McFarlane toys

In the 1990s, Todd McFarlane pioneered a sort of hybrid mass consumer/collector market by making toys with adult themes and more detail than ever before, and in the process, managed to suck a lot of life out of trading cards and comic books and spit it back out into action figures. Today, his company is best known for its stab at making toys for a more Wal-Marty audience, with Halo, various major league sports, and even cartoons like The Simpsons and Hanna-Barberra a few years ago.

But back in the 1990s, these newly-forged toy fans were rabid. They couldn't get enough demons, warrior princesses-of-Hell, vikings, robots, or whatever else Todd McFarlane and his house crew could come up with. To witness the transition from toy collecting as a casual pursuit of older, discontinued items to a rabid pursuit of brand-new products was a bit of a shocker, and that would go on to become the norm for so many fans for years to come, and to this day the focus for most toy junkies continues to be on the latest and the greatest.

It didn't help that McFarlane also came up with numerous variations -- that is, little tweaks and changes -- in each figure, so not only did people buy one, they bought several. Extra bloody repaints? Weird variations on panties? This company had all this, and more. McFarlane Toys even gave the world stunning takes on characters from Alien, Friday the 13th, The X-Files, Austin Powers, Robocop, video game toys from the first two Metal Gear Solid games, and numerous music acts like Alice Cooper and Metallica. Truly, the company ruled the adult figure roost until NECA would take the crown early in the 21st century. McFarlane Toys will always be remembered for its original creations like Spawn, as that's the property that made the company what it is. Some were awesome, and still are. Others, a little iffy by modern standards. We're not as interested in building up as we are tearing down, so let's take a gander at some of the less desirables from the 1990s, shall we?