurus based from the first film.

What other weird gems do you remember from this time period, ERA?

 

[Platy]

Robocop 2 and specially 3 are more kid friendly than the second

But Rambo, the first one is probably more kid friendly than the second one ... and they based the cartoon ON THE SECOND ONE

 

[Mr. Snuffleupagus]

I guess Attack of the Killer Tomatoes would potentially fit in this?

 

[830920]

The Toxic Avenger is also quite the choice

 

[cirr]

toxic crusaders is probably the best example of this
i loved the cartoon when i was younger
toxic avenger is a great film in its own right

 

[imbarkus]

Ghostbusters had that ghost blowie and then became a huge toy property with an animated series that'll cost you $500 to buy a decent copy on DVD.

This latest more kid-friendly movie release would have been a great opportunity to put that out on blu ray.

 

[dlauv]

Aliens, Predator. I don't think Terminator got as much fun stuff.

 

[Stranger Things]

I remember my dad buying me a Commando action figure back in the day. Good times.

 

[Rhomega]

But Rambo, the first one is probably more kid friendly than the second one ... and they based the cartoon ON THE SECOND ONE

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To be fair, a Saturday Morning Cartoon about a Viernam vet with PTSD versus the police doesn't sound like a good idea.

 

[Foot]

The long arms on my Alien action figure made it ideal for giving power bombs.

 

[Tobor]

My little brother had a Rambo lunchbox.

 

[Slayven]

There was a cartoon based off of Aliens that got canceled while in production. The toys still made it to shelves

 

[Burai]

Beetlejuice spawned a series of poorly-selling action figures and a cartoon that nobody watched and, 30-odd years later I still can't understand how either of them ever got past the concept stage.

 

[Mindwipe]

Aliens, Predator. I don't think Terminator got as much fun stuff.

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There was a Terminator toy line at least. Including a set where you molded fleshy sludge on to a T800, but it didn't work for shit.

 

[basic_text]

There was a Swamp Thing cartoon for christ's sake!

 

[lunarworks]

The Saturday Morning Cartoon → Action Figure pipeline had dried up.

 

[thediamondage]

the Conan cartoon was pretty awesome

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[Violence Jack]

I still have my Rambo action figure from the late 80s cartoon.

I also remember Police Academy having a cartoon not realizing that it was a raunchy R-rated comedy at the time.

 

[horsemama1956]

You have to remember Video Games, movies, TV and music don't influence our minds, only Facebook.

 

[Daingurse]

I remember really wanting the Starship Troopers Arachnid Warrior figure growing up.

Starship Troopers remains one of my absolute favorite movies, but I was definitely way too young to be watching that shit. I think my mom covered my eyes during the co-ed shower scene lmao.

 

[Foot]

the Conan cartoon was pretty awesome

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I would RUN home after school just so I could arrive exactly on time to hear this theme song.

 

[modoversus]

Beetlejuice spawned a series of poorly-selling action figures and a cartoon that nobody watched and, 30-odd years later I still can't understand how either of them ever got past the concept stage.

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It lasted 4 seasons. I always liked the animated intro.

The animated series was a mega breakout hit for ABC in its initial seasons, and later became one of the first cartoon animated series to ever air on Fox's weekday afternoons children's lineup, though also remaining on ABC's Saturday morning schedules, making it one of the first animated shows to air concurrently on two different U.S. broadcast networks.

The premise of the animated series differs in a number of ways from the original Beetlejuice live-action film. In the TV series, he and Lydia are best friends, Beetlejuice is made out to be more of a prankster, and Lydia is given a much quirkier, but positive demeanor. Lydia often travels to the 'Neitherworld' (changed from 'Afterlife') to have adventures with Beetlejuice. These adventures could involve fun activities together, Lydia saving Beetlejuice from a bad situation, or scolding him for a money making scam.

Much as with the original 1988 film, various merchandise was released for the Beetlejuice animated series in 1990. This included trading cards by Dart, a sticker album and sticker/activity book by Panini, a jigsaw puzzle by Golden, a coloring book, novels, a lunchbox and thermos set, Valentine's, a party centerpiece by Party Creations, a PC game by Hi Tech Expressions, a Game Boy game by Rare, and six PVC figures available with Burger King Kids' Meals. Kenner, the company behind the film's action figures, had begun developing figures for the animated series, but the project did not come to fruition (at least one prototype for that ill-fated collection has been showcased online).[7]​

Daytime Emmy Awards

• 1990 – Outstanding Animated Program (Won) (Tied with The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh)

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[Dan Thunder]

Robocop 2 and specially 3 are more kid friendly than the second

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Personally I'd have less of an issue with my son watching Robocop 1 rather than 2. I always found 2 to have a nasty streak to it. The first film was violent but there was always a purpose to it, the second one just seemed gratuitous for the sake of being gratuitous.

 

[Lightning Count]

Personally I'd have less of an issue with my son watching Robocop 1 rather than 2. I always found 2 to have a nasty streak to it. The first film was violent but there was always a purpose to it, the second one just seemed gratuitous for the sake of being gratuitous.

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Yeah and there are flat out torture scenes in 2, it's much more sadistic than the first film.

 

[Valkyr Junkie]

History repeats itself. There was a kid at my kid's elementary school wearing a Squid Game t-shirt lol

 

[Lightning Count]

History repeats itself. There was a kid at my kid's elementary school wearing a Squid Game t-shirt lol

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I've still not seen this yet, but I have seen a lot of merch for it.

 

[thesuperfunk]

Robocop 2 and specially 3 are more kid friendly than the second

But Rambo, the first one is probably more kid friendly than the second one ... and they based the cartoon ON THE SECOND ONE

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Still have my Rambo figure ... along with a big plastic bowie knife as pictured.

 

[AlgusUnderdunk]

Robocop 2 and specially 3 are more kid friendly than the second

But Rambo, the first one is probably more kid friendly than the second one ... and they based the cartoon ON THE SECOND ONE

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The Rambo cartoon has a Christmas episode and it is one of my all-time favorite Christmas specials.

Rambo: When SAVAGE Stole Santa.

 

[Teenage Fansub]

In my 80's kid experience, children were watching the original R rated movies anyway.

 

[BloodRayne]

I remember seeing Freddy Krueger lunch boxes.

"There's nothing wrong with this, Timmy. Now go to school with your serial child killer lunch box"

 

[Lowrys]

Personally I'd have less of an issue with my son watching Robocop 1 rather than 2. I always found 2 to have a nasty streak to it. The first film was violent but there was always a purpose to it, the second one just seemed gratuitous for the sake of being gratuitous.

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Less surprising when you remember Frank Miller wrote Robocop 2.

 

[Landy828]

There was a Terminator toy line at least. Including a set where you molded fleshy sludge on to a T800, but it didn't work for shit.

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I had something similar to this, but I remember it working just fine. I feel like this person isn't doing it right.

 

[Mindwipe]

I had something similar to this, but I remember it working just fine. I feel like this person isn't doing it right.

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They're getting it to work much better than I did at the time.

Ultimately it's an injection mold, and there's a reason injection molds usually involve a centrifuge and high pressures.

 

[Landy828]

They're getting it to work much better than I did at the time.

Ultimately it's an injection mold, and there's a reason injection molds usually involve a centrifuge and high pressures.

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I remember letting my stuff sit for days, I think. So that's probably the difference, haha. I wouldn't even open the molds for a while. Also think I used spray oil or something on the molds.

I had another similar one where you made and painted your own Power Rangers and Puttys/other stuff. It just made solid figures.

 

[Musubi]

The 80's and 90's were truly a wild time lol

 

[Keldroc]

Beetlejuice spawned a series of poorly-selling action figures and a cartoon that nobody watched and, 30-odd years later I still can't understand how either of them ever got past the concept stage.

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A cartoon nobody watched doesn't last four years, especially in the very competitive animated schedules of the time. Beetlejuice was a big deal, and hugely influential to a generation of animators that grew up watching it.

 

[SeanShards]

A company actually picked up the Alien and Predator licenses again recently for a kids line. Like, not "collectibles" like NECA, these are like $10/€10. I bought one last week and ended up loving it since they reminded me of Kenner AvP stuff so much so I ordered the other Predators online today.



I guess maybe there's a sliver of a chance that kids who like Fortnite would be into these? I dunno, I love them regardless. I've bought action figures for €40 I haven't enjoyed as much as the Predator I bought.

 

[III-V]

Reminds me of kids talking about and playing make pretend squid game at school. Hopefully no merch involved,

 

[rou021]

Now that I think about it, it's not too surprising that some of these violent, R-rated movies—Aliens, Predator, Terminator, RoboCop, Rambo, etc.—were turned into toylines and cartoons. I remember many of these movies were already kind of popular with kids anyway. In fact, I remember going to a friend's birthday party in the late 90's when we were all around seven and his mom rented the first RoboCop movie for us. My guess is people started noticing that kids were into some of these movies and figured they'd focus more on catering to that market as time went on.

The only real anomaly that I can think of is Starship Troopers. Sure, there were some dark and violent properties that had toylines from that era like Spawn, Metal Gear Solid, Virus, etc., but those seemed to be geared more towards the burgeoning adult collector's market. The Starship Troopers toys, however, seemed to be explicitly geared towards kids. Between the fact that the film is a satire of fascism/American politics and early cuts of the movie were rated NC-17 (IIRC), it didn't seem like kids would be a good demographic to market it towards. My guess is that they figured one big budget Verhoeven sci-fi film (RoboCop) was a surprise hit with kids, so why not this one? They also seemed to take inspiration from other successful toylines like Aliens and Star Wars, so it definitely seems like they were trying to exploit a trend. Given the fact that it was a box office bomb though, it seems that the movie was a difficult sell even to adults. They probably would've been better off focusing on merchandizing that tied into the TV show instead as it might've also helped the show.

There was a cartoon based off of Aliens that got canceled while in production. The toys still made it to shelves

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I always thought this was the case too until recently, when I learned it was the other way around. An animation studio had created a cartoon commercial to promote the toys and some of the people involved later considered making it into a TV series, but it never actually went any further than some discussions. Ultimately, Kenner decided to just go with live action commercials instead and that lone animated commercial never aired anywhere.

I was so disappointed hearing this as I had hoped for years that they had managed to complete at least a few episodes and they'd leak them or even just a pilot. Now, if it ever does come out, it'd probably only be a couple minute tease of what could've been.

 

[Prophet Five]

I was watching some gaming stuff on YouTube with my husband like last week and we were both like "Damn, RoboCop sure was marketed to us as kids and it definitely isn't what I'd call a 'kids' movie." lol

 

[Zulith]

It remains one of the cool highlights of being a kid during that period. As a kid, I was watching just about every cartoon airing on TV and I was a fan of most of the ones based on mature content, like Toxic Crusaders. I actually knew who Toxie was around that time, because the Toxic Avengers movies would occasionally play on cable. That goes for most of the other properties too. With no internet or smart devices to keep us entertained, you pretty much had outdoor play, movies/tv and video games as the only forms of entertainment, so I was watching cable all the damn time. I was watching tons of R-rated slasher films by 10 or 11, around the time my parents stopped hovering over every thing I was watching.

That first Swamp Thing movie is definitely not for kids, nor were the Alan Moore swamp thing arcs in the comics which were popular at the time. I did like that animated series though, as well as the slightly more mild mannered USA Network Swamp Thing live action show (super corny, but still loved it particularly the first season)

There are a lot of similar examples... kind of wonder what the landscape would be like today if it were still the norm to re-adapt very mature movies/books for kids entertainment.

Imagine if they did a Mad Max animated show for kids after the huge success of Fury Road in 2015. How about an IT animated show that had all the kids in the film duology teaming up with Pennywise to stop other uhh, trans-dimensional evil entities from doing bad things in Derry? I mean if they can make Beetlejuice into a protagonistist why not.

 

[YolkFolk]

Was thinking about this the other day. Cartoon based on Robocop.

 

[Goldenroad]

I dressed like Freddy Kreuger for halloween when I was like 7 years old. So they definitely made a Freddy glove for kids. Jason masks too. Shit was awesome.

 

[excelsiorlef]

Beetlejuice spawned a series of poorly-selling action figures and a cartoon that nobody watched and, 30-odd years later I still can't understand how either of them ever got past the concept stage.

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People watched the cartoon

 

[wrowa]

I only realized a year or two ago that Robocop is actually an extremely violent thing. I only knew it from the toys and cartoons and I just assumed for all my life that the movies would just be some harmless super hero flicks.

Until I came across this clip for some reason and I was just like... what the fuck. At first I thought it was some kind of fan edit.

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[Lagamorph]

The Robocop love action TV series ended up being far better than it had any right being and was definitely aimed at being more child friendly than the films too.

 

[rou021]

Don't forget that there was more than one RoboCop cartoon:




Between the 80's cartoon, the toned down third film, the family friendly TV series, and the 90's cartoon (and toylines for each of them), at this point I think it might be more accurate to say that RoboCop is a superhero franchise for kids that just happens to have a couple of odd, adult-oriented installments instead of the other way around.

 

[pitt_norton]

In my 80's kid experience, children were watching the original R rated movies anyway.

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Hallelujah! Those were good times!

 

[Teenage Fansub]

Until I came across this clip for some reason and I was just like... what the fuck. At first I thought it was some kind of fan edit.

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Look up Robocop Scene 27 Remake for a violent fan edit.

 

[InfiniteKing]

The Robocop love action TV series ended up being far better than it had any right being and was definitely aimed at being more child friendly than the films too.

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I liked that series too was pretty good and it's on Tubi now I believe.