Barbarians! The Fantasy and Sword and Sorcery Toys of the Early 1980s 

Early 80's were the best days of my life all my family was alive and transformers, G.I. Joe, and He Man were all there every birthday and christmas..

John Buscema’s art on Conan was his best work ever in comics. (Edit) Let me also add that his art was also at its best when being inked by Ernie Chan.

Masters of the Universe is an absolute classic toy. The original concept drawing of He Man had him wearing a horned helmet

This is my childhood. I appreciate this.

Blackstars light was a flint & lighter gimmick thing....😂

I had toys from nearly all these lines as a child. I think a precious few still live deep in the bowels of mom’s garage. I never knew the names of any of them, except a handful of the d+d ones. I would do almost anything to have them all back…miss you guys😢❤

This has to be the single most epic awesome and fantastic intro to any RU-vid vid that I have ever seen and heard. I was a kid in the 1980s and I remember very well the day when I went to the local toystore with my beloved grandmother and got my very first Masters of the universe figur and it was Skeletor. All the way through the 1980s and 1990s the interest in fantasy spawned by Masters of the universe followed me through life and made me play Dungeons and Dragons and read books like Dragonlance and the works of Tolkien and Hp Lovecraft and it spawned my huge love for Heavy Metal,like Iron Maiden,Manowar,Dio and many other bands. Those things combined with my fantastic uncle,who got a betamax and later vhs machine very early in the 1980s and his love for adventure,fantasy and science fiction movies and the Barbarian movies of the 1970s and 1980s,gave me an even bigger love for those kind of films and series. My uncle was also the first person in Denmark to order and buy a Sega master system and that spawned my love for video gaming. Now at nearly 50 years of age,I still have the same unbroken love for all those things and they have made me the person I am today. Seeing the intro to this vid simply made me cry like a little child and made me remember those times back then before the world got screwed up like it is now I dont know why,but the part of the intro that makes me cry the most,is the part and pictures that says, Brushed into the sides of powerful maunts. Absolute love and respekt from me her in Denmark to those who created this video and the music used in it

Omg thank you I littery was in tears I grew up with this I'm 50 now can't believe time went so fast

Conan the barbarian is one of my favorite movies. And you nailed that intro 👍🔥👏

Any video that features Arco's the other world toys deserves an automatic thumbs up. To this day its still my favorite toy-line of all time.

I had some of these figures. I loved those AD&D Instant Rub-down Picture Transfers when I was little.

I remember a cartoon called Thundar the barbarian it was a cool show!

The first 20 seconds had me😄👍🏾. Insightful, creative, and excellently articulated. Captured the zeitgeist and mindset of the children during that time… subscribed Even though it wasn’t a toy , Wizards and Warriors on CBS had my attention during that time too

Wow !! What a way to make a guy feel old . Jeezsh lol. No this was an awesome walk down memory lane I do remember having a lot of these Crystar I did have one got stolen by someone at school in the first grade . But my mom bought me another one a few weeks later but man the 80’s as a kid was an amazing time I will never forget and will keep in my heart . Thank u for this video

Your mass research on these was most impressively outstanding. For that alone, I shall subscribe 👍

I had two of the Dragon riders of the Styx figures and until now had no idea what line they came from. I just loved the green dragon man figure and didn’t care as a kid. Great coverage on such a wonderful time in my youth.

I’m glade I saved a large majority of my collections as a kid. I’m 48 years old 4 daughters later 22 years of marriage and these are the days that where the best times. The music,movies,toy, and clothes where awesome… love my 80’s..

So awesome watching this! I’m glad I own this piece of art by you! …and that Bob Ross clip, “Beat the devil outta it!” 😂😂😂

"Between the time when the stars were at war and the rise of the sons of Cybertron"... Brilliant writing!

How interesting!! I love this kinda stuff. When I was growing up in Bangladesh I used to see the ads for these toys in comics etc and was totally transfixed by them!!

I remember these days, the movie's television and toy shelves was overstocked with them. These toys would be sold out days once on the shelves, every boy had and had to have them and my brothers and I was among them. Conan, red Sonya ,Krull and beast master . I too own a Black Star figure, on Saturday morning in 1979-1980 Thundarr the Barbarian cartoon. I also has the Thunder Cats figures, and the nose diver vehicle . I was spoiled as were many in my family up to our adulthood. I'm glad to have come upon this video, as it has brought back memories of my childhood. Time stamped 5:27am ( 3-27-23)👍💙💯

"Trobbit" and "Digitino" are gold 😆

I had several characters of these lesser toy lines that I used to pick up at a local mom and pop general store my grandparents frequented. They always had a very strange variety of toys. There would be Galaxy Warriors next to Warriors of the Styx and then some Japanese imports. I got my first Veritech fighter toy there and at the time I had no idea there were whole Macross lines in Japan. I just thought I found the only Robotech toy in the world on that day. Ah...to be a kid again

Thank you, for being you. And reminding us we're all little kid nerds. Great channel truly!

Wow what a great video. I am impressed. You are the Toy Master! Thank you for never letting go of the memories..... We were quite lucky growing up in the era of toy collecting! A +++

Great video. I loved your introduction. Thanks!

This is the MOST EPIC INTRO on RU-vid!! 80s kids stand up!!!

Dang! Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Very comprehensive. I think I've seen most of these.👍

I want these, again.

AWESOME INTRO, Played it back 2xs... great video all around as well. Very informative!!!

What a great retrospective.Thanks for making this.

I was in my late teens when He Man toys came out, I still have some of them I'm 57 now, I also had Remco AWA wrestlers wich I still have 2 sets of the Road Warriors , I had 2 diferent Conan, Warlord, Arak, Hercules and Maciste also from Remco.

I missed out on this. He-Man came out when I was in 5th grade, and I had stopped playing with action figures. I still watched the cartoon, but I was all about sports and video games. I didn't go back to action figures until I was in my 20's. 😂 (and it's mainly been with Spider-Man figures).

I had most of these pass through my hands, thanks for the awesome video

You’ll be happy to know that formo toys is reviving the Galaxy Warriors and the first two Baltard and Magnon are going up for preorder on June 10th 😎

Watching this brought back a flash flood of memories from my youth. Very informative, insightful, and interesting. Thank you so very much for this video.

Sweet Lord. Subscribed. It's like you're *in* my head. 🤯

I love this..definitely remember buying a warlord hercules figure still have it till this

Amazing, AMAZING video/mini-documentary ! ! ! ! ! 👍 ❤ 👍 ❤

Excellent video... The Other World by Arco was a great toy line! Thanks.

Subscribing just based on the strength of that intro alone...

This was a great video 😎👍

The Savage sword of Conan was my favorite comic line. The black n white ink work. The scroll like paper. After his story finished. There was an extra tale to be told. Red Sonya, King Kull or Solomon Kane Chuck Dixon was my favorite artist.

Great video!

As a kindergartner the gimmicks of motu figures blew my mind back then, the rotating faces of man e faces, the little turning gears inside the transparent body of roboto, the gogogadget neck guy, fisto’ detachable and springy fist, spring legs of ram man, hiss king’ snake body, i was obsessed with them until i moved on to nintendo

Awesome video. Really kicked butt.

Man I miss my childhood 😢

Just found this channel and I'm really liking what I see. Already subscribed. ✌🏻

It sounds exactly like Mako... jk. But interesting video nonetheless. One of my favorite movies. Good job.

great video, thanks so much for this! Was trying to do some research on Other World toys. Very comprehensive!

Great video I enjoyed it very much

Fantasy World, yes the Family Dollar or Ames special, my brothers had one Herocon and one black and red lordor? These was a choice my mother get them, until I explained to her (master of the universe ) are true figures to have. These cheap Fantasy World figures was just something to shut my brothers up quickly in the Family Dollar toy aisle. Also ,you've chosen great music to support this video. Time stamped 5:37am(3-28-23)💯💙👍 💙💯👍

I still have the dragon in the right panel at 17:14 on my dresser right now. I had forgotten what toyline he came from. Thanks for the info! 😊

awesome! thanks for all this knowledge! I was too young to enjoy the masters of the universe toys but I love the sword and sorcery culture.

Besides Masters of the universe I got Blackstar, Galaxy warriors, Other world and a Griffin by imperial that had surprisingly shrap claws for a plastic toy. I got mots of these at a carnival.

Awesome stuff Almost odd I haven't come across your channel before.

Excellent work my friend. Growing up a lot of my toys came from second-hand and thrift stores so they rarely had their original packaging. I never realized I had toys from so many different lines.

Nice one!

Feeding the RU-vid gods. Nice video man.

It's a really fantastic history video and explanation, thank you. And the backing music is perfect. Just a small piece of feedback - injecting sudden, loud, jarring sound effects over the music - such as at 13:44 - really doesn't work and unfortunately becomes annoying. I've noticed it on several videos from this channel. Your historical narrations are really excellent and come across as being well-informed and classy. It's just a shame they are interrupted sometimes by the odd weird voice or dramatic sound effect. Your choice of course, I just thought I'd mention it. Appreciate your work!

Awesome vid! Subbed.

21:08 I had/have that! Still have the mat, and most of the figures, except the actual Dragonriders, don't remember seeing them in my version. Lost the castle, which sucks, because it was perfect for D&D scale minis.

I wish we'd get Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery movies again. I really enjoy those films. I think Alan Ritchson would make a Great Conan The Barbarian.

I had the purple snake man. My mom worked at K-Mart and got it for me. I wish I still had it. 🙁

There was so many random fantasy toys in the early 80s, some pretty neat and other kinda eh. I do regret selling a bunch of them on ebay several years ago though.

Solid video. Very informative and entertaining. I especially liked how You did the intro narration based on the intro of the first Conan-movie. Just one thing: IMHO You should have also mentioned the attempts by the toy companies to expand the topic of Sword and Sorcery-Toys to girls back in the day. Namely She-Ra and Golden Girl.

I used to have a couple of Galaxy Fighters or Warriors. I think I got them at a carnival.

Just came across your channel....Excellent job my friend! Great content...humor....history.....good pacing.....Keep it up!

Great intro😊

I can absolutely second what other users write about this video and it is without any doubt the one video on youtube that has the most awesome and epic opening ever. Just like the guy from Denmark writes,the part that says, Brushed into the sides of powerful mounts,simply makes me cry like a little child and I don't quite know why,but it might have something to do with the way our world is changing into something so bad and far far far worse than it has ever been before and those powerful mounts are disappearing and are being replaced with plastic electric boxes with no soul or personality about them.Those powerful mounts back then was the ultimate symbol of freedom and the right to be a real man without being shamed by the insane and evil woke people.The music used in the opening is also mindblowing and seems to almost come from a distant time of power,freedom and phantasy, Like other people writing about this vid,I am also almost 50 years old now and I still listen to real Heavy Metal,read Dragonlance,Hp Lovecraft,Tolkien and other classic phantasy writers.I still watch the old movies from the 1970's and 1980's and they are so much better than anything made after the year 2015,before the evil that is woke and lgbt,killed everything of quality and good in this world.I still collect ation figures and play video games and I will until the day the grey havens are calling me away.I also drive an Oldsmobile Toronado Super Rocket V8 from 1967 with 740 horsepower and NO one will ever take that car away from me,even if it will be my last fight on this earth.Thank you for bringing tears of pure awe to my eyes.

epic... thanks for this.

great vid

I had that green double-headed dragon!

dude i think i had at least one of every figure on here i forgot most of these.

Your narrative, in homage of the Conan film, was 💯 ❤sublime!! 🤘😎🤘

You should have included the warriors of the forgoten sewer, a tmnt line that showed the turtles and their enemies in a sword and sorcerer setting, with Leonardo as the barbarian, and donatello as the dwarf. Raphael and Michaelangelo figures where planned and even had prototypes made, but werent released

I was born in 77, this is what I think off when I hear the word Nostalgia

Great Conan movie parody intro. :)

I had ALL of these action figures! Hey I loved the Galaxy figures which then came out with wrestlers and boxers. I think the last ones I bought were the Lords Of Time and Lords Of Insects. I also had the Power Lords and Sectaurs. Great video bro!👉😃👈

i think the lion pelt on the conan figure is cause he was called amra the lion when he was with belit in the black coast

Great video! One suggestion- the background music level needs to be adjusted as you begin your narration. Your voice ends up competing with it, and it's a little distracting to hear while you speak. Usually, BGM either fades out or is adjusted once the main dialogue begins. In this case, since your music is on a loop, I would suggest letting it fade out since the pause between loops is also a little odd.

I have all of McFarlane’s Conan line of action figures.

Thank you for your insight. Appreciate the fact you mentioned transformers. Gi Joe was a factor that took away from the popularity of the fantasy warrior genre. Pro wrestling/bodybuilding had to influence this too

Awa/NWA WReSTLERS WERE AWESOME MIXING THEM with He-Man stuff & vice versa .. RIC FLAIR VS Beast-Man in the steel cage ....Also some Ninja Turtles & foot figures were compatible...lmao.. Good times..

Great video. Missed seeing Power Lords though ..

Blackstars space ship is actually the core fighter from the original RX-73 Gundam!!!

WE ARE BAR BARIAAAAAAANS

@The Little Things The film ''Star Wars'' was released in 1977. The Kenner toy line was released in 1978.

Great video! Keep it up

I always thought the Warlord figure came with the most badass sword ever.

Awesome channel! Subscriber 613 👍💯

Ha I still have one of my The Other World bendies. I used to love these weirdos

Interesting how Blackstar's spaceship gets its design cues from the Core Fighter from Mobile Suit Gundam.

Zoloworld is still making great fantasy figures

I don't think family and grandparents were being frugal when it came to the cheaper action figure, some people just don't pay attention or even know and they all look the same to them... nice lift from Junkman's gag though

I’m disappointed no company never made a Thundarr the Barbarian line. Demon Dogs!

Galoob toys had a Female warrior line Golden Girls in the 80's

13:12 it’s a figure of Tim the enchanter from Monty python and the holy grail!!!!

I can't even begin to list all the stuff from this video I had as a kid (but god knows I'm going to try) - Dragon Man from the Dragon Riders of the Styx line was a childhood favorite of mine, had a couple of the Imperial steeds (still have them, too) and even the child-sized sword shown in one of the stills (sadly, don't have that anymore). I still have a bag full of the little dudes from the playsets, along with a bunch of their way-too-bright weapons. As far as the rest of the lines, I never had a whole bunch from any of these smaller lines, I can safely say I had at least one figure from all of the ones featured here except the Soma one.

Don't forget Yugoslavian MOTU bootlegs - those guys were buffed and barbaric to do bone !