1994 Spawn Action Figure Ad from Todd Toys
I know it’s hard to believe in today’s market, but twenty years ago the Spawn action figure series (find at Amazon.com*) were a pretty damn big deal. The action figures shook the market, and even Kenner was influenced by the Spawn line soon after the original figures reached toy shelves.
This 1994 advertisement from Todd Toys (before the McFarlane Toys name was put into use) shows us those earliest Spawn toys, including ridiculous vehicles that look even cooler today than they did back in the mid-nineties. People may complain about the variety of weird character and vehicle designs we saw in the mid-nineties, but when I look at that Spawn Mobile all I can say is: It sucks that today’s toy market can’t support cool stuff like these toys.
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- Spawn in 1996 (battlegrip.com)
There was really something special about the first Spawn figure. Well, lots of the things: the detail, the heft, the build quality…and the musculature which set the trend for Luke Skywalker to look like Hulk Hogan! It was the first action figure that really, really impressed me.
The first wave was a bit unbalanced, though. Tremor and Clown were a bit “plasticy” and the wire-frame bendy-schtick of Violator paled in comparison to wow-factor of Spawn.
That was also a different time for toys. Toy Fare, Wizard, Lee’s Action Figure Price Guide, and other publications covered the rising and falling of the values of toys, and some of us hardcore collectors knew the days and times of when Kay-Bee or Toys-R-Us received their trucks with new shipments.
Still, there has never been a line like Spawn. Anyone who ever saw a Malebolgia on a peg at K-mart knows that very well. Oh, and who could forget looking up Angela’s blister from the bottom to see if she was the “Party Angela”?