80s Toys & Action Figures Art | COMPARING Action Figure Art Representation vs 80s Toy Reality 

Thanks, buddy. Your work is appreciated.

This is all honest, genuine and very very very nostalgic. Thank you. I love rememembering all these beautiful moments and toys.

They were beautiful moments, weren't they? Thank you

I appreciate that. Please come back anytime.

I don't think this is all that controversial. It's not like you are asking us who's more annoying: Orko or Snarf.

You got that right. I will be doing BEST Opening Number/THeme Song show soon enough. Thanks for watching.

Thank you. I love package art, and I should have looked at MLP, Care Bears, etc.

Simply gorgeous, am I right? It puts me somewhere very specific. Tells a story. COuld look at it for hours.

I am sure you and millions of other did the same thing. As for me, I was so careful and meticulous when opening boxes. AND, I would keep them...for play somehow. Like sets, or something until finally discarding them. The artwork took me away adn today I appreciate them all even more. Thanks for watching and commenting.

Well, it is not far out of the box. As this was mostly about my fav franchises of the 80s, I never had any connection to the Micronauts...but apparently, if my shows comments tell me anything, PEOPLE LOVED those guys. I did see their art, and that would have been a great one. Thank you

Kelly also did the package art for the Manglors toyline from the early 80s.

Well, collecting them at the time would have gotten us looks back then (but I did have She Ra). BUt I'm with you...fantastic box art that deserves to be seen. The DOLLS? YIKES. Bobble Heads?! Love that, i am going to use that from now on.

You bet. It was such an incredible time, and although time always changes...there is nothing like it anymore.

Yeah! Nice comparison.

Glad you noticed. It was just funny, and to be honest...I simply believe that incredible line will get its own show of some sort in the future. Thanks for watching and commenting. Always appreciated.

I am trying to be very equal opportunity. I was a huge toy fan, paid attention to commercials and had sisters, too. So those things aren't foreign to me AND I want to balance the content. Thanks for watching, noticing, and commenting. Appreciate it.

I was a Star Wars kid and my sister was a Strawberry Shortcake kid, and my bedroom had Empire Strikes Back wallpaper with an orange/brown carpet and my sis had Strawberry Shortcake wallpaper and a green/white carpet so when she was in my room we played Star Wars and in her room we played Strawberry Shortcake . I admit the little ovens and pies accessories for Strawberry Shortcake were full of details, and now I'm 51 and have a sweet job running a restaurant kitchen so go figure ❤❤❤

I suppose it could be, and the music scene was probably more Miami. Since so many of their shows revolved around Hollywood, I just assumed...but what do I know, lol. I remember it's first 6 minute episodes along with a couple of other cartoons in a 1/2 hour on SUNDAY, amazingly...before moving to Weekday mornings.

Maybe it was a blend of the Miami Vice aesthetic and the California setting in the animated series what made Jem unique to me, since I was a huge fan of said cartoons in the MTV-led mid-to-late 1980's. When the doll production ceased and the series was cancelled, I was pretty sad because I began collecting the dolls pretty late

Their animation was sleek and yes, closest for sure. Thanks for commenting.

True. It all depended on what you got first, but for the most part, I was disappointed in the Toy from both the cartoon and box art. Still, got love them robots. Thanks for sharing.

Only thing worse was atari games.

Not to mention, no Arcee figure for decades. And the lone female in any of these was crasher from GB and she didn’t look at all like crasher. There was no semblance of gender there either, which was beyond troublesome for me as a child. I always gravitate towards the female characters despite being male, and they are usually the ones I collect as figures. so when we finally had a female character that wasn’t human on Transformers, I was excited because my shelves only had an Optimus prime, a soundwave, and one Dino bot, grimlock. I would finally have a female to represent for transformers and the story now have new points of interest that might actually get me to Care more about the other robots. But it wouldn’t be for young boy me to own a female robot in disguise until I was well into my late adult years. Naturally, I bought it and put it on my desk at work but still I never got it as a child and I still don’t collect transformers. Definitely a correlation there.

wow...

As an eight year old.... all I cared about was it *TRANSFORMING!!!!!* Who was really givin attention to the face. 😂

I bet that was most kids. I kept my boxes as "props", lol. BUt I did get lost in that art. It made me want to draw and certainly inspired my playtime. Glad you enjoy it now, and thank you for watching.

Okay, that stuff about GI JOE art being lost...TRAGEDY. Love the story, and how fortunate for you. That art is gorgeous and he was so very talented. Thanks for sharing.

Ah hah. I hade to refresh my memory, but Starcom: Space Command...and they are similar size. I don't hear about these guys, but they look like fun.

Glad you enjoyed it. Both of them had fantastic artwork. And TF was seriously interesting. I grew up in similar time and had both BIG JIM, and I do recall some remnants of Steve Austin from my brothers, lol. Both awesome.

I wonder if there are books about artwork boxes or cards Id sure would like to get my hands on Motu and Gi joe they had something special

Damn, you were getting UNBIRTHDAY Presents, lol. Lucky or Spoiled...cool.

You're welcome. There was nothing before and hasn't been anything after than can compare. I know others think the same of their generation...but with ours, its true, lol.

1993 huh? I was just winding up my GEN Xperience then. That was the end of childhood for me and all those wonderful influential years of youth were transitioning. But I still loved to pay attention to what was going on in toys and there were still awesome ones in 93.

I was born in 1983, and was I lucky to be born during the good old days.

@@dreamguardian8320 Amen to that. I'm from '79. Kid in the 80's, teen in the '90s. Those where the days.

@@godofzombi Indeed.

Birthday 1982 when I got the castle. It was the holy grail.

A lot of that artwork inspired me to draw as well. The MOTU for sure. Yeah, the back of card TF art was just epic, while GI Joe was just the character...they were flawless. I appreciate you commenting about something I think a lot of us share. Thanks for watching.

Actually Lone Ranger is a little to pre 80s...and MEGO was going 3 and 3/4 inch at the time with lots of licensing with Movies and TVs so they were mostly just photographs on the cards. Although these were MY favorites, I did like Robotech, but did not have any original toys from it.

LOL Dating myself a bit with the Lone Ranger toys, hunh? The Robotech figures were similar to the original GIJoes with articulation & build.@@GENXPERIENCE

I knew there was a new version, at least the original still had some original character artwork...but yes, they were more boxes then instead of the new blister card.

Thanks for the comment. As those are just the tale end of the GEN Xperience, I'm very familiar with those, too. Like the Real Ghostbusters, they all have a similar comic/cartoon sense of style to them, but pretty darn accurate representation. Thanks for watching.

Those 2 were like 1981/2 and 84 respectively. But they were smaller, but have some love from fans. Yeah, D&D is a whole other incredible ball game. Thanks for sharing.

The art is AMAZING, the doll concept there...WOA! Crazy different.

I love that. I know I was inspired and tried hard to be an artist partly because of that. It is inspired me so. And yet, I have never reached that level. Thanks for sharing.

@@GENXPERIENCE I'm a graphic designer and massive fan fantasy art like Julie bell

That is some gorgeous stuff. Yes, I looked her up, but I would appreciate that too. @@benflay6038

Isn't it just and it all started as a 4year old with his flattened wind raider box a pack of colour pencils and paper

Thanks, that means a lot coming from you. Keep up the great work, JUNKMAN.

I never collected them at all, but I know how popular they were. Wish I had remembered to think of them for this.

Perhaps you are right. It wasn't even her style at all, either. She was a fine artist in paint and went on to do more of that. I loved reading her story of Hasbro sending her models in the outfits for the first dolls to paint the original looks/box art from. Thanks for watching.

Interesting. I couldn't find any original Trilogy/Return of the Jedi toy or action figures that used art. Of course I was focused on other franchises in 84, 85, and 86...so I might be unaware. Thanks for the info

@@GENXPERIENCE The Tatooine Skiff is the one commonly thought to have been a model.....its easily the coolest ship from Return of the Jedi so people always regret getting it...the other one would be the Ewok Battle Wagon... both came with the Power of the Force line that was basically a "best of" when they selected new figures to be a few from each of the first three movies...figures still had photos...there were also some "mini-rigs" that were often referred to as "body rigs" since they were even more compact...those came on blister cards with artwork as opposed to photos...since they weren't in the movies.

Uh, I guess I can see that. She was pretty progressive, I'd say.

No, you are CORRECT. We had Big Jim, and the art was fantastic. Thank you for bringing it back up to me. I love examples of these, and I appreciate you sharing.

ReAction is doing such an amazing job, their art is beautiful, even with the simple style of their figures. Yes, I thought the art for TF back then was odd, I do have an appreciation for it, but there was so much contradiction between the Art, Toy, and Cartoon. Thanks for watching and commenting.

Speaking of Universal monsters: I really liek the Neca ones who use the original movie poster for their box art.

@@godofzombi the NECA figures are gorgeous!

@@MonsterKidCory Have you seen the Jada Universall monsters? Their Creature from the Black lagoon is amazing!

@@godofzombi I saw them, but did not buy them. They're okay toys that I would be willing to give to a child to play with, but I am an adult and I like sophisticated *adult collectibles* like NECA 😆

Love your comment (and your @name/handle). I got my first He Man and Skeletor for Christmas 1981 (they officially debuted in 1982, though) and they were squatty, but there was something about them. So even the cartoon being so different I loved those guys. Transformers were ingenious, though. Yeah, as an adult those Jem illustrations tell such a narrative, but the dolls just were not doing it. I actually collected 9 of those INtegrity Jem Dolls...but just too hard and expensive to get the whole set today. Thanks for wtaching.

Thank you so much. I did think these as a kid, too. MOTU was gorgeous art, GI JOE looked real and made me think SO WHERE THEY. I did include some girl centric, but I'm equal opportunity for female toy lovers, plus some of that are was awesome...even when their dolls were fugly. Yeah, that artwork made me want to be there too. Thanks for the comment and view.

Had to quickly look it up, and see it was around 1992. Although I agree, the artwork was very nice for logo art, it was sadly the end of my GEn Xperience, and my "original" playtime had come to an end...until I got much older and started up again. Thank for the comment and view.

@@GENXPERIENCE what did you find when you looked it up? Robo Force toys were from 1984 and made by Ideal Toys.

@GENXPERIENCE It was released in 1984 from Ideal toys. Awesome robot toys that resembled 1960's era robots.

@@danielroberto2209 dirty hippy robots! 😂😂😂

for the most part sure, but I as someone who loved the imagination sparking artwork, there was slight confusion as some had them moving in ways I only wish the figure had.

And I had known that little bit of trivia for years. Oddly, he was and there were probably better examples, lol

Its artwork wasn't too bad, and actually based directly off the cartoon. It is just that it was so late in the 80s, it was becoming the young next generations thing...or at least out of MY Gen Xperience, lol. However, I thought the cartoon was AWESOME.

I would agree, if memory serves the show and toys came out a year or so after the movie so 85, 86? That said it was more for kids born between 78 and 84.

I didn't hate it as a kid at all. I did confused sometimes, lol between all the differences, but like I said...Real Car, Awesome Transformation, like you I was happy. Yeah, those little things were like shortchanging us. Megatron gun was the best, you have to admit.

@@GENXPERIENCE yes Megatron gun was insanely cool. The scope and brace just took it to the next level. But for me, Jetfire and thrust were close. I was obsessed with vertical takeoff when I was a kid and the jets themselves were already the best looking vehicles. My brother got skywarp for his birthday and I was soooo jealous. Thrust was #1 on my Christmas list every year but I never got him. Never understood how my parents chose the transformers to get me. But I still loved them all. My most vivid memories from back then were getting hook, metroplex, and Optimus, and slag. My pulse shot through the roof when I saw that awesome grid pattern under the wrapping paper!

@@grog3514 Huh, You actually raise a good point. How DO parents pick wich toys to buy for their kids? My guess is they have a vague idea wich ones you like but if it's not in stock they just pick whatver is available. Except when you wanted to troop build, then they knew exactly wich figures you already had.

Hmm, wow! But with an account name like yours, I think you should get on that...its a brilliant idea.

Oh, such a good point. That was always a disappointment, but it certainly got you excited and interested.

Yes, I saw both, and thought I was using the right ones. At least the originals still used the individual art representation of their character action figures.

I think teh whole JEM line is worth an entire shows. This topic fascinates me as I was drawn to box art. So a brief introduction into how their different was all I needed.

Haaaaaa, Old Lady Shoes. I had no idea. That is awesome. Yeah, those dolls were uh, ATHLETIC BUILT, lol. Please watch my older videos of Jem adn Misfit fashions. YOu'll love it.

1 might have been exagerhating, but seriously, I hoped some of those G1 figures had more articulation. My hoist could move his arms. THAT WAS IT. But...still loved them so much.

Oh, it was truly tops. I do love the style of art on the JEM boxes, but since I collected GI Joes it impressed me how real I felt they were because of the art. Thanks for the comment.

agreed. Thank you

No. He-Man and She Ra are twins separated at birth when Hordak kidnapper her as a baby and took her to Etheria. So says the original cartoon, at least.

Nice try. I don't recall saying anything wrong about garish. If you had listened you would have heard me say "the real star of the art is..." And if you don't agree that the Jem Art is PHENOMENAL, then I can't help.

Couldn't agree with you more. I would love to see some re-imagining of Visionaries and MASK. Wow, COPS. That was a pretty cool cartoon. Thanks for watching and sharing.

If they only would have come out like 3 years earlier, I would have had some. Instead I looked at that longingly, and LOVED that art. Their cartoon was my type too. Thank you so much.

I think all of them are on youtube now. Takes me right back.

All their art has this blue-ish hue to it giving the line this strange, mysterious vibe.

@@gridlock7425 The cartoon is great. I never watched it as a kid, but even as an adult it holds up. The way teh supposedly neutral Merklin is blatantly favoring the bad guys si hilarious to me.