12 OBSCURE 1980s Toylines You Always WANTED | Lesser Known or Forgotten 80s Toys & Action Figures 

I remember just about all of these. Captain Power was great

Bionic Six was one of my favorite things when I was a kid.

I fondly remember playing with Captain Power when I was much younger. The fantasy of being a fighter pilot was too much to resist. I also really liked the Battle Beasts and had forgotten about them. Thank you for the reminder of their existence.

My nephew was still playing with our Shogun Warriors Daimos and Raydeen up until a couple of years ago. Those things had real staying power!

I loved Eagle Force; I got several for my 8th birthday, but GI Joe quickly and completely overtook the line with better articulation and accessories.

The Air Jammer was easily one of my favorite 80s toys. The sound it made is etched into my memory lolm

To this DAY.... i still ADORE the SUPER NATURALS. one summer my parents and myself went to the local Mall, and Sears or one store had a TON of the Super Naturals on DEEP Discount... 50 CENTS EACH for the "BIG" Super Naturals, and 25 for the Ghostlings. my mom and dad bought me every one of em they had "I mean, no doubles, just each character" I was happier than a Pig in Shit! mainly i got every one of the Ghostlings, and a couple of the bigger ones, but most of those had sold out. apparently the Tomb of Doom playset was on sale too, but those sold out before we got there too. i played with those toys up until i was literally 15 years old!.. i lost them in a move, sadly.. except for one or two of em i still have to this day. i need to buy a whole new set, honestly.

By the second half of the 80s video games took over and no new toy line could gain enough ground to be as big as Gi Joe/He-man/Starwars and Transformers were...... Nintendo was such a giant leap from what Atari and Colleco vision were. You just had to look at the ads in comic books to see the change happening...by 88 there were almost zero ads in comics that weren't video game related. Those big four toy lines that I mentioned needed such a massive budget to support their domination.... either box office smash movies (star wars) or shows with 64 episodes per season...so daily..... 13 episodes per season and perhaps a comic were no match for Super Mario, Zelda and other games that literally made you shut off your tv to take part in! Transformers the Movie and the Gi Joe movie seemed more like a book end rather than a line getting bigger....and the Heman movie was like vandalism of a strong line.

It's a challenge trying to sell toys when you're competing with other toy lines that have a half-hour commercial every week/every day.

I had gotten the R1500 Robotix (Venturak) set for Christmas the year they came out. It was one of my favorite toys to the point I collected the other 3 sets in my adulthood and have all 4 on display in my den. Great conversation piece when people come over.

Definitely remember most of them. The only ones I had was the Shogun Warriors. It was primarily Star Wars until 84 when Transformers came out and it remained my focus for the rest of the 80s. I just admired some of the others mentioned in the video when I saw them on the shelves.

I had so many of these & wish I still did. Thanks for bringing back some good memories. I was on the tail end of Gen-X.

Battle beasts!!! Oh my god, you’re hitting every toy I’ve ever forgotten. I had a bunch of these. I remember they were really small.

Adventure People. If ever a line of toys deserves a live action movie, this is it.

I had Sky Commander, some of the Captain Power and Bionic Six figures. I remember the Battle Beasts, Eagle Force and Robotix. Thanks for this video. It was a great trip down memory lane. 😊

I loved all the all these toys, and now looking to buy thema again. Perhaps even start a playset company for them...💙👍💯

You have some good ones there! Great Job!!!

I absolutely loved Bionic Six and Sky Commanders.

Loved the Robotix cartoon, mainly because it gave a story to the cool build sets. Bionic Six the cartoon was far more popular than the actual toys, which were seen as low rent GI Joe stuff. Both theme songs live rent free in my head all these years later.

I always wanted that 2' GaiKing....loved that, thanks for making this, bring back great memories...

I loved the supernaturals and the visionaries toys. Holograms were so freaking cool in the 80s!

Hi there thx for the flashback.I had Tuskus from the infacebles & I had Captain Power also 2 battles beast.My brother had 1 supernatural.Now i own Robotics thats i luckily found at a fleamarket.

I had Super Naturals, Air Raiders, Battle Beasts, and Shogun Warriors. There were a lot of great lines in the 80s. Inhumanoids, Blackstar, Sectaurs, Spiral Zone...so many.

I always remembered Mantech from Remco. I only had one figure, but I never forgot about the line in all these years

I miss all these toys, at 55 now since I turned 20 I have been collecting toy some are very expensive now you can't get them or maybe buy 1 every other month I have over 100k worth. Right now getting the whole set of visionaries. I just finished JAYCE AND THE WHEEL WARRIORS

I remember playing with Sgt Rock with my Gi Joe figs. Eagle force were cool too. We'll made

I've been a Shogun Warrior fan since the get go. The larger Machinders are cool, but the smaller diecast vehicles are so well made and creative. Top notch quality. The other toy lines I remember from this era were the Photon toys. Like Captain power the Photon figures were interactive but with the Photon laser game. The Lords of Light was another very short lived toy line.

Nice vid. I'm pretty sure I had Shogun Warriors before '79.

I had a few of the Super Naturals. I don’t know if I necessarily played with them, but really enjoyed the holographic aspect. They were a lot of fun!

Air Raiders was top tier in terms of playability and Captain Power was another level. You could play it with the show like a video game or chase your sibling around the house like laser tag. One of the best toys I ever had.

I absolutely LOVE the Infaceables. To me it is a highly underrated line. They feature some of the most beautiful card backs of the 80's with spectacular portraits of each figure on both sides of the card. Believe it or not they can in fact be repaired.....but it does take some serious time and effort. Without getting too in depth you crack them open, remove all the old cracked hardened rubber and replace them with small balloons and then draw new faces on with a paint that will adhere to rubber, then you re-seal them. I think I'm most likely the only person to ever put a complete repaired set together, I've thought of offering it on eBay. Another interesting fact.....the line was actually a way for Galoob to utilize the vehicles they had already produced for a 3rd Blackstar line. I actually own the original blueprints to the Cruiser Crusher, which displays a captured Blackstar figure in the chamber. I also have over 20 of the Poppy Jumbos (Shogun Warriors).....that's been a passion of mine for years and is a hobby that can almost make you choose between a toy or a car. The prices are ridiculous on some of them. Loved the video, would love to see a second vid with he likes of Power Lords, Crystar, Wheeled Warriors, Maxx Steele Robo Force, Starriors, Dragon Riders of the Styx. The 80's were just so radical!!!!?

I can still hear the Air Raiders theme in my head to this day.

Those giant robot toys were the best. My friend had one, and it was like the big bruiser our robots had against Megatron. We mixed a lot of toy lines. Their show was brought over to the States as Tranzor Z, and kicked off my lifelong obsession with giant robots.

I had the Captain Power vhs tape and Starship gun game. Also Sky Commanders was one my favorites cartoons 'hotwire!!'

I was perfectly happy with Star Wars, Legos, Atari and Transformers. Between those and playing sports and riding bikes, I never got into any other toy lines.

Love my skycommders lol great memories

I was born in 1978, was spoiled by my parents, and had at least one example of almost every one of the toy lines mentioned in this video 😂 I didn't even remember many of them. Some are still in my parents' attic. Even had the Super Naturals Tomb of Doom playset.

I had stuff from about half of these toy lines. We spent a lot of time at a McCroys store that frequently had clearance lines for very cheap that other stores didn’t feature. My folks could get me half a toy line for the cost of a Transformer. I miss that store. I very clearly remember getting Willow die cast figures there.

"Late gen x-ers" ....when did my body get old?!

I had Beast Wars and Bionic 6. My friend had more Bionic 6 than I, and we played with them a lot. I also still have one of the figures from the Air Squad. I don’t remember them at all, but for some reason I had at least one. There was another weird toy line about anthropomorphic food that fought each other.

I had that robotic kit with the space pod and fingers and remember making a robot arm to pick stuff up and a sim arm for the pod. Also zoids were awesome.

was there a Darren McGavin action figure?!?! Battle Beasts was probably my 3rd favourite figures. I had all the Captain Power figures, vehicles, and the video cassettes!!! INFACEABLES!!!! I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR THAT NAME FOREVER!

I remember getting Robotix and Capsula both for Christmas. My parents were big into the construction-type toys. My brother and I made a lot of different things with those and hauled them around in our Big Track and trailer. I don't remember the MASH line and at that age didn't care for the show, but now I would buy them just to set them up in my cubicle at work (I work at a VA Hospital). I think my co-workers and patients would appreciate it.

It's awesome he threw in battle beasts. My brother's and I probably had almost all of them. They were lots of fun. We also had captain power, but like he said, we had it with a VHS tape, so nothing really ever happened.

My mother and grandfather got me into Shogun Warriors. I had the (if I remember right) the 24” Raydeen and Japanese cast metal version that would transform from the robot into the flying “bird” type ship. There was a Raydeen cartoon that my mother would read the subtitles for me that aired on one of the PBS channels. It was on either Saturday afternoon or Sunday afternoon.

Loved Shogun warriors and Micronauts.

Right after I got my first summer job as a lifeguard, a local Department Store went out of business and had the entire Air Raiders line on clearance. Even though I was aged out of playing with toys by then- something compelled me to buy up as many as I could. Should have kept these toys like I did my Transformers...

I seem to remember having a wearable Battle Beasts play set that was a purple chest plate, purple eye patch, and either a gold- or silver-coloured crab claw-like weapon when I was a kid. I had no idea it was from any toy line, but remember that the chest armour had a dial that you could switch to either fire, wood, or water. Battle Beasts must have had other costume-like items in addition to the figures and vehicles.

I remember getting Sky Commanders for Christmas back in 1987. I had Battle Beasts and both Captain Power and Lord Dread.

Brilliant vid, enjoyed this more than anything disney has put out in the last 5 years, boom!!

Don't remember any of these hitting the shops in the UK, but I was 20 in 1987... They all look appropriate for the era

Didnt know if I wanted to watch this video... Bro got me with Battle beasts in the first 30 seconds

Wow i had that Infaceables lion figure. Totally erased from my mind until i saw this lol. Also i had Great Mazinga 5 inch toy and he was my first Halloween outfit.

Owned a few of these. Capt Power, Battle Beats, and Sky Commanders. Crazy, I used to draw the vehicles from Air Raiders but I thought I actually created them. Seeing the image in this video triggered my memory!

Sky commanders were awesome!!! I had most if not all of those.

Fun video, and I loved the clip of the Golden Girls show being added! I personally don't remember any of these toy lines and I grew up in the 80s...so you're right, they are obscure! If I may add a couple of comments about your video...1) it would be nice to have the sections be numbered, in case someone wants to skip over a segment, and 2) you narrate very quickly...is that because you want the videos to be a certain length?

I'm a little too old for most of those, but I did have a couple of Shogun Warriors - Mazinga and Godzilla. They used to show English dubbed anime after school on a local UHF channel when I was a kid. The same channel also showed Ultra Man, Speed Racer, Tranzor Z, Starblazers and Voltron. Most of those toys weren't available at the time, but I could make massive space fleets with Lego that were a great analog and could blow-up into pieces in my space battles.

Apparition is definitely a word, and I had a couple of these as a kid. I remember the Viking and Native American figs vividly, and I thought they were awesome, more so than the Visionaries. Fun times were them 80s.

I admit to being born the very last year of Gen-X, but I was poor and I got all my He-Man and GI Joe at garage sales of the late 80’s. I loved them though! Kinda like my first game console, regular Nintendo 😂 My family got a bit better every year, working hard to try and be in better places. Eventually I was a huge gamer, even stood outside a store over night for a new console! I’m talking northern Midwest in the winter over night lol 😅 Anyway thanks for the memories and keep rocking bro!

I had 4 of the 24 inch Shogun Warriors. After Eagle Force tanked, I ended up with Eagle Island, which Santa obviously purchased from a clearance rack. Never had any figures, but we made it work for Star Wars and GIJoe. As a teen, I got a few of the Battle Beasts just because they were cheap and interesting. I never played with the, just stood them on my shelf. I also had 1 Robotix set.

Got the Air Raiders Dragonwind back in 1989. Now l own multiple of all the vehicles and playsets. Over 800 figures. Three factory sealed shipping boxes. Both mail away figures. I just love the Air Raiders. Some of my friends call me obsessed 😅

I had a few Supernaturals and the red car..loved them as a kid. Didn't really fit in with anything else though lol 😆

Thanks for sharing. Some of these found their way to the Netherlands. Golden Girls: my aunt bought one for my cousin on a market. Robotix: only saw the toys in one toyshop and I don't think I could match any of the sets with the characters I saw in the cartoon. We did have the cartoon for a short period. I liked it. It was one big story, but if it has an ending I never saw it. Bionic Six: as far as I know we got the cartoon and not the toys. If you liked the none racing episodes of M.A.S.K. I think you'll enjoy this one too. Air Raiders: never seen these over here, but I wonder if they were inspired by Starcom. The commercial and promo art look really nice. Battle Beasts were fun to collect and I learned later that some stores had the vehicles and newer figures too. They had a revival in Japan some years ago with a dice gimmick? Captain Power we could watch, but I don't remember the channel. For some reason a supermarket had the Crusher Cruiser for sale, but none of the figures. I got one from my parents and it became a vehicle for He-Man who fit in it nicely. A friend of mine and a cousin had big shogun robots, but I think they might have been bootlegs.

I had a bunch of Sky Commanders toys. They were awesome.

I had the Skull Knight from Super Naturals, I loved that toy. I just made up my own storylines

Sectaurs were among my favorites.

Eagle Force had one of the best ninjas in 80s toys. I only had 2 figures from this line but they were durable and the blue ninja was cool

There was plenty of room for crossplay between GI Joe and MASH! The Joes get injured and sent to MASH, who patch them up while making fun of their silly names and outlandish costumes...and then COBRA show up and massacre them all! I had a fun childhood.

Great video! Sometime do one on the sad story of MANGLORS!

My younger brother and I bought all of the Captain Power figures as we loved that show. The other toys we bought were the Supernatural's, we bought all of the ghostlings. I had all the good guys and he had the bad guys. Out of the bigger figs, I bought the viking and he bought the snake guy. We played with them a bit even though we knew nothing about them. He bought the battle beasts but never knew what to do with them. We still have our Captain Power and Supernatural figs to this day. We even bought all of the Visionaries and still have those. Bad part about the 3-d stickers over time they've lost their look.

Interesting! I never knew there were MASH toys!

I vaguely recall a line that had glow in the dark rubber heads, aswell as glow in the dark weapons. Can’t remember the name of the line, but if I remember correctly one of the figures was named Dado, could have been a late 70’s product though.

I had a number of these simply because I could nag my parents about it every week at the supermarket. Usually when a sale or clearance happened, boom it was all over.

I also remember Army Ants, Sectaurs (or was it Insectaurs?), Jace and the Wheeled Warriors, and the trading cards Wacky Packages.

Captain power did a hell of a job on advertising. They had a commercial on every 1/2 hr back then.

I found an Eagle Force revival, new figures - very cool looking. They say “preorder” so who knows

Loved Robotech, toys were hard to find, I understand why now.

I loved Visionaries. I want a new wave so bad ughhhh!

…still have a few of them robots of those obscure Japanese anime of the late 70’s like Shogun Warriors and a larger sized Mazinger Z and a larger Voltes 5. My Father’s had an office branch in Tokyo and schlepped those back home in the Bay Area. Didn’t play with it much so they are still in their boxes.

I was more of a 70s kid but I did like going into Kay-Bee toys to see what messed up new MOTU characters were on the pegs . I often wished I was still a kid because so many cool tools came out when I was a teen .

I guess I was a spoiled kid. I mainly had Star Wars, Transformers,and GI Joe. Lots of those. But I also had Captain Power (the VHS cartoons are still amazing, and I thought the show was so cool. Like the Terminator for kids) I also loved MASK, Robotix, Super Naturals and Lazer Tag. I can name off every beloved toy I had of these. The only big TV show stuff I had was Knight Rider's KITT. But I did have 1 or 2 Battle Beasts I ttaded for, and 1 each of the Air Raiders & Sky Commanders. And my childhood always consisted of video games: Atari, NES, & SNES. Thanks for the nostalgic memories! I completely forgot the name of the Suoer Naturals (but could never forget the cool holograms!)

My favorite toys were the japanese import die cast robots that shot fists and rockets etc. There was a stationary store around the corner from my house that kept all sorts of really cool and very expensive J/import die cast robots and all sorts of stuff never seen here in the states. I used to go there, pump a few quarters into the dig dug game they had there and stare at the die cast toys when there were no customers. I would pick up cans and bottles or the deposit money until i had enough to buy whatever I wanted at the time. Stars wars and gi joe's were also on my fun list, had a bunch of them and when i cashed out my childhood on ebay a few years back, i did very well on them all. some of my J/import die cast stuff went back to Japan.

I got into Captain Power watching it on FEN (Far East Network aka Forced Entertainment Network) while stationed on Okinawa. On the day the last episode was to air Emperor Hirohito had passed away and they aired nothing that whole day, and I've never seen it. My favorite was Tank (Played by Sven Ole Thorsen- Thorgrim from Conan) Probably my favorite toylines on the lower end of popularity was StarCom

Sky Commanders were cool but probably could’ve been a GIJoe line or something. Super naturals holograms were fun. Always wanted to try Captain Power because it looked real cool.

It’s interesting the reference that there was no ‘controversy’ about Klinger in drag. The reason being his character purposefully and intentionally wore women’s clothes to show his superiors he was “mentally unwell”and “unfit for duty”. Quoted from the show. Interesting stuff.

I loved my eagle force figures

I had a Battle Beast glued to the dashboard of my first car! Don't remember why, sort of a mascot I guess.

My mother made a Captain Power costume for me one year for Halloween I loved it and the kids that bullied me even liked it

I'm a bit older one of the things I remember and enjoyed were Micronauts.

I had the Shogun with the V looking thing on his chest. We (brother & I) lost the misses so we shot cigarette butts instead 😂 ahhhh the 80's 😂😂😂

Battle beasts were awesome I loved the shark and lion

Great video. Have you heard of Dragon Riders of the Styx?

One fun thing that I remember about Captain Power was a group of "concerned parents" saying that it was a "terrible cartoon influence on our children." They didn't seem to even know or care that it was live action.

Captain Power was a pretty solid show re watched it recently. I have Blastarr and Sauron figures. Also have a pretty big Air Raiders collection. You missed Sectaurs ( also have a few of those )

I think I had every Robotix set. There was a time when I could quote you names and lore.

The Eagle Force figures were the last action figures I got before I outgrew playing with them (okay I still played with the GI Joe figures with my little brother). You would think they would have been fairly durable being die-cast but they broke easily and the paint quickly rubbed off their heads.

I remembered every line in the video excpet the face shrinker or whatever they were called. Also figured Mantech by Remco would have made this list.

I had a couple of Golden Girl figures: the baddie with pink hair and black catsuit, she was my fave for years and, and Jade with red hair and green armour. Not Golden Girl herself, I never noticed the similarity She ra had to her and GG was out first… 😮

I had Battlebeasts and knew of Golden girl, the Infaceables and Robotix. I watched Captain Power but never had any of the toys.

The Supernatuals look like Visionaires I remember the Battle Beasts, a little Captain power I remember very well