Battletech Toys from Tyco

A few weeks ago, while at GenCon (I mentioned my trip here), I had the good fortune to grab a copy of the new BattleTech book, 25 Years of Art and Fiction and I even had a chance to play in the simulators a couple of times. I’ve been a fan of the BattleTech series since the 80s — hey, I’ve been a gamer for a long time now — so one of the things I’ve done over the years is keep an eye on the series.

(Image courtesy of Stefan Wunder’s Battletech Toy Archive. Visit the site today.)

And BattleTech has been around and almost everywhere. There was even a toy series in 1994 from Tyco (Virtual Toy Chest has some pics and info) and as much as I’d love to get my hands on some of these the prices are ridiculous. Why were there toys? Because there was a cartoon, of course.

Wow, that looks worse than I remember it. I only caught an episode or two of the cartoon when it aired but what I saw was very much not good. The toys, though, always looked awesome.

While poking at the web I found this YouTube video that just makes me want some of these even more.

There weren’t many releases in the line (and only a few large mechs), but the eBay prices on these things make them basically not on my own list (unless I get very, very lucky). Still, one of the nice things at GenCon was the BattleTech display case at the Catalyst Game Labs booth where they had some of these old toys on display. Getting a look at them again just reminded me how much fun they look.

I’d gonna keep watching eBay, but I’m not going to get my hopes up.

(PS – Just how much of a BattleTech geek am I? Well, in the Hobby Games: The 100 Best book my essay is all about the BattleTech game. That gives you an idea of how much I enjoy the series)

FOR MORE SEE: Battletech Toys . . . Again, posted in 2013.